February 2024

 The rain started just as we all got to Deanna’s house. For the first time in a while, we were all able to make it through dark clouds, rain and a flat tire.  It was so nice to step into a warm and welcoming house filled with friends.  The next meeting will be at Marty’s house on March 13 at 01:30.  With VIC so close, I thought I would include a picture of the parking at the Kaiser Convention Center.

Joan

Joan just got back from Washington and showed the quilt that Melissa Quilter finished for her.  The beautiful fabric was enhanced by feathers,, swirls, leaves and flowers.

Alice

It’s a 13 lbs, 9 ounce baby girl. Congratulations to Mom and grandma.  Alice showed us a picture of her new granddaughter.  From her phone she also showed us a quilt in progress which is like a drunkards path pattern. It is a Norwegian pattern from Warm Folk which uses vegetable and fruit fabrics.  Nice.  She has finished her elephant quilt and has put it on the living room wall.

Deanna

Deanna has been very productive with 4 quilts.  The first was a pattern from Missouri Star which was quilted by Melissa and made from a layer cake with grunge fabric.  The second and third were quilts made with Tildas World fabric.  The fabrics are so soft with a nice hand.  The fourth was her Many Trips around the world.  She used binder clips that she got from Amazon for 5.99 for a pack of 100.  They helped to stabilize the binding which was machine straight stitched from the front and then blanket stitched again from the front. Very secure and very well done.

Marty

Marty had three quilts to share.  The first was a wall hanging that she made titled Memory of Japan 2023.  She used machine embroidery and is thinking of adding more embroidery.  The second quilt was made with some of Betsy’s fabric.  It is one of her favorite patterns of using a 4 patch next to a square. It makes a cheerful baby quilt.  The third quilt, also from Betsy fabric was a jelly roll of dotted almost metallic fabric with blue dotted triangles separating the strips.  After the strips are sewn together, they are cut into 50 inch and then sewn together.  The blue border pulls it all together.

Arleen

I had four quilts to show.  The first was from a downloaded pattern from Kitchentable quilting.  The Charlotte quilt uses a jelly roll from Betsy and some grey grunge fabric put on point.  She made a complex pattern into a simple one.  The second quilt was the block put into rows.  The third and fourth quilt is the same pattern from the Sarah Nishiura workshop.  I learned how to do foundation paper piecing and grid designing. I really enjoyed her class.

Sandy 

Sandy has been very busy taking 3 classes in the past two months.  The first was with Carol Soderlund which was a dying class using minimal water.  The second was the Sarah Nishiura Zoom class and the third was a four week Zoom class with Maria Shell.  The quilt top from this class was  amazing.  You could see all the intricate work and precise piecing needed. She enjoyed all the classes and I’m glad I took her advice to download the zoom app on my iPad.  

Mindy

Mindy is hard at work on coordinating the Round Robins.  It looks like she is in both the Improv and Traditional RR.  Unfortunately I couldn’t download her starting piece, but this is a photo of the starting piece from the Improv RR.

 

Mary

Mary showed us the quilting she has done on her blue and gold quilt.  Her free motion quilting is improving with every quilt.  The second quilt is her own design trying to use up some of Betsy’s triangles of purple and sea foam green.  Good Job

With so many quilts and so much to share, the time passed by so quickly.  Deanna served a wonderful cake with handmade whipped cream and fresh fruits.  Yummy.  Thank you Deanna for hosting.

January 2024

 Today we met at Joan’s house on a clear and brisk afternoon.  Unfortunately Sandy and Alice were not able to join us.  Hopefully we’ll have good news for Alice and her daughter.  Joan’s house still had all of her Christmas decorations including her Christmas quilts which made the room so festive.

Marty

Marty started us off with two beautiful quilts that she made while at Bishop Ranch.  She also completed two kits from the children’s project, but didn’t bring those. I love the fabric she used.  The second is a strip pieced squares from 1 jelly roll.  The size is big enough for the foster youth.

Deanna

Deanna brought two projects. The first is made from a half yard bundle of fabrics from Tildas World.  The fabric is soft and has a good feel to it.  She has free patterns to look at on her website tildasworld.com.  Deanna quilted it in diagonal lines. The second project was started at Bishop Ranch and is made from two jelly rolls, one bright and one pastel made into a Trip Around the world pattern that she saw from Donna Hunters Quiltville Many Trips around the world.

Mary

Mary had five projects that she shared with us. The first is a top from Betsy that she finished by quilting.  It is a very abstract and modern pattern and she did a great job in quilting it.  The second is the Bishop Ranch project that she is working on putting the blocks together.  The third are three photo books that she made and passed around for everyone to see. Beautiful.  The fourth project is a quilt she is going to put in VIC and has finished the quilting but needs to work on the loose threads.  She used Superior Bobs King Tut thread.  The 5th is the penguin quilt that only needs the binding done.

Bobbie

Bobbie is working on her bedspread.  She made the top in one day and is planning on using a beautiful Tula Pink soft satin finish fabric as a back.

Arleen

I made a baby quilt in the bow tie pattern.  It’s an easy pattern that I was reminded of when I saw an old quilt that I made.  The block is made of four 5 inch blocks. Two blocks have a triangle sewn at the corner to make the bow tie.

Mindy

Mindy received a Design Works pattern of a stocking.  She showed us her completed stocking for Takeo and the hexagons that she made at Bishops Ranch.

Joan

Joan started us off by showing her two Christmas quilts. The first was made in a McCalls pattern and has hand quilted partridge in a pear tree.  The second Christmas quilt was machine pieced and has April Sproule stencils on it.  The third is a huge trapezoid quilt that she had quilted at Hello Stitch.  The fourth quilt is a panel of beautiful fabric that she surrounded by trapezoids and a grunge border.  The trapezoids were made from fabric napkins from her different trips stenciled with metallic fabric paints.  The backing has a beautiful panel of an orchid surrounded by the trapezoids. Wow.

Joan served a yummy flan custard with fresh raspberries and blueberries. The next meeting will be at Deanna’s house on February 14, Valentine’s Day at 130.

December 2023

 We met today at Bobbie’s house for our holiday potluck and gift exchange.  The meeting was changed from Mindy’s house due to a new grandson’s birth which has occupied Mindy’s full attention. Congratulations Grandma Mindy👵.  Great Grandma Bobbie was happy to have the festivities at her place with hopes to see her new great grandson soon.

The next meeting will be held at Joan’s house on Wednesday, January 17, 2024 at 130.  This is.a week later than usual to allow for the Bishop Ranch meeting.  Deanna was not able to make it to this meeting and was missed.  

Mary

Mary started us off with her new baby blanket of penguins.  It is for a girl but she went with the blue and yellow fabrics because it went so well with the penguins.  They are nine patch blocks and penguin blocks that measure 6 inches.  She just arranged the blocks as she saw fit, added some extra blocks and it all came together quite well. Good job.

Sandy was next but did not bring anything to share.  She will be taking a dyeing class from Carol Soderlund and Sarah Nishiura next month so she’ll be busy next month.  I’m so impressed with the classes that she’s taking.

Marty

Marty told us of her Korea trip with Youngmin Lee and Japan trip with EBHQ members.  Her 23 day journey was long and tiring but full of adventure and discovering new things.  She learned a little bit of Korean bojagi, indigo dyeing, weaving, Korean embroidery, gift wrapping, making coasters or hanging bojagi and the importance of a good translator and tour guide.  Here are some of the things she made an indigo stenciled bag, 2 indigo silk scarves, 1 cotton indigo scarf, and a coaster.

Thank you for the gift of Korean chopsticks with holder from Koreancraft.com.

Mindy

Mindy showed her new grandsons stocking.  It is almost finished with just a few more details.  Her grandsons name is Takeo.

Arleen

Arleen got a new Sashiko Babylock sewing machine and has been experimenting with the stitch on baby blankets.  So far, I’ve noticed it doesn’t like Gutterman thread or Pellon 100 percent cotton batting.  It would skip stitches or get fussy and I would have to retread it.  The polyester thread from Superior Bob works okay, but I’m still trying out different battings.

I started a new quilt with the cut up 6.5 inch fabrics. I used scissors to cut out the triangle, so they are not perfect, which is what I like.

Bobbie has been working on her Pods quilt and asked us for help.  She asked that I don’t show the pictures, but it is fantastic.

Joan and Alice did not have anything to share but we were able to catch up.

The potluck as always turned out great with so many home made dishes, desserts, soda bread and Martinelli drinks.  Thank you Bobbie for hosting last minute.  Have a happy holiday and see you in the new year.