July 2008 SMQG Newsletter

Programs

The July meeting is our annual Summer Potluck. Highlights: The Ways & Means White Elephant Sale, more than 10 special raffle items, the Black-and-White-and-One-Other-Color Challenge quilts (voting and prizes), and the chance to eat and chat with quilting friends - old and new - for the entire evening! Please come at 6:30 pm for some extra social time. Dinner will be served at 7:00 pm. Your ticket for admission is a fat quarter. Please bring a fat quarter of red, or white, or blue, or any combination thereof. You also are expected to bring an appetizer, entrée, or dessert (enough for 8 people). [Please the "Potluck" paragraph for more details.]

In August, our speaker will be Janice Steffen, a certified Square in a Square instructor. She will demonstrate this technique along with a trunk show, and we will see how easy it can be to achieve sharp points and flat work with this technique. Jan's Saturday, August 9, workshop (the Feathered Star) has only a few spots open. For September, we have planned a meeting with Charlie of Quilters Haven. Don't forget our September (Madhu Mandavia) and October (Andi Perejda) workshops. We're taking sign-ups now.

Maureen Gardner, Susan Barrett, Kim Giancola

The President's Message

Hello, everyone! I hope you enjoyed Mary Ellen Hopkins' talk last month. I found myself smiling at much of what she said and I liked her advice to accept that some things you just won't do. From now on, I won't think about paper piecing ever again. As promised, here are my final bits of advice.

It's OK to press seams open. Your quilt tops will not fall apart. One advantage of starting out as a self-taught quilter is that I did not know what I was not supposed to do, so I pressed my seams open as I had done for dressmaking (where they receive far more stress than any quilt seams do). Later, I learned that quilters pressed their seams to one side, so I began to do that. Now I keep both options in mind and press seams open when needed to reduce bulk or if I have several intersecting seams.

Fold your tops with raw seams toward the inside. They need the protection, not the finished side. I've been exploring an alternative to stitching in the ditch. When you stitch in the ditch, every little wobble shows, but when you stitch outside the ditch, wobbles are surprisingly less noticeable. By stitching on either side of a seam, you get twice as much quilting, and you don't have to do any marking. You can stitch any distance from your seams - from half to three-quarters of an inch or so looks good. You don't have to sew a quarter-inch from the seams, as is usual for hand quilting. Some very nice patterns develop that way, especially at corners where the quilt lines intersect.

"Easy threading" needles, the kind that have a slot at the top, are wonderful for weaving in loose ends of thread left from starting and stopping machine quilting. The thread just pops in and you can thread even a very short piece easily. Someone gave me a packet of them a few years ago and now I can't manage without them. I've enjoyed sharing some of my favorite tips over the last few months. Next month, for a change of pace, I'm going to write about my pet peeves. Meanwhile, I hope to see you at the Potluck.

Prima Casetta

Potluck

Time to eat! Our Summer Potluck brings you a special White Elephant Sale, the Challenge Quilt (see Vice Presidents' section), bonus raffle items (10+), and a surprise or two.

All you do is (1) bring a dish to share: Appetizer, Salad, Main Dish, or Dessert (enough for 8 servings) and (2) a fat quarter in red, white or blue or any combination thereof. Your fat quarter will be your admission ticket. The fun and chatter are free. (3) Please put your name on the bottom of your serving dish, (4) include a serving spoon or fork or knife if necessary, and something new this time - (5) please write out on a small card the name of your dish and the main ingredients.

Cutlery and beverages will be provided, although you're welcome to bring your own china and silver if you'd like. Tablecloths and napkins will adorn the tables as you arrive. Dinner starts at 7:00 pm. Come around 6:30 pm and you'll have time to socialize …………….

Ways & Means

July will be our White Elephant Sale, so clean out your sewing areas to make room for incoming fabric! If you have more than you can bring to the sale, call one of us and we can arrange to pick up from you prior to the Potluck.

We will have 10 or more door prizes in July. This is an inexpensive way to add to your stash, so please take a minute to purchase tickets - $1 each or 6 for $5, or come browse and see what's new.

We thank you for your generosity and for your continued support of Ways & Means!

Susanne Cole, Perla Rothenberg, Keiko Tapp

Hospitality Chair

Roz Bessen and Sandra Ray have graciously agreed to serve as Hospitality chairs for the next three months, including the July Potluck and then August and September. Thank you!

Prima Casetta

Guild Activities from Your Vice Presidents

QUILT CHALLENGE

The Black and White with One Other Color Challenge deadline is the upcoming July 2nd Potluck. Please drop off your entries at the Vice Presidents' table and complete an entry form if you have not already done so. Be sure your name and phone number is on the back of your quilt. We are expecting almost 30 quilts! I encourage all members, even those who are not entering a quilt, to come and cast your votes for Most Creative, Best Use of Color, Best Workmanship and overall Viewers' Choice. It means a great deal to the members who worked hard on their entries to be affirmed by their peers.

4TH OF JULY PARADE

The Santa Monica 4th of July Parade is just 2 days after the July guild meeting! To date, we have these volunteer guild members: Susan Barrett, Prima Casetta, Madeline Ehrlich, Marjorie Grace-Sayers, Veronica Gray, Pepper Neflas, Carol Purcell, Laurie Risk and Marianne Simpson. The parade route is 1.7 miles long - starts at Santa Monica City Hall at 9:30 am (marchers need to report in at City Hall at about 8:30 am) on Main Street, continues down Main Street to Marine Street, west on Marine and ends at Barnard Park. Betsy Barker and Susan Barrett have volunteered to help shuttle marchers back to their cars. It's not too late to volunteer, but the July meeting is the absolute deadline to do so.

The parade lasts about an hour and includes a number of "rest" stops along the way. Last year there was a martial arts club ahead of us; they stopped periodically to demonstrate their skills which gave us a chance to rest a bit! Wear comfortable shoes, bring a small backpack or fanny pack with water and sunscreen and a hat. It is summer! Last year we hung quilts on poles from our guild quilt stands and held them as we marched. The spectators cheered our patriotic quilts and our guild became better known in the community. Photos of the parade were on the Ocean Park Association website (www.opa-sm.org) and the guild was represented! Lastly, if you have a patriotic quilt you would like entered, but you cannot march yourself, contact Veronica. Those quilts need to be turned in at the July Potluck. Be sure your name and phone number are on the back of your quilt.

NO JUNE BLOCK OF THE MONTH OR STRIP CLUB There will not be a new Block of the Month for July, nor a Strip Club exchange. However, you are welcome to submit blocks from previous months (string blocks, paper pieced hearts and flower buds) for philanthropy quilts.

Veronica Gray and Sally Madigan

Quilt Show

Your soon-to-be hardworking Quilt Show co-chairs wish to thank the hardy souls who volunteered to serve on the 2009 Quilt Show Committee. We have a solid nucleus for our Commit-tee and now we are entering our “draft” phase. It’s still not too late to volunteer.

We’re getting closer to determining the dates for our Summer 2009 show. Our preferred venue is Loyola Marymount University and we are awaiting the final determination of available dates. It’s not too early to begin thinking how you might interpret our theme of EXPLORATIONS in a quilted piece for entry into the show. Also, it’s always time to think about making a bag for the Quilt Show Bag Boutique. Think of all the possible bags — Hand-bags, evening bags, cosmetic bags, travel bags, diaper bags, totes, quilting travel bags, book bags, children’s project bags, toy bags, laundry bags, lingerie bags. And what else can you think of? Canvas grocery shopping bags? As you make bags for your use or for gifts, please make an extra bag or two for the Bag Boutique!

It is our pleasure to announce that Sally Wright has designed the 2009 Opportunity Quilt and she will be heading the construction phase. Thanks to Sally and her minigroup! (Please see the paragraphs below.) Sally is soliciting the help of our talented guild members to do elements of the sewing and piecing and applique. In a few months we will ask for suggestions for a charity, or possibly two, to be the beneficiaries of our raffle ticket sales.

Veronica Gray and Tina Nord

The 2009 Opportunity Quilt

The 2009 Opportunity Quilt has been designed and we are ready to start construction! The design closely follows the EXPLORATIONS theme of next year’s show, but we will be keeping the total design under wraps until it is finished in the Fall and ready to go on its fundraising mission. Think of it as a Mystery Quilt! I was the primary designer, and I enlisted the help of the Art Quilt (mini) Group [Carole Gentile, Nancy King, Sherry Kleinman, and Sandra Lauterbach], with aspects of the design. We all coordinated the colors, and fabric choices have been finalized. This is an original design with some blocks taken from two professional quilters, both of whom have given us their written permission to use their design elements in our charity production.

We now need the help of guild members to make many of the components. At the July guild meeting (Potluck) we will have sign-up sheets for eager paper-piecers and those willing to take on some hand-appliqué. We also will have some of the kits available to those who want to get started right now on a summer project. More kits and more opportunities to help will be available at the August guild meeting, so don’t worry, you will be able to catch up and participate! We will be especially grateful for hand applique experts.

Sally Wright

Philanthropy

"Pat of Love" Quilts

Our deepest thanks to Nancy Sharpe, Geraldine Smith, Barbara Spielberg, and the Scrappy Stars minigroup for the beautiful quilts donated at the June meeting.

We would love to acknowledge the person who donated a beautiful blue and yellow quilt last month. If you are that person, please let us know so you can receive due credit. We appreciate your time in making a Pat of Love Quilt.

Please stop by the Philanthropy table to read the wonderful thank-you letters we have received in the last month. A quilt will be shipped to Senator Ted Kennedy to show our support in his cancer battle.

Also, we have plenty more quilt tops to be finished so please pick up a completed top to finish or blocks to be assembled into a pieced top.

If you are dropping off a finished quilt, please make sure to give your name to one of the Philanthropy co-chairs so we will be able to add a label to it. Thank you for all your hard work!

Canceled Postage Stamps

We still need them . . . please continue to bring in those canceled stamps! Thank you so much for all the stamps received so far, and what a collection it is!

Margaret Christensen, Pepper Neflas, and Marianne Simpson

Membership

Come to the July meeting to pick up your copy of the updated roster of new members added since the Handbook was published in December. If you have any changes/updates you want put into the roster, please let Sherry Kleinman know ASAP. Please welcome our newest member, Joann Killeen. She is a former member, rejoining, who is looking forward to getting involved again.

Sandra Bonvouloir and Sherry Kleinman