June 2021

It was a smaller group this month at Betsy's house....but we had a great time.  And the weather cooperated with not being too hot, so a fan was sufficient to keep things comfortable.  Marty, Arleen, Deanna, Joan, and Mindy all brought quilts to show and share.

Next meeting will be at Mary's house with Joan serving as the backup location if Mary can't host.

Marty quilted a very large quilt on her newish sewing machine and did a great job.  She used the aboriginal sashing print as inspiration and did a gentle wave design.

And she has a wonderful dragonfly print as the back.

Marty also used some sweet fabrics from her stash to make a baby quilt for the guild.

And Marty had two lone robin tops that she isn't quite sure what comes next.  Of course, we all encouraged her to add more rounds....but we shall see what happens.

Arleen is trying to decide how to quilt the borders of her quilt.  There were several suggestions and we hope to see what she does at the next meeting.

Arleen is also now making lovely buckwheat pillows with a removeable cover that will be available to buy at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco.

Arleen showed what she did with some of the leftover Kaffe stripe shot cottons.  Betsy has some of the same/similar Kaffe stripes that she won't use and once she can find them will give them to Arleen for her to work her magic.

Deanna now has no cast and is doing therapy for her dexterity.  She drove herself and is back to sewing.  She has made two microwave bowls, one for her and one designed for her husband.

Joan showed a quilt that, I think, she said will be gifted to someone.

 

Betsy showed off the wonderful quilting of Melissa Quilter on two tops she had shown before.  The first is an English Paper Pieced quilt where she wanted the hedgehogs to shine.  Melissa quilted feather wreaths around them.

The second quilt has Tim Holtz fabrics and Betsy calls it her Graffiti quilt done during Covid.  She asked Melissa to do graffiti quilting with words of hope worked in.  Love the results.

Betsy made a batik throw and used it to practice her free motion quilting skills.

Betsy continues to be obsessed with EPP and has finished the Polar Stars quilt top.

And she has started a new EPP quilt called Mishchief.

One of Betsy's sisters-in-law has a family member who will be having a baby soon.  A great excuse to make a baby quilt.  This one uses Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric.

Mindy is working on a round robin.  The top is really cute and Mindy has many batik fabrics that came with the top to choose from, or she can add something from her own stash.

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.