From the Mailbag

Here are some assorted items that we recently received in our mailbag/inbox!

1.  Hurricane Sandy Relief!  We have TWO great contact organizations for those interested in donating quilts to Hurricane Sandy victims!

a.  eQuilter is collecting 5,000 quilts, and you can find their guidelines here:  http://www.equilter.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/quiltrelief.html

b.  Bumble Beans Basics in New York City is collecting quilts for immediate donation to relief victims.  They have already donated quilts to over 100 families and are planning to do more donation days.  Bumble Beans is run by the president of the New York chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild!  You can find their guidelines here:  http://bumblebeansbasics.com/

2.  The Flying Needles Quilt Guild is located in Niceville, Florida (between Pensacola and Panama City in the panhandle of Florida).  They are hosting their annual quilt retreat this year on February 28th to March 2nd, 2013, in Destin, FL!  They are hosting the event at a resort and have three national teachers coming for the event.

If you're interested in attending the retreat or for more information, check out their website at:  http://www.beachretreatandshow.com/

3.  A new quilt shop, Happy Apple Quilts, recently opened in Palm Harbor, Florida (near Clearwater, Florida).  They offer quality fabrics, patterns, kits, notions, books, threads and gift items, with friendly customer service!  If you're in the area and want to visit the store, you can find their location and store hours at their website:  www.happyapplequilts.com

4.  The Hibiscus Quilt Guild still has a few spots available for a three-dimensional flower quilting class taught by Kathy Lonergan, taking place on November 17th from 9am to 4pm in Lake Worth, Florida.  Please email me for contact information and a supply list!

October Meeting Recap!

Happy November!  We had a fun-filled October meeting and planned for the months ahead.  Here is a quick recap of the October meeting:

1.  We officially donated the beautiful finished paper-pieced chicken block quilt and hedgehog Round Robin quilt to Project Linus!

3.  We are starting up another Round Robin quilt...stay tuned for the next iteration of the quilt project!  

4.  We admired the great quilt blocks that folks made for our group quilt.  We have a lot of great blocks, and some of our brave members have been busy turning the blocks into a quilt, which should be ready by next meeting.  We hope to enter the group quilt into QuiltCon and/or the Broward quilt show.  

Just some of the blocks...wow!

Lots o' blocks!

5.  We enjoyed checking out the Bee blocks for October.  Bee members were asked to make "X and + Blocks" in blues and greens.  They look incredible together, and we can't wait to see the finished quilt!  You can find the tutorial HERE.



6.  We had Helia, a wonderfully talented longarm quilter, discuss her work and the longarm quilting process.  It was incredibly informative and fun, and Helia was a great speaker!






7.  Quilt News and Events:
--The Boca Raton Museum of Art is still hosting a show called "Politics Not as Usual:  Quilts with Something to Say."  If you haven't had a chance to see the exhibit, don't miss out on this wonderful event! 

--The New York Metro Mod Quilters, eQuilter and Bumble Beans are requesting quilts for Hurricane Sandy victims.  Click HERE for more information about how to donate quilts.
--Quiltcon (the Modern Quilt Guild's first convention) will be hosting a quilt show in February.  
--The Mancuso World Quilt Show will be held in West Palm Beach from November 8th through 10th.  It is a great event, with lots of beautiful quilts and vendors.  The Gold Coast Quilters Guild is also having a special "red and white" mini-show at the event!

8.  We discussed the ongoing Pinterest board for the South Florida Modern Quilt Guild, which you can find here:  http://pinterest.com/patchworkduck/south-florida-modern-quilt-guild-projects-and-insp/

9.  For our "Things to Bring" for the November meeting, members are requested to make something appropriate for the Thanksgiving table, which we are swapping with other members.  This can be a trivet, table runner, bread basket, napkin ring set, coasters, etc.  Let your imagination guide you!  For our "Things to Bring" for the December meeting, we will be making sets of four coasters (in any pattern you like) for swapping.

10.  As another November event, we are having a talented quilter speak to us regarding the ins and outs of quilt labels!  Come for an interesting discussion and think of questions you might have regarding labels!
Show-and-tell:  As a final wrap-up, here are some great October show and tell photos!

Quilted ottoman!

Friendly Reminder:  our next meeting is Saturday, November 17th, from 10:00am to 12:00pm, at StitchCraft in Boca Raton.  See you soon!