2020 BOM Round-Up

December 5, 2020February 18, 2021 ~ siliconvalleymqg ~ Leave a comment

This year we introduced a formal guild Block of the Month program lead by BOM leader, Kathy S. The start of the program was a bit of a mystery with members picking out fabric palettes in January and then building a series of blocks from February through July.

As part of our SVMQG Digital events on the third Thursday evening of each month, Kathy hosted a BOM Sew Lab where members would bring their latest blocks and sit and sew or ask questions and get feedback from Kathy and other participating members.

It was nice to have some dedicated time to meet up and talk about the BOM together as a group at the Digital Thursday BOM Sew Lab.

In August, members were encouraged to play around with design and layout.

By the December meeting, where members were asked to bring their finished quilts, we had over 20 members show their finished BOM quilts! For a first time program, this was a huge hit.

We think a few key factors helped in making this year’s BOM a big success.

Keeping the blocks simple provided an easy barrier of entry into the project for any member.
Focusing on design concepts and layout helped build discussion around Modern Quilting and encourage members to “play” and “explore.”
Hosting a live BOM Lab each month provided members with help on tricky blocks and a resource for feedback and advice.
Having a 2020 BOM page on the website to list block instructions, steps, and information was also a great help as we continued to navigate programs in a new strictly virtual world.

We hope to see more BOM programming on the list for next years guild agenda!

Challenging Ourselves in 2020

November 21, 2020February 18, 2021 ~ siliconvalleymqg ~ Leave a comment

Our Programs team did a great job of keeping our hands busy and our minds challenged while we worked through different Challenge prompts each month.

Challenge #1 (Jan) – Play Around with Quilting Designs
Challenge #2 (Feb) – Finish a 2+ year old UFO
Challenge #3 (Mar) – Spring Clean Your Sewing Space
Challenge #4 (Apr) – Front Porch Quilt Show
Challenge #5 (May) – Sew a Rainbow
Challenge #6 (June) – Make a Tabletop Sewn Item
Challenge #7 (July) – Show Off Your Quilt Labels
Challenge #8 (August) – Show Us How You Overcame Being Creatively Stuck
Challenge #9 (September) – Show Us Multiple BOM Layout Options
Challenge #10 (October) – Make a Project Using On-hand Scraps
Challenge #11 (November) – Make a 2020 “Mask to Remember”

Each challenge was unique, and usually tied to a program theme running that month. All of them encouraged members to shake off those uncertain 2020 vibes we were feeling each month.

Challenge #1 (Jan) – Play Around with Quilting Designs

Members were given a transparency cover sheet, an image of a quilt, and a dry erase marker and were encouraged to practice drawing different quilting designs on the transparent surface. Designs for similar quilts resulted in vastly different looks.

Challenge #2 (Feb) – Finish a 2+ year old UFO

This one was simple. Dig out an unfinished object (UFO) and finish it up.

Challenge #3 (Mar) – Spring Clean Your Sewing Space

We know our sewing spaces deserved a little love this Spring and with more time on our hands due to the shelter in place orders, we had the time to dig in. Members loved this challenge and we watched many transformations happen in many sewing spaces.

Challenge #4 (Apr) – Front Porch Quilt Show

Since we were missing going to quilt shows, and spending way too much time in our own homes, we thought we’d cheer up our neighbors (who were now all really into taking walks) with a Front Porch Quilt Show. This was another really popular challenge and members displayed their quilts in a variety of different ways.

Challenge #5 (May) – Sew a Rainbow

This challenge was part of a block swap we did with other members in the guild who were asked to make rainbow blocks and exchange them. If members didn’t participate in the swap, they were encouraged to make a quilt using rainbow colors to provide some brightness to our days.

Challenge #6 (June) – Make a Tabletop Sewn Item

Since we’d probably made more home cooked meals than ever before in our lives, it was time to show our tabletops some quilty love. We asked members to make a table top sewn item. Extra kudos who went above and beyond to create full table scapes to match!

Mini Quilt, Matching Table Topper, and Table Scape by Dianne G.

Challenge #7 (July) – Show Off Your Quilt Labels

We held a poll and talked a little bit about how many of our members label their quilts. So, we asked our members to show off their labels to help inspire others.

Challenge #8 (August) – Show Us How You Overcame Being Creatively Stuck

Sometimes you just need to step outside of what you’ve been doing and try something new. This month, we asked members to post about a project where they might have become stuck and overcame that challenging place.

A peek into Lisa B.’s process on getting “unstuck”.

Challenge #9 (September) – Show Us Multiple BOM Layout Options

As our part of our 2020 Block of the Month, members were challenged to entertain different design layouts for their blocks.

Challenge #10 (October) – Make a Project Using On-hand Scraps

In an effort to use up scraps that had accumulated throughout the year, members were encouraged to use them up by making them into a project of their choosing.

Challenge #11 (November) – Make a 2020 “Mask to Remember”

While I’m sure most of us had our fill at making masks throughout the year, we challenged members one last time to make one that summarized 2020 in some way.

This year was challenging in more ways than one, and our members showed up for them each month in such creative ways. We feel inspired and excited for new guild challenges in 2021.

A Visit from Anna Maria Horner

January 16, 2019February 15, 2019 ~ siliconvalleymqg ~ Leave a comment

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!

2017 was a “challenging” year!

December 15, 2017February 15, 2019 ~ siliconvalleymqg ~ Leave a comment

We wrapped up the guild’s final monthly challenge of the year when we turned in curved quilt blocks and traded back projects made out of scraps from each other’s stash.

Founding member Tricialyn led the guild this year in many other monthly challenges that kept everyone busy and having a great time. In addition to the ongoing unfinished-object (UFO) challenge, which inspired us to complete partially started projects, optional monthly challenges were:

Charity quilt blocks
Zippered pillows
Mini quilts
Pin cushions
Zippered quilted pouch swap
Curved quilt blocks
Keychains
Text project
Scrap project swap
Make-something-for-yourself (due in January!)

Wonder what next year will bring…

warm color charity blocks

“text” projects

mini quilts

pincushions

zippered pillows

zippered pouches

keychains

Molehills Class with Latifah Saafir

June 18, 2016July 5, 2016 ~ siliconvalleymqg ~ Leave a comment

This month we welcomed Latifah Saafir to our guild to teach us a thing or two about curves. On June 11th we got together and learned how to make Latifah’s Molehills quilt. She taught us all we needed to know about how to cut, iron and piece curves to make molehills of our own. Many of us worked cutting and sewing single arches into lovely molehill fans and a few of us even dared to paper piece our arches. Every molehill made in class was one of a kind and so much fun to explore with each other throughout the day. Here’s a round up of our adventures that day.

Eileen showing off cutting arches using templates.

Kristine pressing her purple and pink arches.

Michelle-Nicholle stitching some curves on the machine.

Michelle-Nicholle’s arches laid out on the design wall with some full fans thrown in as well. (We love!)

Liz built a plethora of lovely yellow arches during class.

Tricialyn played around with layout of her colorful arches on the design wall.

Sarah pieced the day away using the paper piecing templates.

Rochelle finished a full fun pieced pink fan in class. (We love the fussy cut mermaids!)

Sarah shows off one whole pieced fan at the end of class.

Our design wall with a least one completed fan from every member in class. What a lovely bunch of molehills. We wanted to sew them up into a colorful quilt right then and there!

We had so much fun sewing the day away with Latifah Saafir! She had so much knowledge to offer on how to make this beautiful quilt. Lots of tips and tricks on how to be comfortable sewing curves on a machine and creating these awesome blocks. This technique might look a little daunting but we all agreed this was a great quilt to ease into learning curves. We highly recommend Latifah to other guilds and groups alike! She’s a great teacher and an all-around awesome person. We can’t thank her enough for spending a day with us at the Silicon Valley MQG.

Silicon Valley Modern Quilt Guild

– Est. 2014 –

Programs