BeeArtful

June 2024

A letter from our leader Janice

May is graduation month. Maybe you attended a graduation. My granddaughter graduated 8th grade and she told me her goal for high school is to be remembered as the “ smart girl.” That’s an enviable goal.

I think we would all like to be thought of as the smart girl in the room. None of us likes to make mistakes or be “clueless.” But how do you learn anything if you aren’t a beginner? I recently read that you can only grow through uncomfortable moments. So let’s have a few more uncomfortable moments this year.

Our BeeArtful group has so many expert quilters. Carol is going to lead us in July with rope bowls and Geri has a fabric bowl pattern. They are all willing to help someone learn something new. Also, they are kind and encouraging. Today, I finished sewing a flange binding on a quilt. I learned that during our April retreat. Thanks Gini and Geri.

As we head into summer, keep asking how to and what if questions and then practice the answers.

We can all be the smart girls in the room.

Keep stitching

Janice

2024 Meeting Schedule

June 11 Open Sew
July 9 Rope Bowls and Layer Cake bowls
August 13 International Quilting Workshop led by Melinda Oliver
September 10 follow up to workshop
October 8 Planning for November retreat
November 11-15 Fall Retreat at Fire Station
December 10 Christmas Party and KISS it goodbye swap instead of presents.

June Meeting

As many of you may have heard, attendance for the June meeting is going to be down. At this point, based on the responses to the form that was sent out, 5 ladies have said "yes" and 3 have said "maybe". In the yes group are Gini, Lynda, Kathy, Laura, and Lucia. Gini and Lynda know how to get into the building. Have a small but mighty open sew meeting ladies!

May 2024 Bee Artful Meeting Highlights

Jane's Memory Quilt

Backed with Alene's signature minky

Geri's layer cake bowl-come to July workshop to learn how!

Mitzi's block

Silke's alcohol ink printed on a bag

Mitzi's quilt top 1

Bev's brown and blue bear claw quilt

Mitzi's quilt top 2

Melinda's third pulpit quilt-Summer

Vicki's block for a new Wendy Williams quilt

Jan's artifacts she found

Label for the 2025 Opportunity quilt. Thanks Bev!

Reference Items

Bee Artful quilting thread recommendations

Silke uses Superior thread 100 weight (micro quilter)-blends in well.

Kathy I. uses 100 weight silk thread by Yli (order from Amazon or another vendor online).

Improving your hand jobs - tips and techniques

Since we’re all at various levels when it comes to hand stitching, learn, refresh or improve your hand embroidery skills with tips and techniques from Bee members. Some of the experienced stitchers in Bee Artful are ready to share! Each month you can come with a sampler of some kind (cloth, hoop, needles, floss, and/or Perle cotton (see photo for a sampler idea) and learn some new stitches.

Critique Documents for reference

https://www.janedunnewold.com/resources/critiques

One is a checklist that can be used as a guideline when looking at a quilt - this is published on her website as part of her creative strength training class.

The second is a detailed essay she wrote concerning the process.

I hope that these documents will help the Bee Artful group conduct critique sessions that are productive.

Letter from the editor

Our May meeting was fun with Show and Tell, sharing of patterns and stitches, and some minor schedule changes (see above). I will miss the June and July meetings but hope to be there in August to lead us through some traditions in Japanese quilting.

I am happy to convey all of these wonderful "goings on" via this newsletter. Try to get things to me in advance of the end of the month via email (mandmoliver@gmail.com) or text. If you put the word "newsletter" somewhere in the message line I will be able to find it easier (if using email). See you soon.

Melinda