March 2018 Newsletter

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NEXT MEETING: MARCH 5, 2018

WHAT TO BRING TO THE MEETING

• Name tag
• Block party block
• Show-and-Tell
• Door prizes for H, L

CLICK HERE FOR BLOCK OF THE MONTH PATTERNS

BIRTHDAYS

• Sharon Schroeder … March 20

PRESIDENT’S CORNER

How wonderful to see so many of you at our February meeting! It’s exciting that so many are participating in the Be My Neighbor block. Every block looked great! And, who doesn’t love a good cupcake and punch? Thanks, Lauren, for the reason to have a good party at the end of our meeting. We welcomed back some folks who were members last year, we welcomed back Nancy Conner-Smith from her year-long break, and we welcomed some new members. Welcome to Stephanie and Bethany Evans (friends of Becky) who joined our membership in February. Welcome to Natalie Wilson (friend of Barbara G) who visited again in February. Natalie plans to join in March. We love to share our love of quilting with others!

As discussed at our February meeting, the President’s Challenge is here. I found some fabric in my stash over the Christmas break that made me say “why do I have that fabric?” Not being able to answer that brought the challenge into focus. At the February meeting anyone that wanted to participate was given a 5 inch square of the challenge fabric. The next step is to make a 12 1/2” unfinished block using that fabric. You can use the front side of the fabric or you can use the back side of the fabric, but you must use most (as much as you can) of the 5 inch square. (Remember what Shirley talked about – the smaller the piece, the less you can see and the less “ugly” the fabric becomes). Any block pattern is fine, but it must measure 12 1/2 inches when turned in. All blocks should be turned into me by the June 4th meeting. You can turn them in earlier if you wish, but no later than June 4th. I’ll vote and my favorite block will win a prize. I’ll then put all the blocks together and get it quilted and bound and donate it to one of the charities that the Guild is supporting this year.

Michelle Rodriguez

TAQG RALLY DAY

Rally Day is Saturday, July 14th and once again we are participating with the Rally Day Goody Bags. As voted on at the February meeting, we will donate 500 fat quarters for the Rally Day Goody Bags. Please bring as many fat quarters as you would like to the March meeting (for reference, a fat quarter is 18″ x 22″). We’ll count them and our anonymous donor will donate the remainder to get us to 500. Shirley L. has volunteered to roll them and attach our information to each one.

We also voted on participating with Rally Day door prizes. Please bring a new, sewing/quilting related item to the March meeting and Katrina will collect these and sort them into door prizes that will be given away at Rally Day.

MARCH PROGRAM

“The Choices We Make” is our theme for 2018. The March program will be about design walls and design boards. It would be helpful if you could bring a pair of regular scissors. I suggest you do not bring your best sewing scissors. Our special show and tell will be about spring. Bring your favorite spring quilt to show.
As discussed at the February meeting, we will have two charity projects. The first is for Arlington Cancer Center. They have about 100 new patients each month starting treatment.

They suggest we furnish baggies with the following items for their patients: lip balm such as Chapstick, hand sanitizer, a seek and find or similar puzzle book, pen, snack such as a package of peanut butter and crackers or cheese and crackers, or nuts, and a small package of Kleenex. It was suggested you bring items you want to donate to the March meeting. I hope to furnish 100 bags of goodies soon.

Our second charity will be Ryan’s Case for Smiles. We will make pillowcases from whimsical kid friendly fabrics. No solid colors for the body of the pillowcase. They should be made using the “hot dog” method that will hide the raw edged seams. I will demonstrate how to make them at the March meeting and at the February stitch group. The body of the pillowcase will be cut 26 1/2″ x 40 1/2″. The border will be 10 1/2″ x 40 1/2″. We cannot use fabric with glitter or skulls. They are easy to make.

See you at the March meeting,

Shirley Lewis

BLOCK OF THE MONTH

Save the date! Rally Day will be at 9 a.m. on Saturday, July 14th at Mimosa Lane Baptist Church in Mesquite Texas. The speaker this year will be Deb Tucker. The cost will be $5 for guild members, and $10 for non-members. Check out her web page to find out more about her quilts. https://deb-tuckers-studio-180-design.myshopify.com/

Our guild decided to donate a fat-quarter with our guild business card for the goody bags this year. We need 500 fat quarters, so clean out your stash and bring those you no longer want to our March meeting. We will also be collecting new sewing related items to use to assemble as door prizes, so use your extra Joann coupons to pick up something to bring for that too.

Registration has begun for the workshops. The cost is $79 for guild members. Each participant must also purchase a pattern and any rulers required for that quilt. If you mail in your registration form prior to March 31, you can enter your name in a drawing for a set of rulers. If you did not get a registration form at our meeting, you can download them from the TAQG website. Be sure to mail them in along with a check payable to TAQG to the address on the form ASAP. We are expecting these workshops to fill up quickly this year. Don’t miss out. Here’s a link to the forms http://taqg.org/rally-day-forms-2018/. You do NOT need to logon to download the forms. Here is a list of the 4 different workshops offered this year.

• Thursday, July 12 in Mesquite Hot Flash
• Friday, July 13 in Mesquite Love Links
• Monday, July 16 in Cedar Hill Signs of Autumn
• Tuesday, July 17 in Cedar Hill Carolina Lily Four Block

If you have any questions about TAQG or Rally Day, please contact Katrina Lindley (krazykat1952@gmail.com) or Janice Overton. (972) 264-3472

Katrina Lindley

MINUTES

• Meeting called to order
• Welcome
  • President welcomed group to meeting
• Approve Guild minutes as in the newsletter
  • Approved as written
• • Approve Treasurer’s report as in the newsletter
  • No questions or comments
  • Filed for audit
• Current Treasurer’s report
  • Balance $1,536.58
• Birthdays
  • Debi – 2/3
  • Carol 2/7
  • Jeri – 2/10
  • Janis H – 2/20
• Remembrances
  • Michelle’s dad / Shirley’s husband in rehab after week in hospital
  • Margaret has been in hospital – she is home doing better
• Membership
  • members in attendance 33
  • 1 visitor – Natalie Wilson
  • Failure to wear a name tag will result in a $.50 fine
• Newsletter
  • Items for the newsletter should be submitted to Paco By the 10th of the month
  • Newsletter coming from contact@paco.org (Francisco=Paco)
  • Newsletter items can be sent to Paco or Michelle
  • Please send any information you have of local events that would interest the group to Paco
• TAQG
  • Next rally day is second Saturday in July
  • Deb Tucker is this year’s guest speaker
  • Katrina has information on all workshops – see her for registration details
  • Evelyn made motion to not donate to rally day goody bags
  • Christine seconds
  • Group discussion
  • Evelyn rescinds motion
  • Discussed door prizes for TAQG – minimum of $25 value per gift
  • Shirley L made motion to participate in door prizes
  • Evelyn seconds motion
  • Motion carries
  • Bring items to be used for TAQG door prizes to March meeting
  • Goody bags require 500 identical items be donated
  • Shirley L made motion for us to donate fat quarters with guild business cards for goody bags
  • Grace seconds motion
  • Michelle indicated an anonymous donation will be made to supplement the fat quarters the guild collects to reach the 500 needed
  • Motion carries
  • Bring fat quarters for donation to March meeting
• Block of the Month
  • Reminder that each person that chooses to participate will keep their blocks each month
  • Moda Be My Neighbor
  • Next month block 3
  • Call Christina if you have any questions on directions
• Workshops
  • Mystery Quilt workshop either 3/17 or 3/24
  • Fabric requirements will be sent next week
• Stitch group
  • A Small group met in January
  • Next meeting February 22nd at The Woods United Methodist Church and all are welcome.
    • 09:30 am – 03:30 pm
    • The church serves a meal for purchase
  • Please notify Grace ahead of time if you plan to buy the meal so she can give proper notice to the church
• Door Prizes
  • Winners of the door prize drawing
    • Christine, Shirley A., Bethany, Elisabeth
• Show & Tell
  • Old business
  • Audit committee met – all books balanced for 2017
• New business
  • 2018 President’s challenge – create at 12 ½” block using the 5″ square provided by Michelle. Blocks will be judged – winner will be awarded a prize. Bring block to the June meeting.
• Programs
  • Charity for this year
    • Arlington Cancer Center
  • Group would like goody bags with specific items to give to patients
  • They would also like to have lap-sized quilts for patients to use / keep
  • Ryan’s Case for Smiles
  • Pillow cases from whimsical fabric
  • Pillow cases can have no glitter and no seams on the body of the bag (no appliqué or other embellishments)
  • No fabric with skulls
  • Made from 100% cotton
  • Must have French seams or serged seams to eliminate raw edges exposed
  • Washed in unscented detergent, ironed, and put in ziplock type bag
    • Christine made motion to donate quilts made with guild library blocks to the Arlington Cancer Center
    • Barbara seconds
    • Motion carries
• This month’s program – The choices you make – managing your stash
  • Several options were described for organizing and managing stash as well as suggestions for using scraps
• Next month’s program will be a make-n-take relating to design walls

Becky Petross

REMINDERS

• Be sure to wear a name tag at our meetings. If you don’t wear a name tag, you will be charged 50 cents each time.
• Articles for the newsletter are due by the 10th of the month. Any articles not received by the 10th of the month may or may not get published in that month’s newsletter.
• The newsletter is published monthly usually within 10 days of the meeting date (first Monday of each month). You will receive an e-mail with a link to the website (qgogp.wordpress.com).
  All previous newsletters are archived on our website. You may also go to our Facebook page. Our newsletter link is posted there monthly. If, at any time, you cannot find your newsletter or have deleted the e-mail with the link, you could do an internet search for “quilter’s guild of grand prairie” to find our website.
• If you have a question about a program, a workshop, or the block of the month, be sure to contact the person(s) in charge of whatever you have a question about. The names, phone numbers and e-mails are all listed in the newsletter.
• Please silence your cell phone during our meetings.

Michelle Rodriguez

BLOCK OF THE MONTH

The 2018 Block Party will follow a program from Moda that provided 16 “blueprint” block patterns that comprise the Moda Be My Neighbor quilt.

Quilt Guild members should have received an e-mail from contact@paco.org (Francisco Rodriguez) with the quilt’s fabric requirements and layout as well as the pattern for the second block.

The patterns and instructions are freely available on the web and will also be posted in the quilt’s website.

The blueprints are rendered in gray-scale to allow everyone to color their neighborhood using a wide variety of fabric and color choices. These are very scrappy blocks — mix your favorite fabric and colors to create your colorful neighborhood. There are 16 blocks in the quilt top. The quilt top measures 68 inches by 84 1/2 inches.

If you have any questions, please contact Christine.

Instructions (click to download PDF):

Block 3 (click to download PDF):

TREASURER’S REPORT

• Beginning balance … $1536.58
• Deposit … 215.00
• Disbursement … 25.67
• Ending balance … $1725.91

Jane Lamb