The Friendship Square Quilt Guild was started in 1981 when a group of women in the Whittier, California area wanted to get together to share their love of quilting. Today, with over 120 members, the guild meets monthly, sponsoring guest speakers on both traditional and modern quilting. Every other year, the guild holds a quilt show at the La Habra Community Center. Their next show is scheduled for March, 2018.
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At Road 2016 showing off their Opportunity Quilt[/caption]
The friendship activities that the guild is most proud of is their community and philanthropic outreach. One of their longstanding projects is with Quilts for Wounded Veterans. Members work together on red, white and blue themed quilts quilts that is part of a nationwide effort to thank wounded veterans for their service. The Marine Corps Family Foundation distributes the quilts to the Veterans Hospital at Camp Pendleton.
Another adopted organization is From Maddi’s Closet which is dedicated to the memory of little Madison Holmes, whose brief life touched so many and continues to inspire others to reach out to children and families who still struggle in search of a cure for pediatric cancer. Guild members make pillowcases and Beads of Courage Bags for children undergoing treatment for cancer. The Beads of Courage Bags are used to store the beads they receive for their courage in undergoing treatment. 
Each December at the guild’s holiday meeting, local non-profit agencies are honored and receive a donation from the guild along with quilts to be used in their programs. Agencies honored last December included Women’s and Children’s Crisis Center, St. Matthaias Episcopal Church, Interfaith Food Center, Salvation Army Transitional Living Center, Rosie’s Garage, and From Maddi’s Closet. 
Friendship Square Quilt Guild is so much more than a love of quilting. It is reaching out in friendship to those less fortunate, providing them warmth and security through quilting.
To learn more about the Friendship Square Quilt Guild, please visit their website.
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Posts Tagged ‘Traditional Quilting’
Meet The Friendship Square Quilt Guild
Monday, September 5th, 2016So You Want To Make A Winning Quilt? 2016 Excellence In Hand Quilting
Tuesday, August 9th, 2016 Elegance was made and quilted by Elsie M. Campbell. She received $1,500 from sponsor, World of Quilts Travel.
“Quite pleased,” was Elsie’s reaction when she found out she had won the prize for Excellence in Hand Quilting.
Elsie Campbell’s love for quilting is in her genes; from her mother, grandmothers, aunts…… and even back several more generations.
Inspiration for Elegance came when her son took Elsie in September, 2007 to an exhibit of antique quilts from the Henry duPont collection at Winterthur, duPont’s childhood home. The collection had been opened to the public more than 60 years ago as a museum. There were some exquisite boutis (trapunto or stuffed work) quilts that fascinated Elsie. She decided that if women from the 18th and 19th century could do this form of quilting, “I surely could, too.”
Work on Elegance began soon after Elsie returned from the exhibit and continued until September of 2015 – a total of 8 years to complete. During those 8 years, Elsie also made 50+ other quilts AND wrote 2 books ALONG with her traveling schedule, teaching quilt making techniques to others across the nation. Elsie said she never doubted that she would complete Elegance. She would stitch when she had a few moments here and there, usually in hotel rooms while she was on the road and at other odd times. Says Elsie, “A little bit of time here and there really will allow you to accomplish something significant. Just keep at it. If you enjoy the process (and I do!) it doesn’t matter how long it takes to make something of lasting beauty.”
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Close up of Elsie’s work[/caption]
Elsie also makes heirloom machine quilted quilts, quilting them on a domestic sewing machine. While she loves to do all kinds of quilt making techniques, she started off quilting everything by hand and still loves taking the time to hand quilt.
What is Elsie working on next? Elsie is a new iquilt.com instructor. Her online workshop is based on another award-winning quilt, Aunt MiMi’s Flower Garden quilt. The first version of that quilt won the Judge’s Special Merit at Road to California in 2009, and the second version won Best Traditional Quilt in 2014, and several top awards at the AQS Shows.
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Aunt Mimi’s Flower Garden II – 2014[/caption]
The workshop features 7 online lessons, complete with patterns and professionally produced instructional videos. Elsie still travels to teach quilting to guilds and at quilt shops and national quilt shows across the USA, delivering programs, and workshops, and generally enjoying herself. She sums it up by saying, “I love it ALL!”
To learn more about Elsie, please visit her website.
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Road 2016 Faculty: Meet Valerie Bothell
Thursday, December 3rd, 2015Valerie Bothell will be teaching on Wednesday and Thursday, 3402R Amish Bouquet, on Friday and Saturday, 5601C Wholecloth Quilt Design, and on Sunday, 7018R Silk Ribbon Embroidery
Valerie Bothell was recently added to Road 2016’s distinguished faculty line up. Born in Fort Collins, Colorado, Valerie has lived the past 38 years in Wichita, Kansas. A mother of four boys, ages 10 – 27, she is the only one in her family who quilts or does any kind of handiwork.
Valerie started sewing quilts at a very early age but didn’t really get serious about it until around 20 years ago. At age 11, she found a candy tin filled with embroidery floss in the hall closet and hasn’t stopped stitching.
The best quilting class Valerie has ever taken was taught by her dear friend, Candace Kling. I Valerie loved learning from Candace how to make vintage flowers out of ribbon and silk fabrics. She said during that class she felt like she was “living back in the 1800’s.”
For many years, Valerie taught crazy quilting out of her house. It was a good way to earn an income while staying home with her boys. She was in the midst of teaching one day when one of her sons came in to her studio without a stitch of clothing on to let her know he had gone to the bathroom all by himself. She still teases him about that to this day!
Valerie loves teaching her students new skills. Her favorite part of teaching is to encourage her students to think outside the box and enjoy what they are doing.
What does Valerie hope her students get out of her class? “A sense of satisfaction in learning new skills that they can then incorporate into their own projects.” And her best quilting tip for her students? “ Enjoy the process!”
There is one quilting tool Valerie can’t live without: her purple air erase pen. She uses it to mark her crazy quilt seams so that when she embroiders them, the stitches come out looking even every time.
Valerie is looking forward to Road 2016. She will be “teaching a subject that I have loved for over 20 years, meeting new students and enjoying California weather in January!”
Join us in welcoming Valerie to Road 2016.
For information about Valerie, please go to her website.
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Up Close: Traditional vs. Modern Quilting
Friday, May 2nd, 2014What makes a quilt modern? Are there aspects of traditional quilting found in the modern quilt movement? Can modern and traditional quilters coexist?
Who better to ask to compare modern vs. traditional quilting than modern quilter, Jacquie Gering. Jacquie taught classes at Road 2014 and served as one of the judges for the new Modern Quilt category.
Jacquie came in to quilting following a career in education. She taught elementary through high school, where reading was her specialty. She was also a high school principal. It was while researching the ladies of Gee’s Bend that quilts first appealed to her. From reading the ladies’ books, hearing them speak and sing, she felt their “spirit” and wanted to be a part of the quilting world. That was 6 years ago. Since that time, she has developed a sense for modern quilting
Jacquie believes modern quilting is just traditional quilting mixed up. They differ by how they use
Clean Lines
Negative Space
Grid Work
Traditional quilting aims for balance while modern quilting gives the feeling of balance. There is definite structure to traditional quilting with its rows and columns. Modern quilting has structure that is hidden. It is disguised through its asymmetry.
In the end, Jacquie differentiates the two styles by saying with modern quilting, “imperfect is good.” Her goal as a modern quilter is to be “perfectly imperfect.”
Whatever you preference, traditional or modern, there is a place for both techniques in the quilting world.
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