Lisa Clark, Queen Bee
The Tar River Piecemakers Quilt Guild (TRPQG) Busy Bees strive to embody their group’s name by staying constantly engaged. Their activities are varied and communal, centered around creating donation projects, exchanging ideas, exploring new techniques, and offering mutual support for individual quilting endeavors. Recently, the Busy Bees have completed two Round Robin Adoption Quilts and Mother’s squares for donation. These colorful quilts, one in pastels and one in primary colors -both with appliqué heart centers, were passed to different members each month to add their personal touch.
We are currently working on completing our next Quilt of Valor by piecing blocks to contribute to a pattern called The Patriot. We hope to have this quilt completed near the beginning of 2026.
In addition to our sewing, we are taking a fun, social trip to the Sylvan Bird Park in Scotland Neck for our October meeting. We’ll follow with a theme of birds and bird projects at our November meeting. Our December meeting will be a Christmas gathering with food and games!
We’d love to have new members to join in our fun!
Meetings are held on the 2nd Tuesday at 10:00 am at the Englewood Presbyterian Church, 100 S Englewood Dr, Rocky Mount, NC. All are welcome.
For more information contact Lisa Clark lclarkpe9@gmail.com.
The Busy Bees met at Englewood Presbyterian Church for a follow-up to our recent visit to the bird park. Members shared a variety of projects featuring birds, showcasing lots of creativity and inspiration.
Lin Varney delivered an excellent presentation on her appliquéd and thread-painted birds, and she treated us to a demonstration of her unique “herky-jerky” quilting technique.
Our next gathering will be our Christmas Brunch on December 9th. We look forward to seeing everyone there!
The Busy Bees had an amazing field trip to Sylvan Heights Bird Park (Scotland Neck, NC) for our October meeting! Our bird theme will continue with our November meeting at Englewood Presbyterian Church!!
The Busy Bees recently watched and discussed the Netflix documentary The Quilters. As a group, we’ve completed two round robin adoption quilt tops, along with several mother’s squares. Macey also finished another adoption quilt before heading back to school next month — we wish her a wonderful year ahead!
The Busy Bees celebrated Christmas in July by looking ahead to the projects and gifts we hope to create. Susie delighted us with her baskets made from upholstery fabric, while Martha showcased her contribution to our round robin adoption quilt. Macey shared her beautifully finished scrappy log cabin quilt. We also kicked off a new group project—a Quilt of Valor using a pattern called The Patriot.
Busy Bees Update
We kicked off our meeting with a bookmark exchange, followed by Sandy and Sarah sharing their beautiful additions to our Round Robin donation/adoption quilts. The quilts are now with Lin and Martha, who will take the next turns in adding their creative touches.
Sarah and Susie led a helpful tutorial on paper piecing, complete with a video demonstration. Afterwards, we had a chance to try our hand at making our own blocks. There was also an inspiring display of completed paper-pieced projects for everyone to enjoy.
Of course, we also had our always-fun Sew and Tell—featuring contributions from our summer member, Macey!
Special thanks to Duane for helping with the photos. I hope these brief notes capture the spirit of our meeting. Feel free to use or tweak as needed—thanks for putting this together!
The Busy Bees had a delightful May meeting centered around a strawberry theme! We shared a variety of strawberry recipes, enjoyed strawberry-themed refreshments, and launched a bookmark exchange that will continue into June.
We also began an exciting round robin project—details to be revealed later this year!
One of the highlights of the meeting was packing a special birthday box for our youngest member, Macey, who is getting a sewing machine for her 7th birthday. Her gift box was filled with sewing goodies: charm squares for her first quilt, a personalized pocket angel, a sewing machine zipper pulls, animal fabrics, quilt panels, fabric for a 3-yard quilt, and even a gift card to have it professionally quilted. The Busy Bees are a generous bunch—Macey will be all set for her sewing adventures!
To top it all off, Lin shared a VCU fleece blanket she made for her grandson’s birthday—a lovely and thoughtful.
The Busy Bees shared Tips and Tools at our meeting today. We will be sharing them with everyone in the newsletter! We are all working on finishing our shoebox quilts. We’ll have them ready6 to share at the Guild meeting in July!
The Busy Bees workshop today focused on learning how to create Comfort Bags, which will be given to First Responders to help children in stressful situations. The goal is to complete men’s bags for the Guild’s Project.
Several Busy Bees have finished their Shoebox quilts. Each member crafted a block using the fabrics from the box they received each month. Once completed, all the blocks were handed over to the owner, who pieced them together
into a quilt.
