Johnie Scofield

The Agave Quilters got off to a fabulous start this fall. Our “Quilters Who Care” group has designed the cutest ladies bag possible and is distributing kits at each meeting. Come and get a kit at the November meeting and return it in December! All completed bags will go to local women’s shelters filled with small sizes of personal care products. These women routinely arrive at a shelter, often with children in tow, and nothing else. If anyone in the community wishes to donate some personal care supplies, like hotel shampoos and soap, you can come to an Agave meeting (first Wednesday of the month at the Oakwood Ballroom at 1:00 p.m.) and drop them off.

The upcoming program for the November 5 meeting will be Alyssa Lichner from the National Modern Quilt Guild. Alyssa, a founding member of the Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild, will present “A Totally Modern (Quilt) Show,” as well as demonstrate several new and innovative modern quilting techniques. Lichner will bring her distinctive line of contemporary fabrics with her, as well as several of her very own up-to-the-minute patterns. Check Alyssa out on the web at Pile O Fabric, as this is a lecture not to be missed if you ever wanted to learn what modern quilting is all about!

As always, Agave has plenty of room for more new members, so please drop by as a guest. The sign-up for our yearly December Christmas Party will continue in November, but new and current members need to remember that the Holiday Luncheon is limited to 120 tickets, so sign-up ASAP. Also, please come to the meeting to register for all the innovative and exciting classes offered by Agave at a very reasonable cost. Due to sufficient interest from last month, Helen Robinson from Sew Kind of Wonderful will also be returning to teach curved piecing using her special ruler in the near future. Thinking ahead to next year, sign-up begins in November for nationally known quilter Barbara Polson’s all-day seminar on January 8, 2015 at 35th Avenue Sewing in north Chandler. The focus of the workshop is Barbara’s beautiful, yet super simple “Dresden Bouquet” design. Agave President, Faith Bragg reminds all members to keep working on their Quilt Show Challenge, “Holidays and Special Occasions” because the January deadline is drawing closer and closer. Lastly, November begins the 2015 membership drive and the Agave rule that the dues of $20 must be paid by the December meeting in order to be in the 2015 printed directory.