June Swap!

Our next swap for the June 17th meeting/sewing day is  RED CHARMS.

Signups are due by Friday, June 1st so head on over to Flickr to join the fun!

Again, while you can sign up to receive email notification of all blog posts (right top corner), most of our guild discussions are posted on Flickr.  It's free to join and easy to use.

SD Bee May Blocks

The first set of April blocks are in! The circuit board blocks are lots of fun.  Here's the whole group of them from the May meeting.  There are a few outstanding and then Amanda will have a great quilt top!



Barb presented her blocks and put together a PDF to share.

Please post pictures of completed blocks to the Flickr group, we'd love to see them!

Meeting Next Weekend, May 20th!

Quick reminder for everyone that our next Sew-In / Meeting is Sunday, May 20th.  We hope to see you between 11am - 3pm at Quilter's Paradise in Escondido.   If you are only coming from the meeting, we will try to start at noon.

SD Bee
If you signed up for the SD Bee, please bring your circuit blocks for Amanda.  Check Flickr for some of the latest photos.  Barb will also be showing off the block she's chosen for May!

Polka Dot Swap
We're looking forward to seeing all of the polka dot charms!

Survey Results
If you haven't completed the surveys yet, the post is here.  Now's your chance to speak up about the direction we go as a guild!

And as always, plenty of time for sharing and sewing!

Surveys!

Your turn!

We've created surveys to help determine what you are looking for in this guild.   They each have just a few questions, we know you want to get back to your projects!  Of course we'd love to hear any other ideas and comments!

The links to the four* surveys are below.  Please complete all surveys!

Meeting and Scheduling

Group Demographics

Special Events

Funding


We hope to review the survey results at the next meeting and talk about future plans.

Any questions or technical issues, please comment on this post and I'll get in touch with you.


* There are four short surveys in order to maintain a free account on SurveyMonkey.  We'd all rather spend money on fabric!

Polka Dot Charm Swap

Just posting a quick reminder to sign up for our May swap - Polka Dot Charms by tomorrow - Sunday, April 22nd!   If you can't make the meetings, you're still welcome to participate via mail!

Swap Details on Flickr

As soon as we have all participants, we will let you know how many charms to cut!

Activities Abound!

April is the first month of our SD Bee, with Amanda's circuit board blocks starting us off! If you've signed up, please check which month is yours at Flickr Month Assignments
At the April 15th meeting, Angela announced the next swap! We'll be swapping polka charms (5 inch squares). Details can be found at Flickr Charm Swap

In case you missed the April meeting/sewing day, we do have a couple of reminders. Quilt Con Challenge Blocks will be due in June if you would like to send them in through the guild. Special thanks to Susan who shared solids in the Quilt Con colors at the March meeting. Block Challenge Details
Remember, it's for the children!
Also, as you all know, we are a relatively new guild and want to make sure that we're starting up in a direction YOU like. Please stay tuned for a series of surveys to ask your opinion later this month! If you can't wait that long, please contact one of the officers!
Our next meeting/sewing day is May 20th at Quilter's Paradise in Escondido. We hope to see you there!
As always, there's plenty of discussion and pictures at our Flickr group. Please click on the slideshow to the right of this page or SDMQG Flickr Group

Quilting Bee / Block Party!

We are starting our very own SDMQG quilting bee. I think I will call it the SD Bee to keep it simple. Is that the most creative name? No. If you have any better name ideas, please comment.

This is how it works…

The SD Bee will be made up of 12 people (hopefully) who are each assigned a separate month as their month to determine what blocks will be made and be the recipient of the blocks. The bee will run for a year, starting at the April SDMQG meeting (4/15/12). Each member of the SD Bee will take turns making blocks for everyone else for 11 months, and one month distributing fabric and receiving their own blocks back.

The rules…

When it is a month you are making a block for someone else: Come on by the monthly sew-in at Quilters Paradise and pick up your fabric. When you get the fabric, read the directions the person included (or posted online somewhere) about what they want their blocks to be. You will have 2 months to complete 2 fabulous blocks. We decided on two months instead of the usual one month deadline because we are all going to miss a sew-in here and there, so that way it’s no big deal.

When it is a month you are choosing the block to be made: Figure out what kind of blocks you want everyone to make you. You can give vague or detailed direction. Determine what fabric will be used. You can have the other members make blocks entirely from there own fabric/scraps, you can distribute some fabric and encourage members to add there own fabric also, or you could ask that only your distributed fabric be used to make the blocks. If you are distributing any fabric, be sure to let us know about what to do with the scraps. If you might need them back to complete the quilt, let others know. Otherwise, members can just keep them. Print out or post online directions/inspirations for your blocks. Post those directions on the SDMQG flickr page. Come on by the monthly sew-in to give members instructions and/or fabric. Wait a couple months for finished blocks to come back to you. Marvel at the awesome sewing skills of your friends. Sew these blocks into a quilt, two quilts, twelve pillows, or shove them in a closet.

Be sure to check out this GREAT website all about virtual quilting bees with lots of great block ideas, tutorials, and inspiration. (It's also where I got most of the info on how to organize this bee!)

We still need a few things to get this party started. First, please suggest any names for the bee you can come up with. Second, let me know if you want to join the fun! We already had seven people “sign-up” at the March meeting, so we have five spots left.

Who’s in? Let us know here.