Pacific Piecemakers Quilt Guild
Bits & Pieces
January 2006 -- Volume 11, Issue 1
Jackie Gardener, Editor
www.pacificpiecemakers.org
January 2006
Fresh Start
COMFORT QUILT WORKDAY
January 20th
10:00am to 3:00pm
Gualala Arts Center.
January is all about starting over, getting back to normal (IS there a “normal”?), cleaning up and cleaning out—which brings us to our Comfort Quilt Closet: it’s empty. Holiday distributions have delivered us to ground zero, and we need your help to fill the void. With hurricane relief and Project Santa, we’ve given quilts and more quilts, including the ones we made in our November workshop, to many grateful recipients. We need your able hands and willing hearts at our January meeting, an all-day workshop.
Bring your machines and sewing supplies to begin a new quilt or finish a quilt-in-progress. Many fabrics and batting are available to work with, and you can add those dotted treasures you won in our Holiday Luncheon Winter Games. We’ll have a short business meeting just after our lunch break, about 1:00pm. As always, it takes all of us to meet the never-ending needs of our community, and comfort quilts are as much fun to make as they are to give. See you at the workshop!
February Workshop
Nearly Full
There are a mere three spaces left in Melinda Bula’s workshop Fabulous Fusible Flowers. If you are interested, check out her website to get an idea of what might be in store during this great class by a dynamic teacher.
Her methods are accessible for the casual quilter and don’t require a Ph D to enjoy.
Call Janet Windsor at 785-9324 or email her at jwindsoh@yahoo.com for more information, costs, time, and to sign up.
Guild Glimmers
by Paula Osborne
December’s holiday luncheon was memorable for its fabulous food and Olympic-quality games. Hunger satisfied by a fabulous array of edibles, the competitive spirit reigned, with dotted fabrics as prizes. Who knew there were so many kinds of dots (not this quilter)---or so many profound questions whose answers contained the syllable “sew”?? Thanks to Anita Kaplan, Jeri Taylor and their committee for arranging, decorating, organizing, and brain-teasing all of us!
There have been many requests for recipes, so if you can email the recipe for your luncheon contribution to me at etude@mcn.org, before you forget what you brought, I will figure out a way we can share them.
Other News
At our December meeting, there were lots of newsy tidbits shared.
Anna Hines had three of her quilts accepted into the “Road to California” show in Ontario, CA sponsored by Fabric Patch. Congrats to Anna!
Gualala Arts juried show “Wet Paint” now on exhibit in the gallery features the work of three of our members; Iris Lorenz-Fife, Barbara McNulty and Suzan Friedland. Congrats also to Suzan for winning a Judge’s Award!
Polly Dakin reported that we have given 23 comfort quilts to Project Santa and our cupboard is bare. Good work, ladies. Now we need to get busy again on this, our best guild project.
We also heard that Mary Long had an accident and is recuperating from surgery at her son’s home in Forestville. She should be home by the time you read this, if you want to call or send her a card. Speedy recovery, Mary!
On a fun note, ask Jan Carter about her unique and hilarious bathroom quilts she showed us! We loved them! Good work, Jan.
Membership News
Janice Carter has a local address now at P.O. Box 621, Gualala 95445
Kalynn Oleson is now at 35501 S. Hwy. 1, Unit 54, Gualala 95445, phone 884-1448 or cell 415-290-4521, email is ksue57@mcn.org
Mystery Quilts Unveiled
by Donna Blum
The December guild meeting was the setting for the unveiling of the beautiful mystery quilts done by members in 2005. The quilts were displayed and each quilter shared a few words about her creation. Even though all of the quilts were made from the same pattern the results were dramatically different. From Hawaiian, traditional to oriental fabrics, all of the quilts were lovely. Quilters who participated were:
Donna Blum
Diane Cunningham with two quilts
Polly Dakin
Ann Graf
Laura Hamilton
Gail Hamilton
Katy Horn
We know there are still some mystery quilts in process out there and look forward to seeing them at future guild meeting. If you missed the luncheon, you can see the mystery quilts on our web site. If you would like a copy of the instructions, they are still on our web site or you can get a copy from Donna 785-3625.
A special Thank you from Diane and me for participating. Have fun and start thinking about next year’s surprise….
President’s Message
by Lynne Atkins
2006! This year promises to be a bright and eventful one for Pacific Peacemakers! We will start with our annual retreat at the end of January and then move into our Tenth Anniversary Celebration on March 10. It is perfect to have our quilting retreat a few months prior to our March Challenge – this allows us some personal and private time with our Challenge Quilt!
Remember the theme – “Perfect Ten” --- an easy way to be creative! Your quilt must feature “Ten” in some way… use the word or number, embed ten colors, ten shapes, a tree with ten leaves – your imagination is the limit! But keep your use of “ten” secret – then we will have the fun of figuring out just how you met the “challenge” of keeping to the theme!
Ladies, start your machines… we are moving toward a wonderful Challenge!
Machine Quilting Class Coming Soon
This is a two day class taught by Anita Kaplan for beginners and intermediates who would like to gain confidence in their machine quilting.
Anita will cover all aspects of machine quilting and finishing your quilt from straight line walking foot quilting through free motion quilting. The class includes in-the-ditch quilting, stippling, continuous curve quilting, and echo quilting as well as all related topics such as what needles/thread to use, pinning and packaging a quilt for quilting, binding, steaming & blocking and sleeves. At the end of this two day class you will have made several samplers and you will know how to finish the top you created in the beginning piecing class or any other quilt top.
The fee is $100 for both days. The dates of the class are Wednesday, March 8th, and Tuesday, March, 14th, from 9a.m.-3p.m. Call Gualala Arts to sign up at 884-1138. There is an eight student minimum and a 15 student maximum. A supply list will be given out upon receipt of your check by Gualala Arts.
Intermediate Piecing Class
Starts In February
Have you taken a beginning quilt class and feel ready for more? Do blocks like log cabin, tumbling blocks, pinwheels, drunkard’s path or
stars fascinate you but scare you? Would you like to try Y-seam or partial seam construction, curved piecing, or paper piecing?
Then begin the new year learning new skills. The intermediate piecing class will meet on five Tuesday mornings, February 14, 20, 28, and March 7 & 21 in the Conference Room at Gualala Arts. A more detailed description of the class and supply list will be available at the Comfort Quilt Workshop on January 20. Meanwhile if you are interested or have questions, please contact one of us. The class will be limited to 10 students, so sign up early.
Mary Austin at maustin@mcn.org, 785-2181
Janet Sears at jansears@mcn.org, 785-3523