Quilt-O was a Hit!

Just wanted to shout out to our Kathy O who put in a lot of time and work to provide us with our annual Quilt-O night!  We had lots of winners, laughter and fun!  Already looking forward to next year!

Kelly Grant Trunk Show and Class in March

 Kelly Grant
Learn 2 Paper Piece, LLC

Kelly began her sewing career at the age of 6 years old.  Her first sewing machine was a Singer Featherweight and that same machine has been used to create many of her Judy Niemeyer Quilts. 
Kelly’s first quilt was in the early 1990’s but since she had not yet discovered the rotary cutter it was not much fun to trace and cut a million shapes for one quilt.  In October 2010, a friends showed her the Quiltworx website and specifically the “Flowers for My Wedding Ring” pattern and she was HOOKED! She was encouraged to become a certified instructor and in February 2013, she attended a class with Judy in Tucson and began her first project, “Sunflower Illusion.” Several quilts and classes later, Kelly attended another class with Judy and was invited to attend the CI training in Montana in April 2014. She now has as she describes it, “Her dream job.”
Kelly brings experience and fun to her teaching.  She especially loves to teach “newbies” the technique. She is described by students as patient, organized, calm and fun.  She always has many classes going at once and truly loves what she does.  She enjoys traveling, seeing new places and meeting new friends. Her trunk shows are amazing with over 60 completed Quiltworx projects from placemats to queen size. She is comfortable speaking to groups of 40 or 400. One of her favorite things is teaching at retreats.

She is happily married and has two children, Danny and Julia. Her kids are grown and on their own adventures now so it is just her and the “grandcat” in the studio with hubby providing support. (Bio provided to me).

Kelly will be doing a Trunk Show on March 21, 2017 during our regular meeting time.  Add it to your calendar now!
Then the following Tuesday she will be teaching a class for those lucky enough to sign up!  (Not sure if the class is full at this point or not).  That is on March 28th 2017 from 10 AM to 4 PM.  The Trunk Show Pattern to be taught is Broken Daisy Placemats.  The patterns are from Judy Niemeyer, Quiltworx, to be taught by Certified Instructor, Kelly Grant.

Announcements

Please bring any old, unused prescription glasses and/or hearing aids to the next meeting on February 21st.  Joanne will be collecting them to forward on to the Lion's Foundation. The Lion's Foundation is a non-denominational, non-profit, service organization which primarily devoted to vision and hearing issues for those in need. Lion's foundation operates vision and hearing centers throughout the world, including one in Phoenix. So please  check your drawers for any unused glasses or hearing aids and donate them -it won't cost you a thing!

Penny wanted to give an update to our community service night last Tuesday. She says "We had 21 people (including myself) cutting and creating quilt kits. I was so overwhelmed with everyone’s participation and I really appreciated seeing everyone there. We had just enough table lifts, thanks to Bonnie bringing hers! It sure made the cutting night a lot easier on the back.

Just to let everyone know…. We created 58 quilt kits from our work Tuesday! Absolutely amazing! Some came from Joanne who cut squares in advance and sent them in with Berta. We made a huge dent in our uncut fabric that was presorted by the Girl Scouts. I can’t express my thanks enough. All of you make this job so much easier and fun!

On Tuesday, I brought several kits that needed quilting and all were taken home. I will have more this Tuesday and appreciate any help you can provide by taking home a kit to complete the quilting. If you don’t have time to bind it, return it for someone else to take on that job.

Again, many thanks to the 20 quilters on Tuesday and Joanne who spent time cutting squares, rectangles and strips for our quilt kits!"

Penny also adds "just to get everyone thinking… I encourage all of you to consider taking a leadership role with community service starting this summer. The job can be easily split among three people with one person focusing on the Red Cross bags, the second person focusing on what I call the front end of quilts or the piecing portion, and the third person focusing on the back end or the quilting part of the job. All three people would have some fabric in their homes, but splitting the position means you have fewer bins of fabric to keep! The person in charge of Red Cross bags would keep the home dec fabric we use for bags, make kits available for meetings and help collect the completed bags. The person in charge of piecing kits would keep the bins of fabric we use for our piecing. These are generally pieces of fabric smaller than 1.5 yards. This person would make sure kits are available at meetings for people to be able to take home and piece. The third person would take completed quilt tops and place them in second kits with batting, backing and binding. This person would have backing fabric bins as well as a roll of batting at his or her home. The three people could work out how they wish to deliver the completed bags and quilts to our community partners.

Also, we have several pieced tops that need quilting. Think about taking a quilt top home to put your finishing quilting touches on it. Use it to practice your quilting skills or do a simple stitch in the ditch pattern."

If you have any questions about the Community Service job, just let Penny know.

We are planning another Quilters University for April 4th and we would love volunteers to teach on that night!  If you are interested please let someone Berta, Pat, or on the board know.

This Tuesday our meeting is the annual Quilt-O event by Kathy O!  Bring your buttons and play some Quilt-O (Bingo!) and win some prizes!  I believe all camp money is due to Coleen as well!  See you there!