Marcia generated lots of interest in the Mystery Quilt. You can see several of the first installment blocks posted on our Proper Bostonian Facebook page. Take a look and get inspired to start yours if you haven't jumped in yet.

Kace presented the guild with proposals for the season. She gave an update on our charity quilt projects. Preschool nap quilts in the 40"-50" range are needed. We give them to a variety of places including Horizons for Homeless Preschool, Project Linus (delivery each October), andCasa Nueva Vida in Jamaica Plain, a shelter for battered women and their children. Casa Nueva Vida can use quilts in all sizes: infant to adult. MARE (Mass Adoption Resource Exchange) needs twin bed quilts.

PBQ is also committed to providing quilts to our service men and women through the Veterans Administration. Quilts with a red, white, and blue focus are particularly appropriate, but any color-way is appreciated. Sizes can range from lap size to bed size. A suggestion was made that if we make an extra Block of the Month in patriotic fabrics each month, we will have a good start on a patriotic sample quilt by the end of the year.

We will be having an upcoming project for ovarian cancer.

Kace brought lots of fabric for the taking to make charity quilts.

Quilters should bring all their comfort/charity quilts in for show and tell before they are sent off to these organizations.

Kace does an amazing job of organizing quilters for these important causes throughout the year as well as making quilts along with the rest of the volunteers.

PBQers were presented with another challenge for our second meeting of the 2016-2017 season. Our challenge was to dig into our personal collection and come up with our first quilt. A number of members were able to locate said quilt and entertain the group with stories of inspiration, improvised bindings, polyester fabric, not enough fabric purchased, and more.There were many admissions of mistakes, though not obvious to the viewer. More than anything, it was an impressive display of first quilts.

Some of the influences for the quilts were: Papagallo, family history of Alaskan homesteading, first homes, new babies, and holidays. There were lots of references to hand made templates, scissors, and hand quilting and knotting or tying.

All of the quilters showing their first quilts stuck with quilt making and have evolved into artful, skilled, and masterful quilters who are contributing to the preservation of the folk art of quilting and the expansion into modern quilting.

Here are three "first quilts" as an example with the inspiration.

Rosalie D: Homesteading in Alaska

Charlotte H: New Home

June C: Papagallo