Velda Newman

I just got home from attending the West Michigan Quilter's Guild meeting. This was the first time I had attended one of their meetings, as they are about an hour from my home. However, I wanted to go tonight because Velda Newman was speaking about "A Painter's Approach To Quilting", and since I am taking her Creating Realism class tomorrow (nearly today), I wanted to hear her lecture and get a "taste" of her work.

All I can say is WOW! I was totally overwhelmed by the beauty of her quilts, but the size of most of them was humongous. Working so large allows her to make the parts of the quilt, whether it is a flower or a piece of fruit, the size makes it easy for her to put great detail in each piece.

Velda told us that she only works on one quilt at a time, and a really large on, like 8 foot by 9 foot, can take two years. She dyes all her own fabric, designs her pattern, does needle turn applique on all her pieces, and often hand quilts some, if not all of the quilt. She tends to use cotton sateen, which, even when dyed, has a slight shine to it, which helps to give her pieces a luminous effect.

I really loved her Foxglove quilt. The coloring she did on the petals was exquisite. I forgot to take my camera tonight, but I will definitely have it with me tomorrow! Hopefully we will get to see those quilts again.

Changes, Changes

It's been quite a while since I've posted. I've had some problems with my recovery from the pulmonary emoblisms in December, and have not been up to much. However, I think I'm finally started to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I belong to the Kalamazoo Log Cabin Quilters in Kalamazoo, MI and we just held our annual elections. Though I have been the editor of the newsletter for the guild for the past year, I was just elected to the post of president of the guild, and still plan to continue to do the newsletter.

I took jounalism in high school, and have been doing newsletters for organizations I have belonged to, since that time. I love the creative challenge of making all the information fit into a specific format, like putting a puzzle together. I have also had a passion for writing for a long time.

Our guild has approximately 300 members and we meet each month of the year. We have local quilters do lectures at most of our meetings, but have nationally know speakers and teachers two to three times per year. This month we just had Helen Squire, who writes the Helen's Hints column for American Quilter magazine. She also taught a one day class on how to decide what quilting designs to use on your UFO's. She was a great speaker, everyone enjoyed her class, and she also donated a book to our library.

Our guild also has service projects that we do twice a year. This year, our June project is wheelchair lap robes for people in nursing homes, and for the VA hospital in Battle Creek, MI. Every December we donate stuffed animals with a quilt for each one (usually lap sized) to a women's shelter, the local children's department, and the local mission for homeless people.

I look forward to the challenges and joys of leading the way to new adventures for our guild.