Newsletter #5 - Lots of Information!

There's lots of important news in this issue of the Naperville MQG newsletter, so be sure to read it all!  Catherine and Cheryl (your co-founders) have been hard at work on the calendar of events and we are very excited about 2013!

Naperville Modern Quilt Guild Sew in Day - February 2nd
Join us for a day of sewing with friends and fun!  We'll be sewing together in the community room of Naperville Bank and Trust, right around the corner from our meeting spot!  
Naperville Bank and Trust 
555 Fort Hill Drive  Naperville, IL 60540
Saturday February 2nd
8 am to 1pm
This is a bring your own project sewing day.  We have the room from 8 am until 1pm.  You will need to bring everything you need to work on your project, and yes, you can bring your sewing machine!  Bring an extension cord, just in case.  The room has plenty of outlets and nice worktables.  Feel free to bring a snack, as there is a kitchenette.  If you have questions, just email us!  We hope to see you there!  

The Naperville MQG Log Cabin Challenge!!
We are organizing a challenge that we hope you will love!  It's your turn to interpret the Log Cabin block as a Modern Quilt!  We are giving this challenge some rules so that we can hopefully show the entries as an organized group.  Here are the details:
     -The Quilts must be a modern quilt interpretation of the log cabin block.  It can be one giant block, lots of smaller blocks, wonky off kilter blocks, whatever you choose!  It must be part of the Modern Quilt movement.
     -The finished quilt must be 36" inches square.  We plan to hang these together so we want them to be uniform.
     -The deadline is the March NMQG meeting (March 28th). 
We hope you will start thinking about a quilt for our challenge!

More Meeting Substance!
We are trying to come up with more substance for our meetings, so we're going to be doing book/magazine discussions at every meeting, and we feel we have come up with a whole lot of neat ideas to get us through this year.  If there's something you would like to see, or a technique you would be able to demo for us, we would love to hear from you!

January Meeting - January 24th at 6pm
It's "Book Club" night at the January meeting, so bring your favorite Modern Quilt Book and we will discuss them! 
We are also planning to do sign ups for any Round Robins or Block Exchanges.  If you have never been in a Round Robing before (where you make the center portion of the quilt and include fabric and it's passed on to another participant to work on the piece and you get a surprise quilt made by the group at the end) then you will have a chance to sign up for a Modern version at the January Meeting.  We're also co-ordinating anyone who wants to do Modern Quilt block exchanges.  Both sign ups will be at the meeting.
Lastly, we will discuss the calendar again for anyone who missed it, and give last minute instructions for the February Sew in!
Our Regular meeting time and place:
Gentler Times
476 S Route 59
Suite 152
Naperville, IL 60540
6 pm to 8 pm

Pictures of Our Mug Rug Swap!
We had some wonderful mug rugs in our swap at the December Meeting.  We sure hope you enjoyed it!  The pictures we took are up on the blog at http://napervillemodernquiltguild.blogspot.com  

The NMQG 2013 Meeting Schedule and Topics!
January 24th – Bring your favorite Modern Quilting Book
               Sign up for Round Robins
               Sign up for Block Exchanges

February 2nd – Sew In at Naperville Bank and Trust
              
February 28th – Hexagon tutorial by Catherine Redford
               Announcing Hexagon Challenge

March 28th – Update from QuiltCON
               Modern Log Cabin Reveal Day!

April 26th- Charm Swap! (25 – 5 inch squares)
               Announcing Charm Square Challenge!
               Hexagon Challenge Reveal Day!

May 25th – Demo (TBD) (Partial seams?)
               Bring your favorite bag pattern

June 27th – Fusing Demo
               Announcing “Group Choice Challenge”
               Charm Square Challenge Reveal Day!

July 25th – Christmas in July!
               Bring quilty gift ideas

August 22nd – Curved Piecing Demo
               Group Choice Challenge Reveal Day!
               Announcing Curved Piecing Challenge!

September 26th – Announcing Holiday Pin Cushion Swap
               Event TBD
              
October 24th – Curved Piecing Challenge Reveal Day!
               Event TBD

December 5th – HOLIDAY PARTY
               Pin Cushion swap Day!

Logos
Faith posted our Logo onto our Flickr group, so head over there and grab one for your blog or website. http://www.flickr.com/groups/2018099@N20/

What is a Modern Quilt? 
At the August meeting, Cheryl read from the Modern Quilt Guild's website the definition of a modern quilt.  We're posting it below.  We're very excited for this aesthetic, and are glad to have a group locally that focuses on it! 
Here's the blurb from the Modern Quilt Guild:
"What is modern quilting?
Modern quilting is a new and rapidly growing movement in the quilting world. A group of quilters applied their current tastes and points of view to this traditional craft and shared their work online.  Their fresh approach and new designs attracted sewers and quilters and the modern quilting movement was born.
Modern quilting, like all art, changes, grows and adapts from quilter to quilter as they find their own voice. Modern quilts reflect each quilter’s personality and personal style, and as the movement has grown, a modern quilt aesthetic, a set of principles that define and guide the movement, is beginning to emerge.
Modern quilts and quilters:
     Make primarily functional rather than decorative quilts
     Use asymmetry in quilt design
     Rely less on repetition and on the interaction of quilt block motifs
     Contain reinterpreted traditional blocks
     Embrace simplicity and minimalism
     Utilize alternative block structures or lack of visible block structure
     Incorporate increased use of negative space
     Are inspired by modern art and architecture
     Frequently use improvisational piecing
     Contain bold colors, on trend color combinations and graphic prints
     Often use gray and white as neutrals
     Reflect an increased use of solid fabrics
     Focus on finishing quilts on home sewing machines
Modern quilting has its roots in rebellion, in our desire to do something different, but simultaneously its feet are firmly planted in the field of tradition.  Modern quilting is our response to what has come before.  We are quilters first, modern quilters second. There are however, characteristics that set modern quilters apart from our traditional and art quilting friends.
Modern quilters are a diverse group of woman and men, young and old, experienced and novice, yet each of us feels the need to differentiate ourselves as modern quilters by how we work, the fabrics we choose, and the aesthetic of our quilts. We create in a way that supports our individual creative needs and our lifestyle preferences.  Modern quilters resist the imposition of hard and fast rules for making a quilt.  We pick and choose traditional techniques and methods that work for us and at the same time feel free to redefine or reinvent what is possible and allowable in making quilts.
Modern quilters have embraced the new options available in textiles: bold colors, graphic prints, larger scale prints, and Japanese fabrics.  Much like the Amish quilting tradition, many modern quilters are also exploring quilt designs made exclusively with solid fabrics or with just a hint of print.
The Internet has played an integral role in the development of modern quilting.  Through blogs, online tutorials and social media the modern quilting community interacts, providing inspiration and friendship for each other.  This has helped the community grow at an astounding pace, providing feedback and support at a moment’s notice.
In many ways, modern quilting has taken us back to the basics of the early quilters, when women of the day used the colors and styles of their time to express themselves creatively while finding friendship and community along the way.  Welcome to modern quilting!"

Follow/Like/Bookmark Us!
-Flickr:  Our Flickr Group Pool is located at http://www.flickr.com/groups/2018099@N20/
-Twitter:  Our Twitter handle is @NapervilleMQG and the twitter page is at  https://twitter.com/NapervilleMQG
-Email: Our email address is NapervilleMQG@gmail.com
-Facebook:  We have a Facebook page!  https://www.facebook.com/NapervilleModernQuiltGuild  Please "like" us!
-Blog/Website http://napervillemodernquiltguild.blogspot.com

See you Thursday, January 24th!
-Catherine Redford and Cheryl "Muppin" Sleboda (co-founders)