Mt Vernon QU Business Meeting

February 16, 2010

The meeting was called to order at 12:41 PM by President Bert Garino. The meeting was postponed to this date due to the blizzard and was held at the Mt. Vernon Government Center.

Agnes Purcell’s husband, Ed, is visiting with us today.

The January minutes stand as written.

Treasurers’ report: Dotty Eisenhour reported the balance. The chapter is in good financial shape.

Vice President: Ellen Patton announced the programs for the next few months: Too Quirky Quilters will be here next week; Karen Kay Buckley in March; Margaret Miller in April (the business meeting and program meeting will be swapped). Margaret Miller’s lecture will be “Lookin’ Ahead” (all quilts, no slides) and her workshop will be “Strips That Sizzle”. There are 20-25 slots available for the workshop and the fee is $45; in May, Didi Salvatierra’s lecture will be “All About Baskets” and her workshop will be “Bodacious Baskets”. Ellen has contacted Cindy Needham to lecture next year. The topic will be “Thread Fact and Fiction”. The workshop will be an open thread bar where you can try different types of thread with your own machine.

Ellen also said that she is in need of more Quilts of Valor. She is also working on a strip for the Alzheimer Awareness Quilt which will tour the country. Anyone who knows someone with Alzheimer’s can sign that person’s name on the strip.

Nominating Committee: Libby Dudley announced the slate of officers for next year: President – Lynne Fishburn; Co-Vice Presidents – Lynn Eccleston and Gigi Corbin; Secretary – Angie Miller; Treasurer – Dotty Eisenhour; Nominating Committee – Ann Poulin. Nominations are still open until the elections in April. Thanks to committee members Rhonda Adams and Gigi Corbin. Libby requested volunteers for the QU Show Rep and Fundraising for next year in order to ease the transition for the incoming board. Our job at next year’s show is programs and cards. Barbara Tucker volunteered to chair the fundraising committee but will not store the items. Susan McDonnell volunteered space for storage.

Quilt Show Rep: Carol Kunkel would like volunteers to help her at the show with the vendor responsibilities. Pat Alfredson volunteered to help on set up day. Joan Peake, Agnes Purcell and Ellen Patton also volunteered.

Quilt Collector: Will be measuring quilts after the meeting.

Retreat: Ro Coller has registration forms. Only 7 people have signed up. The cost per person will increase unless there is a minimum of 10 people. The dates are March 15-17.

Unfinished Business: We need a Quilt-In Committee chair for March 2011.

New Business: J.J. Stinson, a boy scout from St. Louis Parish and a senior at Bishop Ireton HS is collecting quilts for premature babies as part of his Eagle project. His goal is 85 quilts for the neo-natal intensive care unit at Inova Fairfax Hospital. The quilts must be made of 100% cotton fabric, cotton batting, no nylon thread, no embellishments such as rickrack, etc., and must be washed before donating them. No side can be less than 12” or more than 24”. These quilts will go home with the baby when he/she is discharged. J.J. will be back on March 9th to collect any quilts we have made. Details can be found on the blog.

Challenge Quilt: The challenge to make a “Come Fly With Me” quilt combined with a blizzard produced many quilts. Quilts were made by; Agnes Purcell, Barbara Tucker, Kathy Murray, Pat Alfredson, Sonia Gondol, Kathy Zahaczewsky, Barbara Zygiel, Susan McDonnell, Barbara Edler, Rhonda Adams, Bert Garino and Kathy Edwards.

Show and Tell: Beth Smith, Barbara Dove, Kathy Edwards, Joan Peake, Lynne Fishburn, Bert Garino, Ellen Patton, Pat Alfredson, Libby Dudley and Gigi Corbin.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:40 PM so we could enjoy the refreshments provided by Mary Mazzuchi. Libby Dudley and Barbara Jones.

Respectfully submitted,
Cathy Hanratty

February 23, 2010 - Too Quirky Quilters

Our February 23rd program was a delight with Too Quirky Quilters. It was so much fun to hear these gals parody in song all the things we love about quilting. We also enjoyed their health message, "Doing the Mammery Mash".

Show and Tell - February 16 & 23, 2010

Beth Smith brought this fantastic log cabin quilt.
Beth also showed this fun quilt.
And one more (lots of time while snowed in)
Lynne Fishburn brought some cardinals with her.
Pat Albertson completed her “One Day Lonestar" from the Debby Kratovil workshop.
Pat also completed this beautiful pink and white quilt. Ellen Patton kept busy during the snow days completing this quilt and
Her son's college graduation quilt and
A quilt for her future Niece.
Barbara Dove shows Fleur de Plume.
Barbara also brought a seascape quilt.
And a lakeside scene.
Kay Brill brought one block of the quilt she is making from her son's old shirts.
Libby Dudley pieced this quilt and used the envelope method for backing it. Lynne Fishburn will quilt it.
Libby made this quilt with hot peppers as a souvenir of Albuquerque.
Gigi Corbin showed the snowman quilt she made.

Bert Garino “Quilt of Valor” Bert used squares from the MVQU workshop. She cut them down to 3 ½” and made red, white and blue pinwheels to mix in.

Bert Garino - American Girl outfit and quilt made from fabric from all the doll clothes that she made for her granddaughters doll. Quilt squares finished ½” and then hand quilted. Bill Steck created the Beehive Geyser quilt from a picture he took of the geyser.


Carol Kunkel, one of last year's Presidents of MVQU and this year's show chair was able to join us on February 23rd and brought this quilt to share.

Show and Tell - February 16, 2010 - Baby Quilts

J.J. Stinson, a senior at Bishop Ireton and member of Troop 680 is collecting quilts for the neonatal unit at Fairfax Hospital as part of his Eagle Project. Here are some of the quilts from MVQU.


Libby Dudley, Bert Garino, and J.J. Stinson with two of the quilts.

Lynne Fishburn, Barbara Tucker, new member Nancy Barkume , Carol Conahan, and Dotty Eisenhour show their baby quilts. Don't forget JJ will be ar the next meeting to collect any more quilts we might have ready.

2009-2010 Challenge Quilts - Come Fly With Me

Lynn Eccleston – “Ballooning” using cottons from Africa. This was her first effort at using beads as embellishments


Susan McDonnell created this airplane quilt.

Barbara Zygiel brought her Bee Sewing Kit – Barbara was going to make the bee into a quilt, but when the one bee took over 3 days to make, she decided to make it into a sewing kit.

Sonia Gondol presented “Fiesta”an Appliquéd wall hanging with wonderful hot air balloons.



-->Pat Alfredson got inspiration from someone that she always wanted to fly with.


-->Kathy Zahaczewsky created “Fly Me To The Moon” – Kathy said this was a real fun quilt to do, and loved the flying witch and the “handmade broom”.


Kathy Murray’s quilt is entitled “ Fly by Night". It is a combination of fusing and yo-yo making. Blue organza to represent the night sky was put over the background. Some of the elements of the quilt such as the tree and the
shadow of the moon are under the organza and the rest is fused or sewn on top. The birds have some crystal bead embellishments on the tails and the moon is outlined with the beads.


Kathy Edwards made this quilt with hand-dyed fabric and a fabric bird panel that she picked up off a "free" table at one of our guild meetings a few years ago. She added some bling in the tail feathers and calls it simply "Come Fly With Me".


--> Kathy calls this one "Flying Pizza". There were many influences for this quilt--She took something from workshops she took this year. Mary Mashuta's pizza slice block, Laura Murray's butterfly stencils, Judy Gula's hand dyed fabric workshop, and Laura Cater Woods' workshop for the silk paper. When she ran out of silk paper, she painted the used dryer sheets for the the corner flower petals.


For this one Kathy wanted to use some recycled and new fly zippers. She painted the background one rainy day last fall in Linda Cooper's (Burke QU) garage. It looked like an aerial view of the California Baja Peninsula. I just finished a bead class so I enhanced the bird wings with the beads and scattered some sparkly ones over the ocean water. She calls this "Are We There Yet?"


Tammy Mannarino decided to complete one of her "UFOs" (UnFinished Objects) as her entry in the Challenge. She selected this Angel quilt.


Barbara Tucker made “Spitfires” 1939-1945 wallhanging as a tribute to her Father who was part of a spitfire crew from 1938-1946 Flt. Lt. Willm H. Mellor.


Agnes has wanted to try an attic window quilt so she fussy cut the eagle fabric to create "Soar with the Eagles".


This Butterfly quilt top will be part of the 201-2011 fundraiser.





















Rhonda introduced us to her counterpart ... Ruby Red, the Flying Quilter

-->Bert Garino created “Come Fly With Me to the Apple Tree” – She cut apart two preprinted panels by Cicely Mary Barker, and then appliquéd these pieces on her own pieced background. It is heavily embellished with yarns, crystals, tulle and wig hair - which had to be blond like her granddaughters.


-->Barbara Edler had a fun time with the assistance from her huband Karl and son Fritz in making this very amusing challenge quilt called "Fly" Look closely at the detail and you will be chuckling too. (BTW Barbara says she has lots of flys left over if anyone needs them.)

Margaret Miller Workshop April 14, 2010

Margaret Miller has been making quilts, teaching quilt making, designing quilts and writing quilt books for the last 30 years and we are having her come teach us! On Wednesday, April 14th she will be conducting a workshop for us called Strips That Sizzle. What a great way to learn about color and value. This will be held at the Governmental Center from 9:30 to 3:30. You can check out examples from this class at www.millerquilts.com and then hurry to sign up for the class. The registration form is below and as always it is first come, first serve! So, fill out the form and send it to Ellen Patton (address on form) along with your $45.00 to secure your spot in the class today!

Notice *** Notice *** Notice

Meeting Rescheduled for 2/16/2010

From Bert -

Good Afternoon - Hope you are all home safe with full cupboards, thread and fabric. I was able to reschedule our business meeting to February 16th at 12:30 at the Mt. Vernon Government Center located at 2511 Parkers Lane, which is right next to Mt. Vernon Hospital. There is a meeting scheduled before ours, so we might need some extra hands at 12:30 to get our room situated the way we want it and we'll get started as soon as possible.

We should have lots of interesting things happening at this meeting. A local boy scout, J. J. Stinson will appealing to us to help the preemie babies at INOVA by making some very small quilts. I'm sending you this information prior to our meeting, just in case you run out of things to do while you're snowed in. The quilts are very small and are fun and easy to do. Below is the information that Jason sent to me, and there are lots of other ideas out on the web. This is a great way to use up your pastel scraps. If you have any done before the meeting next Tuesday, please bring them.

These are the must have requirements:

• 100% Cotton Fabric
• No side smaller than 12" and no side larger than 24"
• No loose articles or fringe
• No nylon thread

As long as these requirements are met, any design can be used.

I've made some using the pillow case method instead of binding. After the top is finished I paste the exact size batting on the wrong side of the top. Then I place the top and bottom right sides together and sew all around it by machine except for about 4" which I use to turn it all inside out, then I handsew the opening and quilt the small quilt.

Here are some helpful links:


http://www.azblankets4kids.com/PatternsPreemie,%209%20Patch%20Quilt%20reworked.pdf
http://www.azblankets4kids.comPatternsPreemie,%20Double%204%20Patch%20reworked.pdf
http://www.azblankets4kids.com/PatternsPreemie,%201%20Patch%20Quilt%20reworked.pdf
http://www.azblankets4kids.comPatternsPreemie,%201%20Patch,%202%20Borders%20reworked.pdf


Also at this meeting will be our big reveal of our challenge quilts. Please remember to bring the forms for the quilt show if you want to enter your challenge quilt or any other quilts as this will be our last measuring and photo session for these quilts.

The nominating committee has been very busy this winter, and they have a full slate of officers to present to the membership at this meeting. Way to go!

So...hopefully we'll all be dug out by next Tuesday and I'll see you all at the Government Center!

Smiles, Bert

President's Message

February might be the shortest month of the year, but it is going to be a fun filled one at MVQU.

First, I’d like to thank all of those that attended our 1^st New Member Chocolate Social and Q &A, it was a sweet success.

Following the business meeting on February 9, 2010, we will have the reveal of the MVQU 2009/2010 Challenge quilts, “Come Fly with Me”. I’m looking forward to seeing all your flights of fancy. A “perfect landing” would be to enter these quilts as a group in the “Chapter’s Challenge” category in the Big QU show in June.

For those interested, please complete the entry form which can be found on page 6 of the Quilters Unlimited Newsletter http://www.quiltersunlimited.org/docs/Winter09Nltr.pdf and bring it with you. Your Quilt Collector’s committee will be there to measure and photograph your quilts at the end of the meeting. Our regular Show and Tell will follow the reveal so please bring in a completed entry form with any of these quilts you plan to enter in the show as well.

As promised, two members from Fairfax QU will have Circle Jubilee, this year’s QU Show Raffle Quilt, on display. Wait until you see this beautiful appliquéd quilt. Kathy Murray will be selling raffle tickets, the cost is $1 or 6 for $5, cash only. The drawing will be held on June 6, 2010. Last year, MVQU sold the winning ticket to our own Dotty Eisenhour. Let’s see if a MVQU member can win two years in a row!

Another treat, a local Mt. Vernon Boy Scout will be in attendance and asking for our help with his Eagle Scout project making quilts for premature infants in INOVA Hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. This is yet another way to show support for our community, but more importantly aid in this young man’s efforts by doing something we all love to do, only in miniature…stay tuned for all the details.

On February 23, 2010 our program will feature the very entertaining Kim Fess and Rebecca Heinze -- two women who love quilting, music and just having fun. They are better known in the quilt world as “Too Quirky Quilters” and their program is called We Love a Quilt Show. The show starts at 12:30.

Hopefully during this short month you will get to enjoy some chocolate on Valentine’s Day; watch (and rewatch) my favorite movie Groundhog Day; make a quilt and come enjoy Tuesdays with MVQU.

Smiles,

Bert

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? Albert Camus