The Holidays are among us. They started for me in October when I stopped at Costco and I saw Christmas decorations. My 'get it done now' indicator went from 0 to 50 in a heart beat.
I own a fur ball. Her name is Kai and she is a companion-bred german shepherd (shedder) dog. Wilma with her 'elephant' vacuum would be welcome at my house any time. I am noticing flaws in my cleaning, especially on our dark hardwood floors.

I read this comment recently and I think it gives me permission to turn a 'blind eye' to my sub par house cleaning.

I hope it resonates with you, too.

“I've seen women insist on cleaning everything in the house before they could sit down to write... and you know it's a funny thing about housecleaning... it never comes to an end. Perfect way to stop a woman. A woman must be careful to not allow over-responsibility (or over-respectabilty) to steal her necessary creative rests, riffs, and raptures. She simply must put her foot down and say no to half of what she believes she "should" be doing. Art is not meant to be created in stolen moments only.”
― Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves

This holiday season make more art!

Carve out studio play time.
Pour into your fabric stash.
Dust off your serger.
Wash out your new fabric.
Organize your button collection.
Shop your unfinished projects.

We are so much more than our housekeeping skills.

Enjoy the season and keep on stitchin.

Janice

Bring your lunch. Janice and Lucia are bringing cupcakes.

We will play "Right, Left, Center". Bring 3 one dollar bills and three batik fat quarters if you plan on playing. Bring KISS It Goodby projects and live plants. We will discuss our Opportunity Quilt Postcard and look at our 2025 schedule.

January 14 - Value class by Geri Beam (to be confirmed by group)

February 11 - Improv Quilting workshop by Silke

March 11 - Follow up on Improv Quilting Workshop and Spring Retreat planning

April 14 - 18 Spring Retreat

May 13 - Making Quilts with Silk Ties by Jan

June 10 - Follow up to Silk Tie workshop

July 8 - Surface Design Techniques by Susan Barrett

August 12 - Follow up on Surface Design work shop

September 9 - Study in Black by Janice

October 7 - Follow up on Study in Black and Fall Retreat planning

November 10-14 Fall Retreat

December 9 - Christmas Party and Kiss it goodbye

You can definitely see why this group is called "Bee Artful"! 😍Clockwise from top left: Carol Gardiner's kwandi-inspired; Susan Barrett's view from her deck collage; Janice Chiaffredo's artful interpretation; Kathy Ingmundson's improvisational piecing; Melinda Oliver's wall hanging; Bev's beautiful cityscape; and, Gini Cawood's lovely landscape with hexi-tortoise!

This quilt which was made by Bee Artfuls several years ago was in Jane Threlkeld's sewing room. Lynda Doll was able to join us for three days during retreat and shared many treasures from Jane with us. It was bittersweet to accept those treasures as our own.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/haptic-hue/id1530400722

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-long-thread-podcast/id1508572777?i=1000663499933

Her upcoming book is: Marking Your Time by Tommye McClure Scanlin

Marking Time with Fabric and Thread: Calendars, Diaries, and Journals within Your Fiber Craft https://a.co/d/71Q7u8N

Thanks for sharing this Linda Barron!

Need the password for member section for the guild (www.mlqg.org) website? Contact Linda Barron (linda.barron@gmail.com)

Silke uses Superior thread 100 weight (micro quilter)-blends in well.

Kathy I. uses 100 weight silk thread by Yli (order from Amazon or another vendor online).

https://www.janedunnewold.com/resources/critiques

One is a checklist that can be used as a guideline when looking at a quilt - this is published on her website as part of her creative strength training class.

The second is a detailed essay she wrote concerning the process.

I hope that these documents will help the Bee Artful group conduct critique sessions that are productive.

I do not know about everyone else but once fall retreat passes by, it is full-on holiday madness, joy, and all the rest. Janice's letter is very appropriate for this time of year especially. Our fall retreat was awesome as always. We were so happy to have Lynda and Nina join us as they helped us to say goodbye to our dear friend and Bee Artful member, Jane Threlkeld. Carol and I call that shade of lime green she loved "Janegreen" because she was so well known for using that color in her quilts. See the quilt above from several years ago for an example of her use of that color. As we lovingly perused and adopted her beautiful things she left behind, we all came away with bits of Jane. I am looking forward to our wonderful schedule for Bee Artful for next year. Thanks to Geri for helping to put that together as well as the always awesome job she did in her workshop on paste dyes. Carol found the awesome video above on instagram of a practitioner in India (I assume) using the wood blocks to create the beautiful patterns we see on the textiles from there.

I hope everyone has the best holiday season with time for recharging and creativity and joy with family and friends.

I am happy to convey all of these wonderful "goings on" via this newsletter. Try to get things to me in advance of the end of the month via email (mandmoliver@gmail.com) or text. If you put the word "newsletter" somewhere in the message line I will be able to find it easier (if using email). See you soon.

Melinda