Wow! What a fantastic Quilt Show! We have so many talented members in our Guild. Everywhere I turned there was something beautiful to see. With so much diversity there truly was something for everyone. I saw quilts that I wanted to take home and wrap myself in and cuddle up. I saw quilts I wanted to hang in a special place and admire every day. Every time I walked through I saw something different, some detail I had missed before.
I want to express my personal gratitude to the Quilt Show Chair, Anne Watkins, and to each member of the Quilt Show Committee for creating a show we can all take pride in. And no creation can be brought to life without chocolate chip cookies, and all the volunteers who worked together to offer a warm and welcoming environment for people to admire and soak in, the awesome gifts from the hands of the members of the Norman Area Quilters Guild.
Quilt Show
Anne Watkins
The quilt show is history now, but I am still on Cloud 9. All of the feedback we (the committee) received has been positive. The vendors did well, and they want to come back. The public thought our quilts were of exceptional quality and nicely presented. Over and over again I heard how friendly the volunteers were. We hung 130 quilts by 59 members, not counting the special displays. Many members entered quilts in a show for the first time. We awarded 10 prizes but as I looked around, I saw many quilts that deserved recognition. If you missed the show, pictures of the prize winning quilts are on the NAQG web site.
I owe a great many thanks to people who contributed to the success of our quilt show. The committee was creative and hard working. Guild members showed up in droves to volunteer to hang quilts or work for one of the committees during the show. Patchwork Place gave above and beyond the call of duty either by discounting the fabric for the raffle quilt or extra contributions for prizes. Oklahoma Quiltworks and The Savage Quilter contributed to door prizes or awards. Arvest Bank gave us a sewing machine to award to Molly Shi Boren's selection. Mrs. Boren gave us time from her schedule to pick a quilt for recognition. She was interested in our quilts and spent time looking at and discussing every quilt with her guide. Many suppliers and businesses contributed door prizes. Linda Coldwell, Wilma De Berry's daughter, contributed her expertise as a publicist and wrote our press release among other things. This list could go on for a while, but I would run out of room.
These are the quilts that won prizes:
Mrs. Boren's Choice: Queen Anne's Star Medallion (whole cloth quilt) by Revonda Blanding
President's Choice: Aussie Scraps by Carole Pence
Quilt Show Chair's Choice: God Bless America with Faith Hope and Love by Carol Haynes
Patchwork Place: Happy Birthday Oklahoma by Anne Watkins
The Stitching Post: Breeze of India by Praba Kakani
The Quilting Post: You Must Remember This by Shirley Dixon
Fun to Sew: Lookie, Lookie What I See by Melida Boman
Viewer's Choice #1: My Blue Stars by Betty Brady
Viewer's Choice #2: Poppies by Dianne Bauman
Viewer's Choice #2: All about Our Family by Jaquita Moore (Pictures on p.2)
In January, the guild president will be looking for a new Quilt Show Chairman for the next show and the new chairman will in turn be looking for a committee. It is a lot of work, but I will tell you that it is well worth it. I wouldn't trade the last year for anything.
What Did the Winners Win?
Anne Watkins
Molly Shi Boren Award went to Revonda Blanding. She won a Brother sewing machine provided by Arvest Bank.
Fun to Sew awarded a serger to Melida Boman.
Stitching Post awarded a Brother sewing machine to Prabha Kakani as their sponsor award and a Brother sewing machine to Betty Brady for the Viewer's Choice.
Patchwork Place awarded a $150 gift certificate to me for their sponsor choice.
Quilting Post chose Shirley Dixon for their award of a quilt kit.
Carol Pence received a gift certificate of $50 from The Savage Quilter and a $50 gift certificate from Patchwork Place.
Carol Haynes received $100 cash from an anonymous donor.
There was a tie for 2nd place Viewer's Choice so $50 gift certificates from Patchwork Place went to Dianne Bauman and Jaquita Moore.
A Walk Down Memory Lane
Georjana Mauldin
Tammy Vaughn, Executive Director of Full Circle Senior Adult Day Care, Norman, called Anne Watkins to ask if she could bring some participants of her program to our quilt show - free of charge. Anne did not hesitate asking our committee for feedback, and we whole-heartedly said yes - bring them.
The center is a wonderful gift to our community. I met the ladies as they traveled through our quilt exhibit. There were smiles and chatting going on between the ladies. Tammy said one lady that rarely speaks was telling them all about her mother and the quilting experiences she had in her life. Tammy expressed a heartfelt thank you for allowing the group a beautiful walk down memory lane among beautiful quilts. She also mentioned that the group is still talking amongst themselves about the outing.
If you would like to know more about the Full Circle Senior Adult Day Care, visit their website. http://www.fullcircleok.org/index.cfm
THANK YOU ALL!!!
By Michelle Lynch
I would like to thank everyone who volunteered and worked so hard to make it a great quilt show. We had many, many compliments, both from attendees and vendors. I had a great time even if it was a lot of work....it was worth it.
We had 130 quilts entered in the show, representing 59 individuals. That is a participation rate of almost 50% of the guild entering quilts. Many people were impressed by the quality of the quilts. You all did a great job! Again, thank you.
I feel that the quilt check-in and return processes went smoothly, but if anyone has suggestions that they feel might improve future shows, please send them to me () , or Anne Watkins () to be included in notes for the next committee.
Bazaar Happenings
Georjana Mauldin, Bazaar Chair
Thank you all for helping with the bazaar. We sold $907 worth of items that quilters need. We said farewell to this year’s quilt show with a party at my house. Twenty quilt show committee members and persons that helped with the bazaar came to party. We ate sweets and savories – all good stuff!! We just relaxed and chatted knowing the quilt show was a huge success, and now it was over. If you have any suggestions or ideas for the next bazaar, please let me know. I am compiling a notebook for the next show. It is never too early to plan ahead!
WAYS AND MEANS
Adrianne Fox
Congratulations to everyone that hung a quilt in the show - it was wonderful. I heard so many good comments from the people that stopped by the Ways and Means table about the beautiful quilts and how much diversity we have in our Guild - you all deserve a ribbon!
And, you deserve a ribbon for donating to Ways & Means, you made $879.15! And I got rid of a bunch of merchandise - Thank you for being so generous.
Great News!
Ruth Leidy
Teresa Crider is our new Web Master! She has been working hard. The winner’s quilts are pictured and many others. Remember that our Web Address is www.normanareaquiltguild.org. She introduces herself:
“I am Earlene's daughter and have taken over managing the web site. So far I have been trying to get it up to date, but I would also like to make sure as much information as possible is available on the site. I would also like to dress up some of the pages and make them more interesting, so if anyone has any photos or information they would like to see on the site please feel free to email me.”
She has also requested information about the Small Groups – time, date, and emphasis. Are your groups open to new members?
I’m looking forward to working with Teresa to keep our membership (and others) informed.
Community Projects
Wilma DeBerry
I hope all of you who attended the Quilt Show took notice of the Community Projects Quilts that were displayed at both entrances. These beautiful quilts will now be taken to their new owners. I had many positive comments about them at the door prizes table.
Please remember that the Community Projects Committee will not meet this month because it falls on Memorial Day. We will meet in June and I plan to sort fabric and build kits. We also have a need to quilt the tops we already have and label some others. You have been doing a great job and our clients cannot believe the beauty of the quilts I deliver. I am on vacation this month but hope to see all of you in June.
Programs
Brenda Daniel
First, about June: On June 17, we’re going to participate in a joint meeting with the Edmond guild at Rose State College (in the Atkinson Theatre). Our guest speaker and workshop teacher will be Karen McTavish.
The workshop will be on designing quilt tops (as for whole-cloth quilting) – this should be interesting to hand quilters as well as machine quilters. The workshop will be held during the day on the 17th (although there may still be some space in the Monday session which is being planned in conjunction with the machine quilters’ guild). Because we’re trying to organize two workshop days instead of just one, the location for the workshop has not yet been finalized – we will phone workshop participants to let them know the final determination.
Because we’re “splitting” workshop spaces with the Edmond guild, and they ALREADY have a waiting list of ladies wanting to attend the workshop, it is very important that we finalize *our* list of workshop participants. We definitely have ten “spaces” overall and I’ve received commitments from four of our members, so we still have six reserved spaces for Norman quilters. These reserved spaces will be *unreserved* as of June 1. If you want to attend Karen McTavish’s workshop, give me your name and your $35 workshop fee no later than June 1 – after that, we’ll open the remaining workshop spaces to those ladies on the waiting list.
THIS MONTH (May): GAME NIGHT! We hope to have a few fun little things to do, and the highlight of the evening will be Quilt Bingo. An entrance fee of one fat quarter OR four fabric strips each 2.5 inches by width-of-fabric will purchase one bingo card. You will be allowed to purchase more than one bingo card, although we will be setting a limit of no more than four bingo cards per person. Bring your playful attitude!
Fat Quarter Lotto
Georjana Mauldin
Each month at our Norman guild meeting we hold our Fat Quarter Lotto. Bring a fat quarter (or more!) for that month’s theme. For every fat quarter you turn in you get a chance at winning the pool of fat quarters! We have been splitting the piles into TWO OR MORE drawings, since so many are bringing fat quarters! Keep them coming! Each month we have a different theme.
May Meeting
Theme: “Riding into the Sunset”
Southwest themed fabrics and colors – geometrics and solids.
No June FQ Lotto.
Membership Report
Nancy Baysinger
I hope you all enjoyed the quilt show as much as I did. The entire show committee did a fantastic job, and I really appreciate all their hard work! I'm hoping that we will pick up some new members from the show.
I still have 2008 directories and membership cards to give out. I will have them at the May meeting, so if you have not gotten yours, be sure to pick them up. I do not plan to bring the rest of the directories to the June meeting since it is our joint meeting with Edmund.
