BeeArtful
May 2025
A letter from our leader Janice
Winter is gone. No more excuses to sit home alone. In GA this time of the year, the weather is beautiful. Time to move around, take a walk, dig in the dirt. Days of slow sipping are gone. The world is waking up to new sprouts, new flowers, new ideas. But I miss the slower pace of winter. I miss cold mornings and excuses to stay in bed. I miss ideas germinating. I miss not getting busy.
What do people do who live in endless summer. When do they get to “play hooky,” or procrastinate?
We will have another opportunity this year to slow down. It is called August. We will go from air conditioned cars to air conditioned houses. It is not quite the same as winter, but it will slow us down.
How about getting together in August this year for 3 days of stitching. Yes, we will have air conditioning but we will also have each other. Since our Spring retreat was cut short, it would be fun to try something new. In the mean time, get going on all those projects you haven’t started and continue enjoying what you are working on.
Keep pedaling,
Janice
May 2025 meeting
On May 13 Jan Pitman will lead the meeting with a silk dyeing workshop. She will provide all the needed supplies. $15 covers the cost of the item you ordered (if Jan ordered a tie for you). Bring gloves if you prefer. Show and Tell. Bring your lunch.
2025 Meeting Schedule
May 13 - Dyeing silk ties, etc with alcohol inks by Jan
June 10 - Follow up to Silk Dye 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
The retreat from Lakemont!
Well, we tried. We had one good day on Monday and then we cruised into Tuesday with a demo by Carol and Susan right before lunch for the English rose quilt, and then right before lunch, the water stopped flowing. We contacted Libby who runs the rental of the building and she was just as surprised as we were. After some back and forth, we were told the water would be back on Wednesday morning for the rest of the week. Weelllll, NOT. So we (all 8-9 of us) retreated back to our two rental cabins for the rest of the week. A big thank you to the clean up crew (Janice, Jan, Linda B and hubby, Gini and Lucia) for making sure we did not burn any bridges with Lakemont by doing their best to put everything away and doing some cleaning on what was a dirty space when we started the week. Needless to say, our time at Lakemont has come to an end and we will be relocating for any future retreats. Enjoy the very limited photos from the "retreat" below.
Susan B's version of the English Rose quilt
Carol's version of the English Rose quilt
Workstation at rental cabin 1!
Janice at work!
One of the only photos from Lakemont! Kathy I piecing some itty bitties!
Nothing keeps these two down! Beautiful quilt behind them was hanging in their cabin.
The quilt behind Janice and Jan was quilted by LuAnn Luedtke. She stopped by the cabin one afternoon and told us she did it ages ago. It was a MaryAnn Prue creation that took Mary Ann 11 years to complete. It was all hand applique over a watercolor base squares.
Melinda's quilt center for Mountain Light Unitarian Universalist church.
Barb took her cabin renters on a walk to some cool rapids on the Chatauga river.
Melinda finally finished Mitizi's Kiss it Goodbye!
Mark Your Calendars for Fiber Festival May 17 & 18
Sign Up to help at the guild booth and/or demo a fiber craft by contacting Janice (jchiaffredo@gmail.com).
More Geri Beam Classes!
Oakely Gallery
OCC Antiques & Interiors - "Out of the Cedar Chest", 300 Northside Dr, Gainesville, GA 30501, USA
Link to sign up for her first class….
June
4 June:
Sunday 6/8 GB Summer Splendor - Mixed media collage 10:30-1:30
ScanNCut ScanNCut 2:30-5:30
August
5 August:
8-3 Sun GB Botanical Printing all day 10:30-4:30
October
6 Oct:
Sat 10-4 GB Spooktacular Boxes 10:30-1:30 and
ScanNCut ScanNCut 2:30-5:30
November
7 November:
GB Sat 11-1 Personal Treasures Necklace all day 10:30-4:30
December
8 December:
Sunday 12/7 GB Last Minute Gifts Stamping on Wearables 10:30-1:30 and
Same class second session 2:30-5:30
Sautee Nacoochee Center
Visit snca.org for more information about upcoming classes and events
Slow Stitch Collage with Geri Beam
2 Sessions on Friday, May 16:
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
as part of our FiberFest 2025 Event
Reference Items (Titles or pics are linked)
Quilt Alliance You Tube channel
Article sent out by Bev on adding hand embroidery to shoes, etc.
Links for some very interesting articles
How to Have More Meaning Conversations About Quilts
By Frances O’Roark Dowell
Textile Podcasts
Quilting Arts (Where We Work):
https://www.quiltingdaily.com/where-we-work-quilting-arts-podcast
New Haptic & Hue podcast link:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/haptic-hue/id1530400722?i=1000682370590
Podcast with local flair:
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
Podcast on Tales of Textiles:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/haptic-hue/id1530400722
Website for ordering custom dies for your AccuQuilt machine
Sisters (and brothers) in art quilting in northern CA. Field Trip anyone?
Need the password for member section for the guild (www.mlqg.org) website? Contact Linda Barron (linda.barron@gmail.com)
Bee Artful quilting thread recommendations
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).
Critique Documents for reference
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.
Letter from the editor
We will certainly be telling the April 2025 retreat story for a while! We have a lot to discuss at our May meeting if we have the time! Jan will be leading us in some sharpie/ alcohol dyeing of silk ties or whatever silk you want to bring to experiment on! After a beautiful spring in the north GA mountains, we are headed to warmer days and eventually hot ones! Those hot days are perfect for getting back into your sew room and working on those unfinished projects. I am looking forward to starting my English Rose quilt among many other projects in the months to come.
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