Julia Graber Presents Trunk Show

Julia Graber with her quilt "Seven Sisters--Leaving Home"

Nearly 100 quilters were awed and inspired by the quilting of our guest speaker at the March meeting, Julia Graber. Her family lives on a farm and has a trucking business and are part of a large Mennonite community in Brooksville, Mississippi. Julia is a quintessential quilter in a large family of quilters. She has six sisters and a brother; she and her husband Paul are the proud parents of six children. She and her family often meet for retreats to quilt and share good fellowship. Not surprisingly, they are teaching the younger generations to enjoy this family tradition.

Julia Graber with "Family Circle--Farmer's Delight"

Julia Graber with "A Plate of Pineapples"

Julia has had quilts displayed at the American Quilters Society shows and the National Quilt Museum in Paducah many times, and she and her sisters often are finalists in the New Quilts from Old Favorites exhibits. Visit Julia's blog at http://www.xanga.com/pauljuliagraber.

Kaley Anastasio (8), Emily Bingham (9), Gracyee Boyd (10)

This meeting occured during spring break, and four members brought granddaughters to enjoy this trunk show. Three are pictured here. All have made at least one quilt, and Kaley brought hers for Show & Tell. We look forward to seeing more from these enthusiastic young quilters. Gracyee has already asked if she can skip school to attend our April meeting.

Our website has been updated to include quilt show information. Show dates are October 8-9-10, 2010. More special events and hotel rates will be added later. Categories and Entry Forms are available in pdf format and can be printed. Deadline for receipt of Entry Forms is July 21--that date is coming up fast! http://www.pinebeltquilters.com/.

2010 the Start of a Busy Year

Pine Belt Quilters began the new year with about 90 members and visitors at the January meeting. New officers who will serve for 2010 and 2011 were introduced.

Pictured are (left to right) Linda Lowe, secretary/newsletter editor; Debbie Davis, assistant membership director; Doris Dunn, vice president; Sharon Barnes, treasurer; and Shirley Wiltshire, president. Anne Esteve (not pictured), membership director is on medical leave of absence.

Gloria Green showed an table runner example of the quilt-as-you-go technique which she will teach in the January workshop for the guild. This method can be used for small projects all the way to full-size bed quilts.

The Children's Quilt group is busy making fleece or flannel blankets to send with Linda Lowe on a medical-dental mission trip to Honduras in April. All members were invited to participate by purchasing 1-1/4 yds of fleece and serging the edges. Two pieces of flannel can be stitched or serged together also. The area is mountainous and cold at night and the children need and will enjoy the blankets.

Leslie Kiger, 2010 quilt show chair, reported on the progress of all show committees. More information will be posted on the website soon. The donation quilt committee made a miniature version of the donation quilt, and each person who had contributed a block was eligible to win the quilt by drawing. Here is the lucky recipient--Mary Nell Magee.

Christmas Luncheon 2009

To say thank you to our outgoing president, Barbara Peters was presented with a Dresden Plate quilt with members' signatures on the back. The blocks were a gift of some friendship blocks from Leola Kreigbaum, our oldest member, who has moved to Florida but still sends back children's quilts to us; Donna Burges and Rhoda Libiez and Gloria Green collaborated to assemble the blocks, and Susie Jackson added her exquisite quilting to make this a very special quilt.

Pine Belt Quilters finished up a busy year with a pot-luck luncheon of delicious food. We celebrated the giving of 225 quilts for children during the year. Our guests were from agencies we have served with quilts during the year. We also made isolet covers for Forrest General Hospital's new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Pictured with Tangela Boutwell from FGH are some of the PBQ members who worked on the isolet covers: Gloria Green, Frances Good, Mary Nell Cranford, Barb Peters, Josette Bonfanti, Grace Daukas, Nancy Knight, and Linda Lowe. The covers are gray on the underneath side facing the infant, and a bright flannel print on the outside to give the parents a more cheerful and less clinical atmosphere while their baby is gaining strength to go home.

Natisha Polk selected quilts for children at South Mississippi Children's Shelter and told the guild how much the quilts would mean to the children who will receive them.

Shan Barnes is shown with a Cinderella quilt for the Shafer Center for Crisis Intervention. She explained that the quilts she uses with clients during therapy sessions or to take to a court hearing can be very comforting. The Center has clients from small children to the elderly.

Each year we make Christmas stockings and bring toys for children and mothers at the Domestic Abuse Family Shelter. Pictured are staff members from DAFS with the table of gifts for this agency.

Sew This Quilt Shop from Abita Springs, LA, brought their wares to our December meeting so we could do some Christmas shopping. Pictured are Mona Jones, Deb Covington, and Kelley Covington, with their generous donation of bolts of fabric, quilt kits, and pre-cut squares for our ongoing Children's Quilts projects.

25th Anniversary Challenge

Jo-Ann Evans made the winning Challenge piece to help celebrate our guild's 25th Anniversary. The 24" x 30" quilt featured a pieced tree for each year and contained important historical information--organizing date, past presidents' names, and dates and locations of our quilt shows (beginning at Trinity Episcopal Parish House in 1985, then ten shows at Jackie Dole Sherrill Community Center, Hurricane Katrina date, causing us to delay the 2005 show until 2006, and arriving at Lake Terrace Convention Center in 2008).
Other participants in the Challenge were Martha Ginn, Barbara Peters, Allene Korinek, Sally Henderson, Doris Dunn, Donna Crager, Frances Good, and Kim Overstreet.

Sara Ward from Philadelphia presented a trunk show and shared many beautiful quilts with the group. She brought with her several family members representing three generations who are helping to carry on the rich quilting heritage.
After careful thought and discussion, the group decided on the theme for our 2012 show: "Life on Our Planet," opening up possibilities of thinking green, repurposing fabric, and conservation of our natural resources. This will follow 2010's theme of Log Cabins.

Joy O'Keefe--Don't Make Waves

Subtitle: Quilts Should Hang or Lay Flat and Square
At our October 21 meeting we were treated to a comprehensive program by one of our non-resident but active members, Joy O'Keefe, of Paducah, Kentucky. Joy lived in Long Beach, Mississippi, until Hurricane Katrina destroyed her home. When she and husband Maurice were deciding on where to relocate (nearer their son in St. Louis), Joy's love of quilts and quilting made Paducah a logical choice. She comes back to Mississippi for business and medical matters, so PBQ members scheduled her for a program. She displayed two of her seemingly flawless quilts and shared some of the stories of quilts saved and quilts lost. But losses have not slowed down her passion to continue creating beautiful quilts and to do this with the greatest precision possible.

Joy's presentation went from the basics to completion and included information on these vital points:

• Buy good quality fabric, prepare fabrics, cut with accuracy.
• Good sewing machine care, accurate seams, stitching accurately.
• Press (don't iron), beware of off-grain edges, check often.
• Diagonal settings, adding borders (stripped, pieced or appliqued, butted or mitered).
• Blocking, shaping, pinning, squaring, stabilizing, and quilting.
• Binding, finishing, sleeve, labeling.

Joy advised us, when viewing our own quilts or those of others, to train ourselves to be a judge and not a critic. We can utilize our knowledge of the elements and principles of art (combining line, form, space, color, value, texture, and light to achieve harmony, proportion, balance, rhythm, unity and emphasis) and practice these traits through precise workmanship. We should first admire the strengths of a piece (ours or others') before we note any imperfections.
She affirmed each of us with "Quilters are fiber artists. Wear the title proudly."

2010 Show Categories Posted

The categories for the Pine Belt Quilters 2010 Fiber Art & Quilt Show are listed below:

You may enter one piece per category, with an overall limit of eight entries per person.

Appliqué Team Large
Appliqué Team Small

Appliqué Large
Appliqué Small

Pieced Team Large
Pieced Team Small

Pieced Large
Pieced Small

Mixed Team Large
Mixed Team Small

Mixed Large
Mixed Small

Theme (Log Cabin) Any Size

Small/Lap/Crib/Children

Embroidery/Whole Cloth/Stitchery/Other Any Size

Friendship (Group) Any Size

Art Any Size

Pictorial Any Size

Wearables

Miniatures (Maximum Size 24”)

Youth (made by youth eighteen years and under)

Children's Quilts...and Pillows

Our August meeting featured our Parade of Children's Quilts with Doris Dunn's yellow ice cream quilt winning the vote for our favorite. Although our CQ group works all year making quilts, we encourage all our members to make at least one a year and bring to this meeting. Eighteen new quilts were brought in; several people had already turned theirs in to be included in the ones given to the 155th Brigade Combat Team shipping out from Camp Shelby in May.

Our members have really jumped on the bandwagon by making small pillows for the Pediatric Unit at Forrest General Hospital. Ruth Byrd collected 116 more pillows at our September 16 meeting and delivered them to the hospital. This makes a total of 380 pillows we have donated to date! The nurses are so thankful and tell how excited the youngsters are over owning their very own pillow.