Big news!

 There are two items that came out of Tuesday's meeting that I'm excited to share with you all. 

Scotchtown Fiber Festival

The Scotchtown Fiber Festival will be held Saturday, April 20, 10:00 - 4:00 at Scotchtown.

Scotchtown is located at 16120 Chiswell Lane in Beaverdam.

There will be sheep shearing, wool production demos, alpaca petting, children's activities, hearth kitchen demos, local crafts and vendors. The Sisters of the Yam African American Quilters will also have a special exhibit.

Cathy William will be there with the WHEAT quilt to sell raffle tickets. Dawn Burnett has offered to provide flyers in the booth to promote Country School Quilters. She would like some assistance manning the booth. If you can help, please contact Cathy at southannariver at gmail.com or get her phone number from the membership list.

New Meeting Location, Starting in June!

It's official! After 35 years meeting in the Hanover County Parks and Rec building (formerly the Rurital Building), our club meetings will be moving to the Montpelier Center for the Arts in June.

We determined that the new rec center would not meet our needs and, with Becky Brown's coordination, we were able to secure a very favorable rental agreement with the Montpelier Center for the Arts, right next door. 

We will be paying a very reasonable rent that consists of a cash payment of $350/year plus 1 quilt per year for a fundraising raffle. The first quilt is a quilt top made by Becky that I will quilt. 

The rent for the remainder of 2024 will be $210, payable at the June meeting. Some members suggested that we make a larger donation but others wanted to keep to the agreed rental agreement. In the end, we agreed to have a voluntary collection at the June meeting for people who want to support MCA beyond the charged rent. In that way you could write a check and receive a personal tax charitable giving credit.

Here are the meeting dates for the rest of this year and these meetings will be in the dance studio. There will be no need to sign up for meetings again!

Our May meeting and sewing days will be the last in the "old" building.

2024 MEETING DAYS - 7 to 8:30 p.m.
June 11
July 9
August 13
September 10
October 8
November 12
December 10

2024 SEWING DAYS - 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
June 19, 20
July 17, 18
August 21, 22
September 18, 19
October 16, 17
November 20, 21
December 18, 19

https://countryschoolquilters.blogspot.com/

Info on veterans quilts

 

I've been a little obsessed lately with making my own quilt kits for veterans quilts. I like making up kits so that when I go to sewing days, I always have something ready to work on. I might have gone a little overboard in making 22 kits!

But that got me thinking that I hadn't posted our info about the veterans quilt project in a while, so, for new members, here's all the scoop.

The quilts we make are donated to the Interventional Radiography Department at Richmond Veterans Affairs Hospital. They primarily gift the quilts to veterans with recent cancer diagnoses that are in their department to have chemo ports inserted. The staff says that the quilts are wonderful especially for patients who are extra stressed over their diagnosis.

- Optimal size for the quilts is 48" x 60". We can accept an inch or 2 smaller and a inch or so bigger, but the backing and batting is precut so we do not have a ton of flexibility. 47" - 50" is good for width and 58" - 63" is good for length.

- You can make any pattern or design that you want. As for fabric selection, patriotic quilts are always the first preference but anything masculine or non-gender is fine. Scrap quilts are great too. Avoid feminine quilts. They have so few female patients that those quilts rarely get distributed. Hanover Safe Place is a great option if you are making more feminine quilts.

- We now have several volunteer quilters so once you give us your tops we can usually turn them around within 60 days (2 meetings). They are quilted 2 at a time. We load one backing piece that's big enough for 2 quilts. 

- If you want to quilt your own quilt I (Vicki) can provide you with backing and batting. All you have to do is ask. I'll even do my best to dye a matching backing for you.

- Please avoid using any fragrance when you wash the fabrics or quilts. I'm very allergic. The quilts and the tops might stay in my house for a couple of months and I just can't have fragrance in my house for that long. I can't quilt tops that have fragrance in them at all. When I have received quilts that have been washed in fragrance detergent I have to hang them outside (on a covered porch) for as long as 2 weeks before I can have them in my house. I don't like doing that to your quilts but I have no other option. Quilts are returned to sewing days and meetings for you  to pick up and bind. If a quilt goes unclaimed for a couple of months we will seek out a volunteer to bind it.

Info about digital printed fabric

 In January, Laura Hamm's sister, Lisa, joined us with a great presentation about fabrics from Henry Glass. During that meeting, we discussed possible challenges with quilting on digitally printed fabrics. Lisa remembered that and sent us this new leaflet about working with digitally printed fabrics. It's specifically for longarm quilters but piecers may find some good tips there too.

You can download it here.

Second quilt delivery of 2024!

I came home from the meeting with so many quilts that it's time for another delivery! Thursday I'm delivering 22 quilts to our VA contact and that makes a total of 37 YTD. She told me they are completely out so they are excited to get a new batch.

Way to go!

Quilting Friends Field Trip!

Thanks to Sharon G., we are meeting on Friday, March 22, at Anna’s Italian Restaurant at 11:45 am. The restaurant is located at 7009 Mechanicsville Turnpike in the shopping center with Publix. After lunch, let’s go to Millstone Quilts at 8074 Flannigan Mill Road, Mechanicsville. Millstone has a broad selection of reproduction and grunge fabrics. So reservations may be made, please let Brenda know (text or phone), no later than Wednesday, March 20, if you are coming.

If your calendars are still handy, please mark Friday, April 26, for our next luncheon. We are returning to Kitchen 33 to order from the breakfast menu. We are meeting at 11:30 am so we can order before breakfast service ends.

 

And there has been a proposal that in May we should meet at Industrial Tap House (formerly Brenda’s) in Centerville; that's 12912 Plaza Dr. Henrico, west of Short Pump. Possible dates are May 17 and May 31. So keep these days open and join us for some laughs and good times!

Innova Longarm For Sale

 I have a local friend who is looking to sell her longarm. If you, or someone you know, is looking for a longarm, here's the info. Contact Vicki to get the seller's contact info. 

INNOVA Classic Series 1018 w/Lightening Tech Mach 3 Hand-Guided Longarm (no autopilot). 12-foot table and 18" throat. Lightly used with only 75.26 hours. Comes with instruction manuals, large-cone threads, and multiple accessories. $7,900 (cash or certified check only). 

 

March Meeting

 This March meeting is Tuesday, March 12 at 7:00 pm. The main part of the program is to work on setting plans for the snip-and-rip blocks that have been collected. Also, I spoke to Marcy Durrer from Hanover Parks and Rec recently and I will share what information that I was able to gather about the new Rec Center and the vision for the quilt club going forward.

These 4 veterans quilts have been quilted and will be ready for pickup at the meeting

March Sewing Days

I think we had record breaking attendance for Friday & Saturday Sewing. We filled the room using all the tables and sewed up a storm - well, not really a storm, but it did rain all day Saturday! Lots of sewing including Debbie's patriotic scrap quilt. Any colors could be used and it's a good way to use strips.  

This is what she did:

1. Sew together various widths of 7" fabric making a piece 19" long. Debbie says use larger pieces on the ends where they will be trimmed away. Cut a 10" square on the diagonal. Add the triangles - center on the strip. 

2. Trim block. Use a ruler with a diagonal line to place on the center of the strips.

3. These measurements make a finished 12" block. You could adapt it to make any size blocks you like. It makes a very striking design. 

FINISHED BLOCK

The History of Samplers

 From our own Dawn Burnett, Site Coordinator at Scotchtown:

The History of Samplers

 

This Saturday only, March 2, 2024, Scotchtown Museum is hosting an interesting program for anyone who enjoys needlework and textiles.

 

Join Scotchtown staff at 11am or 2pm as they present the history of samplers, their function and design over the last few centuries. As part of this program, we will have hands-on demonstrations of the basic steps of cross stitch and an assortment of kits for you to purchase from our gift shop!

 

The presentation is included in the $5 grounds fee. To book a manor house tour with your visit, please visit our ticketing link for a convenient time either before or after the scheduled presentation.

 

Patrick Henry's Scotchtown

A Preservation Virginia Historic Site

16120 Chiswell Lane

Beaverdam, VA 23015

Phone: 804-227-3500

https://preservationvirginia.org/historic-sites/patrick-henrys-scotchtown/

 

Quilting Friends Luncheon Feb 23.

Today's Quilting Friends Luncheon at Kitchen 33 was a good time! We had an amazing quilt show followed by yummy food! Betsy never ceases to amaze us with her quilting - most of these will be quilts for veterans, a couple baby quilts, etc., Kathy A.K.A. Elvis, has finished her coffee quilt for a veteran - last picture. Anyway, enjoy the quilt show and watch for information about next month's luncheon.

The end. 🧵

Quilting Friends Luncheon Time Change

The luncheon time for Friday has been changed to 12:00 noon due to a reservation conflict with Kitchen 33. See you there!

More information on the Lakeside quilt

 

For those of you working on the newest WHEAT quilt, Lakeside, here are some pictures showing the basic quilt layout, and the fabrics. 

This is the basic structure of the quilt:

This shows a bit more detail of how the blocks go together:

 

Here are all the fabrics:

 

 If you need larger copies of any of these images, just let me know.

Quilting Friends Lunch in February, and ideas for March

Quilting Friends are meeting for lunch at Kitchen 33 at 1:00 on Friday, February 23. Bring any projects to share and show. If you can come please let Brenda know by text or voicemail by Wednesday, February 21, so reservations can be made.  

 

Additionally, Sharon has proposed that for March we take a trip to Millstone Quilt Shop (reproduction fabric and grunge) and have lunch somewhere in that area. So keep this idea in mind!

Reminder about February sewing days and our meeting

 The county had a conflict for our regularly scheduled weekend, so sewing days for February are this week - February 2nd and 3rd.

Our evening meeting will be Tuesday, February 13th.  Laura Hamm's sister, Lisa, will be presenting the program.  Lisa works for Henry Glass and will be talking about fabric design.

EQ Program on Saturday

 From Gwendolyn:

Curious about EQ, the quilt design program? Unsure how it works if you have it?

The questions came up at our last lunch out with the suggestion that I do a short program on a Saturday sewing day. So…this Saturday, February 3, I’ll bring my computer so we can work on the basics of EQ, preferably during the morning.

I have the latest version, EQ8, so my home screen will look different from prior versions. But a lot of the basic functions are the same. You won’t need to bring your computer with you, but can if you wish.

First Veteran quilt delivery of 2024

Today I got a call from our coordinator that the VA was out of quilts! I delivered this group of 15 to kick off 2024.

Brenda and I  haven't been able to quilt veterans quilts for a few weeks but Brenda is back in business and is catching up on a few that she has. I have 11 here to quilt and will get started on them in a couple of weeks,  after vacation and after finishing one of my own quilts. Bring any tops and finished quilts that you have to Sewing Days (Feb 2nd and 3rd) or to the February meeting on the 13th. We will turn them around as quickly as possible. 

Tonight's meeting is CANCELLED.

Not only did I hear from lots of folks who said they weren't coming, but Hanover County Schools have just posted that they are closing early, and the county has also said that all evening activities are cancelled.

 

Hope to see many of you at sewing days - this Friday and/or Saturday - and the rest of you in February.

Weather notes!

 

As always, if Hanover County cancels school, our meeting will be cancelled as well. Tomorrow's weather is predicted to be pretty unpleasant but may not be enough to cancel school. Right now, the weather report says lots of rain and wind. Please weigh in on whether you will plan to come to the meeting in spite of the rain, or if you will definitely be staying home. And stay tuned for updates on the meeting.

Thanks!

January lunch - CORRECTION

 If the weather cooperates, let’s meet at Kitchen 33 on Friday, January 19, at 1:00 for lunch and talk. Bring whatever you would like to share and show to everyone. Please let Brenda (bwimmer872 at protonmail dot com) know by Wednesday, January 15, if you can come so we can reserve tables. Hope to see you there!

January events

 Happy New Year, Quilting Friends!  

As a reminder for the winter, if the local schools are closed for inclement weather on any of our meeting days, our meetings are canceled on those days. Also we do need to register with Hanover County for our meetings at the Park and Rec building. You can register here: https://secure.rec1.com/VA/hanover-county-va/catalog

You will find Country School under Clubs and Social and you can register for meetings through May.

The January meeting is Tuesday, January 9th at 7:00 pm. Please bring your blocks from our Snip and Rip swap in November. For our program we will have show and tell to share a sewing tool that you bought that turned out to be a waste of money.

January 12 and 13 are our Sewing Days. Bring your sewing machine and project and join us for 1 or 2 days of sewing.

If the weather cooperates, let’s meet at Kitchen 33 on Friday, January 17, at 1:00 for lunch and talk. Bring whatever you would like to share and show to everyone. Please let Brenda (bwimmer872 at protonmail. dot com) know by Wednesday, January 15, if you can come so we can reserve tables. Hope to see you there!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! As we begin a new year it is time to sign
up with Hanover County Parks & Recreation for our 2024 monthly meetings and sewing days.

Sign up here

Also: 2024 membership is due: $15

Please remember to bring your challenge blocks to the January 9 meeting.

Happy sewing!