
Welcome to the
Pajaro Valley Quilt Association
Encouraging the Art of Quilting Since 1978


We Had a Wonderful
Quilt Show!!!
Many Thanks to
Everyone
Who Made it Happen!!
Come to a Meeting!
March 13, 2023 - 7pm - Virtual
April 10, 2023 - 7pm - In Person
May 8, 2023 - 7pm - Virtual
June 12, 2023 - 7pm - Virtual
July 10, 2023 - 7pm - In Person
August 14, 2023 - 7pm - In Person
September 11, 2023 - 7pm - Virtual
October 9, 2023 - 7pm - Virtual
November 13, 2023 - 7pm - Virtual
December 11, 2023 - In Person
January 8, 2024 - 7pm - In Person
February 12, 2024 - 7pm - In Person
March 11, 2024 - 7pm - Virtual
April 8, 2024 - 7pm - Virtual
May 13, 2024 - 7pm - In Person
General Meeting Information
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When: Second Monday of every month
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Start Time: Meeting starts promptly at 7:pm
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Location:
In person meetings are at Temple Beth El.
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Masks required until further notice.
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Activities: Speakers, Show-and-Tell, Guild Business. For in person meetings, pre-Meeting activities starting at 6:30 pm include information booths, sign-ups for activities, BOM booth, etc.
PVQA holds meetings both in person and via Zoom.
This allows us to bring speakers from around the world to our meetings!
See the MEETINGS page for more information.
If you are a non-PVQA member and wish to attend a Virtual General Meeting, please contact the Membership Chair using the Board Contact form on the Board Page.
Use this quick link:

March 13, 2023 Meeting Speaker Is
Phyllis Cullen
Meeting Lecture
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE FACE
This lecture is all about portrait quilting. As the author of the book by the same name, Phyllis will guide you through numerous examples and style of quilted portraits, of people and animals. She includes lessons on the various aspects of creating these pieces, including posing, choosing photos, creating patterns, values, choosing fabrics, and how to quilt faces. A good introduction to our books, classes and workshops but lots of information and inspiration to get out and "make a face!"
Phyllis Cullen, who gets to live in beautiful Hawaii, is a more or less retired physician, multimedia artist, art quilt teacher and author who loves to make faces! in fact, after making a few hundred fabric portraits, and teaching fabric portrait making (people and animals, primarily) all around the world, one of her students convinced her to write a book. It's called "It's All About the Face" and she has a series of classes, workshops and a fun lecture/slide presentation to go with it. She and her prize student, Cindy, are now working on books two and three, because there are bodies, and there are animals with faces too. She loves talking about portraits and it's often even more fun than doctoring anyhow, because if a stitch is wrong, as she says, no one bleeds, or gets infected, or dies, or sues you! She invites everyone to come hear about faces, and to join her free facebook group, named "It's All About the Face!" which is an amazing coincidence!
Yes, this bio was written by Phyllis (and I approve this message),
Click here to visit my website.
Meeting will be held via Zoom.
Phylllis Cullen will be presenting a class in March. Follow the link below to get more information or sign up!
Click here to go to the Workshops page for information on planned PVQA workshops.

Classes for Next Year
Coming to Website Soon!
Check back. More information and sign ups will be posted soon!

A PVQA Member In the News!!
Aptos Times
Meet the Stitch Witch
February 21, 2023 Article by Jondi Gumz
Posted with the permission of the Aptos Times
Spread the love
Sara Roche is the Stitch Witch, and it’s easy to see why.
If you visit during Open Studios, you’ll see her many of her colorful
quilts displayed on clothesline rippling in the breeze.


She quilts a dozen quilts a month for local charities.
She takes custom orders, producing one-of-a-kind quilts in about 4 to 6 weeks, depending on the complexity.
She has designed the quilting for “opportunity quilt” being created by the Apple Piecers group of the guild, which meets twice a month to make quilts for those in need. This quilt will be raffled next year — 2024 — and you get a sneak preview.
Roche, 64, originally from the East Coast, went to art school thinking she would become a fine artist. An assignment to make a 4×6-foot rug of her own design gave her pause. She wanted to do “stuff that would enhance people’s everyday life,” not niche projects. She became an award-winning weaver, spending 20 years traveling to major craft shows all over the U.S.
She met her husband, Greg Roche, at a show in Baltimore. He was selling leather for his family-owned business, Roche Leather Co., in Watsonville. She was in her weaving booth. After they got married, they lived outside Watsonville in a rural area where the Trabing Fire would take place. When her son was 3 — she’s the mother of two sons — she realized it was time for a change. In 2008 she shifted into quilting and never looked back.

Sara Roche with the “opportunity quilt” that will be raffled off at the 2024 Pajaro Valley Quilt Association show. • Photo Credit: Jondi Gumz
Sara Roche with her Long Arm quilting machine. • Photo Credit: Jondi Gumz
Roche won PVQA Best of Show in 2022. • Photo Credit: Jondi Gumz
Her studio is chock-a-block full of color, fabrics, threads, works in progress and her Long Arm quilting machine.
That’s the high-tech device she uses. It speeds up the time needed to sew the three layers of the quilt together, and the computer can automate patterns and designs.
The 2008 Trabing fire, which burned 500 acres, destroyed some 15 homes in her neighborhood. Her home, where she made defensible space a priority, was saved by Aptos La Selva firefighters. The silver lining is that after the fire, the county allowed Roche to build her quilting studio and an accessory dwelling unit.
The Covid-19 pandemic halted in-person classes featuring expert quilt instructors. But the Pajaro Valley Quilt Association got creative, and scheduled classes via Zoom, which attracted experts from around the world. With the pandemic shifting to normalcy, Roche said, “We’re going to stay hybrid.”That means some in-person classes, some via Zoom.
If you would like to order your own “art quilt,” or have a quilt top quilted, email her by clicking here.
Copyright © 2019 Times Publishing Group
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