Issue 17: The Joyful and Merry Quilting Newsletter

Sep 05, 2024

Merry Moment πŸ₯³

This week’s Merry Moment was an awakening! I may have made 1,000 quilt blocks, sewn 1,000 seams, trimmed 1,000 corners, or cut 1,000 pieces of fabric... and yet, there are those miraculous occasions – maybe the 1,001st time I carry out a task, when I discover something new, something amazing, something revolutionary!!!

Well, maybe it’s not that spectacular... but it really 
does bring me joy when I make a new discovery. I was working on a new quilt pattern this past week. The block I included in the pattern was tried and true—nothing new to the quilting world—but I think the method of assembly is pretty amazing and I knew I wanted to share this method of assembly in the pattern. However, the drawback is this particular method of assembling the block has no wiggle room when it comes to accuracy.

It seemed as though each time I cut and pieced it together, I never knew for sure if it 
would come out accurately. Now, I can deal with a block being a teeny tiny bit off—maybe a sixteenth of an inch, or even an eighth of an inch on occasion—but I don’t like it! I want to know why it’s happening, and for some reason, this particular block wasn’t giving me the answers I was looking for.

I cut larger pieces, re-cut even larger pieces, sewed a "scant" seam (I really dislike that unmeasurable term and rarely use it), and tried to be content with being "a little bit off." But with the measurements I used and the pieces I assembled, the block wasn’t just a bit small—it wasn’t square! That just wouldn’t work for me. Nope! I couldn’t let it go. I needed to figure out what was wrong.

So, I did a little Googling and YouTube research and found more than one quilter with the same issue—yet no solid answers. After lamenting over the misshapen block, the conclusion was:

“It’ll be a bit off, but that’s okay.” So I grabbed my ruler, my pencil, my scrap fabric, and my noggin, and got to work.

AND... guess what? I figured it out! I still don’t know why the initial block’s measurements didn’t work, but I came up with a method where it DID work! I was able to oversize the block just enough to trim it back to a perfectly sized block! I cannot tell you how much joy that brought me—LOTS and LOTS! And I can’t wait to show off my blocks...stay tuned! 

 I’m always striving to be joyful... but I’ll always be Mary!

 

Patchwork Puzzlers! πŸ€” 

The Log Cabin Quilt block is very popular in the quilting world. What do you know about the Log Cabin Block? Can you answer the following questions? Answers to the questions are listed at the end of the newsletter! 

1. What is traditionally represented by the center square in a Log Cabin quilt block?
A) The sun
B) The hearth of a home
C) A compass point
D) A tree trunk

2. The Log Cabin quilt block became popular during which major historical event in the United 
States?
A) The Revolutionary War
B) The Great Depression
C) The Civil War
D) World War I

3. A common variation of the Log Cabin block, where the lights and darks are arranged diagonally across the block to create a distinctive effect, is called what?
A) Court House Steps
B) Pineapple Log Cabin
C) Sunshine and Shadow
D) Barn Raising

4. Log Cabin quilt blocks are often pieced with strips of fabric arranged around the center square. What is this arrangement called?
A) Strip piecing
B) Foundation piecing
C) Spiral piecing
D) Chain piecing

5. In the late 1800s, some Log Cabin quilts were made with silk or wool and often tied instead of quilted. What was this specific type of Log Cabin quilt called?
A) Rag Quilt
B) Crazy Quilt
C) Lincoln Log Quilt
D) Silk Tied Quilt

 

JOYFUL AND MERRY COMMUNITY QUILT GUILD MEMBERSHIP IS NOW OPEN WITH LIMITED SPACE AVAILABLE

We’d LOVE to welcome you to our Joyful and Merry Community Quilt Guild! Imagine joining a warm, global community of quilters who support, inspire, and learn from each other every step of the way. Our guild is a virtual quilt circle where everyone is valued, from beginners to seasoned quilters. With twice monthly meetings, special guest speakers, a block library, free patterns, and fun sew-alongs, there's always something exciting to be a part of. Come join us—we can't wait to meet you!
Learn more here:
https://www.joyfulandmerryquilting.com/guildreopenreplay

 

A Joyful and Merry Quilting Thank You! πŸ₯°

Thank you to guild member Caroline Embleton for presenting "The Panguitch Quilt Walk" and her family's place in its remarkable history at our September 5th guild meeting!

 

Quilting Secrets, Fixes, and Tips

If you have a quilting top to share in our newsletter, please email it to [email protected].

 

Merry Musings Mailbag πŸ’Œ

This section of our newsletter is a comment by one of our subscribers to one of our YouTube videos.

The following is a comment to the Quilting Tips Video
How Creative Grids Ruler QR Codes Upgrade Your Quilting Experience”:

Recently, I discussed QR codes on Creative Grids Rulers which, when clicked on, directs us to instructional videos on how to use the rulers. I love them and have been so pleased with this added feature to my rulers. We had a question about the safety of clicking on the QR codes on rulers, patterns, quilting tools etc. I wrote to Maria D. from Creative Grids Rulers and asked her about the QR codes on the Creative Grids rulers.

Here is her response:

Hi Mary,
We love it when quilters use our rulers and do videos and such with them. Thank you! Anyone is more than welcome to email us here if they have a question about a Creative Grids ruler. If a ruler has retired, the link will be rerouted to the YouTube video for continued support. If they need help with the instructions, we still have those on file, and if for some reason they've disappeared, I am pretty good at coming up with ways to work around that.

I've never heard of the QR codes being hacked, or of glitches when people try to open them. The older rulers have MS tags which are obsolete and can't be opened any more, but if they tell me which ruler they’re referring to, I can send the updated instructions.

Maria
[email protected]
Maria Degroot | Creative Grids® Marketing Coordinator

 

Quilting Course News

Beginning Quilting: From Novice to Confident Beginner: Open registration began on August 1st and is NOW AVAILABLE! If you are a beginning quilter or a self-taught quilter and are curious about this course, please go to joyfulandmerryquilting.com/beginner and watch the video. I would LOVE to share my quilting knowledge and expertise with you. I have been quilting for 30+ years and “trial and error” was the primary way I learned how to quilt. With this course, you can skip the “trial and error” part and join with me as we explore the world of quilting together. Click on the link above for information about the course as well as instructions on how to register!

More courses are coming, including our next round of Aim for the Stars participants and our upcoming foundation piecing course and I would love to have you join me! Keep watching the newsletter for details.

 

Night Owl and Daytime Quilting Hangout Schedules with Links to Previous Hangouts

Previous Hangout Links:
Wednesday, September 4 at 11AM CDT:
Join me as we talk about a new course, new pattern and the guild!

Monday, August 12 at 10PM CDT:
Project Linus Quilt Challenge Info and How to Make Jar Openers – a great little gift or favor!

Monday, August 26 at 10PM CDT:
Phone Pillow Tutorial

 

YouTube Live Schedule: 

Daytime Quilting Hangouts
Wednesday, September 18 at 11am CDT

Night Owl Quilting Hangouts

Monday, September 9 at 10pmCDT
Monday, September 23 at 10pmCDT

 

Shop Hops, Quilt Shows, and More

If you have a local shop hop, quilt show, or another quilting-related event that you would like to share, please email [email protected] one month prior to the event and we will include it in this section of our newsletter.

THE MID-ATLANTIC SHOP HOP: July 1-August 31 States included: Pa, Va, WVa, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. Click on the link for details: https://allmidatlanticshophop.com

THE GREAT WISCONSIN QUILT SHOW: September 5-7, 2024. Alliant Energy Center
Thursday and Friday, 9am-6pm; Saturday 9am-5pm
https://quiltshow.com/

SEW YOUR HEART OUT
2024 Jacksonville Florida Quiltfest
September 19-21, 2024
https://www.visitjacksonville.com/events/jacksonville-quiltfest-quiltfestjax/

STAR STRUCK QUILT SHOW presented by Keystone Quilters
NACQA Judged Show
Quilt Registration is open to the public. Deadline is September 3, 2024
Finland Mennonite Church
1750 Ziegler Rd.
Pennsburgh, PA
October 11-12, 2024
www.keystonequilters.org
or call 610-282-0651

CELEBRATING THE QUILT presented by Illini Country Stitchers
October 4-5, 2024
Friday 9am - 5pm, Saturday 9am - 3:30pm
Savoy Rec Center
402 Graham Drive
Savoy, IL
https://www.illinicountrystitchers.com

FORT DODGE, IOWA AREA QUILTERS
"Inspirations from the Heart"
Saturday, October 12, 2024 9am-5pm
Sunday, October 13, 2024 10am-4pm
Webster County Fairgrounds, Fort Dodge, IA
https://www.facebook.com/FDAQG

 

Quilting Deals, Products and Savings πŸ’°

Some great deals to check out!

BATTINGSUPERSALE.COM: For some GREAT batting deals - go to www.battingsupersale.com and check out today’s specials!

 

Joyful and Merry Community Quilt Guild Corner βœ¨

WELCOME to our newest guild members who joined this week! We're so happy to have you!

Would you like to join a wonderful community of quilters from all over the world? We would LOVE to have you as a member of our Joyful and Merry Community Quilt Guild! Registration has officially reopened - get all the details and registration info here:
https://www.joyfulandmerryquilting.com/guildreopenreplay

The vision of our community quilt guild is: "To create a warm and inclusive virtual space where every member feels valued. We believe in fostering a positive and supportive community, free of judgment, where quilters of all levels can come together to learn, to share, and to grow.”

We have 
two meetings each month, special speakers, a block library, a chat forum, training videos, free patterns, sew-alongs, live Zoom quilt chats and more!
The Joyful and Merry Community Quilt Guild will open registration again on August 1st and we would LOVE to have you join our guild.
https://www.joyfulandmerryquilting.com/guildreopenreplay

Here's the latest guild news and reminders:

NEW GUILD NEWS: Guild members receive a 20% discount on all patterns and courses on our website. Go the the Guild Resource Page for the code!

GUILD MEETING SHOW AND TELL: If you have something to “Show and/or Tell” at our Guild Meeting, please send a good quality photo(s) to [email protected] and I will add you to the schedule. It’s difficult to show our quilts at our live Guild Zoom meeting, due to lighting, space, etc., so we will screen share the photos and then call on the guild member submitting the photos to give us the details during the meeting. Don’t be shy! We would love to share in your joy as you show share your creativity with the guild! Photos must be submitted in advance just to make sure we have enough time allotted for those members who will be sharing. I’m sure we all agree that being able to show our quilts “up close and personal” via Zoom is something unique to our guild. I will look forward to receiving your entries for our next meeting!

SEPTEMBER SCHEDULE: 
Don’t forget to register for the Zoom, as always. Links will be available on our Guild Resource Page as soon as they are scheduled. You will also be emailed with the links as well.

September 5: 
Guild Meeting at 7pm CDT Program: Caroline EMbleton presenting "The Panguitch Quilt Walk"
September 12: Block Training Videos Released
September 19: Guild Meeting at 11am CDT: New (free) pattern release and tutorial: Variation on Mary's Triangles
September 26: Extra Guild Meeting Sew-A-Long

Guild Membership officially re-opened last night with a limited number of slots available! Please invite your friends to join us! An email will be sent out today with replay and registration details.


SAMPLER BLOCKS OF THE MONTH CHALLENGE: 
The Sampler Block of the month - Block #9: “King's Crown Block” has been added to our Guild Block Library, and the training videos for blocks 8 and 9 will be added to the Guild Resource Page on September 12! You are welcome to make the block using the PDF, but if you would like step-by-step instruction, you will need to wait until the 2nd Thursday of next month when the training is available.

*GUILD REMINDERS*
 The following is general information that is posted in each newsletter as a helpful guide and resource for our guild members.


CALENDAR:

Just a reminder – all of the Joyful and Merry Quilting Community Guild Meeting Zoom Links are available on the Guild Resource Page of the joyfulandmerryquilting.com website. You MUST register ahead of time in order to participate in the meeting, by clicking on the link.

EXTRA GUILD MEETINGS:
Our next “EXTRA” guild meeting will be held at 7pm CDT on September 26th. Pre-Meeting Chat opens at 6:30pm CDT. Bring a project to work on! If you're working on the Outdoor Oasis Picnic and Beach Quilt, you're welcome to work on it or pick something else! It's totally up to you!

JOYFUL AND MERRY QUILTING COMMUNITY CARE CORNER: 
This will be a spot in our newsletter for members to share their needs and concerns, whether they're related to health, personal challenges, celebrations, etc. It will be a place where we can support and care for one another, share joys and struggles, and provide encouragement to each other regardless of our beliefs or backgrounds. We want it to remain a place of inclusivity while still fostering a sense of community and support within the guild. In this spirit, let’s turn our attention to those in our community in need of some extra support right now:

We don't have any submissions for our Care Corner this week. If you would like to post in our Community Care Corner, simply send your "Community Care Corner Request" (on sentence) to [email protected] and I will post it in the newsletter. You can post it anonymously or add your name - totally up to you.


RECORDED MEETINGS:
Our most recent guild meeting from last week has been added to the Guild Resource Page. Please keep in mind that our recorded meetings will only be available for 3 months or until we run out of room on our Zoom Account, whichever comes first. So, if you missed a meeting, be sure to watch the recorded version ASAP, so you don’t miss out.


WEBSITE MONTHLY TABS:

Once we move into a new month, we will have a tab that will take you 
to the archived files from previous months…just in case there’s something you want to review. Depending on how often our members access this feature will decide the length of time the previous months will be available. We hope you enjoy this feature!


GUILD MEETING TIMES AND MISSED MEETINGS:
We want to make sure you take note of this information. We are still having members access the meetings at the wrong time, and accidentally missing out on the guild and quilting fun.

TIME ZONES: Please keep in mind that our Guild Meeting Times are listed in CENTRAL DAYLIGHT TIME. If you live in another time zone, make sure you double check (and triple check) the guild time and then adjust it to accommodate for your time zone. We continue to have members join our guild meetings an hour or two early or an hour or two late and in the process, miss the actual meeting. The meetings are recorded, but if you want to join the meeting LIVE, please make sure you have the guild time adjusted to YOUR particular time zone. 

CHAT SESSIONS: If you have time, please join us half an hour before our guild meetings for our Guild's Community Chat sessions: 6:30pm CDT for evenings and 10:30am CDT for daytime meetings. This is such a fun time getting to know each other and I hope you’ll join us when you can. Please note that entering before the designated time strains our recording time allotment, so we have instituted a waiting room where members will be admitted to the meeting once the host is there and the chat session opens.

 

JOYFUL AND MERRY COMMUNITY GUILD FOUNDING MEMBER CHAT FORUM: 

We have been enjoying our Community Chat Forum! It's a great alternative to Facebook, where all guild members are included in the chat. Here's how to get to the Chat Forum (or you can click here):

  1.   Go to the joyfulandmerryquilting.comwebsite
  2.   Click on your “LIBRARY”
  3.   Click on the “JOYFUL AND MERRY COMMUNITY QUILT GUILD FOUNDING MEMBER”
  4.   Click on “FEED” and you will be taken to the Chat.  You can post pictures, questions, comments, etc.  It’s a great place to get to know our Founding Members and share our love of quilting!
  5. If you would like to offer your support for any of our guild members listed in the Community Care Corner, you are welcome to do so in our Chat Forum.

  

EMAIL PREFERENCES: 

Important: Guild Membership is Non-Refundable
Please do not mark any guild emails as SPAM or unsubscribe from them. Since this is a virtual 
group, email, Zoom, and our website are the primary ways to stay involved. Unsubscribing or marking emails as SPAM removes you from the email list, and by law, we cannot reverse this action. 

Some members who have marked our emails as SPAM or unsubscribed have requested a refund, which we cannot provide. All information sent via email is also available on our website's resource page. If you prefer not to receive emails, you can still access all guild information, links, patterns, etc., by visiting joyfulandmerryquilting.com and clicking on “Library,” then the Guild tab. 

Some members still experience issues with not receiving emails. The most common problems are unsubscribing, your email provider sending our emails to your spam folder, recipients marking emails as SPAM, or using different email addresses for the guild and newsletter subscriptions. Please email [email protected] if you continue to have issues with email and we will do our best to help you remedy the situation. 

Please be very careful with emails from joyfulandmerryquilting.com through our Kajabi email service. If you no longer wish to receive them, simply delete them. Do not unsubscribe unless you intend to. By law, we cannot re-add you to our email list, and you will no longer receive any correspondence from us. If you label our emails as SPAM, your email address will be permanently removed from our list. 

Additionally, if you forward our emails and the new recipient clicks Unsubscribe or marks them as Spam, your email address (not theirs) will be removed from our list. We understand mistakes happen, but some cannot be corrected. Please be careful. Thank you!
 

That's it for this newsletter! Have a joyful and merry week of quilting!


ANSWERS to this week’s PATCHWORK PUZZLERS:

  1. B) The hearth of a home

  2. C) The Civil War

  3. C) Sunshine and Shadow

  4. A) Strip Piecing

  5. B) Crazy Quilt

 

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