Ann Wasescha, Desert Threads Quilt Chapter of AQG
Did you know the muscles in your back, neck, arms, and hands need extra care to keep you doing your quilting best? Once they freeze up, your quilting fun can come to a quick halt!
To address this issue, Desert Threads quilt group has invited Kathy Duval, a certified massage therapist and bodyworks specialist and a quilter, to present at our Wednesday, Feb. 12, meeting on ways to move, stretch, and position ourselves at our sewing machines, cutting tables, and ironing boards to prevent the aches and pains that our quilting passions can create. If you love to do hand quilting, knitting, or crocheting, your hand muscles and joints can get a lot of wear and tear. Kathy will teach us how to keep our bodies working as smoothly as our well-oiled sewing machines while creating our beautiful works of art!
Last month our presenter was Lauri McAlpin, owner of Quilt Central Studio in Green Valley and also her online Focus on Fabric shop. Lauri’s Focus on Fabric shop features quilt panels from a full array of subjects: birds, horses, nature, buildings, sports, and more. Lauri shared with us how to add these artistic panels into our quilts to make them even more beautiful. It was a very educational and entertaining presentation for the group.
Our March 12 meeting will feature Leilani Purvis, a nationally recognized quilt and fiber artist. Leilani has been recognized for her outstanding thread painting quilt designs and has excelled in the use of fabric collage, dry needle felting, Inktense pencils, and many other art elements that she incorporates into her quilts and art creations. Mark your calendars and come join us!
In addition to monthly speakers, our group (club) holds regular classes and “sew together” times where we help each other with new techniques, support each other when working on challenging projects, and build our friendships.
We also have service sewing days and recently delivered more than 40 tote bags to the Aris Group, which serves homeless young adults in the Tempe area. There’s always a new community service project in the works with our group. We meet for sewing in the Oakwood Sewing Room.
Come join us! We are a welcoming, inclusive group of quilters who love to learn, sew, and meet folks where they are on their quilt journey. Sewists from the Sun Lakes area, as well as surrounding communities, are welcome! We meet on the second Wednesday of each month from 9 to 11:30 a.m. in the Cottonwood Computer Learning Center. The social chat starts at 9 a.m., and the meeting officially starts at 9:30 a.m. If you would like more information about our group, send us an email at [email protected]. Vicki Jones, our guild information member, will be happy to connect with you.