Meeting Programs & Events

Unless otherwise stated, all meeting programs are held at:

Faith United Methodist Church

432 59th Street

Downers Grove, IL, 60516

7:00 - 9:00 PM, unless stated otherwise

July 23, 2025

Program: Trunk Show featuring FCQ Members

  • Joan Bratton

  • Laurie Peters

  • Nona Jones

A quilting trunk show is a dynamic and inspiring presentation where a quilter shares a collection of their work, offering insight into their creative journey, techniques and stories behind each quilt. A trunk show celebrates the individuality and passion of the quilter, while fostering community and connection among fellow quilters.

Come and enjoy the creative talents of your fellow quilters!

Nona Jones

Joan Bratton

Laurie Peters

August 27, 2025

Program: Yellow Creek Quilt Designs Through the Years

Jill Shaulis

We welcome Jill Shaulis once again to Faithful Circle. Her lectures are always thoughtful, inspiring, and entertaining. This year she will share with us her story, her quilt journey.

Visit Jill’s website for a look at her work: yellowcreekquiltdesigns.com

  • Jill is the owner of Yellow Creek Quilt Designs. In 1992 she opened her quilt and gift shop in Pearl City, Illinois. Jill grew up in Pearl City where her mom and big sisters taught her to sew when she was in the second grade. She and her sisters would walk to town to the Post Office. which was in a historic turn of the century bank building. Today, that same building is the location of Jill’s shop.

    In addition to the shop, Jill has written three books and has designed Civil War era fabric collections for Windham Fabrics and now for Robert Kaufman Fabrics. Jill is well known for her miniature foundation paper piecing patterns, her many wonderful quilt patterns, and her beautiful wool designs. You will find in her shop many unique frames for her mini quilts and wool work.

    Jill’s shop has evolved and grown over the past 28 years. There is much inspiration as you walk through Yellow Creek. If you have not been there yet, it is truly worth a road trip.

September 24, 2025

Program: QuiltScape 2025 Quilt Show Celebration!

Tonight, we celebrate the success of QuiltScape 2025! Terri Radek and Karla Hogan, our quilt show chairs, will share information on the various successes we have with each section of the show.

Show and Tell will consist of all ribbon winning quilts. Be sure to bring your winning quilt, so we can enjoy seeing it again and applaud your accomplishment.

Refreshments will be provided.

Guests are welcome, no fee tonight.

October 22, 2025

Program: Quilting with Rulers and Trunk Show

Debbie Wesenberg and Bobbi Butler

Debbie Wesenberg and Bobbi Butler will give a lecture and power point presentation on quilting with rulers. They will also present a trunk show of their quilts.

Debbie and Bobbie are a wonderful team of inspiration and education, and have been traveling to many guilds sharing their techniques for ruler work. Debbie designs and laser cuts quilting rulers. Her rulers come with patterns that showcase the versatility of these tools to make endless designs.

You will leave this evening motivated to add another skill to your machine quilted projects.

  • Machine quilting with rulers—also known as ruler work—is a technique that allows quilters to achieve precise, consistent designs using a domestic or longarm sewing machine. By guiding specially designed acrylic rulers, along with a ruler foot, quilters can stitch straight lines, curves, circles, and intricate motifs with control and accuracy that’s difficult to achieve with freehand quilting alone.

    This method bridges the gap between the freedom of free motion quilting and the structure of walking foot quilting, opening up a world of creative possibilities.

    Whether you’re aiming for modern geometric patterns or elegant traditional motifs, ruler quilting offers a powerful toolset to elevate your quilting precision and polish.

November 19, 2025

Lecture: The Quilter’s Journey of a Lifetime: From quilt Educator to Fabric Designer

Michael Nardi

Michael Nardi, quilter, pattern maker, published writer and teacher, will share his experiences with the ways the craft of quilting impacted his life. Join us to hear about his journey with quilting.

Please note that this meeting date is earlier to allow for Thanksgiving.

  • Like most people, my sewing journey started when I was seven years old. my grandmother put a needle in my hand and began to teach me everything she knew about sewing by hand. I learned how to sew by hand using my coloring books. She would tear out a page and make me sew in the lines practicing stitch length.

    Throughout the years I have worn many different hats trying to find my place in this wondrous world. Thirteen years ago I was lost. I was starting over for the first time in my life, having lost everything (talk about a complete failure of my life). I was lying in bed crying, trying to figure out what I wanted to do during what at the time felt like the darkest moment in my life. I was surfing YouTube when I discovered Jenny Doan from Missouri Star Quilt Company! It was her ultimate quilt binding video. You know that moment in your life where God just puts someone in your path to make things click for you? Well, she was my moment! The crying instantly stopped, and two hours later, video after video, I had a plan.

     The next day I went to Joann Fabrics on Elston Avenue to sign up for a “learn to sew” class. At this point I had never used a sewing machine in my life! I went on to take more classes, and quilting became my whole world! I was so successful that my mentor Marilyn Baker, who was the Education Director, hired me as her Assistant Education Director only eight months into my training. She taught me everything I know when it comes to using a machine to sew. Thanks to Jenny Doan and Marilyn Baker, two of the strongest women I know, brought me out of my darkness. I owe my success to them!

    Thirteen years later, I'm a pattern writer, I have been published and continue to be published for my quilt pattern, and I'm a successful quilt instructor. Who knew that an Italian boy from the south side of Chicago would end up where I am? I thank God every day for shining his light on me through this amazing craft. Someone asked me once why quilting and I said, "Because through quilting I found myself again."

January 28, 2026

Program: Schoolhouse Demos

Schoolhouse Demo night is an annual favorite for all Faithful Circle Quilters. For this evening’s program, four or five member volunteers will each teach us a quilting-related technique or share a few sewing tips. The presentations are planned to make the demonstrations go smoothly.

This year, we are going to back to presenting this program via Zoom. Note the empty classroom in the image. We will not meet in person that night, but rather through your phones, iPads or laptops.

Details are not available for the presentations yet, but check back here for updates and information as it’s available.

February 25, 2026

Program: My Creative Adventures and Mistakes

Kennette Bledsoe

Kennette Bledsoe has been a Faithful Circle member since 2016. She learned to knit at the age of 13, and from there she was hooked on all forms of creative hand work. Kennette was a weaver for many years. She also learned to do crewel work, gel printing, quilting, embroidery, and pottery.

When she was weaving, Kennette’s one claim to fame was selling her items at local art fairs. Illinois House of Representative Diane Nelson purchased one of Kennette’s items. Some months later, Rep. Nelson sent Kennette a note wanting her to know that Diane had worn Kennette’s item at the White House earlier that day.

Kennette has many other wonderful stories to go with the many items she will share with us in her talk. She is a very prolific quilter and knitter. For her, it’s the process of creating and making things that makes it all fun.

March 25, 2026

Guicy Guice

This program is in the planning stages. We look forward to having Giuseppe Ribaudo, better known as Giucy Giuce, present a great program.

  • Hi there! My name is Giuseppe Ribaudo, but I am better known as Giucy Giuce.  

    I grew up in Long Island, NY. First generation Sicilian-American on my dad’s side and second on my mom’s, my family lived on the bottom floor of my maternal grandparents’ house. My parents were restaurant owners and as such spent much of their time working, so my sister and I were often upstairs with my grandparents. 

    My grandmother is a remarkably talented and prolific seamstress. She taught me to sew in the Sicilian fashion, which is to say she would show me how to do something and I would have approximately 10 seconds to demonstrate that I had learned it perfectly before she’d abruptly pick me up and sew the seam herself. I never much cared for the finicky elements of garment making, so sewing took a backseat for a while. It wasn’t until I was in college that I discovered quilting. I began with sewing improvisational  quilts before moving into modern traditional territory. I joined Instagram shortly thereafter and quickly found myself making long distance friends in the ever-growing quilting community via social media. 

    After bouncing around the country for about a decade, I decided to move back to New York to pursue  a career in textiles. Within a few months of being in NYC I was offered a marketing position at Andover Fabrics and was promoted to multimedia manager a year later. In 2018, I refocused my energy to fabric  design and released my first collection Quantum. In 2021 I released my tenth collection called Nonna, an homage to my beloved grandmother and her home where I learned to sew. My most recent release, Sleuth, is the third and final collection in a true crime series I have dubbed The Gnarls Hollow Trilogy. 

    In 2020 I relocated to Portland, Maine where I continue to design fabric and patterns, lecture, and  teach quilting workshops.