modern quilt – Maine Modern Quilters

The Maine Modern Quilters (MMQ) gathered on October 4th at Hope Baptist Church in Manchester, Maine, for a vibrant and inspiring in-person meeting. With 32 members in attendance, the energy in the room was as colorful and creative as the quilts we love to make.

🧶 Getting to Know Each Other

We kicked off the day with a fun icebreaker: each member shared one word that describes themselves as a quilter. The responses painted a vivid picture of our community—words like “eclectic,” “scrappy,” “intuitive”, “inspired”, “happy”, “playful”, “experimental,” “reborn,” and “grateful” reminded us how diverse and passionate our group truly is.

🌟 Featured Projects this month

During our October meeting, members had the opportunity to choose from three hands-on projects:

Scrappy Zipper Bags – Led by Hilary Hudson, this project focused on using leftover fabric scraps to create functional and stylish zipper pouches with amazing color flow.
Pieced Seat Cushions – Nancy Lander guided members through techniques for assembling cushions with creative piecing and quilting methods. A great solution for those often hard chairs we seem to spend so much time in!
Fabric Name Tags – Meliss Swanson helped members design and sew personalized name tags using fabric, embroidery, and embellishments.

We love seeing the diversity of styles and techniques our members bring to each project!

🎨 Upcoming MMQ Events & Opportunities

MMQ has a full slate of exciting events coming up:

🧵 Fostering Community Gathering – October 18 at the Iron Workers Union Building in Clinton, Maine. Bring your projects and enjoy a day of sewing and friendship.
🛠️ Round Robin of Tools – November 1 at First Congregational Church of New Gloucester. Share your favorite quilting tools and learn from others.
🎄 Bold Prints & Holiday Celebration – December 6 in Waterville. Bonnie Dwyer will present on using bold prints in quilting—bring your own bold creations to show off!

All dates and details are available on our website: mainemodernquilters.com

🧵 Special Events: Workshop with Nicholas Ball

We’re thrilled to host a Zoom workshop with Nicholas Ball (@quiltsfromtheattic) on January 31, 2026 from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. The class, “Curvy Cabbage,” is capped at 35 participants and costs $25. Sign up by November 15— current members please check your email.

🖼️ Special Events: Mini Quilt Show and Fundraiser

MMQ is partnering with the Yarmouth Historical Society for a fundraiser in March and April 2026. Members are invited to contribute 24” x 24” mini quilts—some of which should be available for sale. Proceeds will support YHS, MMQ, and the quilt creators. A reception will be held March 19 from 5–7 p.m. at YHS.

We currently have 13 quilts and need 4 more. Quilts will be collected at the December meeting. Interested in participating? Reach out to either Evie Landry or Becky Rodgers and get stitching!

💙 Charity Quilt Block Project

Patty Robinson is spearheading our charity quilt initiative for the year. She shared nine inch square bold blue blocks and colorful strips of yellow, orange or red (1″ x 13.5″) which members can use to create a vibrant quilt top, which will be donated and auctioned for a good cause. Instructions on making the block are available in the MMQ Resource Library on the MQG website.

🧵 Show & Tell

As always, Show & Tell was a highlight. Members shared stunning quilts including:

Cherish Quilt Pattern (EPP)
Electric Pineapple Quilt by Libs Eliot
Random Block Design from Craftsy
Secret Agent Quilt
Transparency Quilt Block of the Month (MQG March 2020)
Tula Pink’s 100 Modern Quilt Blocks
Postcards with craft paper backs
Baby quilts and orphan block quilts

🧵 Upcoming Community Events and Opportunities

🌈 Kate Gawler will present a Color Workshop hosted by the PTQG in Hermon on October 25.
🌍 Many members enjoyed the Global Quilt Connection virtual event in late September—thanks to Bonnie Dwyer for the recommendation!
🧵 The American Quilt Study Group will host an event on October 18 in Portland, featuring antique quilts and a vendor mall.
💎 Caravan Beads in Portland invites creatives to “Bead Together” every Friday from 4–6 p.m.
👗 Sharon shared her experience at the Boston School of Design, showcasing a handmade tunic she made in class with Sharon Chandler of marigold_in_maine. Members expressed interest in a future MMQ workshop to create quilty tops for the 2026–27 program year.

Stay inspired, stay connected, and keep stitching! We can’t wait to see you at our next meeting on November 1st in New Gloucester.

#MaineModernQuilters #ModernQuilting #QuiltCommunity #MMQEvents #QuiltyLife

General

Improv and Thanksgiving – Nov 2023 Meeting

November 4, 2023 MMQ Communication & Technology Chair

Our November meeting started, as always with introductions and we each shared a Thanksgiving food traditions. We shared both stories of a hundred year old pot with a pudding no one eats and stories of family recipes that get made although no one likes them (Shrimp Pea Wiggle, Cranberries with Orange peel, Rutabagas and Potatoes) and all the amazing sounding deserts, stuffings, and dressings that are loved!

We then voted in new officers, Thank you everyone for your commitment to our guild. With a special thanks to Kate Gawler for her leadership as President for the challenging few years and Carmen for years of work as our VP of Membership. In 2024 Evie and Nancy will be taking over as Co-President, Karen will continue as Treasurer, Mary and Faye Jean, Becky is VP of Special Events, Veronica as VP of Membership, and Mary Ann will continue as VP of programing.

In December we will have our Holiday party which will include a small gift swap, a fat quarter game, and a potluck. If you have been thinking of joining, it would be a great first meeting!
Today was a sew day and we used a few different improv techniques to make 12×12 blocks which we will join into a community quilt – to be shown.

And of course we had a show and tell and shared our Mini #1s (see below).

Meetings, Sew Time, Workshops

No Fooling – April First in Person

April 2, 2023 MMQ Communication & Technology Chair

Our First in person meeting in 2023 was fantastic. Twenty two of us meet in Westbrook for a great day.

We kicked off the day by talking about what Improv meant to each of us. And following a short business meeting we did our show and tell, highlighting as always the talents of our members. The pictures show a lot of Maria Shell style Linear Block pieces, which makes sense, as she guided Maine Modern Quilters in a workshop many of us did with her in March. Of course, we were not limited to Improv and there were some beautiful quilts and techniques for us to all enjoy.

A focus on Improv continued and Following Show and Tell we had a pair of workshops on improv curves. Members picked from two options. Some went with Mary Ann Cugini showing us Carolina Oneto’s from the Janome America website, you can find the technique here. At the same time Kate Gawler guided others in Maria Shell’s braided curves technique from the Summer 2021 issue of Quilting Arts Magazine. Thank you Kate and MaryAnn! It was sew much fun to have a couple hours of sewing with old and new friends.

It was a fantastic Saturday, and we are looking forward to our May sixth meeting where we will have a series of demos on finishing techniques and our June third picnic at Winslow park in Freeport. If you are on the fence about joining, now is a great time!