Monday, May 3, 2010

NEMQG meeting

This past weekend I was lucky enough to get Saturday afternoon off and was able to attend my first ever meeting of the New England Modern Quilt Guild.

The meeting was held in Portsmouth, which is two hours away from here (!), but it was a gorgeous day and I met up with my friend Kelley and we were able to carpool down together and had a very good time.

For those of you who have not heard of the New England Modern Quilt Guild, it is an off-shoot of the Modern Quilt Guild, started by Alissa (of the blog Handmade by Alissa), and the guild is still very, very new.

The New England branch has only had three meetings (including this last one), so it is still very new.

I find that it is always fun to get in on these things at the very beginning, and I fully expect the Modern Quilt Guild to grow a lot in the next few years.

If you are reading this blog there is a good chance that you are the type of person they are looking for.

It was fun to meet other people who share this passion of mine and be fabric nerds and talk about how much we love Amy Butler and Heather Ross and Anna Maria Horner and Liberty of London and Echino and Heather Bailey, etc, etc, etc...

For me, though, the REAL highlight was show and tell:























This gal made a Tickertape quilt.

I have never seen one of these in person, only on the internet, so it was a special treat for me to see this one.

























This was a quilt that had been made in a workshop with Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably.


















These are some of Kelley's La La Log Cabin blocks.
























This was one of my favorite quilts at the meeting: I loved the colors and the quilting and you can almost see in this photo that the white areas are mostly eyelet lace... I always love bringing different textures into a quilt.













































These two were made by a gal who made a "boy" quilt and a "girl" quilt, because at the time she didn't know if she was going to have a boy or a girl.

Turned out she had a boy, so the last quilt has yet to be used.

I don't normally love a whole collection used together but the exception to that rule has got to be the Freshcut fabrics by Heather Bailey, which is what this lady used in the second "girly" quilt.

Both of these quilts are just gorgeous.
























This one was made by a lady from New Hampshire: she also had to drive for two hours to get to the meeting and I'm glad she did because this quilt was so pretty and well made, I really appreciated her sharing it with us.


I know there are Maine gals out there who would like to be a part of NEMQG.

Don't get hung up on the word "guild."

Belonging to a guild doesn't mean that you have to be a master quilter.

It just means that you enjoy quilting and would like to spend some time exploring your hobby with like-minded individuals.

Some of the NEMQG meetings are just too far away for us Maine gals to attend, but there are plans in the works for a "Sew-In" at Alewives: a time where we could all just get together and sew and chat and be quilt-y.

Let me know if you are interested and we will nail down the details for ya!

And BIG thanks to Monet, the NEMQG president: I think you are an absolute sweetheart and I so appreciate all of the hard work that goes into coordinating not just one state's guild, but all six New England states!

XO,

Rhea

8 comments:

Tina @ Squirrel Acorns said...

I would come to a sew-in at Alewives!

caro said...

I wish Alewives was closer to me! Great to meet you at the meeting the other day!

Monet said...

It was so wonderful to meet you, Rhea. I can't tell you how happy I am that you are a part of our little group (even though I know it's difficult for you to get to our meetings). I'm looking forward to seeing you again and visiting your store soon!

Liz Jimenez said...

Bummed I missed it, the show & tell looks like it was great!

Liz @ teeny tiny quilts

zoesimm said...

Rhea, I posted a pic of your quilt at NEMQG on my blog www.lifeisfulloffourleafclovers.blogspot.com

Ravenhill said...

Wow, this is just fabulous! What incredibly gorgeous quilts! There are some really talented quilters around you! I so wish I could have been there too to look at all those beautiful quilts!

Colette said...

AND I was supposed to attend ~ even had reservations at a quaint little Inn ~ but I ended up having emergency oral surgery on Friday (the day before) that FOILED my plans =0( Hmmm maybe I can reschedule those plans for a sew-in at Alewives??? I would love the details on it!

Anonymous said...

Great photos! It was so good to meet you last weekend. Will you email me at khealy316 at yahoo dot com? I want to try to coordinate a date for the sew in we talked about with you and Kelley before I post on the ning site. Thanks!
Katie