Penn Oaks Quilt Guild: February 2016

President's Letter

Hello Guild,

I hope everyone made it home from the getaway refreshed and ready to keep sewing! After all, that is what we enjoy the most. I stopped to say hello to the group on Saturday and it looked like everyone was having a great time sewing, eating, and shopping. Special thanks to Ellen and Pat for throwing a great event. And Stephanie - what great goodie bags and door prizes!

The Nominating Committee is actively recruiting for next years officers and committee chairs. Please get in touch with Kelly Meanix, Ellen McMillen, or Stephanie Brasky if you are interested in participating. Being an officer or a chair is a great way to get more involved in the group. Many friendships are created working together on projects.

Keep working on you challenge quilts and the charity projects. Looking forward to March!

Leslie

PROGRAMS

In addition to our Silver Screen Challenge, Stacy Koehler will present her lecture, "You Be the Judge: Learn What Judges Really Want". I hope this will inspire more of our members to enter their quilts in 2017!

“(Stacy’s) judging goal is to make entering a quilt for judging a meaningful step in the quilting career of each entrant that motivates them to make more quilts and refine our art.”

She has been an NQA Certified Judge since 2005, became qualified to judge in their Master Quilt program in 2008 and is currently working with other CJ’s to make the certified judging program a free-standing entity.

Stacy has exhibited her quilts both locally and nationally. She teaches in shops and adult education programs and is an active member of Undercover Quilts in Aston, PA.

Membership
Unfortunately, we had to cancel our February meeting due to weather.

March Birthdays
6 Fay Ann Grider
10 Pat Sherman
15 Jan Zwizanski
26 Marti Campbell

CHALLENGE

Silver Screen Challenge - March 14

Just Do It! It will be so fun to have many quilts to oh, ah, and vote on. Please consider putting yourself out there and giving it a shot.

Rules:

Inspired by a film

no more than 100 inches in perimeter

Bring to meeting in anonymous brown paper bag.

Pin paper to back with movie and name

For more information see last month's newsletter.

-Kathy DeCarli and Robin McMillen

Robin McMillen

(610)836-1363

(610)873-2950

4 Patch Swap

The aqua and green 4 patches are due at the March meeting, please remember to let me know if you will not be at the meeting. Remember we are swapping 12 blocks, please put your name inside the bag.
The color for April is orange, any combinations you want to sew!
Kelly Meanix kellymx@aol.com 610-873-7211

Hospitality
The March snack list is: J. Zwizanski, A. Barchi, M. Carlson, C. Davis, K. DeCarli, R. DeCarli*, S. Doonan, E. Dusinberre, E. Egan*, J. Fox, P.Gallagher. Please remember to switch with a friend if you can't attend the meeting and let me know. Also if there is a star after your name bring a drink for the group instead of a snack.

CLEAN OUT YOUR SEWING ROOM

FOR THE

SILENT AUCTION

ON JUNE 13, 2016

YOU HAVE THE MARCH AND APRIL MEETINGS TO DELIVER YOUR ITEMS TO DIANA SMYRL

(Please no items delivered at the June Meeting)

ALL PROCEEDS BENEFIT THE GUILD.

Quilt Show News

I have attached a list of the chairs of the committees. My computer is having some issues. Thank you to those who contacted me regarding their choice of committee. If I did not hear from a past chair, I left you in place. Please contact me if anyone needs to change position or if someone wants a new position.

Suzanne gave me a wonderful timeline for the steps needed to get ready and manage the show. I will be sending individual emails to the chairs regarding their specific timeline. Right now we are interested in just a few things.

Leslie is in charge of vendors. Please offer any vendors to her. She will also coordinate with them during the show and may need an assistant for this.

Ellen will be locating judges. The NQA judges have associated themselves with another organization and are still judging. We will get more information on this later. There will not be NQA Ribbons; perhaps from the new organization. We could also make our own ribbons.

We also want to revise our entry form/categories. Please send your suggestions for changes to Ellen and to me.

I plan on having a meeting in March. I would like to have the meeting at my home, but I recognize it is a hike to Morgantown. While I welcome everyone's participation, attendance is not mandatory. We are in the very early stages right now so the priorities are vendors, door prizes, judges, and entry forms.

I like to hear from you and you will be hearing from me.

Quilt Show Committee Chairs

Show Co-Chairs Carolyn Davis and Jamie Loncaric

Floor Plan, Set-up, Take town       Bob DeCarli
Acorn Shoppe                                   Pat Smith and Helen Hofbauer
Props                                                  Pat Smith
Small Quilts Raffle                           Kelly Meanix
Door Prizes   Suzanne Stiverson
Raffle Baskets, Door Prizes   Jean Fox
Basket Delivery                                Marsha Paczok
Vendors                                             Leslie O’Brien
Registration/Admission                  Denise Blake
Quilt Judging/forms                        Ellen McMillen
Dresden Plate Café                         Robin McMillen
Quilt Check-in/Check-out              Jean Zubert and Cindy Vognetz
Ads for Programs                             Diana Smryl
Program                                            Pat Smith
Publicity                                             Suzanne Doonan
Quilt Signs, Viewer’s Choice          Myrna Paluba
Signs                                                   Elaine Egan
White Glove & Clean-up                Marti Campbell
Volunteer Coordinator                   Dana O'Connor

Member Profile - Fay Ann Grider

How many years ago did you start quilting?

I started quilting in 1983 when I answered an add in the local paper for a quilting class in the home of Jackie Magan. She was a member of Main Line Quilters and a great teacher. We made our own templates - cardboard or plastic milk cartons - and our blocks were sewn by hand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What is your favorite part of the quilting process?

Shopping for fabric is fun, cutting and sewing the pieces into blocks is relaxing - most of the time- but my greatest pleasure is sewing the rows and strips into a finished top.

What is your favorite color?

My very favorite color is any shade of green. I love bright colors so yellows and oranges are a close second and third.

How many quilts do you think you have made?

I am not a prolific quilter. I can count 83 quilts and wallhangings plus many baby quilts for charities and 42 quillows.

What is your next project?

At the Penn Oaks Quilters getaway, I bought yards of fabric I could not resist. I want it to be my 2017 quilt show entry.

Tell us something the members may not know about you.

I was a taste tester for the Lindor Chocolate Company for over a year. It was a wonderful experience to receive a package of chocolate each month and to know that my opinion influenced the flavor selections on today's market. Each day's end I treat myself to one Lindor chocolate ball. Guild meetings, getaways, and the friends and acquaintances I have made over the years are like sharing that one chocolate ball each time we meet. Savor the moment.

Ronald McDonald House Snacks

Collecting snacks for Ronald McDonald House is an ongoing effort. They are looking for individually wrapped portions of cookies, pretzels, chips, fruit snacks and anything else that children would like to snack on. Just bring them to the meeting and I will take it from there.

Thank you,
Jean Zubert
jzbeachchair@aol.com

Write as Desired……

How this stash thing got started

When describing pre-Victorian antique quilts, Ruth E. Finley in “Old Patchwork Quilts and the Women Who Made Them”, writes that the quilts were “pieced from materials that not infrequently had already seen their best days in the form of clothing, the family quilt was like the turkey soup made from the left-overs of the Christmas feast – a positively last appearance”.

And when speaking of quilters in bygone generations, Finley writes, “Serving the purpose of patchwork was the scrapbag, always”. “It was institutional.”

What started out as a frugal endeavor to make something out of nothing, has blossomed into a full blown hobby and industry. Quilting was a multi-million dollar industry in the 1980’s but has burgeoned into an annual 3.58 billion dollar industry in 2010 boasting over 21.3 million quilters over the age of 18.

There are many factors which aided the growth of quilting and there are many fine texts from quilt historians and scholars documenting this growth. More recent developments which we may have witnessed ourselves as quilters occurred in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

In 1981, Jinny Beyer became the first quilter to design a line of 100% cotton fabric with VIP that was sold only through quilt shops for quilt makers. This exclusivity made it possible for the shops to compete with the big chain fabric stores. Today well known designers, quilt makers and historians produce complete lines of fabrics. Museum and antique reproductions add to the myriad of choices we have.

If you started quilting in the 80’s you may have created cardboard templates and traced and cut each block piece individually. The process was slow and laborious. With the introduction of the rotary cutter (originally used in Japan to cut layers of kimono silk), the process of creating a quilt became much less tedious, allowing a quilter to concentrate on the more creative aspects of the work. As quilters used fabric more, manufactures produced more fabric specifically for the quilter. It is estimated that today over 100 manufacturers produce lines for quilters. The fabric market is explosive with new designers and new complete lines introduced continually. It is no wonder that our shelves are overflowing! Although techniques make quilt making faster than they once were, it is still faster to buy an entire collection of fabric than use that fabric in a quilt.

And so here we are. You started buying an extra half yard and now you are buying collections!

Stashes can take over the shelves, the room, the basement or even the house. One retired gentleman I met in a quilt shop, confided that when he really looked at the beautiful things his wife was making, instead of fighting it, he embraced it, and started making his own works focusing on embroidery.

So how do you treat your stash? Do you hide it and pretend the beast is not in the room looking only for the latest fabric collection you bought for that next quilt? Or do you embrace it as the quilter husband did and take care of it. Does your stash bring you contentment and is it a source of encouragement or does it make you feel anxious and guilty – a source of frustration?

Get comfortable with it again – enjoy it – you worked hard to get it – use it.

Say Yes to the stash!

Play with it. Get down and look at it again.

Every winter I try to dedicate time to reacquainting myself with my collection. I do this especially when my husband is off on a business trip and I can just hole up in my sewing room.

My stash was becoming unruly and it needed tamed. It was crawling down the hall like an invasive ivy and it needed cut back. Quite different than our earlier quilters who had a scrap bag – a scrap room?

I love making “piles”. My youngest sister who was handicapped would sit and make piles for me. Maria was very sight impaired and wore the thickest glasses yet she could see color like no one else. Her piles were fun, colorful and unique. Starting with one fabric she selected, she would go in directions that were her own. Not mine. Not the latest fashion but wonderful. And so should you. Play. Forget what you think you should be doing and do what you love. Do what makes you happy.

And so once a year, I go through each piece of fabric on the shelves and containers and weed. I reacquaint myself with my stash. I find old friends, places I have been and times I shared. But I also find the “really what was I thinking” and “I needed 2 yards of the chicken fabric”?

Before the upcoming March show, take time to sit with your stash and think about where you are. Where do you want to go this year? What am I looking for? What do I need to buy to make it happen? We are far from making turkey soup quilts. We have fabric that we love and fabric that we outgrew. Let it all be a source of joy and creativity to create those quilts you dreamed of.

Sources:

Finley, Ruth E. Old Patchwork Quilts and the Women Who Made Them

Shaw, Robert. American Quilts The Democratic Art, 1780 – 2007

Chris Harkins

The 2016 Getaway!

The Getaway was a huge success! Many thanks to Ellen McMillen and Pat Sherman who did all the planning and organizing. Special thanks to Stephanie Braskey who had some awesome door prizes this year to add to the fun. Everyone loved them! I happened to see the pinking shears alone retailed at $49.00 and the box of thread was about $132.00 two wonderful prizes among many others. A nice unexpected activity for our getaway!!!!