2025 Programs
June - July - August: Happy Summer -
no meetings are held during the summer months - see you in September!
May 2025:Gail Shannon, an
instructor at Bernina
Connection in Phoenix, was our delightful speaker in May.
Her focus was on color, design and composition. She is well known
for her color coordination skills and shared with us how to develop
a sense of color dynamics, principles of design and composition. A
truly gifted quilter, she also teaches how to take the fear out of
choosing fabrics and colors for the quilt design you want to make.
Gail shared many of her beautiful and colorful quilts while
explaining in detail how to identify and choose the levels of color
needed in each quilt design. The quilts she shared were made from
her patterns called Fractions, Candy Sticks, Fire Escape, The
Phoenix, Circle of Hope and more. Gail was such a big hit we are
looking into having her teach a class over the summer to our members
using her latest pattern, Christmas Wreath. This pattern is so new
that our group was the first to see it. Watch for the pattern on the
Bernina Connection website and while you are there check out the
classes offered by Gail Shannon.
April 2025:Gina
Perkes, owner at The
Copper Needle in Payson, was our scheduled speaker in April. Her
focus would be on machine quilting designs. Unfortunately, Gina had
a personal emergency and had to cancel. We hope to reschedule her in
September or October. Stay tuned.
March 2025:Madonna,
owner at Mad B's Quilt &
Sew in Mesa (an authorized Bernina dealer) i always a very
entertaining speaker. She started off by showing us how she made the
quilted vest she was wearing by actually cutting it out of a
finished quilt. She made it look and sound so simple! Next, she
covered in detail everything you would ever need to know about
batting from cotton to polyester to wool. Mad B’s Quilt & Sew offers
longarm quilting, sales and service, over 2,000 bolts of fabric,
notions, patterns, embroidery designs, sewing lessons and custom kit
concierge service.
We celebrated our 30th anniversary as a guild
during the March meeting with assorted tasty cupcakes, coffee and
tea. All members received a hard cover lined notebook and pen, both
inscribed with "Agave Quilt Guild 30th Anniversary". Long time
member and Chair of our Sunshine Committee, Sue Jordan,
was acknowledged as having been a member since the guild began in
1995! Sue remains very active to this day.
February 2025:
Lori
Schrage, manager at
35th Ave Sew & Vac in Chandler,
spoke in detail about rotary cutters and cutting mats offered at the
store. Brand names carried are Quilter's Select, Creative Grids,
Olfa, Clover and Fiskars, among a few others. Lori explained the
different uses for the three rotary blade sizes (28mm, 45mm, and
60mm) and how important it is to hold your cutter straight up and
down and not at an angle, to help your blade last longer. Cutting
mats come in all sizes and shapes and can be custom ordered. Did you
know that if your blade is skipping, it is likely your cutting mat
that needs replaced and not your blade? Also, if you can no longer
see the lines on your mat or your mat has cuts that go all the way
through, it's time for a new mat. Lori tests all products by using
them at home first. If she doesn't like them, they don't make it on
the store shelf.
Guild member Susan Buhl
shared her Stripology ruler and Stripology books, along with several
quilts and table runners she made using the ruler. Susan's daughter,
who works for GE Quilt Designs,
is scheduled to demonstrate how to use the ruler to interested
members while she is in town for QuiltCon 2025.
January 2025:
Happy New Year! Our meeting just so happened to fall right on
January 1. Even though we knew no speaker would be available on New
Year's Day, members voted to have the meeting anyway, to provide a
diversion for those who weren't interested in watching football
games all day. Instead, we ate delicious cookies and played
Quilter's Bingo! After just two rounds of Bingo, all prizes were
awarded. We had a brief business meeting followed by Show & Tell. We
had three full tables of leftover items from our Boutique sale held
in November, now being offered at a discount. We also had our Share
table which is always a very popular table. With 40+ members
attending, it was a good call to hold the meeting even though it
fell on a holiday.
Agave
Quilters Guild
