January Block Lotto - Raspberry Kiss

EDITED to add.....
Please pay attention to the block size.  They at 4 1/4 finished, so please make sure they measure 4 3/4. 

Calgary Modern Quilt Guild is excited to be announcing our first Block Lotto!

Since many of our members will be at Quiltcon for our February meeting, we are giving members two months to make their first blocks.  This will give our travellers an opportunity to participate as well. Blocks are due at the March meeting. You can bring them to the Feb meeting if that suits better.

Our tutorial comes from Rachel @ wooden spoon quilts. It’s her cute little Raspberry Kiss block. I’m sure many of you have already seen it popping up on Instagram.   

CLICK HERE FOR THE TUTORIAL. 

We are making our blocks in the original 4.25” size. They are quite addicting once you get making them!

With Valentines in just a few weeks I have chosen a colour palette of corals, pinks, purples and reds with some nice gentle low volumes for the backgrounds. I'm sure you all have a favourite fabric or two in your stash that will work for these little blocks.

Rachel showing off our sample blocks.

General Rules:

1. Make one quilt block (or more) following the pattern and color scheme outlined in the monthly post.  For every block you make and bring to that month’s meeting, you will get one entry in the lotto.  If you are unable to attend the meeting, but really want to participate in the lotto, comment on this post or contact Philippa and we’ll try to work it out. Remember, you must be a member of CALMQG to participate.

2. The winner gets ALL THE BLOCKS to make a quilted project from them (guild reserves the right to vote on splitting up the blocks between more than one winner if there are enough entries).  If you win, the blocks become yours and you can use them in any way you choose. 

3. We would like to see your finished project, either in person or pictures, within a year of winning the blocks.  You may continue to participate in and win subsequent block lottos during that time (at least for now…we may elect that you can not win again until you've shown your finished project).  After the year is up, you cannot participate or win again until the original project is finished.

4. Use modern fabrics that you like, or love! If you are unsure about your fabric selection as it relates to 'Modern', just ask.

5. Have fun!  Keep in mind that (most likely) someone else will be taking home your block to incorporate into a larger piece and things must fit together (literally…so keeping your block true to size is probably the most important thing), but you should also make it yours and enjoy the process!

6. Please attach you name to your block.

Logo Design Contest

 We are asking for your help to design an updated logo for our guild that can be emblazoned on name tags, t-shirts, and other goodies.

Prizes:

Bragging rights plus a $25 gift certificate to be used at Wonderfil Threaducation Centre. 

Entrant eligibility:
Open only to 2016 dues-paying member of the Calgary Modern Quilt Guild. Members may team up, but it is up to the team members how to divide the prize. Members can seek outside help but the idea must originate from the member.

Selection of winning logo:

• Winner will be voted on by dues-paying members of the Calgary Modern Quilt Guild.
• Members will vote for one entry.
•  In case of tie, Calgary MQG board members will confer and decide on the winner.
• Winner will be required to sign a contract assigning all ownership of the logo to Calgary Modern Quilt Guild so that the logo will become the sole property of the guild.
• CALMQG reserves the right to reject, disqualify or deny entry to any submission for inappropriateness or noncompliance to guidelines.
• CALMQG reserves the right to not select a winner if no suitable entries are received.

Entry rules:

• Entries must be submitted by March 10, 2016. Entries can be submitted as a PDF via email to Philippa (ask for email),  Kelly Kay or brought in person to our regular guild meeting on February 18. Entrant does not need to be present to win.
•   Entries will be presented to guild members and a vote will be held at our regular meeting on March 17. Winner will be presented at April meeting.
•  Designer agrees that CALMQG can use logo, as well as make minor modifications to the logo if necessary.

Requirements: 

• If possible, include the full guild name: Calgary Modern Quilt Guild. 
• Colors must be able to be recreated on an average color (CMYK) printer
• Logo must look professional. It will be presented on our official website, quilt labels, T-shirt, buttons and other similar types of merchandise. As such, we are looking for logos that can be reproduced on a variety of media and can be resized to fit various items. They should also look good in both color and grayscale and be of a resolution suitable for high-quality printing. Logo can be sewing or quilt related but not limited to those themes.
• All submissions must be original and not based on any pre-existing design or contain any copyrighted material. Logos cannot be previously published or used by other organizations.

A big thanks goes to Katrina H for our original Calgary MQG logo design.  It has served us well.

Calgary Modern Quilt Guild on 52 Quilters!

The Calgary Modern Quilt Guild will be featured on 52Quilters for our January Meeting! 

52 Quilters is a social media experiment started by Chris Webb.  Each week, he hands the reins of his social media account over to a new quilter.  I applied to be one of the 52, emphasizing my association as President of the Calgary Modern Quilt Guild.  Chris seemed interested in seeing our perspective, so here we are!  I will be in control of the 52 Quilters 
blog, Instagram and Twitter from January 18 - 24, 2016.

How can you participate?

If you're a member, show up with either your regular Show and Tell to feature, or your favorite modern quilt/quilty thing.  I will post our meeting "business" during the meeting on Thursday, January 21st, then on Friday, January 22nd, I will post the Show and Tell items throughout the day so I don't clog up the Instagram feed.  

At the time of this posting, @52Quilters on Instagram has over 3,700 followers! This is a great opportunity to feature your work and skills. When you bring your show and tell, let me know if you want to be featured and I will take your picture.  I ask that only the quilter be in the picture, so if you need help holding, make sure we can see your face.  If you're helping to hold, hide behind the quilt! 

When you're done presenting your quilt, sign up in the back with your Instagram handle, a brief description of your quilt, and your name.

Also, our next Sew Day is January 23rd.  Come and join us from 10:00am - 3:00pm and I will feature your work in progress on 52Quilters!

This is open to Calgary MQG Members only, so if you have not yet paid your 2016 dues, plan to bring that, or $5 if you want to drop-in for this meeting.  First meeting is free, and you can see our membership guidelines here. 

Our first meeting of the new year.

Well, can you believe our first meeting of the year is about to happen? We had an excellent 2015 and now with some new initiatives starting here in 2016, I am sure we will have another great year. 

As usual we will be meeting at Wonderfil's Threaducation Centre,  Bay 4, 2915 19th St. NE  Calgary, AB, Canada  T2E 7A2 on January 21, 2016 from  7pm to 9pm.

Januaury's meeting will have a presentation on:

• Wonderfil's Threads by Bernadette Kent
• A Tool / Notions Library - Becca Cleaver Burke
• 2016 Block Lotto challenge by Phillipa Gelinas. You can get yourself a bit more familiar with this here under our Swaps and Challenges page.
• A quick officers update
• and Finally Show and Tell

Please feel free to bring:

• a modern quilt to share for Show and Tell
• your name tag

Just a reminder about a few new things we are doing this year in regards to our membership. Your first meeting is free, the second meeting you attend you can join for $50 and enjoy all of our member benefits as laid out on our Membership page. Alternatively, you can pay $5 a meeting, but if you do it this way you cannot be a member of the national Modern Quilt Guild and all it's benefits.

Jera MacKenzie

Calgary MQG Quiltcon 2016 Charity Quilt

Every year Calgarians celebrate our western heritage at the Calgary Stampede. A major component of the celebrations includes celebrating the aboriginal heritage of this area. It was a photo of this celebration that inspired this year’s Calgary Modern Quilt Guild Charity Quilt Challenge. At the same time Canada was engaged in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Residential Schools. In this regard Canada has a dark past that continues to haunt our aboriginal population and the Calgary Modern Quilt Guild wanted to create a quilt that could contribute to healing the relationship between our Aboriginal population and those of European descent in Canada. It is our hope that this quilt and its proceeds will work towards building a better future for Calgary’s aboriginal youth.

Photo by Katrina H

In the photo you can see young people dancing at a pow-wow with tipis in the background and Calgary’s skyline in the distance. This seemed to represent our city beautifully and the idea to make a tipi quilt was born.  Tipis are known in the area to have provided shelter to local native tribes throughout history. They provide warmth in the cold winter months and are a cool shelter from summer’s heat. Families gather in tipis to find comfort and kinship. As a group of quilters we knew that we wanted to make a quilt that would symbolically bring people together and provide comfort and to bring our communities together.  

We met at a sew day in August to design the tipis and Jera MacKenzie created kits that members could get at meetings to create blocks for the quilt. We also have the benefit of having Cheryl Arkison in our guild so she provided us with a lesson on "improv with intent". Each person used their own inspiration to craft a tipi that represented her own style.

In November we had a dedicated sew day to finish our quilt top. Members worked together to finish making tipis and design the final layout for our quilt. You can see from the photos that we had a productive day. We all learned so much in this process! Many of our members had never attempted improv sewing like this and were excited to practice a new skill. Our layout provided opportunities for members to practice their "quilt math" and partial seams!!

The whole team agrees that seeing the quilt come together with such an incredible gesture of generosity of time, resources, and talent was the best part. We are very fortunate that our guild is growing and that members are keen to participate in these events.

The quilt was then sent to member Mary Dylke to be quilted by her expert hands. Mary added petroglyphs that have been documented throughout the prairies. Petroglyphs are are images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. The quilting was definitely the final touch that brought the quilt to life and helped to tell the story we were hoping to tell through this project.

The quilt will be donated to an organization that supports aboriginal youth in our area and provides them with resources to further their education and helps preserve their culture. It is our hope that this quilt will help to heal the relationship between our two cultures and that it will contribute as one small step in the direction of a better future for Calgary’s indigenous youth. 

Rachel Elliott