Fun with the Gwinnett Quilters in Georgia

I'm just back from a lecture and class with the Gwinnett Co.  Quilters' Guild in Georgia.They meet in the Snellville/ Lawrenceville area, outside of Atlanta, not far from Stone Mountain (for those who like to tour around and know the country).

The QuiltMobile was loaded up, gassed up and ready for a drive!

Gosh, I've had lots more in there that on this trip!

The big question was the weather: snow or no snow? Or maybe lots of icy rain.

Heavy clouds began to gather about an hour away from home...

But after a bit of rain the blue sky came through and the rest of the trip was no problem.

  

COLD...but no problems!

The Gwinnett Co. Quilters are a large group and very active.

The day I was there attendence was at 122, and seven new members!

This was despite the fact that the day's lecture was "Pot Holder Therapy"!

Here's my display...that's for the people who may become bored. It gives them something to look at!

I think the lecture went really well. It is NOT about how to make a Pot Holder (though I do provide a hand-out for that, just in case). It's really about mental health for quilters.

I taught the BLOOMS class the next day, but at the meeting my sample was hanging on the podium:

I was so impressed with this guild. They have a load of great activities. For a group this large, they have a friendly policy of assigning a Quilting Sister to each new member.

They had a Brown Bag Challenge going...I didn't get the rules, but there were a lot of bags! A Block of the Month was set up on another table., 

"Just-4-You" was using a fair amount of space. That is the excellent charity work division of this guild. They give quilts to a local charity (children's hopspital), a state charity (the name escaped me), and a national charity (Quilts of Valor)! You can read all about it on their website, plus see the free patterns passed out each month to encourage members to make quilts (over 400 last year!). They also had bundles of fabric to give out for starting the quilts. The Gwinnett Quilters really know how to do good charity work!

Yes, it was like a carnival for quilters with the Birthday Auction fund raiser, display of a raffle quilt with the center painted by artist Pat Buckley Moss, a silent auction for books and lots of other goings-on.

Way to go, ladies! Long may you quilt!

As usual, I forgot to get my camera out during the class.

It might make for a boring blog, but at least you know when I am teaching, I am focused on the class!

We had a great time making BLOOMS and had many beautiful flowers and leaves. I always enjoy the new ideas that pop up in class, including how the flowers look when made with a print of lots of different flowers! And...this is really good...one lady had fabric she got for free at the guild meeting. It featured BIG orange lilies that were a very nice size to cut for a 6" block...and since the background was very dark, those "plain" squares will fill in any place a pieced flower may have gone!

My husband had loaded my small Janome into the van, although I had not planned to take it along.

But I'm glad he did!

I had some extra time in the evenings, so I went to that Big Box of Fabric store and bought a cutting mat (I did have rulers & cutter) and some fabric so I could make myself The Big Box Mystery Challenge!

There were lots of 5 fat quarter packets, so I went with the bright colors, and then found a bolt of black with bright polka dots...1-1/2 yards of that.
It's a challenge, because I have to use just what I bought. And it's a mystery, because I had no idea what I'd do with it when I bought it!

But I did do something...you'll see what in the next post!

For Shayla Fans:

For the many people (well, one...) who asked for Shayla's latest photo, here she is on her throne.

She is the real cat at the front!

The stuffed cat was made for me by D. DeLuna (I don't remember the pattern...June Colburn? If so, it's no longer in print). The chair belonged to my great grandmother. The dolphin pillow was from a class I taught in Panama City.

What's in the box?

I'm not telling!