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Chatter Reports

The Strawberry Patchers

Chatter Report

Submitted by Jane Wilcox

 

 

Christmas time – already! Yes, here it is the last month of 2024, and the Strawberry Patchers accomplished so much at the year-end meeting in November.

 

We had 26 members in attendance and one guest. Guests are always welcome to our meeting on the first Thursday of the month!

  • We have established our charitable funding for this year, and we will be sending out checks to those wonderful non-profit organizations this month.

  • We will be doing a review of our Chapter Guidelines in January.

  • Kris Lovetro reported that we gave 4 comfort quilts in November.

  • Our Corresponding Secretary, Jackie Smith, read some grateful thank you notes from recipients.

  • Lori Ohmart, Kathy Hunt and Tamara Morken have been busy getting our Christmas Party in order for December 5th. More on that in January! 

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Have you ever heard that it is a proven fact working with colors and patterns and sewing keeps your brain active and (I’m adding this part) a youthful appearance? I want to introduce to you, for that do not know her, our very own inspiration Jinny Kost! Jinny is in her late 90’s (90 is the new 80) and keeps on her toes quilting so many beautiful comfort quilts. It’s what she loves to do! She always has a big smile to warmly greet everyone. I truly believe that we quilters, and creators are the key to longevity in our lifetime. Whenever I’m discouraged- all I have to do is think of Jinny, and I’m re-inspired all over again. Shout out to her for bringing so much joy to our Chapter! 

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We concluded our meeting with Show and Tell, and you will see by the photographs we have some dedicated quilters up here in Rim Country. See you all at the AQG Show!

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Our next business meeting will be January 9th. (not the 2nd, because of the Holiday)

 

We usually meet the first Thursday of the month and guests are welcome. The third Thursday of the month is for members only, and we have our special programs.

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If you want to join our very active group, please visit: www.strawberrypatchers.com  

 

Happy Thanksgiving to you all, as this will be published in November. 

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The Strawberry Patchers

Chatter Report

Submitted by Jane Wilcox

 

 

Our chapter met on Thursday, September 5th with 30 members in attendance. We had two visitors, and hope they will become members.

 

We are excited about happenings in September! On the 19th and 20th , we will be having our sew days. The 20th will be taking bins of our scraps and cutting them into useful sizes and 2.5 strips. These will be organized and come in handy when we do our comfort quilt sewing in October for our Charity Sew Days.

 

Kris Lovetro, director of Community Service, reported that she sent out nine comfort quilts last month, and will be sending out two more this month. Additionally, our Strawberry Patcher Country Store will be up and running at the annual Fall Festival October 5th and 6th .

 

Leslie Peacock and Jo Halm oversee The Strawberry Patchers Programs. They are kicking around an interesting dual program to consider in January between The Strawberry Patchers and The ShooFly Quilters of Payson.  Jackie Smith will bring her best patterns and tips for easy quick comfort quilts, and disappearing block styles. Participants may build kits from their own fabrics or from donated fabrics, or just come for fun, new ideas, and make new friends.

 

We look forward to Eva Kilgore, AQG President, visiting our chapter on the 20th of September for our fun day!

 

Our meeting concluded with Show & Tell from Mitzi Paul, Jinny Kost, Jackie Smith, and Wanda Dix. Many of the quilts are going to be donated to our comfort quilt program.

 

Our next business meeting is October 3rd. We meet the first Thursday of the month and guests are welcome. The third Thursday of the month is for members and we have our special programs. If you want to join our very active group, please visit: www.strawberrypatchers.com 

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The Strawberry Patcher Report

Submitted by Jane Wilcox

 

What a summer it’s been in Pine/Strawberry for the Patchers! Seriously? September is here already?? Then, let’s dig right in!

Our Quilt Show was very successful in June, turnout was almost record for it. Lots of gift basket winners, education, and most of all lots of beautiful quilts. Kudos to the entire Quilt Show Committee for making this year’s show unforgettable.

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In July, We installed a new slate of officers. Margie Brakefield called the meeting to order and handed the gavel over to Kathy Beck, our new Chapter Chair. We also have a new Treasurer, Suzanne Dobbs. Corresponding Secretary is Jackie Smith.  We also are collecting charities for consideration to make donations to. These will be voted on at our September meeting.

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The August meeting was conducted by Jackie Smith, as our Chapter Chair was away on family business. After approval of the minutes, Leslie Peacock and Jo Halm, program directors, said that most of our programs would be sew days and learning a new block for those that wanted to participate. Kris Lovetro reported that she sent out 9 comfort quilts for the month of July.

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Our September meeting will be a bit longer meeting as we will vote on the budget, and also charities to support.  Our show and tell at the conclusion of the meetings is spectacular! Many thanks to Maryellen Swanson that continues to amaze us with her gifts of comfort quilt tops. During our October Charity sew days, we will be doing backs, and bindings and adding borders (if needed) to quilt tops.

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That’s the abbreviated version of the summer. If you want to participate with the Strawberry Patchers, we meet the first Thursday of the month at 9:30am, in the Library Annex at the Community Center in Pine.  For more information visit our website: www.strawberrypatchers.com  Enjoy the display of quilts from our show and tell!

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April 2024

by Jane Wilcox

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If April showers bring May flowers, what do April snowstorms bring? NEW members for our Strawberry Patchers. In the past 6 months, we welcomed Suzanne Dobbs, Deb Caldwell, Nikie Lopez, Debbie Astrada, Gail Hewlett, Toni Miller, Lynn Ramsey, Barbara Santopadre, Maryellen Swanson and Kassi White to our chapter! Always such a joy to have new members bringing great ideas and creativity to our circle!

 

We are working diligently through May tying up all the loose ends for our Quilt Show in June. The theme, “Every Quilt Tells a Story” is presented by Uncle Tom’s Kwik Stop and The Strawberry Inn. Show dates are Friday & Saturday, June 7th, and 8th – doors open at 9am and close at 4pm. We do hope you’ll make it to Pine/Strawberry for our annual display of Viewer’s Choice Quilts. Voting is on Friday only, winners announced on Saturday. This year, we are going to be doing a bed turning, along with other demonstrations and we have some outstanding special exhibits. Be sure to bring your money, you’ll want to visit our vendors!

 

We always have room for more members. The Patchers are a very active chapter and we invite you to join us the first Thursday of the month for our business meeting. Coffee and goodies at 9am, meeting starts at 9:30am. The third Thursday of the month is reserved for members only. We have sew days or programs, demonstrations, lectures - we’re always learning something! If you’re interested in joining us, visit www.strawberrypatchers.com!

 

Have a safe and wonderful Summer!

 

March 2024

by Jane Wilcox

 

The month of February is always a busy one for the Patchers! We designate every Thursday in February to work on community projects. The goal is to make Easter bags and Christmas stockings for the children. It’s sew much fun to make these, knowing that the kids love them! Thanks to all that participated, we exceeded our goal, and now have a surplus!! This wraps up another productive February for the Strawberry Patchers!

 

The Show Committee for the Strawberry Patcher Quilt Show is actively working on 2024. The theme this year is “Every Quilt Tells a Story”.  We have planned a bed turning of antique & vintage quilts. Each one will have a story behind it. More than just antique quilts, even the quilts we make today all have a story about it.  It takes a village to present our little show! There are vendors, door prizes, and drawings every 30 minutes for great prizes. We feature small displays throughout the show area that are informative and visually appealing.  Additionally, we collect food for the food bank; and if you bring a can of food, you’re entered to win a lap quilt.

 

The real purpose of this show is to showcase some of the most beautiful quilts around Rim Country from Payson, Strawberry, Pine, and Happy Jack… however; all are more than welcome to enter our Viewer’s Choice Show! We’ll be accepting entries on this website beginning April 8th, and entries closing on May 8th.   Physical Intake will be at the Community Center in Pine on Thursday, June 6th.  Make note that the show dates are Friday, June 7th through Saturday, June 8th, 9 am - 4 pm both days. Viewer’s Choice voting is only on Friday. It makes for a wonderful day trip up to the mountains! Admission is $5.00.

 

Many of the Patchers are excited about our annual retreat/camp in March.  Our retreat consists of sewing, learning, laughing, fun and games. Indeed it is something we look forward to every year. And, of course- What happens at Quilt Camp, Stays at Quilt Camp!

 

We invite you to join us on the first Thursday of the month – 9:00 am social time, 9:30 is meeting time at the Pine Community Center in the Library Annex. The 3rd Thursday of the month is reserved for members. We use this day for activities, classes, sewing & learning.

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I am Ivar the Viking Gnome and  I bring you greetings from Maureen Pastika's Quilting Studio.

 

Mike Pastika made me for one purpose:  guarding quilts is my life!

Maureen with a 'paper piece.'

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December Report for January ~ Submitted by Jane Wilcox

 

Happy New Year!? Is it ME, or have these past few months absolutely flown by In the wink of an eye? We rang in the holiday season with our annual Christmas Party and Dirty Santa gift exchange. Many thanks to Strawberry Patcher member Tamara Morkken for the use of her back room at “THAT” Brewery and Pub. The food was amazing thanks to Kathy Hunt and Lori Ohmart, and of course, the company was delightful!!! The gifts brought for the ‘Dirty Santa” gift exchange were all so wonderful, and no one walked away disappointed.

 

We’re gearing up to send out our charitable donations and are excited about all the ones we were able to assist this year! Due to the sales from our Country Store, and our Annual Quilt show, we were able to disperse 7,000.00 to Rim Country Charities that are so deserving. This year we donated to the following:

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  • Lacy Oldland Scholarship

  • Pine/Strawberry Food Bank

  • Pine /Strawberry Elementary School

  • Payson School District

  • The Central Arizona Humane Society

  • The Pine/Strawberry Historical Society

  • Payson Community Kids

  • Time Out Women’s Shelter

  • Dueker Ranch

  • Katie’s Closet

  • NAMI Payson

  • Isabelle Hunt Library

  • Whispering Hope Ranch

  • PHHVI (The Warming Center, Payson)

 

January will be the start of our year for all our activities planned, mostly starting with our June Quilt Show. We are looking forward to our stay- at-home “camp” in February (AKA, Sew Days) and our Quilt Camp in Prescott coming in March.

 

If you’d like to join us at our January meeting, it is the first Thursday of the month. We start at 9:00 a.m. for social time, 9:30 is the meeting – held in the Library Activity Room at the Community Center in Pine. We always welcome guests! Our 2nd Thursday is for members only. We hope you’ll join so you can have fun, also! The photos are of our Christmas Party.

 

Happy New Year to All!

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November, 2023 ~ Submitted by Jane Wilcox The frost didn’t land on the pumpkin this Halloween, however, the Strawberry Patchers had a Spooktacular October with our Charity Sew Days, managing to meet our goal of putting together 70 quilt tops, backings & bindings for our comfort quilt program. Whew! It was scary how efficient we all buzzed around and got this accomplished! We started out the first weekend in November with the Rim Country Quilt Roundup Show, and what a show it was! It was the largest one to date, with almost 180 entries. Special exhibits, lectures, demonstrations and vendors supported the show and for 2 days such fun!! Many Many kudos to Maureen Pastika, President of Rim Country Quilt Round Up, and to the Board for putting together such a wonderful display for all to enjoy! I’d like to elaborate now on our other fundraising section: The Strawberry Patchers Country Store, Spearheaded by Kris Lovetro. It is hard to believe that what began as selling face masks during the pandemic, mushroomed into a full-blown store! We all contribute to it, and people love to purchase our zipper bags, mug rugs, cup holders, sewing machine pads, table runners, bag holders – if we can make it, people will buy it! Kris and helpers set up the store for the craft fairs in Pine/Strawberry, art shows, and our quilt shows. We all work hard making sure that it is stocked well with products. And, it is wonderful to have such a fabulous assortment of great things that are hand made, and look awesome! Thank you to Kris for doing such a bang up job making our store work well for us so we can support our charities. As it’s the end of the year, we are still welcoming new members and guests to our meetings (The first Thursday of the month) and we hope all members join us for our Sew Days on the 3rd Thursday of the month. In December, we will have our annual Christmas party, and it’s always special to have this get together so we can toast another great year behind us and looking forward to a new one ahead. If you’d like to join us, please visit: www.strawberrypatchers.com We have a VERY active chapter and ALWAYS have fun!

October, 2023 ~ Submitted by Jane Wilcox Do you believe in the power of healing energy? That a quilt, sewn together with love, quilted with love, bound with love and gifted with love can create enough healing energy that it HELPS someone? The Strawberry Patchers certainly do, which is why our Comfort Quilt Program is so incredibly successful. I’d like to take a paragraph or two to let you all know what makes our program so successful, and has forever endeared us into the hearts of the communities of Pine/Strawberry & Payson – not to mention throughout the country. In October, we have 3 consecutive days where we bring our machines, and sew like crazy. We finish quilt kits that members put together for us. Constructing borders, bindings, backings, and write on a card what the dimensions are so our long arm quilters that volunteer their time, know what they are looking at for size. Thanks to the mini grant AQG provides for the applicants – we are able to purchase enough batting to make a LOT of our quilts. Most of the fabric we use is donated. We are able to purchase fabric bolts that are on sale due to the quilt show we hold every year. And, members put together pre-cut quilt kits with a pattern included to make. These come in plastic bags and members sign up and check them out. When completed, the quilt tops are turned in, and saved for our Community Service Days in October to be completed and ready to go to our volunteer quilters. I must mention one member, Maryellen Swanson, completed 10 quilt tops in the month of August and showed all of them at our September meeting. This is totally worth a special mention!!! Who receives these quilts that are both beautiful and made with love? Anyone that needs one and asks Community Service Chair Kris Lovetro for one. She considers the circumstances, and sends them out, drops them off, fedEx’s them – it goes to very sick people, anyone from our cousins, to aunts, to brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers… and sometimes to entire families. (We had a family in Strawberry lose their house and each member got a comfort quilt). The name alone, COMFORT quilt – describes it perfectly. As a personal recipient of a comfort quilt, I could feel all the hands that touched it to create such a beautiful quilt. Without our June Quilt Show, The AQG Grant, and the focused dedication of all of our members, we would not be able to put so many smiles on so many faces that are in dire need of something to smile about. It keeps us sewing with a purpose all year around. If you would like to join us, The Strawberry Patchers meet on the first Thursday of the month at the Pine Library Annex/activity Center. Social time is 9:00am, and the meeting begins at 9:30am. This month, we welcomed another new member, Toni Miller! All are invited to attend a business meeting! Our members-only time is the 3rd Thursday of the month for our Sew Fun Days. We plan classes and do sewing stuff, and have so much fun. For more information: www.strawberrypatchers.com

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