January 2017 meeting at Marty's

The rain let up for our meeting at Marty's.  Mindy, Barbara, and Sandy could not join us this month.  We will meet next month at Bobbie's house.

We discussed our next challenge and it was changed from the black and white with a color option, to making a piece inspired by the word "Doors."  The piece can be no larger than 24 x 36 inches and we will have the pieces completed by our September meeting so that we can enter them as a group in the Alameda County Arts show.

Here's what we saw at this meeting.  Several people had been to a retreat at Bishop's Ranch recently and were very productive there.

Mary has completed her rooster from Ann Shaw's class.  The facing is pinned ready for completion.

She also worked on several other quilts at the retreat.  Playing with the quilting design was one goal for the quilt with the large gray squares below.  The quilting also enhances the back of the quilt nicely.

 The sashing on this one takes a quilt made with blocks of "created fabric" up to a new level.

Joan has been on a trip to New Zealand and Australia (I hope I got that right) recently and was knitting with some yarn she got on the trip.  It is made from the brushtail possum.  Very soft.

And she brought back a nice selection of fabrics from the trip.  Love the sheepdog in the middle of the sheep.

Joan also participated in the recent EBHQ workshop by Bobbie Berquist working with Tsukineko inks and Fabrico pens to color fabric.

And she continues on with her English Paper Piecing flowers.

Deanna also participated in the Bobbie Berquist workshop and brought her many class projects.

Another retreat attendee, her bear quilt is now quilted and almost ready to hang.

Arleen has created another magical quilt from a photo she saw in the Feb/March 2015 Quilter's Newsletter.

It has many partial seams and is a happy wonderful quilt.

And with fabrics for a community quilt, Arleen drafted her own hexagons to be the size needed to show off the fabric for this next quilt.

Betsy did not attend a retreat, and brought only one quilt to show.  Based on a quilt top that Lisa Doyen brought to Bay Quilts, Betsy used her Cherrywood Fabrics scrap bag and made a lap quilt for her to enjoy.  The sashing and backing are made with Marcus hand dyed muslin.

Bobbie showed an interesting piece that she called her scraps piece  Love the motion to this one.

And Marty has been struggling with the tension on her new Janome.  While identifying some spots that needed to be redone, she showed this great wallhanging that uses a variety of Asian fabrics.