What a great way to kick off the new year!

Anna Maria Horner first led a Workshop on “Color Fluency” where we discussed the color wheel and then curated a random set of fabrics into a coherent color palette. Anna Maria discussed how to use prints and, while some combinations may seem random, the  different colors are bound together by color and value. It was a very small peek into how she achieves her beautiful quilt palettes and print combinations.

At our monthly guild meeting, Anna Maria shared a staggering collection of gorgeous quilts, walking us through her creative journey. Her fascinating lecture included how her creative career has evolved from design school through to today, and how she learned to quilt on the way! Each quilt came with a story and many “oohs” and “aahs” from the audience.

Perfectly pairing with the workshop and lecture, Wooden Gate Quilts set up a pop-up shop so that members could get their hands on the fabulous fabrics and patterns used in Anna Maria’s quilts. This was a treat that we very much appreciated and will definitely repeat again!

This was a busy year for our guild. We continued to grow our membership, share and learn new skills, and give back to the community.

Founding member Tricialyn led the guild in informative lectures focusing on Design Elements, including Texture, Color, and Scale. These topics were discussed as a group and integrated into guild challenges and activities.

We exceeded our fundraising goal this year, raising money through sponsor baskets, mini quilt raffles, and boutique sales. We are excited about putting those funds back into the guild this year in the form of speakers and activities. Thank you again to all of our generous sponsors.

We also far exceeded our goal for charitable activities, donating 25 completed quilts to 9 different local and national charities. In addition to finished quilts, we donated fabric and quilting materials to local charities and we have a head-start on 2019 with some unfinished quilts. Plus, at the end of the year, the guild made over 50 tote bags for the Bill Wilson Center to be given to at-risk youth throughout the coming year.

Focusing on our commitment to ongoing education, the guild sponsored three workshops in 2018. First, Sherri Lynn Wood taught a structured improv technique in her Improvising from a Score Workshop. Continuing on the improv theme, we learned to piece and layout curves in Karen Foster’s Improv Abstraction Workshop. We wrapped the year up with a Beginning Fabric Dyeing Workshop with Lynn Koolish. Additionally, we held member-led demonstrations throughout the year that included Reverse Applique, Wefty Needles, and Surface Finish Techniques.

On top of all of this, we participated in our first quilt show, showing a collection of modern quilts at the semi-annual Piecemakers Quilt Show! This was a thrill for the guild as we were able to showcase modern quilting at a traditional quilt show. Now that we’ve got a taste for it, we definitely plan to do more shows in the future.

Overall, it was a great year and we are excited for an even better 2019!

We were thrilled to have been invited to put on a Special Exhibit at the Piecemaker’s Quilt Guild Annual Quilt Show this month.

Our exhibit focused on showcasing key elements of modern quilting:

• Use of bold colors and prints
• High contrast and graphic areas of solid color
• Improvisational design
• Minimalism
• Expansive negative space
• Alternate grid work
• Updating of classic quilt designs, (“modern traditionalism”)

We received many beautiful modern quilts and we were only limited by space as to how many we were able to exhibit this time around.

The collection included full size and mini quilts, as well as some group quilts made by multiple guild members.

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At the show, members were on hand to share our collection with visitors and represent modern quilting at this mostly traditional show.

In addition to the quilt exhibit, members made items for the show boutique and raised money for the guild!

mini barn quilts

project bags

boxy totes

zipper totes

bobbin earrings

button magnets

gift bags

All in all, it was great to participate as a guild in our first quilt show and we are already  planning our next exhibit!

For the 2018 year, we’ve elected to broaden our philanthropic reach by working with multiple charitable organizations to provide quilts to a range of programs helping people in our community and beyond. This has enabled us to accept any size quilt designed for babies through adults. 

Our goal this year is to donate 24 finished quilts. As of June, we are right on target with 12 completed quilts, and many more in progress! All of our finished projects can be seen on our Charity Quilts page.

All types of quilts, many projects

We are lucky to have members that are dedicated to making quilts for charitable causes, but we also always have a variety of ongoing group projects where members can make an individual charity block or take on a task, like binding, to complete a quilt. Projects have included curved block challenge, improv block challenge, arrow block challenge, and color challenge.

Labeling for legacy

We label all of our charity quilts so, no matter where our quilts travel, the new owner can know where it came from. But, we have redesigned our labels to make them easier to sew on, and they now include a QR code. Scanning the code will take you to a page that shows the quilt’s name, when it was made, and who worked on it.

Supporting our community

At a recent meeting, we had a group discussion and took names of charities, or types of charities from members. Suggestions included: foster moms/homes, battered women’s shelters, police or fire department, Shepherd’s Gate, Highland Hospital, Project Homeless Connect, ALS, Quilts for Kids, nursing homes, Alzheimer’s units, Unravel Cancer, Santa Clara Receiving and Assessment Intake Center, Quilts of Valor, SJ Quilt & Textile Museum quilts-for-guns event, Little Brothers / Friends of the Elderly (SF), Homeless Prenatal Program, My New Red Shoes, hospice agencies, Quilters Beyond Borders, Shriners Hospital, Ronald McDonald House, Bill Wilson Center. We took those ideas and have actively started contacting these organizations.

Our current list of supported charities includes:

	Bill Wilson Center supports and strengthens the community by serving youth and families through counseling, housing, education, and advocacy.
	Quilts for Kids is dedicated to brightening the lives of children who suffer from abuse or life-threatening illnesses with comforting quilts.
	Quilt Donation Drive for victims of the Sonoma & Napa fires.
	Ventura Modern Quilt Guild and Superbuzzy fabric store  partnered to create and collect quilts for those affected by the Thomas Fire.
	JMQG of Broward County collected quilts to make “quillows” for the families and loved ones of  victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
	Project Linus’ mission is to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets, quilts and afghans.
	San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles is joining forces with The Mayor’s office, local City Council Districts, San Jose Police Department, and the Police Foundation to organize a unique gun buy-back program. In exchange for turning in a gun, each individual will receive cash AND a beautiful quilt.
	Quilts for Cure exists to raise awareness about childhood cancer, provide every child in the US being treated for cancer with a quilt, and honor the children who are fighting for their lives.
	The Orlando Modern Quilt Guild collected quilts and blocks for the victims of the shooting at Pulse nightclub on June 12, 2016. Our guild made three group quilts for this cause, plus two additional finished quilts donated by individual members.

If you have any questions or suggestions for charitable projects, please contact our Philanthropy Chair, Rhonda.

At our recent workshop, Improv Abstraction, Karen Foster showed us how gentle curves can be combined in infinite ways to create one-of-a-kind quilt designs.

Karen teaches a relaxed approach to layout and design, starting with a gentle curve shape to provide a base structure for the quilt. From there we played with the curve blocks and improvised complimentary shapes. We also learned techniques for machine piecing “severe” curves, and even circles.

The class wrapped up with a review of all the unique shape and color combinations we made in creating our overall quilt designs.

This month members Jennifer Kloke and Rhonda Rosales showed us techniques for adding screen printed and block printed designs to fabric. They walked us through the process and demonstrated the three different techniques at the meeting. Afterwards, members got to play a little and try their hand at both methods.

Members got to get in on the action after the demo. Take a look…

Members, this year’s fundraising efforts are off to a great start.

We entered the year with funds raised from our mini-quilt raffle at the 2017 Pacific International Quilt Festival. We raffled a total of 8 mini quilts and attracted several new guild members at the show.

As we’ve done in previous years, we reached out to the vendors at QuiltCon 2018 to solicit donations for our fabulous raffle drawings. The first of two drawings was held at our recent Quilt Retreat. Congratulations to all who won! For those of us who didn’t win or weren’t there to enter, worry not! We have six more baskets waiting to be auctioned off at our upcoming fall picnic. (More on that in a minute.)

Our next fundraising event is the upcoming Piecemakers Quilt Show, July 21 – 22. In addition to a mini quilt raffle, we will be selling handmade note cards, mini barn quilts, zippered pouches, project bags and tote bags in the boutique. Please join us for our Piecemakers exclusive Sew Days on June 16th to assemble our sewn items and July 7th to paint the mini barn quilts. Both events will be held at the Google Garage. Tricialyn’s Mini Quilt Texture Challenge is due at the May meeting (Wednesday, May 9th). The idea is for these quilts to be used for the raffle, however if you are not participating in that challenge but would still like to donate a mini-quilt, feel free to bring any donations to our May, June or July meetings. We will be calling for volunteers to man both the boutique table and our raffle table. Look for sign ups coming soon!

Want to learn some tips and tricks for photographing your projects? Want your shot at winning one of our fabulous raffle baskets? Well, mark your calendars for September
8th when we will be having our First Annual Summer BBQ. We’ll enjoy great food and an informative lecture on photographing finished projects by a professional photographer. Bring a camera and your finished quilts and spend the afternoon getting great shots of your best work. Who knows, your project may be selected for publication in our very own SVMQG Quilt Planner!

Yep! You read that right! New this year, is our Silicon Valley Modern Quilt Guild Quilt Planner! Filled with great planning tools and lots of our members’ beautiful quilts, we are out to create the perfect annual quilt planner. Want to help? We are looking for input and ideas on the must haves of the ideal project planner. Please feel free to email me your input at (I’m in the directory) OR email the guild with the subject line of “SVMQG Perfect Planner” and I will make sure to be in touch with you.

Please give a big shout out to our current sponsors! Be sure to tag any projects using these products to let them know we appreciate them. Include our own #SVMQG hashtag so they make the connection of their donation to our guild.

#birchfabrics, #hawthornethreads, #hawthornethreadsfabrics, #backporchfabrics, #fatquartershop, #fqsfun, #fqs, #robertkaufman, #byanniepatterns, #byannie, #soakwash, #aurifil, #aurifilthread, #rileyblakefabrics, #northcott, #northcottfabrics, #thegranary, #thegranaryfabrics, #eddiesquiltingbee, #uppercase, #uppercasemagazine, #cloud9, #cloud9fabrics, #paintbrushstudio, #studio37fabrics, #marcusfabrics, #handiquilter, #schifferbooks, #craftedmoon, #thesewnsew, #nancyrink, #thepatchworkco, #wonderfilthread, #wonderfil, #culcita, #hobbs, #hobbsbatting, #missouristarquiltco, #missouristarquilt, #sewingparty, #pinkdoorfabrics, #pineapplefabrics, #sulkythreads, #colourwerx, #intownquilters, #cloverneedlecraft, #cotton+steel

Amanda Morris
Fundraising Chair