Do you find yourself drawn to the same color, style and design in quilts? This year our program coordinators are helping us explore our own quilting style. One coordinator describes herself as "traditional", while the second coordinator claims "I'm not sure how to describe my style, I'm always trying out new things in my quilts". In an effort for us to examine our own individual style, we have been challenged to complete a small quilt item for the April 13th meeting that depicts our style. Bring the challenge piece "This is me" to the April meeting. All quilts will be displayed and we will see if we can recognize the quilter by their work. The meetings this year will feature speakers with all different styles of quilting.
January 12th meeting. This was our traditional planning meeting for the coming year. No featured speaker was scheduled.
February 9th meeting. The speakers for the February meeting were Nancy Raschka-Reeves and Susan Dyer, who share the
designing and shopkeeping responsibilities for south Minneapolis quilt shop Glad Creations Quilt Block. Nancy and Susan shared their story and displayed many quilts. Some of the quilts were from their own quilt pattern line and some were exquisite hand appliqued quilts made by their mother Gladys Raschka, who has been quilting for over 50 years and
who was named the Minnesota Quilter of the year in 1999.
March 9th meeting. The featured speakers were Jeanette Asplin and Sue Johnson the owners of the Quilt Yourself LLC shop in Savage. Jeannette and Sue shared some examplesof quilts that had been longarm quilted in their shop and described the services that the shop offers. They offer quilters the option to take individualized training on their computer-assisted long arm quilting machines and then the quilter can quilt their own quilts or the shop offers a “quilt for you” service.
April 13th meeting. Due to a personal schedule conflict, CeCe Stricklin was unable to speak at our April meeting. Kelly Goldsworthy, a friend of CeCe’s, described some of CeCe’s unique embellishing ribbons and threads and shared some suggestions for their use in our quilts. CeCe is the owner of the Thread Gatherer, a shop in Idaho. You can view her products at www.Threadgatherer.com.
May 1 & 2 will be the dates for special workshops now available for non-members as well as members. The workshops will be conducted by Wendy Butler Berns and will be held in the Chaska Community Center. Both workshops will be from 9 am to 4:30 pm. The May 1st workshop will be "Creating Captivating, Colorful Quilts". This is a no sew workshop. The May 2nd workshop will be "Captivating Cone Flower". This workshop will require the participants to bring their sewing machines. The $50 charge for each workshop includes specialty supplies and a lunch. You may sign up for both workshops as space allows. Workshop size is 20 participants. Contact Lisa S. for more details.
May 11th meeting. This is our annual comfort quilt sew-in. The meeting has an early start, 6pm. This year the club will be using Bonnie Hunter's Bricks and Stepping-Stones pattern for our comfort quilt. Prior to the meeting members will be asked to make and turn in individual blocks that will be assembled into quilts at the May meeting. For the sew-in blocks, remember to use black and white fabrics for the stepping-stones. If not black then a very dark color. Use medium value fabrics for the bricks. Please use juvenille prints in some of the bricks. An assembled block will have 2 bricks and 2 stepping-stone 4-patches and will measure 6.5" X 9.5" unfinished. Here's a link to the pattern www.quiltville.com/bricksandstones.shtml
As always comfort quilts are accepted throughtout the year and you do not have to use the annual pattern for your quilt.
June 8th meeting. Our speaker, Marilyn Ginsburg, is a Renville County Master Gardener, living on a farm in rural Hector, Minnesota. She’s also a free lance pattern designer for Thimbleberries®. If the Thimbleberries® pattern has a flower in it, it was Marilyn’s creation. Marilyn presented a slide show featuring her gardens and quilts, giving us tips and inspiration for both our yards and our quilting.
July 13th meeting. This was our annual potluck picnic
at Fireman's Park in Chaska. Besides good food and good company we held
a live auction and a garage sale. All proceeds were donated to CAP
Agency.
August 3rd meeting. Please notice that this is the 1st Tuesday of the month. The featured speaker will be Sandi Irish of Irish Chain patterns. Sandi has been quilting for over 20 years -- teaching and working in quilt shops for 12 of those years. She pursued opportunities with Timeless Treasures and Blank Quilting fabric companies, designing quilts for their fabric lines, and also designed the colorful 2008 Minnesota Quilters raffle quilt.
Sandi says, “I’ve always preferred to create my own designs or adapt traditional quilts to my style, so starting a pattern company was a natural step to take. There are templates that accompany some of my patterns … another aspect of quilting I’ve enjoyed. I began The Irish Chain pattern company in 2003 and have a self-published book in the works. And, my newest endeavor is a line of fabric with Blank Quilting fabrics. I consider myself very blessed to have a career where I can ‘take pleasure in all my toil.’ (Ecclesiastes 3:13).”
September 14th meeting. The featured speaker will be Linda Hohag of Brandywine Designs.
October 1 & 2 are the dates for the "Fall Splendor of Quilts" quilt show. Workshops for club members conducted by Kaye England will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday the 3rd as listed below.
Workshops: Supply lists will be posted closer to the time of registration.
Topic: My Three Ladies Friday October 1, 2010 6:00--9:30 pm Chaska Community Center Theatre Stage Skill Level -- All levels Registration Cost $35 This is normally a 6 hr. workshop but is being condensed into a 3 hr. workshop. This workshop will feature three blocks: Lady of the Lake, Aunt Sukey's Choice and Doris' Delight. The workshop will include many ways to piece triangles, connectors and tips on re-designing traditional blocks. A fun workshop.
Topic: Scrap Mania Saturday October 2, 2010 1:30--5:00 pm Chaska Community Center Theatre Stage Skill Level -- Confident beginner/advanced Registration Cost $35 This is normally a 6 hr. workshop but is being condensed into a 3 hr. workshop. This workshop will explore different ways to combine blocks and techniques to improve piecing skills. Primary focus is on designing with scraps. Students should leave class with a more relaxed attitude about combining fabrics. A definite confidence builder for beginners and great fun for more advance piecers. Kaye recommends cutting strips to share, as most quilters' stash represent their favorite colors and therefore limits their scrap study.
Topic: Civil War Quilts Sunday October 3, 2010 9:00am --3:30 pm Chaska Community Center Community Room Skill Level -- All levels Registration Cost $60 (lunch included) This class will take an in-depth look into this period of our history. Students will learn about women's contributions during the war, about quilt patterns from this era, about fabrics used in the quilts and will even delve into the poetry and music of this era. A class for everyone who yearns to know more about this tragic time in our history and what forces pitted brother against brother. A rewarding class for all skill levels.
October 12th meeting. The featured speaker will be Doris Hareland of Monticello.
November 9th meeting. The featured speaker will be Celine Perkins of Perkins Dry Goods patterns.
December 14th meeting. This is the date for the annual Holiday Party at an outside restaurant.
2009 meetings
January 13th meeting. This was our traditional planning meeting for the coming year. No featured speaker was scheduled.
February 10th meeting. The featured speaker was John Giardano. John discussed "thinking outside the box". He suggested that we open ourselves up to change and that we observe the things around us as inspirations for color and design ideas.
March 10th meeting. The meeting was cancelled due to weather.
April 14th meeting. The featured speaker was Nancy Kazlauckas who specializes in thread calligraphy, a free-hand writing technique that Nancy uses to write script on fabric. Nancy's work can be viewed on her website www.threadcalligraphy.com.
May 12th meeting. Six twin-sized quilts for local women's shelters using the "Lucky Star" blocks were begun. Two tops were completed and all works in progress were taken home by members to be quilted, bound and labeled. See the finished quilts on the Show & Tell page.
June 9th meeting. The featured speaker for this month was Jo Goranson. Jo specializing in the use of thread embellishment. Jo has turned her quilting efforts toward whole cloth quilts filled with threads. She has experimented with many techniques using threads and shared with us how she achieves her results. To help attain the results she desires, Jo has branched out into fabric dyeing and painting.
July 14th meeting. This was our annual potluck picnic at Fireman's Park in Chaska. Besides good food and good company we held a live auction and a garage sale. All proceeds were donated to CAP Agency.
August 11th meeting. This was a special meeting in which members were bussed to three of our quilt club members' homes. At each stop we toured that member's quilting work area to see how they organized their spaces. Thanks to Chris, Chris and Audrey for sharing their ideas and opening their homes.
September 8th meeting. The meeting featured a lecture and trunk show by Jane Spolar of Sauk Rapids, MN. Jane discussed her work and the inspirations for her quilts. She displayed quilts from her line of patterns, Quilt Poetry. Jane's work can be viewed on her website, www.quiltpoetry.com.
October 13th meeting. On Mystery Quilt night the mystery was revealed but still remains unsolved. Those members participating in the mystery are challenged to use their own creativity to see how they can arrange the 2 different blocks to make their own design, maybe adding a little twist with some extra fabric. The fabric requirements and cutting directions are in the August and September newsletters orclick here to download them. See the Show & Tell page for pictures of the sample quilts.
November 10th meeting. The featured speaker was Lori Allison. Lori gave us some background on how she got into quilting and pattern designing. Having a teaching background led Lori to use clear directions and lots of pictures in her patterns, so that the beginning quilter can get started without being intimidated. She described the elements of good quilt design and then treated us to a trunk show of her work. She gave us a little history of some patterns and told us what worked well and what didn't. She told us that even knowing how previous patterns sold, it was still hard to predict what the next top seller would be. You can view Lori's designs on her website, www.allisonquiltdesigns.com.
