Shannon Lanning
Summer will be over soon, and Agave Quilters Guild welcomes its members back on Wednesday, Sept. 3! Our September guest speaker Gina Perkes, owner of The Copper Needle in Payson, Ariz., is an internationally recognized, award-winning quilter and educator. Gina’s presentation is titled “How Do I Quilt This?” You’ve finished your quilt top, now what? Do you ever struggle to come up with beautiful quilting designs to perfectly suit your quilt top? Gina has quilted thousands of quilts in the past 26 years. She will share her approach on reading quilts and determining the most suitable path for finishing them to enhance them even more! She will also bring some of her pieces to display while explaining how she went about completing them.
Even though our members don’t meet as a group in June, July, or August, their sewing machines do not remain idle. Over the past summer, our Community Service Committee members kept busy in our community sewing room cutting fabric and stitching colorful flannel receiving blankets for infants, lap-sized quilts for hospital patients, and patriotic quilts for veterans. While some members sewed, others helped by cutting fabric and putting kits together to be sewn. They delivered 87 quilts and 31 flannel receiving blankets to Valleywise Health Child Life Department. Since guild member Judy Crumpler joined the Agave Community Service Committee, more than 4,300 quilts have been delivered to various charitable organizations in the area, making her goal of 4,500 quilts by October easily attainable, as other members continue sewing independently at home. We have a very dedicated and generous group of guild members who are appreciated, not only by the guild, but by each quilt recipient.
Since our beginning in 1995, Agave Quilters Guild has welcomed new members of all skill levels, from beginners to experts. We currently have 93 members and meet at 1 p.m. in the Navajo Room at Sun Lakes Country Club, 25601 S. Sun Lakes Blvd., Sun Lakes, on the first Wednesday of each month, September through May. Annual dues (January through December) are $25 with a one-time purchase of an Agave name badge for $15. Wearing your name badge qualifies you to participate in the door prize drawings during the meeting and helps members get to know you better. Guests are welcome to attend up to two meetings before deciding to join. If you’re thinking of checking us out, please join us as a guest or new member on Sept. 3 to learn more. For more information, visit agavequiltersguild.com. We look forward to seeing everyone soon!