Uhuru Quilters Guild home page

Next Meeting:
October 20, 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

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

Coordinator's Corner

October 2007

Our exhibit and raffle quilt ticket sales were very successful at the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo. I want to thank each and every member who volunteered at the Uhuru table, stopped by between classes to offer to give someone a break. Most importantly, muchissimas gracias to those who volunteered to serve as ambassadors. It was our hours served as ambassadors that “paid” for the prime location. Several members were able to photograph the exhibit. Please send your pictures to Linda, our web liaison.

Volunteerism is what has kept Uhuru going since 1994. As this year draws to a close, I hope a few of you will step forward to serve as an officer or committee chair (appointed). This year is the election year for the positions of Assistant Coordinator and Secretary. If you are interested in continuing in your current position, please let Sandra Ealy (nominations chair) or me know. Elections should take place in November; the transition meeting in December; planning for 2008 in January. Is there a teacher we would like to sponsor for a master class? Are we ready for a quilt show? Guild retreat? What roles and responsibilities are you willing to assume to see these projects through? Together Everyone Achieves More.

Sewfully,
Carol

Exercise the right side of your brain ... make a quilt.

Ugly Fabric Auction Tammie Morrow

Another Great Stash Bash

Get ready for another excuse to buy more fabric - it's time for another Ugly Fabric Auction! So grab that "mystery-meat" fabric (in usable sizes) and bring in your auction donations to the October meeting. Who knows ... maybe I can use it. ;o)

Address any questions to Tammietreckie@yahoo.com.

The Charm Exchange Cornelia Carter-Sykes, Chair

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the October charm squares fabric will be Pink! These 16 people have signed up: Jackie Stafford, Lisa Lewis, Willie Mae Miller, Sandra Ealy, Yvonne Nickens, Gloria Thomas, Pat King, Elsie Houston, Jackie T., Nadine Mills, Deb Sanger, Mia B., Myra S., Shirley Hodge, Cornelia Carter-Sykes, and Cynthia York.

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.

Fons & Porter Study Group by Carol Williams

This year our workshops will be formatted as study groups. One group will mainly focus on learning the skills featured in Quilters Complete Guide by Marianne Fons and Liz Porter in order to improve our piecing and appliqué techniques. We will be following the skills-based curriculum. Feel free to join in at any time.

At October's meeting Deb Sanger will lead a Paper Piecing Workshop.

The 2008 Uhuru Raffle Quilt will feature a paper-pieced Pineapple block, and all members will be encouraged to join in this communal effort.  As a "warm-up," our October workshop will be a supplement to the planned F&P curriculum, and will focus on paper piecing.  There will be a demonstration of this technique, and participants will have an opportunity to practice on a mini version of the Raffle Quilt Block.

If you wish to participate in the hands-on portion of the paper-piecing workshop, please bring your sewing machine, a glue stick (optional), rotary cutter, mat, and ruler with accurate 1/4" lines (irons & ironing boards would be helpful as well). Please also bring along fabric scraps. We will be using 2" strips, in the colorways of blue, red, gold, and green, plus black. As a fabric guide:  bring 2" x 6" inch strips of 4 different fabrics in each colorway, plus one 2" x 36" strip of black (or several black-on-blacks).

More information about the Raffle Quilt will be available at the meeting.  

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

The Hospitality Committee will offer light refreshments, i.e., beverage, fruit, cookies; any member is invited to bring items to share. Since we are going to be sewing the entire time allotted for our use of the Center, food items will be available until 30 minutes before we have to begin cleaning up. 

Thanks! 

A Very Happy Birthday to Charlene Marshall (14th) and Jeanette Bayliss (19th)

Sew Help Me. . .
Tips to boost your creativity

• You can never have too many quilt measurement tips; here's a useful web site:

http://www.victorianaquiltdesigns.com/VictorianaQuilters/Library/UsefulInfo/Charts/Charts.htm

Some of the items are for members only, but there are some free tips available.

• And here are a few quilters' acronyms submitted by Carol - some old, some new:

Community Service Quilts Felicia Few and Patricia King

Reminder: Community Service Quilt Day will be at our October meeting. You will have the time to finish up your quilts that you've already started. They can be turned in on that day if you've finished them, but are not due until the November meeting. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU WASH YOUR FABRICS. If you are turning in quilts that you have already made, you should run them through the washer and dryer. Some of these quilts will be given to infants.

Our Community Service Quilts will be going to St. Ann’s Infant and Maternity Home; please see their web site at http://www.stanns.org.

Just Sew You Know...

     • Jennifer Chiaverini fans will enjoy "The Fabric Diary," a three-part short story in the September, October and November 2007 issues of Quilters Newsletter.

     • Since we will be starting an Art Quilt group, Elsie has submitted this list of publications that you might find useful:

Threadplay With Libby Lehman: Mastering Machine Embroidery Techniques
http://books.google.com/books?id=TJ-KAAAACAAJ&dq=Libby+Lehman&prev=http://

Quilted Sea Tapestries, by Ginny Eckley
http://www.amazon.com/Quilted-Sea-Tapestries-Ginny-Eckley/dp/1564770834

On the Surface, by Wendy Hill
http://www.amazon.ca/Surface-Wendy-Hill/dp/1571200320

Fanstasy Fabrics: Techniques for Layered Surface Design, by Bonnie Lynn McCaffery
http://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Fabrics-Techniques-Layered-Surface/dp/1564772721

Journey of An Art Quilter: Creative Strategies and Techniques, by Barbara Olson
http://www.barbaraolsonquiltart.com/patterns.htm

Creative Embellishments: For Paper, Jewelry, Fabric and More, by Sherrill Kahn (new)
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Embellishments-Paper-Jewelry-Fabric/dp/1564776166/ref=sr_1_1/103-0384116-3752614?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191185166&sr=1-1

Quilters Playtime: Games with Fabric, by Dianne S. Hire
http://www.amazon.com/Quilters-Playtime-Dianne-S-Hire/dp/1574328263

Creative Quilts: Inspiration, Texture & Stitch, by Sandra Meech
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Quilts-Inspiration-Texture-Stitch/dp/0713490063

Contemporary Quilts: Design, Surface and Stitch, by Sandra Meech
http://books.google.com/books?id=ro1xQ31phWkC&dq=Sandra+Meech&prev=

     • If you haven't already, be sure and read the article in September's Quilters Newsletter entitled, "Divine Improvisation - the Patchwork Art of Rosie Lee Tompkins." Rosie Lee Tompkins, nee Effie Mae Howard, was an African-American quilter who grew up in rural Arkansas, picking cotton and helping her mother piece quilts. Her work has been called "pictorial powerhouses...full of mystery and life."