November in New Jersey is typically all about crisp weather and an explosion of Fall colors, we’ve had the colors but not much chill in the air. It’s coming though! Members made chevron blocks in Fall themed colors for our block lotto drawing and wowza they looked awesome. Congratulations to new member, Katie who won these. We cannot wait to see this as an awesome quilt!

On to trees for the December block, these are cute!

We are knee deep in preparing for our first ever Quilt Exhibit to be held at the Belmar Arts Council in February 2023. All of us are working on a mini art quilt, inspired by the Jersey Shore and with a nod to the number 10 somewhere to commemorate our 10 year anniversary. I’m excited to see museum goers trying to spot the “10” in our art!

This amazing collaborative quilt, spearheaded by one of our newer members, Helen, and pieced, quilted, and bound by members will be up for raffle the entire month of our exhibit and beyond. Whatever proceeds from the raffle will go towards purchasing supplies for our work in the community.

Speaking of Community, we will be making a donation of approximately 18 quilts to Mary’s Place by the Sea in Ocean Grove in early December. Mary’s Place is a retreat for women battling cancer where guests stay free of charge thanks to the generosity of their supporters. Women stay for a weekend and are treated to nutritious meals, counseling, therapy and their spa, all in the beautiful Victorian building with multiple porches lined with rocking chairs, just steps from the sea. Stay tuned to see the amazing work of our guild members when we make this donation.

Part of every meeting is our Program segment. These are member led and have proven to be both educational and very well received. This month Linda Duffy demonstrated several methods for making multiple half square triangles. Whether you’re new to this craft or have been at it for years, there is always something to learn Sewing strips together to produce half square triangles was new to me! Linda is also a firm believer in starching fabric prior to cutting for precision cutting and piecing and she touched on that in her tutorial, but has promised to devote an entire Program to starching, different types and even mixing your own next year. Thanks Linda

Last month our Program was about unusual machine feet led by June Mellinger. At that time June, who had a 25 year career at Brother Sewing Machine, offered a foot of the month for us. So this month she schooled us about the benefits of a binding foot. Very interesting. While she was demonstrating that someone noticed the embroidery on the back of her jacket. According to Junes husband, no surface is untouched by June’s machine embroidery. All of her quilts are quilted using her Brother machine embroidery function.

More show and tell!

And a whole cloth baby quilt backed with minky!

That’s a wrap for November. Next month we’ll be celebrating the holiday together with a little party and a pincushion swap. Looking forward to that and winding down the year. Plans are being made for 2023 with lots of new and fresh ideas. Our little guild had gone from a handful of members to 30 and counting and I could not be happier about that. The more the merrier!!

Happy holidays to all!