Becky Goldsmith

You’ve made a beautiful top, but how do you decide how to quilt it? Becky will share what she has learned (both the good and the bad!) from quilting her 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

Carolie Hensley

Carolie Hensley is one of the founders of the Cotton Patch in Lafayette, established in 1978.  In 1983, when one of Carolie's instructors was unable to find anyone to publish her work, Carolie and her husband, created C(arolie) &T(om) Publishing to fill this void. 

Don't miss this opportunity to meet this legend of the quilting world and learn directly from Carolie how they built one of the largest quilt and craft publishers in the world. 

More About Carolie

Throughout her many years in quilting, Carolie has won many local and national awards. The most prestigious, presented at Quilt Market 2004, was the National Michael Kile Award for helping to further the quilting industry. 

Fun fact: red is Carolie’s favorite color. Well, red with dots, to be exact.  Celebrate by wearing red to the meeting!

Visit these websites to learn more: The Cotton Patch and C&T Publishing

Dr. Marian Ann Montgomery

Beginning in the late nineteenth century through the 1960s, mass-produced printed cotton sacks were relied upon by rural America as a valuable source of free fabric for clothing, quilts, and home décor. 

In 2015, more than 5600 printed cotton sack pieces came into the holdings of the Museum of Texas Tech University in the Pat L. Nickols Cotton Sack Research Collection. The Nickols Collection includes white sacks, printed partial and whole cotton sacks, swatches of printed sacks, instructional booklets, garments, quilts, quilt tops, and decorated white sacks. Combined with earlier and subsequent individual donations, the almost 6000 feed sack pieces held by the Museum of TTU make this the largest collection of feed sack materials to be assembled by an American museum.

Learn more about this unique and important collection in a presentation that will be interesting to any lover of vintage fabrics.

More About Dr. Montgomery

Dr. Montgomery is Curator of Clothing and Textiles at the Museum of Texas Tech University. She is a quilt historian and has published through the American Quilt Study Group. Dr. Montgomery earned her Ph.D. in fashion and textile history/museum administration from New York University through studies in the Costume Institute and Textile Study Room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2018 she received the Bybee Scholar award for her work in promoting and preserving the art of quilting. Dr. Montgomery resides in Lubbock with her husband and dog, and she quilts in her spare time.

    

Donation Sewing Circle

Join us for an evening of sewing for our veterans!

The finished projects will be distributed throughout our area benefitting our various veteran organizations.  Come and be part of the assembly line!  There will be conversation, laughter and the satisfaction of letting a veteran know they are not forgotten.  But the main thing is to have fun and be together!

There well be both hand and machine sewing work.  Please indicate your preference during registration.

Sewing starts at 7 PM, but doors open at 6:30 PM to allow time for setup.

HAND SEWING

If you are participating in any of the hand sewing activities you won't need to bring your machine.  Bring needles, thread, scissors. and straight pins.

MACHINE SEWING

We will provide pre-cut fabric kits to make the quilts shown below.  The kits will all be patriotic-themed using fun and easy patterns.   

Please bring the following supplies if you plan to do machine sewing:

ATTENTION NON-MEMBERS!

The visitor's fee has been waived for this event.  We hope you will consider helping out for a good cause and meeting our members!

 

Tara Faughnan

Join us for a talk all about the process of design, from the initial spark to the finished quilt. Tara will share ways she takes an idea and develops it, and how the role of scale and color are integral to the process.  She will discuss what she does when things hit a wall and ways to resolve it, and how she gets out of creative ruts and, most recently, found the patience to see one through rather than fight it.

More About Tara

Tara is a professional textile and pattern designer, teacher, and quilter living and working in Oakland, California. She started to quilt around 2001. At the time, she had no idea that things such as rotary cutters, rulers, or plastic templates existed, and spent many happy weeks tracing around cardboard templates and cutting out pieces with a pair of scissors.

Somewhere along the way, her love of quilting led to the study and  a career in textile design, with clients including Michael Miller Fabrics, Riley Blake and Pottery Barn Kids.

She draws inspiration from the simple bold geometry of antique quilts, the gorgeous bright colors from textiles around the world, and freedom and spontaneity found in unconventional and improv-pieced quilts.  She likes to use simple geometry, complex color interaction, and to find the line that exists somewhere between harmony and discord.

Tara will be teaching "Designing with 4-Patch" on November 9, 2024.

Check out her website at tarafaughnan.com

Laura Nownes

Everyone has a story. Laura shares hers through her 40 plus years of quiltmaking.  From her beginning to most recent quilts you can see Laura’s development as a quiltmaker throughout the many stages of her life.

More About Laura

Laura's passion for making quilts is an extension of her love of sewing. She began as a child with doll clothes and then moved on to making garments and often worked on sewing projects for neighbors. After taking her first sampler quilt class in Berkeley, California in 1979, she found a lifelong interest.

In 1980, she connected with Diana McClun, the co-owner of the former Empty Spools in Alamo and co-founder and retired director of Empty Spools Seminars. Together they authored seven best-selling books, including Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!!, which is often referred to as "the bible" of quiltmaking.  

Laura lives in Pleasant Hill and teaches and lectures both locally and internationally, including at Empty Spools and online on Craftsy.

  

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

   

This year's theme for the annual holiday social is "Home for the Holidays"

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

Holiday Pal Gift Exchange

Be a secret pal, and give something special to a fellow guild member.  Fill out the “Holiday Pal” form and return to Joan Barker by the September general meeting. We will exchange forms that evening. You will then have plenty of time, to make or purchase a special gift for your Holiday Pal. Handmade gifts are the best; however, it is the special thought that matters ($30 maximum, please!)

Forms can be picked up at The Farmhouse, filled out and left for Joan Barker. They will also be available at the August and September in-person general meetings.

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.

Games

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

Food

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

Holiday Quilt

Bring your favorite holiday quilt to share!

Teresa Duryea Wong

This presentation covers a tumultuous period in Native American culture beginning in 1880, when Native lands were taken away, buffalo herds were decimated, forced relocations were happening, and education systems changed dramatically.  Indigenous Americans learned to adapt over the next few decades.  Western missionary women introduced quiltmaking to the community, and Native American women, with their adept needle skills, learned to make quilts that reflected their own cultural heritage.

Learn how the transition from sewing buffalo hides to quilting evolved and see examples of beautiful quilts made in this period.

More About Teresa

Teresa loves to write, and has been at it her entire life.  She has worked as a TV news camera woman, freelance journalist, publisher of a fine-art magazine, and 20 years working for a corporation.  In 2013, she struck out on her own again to follow her passion.  She is a staff and contributing writer for numerous quilt magazines, has published five quilt history/textile books, and presents lectures to guilds throughout the US and Canada.

Check out her website at teresaduryeawong.com

Maday Delgado

This lecture pays homage to sustainability, connection and accepting one’s work, as perfectly imperfect. 

The intention is to embrace the twists and turns that our personal work takes as it evolves organically, without worrying about the end result. 

Perfection is both chaotic and elusive. When we place the emphasis on creative well-being, exploring colorful compositions and acceptance, we inspire more joy and openness in our creative practice. 

More About Maday

Maday is a prolific art educator, published artist, Janome America Artisan, and speaker based in the Midwest. Her mission is to nurture artistic platforms across cultures and generations to foster creative work, while finding ways to minimize our environmental footprint. She combines paint, weaving, hand-stitching (her favorite) and machine sewing and embroidery to infuse her creations with energy, paying homage to her Cuban upbringing. 

Maday’s work has appeared in international publications and periodicals in her home state. She currently teaches virtually and at folk schools, quilt shops, quilt shows, and is an instructor at Madison Technical College in Madison, Wisconsin.

Check out her website at sustainabletextiledesign.com

Michelle Wyman

Michelle will share stories of her background as a professional actor, a Montessori teacher and quilt maker. There is a thread that connects all of these experiences that have led her to the creative process of making quilts.

For Michelle, craft is a verb and art a noun, so she crafts works of art with layers of fabric stitched together as a quilt. The design of the quilt, whether it is an interpretation of someone else’s pattern or her own design, is a practice of expression created with intent. She has grown as a quilter paying attention to the principles of design while also finding flow in the process of spontaneity and improvisation.

More About Michelle

Michelle grew up in the San Francisco Bay area.  She has a BA in Liberal Arts from Pomona College and an MFA from the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.  She worked for several years as a professional actor before pivoting to a career in education while raising a family.  

Her first quilt was a lumpy mess sewn with love while pregnant with her first child. She realized then that the craft of making a quilt elevated not just an artistic visual expression but also an intangible process.

She currently lives with her husband in the coastal mountains above San Francisco Bay, where she advocates for environmental causes, gardens, hikes, and quilts.

Michelle will be teaching  "Aura Quilt" on May 3, 2025 (event to be posted soon).

Check out her website at hummingbirdtextiles.studio

   

Nancy Brown

Join us for a  retrospective of over fifteen years of Nancy's animal and family quilts and the stories behind them. She will also bring several quilts to share up-close.

More About Nancy

Nancy started making quilts over 30 years ago after her mother took a quilting class and taught her what she had learned. Nancy has always loved animals and found that by using applique she could create realistic animal portraits.  She has made many animal quilts, but feels there are many more animal quilts waiting to be made. Nancy also loves old family photographs and has made quilts inspired by these as a way to celebrate family.

Nancy exhibits her quilts around the country and has received several awards for her work. Her quilts are in several private collections. She teaches hand applique classes with animal themes and lectures on her animal quilts.

Nancy will be teaching a class on July 26, 2025 (event details to be posted soon).

Check out her website at nancybrownquilts.com

  

Kitty Oliver

Have you wondered what criteria a professional quilt judge uses when evaluating a quilt?  Kitty will present how she went from quilt maker to quilt judge, and what makes for an award-winning quilt.

More About Kitty

Kitty has been a quilter for over 25 years. She has won numerous honors and ribbons.  Kitty creates her own patterns and designs, and has a deep appreciation for the creative process. 

In addition to teaching quilting technique classes and giving lectures, she created the California Sesquicentennial Children’s Quilt Program.  This program brought information on quilting and California history to thousands of school children

As a successful graduate of the West Coast Quilt Judging Academy she has become a very busy quilt judge.  Kitty loves the opportunity to encourage and challenge quilters at all levels, through meaningful and thoughtful comments.

Christina Cameli

Christina shares the biggest "aha!" moments she's had in her years as a quilter, teacher, and pattern and fabric designer.

More About Christina

Christina has been sewing since she was a child. In 2003 she fell in love with quilting. Since then she has authored five quilting books, filmed multiple online classes and designed quilt patterns and fabric. She is also a nurse-midwife, a mom and a paddle boarder. 

Christina lives in Portland, Oregon with her blended family, a rescue lab mix and a ton of houseplants.

Check out her website at christinacameli.com

  

Sandra Bruce

This presentation will be an overview of the evolution of "Material Matrix", a technique developed by Sandra and influenced by the painter Chuck Close.   This technique interprets a photograph using a grid.

Sandra will also discuss the colorful visual journey that defines her style of quilts, her inspiration, longarm quilting, wearable art, and much more!

More About Sandra

Sandra was born in Virginia to deaf parents who always encouraged her creativity.  Her love of quilts began when she started a quilt group with her neighbor Therese May in the early 1980's.  She moved to Grass Valley in 1990 and has been taking classes and learning new techniques ever since.  

As a commercial illustrator and letterer for over 30 years, it greatly influences her quilt work.  Sandra is also a polymer clay artist, and teaches classes and sells polymer clay buttons and jewelry.  She also enjoys making wearable art, playing pickleball, and traveling.

Sandra will be teaching a class on the "Material Matrix" technique on September 27 and 28, 2025 (event details to be posted soon).

Check out her website at sandrabruce.com