December 2019 Newsletter

Holiday Party

Please join us at the December 12th meeting for a Christmas Party. QGP board members will bring snacks and bottled water will be provided. We will have a short business meeting starting at 6:45 to be followed by a Christmas themed show and tell. Please bring your Christmas/winter themed quilts or wall hangings to show. Or, if you made something for a gift at Christmas, we would LOVE to see it first! Afterwards we will have lots of time to socialize with other members. It will be a fun and festive night. Submitted by Linda Neal

No Workshops this month.

Get ready for 2020 to have a variety of guest speakers and workshops to meet anyone and everyone’s quilting genre!

Dot, Dot, Dash pattern in True Blue Quilts book

We will learn to machine piece curved blocks. The templates are located in the True Blue Quilts book. You can choose to make the book project, a smaller table runner, or an all scrappy quilt.

There are still available spots for Annette’s Friday workshop! QGP Members can sign up and pay online from the Member Dashboard! Non-members can download the form and mail it with a cheque to the address on the form. Contact programs@qgplano.org for any question.

Members of the guild worked very hard for community service last month. We received 41 completed quilts, 43 completed pillowcases, and 6 tops. Our members can really pat themselves on the back for the number of quilts and pillowcases made each month. Our charities really appreciate the donations, especially now that the weather has turned so cold.

What do we do with the finished quilts? We have a list of charities that we distribute the quilts and pillowcases to. At first, we only gave pillowcases to one of our charities, but then found out all the charities like the pillowcases, so every quilt now goes out with a pillowcase. We even have some charities that would like extra pillowcases. The pillowcases are very helpful when you have children that would normally have to use a garbage bag to pack their worldly possessions; they are now able to put their items in a pillowcase.

So where do the quilts and pillowcases go? We have a number of charities we donate to monthly:

My Friend’s House (City House)
Samaritan Inn
Children’s Medical Center of Plano
Children’s Advocacy Center
The Turning Point

We also support the Plano ISD’s program for teenage parents. We donate to them twice a year.

Another big project is Christmas Stockings for the soldiers.

And then for our furry friends at Pet Shelters, we turn in dog and cat beds made from quilting scraps.

Keep up the good work and support our needy neighbors.

Guild Free Table

There will not be a Guild Free Table at the December meeting. We will be having our Holiday Party.

What great speakers we have had the last 3 months - Bethanne Nemesh, Melinda Bula, and Edyta Sitar. I feel so inspired! Each speaker traveled a long distance to come speak to our guild. They all gave great presentations, showed lots of amazing quilts, and taught wonderful classes. Having great speakers is one of the many reasons I love being a part of this guild and attending meetings.

The other reason I love being a part of this guild is spending time with other guild members. You are my quilting family. We spend time together learning and talking about quilting. We share tips and ideas. We retreat together, eat together, and even work together. I am very thankful to have such a wonderful quilting family. I am looking forward to our guild Christmas party, where we will spend some quality time together. We will have fun seeing each other’s holiday quilts and feast on some not so healthy snacks. Please come to the December 12th guild meeting and hang out with your quilting family!

Our guild’s new Beekeeper is Heather Ewald. Two years ago she took a beginner class at a local quilt store and has been hooked ever since. Block of the month programs have helped enhance her skills, especially her favorite which is applique. Collecting beautiful jellyrolls, new tools and sewing machines is also a pastime. Heather has found her passion in quilting and appreciates meeting fellow quilters and gaining the knowledge they have to share. It's a dream to one day start a business pursuing this passion full time.

Some may ask, “What is a beekeeper?” According to our bylaws, the position of beekeeper has the following duties:

Maintain a list of small groups, including groups seeking new members.
Assist members in finding small group affiliations.

We have compiled information about our bees from several different sources, but it is undoubtedly out-of-date. Heather will be contacting each group via email to learn the following:

Is the member list for your small group correct? Should other names be added or removed?
Does your group have a leader?
What day and time do you meet?
Are you open to new members?

Please assist Heather in updating this information regarding our bees. Also, if you are a new member and wish to find a bee in which to participate, please reach out to Heather.

We want more people to know about the quilt show committee, about what it takes to put on the wonderful quilt shows we have been producing since 1991. To “Be in the Know about the Show”, one of the committee members will give a brief overview of her own area at the monthly guild meeting and we will follow up by posting it in the newsletter. Sara Lindsay did a great job this past month. Our “kid’s area” (multi-generational area) has always been a highlight of the show. Linda Burton will be heading up that section this year with the help of Sara Lindsay and Dana Braden, along with any of you who want to volunteer.

We hope you are working on your entry for the quilt show. This is our show, to showcase the work of our members. Remember, you are showing your work to interest people in what you have done. Maybe it’s the color combination, the skill of your handwork, or producing a visual impact you want to share with others. If you haven’t entered before, make this the year you place your quilt in the show. If you have entered before, keep it up. We all enjoy seeing the work of our fellow quilters. Your quilt may be the one that inspires someone to make their first quilt.

The entry registration forms for Quilt Plano 2020 will be on the web site on January 1, 2020. Please submit the forms as soon as you have your information ready. The final deadline for submitting the forms will be June 11, 2020, at the guild meeting. The quilts will be turned in on August 4, 2020.

– Spotlight on Children’s Activity Area – aka Multigenerational Room – from Sara Lindsay’s presentation at the November meeting

The Children’s Activity Room is so much more than what you may presume. We are not providing babysitting or childcare for attendees of the show. Our room provides activities with Make & Takes that teach sewing and quilting skills and encourage creativity!

We are a multigenerational activity room focused on interactive learning for all ages. There are grandparents and grandchildren and even great-grandchildren that come into our room to participate. It is a bonding moment for many.

This past show we prepared 11 activities and projects with our goal to teach a younger generation sewing and quilting skills that they can enjoy life-long. We also want to teach quilt and fabric appreciation and develop our quilt industry shoppers, designers, and producers of quilts of the future. We want them to love fabric the way we do!

As a guild, we have the privilege and responsibility to our community to encourage everyone to learn, no matter their age. If you want to be a part of the basic introduction to quilt culture and have a lot of fun or have ideas to share, please consider volunteering in the Children’s Activity Room, aka Multigenerational Room, next year!

With the creation of the new website a few months ago, we also integrated a Google Calendar for Quilters Guild of Plano. The calendar is located in two places:

At the bottom of the Home
On its own Calendar page under About & Contact.

If you're already a Google Calendar user, you can copy the events that interest you directly to your calendar. Simply click on the event and click on copy to my calendar.

If you have a guild-related event that you would like added to the calendar, you can send your request to Caroline at email@qgplano.org.

Quilters Guild of Plano, Inc.

To bring to the next meeting...

Programs

Guild Meeting – December 12, 2019

Guild Meeting - January 9, 2020

Friday Workshop – January 10, 2020

Saturday Workshop – January 11, 2020

Update: This class has been cancelled.

Guild Meeting - February 13, 2020

Friday Workshop – February 14, 2020

Saturday Workshop – February 15, 2020

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Community Service

Guild Free Table

Letter from the President

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Membership

Heather Ewald

Meet our new Beekeeper

December Birthdays

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For Sale $3,500

Quilt Plano 2020

Be in the Know About the Show

Nan Jordan and her great-granddaughter

Tech Corner

QGP Calendar

Note to New Members

November Meeting Photos

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General Meeting Minutes

Board Meeting Minutes