August 2025

 August is a beautiful time of year in the Bay Area, not too hot or too cold.  We met at the top of the hill at Marty’s house with the sweeping view of the bay.  It’s been a while since everyone was able to come together at the same time and place to share our adventures.  Our September meeting will be at Joan’s house on Sept 2 at 130.  October will be Mary’s house on Oct 7 at 130.  November will be at Deanna’s house on Nov 4 at 130

Marty

Marty started us off with a new apron.  She is going to make 5 to give out for Xmas gifts.  She had two quilts to show.  The first is a Hawaiian fabric quilt.  She received 8 inch fabrics from a family member who said You don’t have to make me anything.  Marty loves a challenge and she made this beautiful quilt which will be given as a Xmas gift.

The second quilt was inspired by Big Red a quilt she saws at the SF quilt guild show.  She drafted the pattern and used a blue grunge fabric as the background and Japanese fabric scraps as the pattern.

Deanna

Deanna had 4 quilts to show.  We haven’t seen her in a while, so her bag was full of beautiful quilts and all different.

The first came from the donated fabrics basket, which she decided to put together into a nice sized quilt.  She found a nice back with butterflies, quilted and bound it.  It is bound for the DDCQP.

The second quilt has a beautiful egret or crane backing. The top is made from Craftsy  Anthology Shibori fabric.  She thought they were 2.5 inch strips and started cutting the background fabric 2.5, but it was actually 2 3/8, so she ended up recutting all the background fabric.  Also bound for DDCQP.

The third quilt uses French fabric.  The backing is French Provençal fabric which at one time she was collecting.  She decided to make half square triangles even though they weren’t aligned quite right.  If she didn’t point it out to us, we wouldn’t have seen it.  Bound for DDCQP.

The fourth quilt is a 1 block wonder which she has made at least 7.  This pattern came from Jackie OBrian who has a lot of panels.  She bought 7 panels and had to get one replaced because of a brown streak across it.  Up close it looks wonderful.  I think this is a keeper.

Arleen

I had two projects to show.  The first is a quilt that I made in 2014. It is Woven 42 made of 42 different Kaffe Fassett shot cottons cut into 2.5 strips and woven.  I gave this to my brother in law Jimmie 11 years ago and after so much time, I saw it last month and knew I had to fix it.  The quilting threads had come apart.  I think it was because it was quilted on the diagonal and using it had stretched it.  I took it apart and quilted it in the ditch.  Hopefully it will last another decade.

The second quilt is a top.  It uses Sarah Nishiura s pattern in yarn dyed neutrals.  I decided to add maple leaves to give it more color. 

Mary

Mary had three projects.  The first is an I Spy quilt.  She had 2.5 inch squares of cute things and surrounded them with colorful borders.  She is either going to use the background fabric as sashing or more blocks.

The second project is the Birds block that she got from Deanna and Marty.  This block can be found on the Missouri Star website and Blocklotto.com

The third project is rethinking the Dresden plate.  This is from Candace Grisham an EBHQ workshop who showed her how to make the Dresden plate pattern.  Mary said to quilt the background first then add the plates on.  The. Enters are raw edge.  Sew it on and then zigzag stitch around.

Alice

Alice had an orphan block that didn’t come out quite right.  It did not have instructions and when she made it she realized it wasn’t quite right. Definitely needed the instructions.

The next quilt she is working on uses more of her fpp blocks.  She read the Maria Shell book and decided to use her techniques to make the surrounding borders. It’s coming out really nice. This is the Etsy site she uses.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PieceByNumberQuilts2?ref=shop-header-name&listing_id=1851784560&from_page=listing

Mindy

Mindy picked up Bobbie’s quilt from Hello Stitch and it was beautiful.  They do computerized quilting and the pattern matched the fabric. Very nice.  She showed a scarf that she is making with some pretty yarn.

Joan and Sandy had nothing to show.  Sandy said she is starting to sew again and is almost ready to show something.

It’s so nice to gather and talk.  I really look forward to our meetings and I know everyone looks forward to it also. As Mary was saying, taking workshops over zoom is one thing but in person meetings have so much more to offer.  I learn so much about other things besides quilting if I sit back and listen.  Marty made a delicious lemon Bundt cake with sliced strawberries.  Thank you Marty for hosting today.

July 2025

 The first of July we met at the purple house on Buena Avenue.  Marty was reminiscing about living in the same neighborhood in the house with the bulletproof windows.  Wow.  Deanna, Bobbie and Mindy missed all the great stories and were sorely missed.  The next meeting will be at Marty’s on Tuesday August 5.

Joan started us off with nothing to show but kept us company and was able to work on her knitting.

Sandy also did not have anything to show but was happy to get out of the 95 degree heat to the 65 degree Bay Area.  She is working on her garden and home renovations.

Alice

Alice showed 4 projects that she is working on.  The first is a door runner.  She found some old projects with fussy cuttings of Tula pink in elongated hexagons.  She had the checkerboard squares and completed the top in no time.  Now to finish it.

The second project is also a Tula pink fabric called fairy dust.  She found some cute dog fabric and had to put it together with the paper pieced center dog.  It is in memory of her dog who recently passed away.

The third project is also EPP using the 6 inch squares that she made during Covid.  She has many more of these so look forward to more medallion quilts.  They are so colorful.  I look forward to seeing what she comes up with these.

The fourth project is a drunkards path in black and white with a pop of orange.  She’s not sure if she wants to keep going with it or change the color choices.

Somehow we got on the topic of Jen Kingwell and she brought out the book and her project that she made from the book.  What a surprise.  So this is a bonus 5th.  Good thing she was at home to show off all these projects.

Arleen

I had 3 quilts to show.  The first is in progress.  The center is a block made from Alice that she didn’t want.  This is surrounded with butterflies from the pattern that Mary had and pinwheels.  The last row in the medallion is material from Marty.  What a collaboration.

The second is also a medallion quilt with the center block made from Alice.  This is surrounded by butterflies and the final row is a landscape fabric from drop in.  The colors from the landscape really highlighted the colors.

The third quilt is a 16 patch block made with Japanese fabric.  I was inspired by Deanna’s flower 16 patch.  This is freehand cut with a rotary cutter with no rulers.  Two fabrics were laid right side up, freehand cut into 16 pieces, sorted to a checkerboard design and then sewn in place.  It had to be done this way to make for uneven pieces some larger than others.  Once all the blocks were completed, additional blue strips were added to make the blocks the same size. Somehow I’m loving the wonkiness of no pins and no rulers, just cut and sew.

Marty

Marty has been busy. She started us off with an apron she made. 1 of 6 that she is making for presents.

The second project is batik blocks from drop in that she put together from a packet provided by children’s quilts.  It was finished in two days.  I love projects like this where it only takes a couple of days to make.  She pieced the back with blue fabric and is going to hand it in to children’s quilts.  

The third is her block of the month which is four half square triangles cut two inches from the center and rearranged.  The variety of blocks that you can make from this basic block is so rewarding.  Here are a few pictures.

She hinted at a quilt that she has finished, but couldn’t bring because it is going to Hello Stitch to be quilted.  Marty you really know how to hide a surprise.

Mary

Mary had two projects to show.  The first is her crumbs quilt made with a lot of crumbs that still seem to multiply.  She free motion quilted it.  We thought it was walking foot quilting, but she said it was easier to quilt it with a free motion foot.

The second is walking foot quilting on a children’s quilt.  Now this one seemed like free motion quilting.  Maybe I have it backwards.

What a colorful display of quilts for show and tell.  Alice had two bowls full of fruit and a fresh blueberry pie from Fat Apples.  It was just devoured in seconds.  We missed our friends who couldn’t make it and hope everyone stays safe and well until next meeting.

June 2025

 The time is flying by so quickly and it is almost summer.  We met today at Joan’s house and the weather was perfect.  Deanna and Sandy were not able to come today and were missed.  I didn’t see Sandy’s message this morning and brought some batting for her and I wanted to show Deanna how she inspired me to make a16 patch block from flower fabrics.  Hopefully they’ll be able to make next months meeting.  This will be on July 1, 1:30 at Alice’s house.  She will send a reminder the week before with her address for those who forgot.  Marty agreed to host August and Mindy will host October.

Mindy and Bobbie

Bobbie was able to make the blocks for this king sized 95x95 quilt for her granddaughter.  Mindy was able to help her with the white blocks and sewed it together.  They plan to put on a 5 inch border and have it quilted at Hello Stitch. 

Mary

Mary had three quilts to show.  The first was the butterfly quilt which she finished quilting.  She got the butterfly pattern online and said if anyone wants it let her know.  The border is made with scraps to match the colors used in the butterflies. She quilted butterflies and did simple outline quilting.

The second project is the R E challenge quilt which was due today.  For this she REpurposed napkins to make an 18x18 quilt for the Alameda show.  She added some appliquéd flowers and outline quilted the motifs.  If anyone else finishes their quilt, Mary said she will drop it off for you by the deadline.

The third project is the horse quilt for her friends grandchild.  She saw the pattern from a Hello Stitch class and copied it. She used tracing paper to quilt on the horses and horseshoes.  She quilts right on the tracing paper.  Nice.

Arleen

I had three small baby quilts and a new project to show.  The first baby quilt uses Alice’s paper pieced block as the center.  I bought four jelly rolls from JoAnnes for 6 dollars each to make the three quilts.  It was fun and easy to see what you can do.  Surprisingly the fabrics were pretty good.

My new project uses old Japanese fabric that my friends father had and some flower fabric that I bought at a garage sale.  I layered the two fabrics on top of each other and freehand cut it into 16 pieces. Wonky and not precise at all.  I like the No pin and not so precise piecing.  I’m hoping to make a full size quilt.

Marty brought her block of the month which was a checkerboard pattern but she didn’t want to show it.  She gave me some fabric from Deanna (thank you) and a book to share.

Alice

Alice has been inspired to make medallion quilts with her blocks that she made during Covid.  Most of these blocks were 6 inches and she made so many birds and flowers and chickens.  The feet, eyes and wings were embroidered.  You can tell that she had a good time putting these together.    They came out so bright and cheerful. Beautiful.

Happy Birthday to Bobbie 90 years old.  To celebrate the day, Joan bought a special cake from Lavendar Bakery on Colusa.  She gave us each a huge slice and we sang birthday wishes to Bobby.   Thank you Joan for hosting this month.