Officers elected March 2020 before lock-down orders: Blanca Sanchez, Diana Jones, Laurie Orendorff, Diane Mitchell, and Nancy Bonngard
Sue Bart
Thanks to the undying efforts of the Desert Threads officers, the new quilt chapter (part of the Arizona Quilters Guild) has continued to function and add new members during our “safer at home” restrictions about in-person gatherings. Despite being less than three years old, we are building a community of friends. We have been able to visit via the virtual meeting environment over Zoom. We have had classes and lectures from quilt teachers, done activities over the Internet to get to know each other better, and have had show-n-tell sessions to share the quilts we make. We have continued to make quilts for charities and share information with each other about various Internet resources for quilters to learn the craft. Many of us feed our fabric hunger by shopping online or visiting our favorite shops via appointments (wearing masks and social distancing, of course). Despite these unusual times, we continue to grow our community of quilters and share our interests with others.
We are looking forward, with great anticipation, to meeting in person. We hope to meet outside in May and enjoy some good weather before the hot days arrive. We’ll all have many stories to tell about how we survived the pandemic—many with thanks to our love of quilting. Quilting has kept us busy and sane. As more of us become vaccinated, we get closer to a “live” meeting. We will be electing new officers for the year which begins in July. We would love to have you join our community of quilt lovers.
At our March virtual meeting, we heard from Kathy O’Brien about ideas for “Stash Management.” She shared quilt examples and many tips about how to organize and utilize fabric we already have in quick, simple patterns. She inspired us to use what we have to create quilts for others and clean out our spaces so we are ready for new fabrics, techniques, tools, and quilt designs.
If you would like to know more about our group, a chapter of the Arizona Quilters Guild, and how to participate in our virtual quilting meetings and classes, send an email with contact information to [email protected]. Someone will email or call you. Ask for a digital copy of our newsletter.