There was a dual purpose to the BRQ February meeting – one was to honor member Jo Bell, who passed away in July, 2023, for bringing Ragged Edge Quilting to the BRQ back in the early 2000’s after a trip to Texas to visit a cousin. There were poster boards with pictures of Ragged Edge Quilts as well as many pictures of Jo Bell and some of the many quilts she made, as well as some pictures of Jo relaxing with some of her pals. Carol Z spoke of Jo and how she was ready for anything and her home was always open to friends and quilters. Jo was always very productive with her quilting which she freely gave to her many family members, grands and great grands. In addition to regular quilts, she made what she called Prayer Shawls which she gave to her friends at church, and anyone she thought could use one as a comfort. We all miss Jo as a longtime BRQ member and participant in all projects like Block of the Month, Row Quilt, Barn Quilt, Mystery Quilts, Road Trips and other guild and social events. Oh, she really loved the color Purple, which explains why there was quite a few members dressed in some shade of Purple.
The other purpose of the meeting was Valentine’s Day !! Yea !! The Hospitality Committee (Dawn W and Debbie H) had a beautiful display of cookies, candies, cheese and crackers, cupcakes (hey, all of these begin with “C”) as well as M&M Peanut candies and large seedless green grapes and yummy strawberries, all of which were happily consumed by a large group of quilters after a business meeting. Quilters love yummies and sweet stuff. And sitting around chatting while consuming.
To help a little with the National Quilt Day celebration table decorations, Kathy Wi passed out a LOT of donated fat quarters and showed us how to neatly fold them into triangles. By the end of the meeting, her pick up bag was full to overflowing !!
Visit our FaceBook page and download the March 9th National Quilt Day Pre-Registration form, fill it out, include your entry fee and mail to Janice T at the address shown on form before the Feb 28 deadline. Walk-ins are welcome but does not include lunch.
And there were several Show & Tell participants who shared their latest with us.
Bonnie R after showing her ragged edge quilt 
Bonnie R’s ragged edge quilt 
David and Cynthia Y with beautiful Paradox Wave quilt 
Gisela O with the front of a Foster Kids quilt she made 
and here is the back of that Foster Kids quilt 
Gisela O with Hooked on Hankies made from a kit 
Gisela O showing the back of a Round Robin quilt 
Gisela O and the front of the Round Robin quilt. Her original block is in the center and 3 other quilters added border, border and border! 
Kathy Wi with hand embroidered Fall Harvest wall hanging 
Kathy Wi with ragged edge quilt 
Kathy Wi with the back of that ragged edge quilt 
Kathy Wo back of large ragged edge quilt 
Kathy Wo readying large ragged edge quilt 
KathyWo – large ragged edge quilt 
Stephanie W showing very pretty Sparkle.
And I mustn’t forget these !!
Carolyn Z and Carolyn L showing the back of a donated QOV quitl 
Carolyn Z and Carolyn L with the front of that donated QOV quilt; the pattern is Brightly 
And another donated QOV quilt 
Kathy Wi showing the back of a different way to do ragged edge quilts 
and here is the front of that different way ragged edge quilt 
And the back of an Australian way to do ragged edge quilting 
The front of that Australian way of ragged edge quilting.
And that kinda sums up the February meeting of the Blue Ridge Quilters. Hope to see you all again in March for some pics of the NQD celebration as well as our regular meeting on March 12th. In the meantime, happy life and happy quilting.
Blue Ridge Quilters 