February 2023

A small group of us met at Mary's on February 14.  For various reasons Arleen, Betsy, Bobbie and Deanna were unable to join us.  We missed them, and I'm particularly sorry they didn't get to try Mary's chocolate raspberry brownies, which were very rich and delicious.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, March 14, at 1:30pm at Joan's house.

We talked about the next challenge for our group and decided to go with this one:  each person drew a card from a deck of playing cards and will make a piece inspired by the drawn card.  We drew cards for our missing members.  The challenge is based on a 1994 book titled Art Quilts:  Playing With a Full Deck by Sue Pierce and Verna Suit.  The book shows the pieces created by 54 fiber artists based on the 52 playing cards and 2 jokers of a standard American deck of cards.  Sandy will bring the book to the March meeting.

Not everyone has sent me suggested text for the following photos from our show and tell session, so I've added what I could remember.  If you'd like to add more or make corrections, please send to me via email.

Mary has been continuing to quilt EBHQ donation quilts.  Photos show the front and back of an almost finished donation quilt.  Lovely quilting!

Mary is ready to pin and quilt the quilt she's making for her baseball fanatic grandson, Dexter, for his 10th birthday in May.  The back is all the sports teams in Seattle where he lives, except for basketball.  Mary knew the Sonics left Seattle [and became the Oklahoma Thunder] but didn't realize there's a WNBA team there.  She thinks she'll offer him a basketball pillowcase!

The front is all baseball in a disappearing 9-patch pattern.

The Round Robin projects for EBHQ are starting thanks to Mindy's hard work as coordinator -- with a big assist from Mary.  This is the central motif Mindy will add the first layer to.

Joan showed parts of her next English paper piecing project.  At least the pieces are larger than her previous ones.

Sandy shared a pieced top from a recent online workshop offered by quilt artist Pat Pauly.  The workshop has given Sandy ideas for starting to use up the piles of hand-dyed and printed fabrics she's accumulated over the years.

Sandy also shared a recent project not related to fabric or quilting.  This collage consists of twelve images, one for each month of 2023, and was created in a Soul Collage workshop focusing on the new year.

Marty showed a beautiful square-in-a-square top pieced entirely from batiks.

Marty used gorgeous Asian fabrics donated to her by Deanna to create another lovely block based on Bobbie's original design.  She asked for advice on possible fabric substitutions and settings.  The block on the left is the original one Marty made, the one on the right incorporates some of Deanna's fabric.

January 2023

We met at Bobbie's.  To help with her upcoming move, we each took home a stack of fabrics [some smaller than others; mine might have been the tallest!] from Bobbie's collection.  Deanna and Marty weren't able to join us and missed out on the delicious rum cake made by Joan.

Our next meeting will be on Valentine's Day, Tuesday, February 14, at 1:30pm at Mary's.

Not everyone has sent me suggested text for the following photos from our show and tell session, so I've added what I could remember.  If you'd like to add more or make corrections, please send to me via email.

JOAN brought a puzzle -- what is this for?

MARY has kept busy finishing some older projects and community quilts.  Look at her amazing quilting!

BETSY showed the fourth quilt top her granddaughter has completed.  This is a surprise present for Eve's grandparents who will soon be moving into a new living space.  Eve picked all of the fabrics and the design, which was originally supposed to be all star shapes.  But Eve loves the design wall so the quilt is a combination of different shapes that she preferred.  She also chose two different fabrics for her border.

Betsy also showed a new EPP wall hanging that features a Charley Harper owl.  She asked the group's help in figuring out a good color and fabric pattern for the background.  Lots of choices were previewed using the fabric Bobbie was giving away for inspiration.

BOBBIE's quilt for her great-granddaughter:

The next two photos show Bobbie's progress on her seeds/pods project.  Most amazing to me is that she created the background fabrics for both!

SANDY finally finished Christmas gifts -- pincushions made from rolled bamboo felt and ribbon.

MINDY's initial square for EBHQ's 2023 round robin, which she is managing for the guild:

Latest progress on MINDY's wonderful flowers project:

ARLEEN has moved on from Kaffe to Marcia Derse!

December 2022

We gathered on Saturday, December 17, at Mindy’s for our annual holiday potluck and gift exchange.  Everyone was present, and we feasted on delicious food and did our usual White Elephant game with the gifts.  Thanks to Mindy for hosting and letting us enjoy her amazing holiday decorations.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, January 10, at 1:30pm at Bobbie’s.  She asks that we come prepared to shop from her extensive fabric stash.  She’ll be moving to a smaller apartment soon, and the more we buy, the less she’ll have to move.

In addition to feasting and gifts, we also had our usual Show and Tell.  Joan started us off with this gorgeous teal/green two-sided queen quilt.  She reports she was attracted to the Kaffe Fassett floral fabric just because.  Then she went through her stash and found complimentary fabrics which read as solids but had subtle, small prints. She bought the last of the bolt from Bay Quilts, but it turned out not to be enough, of course.  Very, very luckily, New Pieces also had it, so she was able to finish the front.  The back was made with leftovers from the front, and of course, she still has quite a bit left over.   She free-motion quilted this queen-sized project herself. 

Joan reminded us that she’s the featured artist for the January quilt show at Bay Quilts and asked for help with installation.  The opening reception is on Sunday, January 8, from 1-3pm.

Mindy's newest puppy was busy admiring everyone and everything.  He was particularly taken with Arleen's bag.

Arleen shared a checkerboard quilt inspired by the interior surface of her frying pan.

 

She’s also completed another top from the never-ending Kaffe scraps.  This latest one starts out as standard hexagons and then goes completely wild.

 

Mary finished the thunderbolt quilt for her 7-year-old grandson that she shared at our November meeting before the binding was finished.  The quilt’s now  in Seattle for his Christmas present.  Since then, she’s been quilting donation quilts for the guild.

 

Sandy shared two Piecekeeper Project Bags she made following ByAnnie.com’s instructions.  She also showed a new handbag she made using denim from her stash and the Hillside Tote pattern by Noodlehead.

Bag fronts:

and bag backs: 

Betsy showed her finished Homage to Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt which is English paper-pieced.  It was quilted by Melissa Quilter who made the garden "tiles" have purpose with the quilting and changed thread colors for the various flowers and leaves.  Betsy finished the edges not with binding, but by turning in the edges and hand stitching around to maintain the zig zag edges on two sides.  The backing fabric Betsy used seems the perfect choice.

Deanna shared a baby quilt she’s finished that she’ll donate to EBHQ’s community quilts project.

Mindy is quite happy with the finished Round Robin top that started with her teapot fabric square.  She liked the process and the result so much that she’s volunteered to be in charge of 2023’s Traditional Round Robin Challenge for EBHQ.

 

Mindy also showed four gorgeous Christmas stockings and reports that the snowflake stocking is going to another little girl who is her godson’s daughter.   The others were made during the Covid lockdown for John, Jena and Vawnnie.

 

Marty’s 18-inch square mini-Christmas Tree was based on a Youtube video she watched.  It uses 2" squares (2 3/8th" for the half square triangles) and off-set seams so it goes together very easily.  It did not make a dent in her Christmas stash.

November 2022

 Joan graciously hosted this month’s meeting and served a home baked Angel Food cake with whipped frosting and bananas. Everyone was present except for Sandy who was missed.  Surprise and behold Betsy came with the help of Mary picking her up. Yeah!

Mindy will host the December meeting on Saturday December 17 at 1200.  Bobbie  wants to host the January meeting so she can have a garage sale of fabrics to downsize for her move to a 1 bedroom.  The date is yet to be determined due to conflicts with Bishop Ranch attendance.

Marty started us off with her coins quilt with fabrics from her stash.  The back is a feathers pattern that matches the colors.

Joan showed off her paper pieced quilt which she got back from Melissa Quilter. This is a keeper.

Using up her stash of big flowers from Kaffe, Joan made this at her quilt retreat.  Beautiful.  Joan will be having a show at Bay Quilts of 20 of her quilts in the month of January. She will need help to hang them on Jan 3rd if QT members are available.  Richard has already planned the layout.

Mindy showed her last Round Robin quilt where she added the border.  She will get her round robin quilt on Sunday

The stocking is for her godsons family.  She recommended buying crystals from Fire Gems which is an online store.

Deanna showed “Texas Time” from Last Homely House the youtube show. She used a blue and a red Kaffe jelly rolls.  There were problems with one roll which was pinkered and didn’t match the other straight edge roll. The colors were gorgeous together.

Arleen recycled some old napkins to make pockets for her neighbors jacket.  She finally assembled her scrappy quilt which came out great.  I have plans to put a dark blue border.  The last quilt is an Improv quilt with different fabrics.  Unfortunately when it was washed, the red fabrics bled to the back.

Bobbie is working on her pods quilt.  She is using velvet and silk and it is driving her crazy.  All the tiny pieces.  She purchased some silk thread from PIQF.  I think it is 100 wt.

Mary is working on the binding of her Thunder Bolts and Shields quilt for her grandson.

Betsy’s Friends Quilt with hexes is inspired by the Last Homely House.  She started off with all Kaffe fabrics but towards the last rows added other fabrics.  She is on her last row and plans to hand stitch the border. Amazing hand work.

The Roberta quilts at PIQF may be part of a traveling exhibit with the Mancuso shows.  Mary M hasn’t decided.

Volunteers for VIC 2024 have been signing up so it looks like most of the big positions have been filled.  Mindy signed up for a backup position. Mary, Joan and Bobbie are all glad to share their knowledge to the next round of volunteers.