Welcome

The meeting was opened by President Donna Abel. The minutes of the last meeting were accepted. We had 5 visitors- Margaret Teague, Pat Powell, Renee Prince, Hope Myer, and Mary Thornton, and one new member-Karen Aruda.

Thank you to Ben Franklin for allowing us to sell raffle tickets.

Karen A.‘s husband was in a motorcycle accident.

Hollie‘s father passed away.

Thank you to Kathy for volunteering to be the new Program Chair, and to Annette for the fine job she has done in the last 1 ½ years. Thank you also to Carolyn for taking minutes and writing them up for the Oct. meeting.

October- Trick or treat

Hope Myer, a third grade Girl Scout from troop 2365 presented two pillowcases she made and is donating to the Children‘s Medical Center. This project earns her a community service badge. Hope explained how she chose the carnival theme so that either a boy or girl who uses a pillowcase will be cheered up by the festive print. She spent four hours making the pillowcases and did a fantastic job on her presentation to the guild.

Jill Fender explained that Hope and her Girl Scout troop are working on projects to support and participate in service learning with the Slant 45 program. See http://slant45.org/ for more information.

November - Betsy Chutchian, author of "Gone to Texas: Quilts from a Pioneer Woman's Journal"

December - Holiday Supper- graciously hosted by Georgia.

Raffle quilt

The Cedar Hill days raffle quilt gross proceeds were $1652, net $1133.

The winner was Connie Duffy from Harker Heights, TX, near Kileen.

Raffle quilt tickets were sold at the Cedar Hill state park ―Pioneer Days‖ event. Thanks to Claudia, Gladys, Helen, Jeanne, and Peggy for representing the guild at the park. There was a lot of interest in the quilts and the guild.

We still have 1 ½ months to sell tickets for the Christmas morning raffle quilt, which will be drawn on 12/21/10. Please consider taking a few hours to sit with the quilt somewhere and sell tickets.

BOM

The pattern for the November BOM, the monkey wrench block, is on the BOM page - click here.

Be A Star Gazer-This month we start a new BOM project. Members are asked to bring in a pattern for a ―star‖ block; patchwork, paper-piecing, appliqué, whatever tickles your fancy. Each month we will draw a block pattern to be used for the next months BOM, if we have enough patterns we may draw 2 and you can take your pick. At the end of the project we should have enough coordinated blocks for a great star quilt.

Quilt bio and quilting for others-

I have asked members to let me know if they quilt for others, for non-profit or profit. We are also still running members quilt bios, so Jeanne combined them both.

Quilting for Others

I learned to sew patchwork together and tie quilts at my grandmother‘s knee—literally! I would sit beneath the brightly lit quilting frame, threading needles with perle cotton. We had an agreement. For every ten needles I threaded, she would guide me through one or two needles-worth of tying quilts.

I made few quilts as a youngster--only baby blankets, but then I made a King-sized bedspread for my husband-to be. Later, work and school got in the way, so again I made mostly baby blankets plus two Queen-sized coverlets in the ‘Around the World‘ pattern, cutting the two-inch squares with scissors after marking the lines with a drafter‘s mechanical pencil.

Too few years after finishing my formal education, I had a significant brain injury. Ten years later, I am still trying to recover. One of the first skills I attacked with fervor during occupational rehabilitation (relearning to do things using your hands and such) was quilting. I had more than a forty year experience working with fabric, and wanted to regain that useful and beautiful skill. It was so difficult for me to get the right sides of two pieces of fabric together that I did a lot of ‗reverse-stitching‘ and some frustrated crying until a friend introduced me to Batiks and Hand-dyed fabrics—I could use either side, as the two sides of these fabrics were nearly indistinguishable! I had been set free!

The catch was that I was accustomed to working with pastel calicoes and like-shaded solids. The Batiks and Hand-dyes of the mid-2000‘s were flamboyant—they were anything but subtle. Not a pastel was to be found. But oh, the lovely feel of prewashed batiks—that helped change my mindset. I thought about wearing sunglasses as I forged ahead, though, knowing the effort was worthwhile. I still made many mistakes, but two good friends guided me along the way. I learned about rotary cutters, rulers, cutting mats. I enrolled in e few very small quilting classes, where distractions were kept at a minimum. I became an aficionado of threads. By watching and looking at books, I learned many new designs and techniques.

I still had major problems following written directions, but I could look at the pictures and puzzle it out. All of these quilts went to someone I cared about, in my distant family, my friends. Then I started making quilts and hand-stitched blank books for the children at Children‘s Medical Center of Dallas. My quilts went to many different charities—Samaritan House in Lewisville, the Silent Auction for Newborns in Need, The Vogel Alcove, Children‘s, the veterans at the VA hospital.

Nearly ten years ago, my husband had neck surgery. One week before his procedure, he asked to take one of my quilts with him to the hospital, and I readily agreed. Then I discovered we had only two of my quilts, and both were Queen-sized—definitely too large for a hospital bed.

Hurriedly I assembled blocks, finished a quilt top, machine-quilted it, and machine stitched the first line of stitching to attach the binding. He was in surgery so long that I had nearly completed hand-stitching the binding to the quilt. While the quilt covered my beloved in the recovery room, as he slept, I finished the last foot or so of stitching. I learned from that experience to always keep one or two quilts on hand for family and close friends, in case of urgent need.

I still miss my profession terribly, but realize one of the best ways I can serve is to make quilts for critically-ill children. I knew I could make only a few quilts a year, so I went to my Quilt Guild (Yes! I had been introduced to quilt guilds!) and made my plea—and have been humbled by the generous response of so many quilters! Several years later, my fellow quilters still bring gorgeous quilts for the kids!

I sew quilt tops (and this year am quilting one) for The Mothers of Lakewood‘s effort to ensure that every person serving or having served in Iraq or Afghanistan get a quilt.

I help make blankets for newborns (hospitalized at Children‘s) at my church‘s Mary and Martha Ministry.

I help our guild make pillowcases for the million-pillowcase challenge—these to go to foster kids, abused families and people in nursing homes, as a start. The guild will undoubtedly come up with more great uses for these colorful, sturdily and attractively made pillowcases.

I don‘t sell quilts or make them for profit. Rarely, I will quilt a friend‘s quilt, if that person is unable. My gift was getting my quilting skills back, and being blessed to be able to use them to comfort others.

Jeanne T.

October 30, 2010

Prize drawing winners:

Door prizes: Alberta, Jill, Janet, Kathy

Name tag fat quarters: Hope Myer, Gloria I., Jill

Show and Tell:

Renee - simple sampler quilt

Marsha – Turtle quilt top for baby

Amy – background sampler quilt

Alverta – 1. Bag, 2. Tool kit from last month‘s meeting

Charlotte – very hungry caterpillar

Judy- 1. My grandmother‘s flower garden, 2. Another purse

Gloria I.– nine antique quilt blocks and a 1931 quilt block booklet

Karen K. – Heart/Star quilt – pattern 6

Gladys – BOB from Just Stitchin – Table topper

Janet – show: fat quarter stack from Canada and material packs from Maine & Lancaster PA. tell: about the nine week summer journey.

Jeanne T.- 1. Apron, 2. Smallest singer from 1930, 3. Cat in the Hat lunch box.

Houston International Quilt Show- November 4 -7 2010 George Brown Convention Center

27th Annual Creek County Oklahoma Home and Community Education Quilt Show- November 5th and 6th, 2010. Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event will be at the Creek County Fairgrounds, 17806 West Highway 66 in Kellyville.

Jefferson Quilt Show- Quilts on the Bayou, January 21 – 23, 2011

http://www.jeffersonquiltshow.com/

Quilt Shop News

The Corner Square Quilts is open. Grand Opening week begins 10/23/10. Hours are 9:00am-5:30pm M-F and 10:00am-4:00pm Saturday.