From the president

This is exciting, we have so much going on right now!

• Community Sew Day is March 18th! Come join us for sewing, ironing, pinning and cutting kids quilts and pillow cases. We have made up lots of kits!
• Mall in the Hall Is in April! Drop off your items on April 14th and the Sale is April 15th! Hope you are decluttering your sewing room/area.
  
• The Anniversary shirts and jackets are in! Paula and I picked them up and sorted them today. You will be able to pick up yours at the March meeting.
• We have another fun speaker lined up for the next meeting, March 28th, 1:00 and 6:30. Hope to see you!

Mary Franck, 2023 DMAQG President

Our spring retreat is April 27-30th. New this year is a daily rate if you’d like to try it for a day and see if you like it. We have a capacity for 42 for overnight retreaters and up to 5 daily retreaters. More details on the sign up form. Please print the form and bring it to a meeting with your check or mail it in. 

Deadline to Register is April 13th

– Nan Earll, Retreat Coordinator

Our March guest is Merrie Ford, a multi-faceted quilter. Her afternoon and evening programs are titled “I Love Chocolate, Using Brown in Your Quilts”. Merrie grew up in Montana, and came to realize that much of her childhood influenced her color preferences. Her fondness for brown has expressed itself in her quilting journey. Most of her quilts have some brown in them. While attending a color workshop in 2017, the attendees were asked to share their least favorite, or most challenging, color to work with. Person after person expressed “Brown”! Merrie will speak about why we are attracted to certain colors and discuss ways to challenge ourselves as quilters to see colors in fresh ways.

Although she started as a traditional quilter, she loves the Art of Quilting and the opportunity to learn new things—techniques, color theory or design processes. She is a member of the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild. Merrie is a certified Laura Heine Instructor and will lead a Collage workshop on March 29. The workshop has filled, but you may put your name on a waiting list.

Please visit our website to see the program and workshop lineup for the rest of the year. Questions? Contact 515-778-3515 or [email protected].

Jean Bowden, Program Chair

DMAQG will once again hold the Mall in the Hall. We are proud to sponsor the largest quilter’s rummage sale in Iowa. We have received many donations of quilt shop quality fabric, kits, books, patterns, and notions which will be for sale at bargain prices.

Date: Saturday, April 15, 2023
Hours: 9 am – 2 pm
Location: Gym at West Des Moines Christian Church, 4501 Mills Civic Parkway, West Des Moines

You can begin lining up for admission at 8 am. Those in line will be given numbers. Up to the first 100 people in line can gain early admission to the sale at 8:30 am by making a $10 donation for Community Giving.

The sale is open to everyone so invite your friends and family to shop. Save the Date cards will be available at the March Guild meetings. Pick up some cards to share with interested friends and family who may not be Guild members. Proceeds from the sale fund DMAQG’s Community Giving and Education Outreach programs.

Donations for the sale are gratefully accepted. Bring your donations to the Gym at the WDM Christian Church on Friday, April 14 between 9:30 am and 2 pm. Please have items packaged and ready for sale. Measure and note the yardage for fabric donations. The sale committee will price the items. Note: NO donations can be accepted on Saturday.

The Des Moines Area Quilt will be held September 21, 22 and 23 of 2023. The show will be held in the 4-H building at the Iowa State Fair grounds.

Each member of this guild and all that you do make our quilt show the special event that it is. I am looking forward to seeing all of your beautiful work.

Red and White Quilts at the Show

We have had a lot of questions concerning the two different Red and White special exhibits for the show. Here are the criteria for each.

Red and White Ruby Anniversary Special Exhibit

• All quilts will be red and white only. Cream and beige are acceptable background colors as well.
• All age quilts will be accepted into the exhibit.
• All quilts will need to have a hanging sleeve attached to the back of the quilt.
• All quilts will be entered online for the quilt show. With a label attached.
• All quilts will be juried into the exhibit due to space considerations.
• Quilts eligible for this exhibit will have a perimeter greater than 80 inches.

Contact Beth Freeman, [email protected] with your questions. Also contact Beth if you plan to enter a quilt in this special exhibit.

Red and White 12 inch Squares Special Exhibit

• A finished 12 inch square quilt.
• Red and white. Cream and beige are acceptable colors as well.
• No hanging sleeve is required,
• All quilts will be entered online through the registration system. Attach the label.

Contact Mary Franck, [email protected] with your questions.

If you have a quilt that meets the criteria for one of these special exhibits but does not get in due to hanging space. We will move your quilt to the main quilt show area.

More quilt show news is being planned and will be announced soon.

Lisa Zbylicki and Julie Hanel (Quilt Show Co-chairs)

Saturday April 1, 2023
9am – 5 pm
Polk City Iowa 50226

Our new small group, that is an off shoot of the Des Moines Area Quilters Guild, will meet again in April. We are open to members and non-members of DMAQG.

We plan to gather likeminded Vintage Singer Sewing machine enthusiast for a day of fellowship and fun.  Sewing, swapping of ideas and selling of items related to vintage machines.

If this sounds like fun to you, please use the registration form button below.  Attendance will be limited so quick registration is a must!  For more information, please call Jill Reber 515/210-9930 or email [email protected].

Merrie Ford will be our March speaker and workshop presenter. Merrie has been a life-long sewer and began quilting as a young adult. Merrie loves color, especially brown, a color that many quilters shy away from. Her lecture will cover how she incorporates brown in her quilts. Her workshop will introduce you to collage quilting in the Laura Heine style.

There are several books in our Guild Library that will expand on Merrie’s themes. For brown inspiration, consider Quilts for Chocolate Lovers by Janet Jones Worley. The Library also has many books on general color theory. For further exploration in collage, you will find The Art of Fabric Collage by Rosemary Eichorn, Free Style Quilts by Susan Carlson, and The Passionate Quilter by Michele Walker.

The Library is open prior to both the afternoon and evening meetings. Books check out for one month and are due back at the next meeting.

Do you have quilting magazines that you no longer need? Drop them off at the library before the meeting. Want some different quilting magazines to look at? Come by and help yourself to magazines donated by your fellow quilters.

 Debra Hull, Dee Dykstra, Martha Henrichs, Librarians