August 2026

 Our meeting was at Alice's home and she served us a delicious array of fruit, cupcakes and honey-almond cashews. Sandy, Mindy and Susan couldn't make it to the meeting.

Deanna

My first quilt below was made from an ombre jelly roll that was Betsy's. Since I backed it with the turtle fabric I quilted it with a kelp design that I designed after looking at photos of kelp and kelp drawings on the internet. The second quilt used free fabric that I picked up at two different Open Quilting sessions. I outline-quilted the large animals, and quilted the rest in free-motion vines and leaves. The third quilt was made from a batik layer cake sewn into hourglass blocks. All of the quilts will go to the EBHQ Community Quilts.  

Marty

Marty shared her improv quilt that was inspired by watching Karen Lee sit at her sewing machine at Open Quilting piecing together scrap after scrap in what appeared to be random order. This is the result of scraps from her bin of blue fabrics and she notes that it took much longer to create than a planned quilt. The big, dramatic blue and white quilt is made from two layer cake precut packs that from Betsy Livak's stash. The floral quilt has green and white corner stones. The small quilts will go to the community quilts project. The big one still has to be finished.

 

Mary

A friend whose 2 grandkids have baby quilts Mary made asked if she would make a t-shirt quilt for her son’s 40th birthday. Turns out his birthday was a week after the ask! Mary told her the quilt might be ready for him for Christmas! Still trying to figure out how to quilt. Probably fairly simple wavy lines mostly with the occasional UC Irvine anteater and maybe a saxophone thrown in since these are all related to his time there in the band. 

Mary finished the doggy quilt for Debra’s friend’s baby. Mary’s granddaughter likes the back better!

Susan

I am enjoying my time on Oahu and even went fabric shopping here...I am just finishing my Wensleydale quilt top. Here is my photo.

Arleen

I used the yukata scrap bags to make this quilt called 100 yukatas. Not quite 100 yukatas as there are some duplicates.  Linda from Over the Blue Horizon unpicked the fabric from recycled kimono and then sold me the scrap bags of smaller sections.  Lots of seam ripping. The block is made of 6.5x8.5 center with 1.5x8.5 strips sewn on either side of the 6.5 to make a 8.5 inch block. 

I am also making baby quilts for donation.

Alice

The first is a Wensleydale quilt top I showed as a comparison to Susan’s version last month. It’s from the Jen Kingwell book “Quilt Recipes”. My version is foundation paper pieced.

The second is an English Paper Piecing project I revived from my “unfinished project pile”. I had previously given up after the blue row. I added the purple, teal and green rows for this meeting. A lot of little tiny stitches!

Joan

In commemoration of Joann's Napkin Quilt Marty gave Joan this napkin printed with a plate and utensils.

 

July 2026

 We met at Marty's house. There were 5 of us (Mary, Joan, Mindy, Susan, Marty) with Deanna, Arleen, Sandy and Alice missing. We shared stories about our health and well being and then moved into our quilt sharing. Our snack was carrot cake with cream cheese frosting; our continued conversation including some discussion of inviting some new people to join our group. Here are the photos from our meeting today.  August meeting will be at Alice's,  September at Mindys and October at my house....

Susan The 62 is mine which is a repair I am doing of my great Aunts 63 year old quilt.

60 is a couple of squares from the foundation paper Piece Wensleydale quilt I am working on.  

59 is the back of a quilt I started in 2008 and finally finished for my daughter...

58 and 73 are oucs of my front of the quilt (with my daughter).

55 is the front of my 4 patch Posey, 56 is a close up and 57 is the back.



Mindy

Joan The first quilt that I showed at our get together is called revenge of the napkins as you know I collected actually stole napkins from restaurants on trips that I took for several years they’re integrated into the into the motives. Actually, I got the idea of doing that from looking at what you were working on at our last meeting with Marty thanks to my husband who was able to cut things more accurately than I can now and my daughter who put made the yo-yos that went in the center of each one of the squares the front of it was in good shape in the back. I don’t know if Susan took a picture of it, but it has one full napkin that Richard bought for me at Tallia and West in Phoenix and it has a Frank Lloyd Wright design on it. It was quilted by Melissa Quilter. The yellow thing is the front of a very large queen size bedspread. I’m trying to use up my yellow fabrics and Richard and I just cut fabrics for the back of it and I still have a lot left over. Oh my goodness hopefully next month there will be a picture of it completed. 

Marty showed a whole-cloth quilt that she made in a workshop with Lucy Hilty in 1993 (and finished in 1995). She included this because Lucy was the subject of the presentation at the recent in-person EBHQ meeting. It was a fun process of designing, marking and hand quilting the piece and considering Marty chose too thick a batting, being a relative novice to quilting at that time, it ended up taking a toll on her right arm.

Marty then showed 3 donation quilts two of which were made using patterns that EBHQ has on their website and the third is a design that she likes that uses nine-patches with two different fabrics and a third fabric in the center square. These are all child size.

Mary continues the new kind of baby quilt with each one, this time dogs…

After her grandson got his bicycle quilt, Mary’s granddaughter asked for a dancer quilt.  Joan helped Mary with her color struggles (changed the hair color from blond to brown for a little more contrast in that part of the quilt among other things).

Arleen This is a Japanese Puzzle quilt  that I have been struggling to make. Without a dedicated sewing room I have to make do with my small space and my mom's old machine. Ugh. Lots of mistakes but I decided to just keep going. Don't look too close.

 

 

June 2026

 The June 2nd meeting was hosted by Joan.  There were five of us present, Joan, Mary, Alice, Marty and Mindy.  Sandy, Deanna, Susan and Arleen were not able to attend.  Joan served a wonderful dessert made from a recipe by Narsai David so you know it was delicious.   Our next meeting in will be at Marty's home in El Cerrito on July 7.

Joan shared that she and Rich were celebrating their 59th wedding anniversary the day of our meeting.  She did not have a quilt to share because it was out being quilted but we had a nice conversation about other topics.  It's always nice to catch up.

Mary brought a finished quilt of a large rabbit.  She had drafted the pattern based on another pattern that she had seen.  It is in lovely soft yellows and she did her usual, very creative, free-motion quilting.

Alice brought a geometric quilt top in bright solid fabrics that was quite interesting.  The pattern looks complicated but she broke it down so we could see that it was easier that it looks.

Marty brought 5 child/baby quilts completed using her own fabrics but using patterns that the DDCQP posts on the EBHQ.org website.  There was an announcement made at the May Tuesday Open Quilting session asking members to create children's quilts for the local hospitals so she went to work immediately.  Marty's process is to start with the back of the quilt and build the front using the colors on the back.

Mindy did not bring a quilt to show but we were happy to hear about her recent medical tests that hopefully will lead to her doctors finding a method of treatment for her.  It sounds like surgery is in her future but she hopes to gain some strength prior to that process.

Arleen I was not there, but wanted to share what I have been working on in Hawaii.  My sister in law Carol took me to a craft pop up and I was able to get some bags of scraps.  I made this child size quilt for my brothers friend. I tried to use up all the fabric from the bags.  I’m also trying to make the Japanese Puzzle quilt from the scrap bags that I bought from Over the Blue Horizon.  It’s hard.

If Alice, Mindy, Deanna, sandy or Susan want to send pictures of what they are working on, just take a picture and email it to me. It's fun to see what everyone is up to. And I love the pictures.

Susan wrote, Thank you Arleen... sorry to miss the meeting but I had a prior engagement.. .I have gotten my Circle Pizzazz back from the Longarmer and am finishing the binding. I am pretty happy with how it has come out.. Now I am working on my Foundation Paper Piecing of the Wensleydale.  I would also like to offer to have the meeting at my house sometime as well....

 

Deanna wrote, Thank you, Arleen.  I love everybody's quilts, but I don't have any photos to share.  I did finish one quilt and two baby quilt tops before we left for Texas, but haven't taken any photos.  Here in Texas I haven't been able to quilt as we are living out of boxes until the bathroom and the floors are finished.

Joan wrote, We had a lovely meeting on June 2. We were small but mighty I wish I had something to report from my work this past month. I did finish the revenge of the napkins quilt and Melissa Quilter has it to give it final touches. I’m working on a very large bed quilt but it’s taking longer than I thought. 

Hi Arlene. Hope you guys are doing well. Miss you. Turns out this quilt uses the same colors as my printer. Cyan. Magenta. Yellow. Black. White.

May 2026

 Although I wasn’t there the meeting was held at Mary’s house.  I think Sandy also could’nt make the drive, but Deanna was able to take pictures and send them to me. Deanna said Alice was not able to attend.  I’ll try my best to put together this blog post, even if I’m not there to share.  It’s great to see what everyone is up to.

Marty

Marty completed two DDCQP kits this month including one Chinese Coin pattern which inspired her to use some of the free fabric from Tuesday Open Quilting to make another Chinese Coin complete quilt.  She also brought the completed 3-Yard Quilt she showed last month as just a top so that she could show the quilting design she created.

Mary

This is Mary’s Vanity Square quilt made for Obie’s friend who wanted a craft themed quilt (previously shared with QT before it was quilted).  Mary couldn’t find many craft themed fabrics so she made it an arts and crafts quilt and added music and painting fabrics.  She brought it back today to share the quilting. She used up the leftover blocks on the back so she could be done with Vanity Square pattern for a good while!

Mary’s 8-year-old grandson told his mom he wanted to take down one of the quilts on his bedroom wall because he wanted a new one. Debra convinced him to measure some of the empty space on his wall so he could get another one instead of having to take one down. Then he decided he wanted a bicycle quilt; his dad asked if he wouldn’t like to have a dinosaur quilt but he was very insistent on having a bicycle quilt!  The quilting includes a bird, some clouds and some irises.

Susan

This is my Circle Pizazz quilt for my oldest son Nick. Learning how to sew curves. Will be adding borders then off to the quilters.

Deanna

The quilt on the left is a Bento Box quilt, re-sized to fit some 5" squares that were left over from a prior quilt, rather than the usual center that uses two rectangles.

The quilt on the right is based on an EBHQ children's quilt pattern, but the rectangles are of varying widths and the fabrics used make it an "I Spy" quilt.

Mindy

Arleen

I was able to finish the tshirt quilt for my friend Jon.  He was so happy to finally see the old tshirts made into a memory quilt.  He gave me a thank you note and some money. I stitched in the ditch with a walking foot and did free motion quilting on some of the T-shirts.

Joan didn’t bring anything but will be hosting the next meeting on June 2 at 130.  She is starting a black and white quilt and is in the middle of assembling it.  She is planning her Washington trip and this is a challenge quilt.