Our June meeting will be a social event, an evening of fun and games.  Come have a BLAST and get to know your fellow guild members!

One of the games will require that you bring 20 - 2 1/2” WOF (width of fabric) strips.  Start cutting today!

You are encouraged to dress up in colorful Hawaiian garb.

Please register now so we can plan appropriately.  If you register by June 1, 2023 you will be entered to win a special prize.

Joan Barker is the event organizer, and she needs your help! Contact her directly or indicate how you can help when you register for this event.  Help is needed with:

Deborah Boschert

Deborah shares her most recent art quilts and talks about developing her own personal style. Tons of examples of her favorite techniques, materials and themes. She’ll tell stories about exciting collaborations, surprising discoveries and finding inspiration in unexpected places.

More About Deborah

Deborah Boschert is an artist, author and teacher. She creates art quilts with layers of fabric, paint and stitching. The personal symbols and details in her work reflect her experiences and feelings about places she’s lived and the things she’s done. In her art quilts, the tiny details are as important as the over-all design. As in life, every-day little joys compliment the bigger adventures. 

Her award-winning art quilts have been exhibited in quilt shows and art galleries throughout the United States and internationally. She has appeared on Quilting Arts TV and The Quilt Show. She is published in many books and magazines. Deborah is the author of Art Quilt Collage: A Creative Journey in Fabric, Paint and Stitch.

Check out her website at deborahsstudio.com

Join us for an evening of sewing for charity! 

Bring your sewing machine or serger, and we will provide pre-cut fabric kits to make the items described below.  The finished projects will be distributed  throughout Contra Costa County during the holiday season in December, benefitting over 10 non-profit organizations.  The fabric kits will all be holiday-themed.

Be part of the assembly line!  There will be conversation, laughter, and the satisfaction of making a difference.  But the main thing is to have fun and be together!

When you register for the event, you will be asked to select from one of the four activities:

Pillowcases 

Tote Bags

Placemats

Handwork -- this activity consists of stuffing and whip stitching items.  If you sign up for this activity, you don't need to bring a machine.  We will provide the thread, needle, and stuffing.

If you are participating in any of the sewing activities (pillows, tote bags, or placemats), please bring your machine and the following supplies:

Carol Ziogas

In a presentation tailored just for our guild, Carol will speak about how elements of Japanese kimonos tells us about the wearer.  In honor of our 50th anniversary, we will learn how metallic gold thread is used in kimono, fukusa, and other items.  She will bring selected pieces from her kimono collection and discuss design elements, textures, seasonality, and social status.

More About Carol

Carol learned the joys of quilting, costuming, and historical research as a child from her mother, probably as a way to keep her quiet. She owns nine sewing machines, most of them antique Singers, but prefers the mobility of a small kit with hand sewing supplies and whatever sashiko project she has going on. The joys of that six-year old learning to hand sew with her mother’s scraps never left, and Carol tackles each project with the same childlike enthusiasm she did back then. She spends her time researching and lecturing on Japanese textiles as well as teaching hand sewing and sashiko.

Visit her Etsy shop, Kimonomomo

Pati Fried

We live in an innovative society. Change and transformation are everywhere.

Quilting is ever changing, just as art has evolved through the ages. Modern, improvisational and minimalist design all draw inspiration from history. Let's shake things up a bit and discuss how to use traditional quilts and block design as a jumping off point for innovative design in your next quilt. Warning: You will go be inspired and ready to start something new!

More About Pati

Pati's life as a quilter goes back many years. As an artist, even further. She dabbles in different art mediums, but it is the quilt and textile community that inspires her.  Trained as a graphic designer, but following the drumbeat of an artist, she has always taken whatever path her imagination leads her down at the moment. Today may be improvisational - tomorrow could be pieced or appliquéd. She embraces it all - mixing and matching styles and techniques much as she does colors and patterns.  Being able to share, teach and work in the quilting community has become her driving force.

Check out her website at patifried.com

Eleanor Levie

Sit back, and let the author of American Quiltmaking: 1970-2000 lead you on a rollicking journey through quiltmaking in our time. Elly will share many secrets and stories about the explosion of fabrics and designs, the ground-breaking tools and techniques, and the larger-than-life personalities. She’ll show you some of the best and best-loved quilts of our lifetime. Bet many of you find this a trip down memory lane!

More About Elly

Though born and raised in Baltimore, MD, Elly's personality is less Baltimore Album and more Crazy Quilt. Lucky to have learned from a wide array of experts as she produced her many quilting books, she brings their diverse and innovative techniques -- as well as her own eclectic ideas and designs to all of her trunk shows and workshops. Mission: Getting beginning and experienced quilters to try something new, quilt outside the box, and have a lot of fun!

Check out her website at eleanorlevie.com

Elly has suggested that as part of "Show and Tell" portion of the meeting, that members consider sending in photos of some of their “older” or “first quilts”...i.e. back in the day projects, when the tools of our trade were not as plentiful.

Whether you have been naughty or nice, sweet or spicy, you are welcome to join us for the annual Holiday Social, a gathering in appreciation of all loyal guild members.

Plan to arrive early - 6:30! We hope to have a great turnout for the festivities! The planned activities include:

Secret Elf Gift Exchange

Be a secret elf, and give something special to a fellow guild member. Forms to sign up will be made available in August, to be exchanged at the October general meeting. Handmade gifts are the best, however it is the special thought that matters ($20 maximum, please!)

Photo Booth

There will be an opportunity to dress up and snap photos with your friends. You may choose to wear holiday garb (sweaters, jewelry, hats, scarves) OR wear something neutral (black or white) and then accessorize with props available at the booth. Be sure to bring your phone or camera.

Food

When you register, you will be asked what type of finger food you will bring to share -- appetizer or dessert.

Games

We will be participating in several interactive games. There will be prizes!

Quilts to Share

Cynthia Allen will be happy to receive your completed items.

David Owen Hastings

The modern quilting movement is evolving and changing, but one thing remains consistent: simple, spare design combined with thoughtful quilting make an outstanding combination.  David will present his process for coming up with simple graphic quilt designs, starting with stitched paper models (called maquettes). Examples of how to translate an architectural photo into a quilt design will be shown with samples of mini quilts created using this process. The techniques are also great for making unique modern quilt block designs. There will also be a discussion about walking foot quilting and how to break free from "stitch-in-the-ditch."

More About David

David is a quilt designer and instructor, graphic designer, artist, and creative coach, living on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula of Washington State.

He has been knitting and sewing since childhood.  In recent years he has enjoyed creating his own textiles through dyeing and painting and incorporating these fabrics into quilts and wall pieces with a modern twist.  

Since 1999, he has also been a professional print and collage artist. He has an an independent graphic design business, and since 2005 has dedicated to exclusively helping nonprofit organizations with their branding, websites and print collateral.

David offers workshops and lectures on quilting projects and design techniques, fabric printing, artist branding, and advancing your own creativity.  He also offers one-on-one coaching, branding, and design consultation for creative people of all types

Check out his website at davidowenhastings.com

Valerie Goodwin

Technology's increasing influence on the world of art is widespread.  It is changing how art is made and technology has been providing artists with new ways to express themselves for a very long time.

Valerie's current work as a quilt artist has been affected by technology, specifically through the use of laser cutting technology.  She will discuss how she uses laser cutting technology in her fiber art maps and in her work as an architectural educator.

More About Valerie

Valerie Goodwin is a mixed media fiber artist and architect whose works of fine art are included in museum and private collections. Most of her work is inspired by a love of aerial views of landscapes and cities. Many of her quilts are based on maps.

Goodwin’s art has moved through various stages from traditional quilting to an interest in abstract expressionism and, currently it is inspired by real and imaginary landscapes and cities. In some cases, her work shows an architectural sense of space with an archaeological perspective.  In others, the network of the city and its built form is more prominent.  These compositions work on several levels, from close up and far away as if one was looking at it from above.

Her book, "Art Quilt Maps: Capture a Sense of Place with Fiber Collage-A Visual Guide" is widely available.

Check out her website at valeriegoodwinart.com

Join us to celebrate the completion of another successful quilt show!

Quilt show ribbon winners (1st and 2nd place) will be asked to speak about their lovely quilts.  What inspired you?  What was your process?  What did you learn in the making of the quilt?

This is a new tradition, started just last year after a last-minute cancellation of a scheduled speaker.  Comments were so positive after the meeting, we decided to do it again.  Hope to see you there!

Contributions of cookies or finger desserts are appreciated.

Becky Goldsmith

You’ve made a beautiful top, but how do you decide how to quilt it? I’ll share with you what I have learned (both the good and the bad!) from quilting my own quilts over the last many years.

More About Becky

Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins started Piece O’ Cake in 1994 and published more than 30 books and hundreds of patterns, including 7 Blocks of the Month. Linda is mostly retired now while Becky continues writing books and teaching. Her classes are always interesting and informative, with an emphasis on teaching techniques that help you improve your sewing skills without making you crazy.

Becky is also a wife, mother, grandmother, and certified yoga instructor who is searching for balance, strength, and happiness in all things.

A quilt from her book “The Quilter’s Practical Guide To Color” was used for the GQCCC's 2018 Opportunity Quilt.

Check out her website at pieceocake.com

 

Attendees will have the opportunity to learn a variety of skills from our very own talented guild members.

Details will follow in the next few months...stay tuned!

Thomas Knauer

This presentation will explore some of the implications and possibilities of placing text on quilts. From historical precedents to contemporary practices, we will examine what it means to speak/write through the medium of quiltmaking and how words on quilts create voices unique to quilting, distinct from other more typical materials.

More About Thomas

Thomas Knauer lives in a small village in Upstate New York with his wife, two children, and a dragon. He spends much of his time exploring the minutiae of letters and numbers, words and sentences. He loves words in just about any form, from letterpress printing to multimedia development. So, it is no surprise that his work has taken a turn down the path of text-based quilts.

He began his professional life teaching design at Drake University before turning to quilting. He has designed fabrics for several leading manufacturers, and his work has been exhibited in quilt shows and museums across the country, including the International Quilt Museum, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, and the Quilt Festival in Houston. His work typically focuses on issues of social justice and violence; his most recent body of work deals with the recent police shootings of unarmed African Americans.

Thomas has authored several books and plans to keep writing as long as people will let him. 

Thomas was interviewed on the Just Wanna Quilt podcast in October 2019.  Take a listen!

Check out his website at thomasknauersews.com