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2019 Ruby Challenge Quilts

Our 40^th Anniversary “A World of Quilts” is only a few weeks away.  It’s shaping up to be a great show.  We will have on display nearly 200 registered quilts; quilts by our speaker, Paula Nadelstern and our invitational quilter, Karen Eckmeier; the Sacred Threads Quilt Exhibit; our SIG’s; FANE; and our beautiful Challenge Quilts – in the neighborhood of 300 total!  It should be spectacular – invite your friends and relatives to see all these great quilts.

I received some good news this past week.  It seems that WCSU made a mistake when looking at their 2020 calendar when they told us we could not hold the show there on our traditional weekend.  After looking again at their calendar I received confirmation that we will be able to have our show at WCSU on May 2 and 3, 2020.  This takes the pressure off of us scrambling to find a new venue in just a few months.  However, the Board also recognizes that there is concern with the financial aspects of holding the show at WCSU and will still be looking at that.  We made changes for this year’s show to increase income and decrease expenses to help with the finances.  Once the accounting for this year’s show is done, we will evaluate its cost and decide if we need to make a change.  Keeping our show at WCSU in 2020 gives us almost a full year to decide what changes, if any are necessary.

Thank you to April Russel for organizing this year’s Quilt Challenge.  She had 39 beautiful quilts submitted.  It was great seeing how people interpreted the theme of ruby red flowers.  I thought that since it was such a good display of techniques and showed a wide variety of quilting methods, it could be a good display for Arts Westchester to exhibit.  This is the organization that gave us the $1,000 grant to support our speaker costs.  I have made initial contact with them and hopefully will have more to report at our meeting.

Susan Fasnacht, president@northernstarquilters.com

Click to register your quilt in the show!

According to a recent survey conducted by the American Quilters’ Society, the month during which most quilters finish projects is February.  That means several of you should have completed a quilt last month, so why not enter it in our show?  We could use more quilts registered – please don’t wait until the end of March to enter your quilt.  It makes the registrar’s job easier if they don’t all come in at the last minute.  Remember you don’t have to have it completely finished until quilt drop off on April 27.

Once again Super Saturday was wonderful.  Thank you to Pooa Bloomberg for organizing the day and to all the people who taught classes.  Also thanks to our Hospitality Chairs, Micky Green and Christine Langan for arranging for the food that day.  I saw lots of beautiful projects being worked on with a real variety of items.  If you participated in a class, and didn’t get a chance to show off your work at the February meeting, bring it in March for our Show and Tell.

The Challenge Quilts will be displayed at the March meeting.  You will be able to vote for Most Creative, Best Use of the ‘Ruby’ Challenge Color, and Viewer’s Choice.  I don’t know the final count, but April had close to 40 quilts turned it.  It will be a great display for our meeting and the quilt show.

I hope to see you in March – spring is not too far away.

Susan Fasnacht, president@northernstarquilters.com

Organizers Rosemary and Linda

Auctioneer Sandy

January’s Ugly Fabric Auction was a great success, netting $676 to help support guild activities. Thanks to all who bid and donated!
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I am pleased to announce that the guild has been awarded a $1,000 grant through ArtsWestchester’s Arts Alive program to help fund our speakers.  We are honored to receive the money and are thrilled that ArtsWestchester recognized quilts as an art form.  We hope to use this relationship with them to publicize the guild, and help build interest in quilting and increase our membership.  Thank you to all who helped in writing the grant application.

Now for some not so good news.  We were informed several weeks ago by Western Connecticut State University that in 2020 the first weekend in May will no longer be available to us for the quilt show (don’t worry we are okay for this May).  They are going to start using the arena on the Friday of that weekend for their sport’s award dinner, which will impact with our set up.  The Board looked at possibly moving the show to another weekend, but found that it would not be possible without conflicting with another quilt show or a holiday.  We are starting to examine our options and will be reporting back to you as we develop them.

Remember the Challenge Quilts are due this month.  I hope we have lots of submissions – it will be great having a large display at the show.  Our program will be demos by various guild members and it looks like we will have a good variety of presentations at the meeting.

If you have not signed up for Super Saturday, you can still do so.  Contact Pooa Bloomberg at Supersaturday@northernstarquilters.com to register.

Unfortunately, we have had to cancel this year’s Lancaster trip.  We only had 10 people who had signed up and paid by the January meeting.  After struggling last year to get enough people to sign up to cover our costs, we decided not to risk losing our deposits and cancelled the trip.  We plan on offering it again in 2020, and maybe a year’s hiatus will create more interest.  Thank you to Jen Cannizzarro for keeping on top of things so we will not lose any money.

Stay warm and see you on February 19.

Susan Fasnacht, president@northernstarquilters.com

Comfort Quilts ready for Christmas delivery to Westchester Medical Center’s Behaviorial Unit

A Happy and Healthy New Year to all!

As the weather starts to turn bad, remember our snow policy.  If the Somers or Kennedy Catholic schools are closed or have early dismissal due to the weather, our meeting will be cancelled.  We will send out an email to members notifying them of a cancellation as early as possible and post an alert on the website. Be sure to check if you are in doubt.

Quilt registration for A World of Quilts XL opens in just a few weeks.  We hope to have a spectacular display of quilts for our 40^th show anniversary celebration.   Don’t forget, your quilt does not have to be finished to register it – it only needs to be done by quilt drop off on April 27.  Daisy and Debby have been busy coming up with new ideas for the show – be sure to read their announcements of the changes for this year.

The Ugly Fabric Auction will take place at the January 15 meeting with an early preview around 6:30.  Be sure to bring lots of cash and be ready to bid.  I have heard they will have a great selection of fabric for the event.  February will be mini-demos and your completed Challenge Quilt is due (voting will be at the March meeting).

We will be starting the nominating process for the 2019-2020 Board.  If you are interested in serving on the Board, please let me know.  We will need to fill the elected positions of President (no I am not serving again), Secretary, Treasurer, Communications, and Programs.  A brief description of the jobs is on the website page Membership-Board dropdowns, Being on the Board is quite rewarding.  It is a good way to give back to the Guild, meet members, and see what the Guild does.  Please consider serving – you can also team up with a friend and be co-Chairs.

Susan Fasnacht, president@northernstarquilters.com

Happy Holidays to all!  I hope you had a good Thanksgiving and are looking forward to all the festivities of December.  There is a lot happening at the beginning of next year and lots of reasons to quilt.  I hope you get time to work on your projects in December. After all there are many reasons to quilt – Challenge quilts, Silent Auction pieces, and quilt show entries.

January will be our Ugly Fabric Auction – last chance to donate is this month’s December meeting.  Also in January quilt registration for the show begins on the 15^th.  At our February meeting we will have short demos by members and the Challenge Quilts are due and voted on.  And Super Saturday is February 16.

We are trying a few new things at this year’s show.  One reason is to try and increase attendance, particularly non-quilters.  A second is to produce a little more revenue at the show.  Daisy and Debby will be sending out more details on these changes in the next couple of weeks – we are still working out some of the specifics, but I wanted to give you an idea of what they are planning.

We are going to change a few things at the Silent Auction, since sales have been slowly declining over the past few years. We will be accepting larger items – up to crib size quilts.  We will also have a few gift baskets that people can bid on.  Finally, there will also be a “purchase now” option for all items.

You will also have the opportunity to sell any quilt you enter in the show.  When you register your quilt there will be a new question asking whether you want to list it as being for sale and at what price.  We are still finalizing the process for how the sale will take place – more details will follow.  The guild will take a small commission on any quilt that is sold.

Our hope is that these, plus other changes will help increase attendance at the show.  We want to attract more of the general public to the show, hopefully resulting in more interest in quilting.  I know that some people come to the show looking to purchase a quilt – these changes will help.

Finally, thank you to everyone who brought food items in November to donate to the local food pantries.  If you missed the opportunity to bring an item, you can always contact your local food pantry directly to make a donation.  There is a great need in our area for food pantries and any donations they receive are appreciated.

I wish everyone a wonderful and happy holiday season.
Susan Fasnacht, president@northernstarquilters.com

October Mini Mosaic Workshop with Carol Lynch

It’s hard to believe the holidays are upon us already.  The days seem to just fly by.  Reminder – our November meeting is a week earlier than normal because of Thanksgiving.  The meeting is the second Tuesday – November 13.  Our speaker will be Rayna Gillman.  You may remember that Rayna was one of the Invitational Quilters at our 2017 show.  We are pleased to have her return to the guild and talk about her work.

At our November meeting we will also be holding the Holiday Boutique.  It will take place starting at 6:00 in the lobby area just outside the auditorium (no stairs to climb).  Make sure you bring extra cash so you can buy something from one of our vendors.

I dropped off two Comfort Quilts today at Kennedy Catholic.  Every year the school holds an auction to raise money.  Sister Barbara use to donate wardrobes containing several “American Girl” doll outfits she sewed as an auction item.  With her passing the Guild started donating a Comfort Quilt in her memory to replace them.  The auction takes place on Saturday, November 10 starting at 6pm and the admission price includes dinner and drinks.  It looks like they have lots of auction items.  If you are interested, more information can be found at kennedycatholic.org/auction.

Finally, I want to write once again about volunteering to help at the Guild.  Last month’s meeting was a good example of our problem when we were unable to find a volunteer to staff the Library table for the evening.  As a result there was no library in October.  It is hard to run an organization such as ours that relies on volunteers to do the work when we lack volunteers.  Other than at the quilt show, only a small percentage of our membership gets involved with working on one of our committees or activities.  As the New Year approaches we will start looking to fill the slate for next year’s Board and I hope our search will go better than last year.  Please consider getting involved, we cannot depend upon the same people to do the work each year.  There are plenty of opportunities – some big and some small – where we can use your help.  Let me know if you are willing to become more involved, and we can find something that will fit your interests and time constraints.

I look forward to seeing you on November 13^th.
Susan Fasnacht, President@northernstarquilters.com