Guild Activities

Monthly Meetings

We meet the third Tuesday of each month at 7pm. Jump to calendar

• Doors open at 6:15pm
• Welcome at 7pm
• Announcements
• Introduction of guest speaker or topic
• Break – Socialize and visit Free Table
• Raffle and Show and Tell

Locations

Meetings:

Westwood Christian Reformed Church
620 Northampton Rd
Kalamazoo, MI 49006

map

Workshops:

Portage Zhang Senior Center
Lower Level Activity Room
203 East Centre Ave
Portage, MI 49002

map

Meeting and Workshop Schedule

February 21, 2023

The 2023 Challenge Block is “Stars”. We’ll have member demos to enjoy at this meeting.

March 21-22, 2023

Lisa Ruble will share at our Tuesday night meeting then have a workshop teaching her Strippy Improv technique on Wednesday, March 22.

Lisa Ruble

Lisa writes, “I was bitten by the craft bug early on in life, and have dabbled in drawing, beading, photography, and fabric. I learned to sew as a young girl, making clothes for my Cabbage Patch Kid, and then got into quilting about 22 years ago and never looked back. Modern quilting is my style of choice, and I particularly love improv piecing. I currently freelance in the quilting industry, designing, writing and editing patterns, and I also design and sell my own quilt patterns. Outside of work, I spend time hanging with my husband and three boys, ideally outside or playing sports, and yes, the boys all quilt too!”

April 17-18, 2023

On this Monday, Christina Cameli, modern quilt artist, will teach a workshop on Scrappy Color with Wedge Wonders. Then, on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, she will share at our guild meeting.

Christina Cameli
Christina Cameli

Christina Cameli has endeared herself to fans all over the world through her quilting books and Craftsy classes. Christina’s gentle, supportive spirit is equally suited to teaching quilting and her career as a nurse-midwife. As a fabric designer for Maywood Studio and non-stop quilt designer, she is never bored. Christina finds her greatest joys with scrappy patchwork, free-motion quilting and wedge based piecing. Outside of the sewing room and the clinic, she spends her days with her blended family and rescue lab mix in Portland Oregon, trying to get in an afternoon paddleboarding when she can.  Web site: www.christinacameli.com  YouTube: @afewscraps.

May 16, 2023

Chris Hoover of Whirligig Designs will speak and teach a workshop on her Grand Isle pattern the next day.

Grand Isle pattern

Chris Hoover began quilting in 1989 when she made her first sampler quilt. Sewing a block a week quickly turned into sewing a block a day and sampler quilts and scrappy quilts became her all-consuming passion. “Quilting soothes my soul and has kept me sane many times over the years!” Her eclectic style is inspired by everything from color and texture to architecture and nature and she loves to share her passion speaking and teaching classes for quilt shops and guilds since 1999. Her designs have been seen in Quiltmania, Best Fat Quarter Quilts, Best Weekend Quilts and Quilts from Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks.

“My designs may look complicated but they are easily broken down into simple elements. I encourage quilters to see beyond the color and fabric in a quilt and to imagine the possibilities of the design – how to make it suit their individual style.”

June 20, 2023

Charity Spot Light: Two organizations will be served for our June 2023 charitable project this year, the YMCA KORU House and Family Promise of Branch County. Representatives will be at our June 20th Meeting sharing their services and needs. More information about the project is here.

July 18-19, 2023

Dr. Susan Kruszynski will share her beautiful landscape art quilts. She will also teach a workshop entitled Four Seasons – Choose your Season on Wednesday, the day after our guild meeting.

Dr. Suan Kruszynski

Susan lives in Muskegon, Michigan, and is an award-winning art quilt designer, teacher, author, and gallery artist. Feeding her artistic nature, Susan, at age 8, started experimenting with fabrics to produce colorful creations. She began landscape fiber art design with collage art quilts in 2014. A native of Michigan, her works, that range in sizes from 3”x5” to 40”x60”, are often inspired by the trees and woodlands along the Lake Michigan shoreline.

Four Seasons

Susan currently divides her time between creating original collaged art quilt designs, teaching art quilting, marketing this fiber art in shows and galleries, running her Quilting Fabrics in Time business, and only just recently retired as a literacy specialist from Muskegon Community College. Susan uses her 40+ years of K-College level teaching experiences and a PhD in Education to teach this art through in-class experiences in and around the state of Michigan, through on-line instruction, and with two art quilt books from Fox-Chapel Publishing. Website: www.quiltingfabricsintime.com

August 15, 2023

Spotlight on Small Groups. We’d like everyone to be part of a small group and this is your opportunity to learn all about them.

September 19, 2023

Susan Frasier will share about her passion of rescuing quilts.

October 4-8, 2023

Retreat at the Farmstead Inn, Shipshewana, IN. [Details and Registration]

October 17, 2023

Mystery Quilter….more to come.

November 21, 2023

Holiday Party and Lovie Night.