February 2021 Guild Meeting

We kicked off our February meeting with a bang! We had the privilege of having Sandra Johnson of Sandra Johnson Designs as our first featured speaker of the year presenting her lecture “Modern Quilts”. She began by explaining how “modern” can be tricky to define. Modern can be Big and Bold or Minimalist or Simple. Modern doesn’t have to be limited to only solid colors. She said not to shy away from using prints; you can absolutley use prints and ones that read as solids are best. She is a huge fan of using batiks in her quilts. But as we all know Sandra’s first love is DENIM! She is the denim whisperer for sure. Her use of big stitches in her denim quilts and denim wearables make them extra special and fun. Sandra shared her tip of taking traditional block pieces and making them big and bold and essentially blowing them up a few notches for maximum impact. The most stunning quilt she presented had to be her Phenomenal Woman quilt. It embodies so elegantly what Sandra Johnson Design is all about. Lastly, Sandra emphasized that you must embrace the creative process and not to focus on the imperfections, but instead “just get it done”!

MORE OF SANDRA THIS MONTH

JoAnn Fabrics is celebrating Sandra Johnson in their Black History Month promotion. Below is the quilt Sandra created for the promotion.

Fat Quarter Shop is hosting a Quilt Along for Black History Month, called “Stronger Together”. 100% of the proceeds of the pattern will go to United Negro College Fund (UNCF). The mission of UNCF is to increase the total number of African American college students and helping them persist to graduation. Below is Sandra’s Stronger Together Quilt.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

VALENTINE’S BLOCK LOTTO: Current members should receive a block lotto project this week. Instructions and a strip of red fabric to make a 10″ string block will be included. The completed block will be collected at the Meet & Eat event on March 20th or can be mailed back to Laura: 497 W 24th St, Upland, CA 91784. We will draw a winner at the April meeting – good luck! We currently do not have a chairperson for our Block Lotto program. If you are interested, please contact us at iemodernquiltguild.com.

MEET & EAT: We have a Meet & Eat scheduled for March 20, 2021. We’ll be meeting from 11 am to 3 pm. Bring your lunch and join in with friends at Shamel Park, Riverside. It is just off the 91 freeway (Arlington Exit). The address is 3650 Arlington Ave, Riverside, California. We hope you can join us!

REMINDER

“SOUNDS & VOICES” CHALLENGE: Photos of your challenge quilt are due the Saturday prior to the March meeting which is February 27th. Email us a photo of your challenge quilt to: iemodernquiltguild@gmail.com. Please have your email subject line read “2021 Quilt Challenge”, so we can easily identify it. We are sew excited to see your entries!

See you next month!