May 2019

We met at Joan's house this month and were a small group.  Barbara is in Massachusetts with her daughter for a while, Mindy was out to dinner with George celebrating his birthday, Sandy was attending an art show where she had two of her paintings, and Arleen is in Hawaii.

We had a very light and delicious angel food cake with fresh strawberries for refreshments and were able to sit around her dining room table.

Next meeting is at Marty's house on June 6.

Bobbie has made progress on her India piece of dancing women and asked for input on whether or not to have each piece the same length by adding borders.  There was a wide range of conflicting opinions so Bobbie had the benefit of the variety of perspectives and will have to decide on her own.  We did agree that she needs to separate the pieces out with with a sashing strip between to let each piece stand on its own.

Without borders

Borders added at bottom of left and right pieces

Border top left and bottom right

Mary has been working on community quilts and brought the latest one she has quilted.

Quilting detail

Betsy has her quilting mojo back.  At 5 pm today, she picked up the quilt from Sue Fox and was able to trim and add the binding before the meeting.  The rounded scroll quilting offsets the linear lines of the quilt very nicely.  Once bound, it will be sent off as a gift for a friend's sister.

Betsy also has been trying out different quilting stitches on a log cabin style quilt (with owls in the center).

And Betsy has finished her English Paper Piecing stars quilt with a border.  She asked for suggestions on how to quilt this piece and Joan suggested treating each start like a flower and quilting in petals.

Now that Betsy likes EPP, she has started another piece using the Tula Pink Nova pattern.  It will be an owl themed quilt to use up collected owl fabrics.  The next round of the medallion are shown and the input from the group was that the quilt might get too dark and to audition a lighter fabric.

Deanna went on a quilt tour trip to the show in Paducah and had a wonderful time.  She brought some of the goodies she got on the trip, pulling them out from her bottomless bad, including a wool pressing mat.

She was able to benefit from big discounts and got Aurifil thread, a book, Superior titanium needles, a Havel's seam ripper and many other goodies.

Deanna and Marty both now own a Baby Lock Crescendo machine and have partnered to learn how to use it's many functions.  Deanna tried out some of the pre-programmed stitches to quilt this cute little number.

Detail quilting

Preprogrammed spiral

Marty has finished the quilt top using some of the freebie batik squares she picked up and has now decided this will be a quilt to go to her son.  She is in search of a backing fabric to go with this lovely earth-toned quilt.

Marty also put together some strips to make this cute little preemie quilt which she finished in the pillowcase method. (Apologies for the blurry photo.)

Joan has been adding units to her English Paper Pieced quilt top using the Moncarapacho pattern.  The colors are perfect to go with her new living room furniture and the tiny pieces make for a very complex quilt top.

April 2019

We met at Bobbie's place for our April meeting.  Some of us were a bit challenged about getting into the building (okay, me) but we arrived to a smaller group.  Bobbie served a delicious bread pudding with ice cream and Roger kept us updated on the score for the Warriors game.

Next meeting is at Joan's house on May 2.  And a reminder to think about, start, or finish your challenge quilt of "pear, pair, pere....."

Bobbie started off by showing us a quilt on her design wall, for which I neglected to get photos.  If any of you have a photo, please send it to me and I'll add it in here.

She also showed us her progress on her India pieces.

And a closer look at the quilting detail of one of the pieces. The cross hatch quilting really adds to the piece.

Mary brought her spectacular bargello quilt that she made for her daughter and son-in-law.

And here is the back, using a few of the leftovers from the front.

Mary also was working on a pinwheel style quilt that is very colorful and happy.

Joan brought this crazy quilt for us to see.  The quilt was made by Richard’s grandmother, Gertrude Jaedicke, from scraps from making clothing for her five daughters.

This detail of the quilt shows there is also beading on it.

Joan adopted some orphan Dresden blocks from EBHQ drop-in and is rescuing them.

And Joan continues on her English paper piecing of the Moncarapacho quilt in a beautiful subtle palette.

Marty also adopted some batik fabric squares from drop-in and is bordering each square for a dark/light combination.

Mindy is working on a quilt for the EBHQ community quilts.

And continues to make progress on her flower/vine quilt with her very tiny EPP hexagon flowers.

Deanna went on a stash clearing journey and made pillow cases out of some of the fabric she found.

Betsy made some progress on her EPP quilt, working from the center out.

March, 2019

So much rain this season!  It was nice to have a day without rain.

We met at Deanna's house this month.  Marty, Mary, Joan, Mindy and Betsy were there.  Deanna made a delicious cake with fresh strawberries for our refreshment!  Next meeting at Bobbie's place.

Deanna was kind enough to take photos of what we showed and to help me remember whose quilts were whose.   Thanks Deanna.

Marty showed how she had lined this shirt/jacket so that it was more suitable for cooler weather.  A most impressive job!  Even the sleeves are lined!

 

She had also taken some blocks that had been brought to drop-in and sized them, added one to make things even, and put on a beautiful border to create this wonderful quilt which she said she will donate back to EBHQ.

 

Deanna has a community quilt she is quilting, showing lovely detail.

Mindy continues to work on her English Paper Piecing with really tiny pieces to add more flowers and leaves to her trellis project.

Mindy is also rescuing this old quilt top, trying to repair where it has holes, and preserve it for the future.

Mindy is also piecing a top for the community quilt project.

 

Betsy decided to give English Paper Piecing another try and it seems to be going better this time.  Here is what she had completed so far. 

 

Betsy also completed this queen size lone star which will be quilted with feather wreaths in the light blue squares by Melissa Quilter if all goes well.  It will be a summer quilt for Betsy.

Betsy also used up stash fabrics to create "Zebra Crossing"--a lap sized quilt.

Mary showed a cute baby quilt with wonderful quilting of giraffes, an owl (Betsy's favorite, of course), monkey, etc.

Mary also showed a piece made from parts created a while ago and now combined into this lovely wall hanging.  Quilting in progress.

Joan has new living room furniture which, of course, demanded a new quilt in the lovely blues and green tones to coordinate.  This quilt was completed with a pillowcase edge, turned right side out, then quilted, and the open edge closed.

 

Joan also brought had a quilt top made from fabrics from long ago.  Each block appears to be set on point, but that look is achieved by sewing triangular shapes to each side of the floral square print.

February, 2019

We met on a cool evening at Betsy's house, missing Joan, who was at a quilt retreat at Bishop's Ranch.

Deanna took photos of the quilts we showed.  Next meeting is March 7, at Deanna's house.

Betsy showed the completed disappearing nine patch (black, white, gray, and raspberry) that was set on point with lattice sashing.  Matching pillow cases were made to go with this queen sized quilt which was made as a present for a friend's sister.

 

  

Betsy showed a second queen sized quilt that started as a donation quilt, but will end up staying in the family.  It is primarily a stash quilt.

Mary showed her finished bargello quilt top which is spectacular.  She made this primarily at Bishop's Ranch and it is a quilt for her daughter and son-in-law.

Arleen showed two quilts.  She decided to finally use some of the Japanese fabrics she has collected over time.  She chose a navy blue color to unite the variety of fabrics.

 
 Sandy had a quilt that she had shown last time she was down when she asked for input on which fabric to use for binding.  The one we all liked looks fantastic.  She was letting Betsy sew the binding (yeah!)
 

 Sandy showed a project bag that lets you keep the pieces of your project together, with the pattern in the front.

Sandy asked for input on different fabrics to include in her work in progress.  Can't wait to see how it develops. (and, yes, that is a new rug at Betsy's house).