Texas Quiltworks, Rockwall - $25 gift certificate towards any class

Quiltmakers, Dallas - $10 gift certificate & book

Quilt Mercantile, Celeste - Yours Truly Fat Quarter Sampler

Quilts on the Square, Commerce - $20 gift certificate towards any class

Quilt Asylum, McKinney - $10 gift certificate

7 patterns

Please remember to send thank you notes and patronize these generous merchants!

Cotton Belles

Cotton Belles quilting circle met Feb. 2 in the small dining room at Kavanaugh United Methodist Church. Everyone welcomed Bernice back to the meeting. FISH donation for the month was $35.00. Everyone participating had challenge sheets for the year ready to be given to Kaye Dunn. Sherry reminded everyone to keep a record of their community hours. La Nell showed 2 of the donated baby quilts she has finished for Sue Miller's granddaughter Jessica, who lost everything from a trailer fire. Bernice showed a baby quilt made for a new grandchild. Nora showed the flannel throw made for her son-in-law which also was one of her challenges. Sherry showed a square-in-square quilt top made from her dyed fabrics. She also had before and after pictures of her sewing closet which was also one of her challenges. Jeanne showed placemats made from triangle squares. Everyone brought their squares to work on Kansas dugout block - a Mary Ellen Hopkins pattern. Sherry reminded everyone she would be a speaker at TAQE July 31. Desert was brought by Sherry.

Marcia Ryder

Cotton Blossoms

The Cotton Blossom circle is off to a great start this year. We met on January 19 and again on February 2. We welcomed two new members to our circle.  Helon Raziniak and Margie Hendrix joined the group, and they are going to be a real asset to us.  We have been working on a group quilt using 30's fabrics and Betty Hammock's snowball pattern. It has been great fun and the quilt is really cute. Priscilla McFarland has already finished her challenge quilt for Ronald McDonald. The rest of us are going to have to get with the program. There is always one over achiever in every group you know. We are looking forward to a fun and productive year. We still meet on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month at 3:00 p.m. at the Methodist Church on Monroe St. in Commerce. We could still use some new members, if you are available for an afternoon meeting, come and check us out.

Belva Isham

Cotton Strippers

The February 12^th meeting was held at the church with 6 guests, several of whom joined the Guild! We love new members. There are now 3 Janes in the group. Jane Martyn is Jane #1, Jane Asberry is Jane #2 and Jane York is Jane #3. After a wonderful enchilada dinner the Strippers discussed their next community service project. For the next 2 months everyone will collect baby clothes, receiving blankets, diaper shirts, etc for the Community Clinic. We will have a “baby shower” at the April meeting. Susan discussed final plans for retreat and meal captain assignments. If you are going and did not receive your retreat information, contact Sue. She will either email or regular mail it.

Our project for the year is going to be making a Blooming 9 Patch. We are going to be making this individually instead of doing a Round Robin. Our wonderful teacher Pebble was kind enough to give everyone a Blooming 9-Patch lesson and we had about 5 beautiful quilts to look at while she was instructing everyone in the technique. The cost for participating is $5, $2 for the pattern and $3 will be put into an account to hold until December. Anyone that finishes their top by the December meeting will have their name put into the drawing to win the money so you can have your quilt quilted by Vicki Martin in Eufaula. For anyone getting Fabric 1 and Fabric 2 merged by the March meeting could be eligible for a prize also.

Many thanks to Debra Hagar for heading up the Solid Rock dinner. If she purchased food for you don’t forget to pay her (myself included)

March refreshments will be brought by Sue Childers, Donna Moon, Jane Martyn, Joan Biggs, Huey Nobles and Connie Cawthon. If you haven’t yet signed up for the refreshment list, see Jane #1 at the next meeting.

Sunbonnet Sues

The February 5^th meeting was held at the church and dinner was hosted by Kay Colcleasure who brought a wonderful chicken enchilada casserole. There will be no March meeting due to retreat. The April meeting will be held at the home of Donna Moon.

(Newsletter Editor Note: The December report was not printed in the January newsletter. My apologies to Sherry Worley who submitted it very timely, as you will read, however I failed to check my e-mail thoroughly!)

WOW! What a night! I am writing this Friday after the Guild meeting and I am overwhelmed with gratitude. Thank you to everyone who made the Salvation Army donation possible. Thank you to the Cotton Belles for making the quilt “Quilted Christmas Dreams” and for all the hard work on ticket sales. I can’t fully express how proud I am of every member of the Cotton Belles. Thank you to the Guild members for allowing the quilt to be raffled through Community Service Committee. Lisa Coker and Sue Miller, you have made this a great year. Thank you to all of you who bought tickets. Finally thanks to everyone for their patience last night and to Jeanne and Ollie Kirby for saving the day by helping me get in touch with the Traylor’s. None of us ever dreamed that we would be able to raise $1,600. I wish each of us could have won. The winner, Susan Hughes (Sue Miller’s daughter) is a very delightful person and is delighted with the quilt. When Sue called her with the news, I think she must have screamed for 5 minutes.

Three baby size quilts were turned in bringing our year’s total to 39. Seven baby quilts are being donated to Hands of Compassion, a food and clothing ministry run by members of First Baptist, Highland Terrace Baptist, Ridgecrest Baptist and Park Street Baptist with the help of volunteers from other service organizations. For more information on this group, a very nice article appeared in the Greenville Herald-Banner on November 30, 2003

Thank you all for a wonderful year. The Community Service Committee looks forward to serving the Guild in 2004. If you have any suggestions, please let us know.

Just a reminder…Please sign in at the Community Service table when you have done any Community Service. Not only will you be helping the Guild keep its records in order, but also there will be occasional prize drawings for people who have logged their hours. Your service need not be only working on quilts for the Guild. Please feel free to sign up if you have other Service projects.

We have a number of new ideas for this year.

First on the agenda is fund-raising. We will be having a used magazine and book sale at the February Guild meeting. Also available will be grab bags priced from ..50 to $5.00. Please be generous. We must raise all of our operating budget, and we count on your support. Later in the year we will be repeating the sale of hand dyed fabric. We are also trying to arrange some classes that will be available for a small fee.

We would like to keep several baby sized quilts on hand in case of illness or emergency among members of the Guild. We would also like to gather and maintain a supply of larger quilts to be used for local emergencies. If any Circle is interested in making a twin, double, or queen sized quilt please contact one of the Committee members. We have some fabric available for your use.

Return with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryear……Remember back when we first started the Community Service Project? If you picked up a kit in the first two months after the start there may have been a coupon in the kit for a $10 gift certificate to Quilts on the Square upon completion and return of the quilt. Five coupons were included in kits and only 2 have been returned. Last year when Quilts on the Square was made available for sale the gift certificates were used to purchase three ten dollar gifts. The Committee has decided that if you still have one of these coupons and still intend to make the quilt you have until the March meeting to contact one of the Committee members. (Sherry Worley, Sue Miller, and Lisa Coker). If you contact us you will have as much time as you need to finish your quilt. If we are not contacted we will declare the coupons void at the March meeting. The purchased gifts will then be used as prizes for the Service drawings.

Sherry Worley

Vice-President Pebble Rehm conducted the installation of officers for 2004, with each current officer passing a lighted candle to her incoming counterpart. McCaw briefly reviewed a history of the guild since its organization in 1991. Of the original 20 charter members, 6 are still active members of the guild.

Rehm reviewed upcoming programs and gave each member received a schedule of the dates and planned programs. A new mystery quilt, "Mystery and Money", will be introduced in August.

The Cotton Strippers circle will begin a "Bloomin' Nine Patch" project at their next meeting. Any guild member who is interested in this pattern is invited to join the Strippers at Kavanaugh at 6:30 p.m. on February 12.

Those who have registered for either the Birdhouse or the Box workshops at Kavanaugh on January 24 were given an supplementary list of needed supplies, and reminded to bring a sack lunch. Each session costs $5.

Alice Cooney challenged everyone to finish their UFOs by December. She also hinted at a new challenge in late summer.

Gwen Schroth, design chairperson, distributed to each member packets of 24 raffle tickets on the Patriotic quilt. The price is $1 each or 6 for $5. For more tickets and to turn in money, contact Maxine Leverett. We plan to display the quilt and sell tickets at the Terrell Quilt Show on April 17 and 18.

The budget for 2004 was presented, with board recommendation for acceptance. Motion approved.

McCaw and Lisa Coker will attend the Texas Association of Quilt Guilds meeting in Lewisville on January 27. Coker has volunteered to serve as our guild's representative for the remainder of this year. Meetings are held every other month; any member of a participating guild may attend.

Mary Lou Strohm and Michele Chitsey thanked everyone for their expressions of sympathy and the fat-quarter baskets following the deaths of each of their mothers. Chitsey's and Debra Hager's mother, Ruth Bacon, was an active member of our guild and will be missed. It was also reported that former member Lorraine Leinert has died. Joy Gregory has asked for prayers for her 5- year old granddaughter, Kyliegh Bryant, who has Lymphatic Lymphoma Leukemia. She is a patient at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C.

The quarterly "pass- the- hat" to benefit the library brought in $46.77. Ten members took part in Show and Tell. The Strippers will host Solid Rock Cafe at the church on February 11; Debra Hager will coordinate.

Respectfully,

Barbara Ratcliff, Secretary

The guild was encouraged to consider sponsoring a quilt show in 2005. All discussion was tabled until next month.

I will have patterns available from the workshop for the birdhouse and secret boxes. Aline Dillahunty, the instructor who came all the way from Tulsa, OK, was gracious enough to continue with the workshop, even with 65% of the list of attendees canceling or not showing up. However, the cost of the workshop can be recovered by purchasing the patterns for $5 each.

Pebble Rehm