February 2023 Meeting Recap

It's a brand new year, we're back from our winter break and we've upgraded to a bigger meeting room!

From February onwards we've moved to a larger meeting room so that we have plenty of space for our growing group of quilters and guests. Maren started the meeting by welcoming all of our new guild members and guests who joined us for the first time. Maren also reminded everyone that our guild's summer retreat is taking place on May 12th-14th and the sign-up form will be emailed to all our guild members soon.

Deborah presented a fun idea for our upcoming summer challenge. Her friend has created a new fabric collection based on floral photographs and they've offered to give us some bolts of fabric to use for a special group project. Deborah showed us a sample quilt that's been made with the fabric...

The details of the project are still being worked out, but guild members will be able to use the floral fabric to make any size and style of quilt that they like. If you're interested in participating there will be a sign-up sheet at our guild meetings (or you can contact Deborah directly) and more information will be shared as soon as we've worked out the details.

Next, Maureen and Theresa gave an update about our current charity projects...

Theresa is organizing a quilt drive for Our Little Roses, a foster home for girls in Honduras. They care for a group of fifty girls from infancy up to the age of eighteen and they will gladly accept quilts of any size. Thanks to the generosity of our wonderful guild members we've already collected twenty quilts - and there's still time to get involved! You can donate either a quilt top or a finished quilt. The deadline for donations is June 2023. 

Maureen is also collecting baby quilts for Room to Grow and dog beds for the New York Humane Society. There are no size restrictions for either the baby quilts or the dog beds, however they do need to be machine washable. Maureen showed an example of a dog bed that she made out of scrap fabric...

Marie kicked off this month's Show and Tell with this 'City Quilt' that she made using a pattern designed by our very own Christine Janove.

 

Arlene came to our guild's January retreat, where she made these two baby quilts to be given away as family gifts.

Gayle also made a baby quilt as a gift for a little girl. It's quilted with circles to echo the circular blocks.

Nancy made this baby quilt for Room to Grow. She used novelty Pokémon fabric that she found on the scrap table - and she still has some fabric left over, so there's probably more Pokémon quilts to come...

Brian has finally finished making baby quilts for all twelve of his grandkids. This is the last baby quilt top and it has twelve blocks because it's for grandchild number twelve (who is now two years old.) Brian's next big project is to make Christmas quilts for all of his grandkids... and wedding quilts too. Brian admitted it might be a little too early to start making a wedding gift for the two year old, but we quilters know it never hurts to get a head start!

Eva modeled the guild's 'coat of arms', which she took on a weekend trip to Ossining to attend one of our guild retreats. (None of the New Yorkers in Grand Central Station so much as batted an eyelid when Eva walked past wearing the coat.) After adding a pair of embroidered felt wings to the coat, Eva passed it on to Renee for its next adventure.

Vickeidy (aka Sewspicious) showed a 'love' themed quilt that she made with an original block pattern that she designed herself. The quilt has hearts on the backing fabric too.

Debbie made this quilt top out of a palette of blues and browns - and she's planning to keep the quilt once it's finished.

Daniel showed this mosaic-style wall hanging that he is piecing entirely by hand. The design is based on a pixelated photograph. The quilt has no batting and the fabrics are a variety of weights, so the project has been a technical challenge as well as a creative one. 

Renee made this snowflake sampler quilt using the quilt-as-you-go method. The quilt features a lot of handwork. Renee plans to give it to her college-aged daughter... although her daughter might not be allowed to have it until she agrees to stop using her bed as a dining table.

Chris has recently finished this kawandi quilt, which she made by hand using hand-dyed Pearl cotton thread instead of the more traditional white yarn. 

Chris also brought back this bargello quilt for a final showing now that it's finished.

Our new guild member Cynthia is an experienced knitter who is teaching herself how to do english paper piecing. She brought in these butterflies, which she's planning to mount in a box frame.

Our other Cynthia (yes, we have two of them now) showed this quilt top that she started years ago in an improv class taught by Cynthia Corbin. (Another Cynthia! We should play Cynthia bingo.) This quilt was inspired by a trip to Malawi and it features the colors of the Malawian flag.

Maureen made some seasonal decorations as a gift for her mom.

Judy visited an Amish community in Pennsylvania, where she bought the fabrics to make this Amish-style quilt.

Maria showed this quilt-in-progress that she's making for her daughter.

Bernadette has added her stamp to one of our 'round robin' projects. Somebody left this American barn panel on the scrap table, so people have been taking turns adding embellishments to it. So far, the additions have included a pair of hedgehogs rambling through the garden and a canoodling couple who can be glimpsed through the barn window.

Bernadette also showed a project that she worked on during our January retreat. This intricately pieced panel was originally going to be used on the back of a quilt, but it has since been turned into a quilt top in its own right.

Anthony showed some of the latest quilts from his Communities of Pride series. The first is made out of house blocks representing households that support and affirm LGBTQIA+ folks. The quilt incorporates thrifted fabric and clothes worn by Anthony's family members, and it's due to be shown at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival later this month.

Anthony also showed some examples of mini quilt patterns from the same series - these two represent New York City and Ohio.

This month's Block Lotto was a variety of foundation paper pieced stars on blue backgrounds, which were taken home by Judy.

...And here's an example of next month's Block Lotto design featuring novelty fabrics. The instructions will be emailed to all our guild members shortly.

That's it for this month. See you next time!