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.
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.
On a quilting Facebook group recently, a person asked for ideas for improving their guild. Boy, did they get a long list of things that can be done. Carol H. compiled that list into a PDF that we are sharing with our members. Click here to see it.
We are asking our members to tell us what they would like to see us do to improve our guild. The executive board will bring the ideas to the membership for discussion at one of our general meetings. E-mail your suggestions to [email protected].
The Museum has experienced an unexpected mechanical failure that requires a temporary closure beginning July 14, 2024. They hope to reopen within a few days, but cannot confirm at this time. The Curator’s Talk scheduled for July 20 has been moved to August 10.
Please look for a reopening announcement at neqm.org sometime next week.
President Nancy Sandreuter opened the meeting by welcoming the 42 members and two guests present. The officers and committee chairs provided reports. The Vice President announced the nomination slate for the May Business meeting election of officers. They are Kirsten Swenson, Vice President; Sheila Darcy, Treasurer; and Rosalene Graham, Membership Chair. She invited further nominations for these positions.
The donation quilts were displayed for the members. Some of those are pictured below.
Margareta Blyumkina, a guild member, presented a trunk show of her quilting journey. She started as a dressmaker in her native country, Russia. She gradually moved to quilt making. Her current quilts are all made from scraps that are put on our guild’s free table for the taking. She uses the scraps both in the front and the back of her quilts. She does not uses a scissors for cutting the fabric. She also uses chalk, soap, or pencil to mark her fabric. She uses a quilt as you go technique for quilting her quilts. The picture gallery below shows some of the quilts and clothing she has made using scraps.
There was show and tell after Margarita’s presentation. I have not received any pictures of the Show and Tell.
The block of the month for the May 2024 general meeting is any block that you like or enjoy making. This could be a disappearing nine patch, snowball, etc. Some suggestions can be found at Addicted to Scraps Index from Quiltmaker..
The only parameters are that the background fabric should be white or white somewhere and the block should be 12 1/2 inches so that it will finish at 12 inches in the quilt.
The winner of the blocks could make a great sampler for donation to the Guild to help us reach our goal of 100 quilts before November.
The creative quilt works for the April General meeting is a tulip table topper OR your interpretation of a tulip table topper. Click here for directions.
At the November general meeting, Gretchen and her committee updated the members on logistics for the 2023 Quilt Show. She also thanked everyone who brought food to donate to the Saugus Food Pantry. She announced that the pillowcase stuffing for our donation to local children’s charities will be November 24, 2023, at Blessed Sacrament Church in the basement and asked for volunteers.
Rosie and Judy, our Guild’s ruler librarians brought the ruler library to the guild and displayed them on the stage. They told about various rulers available, how to check them out, what types of things could be made with them and how to donate extra rulers to the library.
On September 23 and 24th, John and Jean Balliro sold chances for the Guild’s raffle quilt at Quilter’s Common. They were helped by Gretchen Berkowitch, Margie Berkowitch, and Rosie Graham.
Many shoppers comments on the quilt which was displayed nearby. The shopper remarked on the novelty images showing in the windows of the houses.
The winner of the raffle quilt will be drawn on November 5, 2023 at the Guild’s quilt show.
