Last meeting on 8/21 - Madonna from Mad B's

Madonna from Mad B's was a wonder guest speaker and gave us lots of tips on pressing.
There were many in the group who will admit we love the hissing sound when our steam irons heat up the water puddles on our quilts to get out the wrinkles.

Her big advice was to stop drowning your fabric with water and pushing it out of shape. Do not use steam and to even not put water in your iron. Lightly spray and use your hand to get the water into the fabric and let the wrinkle disappear.

Next meeting on 9/4 

Treadle sewing machines-Gary Rait will give us history on the treadle sewing machines and show how he restores machines to working order. He is a wonderful craftsman.

Block of the month - Bring your newest BOM of the canning jars from the Vintage Farm Girls book.

Next meeting on 9/18

For this meeting we will take a break from guest speakers and learn from each other.
Bring your favorite:

• Tool
• Fabric
• Tip
• Fabric store
• Quilt show
• Blog

We want to learn from each other.  We will have some demos and give everyone an opportunity to play with some favorite items that will be used for door prizes.

Update on Charity

Hello everyone. We wanted to give you an update on our Community Service efforts. Since July, we have donated 107 quilts. Here is the breakdown:

• 30 twin size quilts to I-HELP. To read more about I-HELP, please see this article written by Ellen O’Brien, Kathy’s daughter: https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2018/08/17/church-campout-faith-community-provides-food-shelter-for-homeless-in-chandler/. If you would like to read the press release we are coordinating with I-HELP, it is attached.
• 8 twin size quilts to Gathering Humanity. Penny was approached by Gathering Humanity about twin size quilts specifically for refugee children. Gathering Humanity is a local non-profit organization that helps resettlement agencies set up apartments for refugees. The resettlement agencies have many federal laws they have to meet when setting up an apartment, and one of those requirements is that each child have a bed and bedding. Gathering Humanity is always in need of twin size quilts and comforters for refugee children. Since we had an excess of twin size quilts, over and above the 30 we planned for I-HELP, we gave eight to Gathering Humanity. You can read more about Gathering Humanity here: https://www.gatheringhumanity.org/.
• 54 to the Phoenix Women’s Veterans Program. These 54 quilts are all baby quilts that will be included in baskets given to veteran moms. The program is housed at the VA Hospital in North Phoenix, but the baskets are provided to all veteran moms in the system. Thank you Joann Reiter for contributing the majority of these quilts!
• 19 quilts, including two twin size quilts, to Southwest Network. This is the organization that Debbie Ament’s daughter, Jessica, introduced to us at the last meeting. Jessica is open to additional donations as well – dishes, pots, pans, sheets, household items and interview clothing (especially for men). You can read more about Southwest Network here: http://www.southwestnetwork.org/ni/. If you have items to donate, you can bring them to any meeting and Debbie will get them to her daughter.
• 4 quilts to Quilts of Valor. We will continue to look through our incoming quilts to find those that meet the parameters of Quilts of Valor. If you would like to piece a top specifically for Quilts of Valor, let us know. Debbie has supplied us with labels for Quilts of Valor, and Community Service can supply batting and backing.

Our Community Service sew-in on July 30 brought 17 of us together to create kits ready to be quilted. We had the tops… we just needed batting and backing pieced and kitted. Leslie Schneider and Debbie took oodles of kits home and have been working their way through quilting and binding them. We so appreciate all the work you ladies do… and that goes for everyone else who contributes to our Community Service efforts.

In the next couple of months, we will be reworking some of our piecing kits to give you fresh opportunities for making Community Service quilts. If you have suggestions for new patterns, please let us know.

Last Meeting

Barabara Janson gave us a wonderful presentation on Landscape quilts.  It was inspiring to see what she has created. She doing some classes at local stores and is willing to do a class for our group at the AQG cost of $15.00 per person.  If you were inspired and want to organize a class, get with Debbie.  She has the information.

We also had a representative from Southwest Network, Jessica Gay, ask for our help in supporting her company.  Southwest Network has 7 locations and works with the 'forgotten' people.  She shared she is the next of kin for many of her clients since they have no family or even a home.  She asked for quilts to give to children they work with they are in CPS care, homeless pregnant moms who have nothing and even to assist with she gets housing for a person.  The budget to set up their new 'home' is $25 and includes food, toiletries, bedding, kitchen.  So she is also willing to take any household items since they can be used to make the budget stretch further.  Someone asked about clothes and she said she has a need for men's clothes to help when they go on interviews.  Donations can be brought to the meeting and given to Debbie.


Next Meeting

Mad B's will be here to give us tips and tricks on how to press our projects.  We have purchased some wonderful door prizes from her store and look forward to the help in keeping our blocks from distorting.

Block of the month - Canning jars
We were amazed by the turn out for our first block of Cherries.  You girls rock..I mean QUILT.



We are continuing our block of the month from the Vintage Farm Girl book by Lori Holt.  The block of the month for August is canning jars.  You are welcome to make the 6" or the 12" block.
P.S.  I have asked Mad B's to bring any books they have if you are still looking for the book.

Quilts of Valor
I am taking two quilts to Tucson on Saturday to give to Quilts of Valor.  She is so excited since she has no quilts right now for presentations.