Bloomington Quilters Guild
at a glance: August 2025

OUR Next MEETING is Tuesday, August 5, 2025.

Time: 6:00 PM Social Hour
6:30 pm Meeting start

PROGRAM: Postcard
SHOW and TELL
Location: BETH SHALOM 3750 E 3rd St, Bloomington, IN 47401

AUGUST SOCIAL & CRAFTS

August 5 - BQG member Maria Schmidt will help us create mailable postcards.  During the meeting we'll make several front sides using scraps and other provided materials. All supplies will be provided. PLEASE BRING A PAIR OF SCISSORS. We'll take home our creations to complete with a sewing machine, possibly at a future Sew Day. (Maria displayed her large collection of postcards at the April "bed turning" meeting.)

Treasure Shop fabric will be sold in colorful bundles for $5 and $10, cash or check only. These are all different from those at the July meeting. If you didn’t see what you wanted there, you might find it this time. We will also have a few templates.

September Meeting and Workshop

Chris Schulte from Green Light Quilts will present a Trunk Show at the Sept 2, 2025 meeting. Growing up in an artistic and crafty family, Chris Schulte has been quilting for... a long time. Never one to follow the rules, she began creating her own patterns - and applique technique! - as well as becoming an expert free motion quilter.

An exclusive long armer and active member of her guild, Chris has turned her creative pursuit into a range of patterns - with a scrappy twist - that get people inspired to just quilt! Meet Chris, experience her upbeat personality at our guild meeting, and see her beautiful quilts firsthand. Her amazing quilt collection will showcase several techniques, including her signature applique. She and her quilts are lovely! Go to her website here: https://www.greenlightquilts.com/

On Wednesday, Sept 3 Chris will hold a workshop titled “Aunt Margaret’s Scrap Baskets” at the Monroe County Convention Center from 9-3.

In the morning, Chris will demonstrate cutting techniques on scraps for the basket. She will also teach piecing techniques for the quarter square triangles so all seams nestle vertically, horizontally, and diagonally “so the angels sing.” She also demonstrates a fantastic pressing technique. After lunch, quilters will learn about her new ragged edge applique technique for the blooms in the basket—her signature. Make one 12” square for a small wall hanging/mat. Or sew more blocks at home and use the pattern directions for a table topper with 4 blocks or a quilt with 20 blocks.

More Information and link to registration.

Sew Day

July 12th Sew Day was a smashing success! Over16 quilters participated (along with a few “I just came to chat”).  Sharon Beach brought tubs of scraps which were gone over in a quilty frenzy. Our next Sew Day is September 13th.

Scrap Lovers Sew Day

Sharon Beach will try again in August to do a Scrap Lovers Sew Time on Saturday, August 9, 1pm to 4pm. You can bring your sewing machine and sew at Sharon’s house or just come to get fabric. She has room for 8 people sewing. We will have all of the rest of the swimming pool available. The fabric is FREE! Contact me in advance to let me know you are coming, and I will send you my address. Sharon’s email and phone number is included in the email with the notification of the At A Glance.

DUES FOR 2025-2026 Quilt year

Thank you to all who have already paid their dues for the 2025-2026 Quilt Year. Our fiscal year begins July 1, so please pay by September 2 so we can complete the membership directory You may pay online, or feel free to bring a check or cash to the August, or September meetings! The dues continue to be only $30 ($15 for seniors age 80+ or juniors age 18 and under). We have been able to maintain this membership rate for several years due to the generosity of our membership donating to and buying from the Treasure Shop during our quilt show! Thank you!

Antique quilt exhibit “Rooted in History”

There's still time—through August-- to see "Rooted in History," a unique quilt display! Twelve talented, local non-traditional fabric artists accepted the challenge to take a deconstructed feathered star block from an antique quilt top to create something new. These twelve blocks are on display at Monroe County History Center. The quilt's origin has been researched, and this information is included in the exhibit. 

The MC History Center is located just west of the Monroe County Public Library. It's open Tuesday-Saturday, 10:00-4:00. Admission is $2 for adults.

fall 2025 Retreat

The Fall 2025 retreat will be at Waycross Camp and Conference Center. The dates are Monday Oct 13 -Thursday Oct 16, 2025.
See the chart on the Fall retreat page to see the costs. Jo Ann has covered every permutation of costs for both cash/credit, number of days and the commuter options. The Register by Mail button near the bottom of the page will allow download of the PDF for registration.

Registration is in full swing! Over half the spots were filled at the July guild meeting! You will be able to sign up online or save some money and register at the July meeting when you pay your dues!

Community Quilts

What a generous group of people our guild members are! We continue to collect and distribute quilts to social programs throughout the Bloomington community. Between July 2024 and June 2025 we distributed 513 quilts to various organizations in the Bloomington area! Check the Community Quilts webpage to see where all the quilts go! This page also gives some indication of the sizes that are needed for each of the organizations that have received quilts.

Of course you do not need to belong to a special group to make quilts for our community quilts project. However, both the Middle Way and New Hope groups are welcoming new members! Contact Sandy Bonsib if you are interested in joining the Middle Way group and Karen Levay if you are interested in sewing for New Hope.

SAVE THE DATE!

WINTER 2026 Retreat

The 2026 Winter Retreat will be at McCormick’s Creek State Park from Saturday, January 31, 2026 to Tuesday, February 3, 2026. This will provide the weekend quilters the ability to stay all day Sunday to sew and also people can go to church or the IU Women's basketball game and still be able to sew most of the day. 

The Indiana State Parks run a special each winter,  the 2 for 1 Winter Special rate. If you stay at the Inn Sunday night, Monday night is free. Saturday night would be at a discounted rate. Example: this year for a double queen room the cost was $336 for 3 nights. Next year with the special the same room would cost about $224. This may change if the state parks raise the room rates.