August President's Message

August 2017
We are revamping our kitchen and as I was looking through tiles, I found one that is a 5" star block. It was the right color and I was very tempted to use them in our backsplash. However, when we moved into the house, the backsplash had several blue tiles of windmills. The couple who built the house was from Holland so the tiles were important to them. I hate them. Not only because I didn’t want windmills but because of the color blue. I like blue but wanted more flexibility in decorating the kitchen. Therefore, even though we plan to live in this house the rest of our lives, I opted not to use the star tiles. I will use a white mosaic that may still be hated by someone else in 20 years but at least they are neutral (I also really like them). It’s the same with our quilts. The colors we love may not be appreciated by someone else. Even the colors combinations we love now, grow tiresome and we move on to others.

I talked to a lady the other day who had once been in the guild and plans to come back (I will only have to goad her a little bit). I told her that the guild would inspire her. Then I had to reflect back and think about how I have been inspired. When I started in the guild, I knew very little about quilting, of course. A more experi-
enced quilting friend would spout words like trapunto, applique, nine-patch, block, etc. I thought to myself that I would never figure all that out. It did happen though. Gradually, I have learned all those terms and am still finding new ones (my favorite if FUFO-Future UFOs; kits I have bought but not started). I loved the look of applique but hated the process. Now because of seeing your work and taking classes through the guild, I enjoy both hand and machine applique. Piecing is still my preferred method of putting a top together, but I have moved from simple nine-patches to more complex blocks that actually fit together when I sew them.

Speaking of inspiration, the Mancuso Show has already requested our theme for our display at the show in February. Diane Bennett has graciously created a theme and given them our paragraph to put in the program. The theme is "Threads of Life." I like this because any quilt can be used with this theme. We don’t have to make a quilt to fit the theme. For instance, we make quilts to commemorate a birth, a graduation, a wedding… We make quilts just to keep warm either at night, in front of the TV or in countless over situations. Now that we have the theme, we need someone to gather the quilts. It’s really a fun job. Jackie Gaskins and I stepped in at the last minute last year and were able to easily take care of it. Please give me a call for more information if you (and maybe a friend) would be willing to perform this role.

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