President’s Message
Happy New Year!
We have a wild and wonderful year ahead of us as an organization and we don’t want you to miss a thing! And the good news is that it is all about YOU! When was the last time something was really all about you? All of our members across the world are filled with the Spirit of comfort and healing through our prayer quilts. We work hard to make sure we are listening to what God is calling us to do and make sure there are beautiful quilts available to meet the needs of others in crisis. So take a day or two for rest and renewal and join us at our Mid-South Regional Conference in Plano, Texas on Jan. 19th and our International Prayers &Squares Conference in Lewisville, TX on April 4-5, 2008.
I am excited that Tricia Cribbs who wrote the Turning Twenty books will be our guest speaker at our opening reception on Friday, April 4th and Kimberly Winston, who wrote the book about us, Fabric of Faith, will be speaking to us about her newest book, Bead One, Pray Too on Saturday morning during opening devotions. It is a beautifully researched, prayerful book with instructions on how to make your own prayer beads. Another way to enhance your prayer and meditation time!
The theme of our conference this year is “Pray All Ways”. This is the title of an excellent book by Edward Hays which he says he took from Paul’s call to “pray always”. Sit with this concept for a few minutes to realize all of the ways we as quilters pray as we work on our quilts. To honor this theme, we are also writing a book of devotions and prayers just for you!. But we can’t do it without you! Is there a special prayer, liturgy, or devotion that you use before sewing or a workshop? Please send it to Louise Lucas by Jan. 28th at lbrlucas@hotmail.com.
What plans are already in place for April? We are expecting about 400 quilters and have 40 rooms held at the Hilton Garden Inn where we will be meeting in Lewisville, TX for Friday night and Saturday. We will also have a list of RV parks in the area available for you. The conference registration fee will be $60 and include tote bags and a copy of our new prayer/ devotional book as well as lots of other goodies and coupons we are gathering. Read Nikki’s column in this newsletter for more scoop!
Registration forms for the April conference will be up on the website the weekend of March 1st. Each chapter needs to figure out who is coming, gather your registration fees into one envelope, select a chapter contact person and then download the registration form off of the website. The chapter contact will send in the registration form with the checks and all of the names of members who will be attending. That contact will also be responsible for picking up all of the registration materials. Registration will be available from March 3-March 28 only so we have a few days to get ready to travel! I’m excited to say that there are at least ten of us coming from California already!
Quick Notes:
Daniela Stout, the publisher from Cozy Designs tells us that our book, The Giving Quilt, is outselling the other books she has published… I have received our new pins with the P&S logo and they are beautiful…We are still waiting to hear on our grant application for streaming video on our website from The National Quilting Association in Columbus, Ohio… I almost have my blog up and running so we can chat about all sorts of things… There is more room in the Mid-South Conference in 2 weeks! Get those registrations in! Forms on the website!
I wish you a blessed New Year and hope to see all of you in January or April! (Well, maybe not all of you…),
Kathy Cueva,
President, Prayers & Squares International
President@prayerquilt.org
