June 2024
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The Brown Bag Hustle is Hustling Back!
Tuesday, June 18 – Raffle and Silent Auction
Donate half of your stash! Bring your crafty friends who love a good bargain! Also bring anything and everything you wish to give away including fabric, kits, partially finished projects, books, magazines, sewing lamps, machine carriers, yarn, knitting equipment, embroidery equipment, sewing machines, quilt frames, and anything related that you deem worthy to pass on.
Date & Location: Tuesday June 18th, Grace United Methodist Church in Lake Bluff
Time: 5:00 pm for members to drop off their own donations; 6:00 pm the brief meeting begins with the hustle immediately following!
Raffle Ticket Prices: 6 for $5; 15 for $10; 20 for $15; and 30 for $20
Cash, Checks, and Credit Cards will be accepted
There will be no guest fee for attendees who aren’t members, so invite everyone!
Donna Fitzgerald, Ways & Means
July Program: Pre-Civil War Quilts: Secret Codes to Freedom on the Underground Railroad
Tuesday, July 16, 2024 – 7:00 pm - In Person
“Sometimes a quilt is just a quilt, other times it has hidden messages that helped freedom seekers escape to the North.”
Join Connie Martin, who finds joy in telling the secret codes and hidden messages in the family quilts her ancestors used over 200 years ago by both white and black abolitionists to signify escape routes to the North. It shows how quilts were used to signal plans, warn of dangers, indicate how transport might occur, or who might help as “Friends” on the Underground Railroad.
Connie displays over a dozen beautifully hand-crafted quilt replicas representing patterns and special stitching used over 300 years ago by abolitionists and fugitive slaves to signify escape routes to the North. She shares her knowledge originating from an information-packed family Bible found dating back to the 1850s. It revealed key abolitionists and safe escape routes passing from Kentucky through Illinois.
May 2024 Workshop – A Good Time Was Had by All!
We want say thank you to Linda Lambert for a wonderful day hanging out with our quilting friends, playing with our fabric, and exercising our brains learning the Laura Heine Collage Quilting techniques. We all started with the same “kit” of fabric, added some of our own fabrics and each ended up with a unique sewing machine that reflected our individual tastes.
You can see in the photographs how each of our members created their own unique sewing machine design!
Nancy Zamor and Enid Mattimiro, Co-Chairs Programs
Message from the President
We had a wonderful meeting in May with our presentation from Linda Lambert. Linda’s positive energy was contagious. We had our own private art exhibit with so many of Laura Heine’s collage quilts. Linda’s workshop was great. We had so much fun learning and working on our collage quilts. It was amazing to see how each participant’s quilt was different and each one was beautiful! I can’t wait to see the finished quilts at show and tell.
We are looking for a few volunteers to help document Village Quilters’ history. Are you someone who enjoys documenting your family genealogy? Do you enjoy learning about your family background and hearing stories about your ancestors? Or maybe you like to organize things. We can use your help. Kearstie Grenier is our historian and has begun digitizing and organizing our records and would like some assistance! Kearstie has a vision about what needs to be done and values the importance of documenting our history as a quilt guild. Please consider helping with this project. Let me know if you are interested.
Thank you to Linda Spring for volunteering to help with our library. Linda will be assisting our librarian Rosemary Groenwald. This will be a big help for those times that Rosemary is not able to attend a meeting.
I’m sure everyone is looking forward to a fun-filled summer. The guild has some exciting programs planned for the summer, so I hope that you will be able to schedule these events into your plans!
Sharon Pierluissi, President
A Story From Our Librarian
On my list of quilt projects to tackle is to design a more eye-catching border to add to the next quilt I start. There are so many border options other than the standard (and somewhat boring) strips used for many outer borders.
To this end, I checked out several quilt books from the Village Quilters Library that focus on quilt borders. To identify the titles that highlight working with borders, I browsed the carts of library books put out at each guild meeting, AND I also searched for the term “border” in our online catalog of the books owned by the guild.
Of the books I checked out, two titles in particular stood out as being so full of valuable information to refer to (pattern design, techniques, instructions, etc.), that I decided to purchase them for my own personal library. This way I’ll have them to refer to when I’m inclined to add a border to a quilt pattern I’m making, or possibly revise the existing border design. The two books are:
The Border Workbook by Janet Kime
Borders: The Basics and Beyond by Jill Reber
Since there isn’t always enough time to browse the cart of books at our monthly guild meetings, I encourage you to peruse the online catalog of titles in the guild’s library at your leisure. If you discover a title that looks interesting, you can check it out at the next meeting.
Rosemary Groenwald, Librarian
Mark Your Calendar – Date Change for Fall Retreat!
Our fall quilt retreat dates have been changed to Friday, October 25 to Sunday October 27. As of today, I am not sure what the room rates will be if you want to stay overnight, but I will let you know in the next newsletter. Sign up will begin on August 1 at 8:00 am, so plan ahead!
Marti Austin
Treasurer’s Report
Bank Balance as of April 1, 2024: $37,392.92
Income: $2,795.00
Expenses: $670.11
Ending Bank Balance as of April 30, 2024: $39,517.81
April income derived primarily from memberships for the coming fiscal year ($2,390.00). The remaining income was from workshop registrations and the spring retreat. Expenses were for the retreat, rent, computer software licenses, President’s quilt and transaction processing fees.
2023/2024 Fiscal Year Financial Review: The Guild ended the year with a higher than planned cash balance. Budgeted net income was higher than planned, resulting from both the successful quilt show and higher membership income (some may be due to timing). The cancellation of the Brown Bag Hustle, due to severe weather, resulted in no income from that event, which therefore partially offset the previously mentioned income favorability.
On the expense side, spending on programs and workshops was $1,300 less than planned and rent expense was $550 less than planned due to two meeting cancellations and timing of payments. Finally, the Guild spent $600 on equipment that was not planned for in the budget, primarily on ladders. The Guild ended the year in a strong financial position.
Respectfully submitted, Melanie Houser, Treasurer
Membership Report
Welcome New Members: Candy Gerber and Melinda Stawicki. We are also happy to welcome back Helen Zallie, a previous member.
It is important to wear our name tags at every meeting since we are once again meeting in person most of the time! If you forget to wear your name tag, we ask you to donate 25 cents to the can, which goes into our library fund.
The membership fee is now $50.00 for the year ($25.00 for active military or spouse). To renew your membership online, go to our website. At the top of every page is a Members button with a drop-down menu; select Membership Renewal. Choose your membership type (regular or military) and you will be taken to a page where you can pay your dues and fill out the membership form.
To renew your membership by check, mail it to:
Village Quilters, ℅ Grace United Methodist Church
244 E. Center Street, Lake Bluff, IL 60044
Lorraine Potts and Robyn McGarrigle, Membership Committee Chairs
Happy June Birthday to the following members!
Susan Surdyk, June 5
Kate Klein, June 6
Linda Warren, June 7
Andrea Krier, June 11
Debbie McDonald, June 14
Susan Minorini, June 21
Sarah Solotaroff, June 22
Marg Spain, June 26
Sue Minster, June 28
Sew With Sunshine Stitchers
Members of Village Quilters meet at the State Bank of The Lakes, 50 Commerce Drive, Grayslake on the third Thursday of the month. All are welcome. Come with your machine to stitch blocks, come with handwork, come with your quilt top, batting and binding to sandwich your quilt. There is plenty of room.
We meet in the community room which is in the lower level. Enter the bank through the front door and take the elevator on the right. The room is open to us from 10:00 to 3:00. Most show up around 11-ish.
Questions? Email Kathy Huesinkveld or Marti Austin
Announcement: Fabric Sale!
Kitty Hynes, a former member of Village Quilters, has had several fabric sales in the past and is having another one with the help of Nancy Giebel, a current Village Quilters member. Both women worked at the former quilt shop “A Touch of Amish”. The particulars are below:
Dates: Thursday, June 6, 2024, and Friday, June 7
Location: 1466 Sutton Circle, Wauconda
Time: 9:00 am to 3:00 pm both days
Quilt shop quality fabric available:
Yardage is $6.00 per yard
Fat 1/8ths are $1.00 each
Fat Quarters are $2.00 eachPlus: books, patterns, wool, notions, kits, quilts and antique tops
Questions? Contact Judy Hillebrand
Announcement: Machine for Sale!
I bought this machine used from a quilt shop. It had one prior owner. I haven't used it. It was completely cleaned. It's still in the box. It has a case and everything that originally came with it. The box is scratched up because my cat used it as a scratching post, but nothing inside has been touched. I'm asking what I paid for it which is $1,300. I was going to try to use a Bernina but I am a Janome user and decided I didn't want to learn something new. I also have a free motion quilting foot for $50, a quarter inch foot for $50, both new in the package. Please share with anyone you know might be looking for a machine! Contact me with any questions.
Sari Hurtig