Welcome to Newsletter #3!
Next Meeting -October 25 - 6pm
Our next meeting is October 25th at 6pm at Gentler Times Stitching in Naperville. You should bring any show and tell, your nametag, and your October "Aqua, Tangerine, and Grey" Color Challenge! We are going to try out another seating set up this time in hopes of finding one that works and doesn't leave people cramped or out in the hall. At this meeting, we'll also be discussing plans for 2013, so everyone should bring a challenge idea and we'll stack them up for the 2013 year. We'll need everyone to come with an idea, and remember to keep it modern!
Gentler Times
476 S Route 59
Suite 152
Naperville, IL 60540
Challenge for October
The challenge project for October is a project containing Aqua, Tangerine, and Grey. It can be any project in the modern quilt style. Bags, quilts, pillows, you name it, anything goes. Have fun! The big reveal will be this Thursday.
November Meeting (Gift Idea show and tell)
Bring ideas for handmade gifts to the November meeting. This meeting is the 5th Thursday of the month on November 29th. We are always looking for ideas for the holidays and quick, fun, useful gifts are always appreciated! Bring your ideas for our November meeting, and maybe we can still have time to make a few before the holiday rush.
Ideas for Challenges/Swaps/Programs
At our last meeting, Cheryl mentioned to be thinking about ideas for future swaps and challenges, and we came up with the color specific challenge first, but we also dropped hints about having presentations, doing "mug rug" or other gift-y type swaps, or specific block challenges too. So get your thinking caps on and if you feel strongly about doing a particular thing, bring it up at the meeting! We need to plan some things for 2013! Get your thinking caps on and let's get some great ideas flowing. If you won't be there, please email me some ideas too, we need as many as we can get.
December Holiday Time "Mug Rug" Exchange!
For the December meeting we will be doing a holiday "mug rug" exchange What is a Mug Rug? It's a large coaster, with enough room for your coffee or tea and a snack. I found a great site with loads of mug rug ideas at http://tipnut.com/mug-rugs/. There's a bunch there that work great with modern fabrics and designs.
Here's how the exchange will work: You make a mug rug, you take a mug rug. We will do this by drawing playing cards and going in suit order from high to low. You will not be allowed to "steal" from others.
We hope you will play in our mug rug exchange! If you want to bring mug rugs to the November meeting because you will not be at the December meeting, please do so and we will designate someone to pick for you. We have so many talented people, we know you will like what you get.
Logos
Modern Mystery Quilt Free Patterns
What is a Modern Quilt?
At the August meeting, Cheryl read from the Modern Quilt Guild's website the definition of a modern quilt. We're posting it below. We're very excited for this aesthetic, and are glad to have a group locally that focuses on it!
Here's the blurb from the Modern Quilt Guild:
"What is modern quilting?
Modern quilting is a new and rapidly growing movement in the quilting world. A group of quilters applied their current tastes and points of view to this traditional craft and shared their work online. Their fresh approach and new designs attracted sewers and quilters and the modern quilting movement was born.
Modern quilting, like all art, changes, grows and adapts from quilter to quilter as they find their own voice. Modern quilts reflect each quilter’s personality and personal style, and as the movement has grown, a modern quilt aesthetic, a set of principles that define and guide the movement, is beginning to emerge.
Modern quilts and quilters:
- Make primarily functional rather than decorative quilts
- Use asymmetry in quilt design
- Rely less on repetition and on the interaction of quilt block motifs
- Contain reinterpreted traditional blocks
- Embrace simplicity and minimalism
- Utilize alternative block structures or lack of visible block structure
- Incorporate increased use of negative space
- Are inspired by modern art and architecture
- Frequently use improvisational piecing
- Contain bold colors, on trend color combinations and graphic prints
- Often use gray and white as neutrals
- Reflect an increased use of solid fabrics
- Focus on finishing quilts on home sewing machines
Modern quilting has its roots in rebellion, in our desire to do something different, but simultaneously its feet are firmly planted in the field of tradition. Modern quilting is our response to what has come before. We are quilters first, modern quilters second. There are however, characteristics that set modern quilters apart from our traditional and art quilting friends.
Modern quilters are a diverse group of woman and men, young and old, experienced and novice, yet each of us feels the need to differentiate ourselves as modern quilters by how we work, the fabrics we choose, and the aesthetic of our quilts. We create in a way that supports our individual creative needs and our lifestyle preferences. Modern quilters resist the imposition of hard and fast rules for making a quilt. We pick and choose traditional techniques and methods that work for us and at the same time feel free to redefine or reinvent what is possible and allowable in making quilts.
Modern quilters have embraced the new options available in textiles: bold colors, graphic prints, larger scale prints, and Japanese fabrics. Much like the Amish quilting tradition, many modern quilters are also exploring quilt designs made exclusively with solid fabrics or with just a hint of print.
The Internet has played an integral role in the development of modern quilting. Through blogs, online tutorials and social media the modern quilting community interacts, providing inspiration and friendship for each other. This has helped the community grow at an astounding pace, providing feedback and support at a moment’s notice.
In many ways, modern quilting has taken us back to the basics of the early quilters, when women of the day used the colors and styles of their time to express themselves creatively while finding friendship and community along the way. Welcome to modern quilting!"
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See you Thursday!
-Cheryl "Muppin" Sleboda
