Our updates have moved

Thank you for your interest.  We have moved our updates to Facebook and Instagram. Follow us: @ictmqg. You can also find information about our guild at The Modern Quilt Guild.

February, 2018 Quilter of the Month

Dottie Evens is our newest Quilter of the Month.  Get to know Dottie better in our quilty interview, linked below.

Quilter of the Month Dottie Evans

Charity Hope Heizer is our newest Quilter of the Month. Select the link below to view this great article by CJ Standifer. 

Get to know Charity Heizer, Quilter of the Month

Charity's first quilt!

CJ Standifer brings us another awesome Quilter of the Month profile. This time we are getting to know Rebecca Keimig.  Select the link below to view the article. 

Quilter of the Month, Rebecca Keimig

April 2017 Guild Meeting

Our Wichita Modern Quilt Guild April meeting will take place this Saturday, April 1.  Our program will feature the webinar, "Using Simple Quilt Blocks to Create Complex Geometric Designs".

Additionally, Scholfield Honda has graciously offered our guild the use of their brand new, state of the art conference room for our meetings. The board visited Scholfield and unanimously agree that it would be a great location for our meetings. There will be plenty of parking, complimentary coffee and tea, computer, projector and internet access. Plan to discuss this possible meeting location change at this meeting. 

Quilter of the Month

Jo Oliver agreed to be our first "Quilter of the Month" and was interviewed by C.J. Standifer.  C.J. wrote this informative piece so that we can all get to know Jo a bit better.

JO OLIVER

WMQG

Quilter of the Month

February 2017

What is your full name? Jo Oliver

Do you have any nicknames?

My son nicknamed me Moeshae when he was in grade school. It stuck. When I make quilts for my children I sign them Moeshae and the year.

When did you start quilting? In 1979 I copied a full size quilt that I saw in a department store.  Then a dry spell for 3  decades. I ignited my current passion in the fall of 2011.

What made you start quilting?  Inspiration? I’ve always been a little “artsy.”  I feel better when I’m creating something. Quilting/crafting/sewing has been my therapy long before someone coined  the phrase “quilting is my therapy”.

Did someone teach you to quilt? Are you self-taught? I took the mandatory sewing class in 9th grade, sewing mostly garments.  Five and a half  years ago I took a basic quilting class. Followed by 2 free motion quilting classes.

How much time do you spend quilting in a week? On average I’d say 15 to 20 hours

Favorite batting? Favorite Thread? Favorite fabric? Etc. Quilters Dream Select. Aurifil. Solid cottons.

Favorite quilt shop?

I like the Quilt Cottage in Hays, my home town. They have every color of Kona in the store.  However, most of my fabric is from local shops.

What type of machine do you use? I sew and quilt on a Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0.  True story, my car was totaled in a hail storm in spring 2012, right after my dad died. Not emotionally ready to find a new car, I accepted a check from my insurance company. That check was all I needed to buy my Pfaff, a work  station and a chair.  I drove my totaled car for 2 more years.

Describe where you sew. Our downstairs bedroom has been converted to my studio. The room is approximately  12’x11’. I have a 6’x5’ design wall fixed to the wall. My machine sits in a 40”x60” table, the  top being 35” high.  The open closet stores my stash. My small scraps are sorted by color  and stored in plastic, shoe box bins. Larger scraps are in bins on shelves. I’m organized,  yet every now and then I have to stop everything and tidy things up a bit. It’s easy to just  lay something down and plan to take care of it later.

What's your environment like when you sew? Most of the time I work in quiet. However, there are times I crank up Pandora radio.

Describe your stash. I don’t have much of a stash. What I have is leftovers from projects.

Do you have a favorite quilt that you've made? Why? Probably the Pod Quilt (2015) pictured below. It won a blue ribbon at the 2016 PQG Quilt Show. I love the design, the colors and the quilting. It’s probably the best quilt I have made.

Do you have a favorite quilter? Why? Not really.  Although I must say that while I was developing my FMQ skills I was heavily  influenced my Lori Kennedy and Hillary Florence.

What are your goals in regards to quilting in 2017? I want to improve my machine binding technique. I also want to create a quilt inspired by  something I see in the world. I’ve got something in mind and have the pattern somewhat  worked out. That’s all I’m going to say.  You’ll have to wait for the reveal at a meeting yet to come. And, this is a big and, if I think it’s worthy I will submit it for Quiltcon.

Do you have any UFO's? If so, how many? No UFOs.  I work on a project until it’s done. And, I seldom have more than one project  going at the same time.

Where do you draw inspiration from? Quilts online and in magazines. Logos on television, signs, billboards, etc.  the world around me.

What happens to most of your quilts? Most of my quilts have been gifted.

What advice would you give to a novice quilter? Get to know and love your machine. Perfect your ¼” seam. Close enough is not close enough. But most of all, “You are exactly where you need to be to get to where you are  going.”  Is there anything else we should know about you? I sew barefoot.

      

                                                  Jo’s first quilt (2011)                                                        

The Pod Quilt (2015)

  

A quilt Jo exhibited in July of 2016 (below)  

                        

Jo has recently finished this beautiful quilt for her son-in-law. 

Jo creates her own bag designs.  She’s created

everything from a yoga mat carrier to a garment bag!

Opportunity Quilt Congratulations

Congratulations to Teresa Lang! She has won our Wichita Modern Quilt Guild opportunity quilt.  A big thank you to all participants and to those who purchased tickets!

Quilt blocks for Alberta

The Ottawa Modern Quilt Guild asked for quilt blocks to be donated for victims of the recent Alberta fires.  Our members made blocks and Donna Loehr coordinated the project. The block was a Maple Leaf and the colors of the Alberta flag were used.

 Pictured, from left to right: Linda Beachy-Hughes, Becca Keimig, Donna Loehr, Annette Quiring, Julie Gier

Opportunity Quilt Completed

Our opportunity quilt is complete! Jo Oliver accomplished the gorgeous quilting and Becca Taylor Keimig added the sleeve and binding.  Raffle tickets can be purchased at the Common Threads Regional Quilt Show on June 16 through 18, 2016. The quilt will also be on display at the Material Girls quilt shop. 

Second Annual Quilt Bomb

The Wichita Modern Quilt Guild is planning its second annual “quilt bomb” to celebrate National Quilting Day.  On Saturday, March 19, the guild members will decorate the statues of downtown Wichita.  The statues, located on Douglas Avenue between Main and Topeka streets, will be adorned with colorful quilts of all sizes that have been created by the guild members.  

Raffle Quilt Progress

Our opportunity quilt is growing and we are excited to share our progress! We have completed the third border of Elizabeth Hartman’s “Aviatrix Medallion” pattern. The finished quilt will be on display, and raffle tickets can be purchased, at the Common Threads Regional Quilt Show June 16 – 18, 2016.  

Raffle Quilt Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek at the raffle quilt our members have been working on.   We are following the beautiful “Aviatrix Medallion” pattern by Elizabeth Hartman.  This picture shows the center medallion and first row of colorful blocks. The finished quilt will be on display, and raffle tickets can be purchased, at the Common Threads Regional Quilt Show here in Wichita on June 16 – 18, 2016. Watch this space for more information about the raffle drawing and to see the quilt as it progresses!

WMQG Charity Quilt Challenge

WMQG I recieved email confirmation that our charity challenge quilt is in Austin!
 Thanks to everyone who participated in this challenge! It was fun and interesting.
 When we were tossing ideas about, Becca had the great idea of using the Sedgwick county map as our guide for our quilt. The map was a grid, but by color-identifying each town in the county, it gave our quilt an "alternative grid"- which is what we were challenged to do!  By looking at the quilt, you do not realize it is a map of our county, unless you know what you are looking at. Using the colors designated by MQG, we were able to put some "pop" into our quilt. 
 Leah and Julie turned the county map into block patterns. Julie cut all the fabrics for the blocks into kits, and Becca distributed the kits to our members who were willing to sew the blocks. We met after the December meeting with several people to sew the blocks into a quilt. Jo did her quilting magic on the layers, and Becca put the binding and hanging sleeve on. With the label added, the quilt was packaged and on it's way to Austin! See below for a few pictures of the layout process, the finished quilt, and the quilting. I can't wait to see it at QUILTCON!

I will work on the photos.....

WMQG Blog Gets a Makeover

We are working on updating the look of the WMQG Blog! Our goal is to make the blog as clean and user-friendly as possible. Changes will be implemented in the next few days-we ask for your patience during this transition. The plan is to have this round of updates completed by the end of this weekend. Thank you all for bearing with us during this process!

May 2014 Meeting Minutes

WMQG met May 3, 2014 for our monthly meeting. Great attendance this month!
 May fabric swap was purple. June's fabric swap will be black and white scraps.
 Charity quilts were completed and shown to the group. These will be delivered to our charity, The Treehouse. We are now working on wonky log cabin blocks for the next batch of charity quilts. The middle square should be solid yellow (any shade), with any other colors completing the 12.5" block. Please remember to try to coordinate the colors in your block....wonky doesn't mean ugly! If it turns out pleasing to your eye...it will probably be pleasing to others! 
Fabrics are available from our charity fabric bin if you need/want something different to use to make your charity blocks. As with our previous charity block challenge...the person who makes the most wonky log cabin blocks by the August meeting will receive a gift card! Please keep track of how many blocks you make.
 We played 2 rounds of quilt bingo using quilted bingo cards. This game was a lot of fun! The instructions to make your own bingo cards are on the Fons and Porter website....we do expect to have more fun playing this game again. 
 WMQG met at DuBois Farm Retreat on May 31st for an all day sew in and potluck. Many thanks to RoJean for allowing us to gather at her retreat center- it was a lot of fun!
 Michael Miller fabric challenge is due to be completed and have a photo uploaded to the Modern Quilt Guild site by July 26th. Please bring your quilted,completed projects to the July meeting. Material Girls will have a display of our completed projects.
 Some discussion was presented about QuiltCon 2015. You may find more information on the MQG website. Several people have discussed going, and some rooms are reserved, with space open for roommates. We can expect to discuss QuiltCon 2015 frequently in the next several months.

Common Threads Quilt Show is June 26-28 at CenturyII. WMQG will have a booth. We will continue to sign-up for volunteers at our June meeting. Each member is reminded to bring a bag of individually wrapped candy at the June meeting for our booth table. We will have new guild postcards for the table also. Please bring any modern quilted items you want to consider having displayed in our booth to the June meeting. We will decide as a group what will be displayed in our booth. A large quilted banner with our logo is being made/quilted for the show. 
 Guild t-shirts are in and will be distributed at the June meeting! If you haven't paid yet, the shirts are $20 and a few extra were ordered. Additional shirts can easily be ordered for those who want a shirt. It will be encouraged for you to wear your guild t shirt when volunteering at the Common Threads quilt show to help spread the word about our group!
 Jo, Julie and CJ brought projects for the show and share. We look forward to seeing June's show and share projects!
 Jo did a wonderful presentation on free-motion quilting. It was exciting to see Jo's skills in action and how far she has come in the short amount of time she has been quilting. 
 CJ will be bringing treats to the June meeting.
 On the June meeting agenda we are planning to have a speaker from Midwest Sewing on sewing machine maintenance and repair.
 Our guild has seen a lot of growth in the last few months! Welcome to our new members, and I am always happy to see all of you and glad you chose to be an active part of our guild! Please continue to invite friends (and strangers). June sew-in dates will be announced soon. 
 As always, we want you to feel welcome and a valued part of our guild. Any ideas,thoughts, or suggestions are always welcome!
 Remember, you will always receive a 10% discount at Material Girls with your guild membership. Material Girls is the ONLY quilt shop in town that offers us this great discount...so be sure to thank the wonderful MG ladies!
JUNE MEETING: Saturday, June 7, 10 am at Material Girls---see you there!!

WMQG March Meeting Minutes/upcoming events

WMQG March Meeting Minutes March meeting was on Saturday, March 1, 2014  at Material Girls Quilt Shoppe. This meeting  had attendance of 12 people--our biggest meeting yet! Membership forms were completed by those  wishing to "officially join WMQG, at we began  collecting $25/year dues. We will have an official roster at the April Meeting, and those who wish to  become an official member of the guild will need to pay their dues by/at the April meeting. We will continue to welcome visitors to the guild, and hope  that after one visit we will gain them as new members! Invite your friends, invite those you talk to  in quilt shops, invite your co-workers! There  are a lot of people in the Wichita area who still  don't know about us...so SPREAD THE WORD! Monthly Fabric Swap: March's fabric swap was "green" fabric. At Becca's suggestion, April  fabric swap will be "blue" fabric.  Bring any size  baggie of orphan fabric that needs a new home,  we dump it into a basket, and you can look through  and pick what you might want to adopt. Any "leftover " fabric is saved for our guild's charity fabric stash.  This is a great way to take inventory of your current  stash, share with others, and acquire something different! Sew-In Days: Attendance to Sew In days has been  low. We discussed having home Sew-Ins at member's  houses. March 15 (National Quilting Day) Sew-In was at Joann's east, with 5 in attendance...the best so far!  It was a lot of fun! There will be a poll on future sewing  days on facebook, to try to plan days that work best for  the most people. We will continue to have Sew-Ins, whether it's at a business or a home location. Sew-In days  are a great opportunity to work on charity projects as a guild! Retreats:  Rojean is finalizing the opening plans for  the DuBois Farm Retreat, her family-owned retreat  center. She has offered the WMQG the opportunity  to use the facility in the future, at no cost, for Sew-In retreats! This is a very generous offer from Rojean,  it was discussed that members would like a Summer retreat there. As this is Rojean's family business, this  would need to be planned with their schedule, and of course we will need high attendance. This is such a great  opportunity to sew/quilt, socialize, work on charity  projects, and have a lot of fun as a guild!     March 21-23 We have the Abilene Civic Center in  Abilene KS reserved for a quilting retreat. It is only $30 -which includes your sewing space, lunch on Saturday  and Sunday, door prizes and fun! There are only 3 people from our guild who have reserved spots. March 14 was  the deadline, but if you have a last minute change in plans and decide you want to join in the fun--please contact Julie Gier, and by all mean--join the retreat! Quilt Bingo:  We discussed how to play quilt bingo  and how to make your quilt bingo card. If you do not  have some of the needed fabrics...put a request on Facebook,  and others will share their stash with you at the April  meeting. The plan is to be able to play quilt bingo by  the May meeting. The link to the bingo card instructions can be found on the Fons and Porter website. Charity Blocks:  Plan to bring your finished blocks  to the April meeting. We will be setting up a day in  April to put them together as charity quilts to benefit The Treehouse. Remember, we are using blue, green  and brown fabrics for boy blocks, and pink, yellow and purple for girl blocks. The challenge is on! Make as many  of any or all of the blocks you wish....but the person who has made the MOST blocks by the April meeting  will receive a gift card to Material Girls! The links to  the block instructions are on sewmamasew.com, or you can find them by looking back and the older  newsletters, or on Facebook. Common Threads Quilt Show  We will have a  booth at the show in June. Our goal will be to promote  WMQG and encourage others to check us out/join. We will need some samples of modern quilting to hang around our booth, and workers to man the booth.  We would like to have at least 2 people at the booth for each time slot. We will begin signing up to volunteer  at the quilt show at the April meeting. MQG Fabric Challenge:  National MQG has a new  fabric challenge coming up! It is from a very cute, new   Michael Miller fabric line. The national winner of the  challenge will receive a year's worth of MM fabrics  (a box of goodies from MM each month!).National  MQG has requested that is you take fabric, you must  complete a project and post a picture of it on the MQG  website. We will only be receiving 9 sets of the challenge  fabric (6 fat-eights each). Material Girls has ordered  the line of fabric so we may add additional members  who want to participate (buying your own), or buy  additional fabric to add to your project. We will be  so lucky to have the line of fabric readily available!  Thanks Material Girls!! Demo:  This month's demo was a paper-piecing  demo by Nancy Fugate. Plenty of paper-piecing  patterns were available to take home. Thanks for  the demo Nancy! Door prizes this month were awesome! Always  fun to get free fabric! Thanks Becca for bringing yummy cupcakes!  Show and shares were amazing! It is so encouraging  to see everyone's beautiful quit projects. Don't forget  to bring something to the next meeting! Remember,  we like to keep the show and share to 2-3 projects  per person, so everyone has a chance to participate.                                                Upcoming Events March 21-23: Abilene Quilting Retreat Monthly Meeting: April  5, 2014 at 10am-noon at Material Girls Quilt Shoppe, 535 w Douglas April Jo Oliver has volunteered to bring treats Fabric swap will be blue fabrics Bring an example or idea for a guild logo. We will be collectively decide on a logo to represent our guild!. Let's be modern, creative, and appealing! Take a look at other guild's logo's for ideas. Send to a Friend Have a friend you think might be interested? Forward this to them.     Join us on instagram and flickr!   Friend us on Facebook

WMQG February Newsletter Wichita Modern Quilt Guild February February 1 2014 Meeting Minutes:  Snowy weather for our February meeting! Several people were not able to make it to the February meeting due to the snowy roads, but there were 8 people in attendance.   The meeting began with introductions, name tags and the Valentine's Day mug rug swap.   The WMQG Bylaws were reviewed, discussed, and voted on, with a unanimous vote to institute the Bylaws.   Proposed officers were presented and voted on with a unanimous vote in favor of the following officers: President: Julie Gier, Vice-President: Chris Clark, Secretary: Leah David, Treasurer: Nancy Fugate.   SEW-INS:   February Sew-ins: locations discussed, Sew Ins are a good time to work on our charity BOM, and I will have extra supplies available if you wish to work on them. February Sew-Ins Scheduled:  February 17, Monday, 4:00-8:30 at Joann's East near 37th and Rock--Please note Joann's does not allow children in the workroom for this event. You must bring all needed supplies, we will have to bring our own cutting mats, sewing machines, and irons-I will make sure to provide a cutting space and iron.   February 22, Saturday, 10-5 at Material Girls==bring your sewing machine and supplies   Retreat! March 21-23 Friday 5pm to Sunday 6pm at the Abilene KS Civic Center. Cost: $30 per person which will cover the retreat space and lunch will be provided Saturday and Sunday. You must obtain lodging on your own. Suggested hotels in Abilene: Holiday Inn Express, Super 8, and Abilene Victoria Inn bed and breakfast. All of these hotels provide breakfast and are a reasonable price. Please contact me at: wichitamqg@gmail.com to reserve your spot. We will be inviting the Abilene quilters to join us, but Wichita quilters will be reserved first. The deadline for reservations is March14. You can reserve your spot by sending a check for $30 fo: Julie Gier, WMQG, P.O. Box 783014, Wichita, KS 67278. This will be our first retreat and I am excited to have a place and time for us to "get away" and enjoy some sewing time together! There will be door prizes, and you are free to bring whatever projects you want to work on. There are 2 quilt shops in Abilene, one is in walking distance from the retreat site.  Charity Sewing/BOM: We will continue with our charity BOM challenge. The person who makes the most BOM pieces will earn a prize at the end of the quarter (April). Our charity that is benefitting from our work is The Treehouse. You can access the instructions for the January block at: http://www.sewmamasew.com/2011/07/modern-block-of-the-month-bom-sew-along-with-alissa-haight-carlton/.   The February BOM instructions are at: http://www.sewmamasew.com/2011/08/modern-block-of-the-month-bom-sew-along-with-alissa-haight-carlton-2/    Riley Blake Challenge: The National deadline to submit photos of finished Riley Blake challenge products is February 17, Finished challenge products were shown at the meeting.   National Guild Membership: We are nearly ready to apply for membership in the National MQG!!  One last step in gaining membership as a "real" guild and not a "starter" guild is collecting dues. We will begin collecting dues at the March 1 meeting. Dues will be $25/year. Dues can be paid to treasurer, Nancy Fugate, at the March meeting. We need 10 paying members to qualify as an actual guild.   Demo: Nancy Fugate (our gadgeteer) showed some of her favorite gadgets, how they work, and what she likes about them.     March demo will be by Chris Clark, a foundation piecing demo. Show and Share: Members showed off some of their beautiful work as we all oooo'd and awwww'd over each others work :)  Door Prizes: 5 door prizes were won this month...always fun to get some free quilty things!  BYOB for March: Bring your own BAG! We will have our first fabric swap in March and have decided to bring green fabrics. Here's how it works: You bring fabric scraps you no longer want, in whatever size baggie you wish, we pile all the fabric from our bags in the middle and then you get to fill your bag back up with picking from the pile. Any fabric that doesn't go home with someone will be added to the charity fabric supply. You can bring any size of fabric...from scraps to yardage...up to you! I think this can be a lot of fun- hope you all join in! Next Meeting: March 1, Saturday at Material Girls Meetings: First Saturday of the month at Material Girls Quilt Shoppe  March 1-next meeting QUILT RETREAT! MARCH 21-23 ABILENE KS CIVIC CENTER Material Girls Quilt Shoppe 535 w Douglas, Wichita ks http://www.themodernquiltguild.com/ Upcoming Events:  February 13, 10-3 Charity Sewing with Nancy at University Methodist Church  February 17, 4:00-8:30 Sew-In at Joann's East workroom February 22, 10-5 Sew-in at Material Girls Quilt Shoppe March 1, 10-noon, Next WMQG meeting March 15 4-8:30 Sew-In at Joann's East workroom (National Quilting Day!) March 21-23 Quilt Retreat-Abilene KS   Sew...that's  your WMQG news! See you soon! Come quilt with us!

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