NEXT MEETING
*** Tuesday, March 26, 5:30 PM ***
Rita - main dish; Margie - dessert; Linda - salad.
(Also, please see the email exchange about the change of meeting day.)
(Also, please see the email exchange about the change of meeting day.)
BUSINESS MEETING
Worldwide Quilting Day
Worldwide Quilting Day
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March 16 is Worldwide Quilting Day (WWQD). None of us were familiar with that, so Tricia said she would investigate and report back in the blog. Worldwide Quilting Day is brought to us by an organization called the Fabric Shop Network, a trade organization for independent quilt and fabric shops. It appears that the purpose of WWQD is to support and promote local fabric shops, and many shops are listed as participators, including Windy Moon in Reno and Fabrics Unlimited up at the lake. |
The website discusses a sweepstakes and some challenge quilts, but information is a bit sketchy, and some of the links don't work. It might be interesting to visit a participating store on March 16 to see what, if anything, they are doing to promote the event.
Quilting Cruise
After dinner, Peggy and Tricia described the McCall's Quilting Cruise they went on in January. First, they were very grateful that their ship didn't break down in the middle of the ocean -- their cruise was in the same vicinity, near Cozumel, Mexico, where that incident occurred. Both Peggy and Tricia agreed that the quilting portion of the cruise was a bit disappointing. There were 120 quilters and only 60 sewing machines, so they only got to sew half of the time allocated to classes. The other half was spent on hand projects, which, while enjoyable to a degree, just weren't quilting. Their sewing project was a mystery quilt designed by one of the McCall's staff just for the quilters on the cruise.
The cruise itself was nice. The Royal Caribbean ship was beautiful and had all the amenities anyone could want. They had a nice balcony cabin and were seated with fellow quilters at dinner. The weather was disappointing, and they were not able to go on the shore excursion they booked in Jamaica, but that, of course, was just the luck of the draw. Overall, it was a relaxing and fun vacation, although neither is sure she would do a quilting cruise again.
DAR Project
At the last meeting, we discussed doing something for the DAR to show our appreciation for the community service award, and Margie said she would contact Anita Parker with that idea. Margie reported back that a DAR convention will be held in 2014, and it's possible that we might be able to donate a raffle or auction quilt for the Battle Born Chapter at that time. Linda suggested sending a story and photo to the Fernley Leader newspaper, and she and Tricia will work on that this month.
2013 Donation Project
We are still thinking about a charitable donation project the Bees might take on as a group this year. Tricia said that she read in a newsletter that Fabrics Unlimited is a drop-off point for quilts for the Shriners' Hospital in Sacramento. Everyone thought that sounded interesting, and Tricia said she would investigate it further and report back to the group.
Other Projects
Margie discussed an article she read wherein the author thought that "the need" to finish UFOs might be stifling creativity. If a quilter feels obligated to complete a project she has lost interest in, she might lose the motivation and enthusiasm to continue sewing. Or, more likely, her sewing room might just pile up with UFOs. We haven't decided whether or not to do an organized club project (like the box quilts) this year, but someone had the idea of doing a UFO exchange, wherein we could trade unfinished projects and then finish them either for ourselves or for the original quilter. More discussion will be needed if this is something we're interested in doing.
Clippings for Dog Beds
Helen has a friend who uses the detritus and dross of our sewing rooms as stuffing for dog beds. These are not scraps as we think of them, but instead, small bits of fabrics and batting and even thread clippings that we usually throw away. It's second nature to toss these discards into the wastebasket, so we discussed a few ways we could get into the habit of saving them. One idea was to have two wastebaskets -- one for trash and one for trimmings; another was to have a separate bag inside the wastebasket to collect usable trimmings. We can also donate the clipped threads and fabric trimmings we discard while sewing at our machines as long as we make sure those don't contain any pins or broken sewing machine needles. Please bring to our meetings, and Helen will deliver them to her friend.
SHOW & TELL
Peggy was busy Bee this month. Her niece (Tricia's daughter) asked Peggy to make an Easter dress for Tricia's six-month old granddaughter, and she particularly requested smocking. Peggy brought the work in progress to show the group because she needs to mail it off before the next meeting.
Peggy also made a laminated bag and a cute quilt panel for a friend's baby.
Dawn completed the quilt top from the box-quilt memory blocks the Bees made for each last year.
She also made a quilt commemorating her son Justin's bicycle trip across America, which he did last summer after graduating from college, to give to the family in New York who hosted Justin and his friends at the end of their trip.
Linda made a disappearing nine-patch quilt for her sister (she passed around a photo, but it's not pictured in our blog), which she gave to her as a surprise before Christmas. Linda also made some place mats to donate to her bee-keeping group's silent auction. (Bzzz, bzzz -- it's hard to see the cute little bees in the fabric.)
2013 Donation Project
We are still thinking about a charitable donation project the Bees might take on as a group this year. Tricia said that she read in a newsletter that Fabrics Unlimited is a drop-off point for quilts for the Shriners' Hospital in Sacramento. Everyone thought that sounded interesting, and Tricia said she would investigate it further and report back to the group.
Other Projects
Margie discussed an article she read wherein the author thought that "the need" to finish UFOs might be stifling creativity. If a quilter feels obligated to complete a project she has lost interest in, she might lose the motivation and enthusiasm to continue sewing. Or, more likely, her sewing room might just pile up with UFOs. We haven't decided whether or not to do an organized club project (like the box quilts) this year, but someone had the idea of doing a UFO exchange, wherein we could trade unfinished projects and then finish them either for ourselves or for the original quilter. More discussion will be needed if this is something we're interested in doing.
Clippings for Dog Beds
Helen has a friend who uses the detritus and dross of our sewing rooms as stuffing for dog beds. These are not scraps as we think of them, but instead, small bits of fabrics and batting and even thread clippings that we usually throw away. It's second nature to toss these discards into the wastebasket, so we discussed a few ways we could get into the habit of saving them. One idea was to have two wastebaskets -- one for trash and one for trimmings; another was to have a separate bag inside the wastebasket to collect usable trimmings. We can also donate the clipped threads and fabric trimmings we discard while sewing at our machines as long as we make sure those don't contain any pins or broken sewing machine needles. Please bring to our meetings, and Helen will deliver them to her friend.
SHOW & TELL
Peggy was busy Bee this month. Her niece (Tricia's daughter) asked Peggy to make an Easter dress for Tricia's six-month old granddaughter, and she particularly requested smocking. Peggy brought the work in progress to show the group because she needs to mail it off before the next meeting.
Peggy also made a laminated bag and a cute quilt panel for a friend's baby.
Dawn completed the quilt top from the box-quilt memory blocks the Bees made for each last year.
She also made a quilt commemorating her son Justin's bicycle trip across America, which he did last summer after graduating from college, to give to the family in New York who hosted Justin and his friends at the end of their trip.
Linda made a disappearing nine-patch quilt for her sister (she passed around a photo, but it's not pictured in our blog), which she gave to her as a surprise before Christmas. Linda also made some place mats to donate to her bee-keeping group's silent auction. (Bzzz, bzzz -- it's hard to see the cute little bees in the fabric.)
Helen showed us the donation quilt she made for the domestic violence project.
