April 2025

 Today we met on April Fools Day at Bobbie’s house.  The day started out stormy and windy but then cleared up and then drizzled then cleared up.  Luckily it was clear when we met at Bobbie’s house.  The brown door code wouldn’t work, but the garage door code was fine.  Unfortunately Marty, Alice, Sandy and Deanna were not able to join us.

Joan

 Joan started us off with two huge quilts. The first is the king sized quilt she is making for her son.  Most of the fabric came from her stash.  She sent it to Hello Stitch to have it quilted.  So far that makes 4 quilts for Greg.

The second quilt is called Sisyphus.  She paper pieced 16 point stars which she appliquéd on the green background.  Angie Woolman quilted this quilt. Nic.

Mary

Mary had one quilt and a story about another.  The first quilt was made for a friends 5 year old granddaughter.  She fussy cut flowers and used mostly purple fabric on the front and back.  She did her own quilting which came out very nice.

The story she had was of a quilt she made for Debra school auction.  She found out that Buffy Wicks won the auction and her quilt.

Mindy

Mindy has started three new projects.  The first is the start of red and white paper pieced hexagons which were so small.

The second project is a canvas that she has started to paint by numbers with acrylic paints. The company is canvasbynumbers.com.  She took a picture with Takeo, Jenna and Sarah and sent it to the company.  They printed it on canvas and supplied her with the acrylics.

She wasn’t going to participate in this years round robin, but when the modern robin was short by one person, she decided to join in the fun.  No pictures yet.

Arleen

I brought two quilts and a top.  The first quilt is the colorful stars surrounded by dark fabric.  This was given to Mindy who said she is going to keep it for herself.

The second quilt is the Hawaiian cotton polyester quilt made in the quilt block of the month.  This pattern is a shoo fly cut in a disappearing 4 patch.  Deanna found 21 fat quarters on the Wednesday drop in table and gave them to me. I went through my fabric and pulled out all my Hawaiian fabric.  The back is made up of my stash cut into 10 inch blocks.

The quilt top is similar to the first quilt, but the stars are the dark fabric and the surrounding is the colorful fabric.  This was a good chance to look through the fabric that I made in dyeing workshops.  Half of the fabric came from the donation table and half from my stash.  I still have to make the back which I’m going to make with my Shibori dyed fabric.  I’m so glad to finally use these fabrics.

Bobbie

Bobbie submitted her Pods quilt to Houston but hasn’t heard from them yet.  Her circuit board quilt has been quilted by Hello Stitch.  It’s coming together very nicely.

She has a new project that she is going to make for Samantha and John.  She decided to make the Junctions block.  She drafted the pattern and made the pieces in cardboard.  The block will finish at 24x14 with 6 across and 4 down.  They helped her by picking out some of the fabric in her stash that they liked.  Nice fabric. At first she thought the orange too bright, but we thought it would lighten it up.

Although our quilt friends were missing, the time flew by because everyone had a lot to share.  The SF Quilt Show, Social Security changes, Kaiser and OTC medicine, knees, cataracts, wills and …. Hopefully we’ll be able to catch up with our friends in our next meeting.  May 6 will be held at Mary’s house at 130.  We all enjoyed an apple pie and ice cream.  Yum. Thanks Bobbie for hosting.  I love going to your house.  I was able to stop by the JoAnns store.  I found two 14 inch pillow forms for Joan but they were only 20% off.  No batting except for the $199 roll which also has only 20% off.  4 left with no buyers.  They’re bringing in liquidation inventory, but all the thread and most of the quilting supplies are gone.

March 2025

 We gathered today at Marty’s house on a cool early spring day.  There were eight of us today with only Deanna missing.  It was so nice to have so many of us together that everyone kept talking trying to catch up on each others lives.  Hopefully Deanna will make the next meeting which will be on April 1 at 130 at Bobbie’s house.  The May meeting will be at Mary’s house.

Marty

Marty showed us her Quiltcon brochure and had three projects which she finished.  The first is from the EBHQ block party.  It is a disappearing 4 patch using a shoo fly block.  The block is 12.5 inches.  

The second project uses more 5 inch squares from Betsy’s stash.  She made another baby quilt of half square triangles, quilted and machine bound it.  So colorful and perfect for a baby quilt.  

The third project uses 1.5 strips from the donated fabric table.  They were sewn together end to end then cut and the strips sewn again.  With green borders and wavy quilting it came out very nice.

Bobbie

Bobbie had two projects that she wanted to show.  The first is Larrys Circuit board finished.  She found some nice circuit fabric and used it as a background.  She is going to have Hello Stitch do the quilting.  Her second project is the little stitches that she was working on.  She used raw silk as a background and is going to enhance it with more slivers of fabric, more embroidery and slow stitching.  The details are beautiful and the fabrics she uses are so exquisite.

Mindy

It was so good to see Mindy’s hexagon quilt. She plans on adding French knots, hand stitching and more leaves.  Wow.  It’s all coming together nicely.

Arleen

Deanna saw some Hawaiian and Japanese fabric at Wednesdays drop in and saved them for me.  I decided to try the block of the month and used the Hawaiian fabric for it.  I cut the fat quarters to 18 inch square and made the block which came out to 15.5 inches.  I hope to have enough for a bed sized quilt.  

My second project is a quilt that I saw on Instagram from @mingeimuseum.  Instead of black, I used dark browns.  I drew the block on a 10 inch square, then cut out the fabric using scraps from old projects.  I love using scraps, it is so satisfying trying to tame the fabric.

Joan

Joan came with a bag full of quilts.  She is on a mission to make quilts for her son and is well on her way towards her goal.  The first is the broken grid quilt that I made and gifted to Joan because she said it looked so cheerful.  It makes me happy to know that it will be loved.

The second pattern came from the Kaffe in Italy book.  It is made with Grunge and fabrics from her stash and will be quilted from Hello Stitch.

The third project is the snowball block.  She cut fabrics from her stash and made packets of snowballs that some of us helped her to put together.  All of the fabric came from her stash.  Marty came over and helped her with her machine. Amazingly it is a king size.  Perfect for her son Greg.

Alice

It was so nice to have Alice back in the group.  She brought her Anna Maria Horner quilt and two blocks that she made.  By the time she started the quilt, most of the fabric was no longer available so she had to pivot and find fabric that would fit.  Luckily she found two of Anna’s black eyed Susan fabrics.  Using that as the theme, she found a black eye Susan pattern on Etsy and made 4 of them for the center.  Very well done.

The frog pattern I think was inspired by Mary, so Alice found a fpp pattern of a frog and made it with felt eyes. Mary said her old quilt was washed so much that it was bleached and is falling apart.

The 16 star block was a study to see if she could do it and yes it came out well.

Sandy

Sandy passed around her phone with photos from Quiltcon.  She was so inspired by the show she took so many pictures.  One of her favorites was from @susanjlapham.  She had two projects to share.  The first is from the Cindy Griselda workshop.  She used the fabric and colors that she had chosen from another workshop.  Using these scraps, she sewed them together for Cindy’s class.  I think it was a success.  The details make it so interesting.

The second project is from Maria Shells Circles and Curves workshop.  It has braided curves.  I like it.  I want to try to make those braided curves.

Mary

Mary had two projects.  The first is a project she finished with quilting and facing the quilt.  I can really appreciate the quilting.  It is hard to do the free motion quilting.

The second is a twin size quilt made with purples and flowers.  It is going to her friends granddaughter.  She made the backing fabric with the leftover purple and flower fabrics.  I like the way she sized the fabric blocks according to the flower.  Nice.

As you can see, everyone had so much to share and so much to catch up with.  It was so good to see everyone.  Marty made us a brownie cake, sliced fruit and nice juice and tea.  Thank you Marty for hosting.

February 2025

 We met today at Joan’s house on a blustering rainy day.  Unfortunately, Bobbie, Mindy Sandy and Alice were not able to make it. Hopefully we’ll see them next meeting on a sunny warm day.  Marty graciously offered her house on March 4 at 130.  

Joan

Joan started us off with a new project that she wants to start for a quilt.  She is having trouble seeing the red marking line on the fabric and asked us to make the 4 corners of her block by sewing it on the diagonal.  We all received a ziplock bag of blocks to help her.  I am thinking of using the Hera marker to mark the diagonal and then sew it on the corner.

The second project is a king size 100x97. Huge.  I think she found the pattern in a Kaffe Fassett book that she received at the last meeting.  She found a nice backing at New Pieces and is planning to give this to Greg.

The third project was a mini group challenge that she had started a long time ago and decided to finish.  Good job it looks like the art quilts SAQA book that Deanna passed around.  She used machine appliqué and tsukineko inks to finish it.

Arleen 

I was next and had two projects to share.  The first is a disappearing 4 patch with the cuts made on the diagonal.  I had to try the technique when I saw Marty’s sample.  I used the owl fabrics from Betsy.  I cut the owl fabrics into 10 inch, 5 inch and 2.5 inch strips to make them into usable pieces. The quilt came out to 65 inch square.

The second project is the broken grid pattern in an orange and blue scrap fabrics.  Do you see the owls?  This came out to 80 inch square.

Mary

Mary was next and had 3 projects to share.  The first is a disappearing 9 patch pattern made into a baby quilt.  I love the quilting she did of hearts and swirls.

The second is the Monks Kettle.  She used tracing paper to get the wording and the kettle  just right.  I like the black background of all her black fabric.

The third project is a pattern for a grand piano.she decided to make the pattern at Bishops Ranch and it came out beautifully.  The pattern didn’t quite match the picture, but it came out all right in the end.

Deanna

Deanna has been working on two quilts for her grandsons who are 3 and 5.  She’s had the orange construction fabric for a long time.  If you look closely you can see all the construction fabric that she has found. Good job.

She described how she basted the quilts with Elmers school glue.  She used a paint brush sponge to sponge on the glue to the backing fabric and batting.  After finding out how long it was going to take to have the quilts quilted, she decided to quilt it herself.  The feel of the quilt was not stiff at all.  With the simple quilting and glue basting, the first quilt is already done and the second almost finished.

Marty

Marty had four projects.  The first is a baby quilt made from 5 inch blocks from Betsy’s stash.  With a pack of white and a pack of brights it’s perfect for a baby.

The second baby quilt came from blocks put on the giveaway table.  With two extra blocks of blue fabric she was able to complete the quilt in no time.

The third project is her garlic knots quilt.  It’s finished. Yeah.  Such a beautiful quilt with an interesting pattern.

The last project is a bird pattern that she got from Deanna.  She has already made 10 blocks.  She ran out of the white background and is starting to use other neutrals.  I’m very tempted to try this block.  It sounded so simple to make.

As you can see even though there were only five of us we had a lot to share.  We missed having all our friends together but look forward to our next meeting.  Safe travels to Joan, Richard, Sandy and Marty to Quiltcon in a few weeks.  I can’t wait to see your pictures and hear your stories.