2nd Annual Beach Retreat in Oceanside

Ahoy fellow Guild mates!

Announcing our 2nd annual Beach Retreat in Oceanside, right on the beach!

Oct 29 - Nov 1, 2020

YES, it's really happening  (with a few modifications,  of course - your health and safety is our prime concern!)

Same venue as last year - two story condo.

Registration opens Aug 18 with a $100 deposit, with the balance due on Oct 1. The total cost will range from $287 on the high side,  to $225, depending on the number of participants.  You may pay in the following ways:

Mail to Barbara M. (address in our directory) or drop off at Barbara's,  Jeri's, Andie's, or Shelly N. (treasurer). (Cash or check) Shelly and Jeri are both gone during the day, so make arrangements to meet them in the evening. We have 20 spots available,  first come,  first served.

Looking forward to an amazing time sewing by the ocean!

- Barbara M.

August BOM and Virtual Guild Meeting Reminder

We hope everyone is staying cool during this crazy heatwave. If you experience a blackout, PLEASE get somewhere cool - you've friends all over the Riverside area and someone will still have power! And please remember to check on your neighbors too and make sure everyone is staying cool. County of Riverside Cool Center

Our next virtual guild meeting is coming up tomorrow

If you have not already done so, please go ahead and download Zoom to your computer, phone, or tablet. Zoom uses the camera and microphone from your device to share your video and audio:

Zoom for iPhone/iPad

Zoom for Android

Zoom for Windows

Zoom for Mac

If you already have Zoom installed, please remember to check for updates about once a week as they are continuing to improve the application and tighten its security.

If you need a refresher, I highly recommend you checkout the Raincross Quilt Guild Zoom Cheat Sheet I created for us.

We will be using a new THE SAME Zoom meeting link AS LAST TIME which will be made available on the Raincross Facebook page. If you do not use Facebook, post in the comments below or email the guild and I will email you the link and password.

To make sharing easier for everyone, we'd like to try the following: please email or text Cassandra photos of your quilts and she will organize them into a slideshow so that you don't have to hold up your quilt/piece, you just have to talk about it.

Please include:

- your name

- name of the quilt/piece (if it has one)

- dimensions

- brief description

When you take your picture, please try to include the entire quilt/piece while it is flat on the floor, on your bed, or on a design wall. It's okay if it's not straight or the perspective is wonky - I can fix that.

We will be doing the same thing for our Raincross Quilt Guild challenge quilts, which are due next month.

August Blocks of the Month:

- Cassandra G.

July BOM and Virtual Guild Meeting Reminder

Greetings! We hope all our quilterly friends are keeping safe and sane and healthy out there and that you're ready for another thrilling virtual guild meeting coming up next Tuesday evening, July 21st at 6:00 PM on Zoom.

If you have not already done so, please go ahead and download Zoom to your computer, phone, or tablet. Zoom uses the camera and microphone from your device to share your video and audio:

Zoom for iPhone/iPad

Zoom for Android

Zoom for Windows

Zoom for Mac

If you already have Zoom installed, please remember to check for updates about once a week as they are continuing to improve the application and tighten its security.

If you need a refresher, I highly recommend you checkout the Raincross Quilt Guild Zoom Cheat Sheet I created for us.

We will be using a new Zoom meeting link which will be made available on the Raincross Facebook page. If you do not use Facebook, post in the comments below or email the guild and I will email you the link and password.

For the meeting, we would like to invite everyone to share:

• In honor of our Independence Day,  your red, white, and blue quilts - projects you've made in the past, projects you're working on now, even if you just have one block, or QoV quilts...anything you've got!
• If you're joining making this year's Block of the Month, Be My Neighbor, share with us your first four blocks.

Speaking of Block of the Month, here is this month's block and instructions:

Finally, we'd like to remind you that our first annual Raincross Quilt Guild Challenge projects using the lovely birdie fabric we all received in May will be due at the September guild meeting. More news on how we'll share these quilts soon!

- Cassandra G.

June Virtual Guild Meeting Information

Our 1st virtual guild meeting is coming up soon and we have more information to share with you! Everyone should review the Raincross Quilt Guild Zoom Cheat Sheet.

If you need help getting started with Zoom, we will have a Tech Support session Monday June 15th starting at 6pm. If you are already comfortable with Zoom, you do not need to attend.

We will officially start the guild meeting on Tuesday at the normal time of 6pm, but we will have the Zoom meeting going at 5:30pm to provide any additional Zoom help.

The Zoom meeting link will be provided on our Facebook page, as well as emailed to those who do not have Facebook or have requested a meeting link. Guests are invited and our normal guest fee of $5 will be waived. If you would like the Zoom meeting link emailed to you, please comment below or email us.

And now, a message from our President...

"Dear Quilters,

I would like to invite anyone to share with me the ups and downs of what is going on in your life right now.  Are you sad, glad, hurting, happy or something else! Would you like prayer for something?  Would you like the quilt guild members to know something special that happened in your life since we met in March? Is there anything you need help with? Do you need a socially distanced visit? It takes a Quilters Village to raise a Healthy Quilter! Send me your requests via email, on Facebook, or simply give me a call, and I'll pass them along at the meeting.

Special thoughts and prayers go out to all of you from me,

Jeri"

- Cassandra G.

Virtual June Guild Meeting!

While we still cannot get together in person out of an abundance of caution for all our members, we would like to still get together virtually!

The Raincross Quilt Guild meeting will take place via Zoom on our regular night and time, Tuesday June 16th at 6pm. To ensure the security of the meeting, the link to the meeting will only be posted to our Facebook page. If you do not have Facebook, please respond to the comments below, or email or call me and I will make sure that the meeting link is emailed to you.

If you have not used Zoom before, it is a free application that works on just about anything - a Windows computer, a Mac computer, iPhones, iPads, Android phones, Android tablets, etc. - whatever you've got. If you would like to get ready for the actual meeting, we will have a Tech Support session on Monday June 15th at 6pm to help you get Zoom set up and be comfortable using it. And we will also be available starting at 5:30pm on guild meeting night to help as well.

To prepare for that, please go ahead and download Zoom to your computer, phone, or tablet. Zoom uses the camera and microphone from your device to share your video and audio:

Zoom for iPhone/iPad

Zoom for Android

Zoom for Windows

Zoom for Mac

If you have used Zoom before, great! Please remember to check for updates about once a week as they are continuing to improve the application and tighten its security.

Please let us  know if you have any questions!

- Cassandra G.

June Blocks of the Month now available

I've really been enjoying seeing pictures of everyone's Be My Neighbor blocks on our Facebook page and I know everyone is excited to keep going, so here are the two blocks we are doing for June!

The instructions are available for Block 5 and Block 6. Enjoy!

- Cassandra G.

I spy with my little eye...

Your Raincross Quilt Guild board planning something cool - stay tuned!

- Cassandra G.

May 2020 Guild Meeting Cancelled, but something cool is coming!

My dearest sisters of the cloth, ladies of the longarm, mothers of the quilting mayhem, dames of the design wall, gals of the grain, lassies of the layer cake, broads of the Bernina's and Brother's (and Pfaffs and Singers and Juki's and Elna's and...)

As you may have guessed, our May guild meeting scheduled for Tuesday, May 19th has been unfortunately cancelled. We hope that you are all staying healthy and safe and enjoying any extra time to sew!

Thanks to everyone who has been sharing their lovely Be My Neighbor blocks that we are doing for this year's RQG Block of the Month on our Raincross Quilt Guild Facebook group. The pattern for the single block for May is now available (and early!), so get stitching!

Finally, to brighten your spirits, we have something cool in store coming soon, so stay tuned!!

- Cassandra G.

April 2020 Guild Meeting and Nunnery Retreat Cancelled

We are sorry to inform you all but our April 2020 Raincross Quilt Guild meeting scheduled for next Tuesday, April 21st has been cancelled. We are also sorry to report that the May quilt retreat to Vina de Lestonnac, aka The Nunnery in Temecula has also been cancelled.

While it is disappointing to not be able to come together, it is so important that we continue to stay home and stay safe, not only for ourselves, for those in our community who would become sick and potentially very sick from this terrible disease. Stay strong and reach out to your quilting friends and sisters! We're quilters - it's gonna take a lot more than this to seam rip us apart!

In regards to the quilt retreat, Barbara M. is reaching out to all the quilters who had signed up to attend. Vina is booked solid for the next year, so there is no opportunity to reschedule until this time in 2021. They already have us on the calendar, probably around the middle of the month - typically the weekend after Mother's Day. For those who signed up to attend, you can request no refund (and all of your money will be carried over to next year's retreat), a refund of everything but the $50 deposit (which will hold your spot for this retreat next year), or a full refund. Please contact Barbara to let her know your choice and if you have any questions.

In good news, we are SO PROUD of all of you for all of the masks you have been sewing together for medical groups, security groups, ChildHelp, friends, and family. Great job everyone! If you out of elastic, I recommend you post on our Raincross Quilt Guild Facebook group as there are several members who bought huge spools of it and may be able to get you some.

Be My Neighbor Block 2 and Block 3 (minus the birdie I haven't added yet)

Be My Neighbor Block 2 and Block 3
As a reminder, in order to get all 16 blocks done within the year, we will have one block one month, two blocks the next month, one block the month after that, etc. Here are the instructions for Block 2 and Block 3 for April.. If you cannot print out instructions and you were expecting to pick up a paper copy at the meeting, please post in the comments or give me a call and I will mail you a printed copy.

We typically show up our finished 50% Challenge Projects at the April meeting; this will be rescheduled. But, now you've got more time to get more UFOs done, so yay!

- Cassandra G.

Request for Fabric Masks by Childhelp

This approved request is from Raincross Quilt Guild member Gloria H. for Childhelp Village in Beaumont:

Hi Raincross Members!

I have received an urgent request from the Chief Program Officer for Childhelp. They need masks made for the abused children at the Childhelp Village in Beaumont. We need sewers to volunteer and make the masks for the kids. I have a pattern for you to use if you are able to help make masks. The pattern for the masks is simple and quick to make. The pattern is sized for both adults and children.  Please use a generic cotton tightly woven print for right side of fabric that does not have juvenile print nor is specific for males or females. Use a different fabric for the inside that is light or plain colored so it's easy for the users to identify the front side of mask from the inside. I know 1/4" elastic is hard to find and I can provide you some should you need.

Please contact me if you are interested in making masks for the children or if you have any questions (contact information in the 2019 Raincross Quilt Guild membership booklet or on our Facebook page).

I know this is a difficult time for everyone and for anyone that can volunteer to make masks for the kids it would be greatly appreciated. I understand if you can't. In advance, I am deeply grateful for what you have done in the past to support the Childhelp Quilt project, and I hope that you can help make these masks that are urgently needed for these precious children.

"For the Love of a Child"
Gloria H.

- Cassandra G.