Uhuru Quilters Guild home page

Next Meeting:
Apr 21, 2007

  Agenda:

  10:00 a.m.
  Fons & Porter Study Group

  11:30 a.m.
  Business Meeting

  12:30 p.m.
  Refreshments

  1:00 p.m.
  Show n Tell/Collection of Quilts for G Street Fabrics Display

Note:  Please turn all cell phones to vibrate during the meeting.

Coordinator's Corner

As of March 2007, Uhuru membership is at 51. Not bad for a guild that started out with eight members in 1994. Each meeting we welcome guests who often join that same day. It is time for us to look seriously for a new meeting space. Please check the website and your email for details.

Members of the Fons & Porter Study Group practiced rotary cutting and strip piecing in March. Many thanks to the classroom angels Deb Sanger and Elsie Houston, in particular, who assisted. Thank you also to the members who have volunteered to lead future sessions: Brenda McKelvin, Sandy Hassan, and Deb Sanger. Anyone else? If you are coming early for the business meeting and are not actively participating in the study group, please bring a project to work on quietly. Class -- however informal -- is in session.

Congratulations to all Uhuru members, past and present, who are represented in Cultural Rhythms: Quilting and the Jazz Tradition by Carolyn Mazloomi. Congratulations also to the members who entered quilts for jurying. I urge every Uhuru member to enter a quilt in a competition -- an exhibit, magazine contest, a county fair. The experience is invaluable to your growth as an artist.

At the April meeting we will continue the discussion on the next raffle quilt design. Please bring your ideas, sketches, samples, etc. They will be turned over to the Raffle Quilt Committee (Deb Sanger, Elsie Houston, and Carol Williams) for final selection. Several great ideas for marketing the current raffle quilt, “Uhuru Beauty,” were shared. Hopefully, we will also finalize details for the community service project. Don’t forget: we will be collecting quilts at the April meeting for the exhibit at G Street Fabrics. Many thanks to the members of that committee: Linda McKenzie, Renea Bailey, Donnette Cooper, and Jennifer Morris.

Remember to complete and bring in your member profiles, so we can get them on the web site. Let us know if you have been interviewed for the Quilt History Project sponsored by the Alliance for American Quilts.

Sewfully,
Carol

Fons & Porter Study Group by Carol Williams

This year our workshops will mainly focus on completing the blocks for the sampler featured in Quilters Complete Guide by Marianne Fons and Liz Porter. We will be following the skills-based curriculum which was distributed at the January meeting.

At April’s meeting we will use the 9 patch block to practice rotary cutting and piecing skills by hand or machine. In the Guide (revised edition) the pages are 109 – 111. Whether you wish to complete the block by hand or machine, you will need

• Basic Sewing Kit [hand sewing needles, pins, thread(s) to match and/or neutral, scissors and/or thread snips, seam ripper, rotary cutter and small mat, ruler, pins, glue stick, pencil, tweezers, thimble]

Machine Piecing:              

• Sewing machine in good condition with feet (open toe, quarter inch, etc.)
• Power strip and/or extension cord
• Extra machine needles

The Charm Exchange Cornelia Carter-Sykes, Chair

The theme for the April Charm Square Exchange is "Spring Pastels." Seven members have signed up - they are: Deb Sanger, Dawn Felix, CC Flowe, Shirley Hodge, Nadine Mills, Rosa Walls, and Cornelia Carter.

To see the complete 2007 Charm Square schedule, as well as a description of each month's selection, visit the Charm Squares page.

Cut 6-1/2” (six-and-one-half-inch) squares of 100% pre-washed cotton (please make sure that the size and quality of your squares are what you yourself would like to receive). Please remember to cut off the selvedges before you cut your squares. Place squares in a baggie with your name on it, and put it in the "Charm Squares" basket.

If you have any questions, please e-mail or telephone Cornelia. If you have signed up and then are unable to come to the meeting, please mail squares or have them delivered to the meeting. If the number of exchanges is small enough, charm squares will be sorted and distributed before the end of the meeting.

Birthday/Hospitality The Hospitality Quintuplets: "CC" Campbell-Flowe, Dawn Felix, Jocelyn Herbert, Pat Johnson, Deb Sanger

The Hospitality Committee would like to offer light refreshments, i.e., beverage, fruit, cookies. Any member is invited to bring items to share. When the refreshment period begins, please put away all quilts and materials. This will prevent any damage to your valuable items. Upon completion of the refreshment period, please dispose of unfinished food and drinks before we open Show N Tell or continue a workshop. 

When you bring food, please assist me in the cleanup after refreshments have been served. We want to ensure that the room is back to its original order before leaving the Center. Thanks! 

A Very Happy Birthday to Donnette Cooper (3rd); Nadine Mills (3rd); and Jeanette Cumberbatch (15th)

"We may be known by the quilts we leave behind."

Sew Help Me. . .
Tips to boost your creativity

Quick and Easy Quilt Carrier/Protector

At March's meeting, Sandy Hassan brought her quilt in a neat tube-shaped carrier that I thought was a great idea. I went home and made one for a small wall hanging, and it was super easy! You can make it from less than a half-yard of fabric - this is a good use for ugly fabric, by the way:

For my wall hanging, I cut a 16" wide rectangle across the width of the fabric, selvedge to selvedge; if you want a label on it, top stitch or applique it on at this point.

Basically, you make a hanging sleeve with a casing at one end: with right sides together, sew the middle seam, stopping approximately 2" from the end where you'll make a casing. Sew the other end closed, then turn it right-side out. You now have a tube.

Make a casing at the open end; thread a cord or fabric tie through the casing. You're done!

This was plenty big for my 36" wall hanging. To make longer tubes, you could sew two pieces together at the selvedges, or make a long piece from several 16" wide scraps - whatever you'd like.

Ugly Fabric Auction Tammie Morrow

Another Great Stash Bash

By popular request, we will start having the Ugly Fabric auction more often - on a quarterly basis.

Please bring in your donations for the auction, which will be held this month (April). Address any questions to Tammietreckie@aol.com.

Just Sew You Know. . .

We are seriously looking for a new meeting space. For the next three months Uhuru will be on the move as we "try out" several locations. Possibilities include Patuxent River Park, Bladensburg Water Park, and Hyattsville Library. Please check the website and your email for details.

Free Quilters' Board Game to Download

The Quilters Board Game is in fact a miniature quilt, sized 12” x 16” designed by Melyn Robinson. It was exhibited at Quilts UK in 2005 where it won 2nd prize in the Miniature category and 1st prize for humor. I haven't tried it, but here you go: http://web.onetel.com/~lawrie/luckleywood/

2007 Block of the Month - "Twelve Days Of Christmas" Renea Bailey, Chair

View the lyrics of "The Twelve Days Of Christmas" by clicking the link at the left.

Web sites and books on Applique:
http://www.quilt.com/HowTo/AppliqueHowToPage.html
http://quilting.about.com/od/appliqutechniques/Learn_How_to_Applique.htm
http://www.roserushbrooke.com/how-to-applique-1.html
http://www.quilterscache.com/StartQuiltingPages/startquiltingfour.html
“The Easy Art of Applique: Techniques for Hand, Machine, and Fusible Applique” by Mimi Dietrich & Rox Eppler
“Hand Applique with Alex Anderson”
“The New Applique Sampler: Learn to Applique the Piece O’Cake Way” by Becky Goldsmith, Linda Jenkins

April Block of the Month - Four Mighty Missionaries. Finished size is 10-1/2 X 10-1/2. Get the pattern in pdf. If you have problems printing out the block, let Renea know and she will have copies available at the meeting.