December 2022

We gathered on Saturday, December 17, at Mindy’s for our annual holiday potluck and gift exchange.  Everyone was present, and we feasted on delicious food and did our usual White Elephant game with the gifts.  Thanks to Mindy for hosting and letting us enjoy her amazing holiday decorations.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, January 10, at 1:30pm at Bobbie’s.  She asks that we come prepared to shop from her extensive fabric stash.  She’ll be moving to a smaller apartment soon, and the more we buy, the less she’ll have to move.

In addition to feasting and gifts, we also had our usual Show and Tell.  Joan started us off with this gorgeous teal/green two-sided queen quilt.  She reports she was attracted to the Kaffe Fassett floral fabric just because.  Then she went through her stash and found complimentary fabrics which read as solids but had subtle, small prints. She bought the last of the bolt from Bay Quilts, but it turned out not to be enough, of course.  Very, very luckily, New Pieces also had it, so she was able to finish the front.  The back was made with leftovers from the front, and of course, she still has quite a bit left over.   She free-motion quilted this queen-sized project herself. 

Joan reminded us that she’s the featured artist for the January quilt show at Bay Quilts and asked for help with installation.  The opening reception is on Sunday, January 8, from 1-3pm.

Mindy's newest puppy was busy admiring everyone and everything.  He was particularly taken with Arleen's bag.

Arleen shared a checkerboard quilt inspired by the interior surface of her frying pan.

 

She’s also completed another top from the never-ending Kaffe scraps.  This latest one starts out as standard hexagons and then goes completely wild.

 

Mary finished the thunderbolt quilt for her 7-year-old grandson that she shared at our November meeting before the binding was finished.  The quilt’s now  in Seattle for his Christmas present.  Since then, she’s been quilting donation quilts for the guild.

 

Sandy shared two Piecekeeper Project Bags she made following ByAnnie.com’s instructions.  She also showed a new handbag she made using denim from her stash and the Hillside Tote pattern by Noodlehead.

Bag fronts:

and bag backs: 

Betsy showed her finished Homage to Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt which is English paper-pieced.  It was quilted by Melissa Quilter who made the garden "tiles" have purpose with the quilting and changed thread colors for the various flowers and leaves.  Betsy finished the edges not with binding, but by turning in the edges and hand stitching around to maintain the zig zag edges on two sides.  The backing fabric Betsy used seems the perfect choice.

Deanna shared a baby quilt she’s finished that she’ll donate to EBHQ’s community quilts project.

Mindy is quite happy with the finished Round Robin top that started with her teapot fabric square.  She liked the process and the result so much that she’s volunteered to be in charge of 2023’s Traditional Round Robin Challenge for EBHQ.

 

Mindy also showed four gorgeous Christmas stockings and reports that the snowflake stocking is going to another little girl who is her godson’s daughter.   The others were made during the Covid lockdown for John, Jena and Vawnnie.

 

Marty’s 18-inch square mini-Christmas Tree was based on a Youtube video she watched.  It uses 2" squares (2 3/8th" for the half square triangles) and off-set seams so it goes together very easily.  It did not make a dent in her Christmas stash.

November 2022

 Joan graciously hosted this month’s meeting and served a home baked Angel Food cake with whipped frosting and bananas. Everyone was present except for Sandy who was missed.  Surprise and behold Betsy came with the help of Mary picking her up. Yeah!

Mindy will host the December meeting on Saturday December 17 at 1200.  Bobbie  wants to host the January meeting so she can have a garage sale of fabrics to downsize for her move to a 1 bedroom.  The date is yet to be determined due to conflicts with Bishop Ranch attendance.

Marty started us off with her coins quilt with fabrics from her stash.  The back is a feathers pattern that matches the colors.

Joan showed off her paper pieced quilt which she got back from Melissa Quilter. This is a keeper.

Using up her stash of big flowers from Kaffe, Joan made this at her quilt retreat.  Beautiful.  Joan will be having a show at Bay Quilts of 20 of her quilts in the month of January. She will need help to hang them on Jan 3rd if QT members are available.  Richard has already planned the layout.

Mindy showed her last Round Robin quilt where she added the border.  She will get her round robin quilt on Sunday

The stocking is for her godsons family.  She recommended buying crystals from Fire Gems which is an online store.

Deanna showed “Texas Time” from Last Homely House the youtube show. She used a blue and a red Kaffe jelly rolls.  There were problems with one roll which was pinkered and didn’t match the other straight edge roll. The colors were gorgeous together.

Arleen recycled some old napkins to make pockets for her neighbors jacket.  She finally assembled her scrappy quilt which came out great.  I have plans to put a dark blue border.  The last quilt is an Improv quilt with different fabrics.  Unfortunately when it was washed, the red fabrics bled to the back.

Bobbie is working on her pods quilt.  She is using velvet and silk and it is driving her crazy.  All the tiny pieces.  She purchased some silk thread from PIQF.  I think it is 100 wt.

Mary is working on the binding of her Thunder Bolts and Shields quilt for her grandson.

Betsy’s Friends Quilt with hexes is inspired by the Last Homely House.  She started off with all Kaffe fabrics but towards the last rows added other fabrics.  She is on her last row and plans to hand stitch the border. Amazing hand work.

The Roberta quilts at PIQF may be part of a traveling exhibit with the Mancuso shows.  Mary M hasn’t decided.

Volunteers for VIC 2024 have been signing up so it looks like most of the big positions have been filled.  Mindy signed up for a backup position. Mary, Joan and Bobbie are all glad to share their knowledge to the next round of volunteers.

October 2022

 Mary hosted our group on October 11.  Deanna and Betsy were absent.  Mary served a wonderful carrot cake, and Sandy brought chocolate zucchini cake to share with the group.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, November 8, at Joan’s house at 1:30. 

Obie was kind enough to photograph the curvy challenge pieces made by [clockwise starting upper left] Marty, Mary, Arleen, Bobbie, and Joan.  These will be submitted to EBHQ for display at the November Show and Tell meeting.

 

Mary has been busy.  She started us off with the finished giraffe quilt we last saw in August.  Mary’s quilting skills are amazing!

 Then she shared a couple of donation quilts.

 

Mary is now ready to quilt this stunner for her second oldest grandson who asked for a quilt with shields and thunderbolts.

 The back features a rainbow.

 

Marty created these two blocks using Bobbie’s original block design.  This is an excellent way to use these focus fabrics. 

Marty has also been busy with donation quilts.  The photos show front and back of one and the front of a second donation quilt.

 

And she’s finished the quilt composed of blocks on point that we saw last month.

 

The backing she chose to use definitely moves this piece into the category of a two-sided quilt.  She says she’s going to keep this one.

 

Mindy shared photos of her Halloween decorations at home as well as the current status of this colorful floral arrangement we've seen before.  [NOTE:  apologies, Mindy, if I’ve posted it upside down!]

Mindy’s EPP project is growing. 

 

Bobbie didn’t show anything but described her work to date on the backgrounds for her velvet and silk seed pods project.

 

 Joan shared her finished wall hanging using the gold and blue flowered handkerchief that displays the “resist, persist, dissent” quote from Justice Ruth Ginsberg.  We think Joan’s daughter will be delighted with this piece.

 

Arleen showed us the wood-handled rectangular bag she recovered.

 

She continues to play with the remaining scraps of Kaffe fabric in her stash.