Meeting+Lecture-Valerie Maser-Flanagan
2025-09-17 18:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Fox Lane High School, 632 South Bedford Road, Bedford, NY, 10506, United States
17 September 2025
VALERIE MASER-FLANAGAN
Using Line as a Design Focus in Composition
Valerie Maser-Flanagan uses self-created hand-dyed fabric to design abstract sewn constructions. Her work is influenced by both the rural setting she currently resides in, her exposure to urban structures from working in Boston for thirty years, and her attraction to ethnic design. Maser-Flanagan has exhibited throughout the United States and received numerous awards for her work. Her Work has been purchased by the Chandler Arts Council in Arizona, Visions Art Museum, The International Quilt Museum, and by private collectors. Examples of her designs are published in Quilting with a Modern Slant by Rachel May, Dyeing Alchemy by Diane Franklin, and Art Quilts International Abstract and Geometric by Martha Sielman, and Color a Workshop for Artists and Designers by David Hornung. Maser-Flanagan began as a traditional quilter but transitioned to contemporary design through studies with Nancy Crow, David Hornung and Carol Soderlund.
Click here to learn more about Valerie Maser-Flanagan

Business meeting generally starts at 6pm, arrive earlier for sign-in, refreshments and socializing, with any lecture generally at 7pm.
Guests are always welcome, there is a guest fee, $10, which can be credited toward membership – click HERE for more information.
Our Hospitality team provides coffee and tea along with a few cookies at in-person meetings.
Please bring your own mug or water bottle.
Member contributions of home-baked treats or other simple snacks are requested!

Winner's Choice Raffle + Meeting+Lecture-Pat Pauly
2025-10-15 18:00 - 20:30 | Fox Lane High School, 632 South Bedford Road, Bedford, NY, 10506, United States
Winner’s Choice – Comfort Quilts Display and Raffle
Admire our summer project display of CQ quilts and buy (many) tickets ($5 each) to win the quilt of your choice while supporting Comfort Quilts.
Super Saturday Signups Starting – signup at the meeting or online.

15 October 2025
PAT PAULY
Traditional Meets Contemporary:
A Look at the Heritage of Traditional Quilts and their Influence in Contemporary Design
From her background as a curator of the exhibition “Quilts Uncovered: Treasures from Genesee Country Village and Museum”, “Parallax Views” and “Quilts 20/20” Pat Pauly gives an expansive look at the long history of quilt making, and its change and rebirth in the twenty-first century in art quilts. Presenting over 400 images in the span of an hour, she takes a fast-paced look at the craft that has endured in America for nearly 250 years.
Pat Pauly is a nationally and internationally recognized fiber artist, known for her improvisational technique, use of bold color and graphics and her unusual juxtaposition of printed and painted fabric. Her work is featured in numerous exhibitions and publications. She is also in high-demand to lecture and teach. Her surface design workshops are highly energized, spontaneous, and ils
Click here to learn more about Pat Pauly

Business meeting generally starts at 6pm, arrive earlier for sign-in, refreshments and socializing, with any lecture generally at 7pm.
Guests are always welcome, there is a guest fee, $10, which can be credited toward membership – click HERE for more information.
Our Hospitality team provides coffee and tea along with a few cookies at in-person meetings.
Please bring your own mug or water bottle.
Member contributions of home-baked treats or other simple snacks are requested!

Batik Sale + Meeting+Lecture Betsy Habich
2025-11-19 18:00 - 21:00 | Fox Lane High School, 632 South Bedford Road, Bedford, NY, 10506, United States
*** Update – Late start for meeting – doors not open til 6pm, all activities start after that ***

We will NOT have a Show and Tell
We will NOT have a Free Table
Library Services will NOT be available except to return books
The November 19th Batik Sale will begin at 6:30
The December 10th Holiday Boutique will begin at 6:30
Our Speakers will begin at 7:15 pm for both meetings
We will have refreshments

Shop at the Batik Blowout!
Sale starts 5:30pm
$4/yard – 1/4, 1/2, 1, and 2 yd + cutsThanks to a huge donation of batiks to Comfort Quilts, we have a bonanza to share with guild members.
Hundreds of yards of batiks at amazing prices so bring $$$ (cash or check) and a shopping bag because you don’t want to miss out.
*****

19 November 2025
BETSY HABICH
Thread Painting: It’s all about the Details
Slide & trunk show talk. A short introduction to my pieced and appliqued pictorial quilts shows the quilting style I developed to support the images, a bridge to thread painting. Then you see how to make a photorealistic thread painting: selecting the right photo, printing it on fabric, seeing all the colors in the piece, selecting threads, different stitches, blending colors smoothly, representing texture, and paying attention to detail. The third part follows a landscape thread-painting from start to finish, to show how a painting actually develops. Q&A and opportunity to look at the quilts follow.

BIO Betsy Habich’s quilts have been juried into national and regional shows, including International Quilt Association (IQA /Houston), American Quilters Society (AQS/ Paducah), Machine Quilters Expo (MQX), and Quilters Gathering, and her work has been awarded at regional quilt shows including the Vermont Quilt Festival, The Gathering, and the Machine Quilters Expo (MQX). In addition, she has had several one-woman shows at local shows, shops, and libraries. She is a self-confessed fabricaholic and cat person, though she has also been known to play with dogs. She lives with her husband, cats, and fabric in Beverly Farms, MA.
Click here to learn about Betsy Habich Quilts

Business meeting generally starts at 6pm, arrive earlier for sign-in, refreshments and socializing, with any lecture generally at 7pm.
Guests are always welcome, there is a guest fee, $10, which can be credited toward membership – click HERE for more information.
Our Hospitality team provides coffee and tea along with a few cookies at in-person meetings.
Please bring your own mug or water bottle.
Member contributions of home-baked treats or other simple snacks are requested!

Meeting+Lecture (Zoom)-Christine Barnes
2026-01-21 18:00 | Online – Zoom, United States
This is a Zoom event.
The zoom link will be emailed to registered participants a few days before.

21 January 2026 ZOOM
Christine Barnes
Color! Color! Color!
Luster! Luminosity! Transparency!
1) Being “good with color” is more about practice than talent! This program begins with a look at the three color characteristics common to all quilts and garments: value, temperature, and intensity. These terms sound academic, yet they, as much as color itself, are the key to making great quilts. Learn how to use the color wheel to create fresh, unexpected color combinations. See how color affects texture and pattern. Images of quilts from nationally known quilters are followed by my quilts and a digital mini fashion show of wearables.
2) Put simply, “magic fabrics” give a quilt light and vitality. Some suggest light coming from below the surface (luminosity) or bouncing across the surface (luster). Others imply that see-through colors overlap to create new color mixtures (transparency). They typically display variations in value—light areas among darker areas, or light-to-dark gradations—and they often contain warm colors. A digital trunk show of fabrics, quilts, and wearables brings the concepts to life.
BIO My quilting life began when I was eight or nine, with a doll quilt made on my crank Singer sewing machine. I asked my grandmother what was inside a quilt, and she said “cotton.” I stuffed my little quilt with cotton balls—and wondered why it was lumpy.
Fast forward through teenage years happily spent sewing clothes. Degrees in Design and Journalism segued into a full-time job for Sunset Publishing. In 1980 I wrote Quilting, Patchwork & Appliqué, a best seller, thanks to the input from renowned quilter Roberta Horton. I went on to write books on soft furnishings, decorating, and remodeling. I loved my job.
Later, as a free-lance writer, I was assigned to write a chapter on color for another Sunset book. Through exercises and observation, my uncle, an artist in Mendocino, taught me how color works—and ignited a lifelong love of color.
That chapter laid the foundation for two books on color theory for quilters, plus articles for quilt magazines and decades of teaching. My main takeaway? There are classic color concepts—and they work. Whether it’s choosing fabrics for a new quilt, fixing one that’s not working, or attempting an effect like transparency, it all boils down to the basics. What may look like magic is grounded in classic color theory.
Retired from traveling to teach, I do lectures and classes via Zoom. I feel so fortunate to live a life that connects me to quilts and quilt makers worldwide. And now, my best creative time is spent in my light-filled sewing room, where I am always happy.
Click here to learn more about Christine Barnes

Business meeting generally starts at 6pm, arrive earlier for sign-in, refreshments and socializing, with any lecture generally at 7pm.
Guests are always welcome, there is a guest fee, $10, which can be credited toward membership – click HERE for more information.
Our Hospitality team provides coffee and tea along with a few cookies at in-person meetings.
Please bring your own mug or water bottle.
Member contributions of home-baked treats or other simple snacks are requested!

Meeting+Lecture (Zoom)- Susan Avishai
2026-02-18 18:00 - 20:30 | Online – Zoom, United States
This is a Zoom event.
The zoom link will be emailed to registered participants a few days before.

Business meeting generally starts at 6pm, arrive earlier for sign-in, refreshments and socializing, with any lecture generally at 7pm.
Guests are always welcome, there is a guest fee, $10, which can be credited toward membership – click HERE for more information.
Our Hospitality team provides coffee and tea along with a few cookies at in-person meetings.
Please bring your own mug or water bottle.
Member contributions of home-baked treats or other simple snacks are requested!

18 February 2026
ZOOM
Susan Avishai
Among the Garbage and the Flowers
How Susan came to fibre art, specifically using cast-off clothing, reuse and creativity. Techniques for creating sculpture from deconstructed, discarded clothing to evoke awareness of the exploitative nature of garment manufacture and the paradoxically enormous problem of textile waste.

BIO Susan Avishai creates sculpture from deconstructed, discarded clothing. Her work evokes awareness of the exploitative nature of garment manufacture and the paradoxically enormous problem of textile waste. Susan has mounted 18 solo shows, won many prizes in national and international juried exhibitions, and is represented in several large corporate and museum collections. She was elected to the Ontario Society of Artists in 2015.Originally from Montreal, Susan has a BFA (1971) from Concordia University, studied as well at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto,and the Académie Julien in Paris. She received an MA (2002, Hollins University, VA) in writing and literature. Toronto is now home, after years in Jerusalem, New York, Boston, and Ottawa. Her new work has been included in the book Dimensional Cloth, Sculpture by Contemporary Textile Artists by Andra Stanton; profiled in Fiber Art Now; and the SAQA Journal, and she was a featured artist in Australia’s Textile Fibre Forum. She was a presenting artist at the 3rd International Textile Symposium at the Mark Rothko Centre in Daugavpils, Latvia, was chosen for the 2016 Gardiner Museum’s Twelve Trees Christmas program, and has guest curated a show of 11 artists who also work with up-cycled textiles, exhibited in 2023 at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Almonte, Ontario. Recent work was shown at the Mary E. Black Gallery in Halifax, NS and she participated in Fiberart International 2019. She was chosen twice for Excellence in Fibers and once for Excellence in Quilts organized by Fiber Art Now. Most recently she was invited to be a featured speaker at the 2023 SAQA Conference in Toronto.
Click here to learn more about Susan Avishai

Meeting - Gyleen X. Fitzgerald
2026-03-18 18:00 - 20:30 | Fox Lane High School, 632 South Bedford Road, Bedford, NY, 10506, United States
Business meeting generally starts at 6pm, arrive earlier for sign-in, refreshments and socializing, with any lecture generally at 7pm.
Guests are always welcome, there is a guest fee, $10, which can be credited toward membership – click HERE for more information.
Our Hospitality team provides coffee and tea along with a few cookies at in-person meetings.
Please bring your own mug or water bottle.
Member contributions of home-baked treats or other simple snacks are requested!

Challenge Quilts Due!
Remember to bring yours to be collected at this meeting.

18 March 2026
GYLEEN FITZGERALD
Make Mine with Scraps
Focus on traditional utility quilts. Use up, cut up or recycle what you have on hand to make stunning quilts. Learn to harmonize exchange and friendship blocks or clear your clutter with strips and squares.
BIO Gyleen Fitzgerald makes quilts that blend color, pattern and texture to provide a contemporary essence to traditional quilting. A true renaissance woman, she embraced all the needle arts before becoming obsessed with quiltmaking and design in 1981. It is an understatement to say she loves color and is willing to incorporate as much fabric as possible to achieve a rich color blend. Her strength as a quilt artist is demonstrated by the infusion of engineering tools and innovative techniques to simplify visually complex quilts. She shares her enthusiasm for quilting through exhibits, interactive lectures and workshops. The avid quilter, Gyleen has earned Best of Show honors.As a writer, Gyleen centers on quilt design project books, magazine articles, haiku poetry and children’s books. As a publisher, she is a repeat Gold Medal winner for Quilts: Unfinished Stories with New Endings; Polygon Affair…So Easy You’ll Fall in Love; and Bricks, Cobblestones and Pebbles.
Bibliography

The Queen’s Court, FPI Publishing, 2023
In Search of Dragon Eggs, The Legend of the Black Knight in the Land of Delphia, 2023
Polygon Series: Simplicity, Book I; Elegance, Book II; and Evolution, Book III, 2019
Bricks, Cobblestones and Pebbles, FPI Publishing, coming fall 2015
Polygon Affair…So Easy You’ll Fall in Love, FPI Publishing, 2013
Trash to Treasure Pineapple Quilts, FPI Publishing, 2010
Quilts: Unfinished Stories with New Endings, FPI Publishing, 2009
In the House, If Walls Could Talk, FPI Publishing, 2008
The Dream: A Magical Journey in Colourful Stitches, FPI Publishing, 2005.
Poetry and Patchwork, Co-Author, James W. Pryde, Jr, FPI Publishing, 2005

Click here to learn more about Gyleen X Fitzgerald

Meeting+Challenge - Ellen Blalock
2026-04-15 18:00 - 20:30 | Fox Lane High School, 632 South Bedford Road, Bedford, NY, 10506, United States
Business meeting generally starts at 6pm, arrive earlier for sign-in, refreshments and socializing, with any lecture generally at 7pm.
Guests are always welcome, there is a guest fee, $10, which can be credited toward membership – click HERE for more information.
Our Hospitality team provides coffee and tea along with a few cookies at in-person meetings.
Please bring your own mug or water bottle.
Member contributions of home-baked treats or other simple snacks are requested!

Challenge Quilts displayed and voted on!

15 April 2026
ELLEN BLALOCK
Art, Artists and Activism: Quilts
This lecture gives a brief history of artists that use the quilt medium to produce art quilts that address social, political and current affairs in their community and the world. I discuss the story development of several quilts I produced from two or more quilt series that address violence, racism, identity, trauma and mental illness. The narrative of these quilts show connections to my life as a journalist and documentarian. For quilt groups I cover my journey to adapt quilting techniques to my work. I pick several quilts and explain construction and problem solving with a theme.
BIO I am an artist with a mission. I believe my job is to be a conduit to listen and tell the stories of people that need to be heard and represented; the ones whose lives and experiences have been marginalized. I am particularly interested in the African American experience in the United States. Through my art I have dealt with issues around African American teen fathers, slavery, female identity and power, LGBTQ families, “Deaf” children, mental illness and trauma, and the ancestors. My job is to listen, to record, to make available the voices and stories of what is missing. The Fathers’ Project, Beyond Boundaries in Ghana, The Quilt Project, Know Me, the WHOLE Me and CAGE have all grown out of my need to help give voices to people and communities that need their stories told. I work in many media. The main ones are photography, video, drawing, and fiber. Some of my projects have been collaborations with other artists for performance art and installation pieces. I have taught courses in art, art history and photography at several colleges and universities. My signature studio course is The Visual Narrative. I have a BFA from Tyler College of Art, Temple University and a MFA from Syracuse University. I am originally from Philadelphia, PA and live in Syracuse, NY.
Click here to learn more about Ellen Blalock
