Our October Bee in Tempe was our first event at Pyle Adult Recreation Center. Tucked in behind the Tempe Library and Tempe Historical Museum, we welcomed 27 guests and 13 AZ Blankets Board members.
This event is what we typically consider our “season opener.” It is the only bee of the year that isn’t sponsored by a particular sewing group in their community. This location just happened to share a home with Tempe’s Needle Wielders. It was a treat to have a few of them at the bee.
All in attendance were treated to our annual quilt show of blankets by Carol Pettis. Carol sews for us throughout the year, spending some of those months on the road with her husband. Traveling doesn’t keep her from cranking out beautiful blankets. She saves them up to deliver to our October Bee each year. This year she delivered 89 quilts. Scroll down to the gallery to see Carol in front of the mountain, as well as a few snaps of individual blankets. You’ll see some great fabric prints that are often donations from friends. She’s also clever and creative with applique pieces. There are fussy cut prints that are appliqued to the quilt tops, and even an applique elephant that came from tracing a cookie cutter for a pattern. We are so grateful for all of Carol’s contributions over the years, and we can’t wait to see what she brings next year.
We had another first-time guest and treat at this bee. I didn’t catch a behind-the-scene photo, but you can see our annual raffle quilt displayed on the stage in the background of some of the photos from the Bee. What you can’t see is, behind the quilt, we had local licensed massage therapist, Molly Christener, set up to give chair massages. Many of our guests treated themselves to a few minutes of melting under Molly’s healing touch. We plan to have Molly visit us at future bees as well!
After lunch, we held our usual giveaways and raffles. Shari Bermele won our door prize basket. Diane Wolfe was the lucky winner of our fabric and thread raffle basket. Limbania Osredher won our door prize for a $25 gift card to 35th Ave Sew & Vac in Chandler. And last, but never least, Linda Christensen took a nice wad of cash home from the 50/50 raffle.
We always manage to fit in lots of fun between getting things done. Thanks to everyone who came out to spend some time with us. We hope to see you again soon!
Leave a Reply