We had a great meeting Saturday. The Board is doing a great job not only leading meetings, but planning for the future as well.
Calendar:
Aug. 29 - PIQF Entry Deadline (see
online entry instructions and forms or
register to attend the show)
Sept.2 - Sew Day at Grace - 3149 Waverly, Palo Alto
Sept. 16 - BAM Meeting (Bring your friends!!)
Sept. 16 - Modern Hexie Swap due at meeting
Sept. 23 - Karen Foster (capitolaquilter) Workshop - curves and improv ($35)
Oct. 12-15 - PIQF Show at Santa Clara Convention Center
Nov. 11 - Sarah Goer Planned Improv Workshop - signups start at September Meeting ($35)
1.
Question of the Day: What kind of workshops do you like / not like?
This question was directly from the Board presented not only as an icebreaker, but also to glean information about what interests members as the Board plans for workshops.
- techniques
- not projects or "buy this book and make this pattern"
- people wanted to leave with an almost finished item - not another UFO
- Improv
- want space with good lighting
- color
- hands on
- circles, curves
- learn something hard to do by yourself
- Catherine Redford
- mixing block sizes
- big stitch
- bags, hard bags like the Cargo Duffel
- techniques and skills I can't figure out myself
- Cristina Camelli
- Design (Lorraine Torrence)
- Slash & Burn Quilts
- vale
- fabric painting
- NO hand applique'
- thought process, how quiltmakers get there
- something new I haven't done before
- FMQ - Melody Johnson or Sue Nickels including using monofilament
- Hard weird bags, Cargo Duffel
- Skill building
- making templates for curves
- Susan Cleveland - perfect binding
- must have good teaching skills, not all quiltmakers can teach
- Ashley Nickels
- new stuff, hard stuff
- thread painting - Melissa Averinos?
- Rami Kim - 3D techniques
Your ideas are still welcome. Contact Gerre, Amy or Mary if you have more ideas.
2.
Membership
Nancy was at the meeting taking dues, workshop fees and Retreat fees. Please get in touch with Nancy if you owe money.
There are still two membership scholarships available. If you have financial difficulties talk to Gerre or Nancy.
3.
Planning
The Executive Board is planning for the future. They want to get a plan in place that helps the guild and future Executive Boards. Their goal is to create continuity. To that end, they requested a member-at-large to join the Board. Alison volunteered, Claire moved to make it official and the vote carried. They also want someone to get the documents of the guild in order. Tim H volunteered to be Historian. He was approved as well.
If you have ideas or suggestions, please let Gerre, Amy or Mary C know.
4.
Merit Hexies
Gerre gave us a presentation and some ideas about what to do with the merit hexies we are collecting.
Gerre has a Pinterest Board, which she showed and you can look at as well. Along with the regular Grandmother's Flower Garden type layout, there was a hexie necklace, some hexie animals, a mug rug and many other inspirational images. Take a look! What will you make?
Bonus levels (like in a video game) are coming.
See the details on earning merit hexis in the
January Meeting Minutes.
5.
Trunk Show
Erin gave a trunk show of her like in quilts. You can be the star of a meeting as well! Check with Gerre on putting your name into the hat.
Erin started sewing in about the 5th grade. She has been attending guild meetings since before she was born as her mom is one of the founding members of the Kansas City Quilt Guild. Erin has been in the guild for about 5 years. She is married with four kids (how does she find time to sew?????) She is thrifty, buying her fabric at a thrift store in Ann Arbor for $1/yard or from the Joann sale bin. She works mostly in solids, because she find they don't look dated.
The first quilt she made is still at her mom's house. She showed the second quilt she made, which she took to college. It is very modern looking and tied not quilted.
She took a break from sewing and quilting during college until after she was married. After college she found a paper pieced starburst pattern and made up a small piece, which got her back into the game.
She showed a high school and college t-shirt quilt which has different sized and shaped blocks.
A Yellow Brick Road quilt is her wedding quilt. It was mostly made a a wedding shower with her family. People brought fabric to the shower, cut pieces, sewed, arranged blocks and pressed. They completed about half the quilt that day. Erin finished it and then her aunt had it quilted by an Amish friend who hand quilted it as a wedding gift.
The group thought her aesthetic was consistent.
Thanks, Erin. Next trunk show will be by
Jaye.
6.
Charity
The guild has donated at least 160 quilts this year to various charities including the NICU at Stanford.
The charity girls have a lot of fabric from recent donations. They will hold a raffle at the next meeting. For a $1 per ticket, you can get some fabulous fabric pieces.
They will also put packets of fabric together so that you can make quilt tops and not just blocks. Bring quilt tops!!!
There were a number of packages of tops, backs and batting to quilt.
Patti heads up the Days for Girls aspect of the guild's charity efforts. 600 liners were distributed to the DfG representative in Beijing for distribution in southeast Asia (not China, however). There was corporate sponsorship of this donation. The company of the SE Asia rep's husband underwrote all the shipping and distribution costs.
7.
Sew Day at Grace
3149 Waverly, Palo Alto on September 2. Mary appreciates the help setting up and cleaning up. When the help is no longer forthcoming, no more Sew Days will beheld at Grace.
8.
Retreat Update
Retreat is September 29- October 1.
All fees were due at the meeting. If you own money, get in touch with Nancy immediately. Check for spots available. There may be one commuter spot available.
Check the Ning for opportunities to get a massage.
9.
Meet Your Neighbor
Alison S interviewed Nicki M.
Nicki was born in Portland, Maine, but grew up in Cupertino and now lives in San Jose. Her dad was accepted at Stanford in a Master's program and was offered a job at Lockheed when she was five weeks old, thus the move West. Her first job was stringing necklaces for her mom's beading business.
She has been married to Bob for 33 years. She has two sons, Michael and Sam. as well as a cat. Her cat will sit on any quilt. If your lap has no quilt, she won't sit in it, but put a quilt on it and she will join you. Nicki has tested this theory.
Nicki does all crafts - embroidery, crewel, crochet, beading, etc. She started quiltmaking when her kids were little because she needed to find something she could do in small snatches of time in her lap. She learned to quilt from a hand piecing class at Whiffle Tree Quilts in about 1990. Her first quilt was purple and green and the shop ladies tried hard to dissuade her from using those colors.
Nicki knits when she is not quilting. She also enjoys hiking, gardening, museums. She goes to visit her favorite pieces when she goes to certain museums.
Her favorite trips were to Japan, where she visited with former exchange students, and Fiji, where her parents had a sail boat rental company for several years.
Come to the next meeting and meet next month's neighbor, LeeAnn.
10.
Challenges
Triangle Challenge was due at the meeting.
11.
Color My Quilt - Amy
Everyone turned in their color my quilt shards for Amy. Joelle distributed sheets for her month. Joelle's shards are due at the September meeting.
12.
Special Show and Tell
George (7YO) and Rebecca (5YO0 Goer showed us quilts that they have made.
13.
Giveaway
YAY Diana! She won this month.
Check out
July's minutes.
