Bloomington Quilters Guild
at a glance: April 2025

OUR Next MEETING is ON Tuesday, April 1, 2025.

Time: 6:00 PM Social Hour
6:30 pm Meeting start

PROGRAM: Display of Members' Quilt Talent
SHOW and TELL
Location: BETH SHALOM 3750 E 3rd St, Bloomington, IN 47401

April meeting

We hope that the weather does not hold us to April Fool’s Day and force us to cancel another meeting. We are going to have the program originally scheduled for January in April!

Come to a “Display of Quilt Talent.”  The categories are

• applique—fabric or wool, 

• scrappy—can include but not limited to mysteries/strings/friendship collaborations/neckties/shirts,  

• artsy—portraits/art quilts/modern/solids/made fabric/contemporary,  

• by hand—quilting/hexies/EPP/embroidery  

• small etc.—bags, place mats, jackets, toaster covers, ornaments, you name it!  

There will be separate areas for each category.  A helper will stay at each station to help facilitate showing items while everyone else will rotate through.  Projects for display must be finished, bound, and labeled (permanent or temporary) to be sure they are returned to the owner.  Even if your friends have seen your project long ago, newer members will be interested to see it too.  Just bring it to share.  If your project fits into more than one category, we don’t mind.  Just bring it to share.  If you think your project isn’t “good enough” just bring it to share anyway.  We really want to see your work!  Can you imagine the wonderful variety we might view from our folks throughout the guild?  Please shine your light and share your talents at the April meeting.

May Meeting

On May 6th, our very own Lisa Dodson will present “Fiber Art Creativity.”  She will highlight her beautiful art work and tell her story.  The next day, May 7th, her workshop will teach us how to work with a variety of fabrics, colors, textures and papers to fuse them onto your chosen background for a visual composition, later finished with quilting.  Lisa was the featured artist at IHQS in the recent past.  See her facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/LisaLovesToQuilt

Mixed Media Fabric Workshop

This ½ day workshop will consist of designing and creating visual compositions by fusing different types of materials onto your chosen background that can then be quilted into a finished item.  

You’ll be working with a variety of fabrics, colors, textures and papers that are merged together to form a very interesting and unique image.

These results can be used to develop numerous personal projects including journal covers, wall hangings, bags, pillows and postcards. 

A short tutorial will be presented on the key elements of design such as line, color, shape, texture and space. 

Many of the materials and tools will be provided. Patterns to trace and fuse will be available at the workshop however participants are encouraged to use their own design ideas if desired.  

No need to bring a sewing machine for these first steps. 

This workshop will give you the tools and techniques to create confidently. 

• Date: May 7, 2025

• Time: 9:00 am -11:30 am

• Location: St Marks Methodist Church Room 1

• Materials to bring: See Materials List.

• Cost: $35 per person

Thanks
Lisa Dodson
Lisalovestoquilt@ymail.com

Register for Lisa Dodson Workshop

Congratulations to BQG members who Earned an award at the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show

Wow, the 2025 IHQS was a beautiful display of quilts, not in small part due to the Bloomington Quilters Guild members entering a variety of beautiful work! Congratulations to 5 of our members who garnered special recognition.

• Susie Goodman - 1st in the Challenge Category - Abbey Road

• Susan Colston - 3rd in the Challenge Category - Mr Klimt with the Topaz in the Log Cabin

• Marty Swank- 3rd in Modern Category - Women's Work: A Tribute to the Women of the Bauhaus

• Brenda Julovich - Mayor’s Choice - Scrappy Stars, Whimsical Feathers

• Maria Schmidt - Commissioners Coice - Cherrywood Hexagon Garden

A Winners List and a Gallery of the winning quilts can be found on the IHQS webpage.

June Meeting

Our final meeting of the quilt year is in June. During this meeting we elect officers for the next year, draw tickets for the Raffle Quilt, and choose the winner of our Annual Quilt Challenge! We traditionally bring some appetizer/desserts to share at this meeting and end the year on a social note.

JULY and August Meetings

We will meet in July and August (same time, same place) for a less structured, mainly social time together with conversations and group projects - and Show & Tell, of course!

Board Members for next year, July 2025-June 2026

We've successfully filled most of the positions but are seeking a few more!

PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS - We continue to search for folks to plan our programs for the July 2025-June 2026 year.  Annie Kelly has agreed to serve but she needs a co-chair or perhaps several women to form  a team.  A team member might only plan 1-3 meetings and we have some interest in that idea.

 PROGRAM CHAIRS ELECT - Ideally, we would have a person or team learning the ropes and planning ahead for the July 2026-June 2027 programs.  Having a year to plan allows the programs team to schedule with speakers whose calendars fill up quickly and a year ahead.

OUTREACH & PUBLICITY - This person would seize opportunities to promote Guild membership & events to the community, especially to attract new members. May include participation at arts fairs, farmers market, etc.

Community Quilts

What a generous group of people our guild members are! We continue to collect and distribute quilts to a wide group of programs throughout the Bloomington community.

TREE Quilt - The 2024/2025 Guild Challenge

Every year, there is a quilt challenge, issued by the winner of the previous year’s challenge. This year Jane Pitt issues the challenge Trees!

Quilters have been representing trees in their work for centuries. 

Plain or fancy, pieced, appliquéd, or embroidered, trees are always welcomed in quilts. So grab your preferred method and let’s grow some trees! Your entry in our challenge can be any size or shape, but must be quilted and bound, and ready for our June 2025 guild meeting. For more information and to see pictures of winners of previous years see the challenge web page.

Raffle Quilt

Be sure to get tickets from Sandy Bonsib at guild meetings for this year's beautiful raffle quilt. Raffle tickets are a creative Valentine, Easter or birthday gift for family and friends!  Drawing occurs at June meeting. More information on the raffle quilt page.

Remember to turn in your tickets to Sandy Bonsib at the April, May, and June meetings.

SAVE THE DATES!

fall 2025 Retreat

The Fall 2025 retreat will be at Waycross Camp and Conference Center. The dates are Monday Oct 13 -Thursday Oct 16, 2025.
We have to checkout after breakfast from our rooms, but can stay in sewing room until 3. Details will follow this summer when registration will open.

WINTER 2026 Retreat

The 2026 Winter Retreat will be at McCormick’s Creek State Park from Saturday, January 31, 2026 to Tuesday, February 3, 2026. This will provide the weekend quilters the ability to stay all day Sunday to sew and also people can go to church or the IU Women's basketball game and still be able to sew most of the day. 

The Indiana state parks run a special each winter and they plan to run it again next winter, the 2 for 1 Winter Special rate. If you stay at the Inn Sunday night Monday night is free. Saturday night would be at a discounted rate. Example this year for a double queen room the cost was $336 for 3 nights. Next year with the special the same room would cost about $224. This may change if the state parks raise the room rates. 

Looking ahead to summer!

June will be a traditional June meeting. We will award the raffle quilt, vote for the challenge winner, hold the elections and share some treats. We will meet in July and August (same time, same place) for a less structured, mainly social time together - and Show & Tell of course!