Crazy Quilters' Quilt Guild

NQA Chapter #PA 497

No. 254 www.crazyquilters.org May 2012

The Crazy Quilters’ Quilt Guild Meets the first Tuesday of every month* at The Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit 3461 Cedar Crest Boulevard Emmaus, PA 18049 7:00pm www.crazyquilters.org Email: info@crazyquilters.org *except November Thanks	Editor Many thanks to those who contributed to this edition of our Newsletter; Julie Borden, Lorraine Bujnowski, Val Johnson, Jackie Leipert, Diana DeFanti, Diana Campbell, Jane Grove, Sandra Mugridge, the Crazy Quilter, Kathy Schuessler, Anita Hertzog, Maxine Bernstein, Sharon Schaffer and Joyce Haeflinger. We hope you enjoy the content and reading this piece as it does take time and cooperation to put it together for you. As you can see, there are some new contributors and, of course, we would welcome more. Join the fun and start sharing and continue to share your thoughts and experiences, keeping it PG13, of course. Enjoy! Allen Challenge	Jane Grove janegrove@hotmail.com Stay tuned! The 2010 Challenge will be presented at the December meeting, and then subsequently printed on the web-site and in the newsletter. _________________________ Web News Allen Bernstein	Almax626@msn.com Hi again from the web, What a great meeting we had in August. Some faces old, some faces new. It matters not as our web site www.crazyquilters.org is for everyone. Take a look at new pictures, our newsletter and a picture of our raffle quilt. AND shortly after our meeting in September there will be some exciting changes. Stay tuned! From the President
Julie Borden
Happy Spring Everyone,	We all enjoyed a nice Easter holiday in my house. I hope you all had a nice holiday too. Our meeting with Michelle was great and it is always exciting to see beautiful quilts and learn a little more about the history or quilting.	We had some good discussion for our new Quilters Studio. We are planning to have some sessions on Saturdays and we will also be having studio sessions before some meetings. We are still working out some of the details. We also discussed creating an internet source for chatting about quilting problems that come up. I am excited to move forward with this new venture for Crazy Quilters.	We have a great meeting and workshop coming up with Susan Cleveland. It looks to be some exciting events to come in May.	My personal sewing goals are coming along however my daughter has me making curtains and valances for all of her new household projects. I continue to make baby quilts for my program at Sacred Heart Hospital and I have been recruited to make curtains for another project in our community. So my projects will have to wait a little longer.	Happy Sewing Everyone, Julie Community Service Lorraine Bujnowski
20th Anniversary block of the month quilt: We will be showing our anniversary quilts this month. Hopefully, there will be a nice showing of quilts; either completely finished and quilted or just the top completed. Community Service: The Camp Erin quilts will also be shown and collected to be delivered later in the month. Lorraine	_______________________________ Hospitality	Diana DeFanti Many thanks to the volunteers who provided the refreshments for the April 2012 meeting. They were Kathy Schuessler, Valerie Lee, Judy Walker, Carole Whaling, Adele Bush and Irene Madalena. May 2012 signups include Mercedas Gurniak, Diane Pesola, Sandra Mugridge, Nancy Skok, Maria Hance, Ellen Pahl and Barb Kissell. You will receive a phone the week prior to the meeting. Any concerns, please call me.	__________________________ Bee News	Diana Campbell The Honey Bees, our daytime bee, will gather at the home of Joyce Haeflinger on May 9th at 9:00 a.m. If you are planning to attend, please R.S.V.P. to Joyce, and bring some hand work and a bag lunch.	See you there.	________________________________ Sunshine and Shadow	Sandra Mugridge Our condolences to Maxine Bernstein at the recent loss of her mother. We wish you comfort and peace at this trying time. Workshops	Val Johnson/Jackie Leipert Would you like to learn how to add perfect circles to your machine pieced quilts? Easily and accurately? Why not sign up for the “Learning Curve” workshop? The workshop isn’t until June 6th but sign up now so you don’t miss out. It’s a half-day workshop (10am-1pm) and it’s only $20. The enrollment will be capped at 20 so if you are interested in learning more about Linda Warren’s unique method for doing curved piecing let Val or Jackie know ASAP. You can check out her website www.lindawarrendesigns.com where you can see a gallery of quilts created with this new tool. Also if you are interested in taking advantage of the workshop scholarship fund just ask. We have funding available to cover workshop fees for up to four Crazy Quilters for this workshop. If you are signed up for the workshop with Susan Cleveland on May 2 you should have received a supply list by email. Please let Val or Jackie know if you have any questions.	___________________________ Challenge	Jane Grove Have you considered making your own plaid? You could do this by weaving ribbon. Use three, four or five different pieces of ribbon in different colors and widths. Repeat in both directions until you get the needed size, then fuse. Many thanks to all the members who brought stamps to the April meeting. You outdid yourself. The hospitalized Veterans certainly appreciate your generosity. Mini-Class Before Meeting Carole Whaling
walingcj@aol.com There will be a mini-class at the June meeting. Topic to be advised. __________________________ Raffle Quilt Nancy Skok nancys@wfmc.com Our raffle quilt is now on display at ASMO. We still need some people to fill-in on Saturday afternoon at the Hershey Quilt show, July 24th. Thanks! . Hospitality	Diana DeFanti	defantid@gmail.com Thank you to the following members for their donations and assistance for our dessert table at the April meeting: Val Johnson, Irene Oehmke, Nancy Thomas, Lynn Gilbert, Nancy Horning, Ruth Hoffman and Diana Campbell. Members who signed up to bring a dessert for the May meeting are: Carole Whaling, Angela Assorgi, Tami Jones, Deb Veshinfsky, Mary Collins, Sandra Mugridge and Liz Dimmich.
Hospitality	Jackie Leipert	djleipert@verizon.net	Thank you the Julie Mc Donell and her committee, Karen Landis, Diane Pesola, Diana Campbell, Linda Herman and Jackie Leipert for the delicious refreshments at our July meeting.
I will be the coordinator for August's volunteers who will be Irene Oehmke, Pat Haberle, Kathryn Heffrich, Karen Hartzell and Becky Marx.
Our September meeting with its Anniversary Potluck Supper is fast approaching. Everyone is asked to bring a food item (protein, pasta, fruit, vegetable, dessert, or drink). Plugging in pots is discouraged for safety reasons. We have tablecloths but our tradition has been to bring our own place settings and to make individual tables more festive, flower arrangements for the table. Put on your thinking caps as to what you will prepare and sign up to bring your specialty at our next month's meeting. Thanks. be Irene Oehmke, Pat Haberle, Kathryn Heffrich, Karen Hartzell and Becky Marx.

Tips and Ideas	from the Crazy Quilter

Keeping the Tradition Alive

By the Crazy Quilter

I was looking for a photo the other day and as I flipped through my photo library I came across the pictures that I took at the exhibition, Infinite Variety; Three Centuries of Red & White Quilts. Many of you saw the exhibition, but for those of you who don’t know, it was a one week “event” comprised of 651 American, red and white quilts held at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. The quilts were from the personal collection of Joanna Rose and are promised to the Museum of American Folk Art who mounted the exhibition. It was a visually breathtaking exhibition of quilts that I’m certain will become a milestone in quilt history. I can’t think of a superlative that adequately describes the show.

The quilts were suspended in spirals in multiple levels up to the ceiling. The armory was dark except for the lights directed on the quilts which seemed to glow as a result. Individually, the quilts were beautiful; however, red and white quilts weren’t made to be “best” quilts. For the most part these red and white quilts were utility quilts, and most of the makers were unknown. It was gratifying to see these humble yet expertly sewn quilts elevated to such a level of importance by the professionally designed installation that was clearly meant to amplify the importance of the quilts and the quilt makers.

So why do I bring this up now, a year after the event happened? Here’s why. Apart from the beauty of the quilts I was particularly impressed by a small circle of eight chairs that stood in the center of the space. On the back of each chair there was a folded quilt, a red and white one, of course. The circle was clearly meant to represent a sewing circle of quilters and the quilts that they made. I was moved to tears when I stood there thinking about all of the women (mostly women) who had made the quilts on display and, who were for the most part, anonymous. I thought about those women who felt like I did about making something useful yet beautiful, about the hours that each had spent in the process, about what they had talked about, about how each had valued the time spent with friends stitching because working on a quilt was often a social occasion, about how each quilter had chosen a certain pattern for a particular reason, about the people who were given the quilts, about how the quilters took care of their hand-work when finished – none of the quilts in the exhibition had been allowed to become a dog bed! I thought about so many things that I had in common with those quilters, and I felt proud to think that one day my spirit would be among them.

Quilts are a powerful medium, and we quilters of the 21st century are keeping the tradition alive.

Raffle Ticket Sales	Kathy Schuessler

Thank you everyone for selling raffle tickets for our beautiful raffle quilt. If you did not pick up tickets yet, you will find your name on the list below. If there is a mistake, please email me and I will correct our records. Also, if you are a new member and did not pick up tickets yet, your name may not appear on this list. Remember, ticket sales are a VERY IMPORTANT source of revenue for our Guild!

Angela Assorgi	Lucille Larash

Rebecca Boone	Suzanne Lewis

Nancy Brudelie	Joan Marcucci

Colette Danner	Dawn Martrich

Liz Dimmich	Jane Merkel

Lois Drendall	April Odor

Sandra Evans	Margaret Timm

Lynn Gilbert	Sally Waggoner

Joan Hangey	Evelyn Wiedl

Pattie Heine	Carol Wigfield

Tami Jones	Carol Willis

Marya Kissinger-Amig

The drawing will be held at our September meeting, so there is plenty of time to pick up and sell your tickets. If you can’t make it to a meeting to pick them up, I will mail them to you if you wish. Also, you can turn in your money at any meeting. Thanks again from the Raffle Committee.

______________________________________________________

What Is It?	Anita Hertzog
As quilting and sewing have evolved so too have the tools that we use to accomplish our stitching goals. Visit any quilt shop, fabric store, quilt show or sewing exposition and you will find the latest, greatest, must have tool that is guaranteed to give you the best results in the shortest amount of time. As we all know, sometimes the product is fantastic and lives up to its hype and other times we would be better off spending that cash on more fabric.
The gadgets in the accompanying photo are roughly 55 years old. They promised professional results in a fraction of the time. They are no longer manufactured (that I know of), but can be found in antique shops and thrift stores everywhere. Do you know what these things are? Send your thoughts to Allen and hopefully he will print some of your guesses in the next newsletter along with the correct answer.

Programs	Val Johnson/Jackie Leipert

At our meeting on May 1 we will be hosting the nationally known quilter Susan Cleveland. Susan has won numerous awards for her fabulous quilts. She will be sharing some of those with us as she presents “My Eclectic Quilt Pageant”. I can guarantee this is one program you won’t want to miss!

__________________________________________________________________

Library	Maxine Bernstein

Thank you to Suzanne Nelson for the April raffle gift and to Allen B. for selling tickets. Bethanne Nemesh has volunteered to bring the May raffle gift.

Please return any outstanding library books when you are finished with them. We do have a waiting list for some of the signed-out books.

Please let me know any suggestions you may have for books to add to our library.

Many thanks.

________________________________________________________

Membership	Sharon Schaffer

Thanks to those of you who sent me your “Getting to Know You” answers. It was nice at the last meeting, when a few people approached me to acknowledge some similarities in our interests or backgrounds after reading my blurb. Now, just because I received some, doesn’t mean that you are all off the hook. We have about 100 members, so publishing one per month it would take over eight years to hear about everyone. So, I would like to publish two per month. This month you will meet Joyce Haeflinger and Anita Hertzog.

At the meeting I also mentioned the Guild pin. Several people came to purchase one that night. I will have them at the meetings. The pin looks like the logo on our newsletter. They cost $5.00 and it makes a nice addition to your nametag.

Speaking of nametags, some of you have been very diligent at wearing them, but then there are those of your who have not been. I’ve been lax in collecting the no nametag fine, but I think I will have a jar at my desk for you to deposit your quarter at the next meeting. Wouldn’t you rather use that quarter to help purchase a pin?

May Birthdays:

Suzanne Lewis	5/6

Nancy Horning	5/10

Dawn Martrich	5/12

Becky Marx	5/26

Sandra Mugridge	5/28

We had six visitors at our last meeting:

Susie Younger, Barbara Garrett, Christine Fenstermacher, Carole Yeager, Nancy Scholz and Molly Weaver

Getting to Know You; Joyce Haeflinger

I'm the gal on the red scooter at our guild meetings. I have Muscular Dystrophy.

I'm a retired bank manager and was employed by Citi Bank on Staten Island.

I have had many hobbies in my lifetime. When I was younger I spent a lot of time sewing clothing, I made my work wardrobe and my daughter's too. I also made her wedding gown. At one time or another I have done most forms of needlework

I built a dollhouse and most of the furniture in it. I made porcelain dolls for three years or so, and cloth dolls for many years.

Right now I am mainly quilting and doing Hardanger. Hardanger is a very old Scandinavian needlework form.

This is my second marriage. I have two grown children and a step daughter, seven Grandchildren, two Great-grandchildren, and another due in April.

We have a Ragdoll cat named Dolly Dimple. She is 14.

We, Fred and I, have lived in Pennsylvania for 21 years. We moved here from Staten Island. I was born and raised there.

I have been quilting for about 25 years and have belonged to Crazy Quilters since the second month they started.

Getting to Know You; Anita Hertzog

I have been an accountant for many years. In addition to working for two Lehigh Valley accounting firms I have also enjoyed working in such industries as aviation, public relations, milk marketing, and manufacturing (pantyhose of all things – we even supplied them to the Miami Dolphins when they played in cold climates!). I am currently employed by a large cable TV advertising company serving viewers in over 45 market regions across the United States. And by the time this information hits the newsletter I will also be working part time doing accounting work for a local golf club. Wish me luck with that one!

In addition to quilting I enjoy the usual gardening and reading books routine as time permits. I also volunteer at a local animal shelter caring for FIV and FeLV positive cats. Occasionally I might do some cross stitch or make a blouse, but quilting takes first place when I can capture some spare time.

I have been married to my husband for just over 29 years. I have two step-daughters who live in Florida with their spouses and children. Our grandson is in junior high and our granddaughter is enjoying her first year at Florida State where she is studying architectural psychology. My elderly mom lives with us and we also share our home with eight cats and one very ornery mutt. Needless to say my house is a three ring circus and 24 hour fuzz farm.

I was born in Mt. Holly, NJ and lived just outside of Ft. Dix until I was 15 years old. At that time we relocated to South Florida and settled in the North Miami Beach area. Although I was born in NJ I do consider South Florida my “home town”. My husband is a native of Allentown – we met at the pantyhose factory – and we moved back to the Lehigh Valley in 1995. I love the seasons, hate the snow, miss living near the beach, but don’t miss the monster bugs or snakes that we dealt with in Florida.

I learned how to quilt in 1992 when I took a class in Wilton Manors, FL at a tiny little quilt shop. Prior to that I made all of my clothes and spent my spare time doing counted cross stitch. I seem to enjoy traditional quilts and patterns the most and I am especially drawn to stars, any kind of stars. They are finding their way into more and more of my quilts. I would also like to improve my appliqué skills. I prefer bright colors and jewel tones and my stash is pretty much devoid of pastels. My area of quilting expertise seems to be fabric acquisition, but I also make cute Christmas stockings using a sew-and-flip technique that’s easy and fun.

I have been an on again off again member of the Crazy Quilters’ Guild since the late 1990’s. Most recently I have been a member for about four years and these have been the best years of my guild experience. I can honestly say that working on a committee or being a Board member is the best way to get the most out of your own guild experience. Share a bit of yourself and you will receive twofold in return.

TYPE YOUR ANSWERS IN PARAGRAPH FORM PLEASE!!!

1. Tell me about you:

- Yourself…....job outside of home? Career?

- Hobbies other than quilting?

- Other things you like to do?

2. Tell us about your Family:

- Husband (or boyfriend) His job?

- Children? In school? Married?

- Grandchildren?

- Family pets

3. How long have you lived in the Lehigh Valley? Always?

- moved from where?

- What brought you to Lehigh Valley?

4. When did you learn to quilt?

- were you a sewer as well?

- What type of quilting do you like to do?

- Favorite patterns? Favorite style?

- How long have you been a member of our guild?

…….-Do you have a favorite tip about quilting?

5. Please mention any other things you would like your friends in the Guild to know about!

Send to: 3683 Hawthorne Dr

Center Valley, PA 18034

***if you have a computer, you can email me the info:

Sams46@verizon.net

Thanks,

Sharon

Guild Calendar from the editor May 1, Crazy Quilters’ Guild Meeting; 6:45pm refreshments, 7pm meeting, LCHS Calendar of Events from the editor “Quiltfest 2012” by Colonial Quilters Guild, 5/5-5/6, 10 to 5 (10 to 4 Sunday), Charles Chrin Community Center of Palmer Township, 4100 Green Pond Rd., Palmer, PA, Admission $7, www.colonialquilters.org “39th Annual Quilt Show” by Quilters Unlimited, 6/1-6/3, Dulles Expo & Conference Center, Chantilly, VA, www.quiltersunlimited.org “Pennsylvania Quilts ll: Patterns and Variations” at Packwood House Museum, 6/12-10/13, Lewisburg, PA, www.packwoodhousemuseum.com “Kutztown Folk Festival” 6/30-7/8, 9am to 6pm, Kutztown Fairgrounds, Kutztown, PA, www.kutztownfestival.com “Celebration of Quilts” by York Quilters’ Guild, 6/23-6/24, 10 to 5, Old Main Bldg., York Expo Center, York, PA, Admission $10 (seniors $8), www.celebrationofquilts.com “Vermont Quilt Festival” 6/29-7/1, Champlain Valley Expo, Essex Junction, VT, www.vqf.org “Quilts, Quilts, Quilts” by Alapocas Run State Park, 7/21, 10am to 2pm, Blue Ball Barn off Route 202, Wilmington, DE, 302-577-7020 “Quilt Odyssey 2012” - 7/26 to 7/29, 10am to 6pm (Sunday to 4), Hershey Lodge and Convention Center, Hershey, PA, $10 one day, $12 multi, www.quiltodyssey.com “World Quilt Show” New England X, 8/16-8/19, 10am to 6pm (Sunday to 4), Radisson Center of New Hampshire, 700 Elm St., Manchester, NH, $12 multi, www.worldquilt.com “PA Nat’l Quilt Extravaganza” 9/13-9/16, 10am to 6pm (Sunday to 4), Greater Phila. Expo Center, Oaks, PA, $14 multi, www.quiltfest.com Guild Officers President: Julie Borden First Vice-Presidents: Val Johnson/Jackie Leipert Second Vice-President: Sharon Schaffer Secretary: Jane Grove Treasurer: Anita Hertzog Committees Challenge: Jane Grove Community Service: Lorraine Bujnowski, Kathy Flickenger, Lois Drendel, Sally Waggoner, Ann Lineberger Historical: Nancy Skok Hospitality: Diana DeFanti Library: Maxine Bernstein/Michele McLaughlin Membership: Sharon Schaffer NQA Liaison: Irene Oehmke Newsletter: Allen Bernstein Phone Chain: Julie McDonell Programs: Val Johnson/Jackie Leipert Publicity: Alison Bessesdotter Raffle Quilt Marketing: Kathy Schuessler, Roberta Whitcomb, Sharon Yurkanin, Marsha Heimann, Jackie Leipert, Anita Hertzog, Val Johnson Show and Tell: Maria Hance Sunshine and Shadow: Sandra Mugridge Website: Allen Bernstein Workshops: Val Johnson/Jackie Leipert