Mt. Vernon Quilters

Mount Vernon News
Quilters Unlimited
October 2008

Mount Vernon Chapter Officers 2008 – 2009
Co-Presidents—Lynn Miller and Carol Kunkel
Co-Vice Presidents—Angela Miller and Lynne Fishburn
Secretary—Dotty Eisenhour
Treasurer—Kathy Edwards
Nominating Chair—Jim Melton

President’s Message

Whew! There’s a lot to be said about having an all-“E”ncompassing first Business Meeting. We touched on every topic under the sun and ended with promises of a year filled with oh, so much quilting and oh, so many activities ahead.

To start, our Block of the Month, now being referred to as BOW (Block of the Week), is underway and the first two installments of the Mystery Quilt have been posted… there’s still time to join in. We rounded out the month of September with a fast paced and sometimes boisterous live auction and bake sale and now we can declare this year’s Fund Raiser a success. Stand by for the official word on revenues from our Treasurer, Kathy Edwards, at the next business meeting on October 14th. Many thanks to all, but especially to our Auctioneer, Barbara Tucker, and her committee for all of their hard work… going once, going twice, SOLD!

Hold onto your hats MVQU! It looks like quilting in October promises even more with exciting lectures and workshops, our weekly bees, along with the latest installments of the Block of the Month/Week and Mystery Quilt coming soon.

Next week, Angie and Lynne will host our first guest of the year, RaNae Merrill, author of Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts. There will be a lecture and trunk show on October 7th followed by a full day workshop on October 8th. There are still spaces available in the workshop. Please contact Angie Miller to reserve yours now.

Completing the week on October 9th is the lecture with Ruth McDowell, hosted by The Quilt Patch, Fairfax, VA. Twenty one of our members are signed up to attend… it’s sure to be an awe inspiring night with friends.

Don’t forget, Big QU is bringing yet another wonderful teacher to our area on October 23, 2008. Carol Taylor will share her award winning quilts and lecture “So Many Quilts, So Little Time” at 7:30 pm. Both of Carol’s workshops are sold out. You won’t want to miss this amazing quilt artist and seeing her collection of quilts. And last but not least, for those with extra time on their hands, the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo returns to “Explore New Trends in Sewing” this weekend at the Dulles Expo Center.

If you started your year in slow gear, things are really revving up now! Grab your “E”nthusiasm and “E”nergy, and get ready for a month-long quilter's creative paradise.

Happy quilting!

Lynn Miller and Carol Kunkel

October 7 & 8, 2008—RaNae Merrill Lecture and Workshop

Join us on October 7, 2008 for our first big event of the year. RaNae Merrill, author of the newly released book, Simply Amazing Spirals, will present a lecture and trunk show of her amazing spiral quilts and dazzle you with possibility. We will meet at the Mt. Vernon Governmental Center, 2511 Parkers Lane, Alexandria, VA 22308 at 12:30 pm.

On October 8, 2008 we invite you to fill the remaining spots in our full day workshop with RaNae called "Spiral Rose," in partnership with our friends from the Burke Chapter. RaNae will teach you to sew a nesting spiral and succeed at foundation piecing using a translucent foundation. If you’ve avoided foundation or paper piecing in the past, this workshop is sure to change your path to creativity. Don’t miss this opportunity! The workshop will be held at the Artistic Artifacts Annex, 4750 Eisenhour Rd, Alexandria, VA, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. To reserve your spot and receive a supply list, contact Angie Miller at a2miller@live.com or 703-360-7306.

Committee Chairs

Blog/Newsletter—Beverly Dasch
Greeters—Anne Berard & Carol Conahan
New Member Kits—Mary Mazzzuchi
Hospitality—Pat Alfredson
Door prizes—Carol Conahan
Audit—Gail Franchi
Community Education—Tammy Mannarino
MVQU Auction & Bake Sale—Barbara Tucker and Ro Coller
Dec Luncheon—Kay Brill and Ro Coller
June Luncheon—Rhonda Adams and Beth Smith
Sunshine—Barbara Tucker
Senior Center Representative—Cathy Hanratty
Quilt Collector—Cathy Hanratty
QU Show Representative—Bert Garino
BOM/Mystery/Block Exchange—Lynn Miller

October Calendar

• October 7, 2008—“Simply Amazing Spirals” Trunk Show and Lecture with RaNae Merrill, 12:30 pm, Mount Vernon Governmental Center, 2511 Parkers Lane, Alexandria, VA 22308
• October 8, 2008—“Spiral Roses” Workshop with RaNae Merrill, 9 am to 4 pm at Artistic Artifacts Annex, 4750 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, VA
• October 9, 2008—Ruth McDowell lecture at Old Town Hall, Fairfax 7:30pm (contact the Quilt Patch to find out if space is still available)
• October 14, 2008—Business Meeting, 12:30 pm, Room 112, Hollin Hall Senior Center
• October 15, 2008—Evening Bee, 6-8:30 pm, Sherwood Hall Library, 2nd floor
• October 21, 2008—Bee, 12:30 pm, Room 216, Hollin Hall Senior Center
• October 23, 2008— Big QU Special Meeting and “So Many Quilts, So Little Time” Lecture with Carol Taylor, 7:30 pm Lake Braddock Secondary School, 9200 Burke Lake Road, Burke, VA (Workshops are offered on October 24th and 25th, go to http://www.quiltersunlimited.org/docs/Aug_Sep08Nltr.pdf for sign-up). To learn more about Carol Taylor and see her amazing body of work, visit http://www.caroltaylorquilts.com/
• October 28, 2008—Cutting Bee Activity
• October 29, 2008—Evening Bee, 6-8:30 pm, Sherwood Hall Library, 2nd floor

Looking Ahead

• November 4, 2008—Bee, 12:30 pm, Room 216, Hollin Hall Senior Center
• November 11, 2008—Business Meeting, 12:30 pm, Room 112, Franconia Governmental Center
• November 12, 2008—Evening Bee, 6-8:30 pm, Mt. Vernon Governmental Center
• November 18, 2008—Bee 12:30 pm, Room 216, Hollin Hall Senior Center
• November 25, 2008—“Overcoming Quilter’s Block” lecture with Cyndi Souder, 12:30 pm, Room 112, Hollin Hall Senior Center
• November 26, 2008—Evening Bee, 6-8:30 pm, Mt. Vernon Governmental Center

Upcoming Area Shows and Exhibit

• October 2, 3, & 4, 2008—Original Sewing & Quilt Expo returns to “Explore New Trends in Sewing.” It will be held once again at the Dulles Expo Center, Chantilly, VA (where we have our QU Show). Don't miss the very latest in patterns, fabrics, notions, machines and resources available when you browse the booths of more than 125 exhibitors. A complete class schedule is available at http://www.sewingexpo.com/ or call 800-699-6309 for more information.
• October 3, 4, 5, 2008, Waterford Homes Tour and Craft Exhibits. Every year since 1943, the Waterford Foundation has run this annual fair. The entire village is closed to cars giving plenty of room for 10,000 daily visitors. With hundreds of juried crafts persons exhibiting their wares and demonstrating their skill, the Exhibit is an important annual event in the Washington DC area. Along with watching and conversing with these exhibitors, there is also music anddancing, civil war reenactments, citizens in historical costumes, and great food. http://www.waterfordva-wca.org/waterford-fair.htm.
• October 4, 2008—“Art on the Avenue,” in Del Ray. Lynda Prioleau (AR) and Betsy True will be participating in this annual art and music festival that drew over 40,000 people last year. They will be selling fiber art, accessories and other goodies. It will be held from 10 am-6 pm, on Mt. Vernon Avenue, rain or shine. For more information, go to http://www.artontheavenue.org/.

Upcoming Area Workshops and Opportunities

• Elly Sienkiewicz’s “14th Annual Appliqué Academy,” is from February 12-15, 2009 in Williamsburg, VA. More information and online registration can be found at http://www.ellysienkiewicz.com/
• “Williamsburg Symposium on Quilts” is from February 22-25, 2009 in Williamsburg, VA. Nationwide experts, Marianne Fons, Elly Sienkiewicz and Barbara Brackman among others, for two days of illustrated lectures on quilts and quilted clothing from 1600 to the present. Optional workshops and special behind-the-scenes tours give participants the opportunity to learn a new technique or see museum artifacts close up. More information and online registration can be found at http://www.history.org/history/institute/institute_about.cfm.
• Maryland and Northern Virginia’s Regional Shop Hop will be November 6-9, 2008. Go to http://www.quiltersquest.org/ for a list of participating shops and other information.

MT. VERNON QU
Minutes of the 9/9/08 Business Meeting

The meeting was called to order at 12:30 pm by Lynn Miller

Lynn welcomed us back for the fall and announced some housekeeping items:
· Please wear your name tags so we can learn each other's names quickly.
· Please sign in at the front door of the senior center each time you come.
· No fabric or magazines may be stored in Room 216.
· The books on the shelf in Room 216 may remain and may be borrowed on the honor system.

Visitors
We had one new visitor – Ellen Patton.

President's message
Lynn would like to try some new ideas this year – perhaps some of you have tried them before, but they may be new to some more recent members.

We will continue the night time bees. The September bees will be held in the Conference Room of the Mt. Vernon Governmental Center from 6 – 8:30 pm on September 10th and September 24th. Food may be brought into the center. In October we will not be able to use the Governmental Center and will have to come up with ideas for a venue – the Sherwood Hall Library or member's homes? In November and December we will return to the Governmental Center.

Charity projects: Two projects were proposed and the membership voted to take on both of them—Carpenter's Shelter (quilts for the residents – baby to queen size) which may be taken with them when they leave the shelter and the AKHA Youth Child Development Center in Northern Thailand (quilts for high school students). There’s more information to follow. Members were encouraged to continue any projects we have done in the past, i.e., soldier quilts, Project Linus, and quilts for UMC. Carol Kunkel told us of a project in Mexico of a group of women who are looking for a sister quilt group. They have embroidery, quilts and cross stitch items to be sold. They are also in need of cotton fabric or other quilting supplies. It will be decided later how we can get the items to Mexico.

Treasurer's Report
This report can be found in the attachment that notified you of this posting.

Programs
Angie Miller and Lynne Fishburn presented their outline of programs for the coming season:

October 7 and 8—RaNae Merrill Lecture and Spiral Rose Workshop. We will share this instructor with Burke chapter. (Rhonda Adams' quilt “Majestic Mandalai,” which is featured on the cover of RaNae's book, Simply Amazing Spirals, recently won an award at the Pennsylvania National Quilt Festival for Best Machine Workmanship in the Innovative category) The workshop will be held at Artistic Artifacts on Eisenhour Avenue. Space for the workshop is limited, so sign up early.

November 25--Cyndi Souder lecture on Overcoming Quilter's Block.
January 19--Bonnie Hunter on Scrap Quilting. The name of the quilt will be My Blue Heaven. Blue and cream fabric can be used (or you can substitute colors of your choosing).
January 20--Bonnie Hunter lecture with the Springfield guild at 9:30 am
February 24--Sharon Shambler lecture (tentative)
March 24--Emily Martin lecture and trunk show
March 25--Emily Martin workshop on needle turn appliqué.
April 27--Cynthia England workshop (floral block or landscape).
April 28--Cynthia England lecture “Why Did I Buy this Ugly Fabric?”
May 26--Frieda Anderson lecture “Walks in the Woods With George”
May 27--Frieda Anderson workshop with Burke chapter, Autumn Glory”

March 16 to 19--Mt.Vernon 3rd Annual Quilting retreat at Bird-in-Hand, PA.

Annual Fund Raiser – September 23
Barbara Tucker outlined plans for our Annual Fund Raiser to be held on September 23, 2008. Please have all donations to her by September 12 at 12 pm. There will be a notice posted for the event on the QU Digest and flyers are available to be placed in shops, etc. in the area. This year's Fund Raiser will consist of a live auction, fixed price sale and bake sale. A special request was made for lots of items for the Bake Sale. The baked goods should be brought to the kitchen by 12:15 with a suggested price and ingredients listed. The auction will begin at 12:30. Help is needed with set up and clean up. Please arrive by 11:30 to assist. There will be one cash station for all of the different parts of the auction. Items that do not arrive in time for the auction will be offered for sale at the December luncheon.

Block of the Month, Mystery Quilt and Block Exchanges
Lynn Miller has chosen a Block of the Month. The blocks will be available online and will be posted weekly until all twelve are shown. The members will have until the June luncheon to complete their quilts and she hopes members will have tops ready to show by the December luncheon.

Lynn has also chosen a mystery quilt and that will also be put on the blog in nine sections.

Lynn did a survey of member interest in a block/fabric exchange. She will determine whether there is enough interest and finalize the plans for an exchange for next month.

Secret Pal
It was unanimously agreed that we would skip the secret pal program for this year.

Mt. Vernon Blog
Beverly Dasch will add to the blog twice a month – three times if information warrants. Please send her any notices of awards won by members and pictures of same, articles, recipes, etc. The deadline for the October newsletter is October 1st.

2009 QU Quilt Show
Bert Garino attended the first meeting for the 2009 QU show. It will be held on June 5 – 7. On Friday night, Mark Lipinski will be giving a lecture. The committee is asking for ideas for a theme for the show. The size limit for quilts next year is 115 inches or less. The Mt. Vernon chapter will be responsible for demonstrations. There is an ongoing discussion about whether to hold a silent auction or sell those tables to vendors. It was the consensus of the group that if some of the money came back to the individual chapters that we might vote to take part in the auction. We will not make our decision until we learn what the rules are for the auction.

Fall Lecture
Mt. Vernon QU will be in charge of booking the fall lecture for Big QU in 2009.

Nominating Committee
Jim Melton reported that he will begin to talk individually with members about officers for the 2009-2010 year.

Refreshments
Gigi Corbin, Sally Spangler and Kathleen Shaw provided the refreshments for today's meeting. There is still a need for volunteers for future meetings.

Door Prizes
Prizes were won by Carolyn Paden, Jim Melton, and Kathleen Shaw.

Show and Tell
The following members participated: Lynn Miller, Carol Kunkel, Pat Alfredson, Lynne Fishburn, Ann Marlin, Angie Miller, Frankie Carroll, Kay Brill, Barbara Zygiel, Beth Smith, Bert Garino, Kathy Edwards, Rhonda Adams, and Beverly and Catherine Dasch.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:35 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Dotty Eisenhour, Secretary

October Birthdays
October 3 Tammy Fletcher
October 6 Angela Miller
October 16 Lynne Fishburn
October 16 Marjorie Barondes
October 24 Kris Bishop

November Birthdays
November 1 Hedy Vann
November 4 Tomma Santini
November 7 Kathleen Shaw
November 9 Anne Berard
November 14 Lynn Eccleston
November 15 Barbara Zygiel
November 20 Dotty Eisenhour
November 24 Tammy Mannarino
November 26 Beverly Krysa





May the colors and coolness of the season "e"nergize and "e"xcite you!

The deadline for November's newsletter is November 1st. Please submit items to Beverly Dasch, MVQU Newsletter Editor, at mvqu.news@gmail.com or send to 5643 Victory Loop, Manassas, VA 20112. You may also call her at 703-590-2756.