May 2021

We met at Marty's house this month.  Mary and Mindy were not able to join us.  

Marty suggested a field trip to see the Rosie Lee Tompkins exhibit for our June meeting.  Here is the link to the BAMPFA exhibit.  https://bampfa.org/program/virtual/rosie-lee-tompkins-retrospective

If we decide not to do the field trip, a reminder that Mary had offered to host the next meeting at her house.

Joan brought a lovely gold, brown, and green quilt.  The second photo of the quilting detail shows the colors much better.

Joan's second quilt was her round robin quilt.  Joan did the center, then added the bars and outer border to get a quilt to the size she preferred.  The photo of the back shows the quilting a bit better.

Joan showed a one block wonder.  The first photo shows the back fabric which was the one used to create the front blocks.  The narrow purple and black inner borders and larger green grunge outer border really let the blocks shine.

Arleen has been quilting her McDowell fish quilt.  She wants to change the fabric eyes to button eyes to give them more dimension.

Arleen saw a picture of her next quilt and drafted the pattern.  She wanted to use some fabric she had purchased at a quilt show combined with Kaffe stripe fat quarters that she had.  In a new, modern way, this is an "Arleen" quilt.

Betsy had her Patchwork of the Crosses quilt using black, red, and white fabrics.  Melissa Quilter had quilted it with wreath feathers around the hedgehogs and curving feathers around the border.

Betsy's addiction to EPP continues with two more quilts.  The blue and white one is the same pattern Joan showed last month--Everyone is Different but Everyone is a Star.  The purple and orange one is the Star Mandala pattern.

Betsy doesn't normally use panels, but this panel by artist Ira Kennedy from Texas caught her eye when she saw this pattern demonstrated on the Jordan Fabrics tutorials YouTube channel. She created the window panes and added the border using complementary fabrics.

Deanna brought her red, black and white wall hanging (which Marty very much wants her to put in the Marketplace at the next VIC.  Joan suggests that Marty wants to buy it!).  The second photo shows the variety of patterns used for quilting.

Deanna also had a one block wonder to show.

The back shows the quilting in better detail, including lines of a pink polyester thread.

Marty showed a couple of cute baby quilts.  The quilting on the bicycle quilts really suggests motion of the tires.

Marty also showed this needlework piece that she has finished.  The second photo shows the back  which is almost as neat as the front......not surprising but really amazing.

Marty also had this lovely blues and oranges quilt out of Japanese fabrics.  The straight line crosshatch quilting works well.

Sandra finished assembling the quilt top from the individual blocks each of us made for the Bee Sewcial quilt.  It looks fantastic.  She had some blocks left over.  Arleen has volunteered to make the back for the quilt using these leftover blocks and leftover fabrics that were given to Sandy when the blocks were sent.

April 2021

Finally, with vaccines and meeting outdoors, Quilt Therapy met for the first time in over a year in the backyard of Joan's house.  Unfortunately, Deanna was not able to join us as she had  broken her  wrist and also had a cold.  She was missed but I took a lot of photos to make sure she saw what we had been working on.

Joan had a lovely iced tea and ice water to drink (it was a delightfully warm day) and a variety of power bars to munch on.

Because there are so many pics, I will not go into much detail about the quilts (and my memory for such details has atrophied over the past year!)

Next meeting is at Marty's house on May 21. 

Mary (with her new haircut) brought 5 quilts all made from the same selection of scraps she had acquired, thus, working in a series.

 

 

Mindy has been busy being a new grandmother and mother-in-law.

Bobbie has made a bathrobe and several quilts as gifts.

Front

Back

Front

Detail

Sandy took a class in learning to create curves using freezer paper.  While sbe didn't love the preparation process, she does like the results and will probably make more.  Here are three versions.

 

 

Second top (look for the red)

 

 

Third top (pinks)

Joan has been busy too.  This flower basket quilt was quilted by Melissa Quilter.

Quilting detail

An English Paper Pieced work designed by Willnye Hammerstein.

Detail

 

 

Using her Provencale fabrics, another English Paper Pieced quilt. 

And another EPP quilt, Fruits de Mer, a Hammerstein pattern.

 

Made with some Stonehenge fabrics--front

Back

Art quilt--sea scape

Window as seen in Burano, Italy.

 

 

Arleen got a Ruth McDowell book when Bobbie downsized and made this fish quilt with flappy fins from one of the patterns in the book.  Fish are made with Kaffe fabrics.

The border fabric was made in a surface design class by Arleen.

What we call an "Arleen quilt" here is another colorful creation which she said she has been working on for two years.

Marty has been busy too.  Here is a sweet quilt made with a retro style print.

Better view.

 

 

From her organized scrap bin of fabric, Marty has put together this delightful quilt.

 

 

With lovely colors of blues and oranges, this quilt is primarily Japanese fabrics.

Back

and one more.

Arleen and Marty

Betsy has also made many quilts in the past year.  This black, white, and red one is English Paper Pieced and has sheep and cats scattered around.

 

 

Cityscape.  I don't usually work with panels but loved this one and its colors.

 

 

Another English Paper Pieced top, baby quilt size.  This is the same Fruits de Mer pattern as Joan's quilt posted above.  Good for seek and find.

Started well before Covid, the borders are finally on ready to be quilted.  This was a challenge to use the focus fabric I had only a small piece of and then only use fabrics in my stash.

 

A fabric came into the store that I really liked.  It is by Tim Holtz and the colors and prints were appealing.  This queen sized quilt is the result.

Detail

I had made a lap sized quilt out of this pattern and really liked it.  I decided to make a queen sized quilt in my colors, but am less than delighted with this outcome.  I think maybe the background fabric is too distracting.