June 2023

 We met Wednesday June 14 at Deanna’s house just as Deanna was cutting some of her roses to place in a vase for todays meeting.  This month only four of us showed up as Joan, Bobbie, Sandy and Mindy were not able to make it this day.  The next meeting will be the second Wednesday on July 12 at Marty Suess house. Marty has some books from Gay Perry’s estate that she wants to share with us.  Since Sandy is not available, Arleen is typing this blog post.  Please let her know if you see any corrections or would like to add anything.  Here is a picture of Deanna’s lovely roses.

Deanna started us off with some blocks she made.  The pattern comes from Missouri Star quilts.  She has been grandchild sitting and was lucky to be able to finish the 20 blocks as the kids have been keeping her busy.  Although the video was free, she decided to buy the pattern at 4.95.  Unfortunately, there were a lot of mistakes and omissions in the pattern, so she ended with a lot of notes on the pattern.  You’re encouraged to buy the 10” fabric pack from the Missouri Star, but she added some of her batiks that matched.  We had a lot of fun moving the blocks around to make different patterns.

Marty was next and showed off a scrap quilt she finished from scraps left at the Tuesday drop in from none other than Joan. What a coincidence.  The colors look like Joan too.  Marty made 4 patch squares and appliquéd the center hexagon in the center square.  She quilted the baby quilt in a simple grid used some of the green in the binding.  Very nice.  She is thinking of donating it to Community Quilts.

Mary’s quilt has grown to a queen size.  She used up all the grunge and focal fabric and went to all 3 quilt stores looking for more. She ended up making borders with what she had.  The border is a square in a square pattern.  Mary is going to send it to a long arm quilter to quilt.

Arleen showed a Shutterfly photo book she made documenting some of the quilts she has made over the years.  She has given 8 of her quilts to family members and decided to make the book to help her remember who got what.  She also showed the latest quilt she is making.  It is a Star of the East block, set in an original design.  Using 2.5 inch Shibori Blues roll up and leftover blue fabric she tried to make another Asanoha Hemp leaf pattern.  The piecing is difficult, but the pattern looked too good to stop.

Although Mindy was not able to make it, she sent photos to share with us.  She wrote “The hexi flowers, all of the flowers are sewn on…next will be the leaves.  My round Robin I have made a border with a nine patch and pinwheels.

Thanks for sharing Mindy.  If Joan, Sandy or Bobbie have any pictures they want to include, send me a message and I’ll put it on the blog like Mindy.  We ended our small group with a lovely Strawberry shortcake and Vanilla Ice cream.  Thanks Deanna for the lovely desert.

May 2023

 We met Wednesday May 10 at Marty’s house on a beautiful spring day with the sun shinning.  This was the first time meeting on Wednesdays and even with the best plans, only 4 members were able to make it.  Drs appointment, a trip, a cold and other commitments prevented Joan, Bobbie, Sandy and Deanna from attending.  The next meeting will be the second Wednesday on June 14 at 130 at Deanna’s house.  Since Sandy was not available, Arleen is typing this blog post.  Please let her know if you see any corrections or would like to add anything.  We started off with a selfie.

Mary started us off with a quilt that she completed.  She found blocks that she put together and quilted herself.

Here is a closeup of the quilting.  She decided to put extra zigzag quilting in between the lines.  Very effective.  Her quilting is getting better and better.  She made up her own designs that match the area being quilted.  This is a picture of the back.

Mary took Bobbie’s pattern and started another quilt.  I think she found the focal fabric and all of the surrounding fabrics from Bay Quilts.  As a reminder, sign up for the anniversary picnic.

Arleen showed pictures of rag rugs and crocheted bedspreads that she found in her Moms house.  Using these as inspiration, I decided to try making a rag rug. I used scraps and a bias tape maker to try my hand at a rag rug.  Unfortunately it’s not turning out like Moms.

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This is a picture of a quilt top that I finished quilting.  I think they are all Marcia Derse fabrics.  The pattern for the block is a new pattern that I made. I have been trying to make an Asanoha hemp leaf pattern.  I think Mary suggested I try to write up the pattern, but it seems like too much work.

Mindy showed the flower blocks that she made recently.  She also showed two round robin quilts that she is working on.  Unfortunately, I can’t show them because of the rules.  They were very nice.  We noticed that the improv quilt was much smaller due to the fact that instead of 4 sides, some people were only doing 1 side.

Marty did the binding on Bobbie’s quilt. Here is a picture of the front of the quilt which shows the machine binding done from the front.

Marty also finished the quilting on this Chinese coins quilt.  The closeup photo shows how she quilted it.  She bought a walking foot for her new machine and used the bar attachment to help her make the radiating lines.  The first line came from a plate that she used to draw the circle.  She used two corners to make the radiating lines.

This last photo shows the quilt she made from Bobbie’s pattern.  Marty put it on the wall in her living room to see how it would look.  She thinks the orange might clash with her rug so it may not stay there for long.

We ended with a lovely Almond Cake that Marty made.  Although our friends were missed, we realized that even as a small group we had a lot to share.

April 2023

The meeting planned for March 14 was cancelled because of the stormy weather.  We met at Joan's on April 11 minus Arleen, who was returning from Hawaii that day.  Joan served a delicious fruit salad with lemon sorbet.

QT's second Tuesday of the month schedule was discussed for possible change.  It has conflicted with other activities for one or two people and was especially problematic for Joan because of her commitment to EBHQ's Tuesday drop-in.  The final consensus, including consultation with Arleen, is that Quilt Therapy will meet on the second Wednesday of the month starting with May 10.  That meeting will be at Marty's and will begin at 1:30pm.  Deanna volunteered to host the June meeting.

Thanks for sending me your text suggestions to accompany the photos from the meeting.  If you'd like to add more info or make corrections, please send to me via email.

MARTY:

Marty's batik square-in-a-square is now finished, quilted, bound and labeled.  

This beautiful quilt is Marty's version of the original square Bobbie designed.  Marty asked for quilting suggestions, keeping in mind she does not do free-motion quilting and the result will likely be diagonal lines.

DEANNA:

Deanna's kept herself busy in between caring for her grandchildren in Texas.

BOBBIE:

This is the front and back of the quilted bedspread Bobbie made for her Great Granddaughter.  Marty volunteered to do the binding.  Bobbie is very grateful!

MARY:

Final views of the sports-themed quilt for her grandson:

This quilt seems huge, and Mary's quilting is amazing!  This next piece is an older project Mary's pulled out to quilt.

JOAN:

The latest EPP quilt  top is complete and now at Melissa’s.  All the print fabrics were from Joan's stash which she hasn't dented, so she’ll continue to work at reducing the pile.  The pattern is called Tula’s Bloomers. 

MINDY:

Her latest round robin project: 

Her new studio space:

And she continues to work on the beautiful EPP flower project:

                    

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JOAN:

The English paper-pieced quilt top is complete and now at Melissa’s.  All the print fabrics were from Joan's stash which she hasn't  dented, so she'll continue to work at reducing the pile.  The pattern is called Tula’s Bloomers. 

MINDY: