November Program: Michael Nardi, Bryn Mawr Quilts—My Quilting Journey

Tuesday, November 18: 7:00 p.m. – In person

We are so pleased welcome Michael Nardi to our November meeting, where he will present his lecture “My Quilting Journey”. Michael was a vendor at our quilt show and many of you were able talk, shop and visit with him. He is vibrant, effervescent and so engaging and we are confident that you will enjoy his lecture and his description of what is happening with him today and the exciting stuff ahead!

Michael’s quilt journey began with his grandmother and coloring books on the south side of Chicago. He will tell the story about the three women who have guided and encouraged him through his quilting journey. These women helped transform Michael from a young man with no vision for the future into a successful published quilt pattern designer and quilt instructor thirteen years later.

Through this presentation he will present the quilts and their patterns that have provided him with joy. Someone asked Michael once, “why quilting?” and he answered with “because through quilting, I found myself again!”

Marti Austin and Andrea Krier

December Program: Holiday Party!

Tuesday, December 16: 6:30 p.m. – In person

Our holiday party will feature Dessert and a Coffee, Tea and Cocoa Bar. The festivities will include an expanded Show and Tell time. In addition to your regular Show and Tell items, please bring your favorite Holiday or Winter quilt to show!

To participate in our celebration, please bring:

Your favorite dessert to share
Non-perishable food items and/or feminine hygiene products for donation to the COOL Food Pantry in Waukegan. Please check the expiration dates on all donated food items. Last year, Carrol Stovold had to throw out over 10 cans of food because they were expired.

Get ready to celebrate with your fellow quilters! See you then!

January Program: Nina Clotfelter— “Threads—What’s the Big Deal?”

Tuesday, January 20, 2026: 7:00 p.m. – Zoom Meeting

This is a FUN lecture on all the things you didn’t know you needed to know about thread! As an educator for WonderFil Specialty Threads, Nina has learned a lot and she wants to share! Thread is like candy! Sometimes you just can’t get enough...LOL! When we purchase threads, we usually are buying it for the color we need for the project or because it’s the only thread the shop carries. In this lecture, you’ll learn about the different weights of thread and why they make a difference.

What is “ply” and why is it important? How do we work with specialty threads like metallic, monofilament, and tinsel threads? Why do metallics give us issues? This lecture is FULL of information you’ll be thrilled to know and understand!

January Workshop: Chop It Like It’s Hot! with Nina Clotfelter

January 21, 9:00 -3:00 p.m. - Zoom Workshop

We asked Nina what her favorite workshop is, and she said “Chop it Like it’s Hot!”. She has sent us three examples that we can’t wait to show you at the November meeting. Nina said it’s her favorite technique because you can’t make a mistake.

Quilt Show News

Quilts from the Village XIX was a marvelous show! Kudos to everyone who helped make it such a terrific experience! No undertaking of this magnitude is successful without the hard work and support of many individuals.

A huge Thank You to all the VQ Members who entered quilts in the show! Clearly, there would be no show without all your beautiful work. So many of you brought family members to help set up the show, showed up to cheerfully to work your various shifts, and then - even though we were all weary and foot sore - you took the show down in record time!

Thank you to those of you who shared your quilting talents in the creation of the Raffle Quilt. The Boutique and Silent Auction were overflowing with beautiful donations. You are all so talented! The Vendors were busy, and the Hospitality Room provided food and a site of respite for all of us. Those working at Admissions greeted all our guests with genuine enthusiasm.

There will be a special Quilt Show Newsletter in mid-November with more specific information, results, and pictures! For now, here are the names of the Peoples’ Choice winners:

Art Quilt Challenge: Rosemarie Gray
Favorite Small Quilt: Christine Tindell
Favorite Medium Quilt: Peggy Schemenauer
Favorite Large Quilt: Christine Tindell

Congratulations to our winners!

Kathy Avellone

**Angie Dugan** of The Quilting Connection was the winner of our raffle quilt *Falling Star*. If you were present at the show during the announcement, you heard her screams of delight throughout the gym! Congratulations Angie!

President’s News

Another awesome Quilt Show is over! It is a huge undertaking and when we are in the middle of all of the work we can start to feel a little worn down. Then the quilts are hung, the doors open and attendees are wowed by a professional quilt show, showcasing the work of our members. I’m always in awe of how we turn a gym into this amazing quilt show.

Thank you to Kathy Avellone for leading the quilt show committee and keeping everyone on track. Thank you to every committee chair for all of their hard work. Thank you to everyone who worked at the show. I think everyone will agree that all of the effort was worth it.

We also had several new members join our guild! I am looking forward to meeting and welcoming all of the latest members. We had 11 attendees join our guild at the show, and a few more said they would join online through our website. How cool is that? So please, everyone, make sure to introduce yourself to the new members and welcome them to Village Quilters.

I hope to see everyone at the November 18 meeting.

Sharon Pierluissi, President

Friendly Service Project

We have the quilt show behind us now, so we can begin to dive into the service project with gusto! This month we will be doing a paper pieced fish block, with an option to do 2 sizes as fish come in all sizes! Please keep the background fabric in blue/water colors, but go to town with a variety of colors in your fish! See our website for detailed directions, or contact me directly with any questions. And don't forget, prior months' blocks can also still be made (hint: we need more flower baskets!).

I recently dropped another 10 quilts off at Staben House! Six quilts were from Sue Ann Kuby, and four quilts came home with me from the quilt show! Thanks, all.

Erica Jarrett, Service Chair

Members Meeting Members

Madge Pierce is one of those women who you swear you’ve known forever! With the fun excuse of “interviewing” her, I got to know her better. She joined our guild after visiting as a guest of Feather Schroeder and Claire Machinist, friends made in her new neighborhood back in 2010. From there, she took Village Quilters by storm, heading up numerous quilt shows – we could not figure out exactly how many, but guessed 4 or 5, starting with shows held at the Libertyville Sports Complex. She’s a tiny lady, but has enough spunk for dozens of us!

She grew up in Chicago and learned sewing in her junior high home economics classes. Sewing became her creative passion, and her first job out of high school in 1963 was to teach sewing to the customers of the Singer Sewing Machine Store in Park Ridge. She continued learning dressmaking, studying at the School of the Art Institute, and even made her wedding dress, her bridesmaids' dresses, and the wedding dress of a good friend marrying at the same time! In fact, that Singer job introduced her to her husband of many years. The ski club was forming at a sporting goods store next to the Singer store, and Madge thought skiing might be a fun hobby. So did the cute young guy she ended up marrying! The group of friends formed at that club still meets, and Madge and Jim are heading out soon to a reunion with them.

Quilting didn’t enter her world until she took a trip to Arizona after retiring to visit with a friend. That woman was in a local quilting group, and Madge was intrigued, deciding to make a baby quilt for a first grandchild 17 years ago. After making the top, she connected with a professional long-arm quilter who was hesitant to quilt a “first quilt” and asked to see the top first. The quilter laughed when she saw the quilt, realizing Madge clearly knew how to sew! She makes quilts for friends as well as for her two sons’ children, including the charming giraffe quilt she keeps at her home for her granddaughter to use when she visits.

Madge is very active in our guild, currently helping corral all the show equipment in my barn, which is a thankless task, usually involving removing walnuts ferreted away by pesky squirrels, and hunting through bins in search of things needed by members. She and I had a fun visit, and I got to tour her great sewing room space (which has a fabulous murphy bed with shelving to convert into a guest room when needed). How lucky our guild is to have such a vibrant, creative lady in our midst!

Erica Jarrett

Winter Retreat – January 16-18, 2026

The winter retreat for Village Quilters will be held January 16-18, 2026. The location is Hilton Garden Inn, 26225 Riverwoods Blvd. in Mettawa. Sign-up will begin on Monday, December 1, at 8:00 a.m. on our website. (Pro Tip: Don’t visit the website before 8:00 a.m.; the registration will not go through, and you’ll have to log out and begin again!)

If you want to attend but miss the sign-up deadline, email Marti Austin to be placed on the waitlist. People on the wait list often have the opportunity to attend due to cancellations.

The retreat is a fun social event, plus some participants get projects completed. We share ideas and snacks. We encourage each other, we learn from each other, and we have a fine time. If you haven’t attended a retreat, give it a try, but don’t be slow to register because the seats are taken quickly. You can choose to come and go each day or stay at the hotel at your own expense. If you would like to reserve a hotel room, please contact Marti Austin via email to make the request. Be sure to indicate the days of the reservation, any special requests and your roommate if you are sharing the room. Watch for a confirmation of your request from Marti and if you don’t get one, send your request again.

For those who wonder why we are having a retreat in January when we just had one in November, read this. When we plan the retreats, Kelly at the hotel works hard to keep our costs low. We get the weekends when the hotel is not busy. We do not make much money for the hotel as we don’t have banquets or drinks with the rental of the ballroom. This is a busy hotel with lots of corporate business and weddings, so our group is not a priority, and we schedule when the room is available. This year, we added a third retreat, but we were not able to schedule it evenly throughout the year. We may decide to continue with schedules similar to those of past years, or we may opt to revert to having only two retreats per year. Think about this, and we can discuss it during the November retreat.

Marti Austin

Sew-In on November 18

We are nearing the time of the year when life gets crazy. Take a few hours for yourself before the madness begins to stitch, cut, sew, talk with, and enjoy fellow guild members! Come to the third Thursday get-together at the State Bank of the Lakes, 50 Commerce Dr. in Grayslake. The downstairs community room is reserved for us from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. You can bring whatever you would like to work on. There are plenty of large tables if you need to lay out your project. All are welcome on Thursday, November 18. There is no pressure, and we laugh often!

Questions? Contact Kathy Huesinkveld or Marti Austin.

2026 Quilted Postcard Pen Pal Exchange

We’re pleased to announce our annual Quilted Postcard Exchange for 2026. This exchange occurs only for the months of January and February, so after the holidays when the rush is over you have the opportunity to get your creative juices flowing with a simple, small quilt project!

We will provide you with your pen pal details by the start of the year for January and you will get a new pen pal for February. You will then mail the postcard at a designated date, given in early January. Additional info will be sent to you regarding the exchange after you sign up.

We have five guilds participating: Village Quilters, Northern Lake County, Prairie Patch, Southport and Flying Needles.

If you are interested in participating, please sign up by December 26th, 2025. Sign-up sheets will be at guild meetings, or you can reach us at: postcards@nlcqg.org

Robyn McGarrigle and Rose Gray

Postcard Co-Chairs, NLCQG

Treasurer’s Report

Bank Balance as of August 31, 2025: $30,015.83
Income: $3,029.75
Expenses: $1,343.65
Bank Balance as of September 30, 2025: $31,701.93

Income from routine Guild activities totaled $2,164 and was primarily from Retreat fees, which will be offset by expenses in October. Show income totaled $866 from $164 in vendor booth payments and $702 in raffle ticket sales.

The Guild portion of expenses totaled $1,273 and was mainly from $973 for three new Square terminals as well as $233 for workshop expenses. Show expenses of $65 were for mailing costs and Stripe fees.

Respectfully submitted, Melanie Houser, Treasurer

Membership Report

No meeting was held in October due to our show; however we gained 14 new members from the show and prior! We now have 115 members as of this writing!

Welcome new and returning members: Joanne Binkley, Jill Chappelle, Victoria Doolittle, Carolyn Kujawinski, Marianne Maes, Carol Rickey, Janelle Ettner, Erica Rendall, Karen Griffin, Michael F. Nardi, Marla Littlefield, Eliza Zielazinski, Julie Reynolds, and Myretta Taylor.

We are looking for seasoned members to become a mentor or buddy to our new members as they come in. If you are interested, please do not hesitate to reach out to the membership committee for details.

We also want to know the year that you joined the guild for archival interests. If you can’t pinpoint a year but recall a decade, we will accept that. Additionally, could you please identify your cell phone number vs land line on the sign in sheet. This is for future interest with possible communication.

Please don’t forget to wear your name badges to our meetings (remember your quarters if you forget!)

Lorraine Potts and Robyn McGarrigle are your membership co-chairs. If you have a question, please feel free to reach out to us!

Happy November Birthday!

Erica Rendall - 11/2
Judy Hillebrand - 11/3
Caren Vollrath - 11/5
Ginny Flock - 11/4
Patricia Swank - 11/12
Melinda Stawicki - 11/13
Barbara Peterson - 11/16
Jill Chappelle - 11/17
Gwen Jaeger - 11/18
Barbara Schober - 11/19
Erika Eddy - 11/20
Ligia Colello - 11/26
Yolande Sherrod - 11/26
Patti Carrington - 11/29

November 2025