Bloomington Quilters Guild
at a glance: november 2025
OUR Next MEETING is Tuesday, November 4,2025.
Time: 6:00 PM Social Hour
6:30 pm Meeting start
PROGRAM: Rhonda Pierce - Schmetz Needles
SHOW and TELL
Location: Congregation beth shalom
3750 E. 3rd Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47401
November 2025 Meeting
Rhonda Pierce has a dream job... teaching sewing fans about the most important 2" piece of steel in the sewing machine - the SCHMETZ needle. She creates programs and support materials that are easy and well organized for fast needle knowledge. Rhonda's proudest professional accomplishment is the 2014 availability of color coded needles to her sewing public.
Rhonda enjoys sharing needle knowledge in classrooms and sewing shows throughout North America. She travels with the SCHMETZ "Super" Needle - it's 17" tall - and always asks "What's Your Favorite SCHMETZ Needle?"
She published 100 issues of the esteemed SCHMETZ Inspired to SEW. Rhonda publishes the "must read" monthly SCHMETZ newsletters.
Our meeting with Rhonda will be via Zoom.
October Meeting Follow-up
Brita Nelsons’s website is here. While she doesn’t publish many of her patterns, she does share them on her You Tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@QuestioningQuilter.
Her disappearing patches are based on basic patterns such as the 9 patch or pinwheel. The website includes her cutting chart for disappearing blocks: Cutting Chart for Disappearing Blocks - The Questioning Quilter
A Note from Bobbie Mentzel about the fall retreat
Fall Retreat is over and it was a fun time spent with friends old and new. There were five first time retreat attendees. At the very end, the lost ruler was found. One member had car trouble and needed a ride back to Bloomington. Someone offered a ride and all items were successfully loaded into her car. When I thanked the volunteer driver later for her help she said, “That’s the thing I love most about the guild. We’re all there to help one another.” Thank YOU for showing your care and concern. The woman told the driver she felt supported by a village. I am so happy to be a member of such a wonderful group!
Sew Day
Saturday, November 8th at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church from 9:00am-4:00pm. Come whenever you can and stay as long as you like. Bring your machine and all your gear OR just bring hand sewing OR just come to chat! We collect $5 to thank St. Mark’s for the use of their lovely space. Bring your lunch or plan to go out.
WE ALWAYS WELCOME NEW MEMBERS!
As you interact with friends and attend events around the area, be sure to mention BQG and invite folks to visit our Guild Meetings or try out a Sew Day. At our next meeting, pick up a couple of BQG Bookmarks to hand out as a helpful promotional tool.
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.
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. All details will be available at the November meeting. Registration will open December 1 and close December 30 or until it fills.
Fall 2026 Retreat Save the Date
Next year’s Fall Retreat will be at Waycross from October 8-11 (Thursday through Sunday)
Bee News
The Orphan Bee will meet Wednesday, November 12, at Ginny Kopper's house, 1327 S Valley Forge Rd in Bloomington, from 1-3.
The Clump is providing a tree for the Hope for the Holidays. This is a fundraiser for the New Hope Family Shelter. You might want to stop by the festival to look at the trees.
We are gauging interest in a new bee which will meet in people’s homes and is dedicated to handwork such as hand applique, crazy quilting, embroidery, wool work, hand quilting, slow stitching or even binding a quilt. If you would like to talk while you sit and stitch, contact Brenda Reed at membership@bloomingtonquiltersguild.org
Does your bee have news to share? Are you accepting new members? Let us know!
Quilt EVENTS - HELP us keep up to date!
We try to put up notices of quilt shows and exhibits on to the website, although we have been a little lax on this recently. We cannot know all of the events and rely on you to let us know so we can put them on the site. https://www.bloomingtonquiltersguild.org/upcoming-quilt-events
The Indiana Heritage Quilt Show will be held March 5-7. There are several workshops this year and registration is open!
The show is accepting quilt entries until Feb. 9, at 8PM. There is still time to create a challenge quilt inspired by a song.
If you know of an event, please send mail to news@bloomingtonquiltersguild.org so that either Karen or Kris can update the page.
A quilt donated to The New Hope Family Shelter.