Quilters Guild

I am so excited, I finally found and joined a quilters guild! Every place we've lived, the guilds have not been near my home or were not accepting new members. So this is a first for me.

After moving to Morgan Hill, I met a mom through my mom's group who quilts. She invited me to visit her guild, Piece by Piece Quilters Guild, for the March meeting where they held a member's showcase. I really enjoyed the meeting so I turned in all my paperwork and fees at the next meeting. I was named a guild member in May 2012.

The April speaker was a gentleman from the local sewing and vacuum store about machine care. I learned a lot about what not to do with my machine... I do a lot of bad things to it. I really enjoyed hearing neat little tips and hints on how to keep my machine healthy to minimize trips for service, which I will take advantage of as it can get costly to take your machine in every 30K miles.

The May speaker was very impressive! We had a visit from Mary Mashuta; she spoke about color. Some of her quilt examples and inspirational photos (of Berkeley area houses and cars) left me speechless. I immediately went home and looked up some quilt patterns that I could use to play with different color craziness. She is such a creative lady.

I've been participating in the guild's block of the month. Basically, we make a block based on the pattern chosen for that month and for each block we submit, we get one entry to win all the blocks made that month. The April block was a buttercup for which I made two. I really wanted to win that month as I loved the pattern but so many people participated that the odds were stacked against me. The lady who won got some AMAZING blocks.

My Buttercup blocks for April BOM drawing.

May's block was a Pinwheel in a box of which I made only one with a yellow with medium white polka dots and a white on white. The entries were very colorful and it would have been nice to win them but alas, I missed out again. June's block was a Floral Wheel and I just wasn't interested in winning, so I didn't make one.

I finally got around to making my quilt guild name tag. I am quite proud of the color combinations as it was made completely of scraps. The embroidery letters were done on my machine. I used a stabilizer but it still went a little crooked but I've never really messed with this function before. So for a first time, it's not too bad. Especially since the machine is a quilting machine, not a embroidery machine.

My quilt guild name tag.

Two meetings ago, I signed up to participate in the Breast Cancer Quilt. I've done a number of blocks before for various Breast Cancer Donation events. I am looking forward to participating in this event with my new guild. It is all that more special since it is a cause that is so close to my heart. Stay tuned for more on this.