The Saugus Cultural Council supports cultural arts programs and events that showcase diversity and add vibrancy to enhance residents’ well-being in the Town of Saugus. Our guild is a recipient of grants to help our mission and put on the biennial quilt show. One of our members, Margie, “womanned” a booth at the event on March 15, 2025. The purposed of the 411 event is for Saugus residents to to learn more about community groups that are bringing people together!
President Nancy Sandreuter called the meeting to order and conducted a short business meeting. The members voted on whether to sponsor a girl through Ride4aWoman charity in Uganda. The members approved the sponsorship of a young girl to attend a private school for four years.
After the business meeting, four guild members share their talents with other guild members. Kristen Callahan shared information about how to quilt on your domestic sewing machine. Dale Deluca showed how to do paper piecing. Betty Snell-Frasier demonstrated red work quilting. Bo Shilkey explained 3d sewing.
The guild held its February meeting by zoom. After a short business meeting, President Nancy Sandreiter introduced our guest speaker, Ann Lauer. Ann is “an award-winning fiber artist who has been professionally designing and creating quilts, quilt patterns and kits, and quilt fabric for over twenty-five years.” (from her wwebsite).
Ann began her talk by describing her background and her work with Benartex in designing fabric lines. She showed us her new fabric line which will debut in the spring. She also showed us a quilt that she made from fat quarters from Africa along with her fabric taken from a pattern in a book sent to her by Nancy.
The program then centered on the Ride 4 Women group in Bwindi, Uganda. Ride 4 a Woman is an organization helping women, children and rural communities This link will take you to her website and a summary of her talk about these women and what they do.
She ended her program with information about donating to help the Ride 4 Women group. Donations can be made through her website at www.grizzlygulchgallery.com/african-quilters or directly to the Gofundme page at https://www.gofundme.com/f/ride-4-a-woman-in-uganda-africa.
To view the Ride for a Woman brochure click here.
The Hammersmith Quilters Guild January General Membership meeting occurred on a cold and blustery evening. Even with the frigid weather, members were eager to attend.
President Nancy Sandreuter did a trunk show with her collage quilts. She will be doing a workshop on making a collage quilt before the March general membership meeting.
The creative quilt works for the month was doing a Fibonacci quilt. These pictures do not show all the quilts presented. Many of the quilts will be shown at the fall guild quilt show and then donated for our charity endeavors.
Before the meeting, several members attended a workshop by member Gail Dwyer. Her workshop involved making a tote bag. Some of those attendees showed their finished work to us.
In the December 5, 2024, edition of the Saugus Advocate, there was a shout out to our guild for the annual charity quilt and pillowcase donations. If you want to read it online, here is the link. The shout out is near the middle of the page.
Our December meeting had the traditional pot luck meal. Members bring dishes and everyone gets to sample all the delicious goodies. The dessert table is a favorite.
After our meal, President Nancy Sandreuter thanked the membership for their various contributions for the night and for the success of our annual quilt and pillowcase charity drive.
Nancy had a random member draw the winning ticket for the Christmas quilt. One of our members, Helen H. won it
Joyce Rodenhiser gave a champagne (actually sparkling water) toast to the guild and its leadership. She then proceeded to lead us all in a story about Mr and Mrs Wright. The members exchanged gifts by passing them right when they heard Wright or right; left when they heard left; and across when they heard across. The person who had the gift at the end of the story, kept it.
Show and tell followed with members showing off some of their latest creations. Some are pictured in the 2024-2025 quilt gallery web page.
The 2025 Quilt Show raffle quilt was revealed to the members. The pattern is Hestia by Rose of Threadbare Creations. Hestia is an Olympian goddess. Learn more about her by clicking here.
The Hammersmith Quilters Guild completed a successful year of sewing for others. Over the year 107 quilts, 106 snowman pillowcases and 103 novelty pillowcases were made! Many children will be very happy. We purchased goods for 100 children that we stuffed into the snowman pillowcases along with a quilt. These gifts are split between the Department of Children and Families and the Home for Little Wanderers. The extra items allowed us to extend to other charities as well. The extra quilts were be donated to the MassGeneral-Brigham’s pediatric cancer center, and pillowcases were be donated to Allison’s closet, a nonprofit started by Paula Fallon’s daughter, Michelle who live in AZ, and a friend of Ellen O’Sullivan who gives quilts and pillowcases to children of the Massachusetts National Guard who are being deployed. The deployed parent is given a star and when they Facetime they bond over the gifts they receive at the deployment ceremony.
The Guild is proud of its members who take to heart the mission of the guild. Here is our mission statement from our bylaws. “The mission of The Hammersmith Quilters Guild is to promote the appreciation, enjoyment, and knowledge of quilting as an art form and a craft to its membership and to the general public. The Guild encourages quilting for the benefit of charitable causes and provides opportunities to broaden quilting skills through educational programs, meetings, and workshops. The Guild hopes to foster camaraderie and inspiration among quilters throughout the greater North Shore of Massachusetts and offers support to the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts.”
For our January 2025 challenge, we are doing a Fibonacci Quilt. The pattern is based on the Fibonacci Sequence. Click here for the directions.
The new Guild year started with welcoming all renewing members back for the first meeting of the year.
After a short business meeting, the nurses from the the Quilting Clinic gave their presentation on fixing boo-boos on quilts so we finish them. They also shared a couple of new techniques that intrigued our membership. One technique was quilt facing which is an alternative to binding. The other technique was using Inktense to color and shade fabric.
