January Meeting: Show and Tell

It was a quiet and quick meeting in January.

Carol showed off this envelope bag, made from 2 18-inch square pieces of fabric. Cute!



Jane showed off some tiny temari:



Marj showed off the temari she made from the class she took. Beautiful!



Jeni showed off a Just Nan Christmas project she promised to finish in time to display next Christmas.



Karen showed a calendar cover she made for a friend. People thought it was too nice to have to live in a purse.



Kathy showed 2 book marks she finished.



Helen showed off her basket with the Guatemalan band, a guild project from many years ago.



A good time was had by all.

Project Linus

At last night's meeting, I think Barb Huber announced some upcoming Project Linus blanket making events. I went looking online and found the Chicago-area chapter, centered in Northbrook. They have a variety of ongoing events and ways in which you can help Project Linus. The next blanket workshop is this weekend, January 15. The following one is March 12. This looks like an active group and their website has loads of information.

Kissing Pillows

I got a wonderful package in the mail this week. Kathy sent me these kissing pillow tops she'd stitched. I'll turn them in a the January NeedleArtisans' meeting. Thank you very much Kathy. I'm nearly done with one and have fabric cut for another I plan to finish before January. I think that will make six for me, too.

If you've stitched any Kissing Pillows, please let me know so I can arrange to get them. The January NANI meeting is before the January Homewood meeting. Thanks!

Donations wanted

At Monday's meeting we discussed where the leftovers from the stash sale went (Barb found a great outlet with her neighbor's sister's convent motherhouse) and whether we should take some donated needlepoint wool. I've been doing some clearing out of my own and am always on the lookout for places to give it to.

I came across this list on the NANI blog. They take all sorts of art and creative supplies.

Kissing Pillows

Last night I showed my completed kissing pillow. These are for a project for a local woman, Elizabeth, a member of Chicago ANG. She is collecting 1100 pillows for her brother's Navy Squadron who are deploying early next year. They are stitched on 14 count aida with three colors of floss and under two hours' stitching time.

Needle Artisans of Northwest Indiana has taken up the cause and I hope some of you may also wish to stitch a pillow top or two. I have e-mailed all of the information (chart, materials and background) to Homewood members. If you would like me to send it again, please contact me at homewoodembroiderersguild@gmail.com.

NANI is collcting completed pillow tops at our January meeting, which is a week before our January meeting. You can get them to any joint member before then and we'll turn them in (Pat B, Jane, Marge, Marjorie off the top of my head) or you can send them directly to the address on the "back" of the pattern. Thanks!

October 2010 meeting

The October meeting will be on Monday, October 12 at 7:15pm at St. Paul Community Church.

For October’s project, Blackwork-Blue Tulips, you will need a hoop, scroll frame or Q-snaps to accommodate a 12” piece of fabric, scissors, needles, usual stitching supplies.

October Hostesses will be Barb H, Karen H and Karen J.

thoughts about a show...

Earlier this month Nancy asked us to try to attend the 2010 quilt show of the Pieces 'n Patches Quilt Guild. Her thought was that perhaps the next time they have a show, in 2012, we might "piggy-back" with them and hold our show at the same day, same venue, in one of the smaller rooms.

The show was at a middle school in Steger and I was very impressed. They filled the gym with quilts. The theme was "quilts from Grandma's clothesline" and they followed through charmingly. All of the members wore aprons and clothes pins were used to hold tags. The show had a quilt appraisal room, lectures on aprons, a quilt raffle, bake sale, silent auction, and raffle baskets. There was a boutique with several shops and demonstrators, including a scissors sharpener, and a resale/last chance book sale area.

I thought about how we could fit in and decided to share my thoughts and questions with you in the hope of getting you thinking about it and coming up with your questions.

My first question was would there be a smallish classroom available and, if so, could we lock it for security. What kind of tables/display areas would it have? I wondered about insurance, too.

What would our expenses be? Perhaps a portion of the rental fees. Could we contribute to their silent auction, bake sale, raffle baskets or should we have our own fundraiser in our own room? Or both? How would we raise money? If we pay a portion of the rent would we get a similar portion of the entry fee? Would people interested only in embroidery pay the higher entry fee? (their entry fee was $5)

I came up with one fundraising thought: a coupon sheet. Ideally, we'd target needlework shops but since there aren't any nearby...

We could print up a sheet of coupons, 12 in all, one for each month. On each a local business would offer a discount for the month. So for the month of January, Homewood Florist would offer $1.00 off a bouquet, in February, Country Cupboard would offer 10% off of any red fabric or fiber, in March Walt's would provide a coupon good for a dozen eggs with a $10 purchase, etc. We would print up the coupon sheet and sell them for, say $2.00 each.

Those are my ideas and thoughts and questions. What are yours?