1984 NY Times
Happy Fall!
That buzz you hear isn’t just those busy fall bees and pesky wasps – it is the sound coming from the hive of activity at the Guild!
The September meeting was not only an opportunity for us all to get together with Guild friends and share what we have been doing over the summer months but to get back into our SIGs, to learn about all the programs that the Guild is offering and enjoy a very instructive lecture by Ann Holmes on her method of piecing and quilting a quilt in one process.
In addition to our regular SIG’s there are three new ones this year – one on basic skills that is being taught by Diane Linker, another on making a sweatshirt jacket, led by Linda Ostrander and the third on applique led by Judy Mayer. The basic skills and applique will be of particular interest to beginners. Our other SIG’s include Art Quilters (Joanne Lubchenko), ImProv (Meg Mooar and Jane Eyes), Landscape/Pictorial (Don Gough), Long Arm Quilters (Diane Linker) and Paper Piecing (Susan Deshensky). Please check the website for a description of all of the SIG’s and the meeting times.
The response to the new Row by Row quilting group has been resounding: Fifty members have signed up. Patricia was hoping for five teams, she now has ten!
The raffle quilt for the 2020 Quilt Show was on display and it is stunning. A big thank you to Pat Julian for designing, coordinating and assembling the quilt, and to Angela Vertucci for quilting it so beautifully.
Comfort Quilts reports that 72 quilts have been donated this past quarter. The Guild has every reason to be proud of its charitable work in donating quilts to hospitals and social services organizations for women and children, including Blythedale Children’s Hospital, NICU’s at Northern Westchester Hospital and Maria Ferari, Pleasantville Cottage School, Kids in Crisis and Putnam/Northern Westchester Women’s Resource Center. At our October meeting we will all have a chance to see the results of the Comfort Quilters summer project!
Sarah Schattschneider, Linda Stern’s daughter, has very kindly offered to help Daisy and Debby in their efforts to keep members in touch with what is happening in the Guild and to reach out to potential new members by handling the Guild’s Instagram account. Please send along any photos to Daisy, Debby and Sarah for them to upload to the account so that the Guild will have a lively and interesting online forum. For those of you on Instagram, please follow our Instagram account @northernstarquilters!!
The new option to pay our membership fees by credit card online was a great success – 50 members chose to pay online. We are now looking into the possibility of offering the same online payment option for our programs and events.
After researching a number of other potential locations for our Guild meetings, it was clear that, wherever we go, we will have to pay more for our space going forward. That prompted us to return to Kennedy to explore the possibility of continuing to hold our meetings there. Kennedy is considering a proposal that we have made which will involve an increase in the fee we pay. We will keep you all posted!
Sheila Cuttner, the Arts Westchester Ambassador, and her friend Melinda Stein, very much enjoyed their visit and were impressed by how friendly everyone was. Thank you for rolling out the welcome mat. Another Arts Westchester Ambassador, Sudha Yerneni, will be attending our October meeting. The Guild has already received a generous grant from Arts Westchester to support our lectures and workshops and Susan Fasnacht has worked hard over the last two weeks to put together and submit our application for another grant for the coming year. Fingers crossed!
Our next meeting will be October 15 at 6:30 p.m. Please remember to bring reusable bags for Kathy to give to the local Food Pantries and beige fabric so that Daisy can start to put together the kits for in 2021 raffle quilt.
Enjoy the beautiful fall weather. Keep quilting!
Anne and Karen
president@northernstarquilters.com