April 2026

 For the first time in a while everyone made it to the quilt therapy meeting at Alice’s house.  The stars aligned for all nine of us to meet and enjoy each other’s company.  With the warming weather and longer days hopefully Sandy will be able to make the drive, Deanna and I will be in town and everyone will stay healthy.  The May meeting will be at Mary’s house on May 5 at 1:30.

Arleen

I went first with three quilts.  The first was the quilt top from last month that I quilted in a circular pattern.  I started in the center with a small circles with free motion.  Then I switched to the walking foot and measuring arm on the foot to make 1 inch circles.

The second quilt was started in the Sarah Nishiura workshop.  I cut out a paper template to get the pattern for a circular quilt.  I was so happy to use my remaining Michael James Geometrics fabric.  I don’t know how old the fabric was but it was perfect for this pattern.  I also used Jennifer Sampous ombré fabric to make a border.  The bright colors brought out the colors in the older prints.  It was quilted with a 12 wt Superior lime green thread.

The third quilt is a t shirt quilt made from 20 volleyball shirts.  I backed it with interfacing and bordered it with the ombré fabric.  The bright colors made the old tshirts look brighter and almost new.  Some of the shirts were from the 80s.

Marty

Marty had 5 quilts to show.  The first quilt was quilted using a walking foot.  She read Leah Days book about walking foot quilting.  Starting in a corner she did a quarter circle arc, then continued the arc about 3 inches from the last. Another arc was started in the next corner.

The next quilt was the dark green flower quilt.  She quilted it on the diagonal with the walking foot.

The third quilt used fabric from Sandy.  The black and white animals on a teal background became the inspiration fabric for the laptop sized quilt.

The fourth quilt also used Sandy’s fabric to make the Vanity Square pattern.  She had a roll of 2.5 batiks.  She said it was hard to put together.  Mary suggested just make a lot of blocks and when you have enough put it together.

The fifth quilt top had some cheery animals on a nice background.  The hedgehog, racoons, foxes and bears looks like a perfect baby quilt.

Alice

Alice showed two quilts.  The first quilt is quilted with a walking foot.  She admits it’s easier when it is edge to edge.  She was happy to experiment with the straight line and serpentine stitches.

I think the second quilt was made with free motion quilting.  It is hard to see, but the rose quilting stands out on the plain fabric.  She is still experimenting with the ruler work.

Susan

Susan had two quilts to show.  The first used the blocks from the sewing class.  She added the three kitties on a pillow and a piping border that she learned in class.  It’s so cute. 

The second quilt still has two more rows.  It comes from a musical instrument fabric that was cut by stacking the fabric using a pin into the repeating motifs and cutting them in squares. It looks very psychedelic and very well done.

Mindy

Mindy is at it again with her tiny hexagon paper piecing.  This is going to take a long time.  She has to select the fabric, cut the hexagon, glue the paper piecing and then hand piece each together.

Her second project is equally tiny.  She is making tiny two inch pinwheels.  To me they are so tiny, I would have a hard time just threading the needle. Such beautiful handwork.

Mary

Mary had two quilts to share.  The first is a forgotten quilt top that she decided to finish.  She did walking foot quilting.  The back is made with some pretty llama fabric and pieced in fabric.  Nice.

The second is a planes and propellers quilt.  I love the quilting of clouds and  lines to show the planes path.  So creative.  Mary was inspired by Laura Lee Fritz books on free motion quilting and showed two of her books.  I have to get them. I can see how they will help my free motion quilting.

Joan

Joan had two quilts. She brought her finished crayon box quilt to show the quilting from hello stitch.  They did a really good job of I think is computerized quilting.

Deanna

Deanna worked on her twofer quilt with black thread to outline the black triangles and multicolored thread to free motion quilt.  She freehand quilted vines and leaves on the squares and border to perfectly balance the quilt.  This scrap quilt of Japanese brights is made with 5 inch squares and 3 inch squares sewn on one corner to make the triangle.

Sandy had no project to show as she is downsizing, sorting and figuring out as Maria Kondo says What Sparks Joy. As spring arrives, I know I am looking at old projects and wondering if I’ll ever do dyeing, stenciling, screen printing, indigo, beading again.  Too many fun projects that take up so much space. Thank you Sandy for sharing your fabric with us.  You brought some lovely pieces that we are all using with Joy.

March 2026

 We met at Marty’s house today at the top of the hill on a beautiful day.  There were only 6 of us with a new member Susan Roach and Mindy, Sandra and Deanna missing.  Susan is a longtime friend of Mindy and got to meet some of us at Bishops Ranch.  The next meeting will be at Alice’s house on April 7 at 130.  Mays meeting will be at Mary’s house on May 5 at 130.

Marty

Marty started us off with two quilts.  The first showed a backing that she got from Sandy’s fabric.  The front is a pieced top of 4 patch and 1 patch children’s quilt.

The second quilt uses Betsy’s fabric and Deanna’s Toothless twofer pattern.  She paired floral 5 inch squares and green 3 inch blocks to make the top.  She arranged the layout to make it offset.  I like it.  It looks very different from Deanna’s quilt.

Susan

Susan was next.she talked about taking classes at Mt Diablo. Her 4 patch Posey of 6 1/2 inch blocks are on her design wall at home so she couldn’t bring that.  She brought her finished color study of pink and green scraps.  Marty said it is a broken dishes pattern.  This will be a dolls blanket with  with a border and kittens. Sounds so cute.

Alice

Alice had one quilt and her ruler work sampler.  The quilt is a nice sized FPP dog in the center with little doggy portraits surrounding it.  Her use of bright cheerful fabrics just makes you want to smile.  You can see her rulerwork on the quilt.  She showed the book by Amanda Murphy Rulerwork Quilting.  She brought two rulers bought from Angela Walters.  She is following the online quilt university classes on rulerwork quilting.  I’ve tried this and was frustrated with the process.  She said you have to drop the feed dogs and go slow, holding the ruler with your left and quilt with your right hand. Hmm maybe I should try it again.

Mary

Mary made two quilts for Obies teacher.  She pulled out all the fabric she could find on tools and crafts, and made vanity square blocks.  The first quilt used purple fabric.  The second had more colors of vanity squares with a green and orange border. She’s going to love the quilts.

Joan

Joan bought a backing fabric named Parade by Annabel Wrighley from Bay qQuilts.  Unfortunately the photo of the backing was lost but it goes perfectly with the front. The EPP project uses crayon basic colors from Marty.  She hand appliquéd them onto a black background.  She cut up 1 inch squares and made a border of the small squares.  This is surrounded by another border of colorful squares than a red orange grunge fabric. Perfect.  I think it came out to 60 x 80.

Arleen

I brought 3 projects.  The first is a quilt made from the Hawaiian fabric that Marty gave me.  It is made from Hawaiian fabric that her sons mother in law gave her.  I cut it into half square triangles and tried to make it into a pleasing layout.  Hopefully she’ll like it.  

The second quilt top is a hand piecing project that I worked on during my trip in Hawaii.  It uses Kaffe Fassett stars surrounded by cream colored fabric and triangles.  

The last is a new grid pattern that I am making with Japanese fabrics. I bought the 2026 fukubukuro fabric packs from kimonomomo on Etsy and used most of the scraps to make the quilt top.  This is a picture of the top that I made in Hawaii.

It is so nice to be in the Bay Area.  You don’t realize how perfect the weather is here until you travel.  I am planning to spend more time in Hawaii and live in my parents house.  I realized when we got sick in Hawaii how nice it was to have family support us while we recovered from the flu and bronchitis.  So like Deanna, Larry and I will be going back and forth.

Marty made us a lovely Bundt cake of blueberries and frosting.  With the sliced strawberries, it was perfect. Thank you Marty for hosting us.

February 2026

 Februarys meeting was at Joan’s house.  I wasn’t able to be there because Larry and I caught the flu and were not able to get back from Hawaii in time.  We’re still stuck in paradise for another week.  Luckily Deanna took a lot of pictures and notes, so I’ll try to post something from those.  

Joan

Joan had two quilts to share.  The first is the unfinished quilt top from last meeting.  Looks like she has finished the quilting and it looks beautiful.  I love the blue colors.

The second quilt was made from the layer cakes and charm packs from Sandy. She has started in the middle and is free motion quilting it. The back shows the quilting better. Good job

Marty

Marty also made two quilts.  The first is a quilt top of a nice colorful four patch with two patches in a 9 patch. Made from Betsy’s fabric and Deanna’s pattern that uses a 20 fat quarter bundle and matching pink fabric. Unfortunately 4 of the fat quarters were so light, they fade away in the photo. clever use of simple blocks 

After participating in the monthly block challenge for 2 years the next step is to make a quilt top with the blocks.  The instruction for the blocks was to use black and white with a pop of color. A yard of black, white. And grey was used to piece the blocks together.

The third picture shows the backing fabric. Nice use of all the black and white fabric to tie it all together.

Deanna

Deanna’s first quilt was a partially sewn top given to her by Susan Dague at open quilting.  Deanna finished the top and quilted it.  The next two quilts have cute panels in the middle, Deanna added borders, did free motion quilting on the panels and walking foot quilting in the borders.  All 3 quilts will be donated to EBHQ Community Quilts

Deanna’s fourth quilt is from a Bento Box pattern, using leftover 5” squares cut from another quilt.  Surrounded by indigo rectangles. Most of the fabrics are Japanese.

Alice

Mary

Mary made 2 quilts.  The first one is a community quilt that I brought to show my quilting as we’ve been having lots of discussions about learning to free motion.

My second quilt is the back first and then the other photos are of the twin sized animal quilt I made for my friend’s grandson.  My granddaughter pointed out the majority of the backing fabric has a “Minecraft” feel.  Who knew?!

I brought the quilt back to the group so everyone could see the finished product.  Though I’d been thinking about having Hello Stitch quilt it for me, I went with the encouragement of our group in December and quilted it myself - lots of animals in the quilting.

 

I found the first quilt top hidden away in my quilt stash.  No idea I had it or when I made it but it must be mine as I recognize most of the fabrics, so I must have made it.

The final quilt I made from a photograph I took of the Alexander Calder sculpture “The Eagle”, which I took at the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle. It generated lots of discussion about whether I needed the artists permission to co”copy” his art.  I had tried to create all the background sky, shoreline, Pugent Sound water and walkway by piecing together scraps.  Gave up on that and went with small squares to give the feel I wanted.

Mindy

Our next meeting will be at Marty’s house March 2 at 130.