Jan 25 Meeting Cancelled Due to Poor Road Conditions; Rescheduled for Feb 22

Good morning, everyone!  The road conditions are terrible, and the winter storm warning has been extended until 4 pm today, because they are expecting another 4 inches of snow on top of the 6 to 10 inches we have reportedly already received.  I don't want people getting hurt or stranded trying to get to the meeting.  The Executive Committee has made the decision to cancel today's meeting.

Image from:  http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/simon-beck-snow-art

We are proposing to meet in February (when we normally wouldn't meet) to make up for it.  Therefore, our next meeting will be February 22.  We will plan to meet at the Ransom Public Library in Plainwell, unless you hear otherwise. 

If we can, maybe we can do our online activity that would have been scheduled for February in January, just to keep us busy!  Stay posted to the blog and Facebook page for updates on the meeting and on-line activities.

Stay warm and safe, everyone!  I will miss you all today!

Stephanie

How to Prevent Injuries and Keep on Quilting

Ed Orloff, PT, DPT, CSCS, Cert MDT
Ed graduated with a degree in Kinesiology and Biology. He earned his doctorate degree in Physical Therapy. He is certified in Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy through the McKenzie Institute International. He is working toward a diploma in Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy. As an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association, he works as the Federal Affairs Liaison to the state of Michigan advocating for patient rights in Lansing and Washington D.C.


Meet Ed:
He is a member of the Borgess Spine Physical Therapy Team
 and a member of our local Trikats triathalon group.
 I don't think he quilts but he can answer that question himself.
The woman beside the man is Julie Rogers our very own Kalamazoo County Commissioner 5th District.  Julie is also a physical therapist and rumor has it may also show up at our meeting. Not sure if she quilts either.
Ed is going to present a short program to help reduce the chance of ergonomic injuries due to quilting and sewing.
Looking forward to seeing everyone on Saturday.  Remember to bring your quilt blocks for a chance to win them all.

Pam

January 25 meeting

Hi,

Just a quick reminder that our next meeting is January 25.  We will meet at the Plainwell library at 10 am.  I have a physical therapist coming to talk to us about injury prevention while sewing and quilting.  I am looking forward to learning a few tips to prevent ergonomic problems that could prevent me from quilting .  Not being able to sew is really torture to me.

I will post more info about our guest later this week.
Looking forward to seeing you next Saturday.
Pam

January Online Guild Activity!

Hi Everyone!
It's Lisa here with our January online activity. Is it just me, or did December and the holidays go especially fast this year? 

I try to have a sample block done to show when I do these posts, but I'm so late in getting this up, and now with the *lovely* weather outside, I wanted to get it up ASAP in case you are housebound from the cold and snow and want to SEW!!! 

Our block for the January meeting: the wonky star! (Shown in digital form...I'll be sewing mine later this week!)

You can find the tutorial for this from Shanna at Fiber of All Sorts. She has the directions for 12.5" unfinished blocks. She's also got cutting information for 6.5" unfinished blocks. You can either make a 12.5" block or you can make four 6.5" blocks and join them together to make a four-patch of stars. 

So to recap:

One 12.5" star block

If you're really ambitious, follow the cutting for the 6.5" star blocks and join four together to make a four-patch star block, as shown above. This will count as 1 block for the drawing.

Color Specs:
Anything you like, but let's switch it up from  Shanna's original. Make your star white and the background the print or colored solid fabric, as I've shown in my illustrations. Please do use the same fabric for the entire background in each star block though. 

Submission/Winning:

• Submit a photo of the completed block by January 24.  We want this to be fun and easy, not stressful, so we have several options for submitting your photo.
• If you have a Flickr account, please post the photo to Flickr, add it to the Great Lakes Modern Quilt Guild group pool, and tag it GLMQG-Jan14
• If you have a Facebook account, you may post the picture to the Great Lakes Modern Quilt Guild Facebook page. 
• You may email your photo to glmodernquilter@gmail.com 
• If you do not have access to a digital camera, contact me (Lisa) and I will arrange to photograph your block.
• How to win all the blocks:
• We are going to draw for a winner of all the blocks at our next live meeting, which is January 25.  You do not need to be present to win.
• You get your name in the drawing each time you enter a block.  So, if you submit two blocks, your name goes in the drawing twice!
• Please bring your completed block to the January meeting so all the blocks can be delivered to the winner.  If the winner is not at the meeting, we will mail them to him/her.
• We'll post the name of the winner here on the blog.  So, if we don't have your email address, check the blog so you can see if you won and can send us your contact information.  (If you are at the meeting, you'll get your blocks on the spot!)
• If you will not be at the meeting, either
• Give the block to a friend to bring it for you, or
• Mail it in.  E-mail us at glmodernquilter@gmail.com, and we'll send you the mailing address where you can send your blocks.

• That winner must assemble the blocks into a finished quilt before being eligible to win again. Fair enough?

Any questions? Leave a comment below. See you at our January meeting!