P R ES ID ENT’S MES S AG E

Merrimack Valley Quilting Guild

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2016-1017

President:

Liz Swan

Vice– President

Mary Wilkes

Secretary:

Kim Blanchard

Treasurer AP:

Gail Forthoffer

Treasurer AR:

Heather Sheilds

Celebrating 38 years of encouraging the art of quilting in the Merrimack Valley. MVQ was established in 1980.

To reach any committee, please address corre-spondence to MVQ Guild PO Box 566 Haverhill. MA 01831 Newsletter items must be in to me by the 1st of each month: Pat.lucey@verizon.net

November/December 2017

December 7th Holiday Party Wear your finest. Bring your best goodie!

The Holidays are here! I am blessed to be able to spend time with my guild sisters. Our holiday party is Decem-ber 7, 2017. Social hour is 6 – 7:00 PM. The meeting will begin at 7:00pm. Bring a food item to share, your green fabric project in a brown paper bag, items for New-born’s in Need and your name tag. Gail Wozniak and her team have some wonderful surprises for us. Our business meeting will be short to keep the mood light for the party. We will have a more comprehensive business meeting in January. Thanksgiving is over and now comes the holiday shop-ping rush. Do you have all your quilty gifts complete? I still have a few to finish. Try to finish up quickly so that you can enjoy this wonderful time of the year with family and friends. May your holidays be filled with lots of happiness, peace, love and a few notions. May all your fabric dreams for the coming year be fulfilled. Happy New Year! Liz Swan, President

Diane Desjardins dianedesjardins@comcast.net Please contact if you know of someone in need.

Travel Quilt Update The beautiful raffle quilts produced by our guild need more exposure beyond the opportunities to hang in the two yearly major quilt shows. Our experience at the Atkinson 250 year celebration reminded us that the raffle ticket sales are higher in venus where the audience is not made up of other quilters. We ask that you take note of other sorts of events in the many communities that surround us to display the quilt and sell raffle tickets. Please let Betty or Judy know of any other possibilities to display our quilt. Our quilt’s recent journey to the Connections Quilt Festival brought $180 to the guild coffers. Appre-ciation goes out to our volunteers who sat at the table and/or white -gloved. Thanks Carol Sullivan, Ann Stobbs, Mary Stobbs, Jamie Ruh, Liz Swan, Mary Wilkes, Carol Robinson, Brenda Haskell, Cin-di Fergusen, Ronni Longwell, Gail Forthoffer, Betty Hastings, and Judy Naylor. We look forward to more people volunteering for the next shows. Appreciatively, Judy and Betty

2019 MVQ Raffle Quilt 8 1/2" unfinished block of your choice - choose your design so it can be placed on point

It can be pieced, appliqued, paper pieced, traditional or modern

Preferably bright distinct colors -no pastels, beige, brown or off white - *bright white may be used for contrast

no Batiks please

no embellishments that are not appropriate for a quilt to be used as a covering - not a wall hang-

ing.

PLEASE NOTE: 1/4" seam allowance needed for joining blocks - BE MINDFUL of the points and edges of your design. *carefully measure before returning - must be 8 1/2" BLOCKS TO BE RETURNED BY JANUARY MEETING PLEASE ........ THANK YOU Contact us with any questions Lin Caiado & Bev Valle - 2019 Raffle quilt Co-chairs Instructions also on the web.

Sew and Know None at this meeting.

Our UFO Auction will be held in February. Start putting your items aside now. Thank you Minda Fowler

Theme: Stellar Co-Chairs: Mary Wilkes, Winonah Schedler Location: Hope Church, Newburyport We will be making the award ribbons this year. More info to come- will be a workshop. Challenge- a song with “star” in the title or lyrics.

Please bring a dish to share, (remember to bring serving spoon and label if needed) salads, sides, main course, or dessert. We will provide the beverages, plates, napkins and silverware.

Please bring your “brown bag/green fabric swap” in your bag with it securely closed at the opening as we will be passing them around during the game.

We will have boxes out in the hallway for your donations for Newborns in Need. Thank you in advance for those.

And for Show and Tell bring a favorite new or old Holiday quilt, table runner etc

.Wear your finest Christmas gear. Prizes will be awarded.

December 7th, 2017 Christmas Party (Gail Wozniak, Chair) No Workshop Tentative Workshop Ornament Workshop TBD by member interest January 18th, 2018 Journeys No Workshop February 15th, 2018 UFO February 17th, 2018 Carol Robinson – Collages Workshop March 15th, 2018 Pam Weeks – New England Quilt Museum What’s New About Jane Stickle March 17th, 2018 Strings and Bits – Fun with Scrap Quilts Workshop April 19th, 2018 Rose Ann Hunter – Newburyport Artisan Folk Art – Historic Techniques from the early 1800’s April 21st, 2018 Wool Pincushions and Knitted Confetti Bag Workshop May 10th, 2018 Bonne Lyn McCaffery Portrait Quilts May 11, 2018 Photographs by Bonnie – scheduled on an individual ba-sis May 12th, 2018 Painted Face for Beginners Workshop June 21st, 2018 RaNae Merrill – RaNae Merrill Quilt Design Magnificent Spiral Mandala Quilts June 22rd, 2018 Magic Mirror Mandala Quilt Friday Workshop June 23rd, 2018 Saturday Workshop Free Motion Mastery in A Month

MVQ General Meeting October 2017

Diane Kelley- Maris House Comfort Quilts 57 quilts were donated and displayed and presented Ann Hockmeyer-Quilt Show Committee-Award Presentation and Show information

Ribbons: Winners were announced and winners checks are being mailed out instead of presented. Thank you Diane Kelly for CoChairing. 550 attendees. Financial handouts are in the lobby.

Profits of $7352. Most of the money was made by White Elephant $2382. President’s Announcements:

• Next General Meeting: No November meeting the next meeting will be the Annual Holiday Meeting on December 7, 2017. • Next Board Meeting: Wednesday, November 15, 2017, at 7pm - WCC room 2012

• Motion to Accept September Meeting Minutes as Posted in Newsletter. Any additions or corrections? Motion to accept amended minutes. VOTE Elaine Rando second by Shirley Reed. Unanimously passed.

• Motion To Accept Treasurer’s Report as posted in the newsletter. Any additions or corrections? VOTE. Bet Valle seconded by Diane Desjardines. Unanimously passed.

• Remind members that the traveling raffle quilt has 8 time slots that need filling at the Connections Festival that is only 28 days away. Table in lobby see Betty and Judy. • Program Chair and Vice Chair through 2018-2019 season (Ronni Longwell and Nancy

Dempsey). • Quilt ShowChair-2018

Mary Wilkes will be the new Chair and Wenonah Schwedler will be the vice chair. Committee Reports: Programs-Ronni Longwell

Christines workshop Saturday is Silk Applique hosted by Mary Stobbs. February is Collage Carrie Robinson. RaNae free motion mastery class is open.

VP Charity Quilt- Mary Wilkes and Ronni Longwell for Liberty House Community Crossroads Charity quilts will be this years primary charity. Please make baby

sized quilts. Veterans Liberty House needs twin size quilts for the veterans. Most of the veterans take the quilts with them because it is all that they have. So new quilts are always needed.

Next Raffle Quilt 2018-2019. Bev Valle and Lin Caaiado. Make any 8 1/2” unfinished block so that it sits on point using any bright distinct colors. No Batiks or embellishments. Use a white background. Return by January meeting

Sampler Quilts Group -Deb Kelso. The group showed their latest quilts.

Show and Tell Break Membership-Diane Desjardines and Mary Kendall

78 members tonight and 1 guest Paula Vogel. Door prize winner Sharron Brown ( raffle quilt sitters door prize)

Name Tag Raffle winners Helen Wheymouth, Sue Hardin, Dot Tyler Sunshine Report Get well to Shirley Reed

Sympathy to Carren Parent thinking of you because daughter injured Sympathy to Joan Burns for death of husband Sympathy Gail Forthoffer death of father

Sympathy Gueli Family passing of father Fabric Raffle goes to Linda Gueli

Carrie Zizza thanked everyone who helped with judging and set up and tear down. $749 was made at the silent auction

MVQ TREASUER REPORT October 31, 2017 Gail Forthoffer/Heather Shields

Checking Balance 22,346.38 Money Market 5,042.06 Annuity as of 6/30/2017 16,166.53 TOTAL FUNDS $ 43,554.97 SUMMARY EXPENSES PAID:

FUNDS RECEIVED:

Insurance 187.00

Post Office Box 160.00

Franciscan Guest House (Retreat) 7,410.00

Quilt Show Operational 488.84

Quilt Show Judging 438.40

Quilt Show Awards 275.00

Quilt Show Kitchen Expense 481.74

Printing 172.70

Bank Fees 15.00

Program (October) 800.00

Website Domain 35.00

Total Expenses $10,463.68

Liabilities (Uncleared Transactions) $4,371.54

2017 Raffle Quilt 332.00

2018 Raffle Quilt 264.70

Quilt Show Income 7542.3

Program Fees 690.00

Total Expenses $8829.00

Well, it’s hard to believe we’re heading into the holiday season already. November is here and I don’t know where the time went!

December is our annual Christmas party and promises to be a great time, chaired by Gail Wozniak!!!!!

You won’t want to miss it! Make sure you’re working with on your “brown bag” gift with the fabric Gail handed out in the spring and at the last meeting – if you didn’t get yours, please reach out to her – it’s not too late. Donations may be brought for Newborns in Need. And don’t forget your favorite holiday food to share.

Program booklets are available at the meeting so be sure and pick one up if you haven’t already. Sign-ups are open for ALL classes so be sure to sign up early! PLEASE note that payment must be made at the time of sign-up and is non-refundable. I am accountable to the teacher for a head count weeks be-

fore the workshop and he/she may be preparing kits as well as class materials so an accurate count is important. Last minute cancellations and refunds are not fair to the teacher or to the Guild. Please keep in mind we are paying very low workshop fees ($25) for great and expensive teachers and any out-of-pocket money comes from Guild funds. Most workshops are $500 and above, more for the high end teachers. Please see me if you have questions and be sure and take advantage of the great programs this year. Our February workshop is full but hopefully we can offer that again at another time! Thank you Carol Robinson for leading this workshop on collages. March brings us Pam Weeks, the Curator of the New England Quilt Museum, who is doing a scrappy quilt workshop. It’s a great time to use up some of those scraps I know you all have! April brings us Newburyport artisan Rose Ann Hunter. She has told me that her kits will be $10 and include everything you need to make the wool pincushion. She will also have enough extra wool for you to make a second one at home. She is also demonstrating a knitted confetti bag. Please join us and help support an artist who lives and works in the community where we have our Quilt Show! She spent some time at the show and was very impressed – she is very excited to be coming to our Guild! May is portrait painting with Bonnie McCaffery. We are one of her few travelling events this year and she should be great with a very fun workshop. Her work is very well known and received many awards. She is also doing professional photos – please see us at the sign-up table to sign up for either or both. She is coming to us from Pennsylvania. And June is our big month with RaNae Merrill – teaching spiral mandala quilts on Friday and Free Mo-

tion Mastery on Saturday. She is an amazing artist and quilter and you won’t want to miss her work-shops. Thank you to Nancy Dempsey for agreeing to be the Program Vice Chair this year and next. I am so grateful! Also many thanks to Cathy Harnisch who not only staffs the Program table but helps hold up quilts during the trunk shows! Also thanks to Mary Stobbs who is helping out at the Program table as well. And lastly, a great big shout out to all of the Workshop Angels who are volunteering to host so that Nancy and I aren’t doing them all alone. It’s a big job. It truly is a team effort.

See you in December…….

Where can I find: Quilt-quality fabric? Needles? Pins? Patterns? Interfacing? Muslin? 108” fabric? Flannel? Discounts? Art Greeting Cards? Templates? Cutters? Olfa Mats? Rulers? Books?

http://AtQuiltersQuar-ters.blogspot.com 59 North Street Georgetown MA 01833 ‘Just 2 doors north of Perley School’

: https://atquiltersquarters.blogspot.com/ Now open!

Next Meeting December 7th Necco Technology Building Doors open at 6:00 REFRESHMENTS everybody

Jeanne Elliott QuiltsEtc@aol.com Beginning Tole

Painting Beginning quilt-

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Quilting by Catherine .Hand Guided Long Arm Machine Quilting Custom Quilting

Edge to edge Binding Basting for Hand Quilting http://cquilts.wordpress.com/

603-490-0165 978-682-0165

Catherine-Quilts@comcast.net Methuen