Meeting Location and Directions

 

Upcoming programs -

 For the Block on the Month, follow the link on left.

    Our Sponsors

President's Message

From the President: A Spring Bouquet of Ideas
Not everyone who loves quilts wants to make them. Some simply like to own them. Some like to "visit" them at a museum or antiques shop. Some like to read books about them, gladdening the hearts of novelists like Jennifer Chiaverini and Earlene Fowler. And some like to see quilts and quiltmaking being passed on to future generations.

Perhaps that's why, at Fabric Valentine Day, a parent wrote a $100 check and put it into the donation basket we'd placed at the Welcome Station. Clearly our family-centered, subtly educational event inspired her. And she's not the only one out there who might want to support our mission--financially or otherwise.

Nutmeg Quilters Guild is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. Our purpose, according to our by-laws, is "to promote the knowledge of quilting and quilting skills and techniques; to provide an atmosphere of friendship and growth in which quilters may expand their knowledge
and learning in this art; to plan periodic exhibits of quilts; to hold seminars for the purpose of exchanging ideas; to encourage historical research; to promote the publishing of articles and booklets about quilting."

Covers a lot of territory, right? But how exciting! There are so many avenues to take, and all of them can be great fun. Your executive board will be talking about the Guild's purpose in upcoming meetings, and I urge you to tell them your ideas.

I'm especially interested in finding ways we can help members whose work and family commitments make it challenging for them to participate in Guild activities and resources. These folks have barely enough time, as it is, to stitch a quilt top. Our fellowship can accommodate today's hectic lifestyles, and with all our resident creativity, there should be no shortage of suggestions for ways to do that.

So with spring providing inspiration, please send a bouquet of your
most colorful ideas!

Angela

Vice President's Report With Angela — filling in!

Nearly 40 Attend January Potluck. Our January Potluck, Fashion Show and Challenge
Quilt Display brought nearly 40 quilters to our meeting--34 members and three guests (Gail Berman
of Weston, CT, and Joanne Yarish and Betty DiPreta of Stamford, CT). Members picked up
their 2007 membership cards and directories, which will also be available at the general meeting
in March.

Please check your information in the directory; if it is incorrect, you can report the corrections at
the membership table.

Thank you to the January Pineapple Ladies,
who were Dorothy Lawlor and Peggy Guimarra.
And a reminder (and advance thanks) to our Pineapple Ladies for the March meeting,
Eleanor Prokupek and Janice Kelly.

 

Meeting Schedule *Location: Ridgefield Park and Rec., RT 35 7:00pm   Mar 14, 2007        General Meeting Mar 24, 2007        Workshop Apr 09, 2007        Newsletter Deadline (Mon) Apr 11, 2007        Hands-on-meeting/Board Mtg. May 09, 2007      General Meeting May 12, 2007      Workshop Jun 11, 2007       Newsletter Deadline (Mon) Jun 13, 2007       Hands-on-meeting/Board Mtg.

General Meeting, March 14, 2007 Our Guest lecturer will be our very own Amy Trompetter. Please com and take a look at what is going to be a very fascinating trunk show. Workshop:  Saturday, March 24th, 2007 Linda Ostrander will be teaching a Sweatshirt Jacket workshop at Ridgefield Parks and Rec from 9am to 3pm. If you are interested in attending, the fee for this class is $20 for members and $30 for non-members. Please look under the speaker/workshop section of the website to view the supply and class preparation lists.

Community Service: 

We have several quilts to donate, and I want to thank those who made them. Habitat for Humanity has had at least one dedication (where a quilt is presented to the new homeowner) and anticipates another in the near future, so they will need more quilts very soon. I have been told that any size is all right, but bed size is preferable. Help! The quilts we have now are child and lap size.

We had a great time at the Valentine’s event on the 10th. A start on two comfort quilts has been
made, using the square with an appliquéd heart. One will be lap size, and the other will be child size.
I want to thank the Girl Scouts who were a huge help in getting as many squares made as we did.
They designed the hearts to be heat bonded, and Barbara Marra and Gaynell Cooper are to be
thanked for doing the machine appliqué. We still need more heart squares to be done. They are
on muslin, 8 inches square unfinished, with hearts bonded using lightweight Heat ‘n Bond (we can
sew through this and cannot using the heavier weight). If anyone is interested in helping, after
Feb 26 I can mail you a muslin square and even some bonded fabric to use for the heart, and you
can machine appliqué the raw edge of the heart using any color thread and kind of appliqué stitch
that you like. We will need 10-12 more child oriented heart squares and that many again for the
adult lap quilt. —Millie Foster

Fabric Valentine Day - Draws a Big Crowd

Nutmeg Quilters Guild’s first-ever Fabric Valentine Day was a great success, thanks to good weather
and generous donations of time, talent and supplies. Co-sponsored by the Guild and Ridgefield
Parks & Recreation, this three-hour event on Saturday, February 10th, drew 50+ children and
their parents. Kids and adults alike had great fun making fabric valentines, looking at members’ displayed
quilts and watching valentine-themed Community Service quilts take shape on a design
wall.

Many helped with this event. Nearly 30 Guild members participated in some fashion, from
planning the stations to preparing fabric scraps to supplying child-safe scissors to proofreading
the Guild’s new brochure. Ridgefield Parks & Recreation provided the space at no charge and promoted
the event with a news release and e-mails to its membership. Three shops—Fabric Tree,
Homestead Viking and The Quilter’s Alley—donated materials. Best of all, Guild member Barbara
Liddi brought 6 Girl Scouts from her Troop to help Barbara Marra and Millie Foster design,
machine appliqué and assemble two lap-size quilts to be given to area charities.

When they weren’t oo-ing and ah-ing over the children’s creations, Guild members answered
parents’ questions about membership, upcoming programs and quilting in general. As a result, we
added registrants for Linda Ostrander's upcoming Quilted Sweatshirt Workshop, received donations
to help fund Guild programs and can look forward to seeing some new faces at upcoming Guild
meetings. Thank you to everyone who made this event such a success!

—Angela Liptack

Charity Quilting at The Quilter’s Alley

A small group of our guild members are getting together about twice a month in the Quilter’s Alley
back sewing room to work on our guild’s charity quilt projects. Anyone is welcome to come and work with us. Currently Angela, Barbara & Marlene are meeting the first and third Wednesdays of every month from 1 to 3 pm for charity quilting, conversation, laughter and some fun. Please contact Angela Liptack
or Marlene Gerhard for more information about the get-togethers and contact Millie Foster if you
need a quilt kit or some fabric from the guild’s stash for a charity project. (Find their phone
numbers in the board of directors listing on page 2). And a big thank you to Roxanne and Stuart
Lasky for hosting us in their quilt shop.

— Marlene Gerhard

Meeting Cancellation Procedures: Thanks to the February 14th ice storm, Nutmeg Quilters Guild made a hasty but successful review of its bad-weather cancellation procedures. When we need to cancel or postpone a meeting, workshop or event, you will be notified by one or more of these methods not later than 3 p.m. on the date
of the event:

--An e-mail message or phone call
--Postings on WTNH-TV (Channel 8) and at its website,
http://www.wtnh.com/
--Local radio station announcements

Board members will know of meeting cancellation/postponements details first, so if in doubt, give one a call.

Block-of-the-month: In an attempt to give you all extra time to make those blocks, the block of the month is going to be presented two months in advance in the newsletter. Thus the flag block presented in this newsletter is for the May meeting.
I am including only paper-piecing patterns in the newsletter and additional copies will be available at the March meeting for you to pick up. And, if you would rather use templates, they will be available at the March meeting for you to pick up also. Note: the Block-of-the-Month patterns will also be available on the website.