July 2015

We met at Mary's house where paintings from Obie's Aunt Kathy Barieau were on display for viewing and selection.

Three new challenge tops were done and we had a discussion on borders with the conclusion to stick to the instructions which give a range for border size.

Mary's left, Joan's top right, Betsy's bottom right

Arleen and Marty brought work done in an EBHQ class on marbling.  Arleen had already cut and pieced her fabric into a quilt top!

Arleen's marbled fabric quilt

Marty had two other samples

Arleen had also quilted and bound her wool quilt which is entered into PIQF.  Check out the binding and see if you can tell why the Force is with her!

Betsy had been working with half square triangle quilts and has a baby quilt (auditioning the turquoise border)

a "nose to toes" quilt,

and Big Blue, a queen sized quilt.

Marty brought a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt that she hand quilted.  The quilt top was one her mother had and the setting is the Garden Path.

Here is a detail of the hand quilting.

Mary has been quilting the baby quilts and is now binding one that has lovely circles quilted into the border.

June 2015 meeting

We met at Joan's house this month and had a great time.  Here's a link to the potato chip cookies she served that everyone loved--http://ericasrecipes.com/2013/04/potato-chip-cookies/.

Next meeting at Mary's house (come prepared to pick out some paintings to take home).

I took pictures on my phone and not all turned out great.  Here are the acceptable ones.

A Grandmother's flower garden quilt Joan had that she brought out to show Betsy how the edges can be finished and the quilting pattern.

Arleen's quilts, this one based on an alteration to a pattern in the Quilter's Newsletter.

Quilting detail on Arleen's quilt

Deanna's latest baby quilt

Joan's quilt with a French braid border and dragonflies painted in the center block.  She "quilted the heck" out of the border. 

Joan's sherbet quilt paper pieced, and now quilted.

 Joan's three pieces so far in the volcano series

 Another quilt by Joan

 Marty's house quilt made a while ago.

And another quilt by Marty

And Marty's "test" quilt for our challenge due in September.

Betsy had two baby quilt tops made, the first a Missouri Star block

May 2015 photos

Marty suggested a challenge that we all participate in to have completed for our September meeting.

Create a Harmonic Convergence quilt using directions by Ricky Tims that Marty got at the Silent Auction.  Use your own colors and follow the size given in the directions which have been distributed by email to the Quilt Therapy members.

Here are photos from the May, 2015 meeting at Betsy's house.

Marty's bear from the Sue Rasmussen class

Mindy was selected to test this Sugar Candy quilt for a designer who lives in Germany. You can follow the designer at ellisandhiggs@blogspot.com

An abstract from Bobbie

A paper-pieced quilt from Joan

Arleen's tumbling blocks

Mary's baby quilts--turtles

And foxes

 And quilting detail on the last baby quilt from Mary

Betsy was finishing UFO's so had a lot to show
Hand applique blocks finally turned into a wall hanging

 Quilting detail of work by Melissa Quilter

 Hand applique now a wall hanging

 And from the silent auction, the Grandmother's Flower Garden block that are being sewn together for a queen sized bed quilt.

We had a fun January meeting at Marty's house and a delicious dessert. 

There was quite a bit of discussion about hooking and stripping (remember it WAS a fun meeting) and we had show and tell, including getting to see photos from the wedding of Deanna's son.

And, while eating that dessert, we managed to discuss and agree on our 2014 challenge.

Here are what my notes reflect as the Challenge rules:
1.  Each will make a 18" square quilt and have it finished by our Sept meeting.
2.  Sandy will purchase the challenge fabric and distribute to each Therapist at our Feb meeting a fat quarter (for which we will each reimburse her).
3.  The challenge fabric must be use in the quilt and the amount of the fabric used must be sufficient to easily discern that it is the challenge fabric.
4.  These quilts will be entered as a group for the 2014 Alameda County Arts Quilt show.

I've created a new page for our blog called "Links" (such inspired naming!)  Joan got this started by sending me a link for True Up.  I like the idea of collecting sites we find useful in one place, thus the new page.  Feel free to add your own suggestions to the page.  We can also add links for tutorials or techniques that we use and don't want to lose. B

Inspirations and Challenges

At July's meeting, I shared two inspirations from a January 2012 issue of Sunset magazine.

The first was a large scale painted pattern on the wall by a San Francisco artist, Tim Balon.



He started with a simple modular motif. The article showed in altermate arrangements and colors. This would make a great modern quilt block and offer further possibilities with seam placement. 

Print a copy of the article from here or here and the template here. Or maybe you'd be inspired to create your own block.

The other article highlighted a painting - a modular block repeated to make a cross-weave pattern - 

here


Arleen has taken on the challenge of interpreting this as a quilt top. Maybe we'll see her take on this at the next meeting. Anyone else game?

July Quilt Therapy 2013

We had a fun meeting last night   We had company for the beginning of the meeting as Joan's cat checked us out.

A little fashion show of shoes from Hotter (http://www.hotterusa.com/en-us/info/Women) by Ellen.

And delicious fresh fruit with cheese and crackers for refreshments.  Joan had every fresh fruit in season and perfectly ripened.

And quilts, of course, and other inspiration.  Here are a few photos from last night.  And here is the link for the pattern Joan used for using her jelly roll strips.

Plus ideas for a possible challenge or two.  One to benefit the SJ Quilt Museum with "food" as a theme--we decided last night to participate.  The quilts will be auctioned off to benefit the museum.  Here is the link to the info:   http://sjquiltmuseum.org/files/TastyTooFibershots_CallForEntries.pdf

It was suggested we do another challenge with the idea of submitting the quilts to the Alameda County show this fall as we have done the past 2 years.

So bring your ideas to the August meeting.  We had previously determined that August would be a lunch pot luck at Mindy's on August 17, Saturday at noon.