Latest News – 04/21

NSQG is planning a Spring Fling for members!

The event will be held on the grounds of
North Salem Volunteer Ambulance Corps, 14 Daniel Road, North Salem, NY
Saturday May 1st, from 10:30am-2:30pm.

2021 Raffle Quilt –

LAST CALL for returning your raffle tickets…the drawing is in a few weeks at our next Guild meeting, Tuesday, April 20^th.  If you would like to purchase more tickets, or if you misplaced your tickets, the best way is to purchase them is online…click HERE, and I will fill out the stubs for you.

You could be our lucky winner!!

Thank you to all of our Guild members, their families and friends, for supporting this years charity, SHORE/ ICARE of Westchester County.

Painted Prism

Bernina 475

Charity for the 2022 Quilt Show

Congratulations to Friends of Karen, the charitable organization to be our next year’s quilt raffle recipient.  Since we only had one nominee, no election will be needed. Thank you to Nancy Mirman for nominating this wonderful organization that has been providing emotional, financial and advocacy support for children and their families for the past 43 years.

Dee Plouffe’,  charitable@northernstarquilters.com

Comfort Quilts

All members are welcome to contact comfortquilts@northernstarquilters.com with any Comfort Quilt requests.  Need fabric, batting, kits or have fabric to donate, let us know.  Mini Comfort Quilts are scheduled every few months at the North Salem Volunteer Ambulance Corps for members to pre-order any supplies needed to make the beautiful quilts we donate to various organizations.

At the Spring Fling, Comfort Quilts will be distributing our Surprise Summer Challenge as well as our regular CQ kits.

The Board candidates will be introduced at the April meeting, voting will occur the following month.  Details will be provided in the May Newsletter.

Co-President:  Margaret Cibulsky

For most of my adult life, I lived happily on Long Island where I taught Kindergarten and First Grade for 32 years, where my husband worked for SUNY and where we raised two sons.  Three years ago, I moved from Long Island to Stamford, Connecticut and a few months later I joined NSQG, and participate in both Comfort Quilts and the Improvisational SIG.  I came to quilting 15 years ago, filled with grief after my husband passed, but I was able to sort out my life by working with my hands, mind, and heart.  A few years later, 2010, the NYC Metro Modern Quilt Guild formed, and I have been an active member ever since.  That is where I fell in love with improvisational and scrap quilts.  Hoping our year ahead is filled with positive energy, good health, and lots of time to quilt.

Co-President:  Jody Sullivan

I am married to my high school sweetheart Jim for 53 years.  We raised our three children in our 150-year-old house which we were constantly renovating ourselves and when it was finally “finished” after about 30 years, I found time to buy a sewing machine and discovered quilting.  I started by taking several classes at The Country Quilter and was hooked!  I have now joined the fabric hoarders’ society and spend much of my free time (particularly this past year) making quilts.  I joined NSQG few years ago and discovered an amazing group of fellow quilters and look forward to joining in their future.

Secretary:  Francine Jacobson

I took my first quilting class at The Niddy Noddy in Croton on Hudson in 1980 and I haven’t stopped since!  I have a large family and mostly make quilts for weddings and babies.  I worked for 30 years as an educator in Ossining and since my retirement I am able to dedicate much more time to quilting.  Since joining the guild a few years ago, I have begun to explore many new avenues in the world of quilting and appreciate the opportunity to give back!

Treasurer: Amanda Curley

When growing up, my grandmother always had a basket by her chair filled with quilt piecing.  Once she had a top pieced together, she would take it to Effie, an elderly country woman, who lived down a backwoods road with her flock of chickens.  Effie would finish the quilt by hand.  One of these quilts was my wedding gift.  I’ve been using Grandma’s Bear Claw Bed Quilt since 1972.

It has taken many years of travel, raising a family, and a career before the gift of retirement returned me to the world of quilting.  When I joined NSQG in 2015, doors opened that I had long forgotten and missed.  The world of quilting I knew as a child has changed.  I am fascinated with everything I am learning through the guild and captivated with the quilts made and shared while enjoying the friendship of so many quilters.  I look forward to giving back as the guild’s treasurer.

 Vice President – Communications: Anne MacDonald

I began quilting in 2014, and it was love at first stitch.  My mother had been a hand quilter in the 70’s and I learned how to machine piece from my sister-in-law after admiring all her creations.  Quilting is a welcome change from using my brain at work, and I especially like the tactile and repetitive nature of the activities – cut, sew, press, cut, sew, press!
I joined the guild in 2015 and enjoy being with others that are interested in all things fabric and creative.  My favorite day all year is Super Saturday and I have found that smaller group activity to be a good way to get to know other members.  Although we have had some great remote experiences, I am looking forward to being able to have in-person activities again!  I joined the board first as the Charitable Activities Chair, and then as Assistant to the Presidents and have really enjoyed the experience.

Vice President – Membership:  Carol Sterk

I was a college junior when I discovered some unfinished Dresden plates in my grandmother’s closet.  It was an “aha” moment for me, and I decided to learn to quilt once I finished my education.  I took my first quilting class in 1976 at Riverside Church in Manhattan where I learned to cut pattern templates out of cardboard.  I persevered despite many setbacks until, several months after we moved to Westchester, my husband discovered an article in the newspaper about a quilt show at JFK High School in Somers.  It was a revelation!  I bought my first quilting book, attended a tutorial given by Claire Oehler, a founding member of NSQG, and put my name on a sign-up list to be notified about the first meeting of a new quilt guild that was being formed.  I have been a member of the guild ever since.  I am incredibly grateful for the friends I have made, the educational opportunities that have helped me grow as a quilter and for the show that has challenged me to be the best I can be.  I have served in several board positions over the years including Hospitality, Membership, Education, Assistant to the President and Quilt Show (co-chair) and am excited about returning to Membership, a role that will allow me to take an active part in board’s commitment to keep the guild vibrant.  My special passion is making complicated pieced quilts out of as many “scraps” as possible from my extensive stash.

Vice President – Programs:  Kathy Tuttle

I am a retired educator who took up Quilting when I was waiting for my second grandchild to be born.  A good friend of mine told me I had to make a giraffe/measurement chart for the nursery, and she would help me.  Having been a sewer for most of my life I thought it was a great idea. That was five years ago.  While the project was way over my head in reality, I fell in love with quilting.  I am a self-taught quilter with a few classes here and there.  I was delighted to join the guild last year, excited to meet wonderful people and learn from experienced quilters.  Since joining the guild, I have realized through the many wonderful programs and workshop that my love lies with art quilting.  I am a life-long learner and I look forward to in person meetings and workshops as the world opens its doors again in the not too distant future.

Vice President – Quilt Show:  Lisa Alfonzetti

I graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1985 and began a job at a public relations firm in NYC.  It did not take me long to realize I was not on the right path.  The next step on the journey for me was purchasing a local fabric store that was for sale in 1987.  My fiancé and I took money we were saving for a house down payment and purchased the shop instead, and there has been no looking back.  We purchased the shop and got married all within the same month.  The shop had primarily a garment sewing focus, but we quickly added quilting cottons into the mix and, needless to say, quilting took over.
In my 34 years of shop ownership, I have strived to provide an environment that provides great products and experiences for our customers.  In recent years, my business has expanded to include sub-dealerships, working with other shops in the area to provide sewing machine expertise and service.  Working together has benefited not just us but our customers as well.  Our primary goal every day is a great customer experience.
While running my shop, I also raised 3 kids during this time, who are now 26, 29 and 31 years old.  And I am, with great excitement, expecting my first grandchild in July.  I served in many fundraising and event planning leadership roles during their school years – fundraisers for sports teams, the PTA, and most significantly, a Teen Safe Driving Program.  I feel my experience from these events will be my best preparation for running a successful Quilt Show.  Organization and a great team are the keys to success.
I am a new member of the guild, although I have been involved for many years.  Our participation as a vendor has included the donation of a BERNINA Sewing Machine for each show that we have been a vendor at.  I have always been appreciative of all the volunteers that make the guild, and the annual show, a success, and I feel like it is time for me to give back.

Click HERE for a pdf of the nominees info above as well as pics and bios of Board Members currently in appointed positions, not a part of the  election.

Signup – Workshop –Inspired By Architecture April 21

David Owens-Hastings – Mountlake Terrace WA

https://davidowenhastings.com

Review our upcoming lectures and workshops on the website anytime.

Emails with details and reminders about workshops as well as any extra events are sent regularly, be sure to watch for them.

Zoom lecture links are sent out a couple days beforehand, recording links for those lectures that can be recorded are sent out a couple days after.

Linda Stern, programs@northernstarquiltersguild.com

Some updates from our various SIGs:  We hope you all are enjoying your time together.  Our volunteer SIG facilitators have been generously sharing their time and skills to provide us with additional social and educational opportunities during this difficult time.  We will be seeing some of their efforts at the Spring Fling.  Many thanks to them all!

• For Art Lovers – Tamar Drucker

At our March 8^th meeting, we all chose our own medium to work with, while listening to 4 different styles of music.  Some flowing classical string music, then rhythmic percussion, and so on.   At our next meeting, we are going to welcome Spring by working on flowers using paper collage.   It will be a study tool for fabric work in the future.

• Quilting Skills – Diane Linker

The Quilt Skills SIG has been progressing well.  Everyone seems to be at roughly the same level and the group is cohesive.  Some of the people knew each other from the class I taught at Comfort Quilts summer before last, and all the members seem to be comfortable with each other.

• Scrappy – Jennifer Larrabee, Anne MacDonald

The Scrappy SIG has held 2 meetings so far, and things seem to be running well.  We have a big group, but everyone seems engaged.

• Embroidery – Luann Bruce

We have been meeting every 2 weeks.  for a little over an hour.  During our meeting we have learned new embroidery stitches while making a pattern found online for free.  We have just about finished this embroidery.  We will be starting cotton crazy quilt block.  I have 4 blocks for us to do.  We will learn new stitches for the blocks.  I think we have all had fun trying new stitches.

• Domestic Machine Quilting – Roni Gerhardt

Each time we meet we learn about one of the 5 basic shapes in machine quilting designs.  So far, we have done arcs and s curves.  Next time we will learn about free motion quilting straight lines.  I demonstrate different designs that they can do with these basic shapes.  I also share different YouTube videos and websites where they can find more designs.  The last part of the SIG is sharing time, sharing their successes and their failures, helping each other solve problems.  We also do a show and tell of quilts they have quilted and quilts that need to be quilted.

• Traditional to Modern – Yvonne Clayton

The Traditional to Modern SIG has met four times and things are going quite well.  There are 10 of us with a possible new member joining.  Each member has taken a traditional block and has incorporated modern elements.  We are using bold colors, high contrast colors, solid colors, multiple block sizes, oversized blocks, alternate grid work, negative space, as well as going wonky and asymmetrical.  When we meet, we discuss a particular topic that may include sharing YouTube videos or links to websites.   We have a show and tell and help each other solve problems.  At our next meeting we will discuss quilting design ideas.