Thursday, October 25, 2012

Daytime Stitchers Meet



It is always a treat to gather with other quilters and Monday was no exception.  We met at the Bob Herzfeld Memorial Library in Benton at 9:30 am.  Shirley Miller gave an excellent tutorial on creating a bullseye quilt.   There are many places on the web that give detailed instructions of cutting and assembly like this site.  (Can you tell I'm conserving energy a little lazy because I don't want to write everything down.)  This is Shirley's demo board that shows the various steps: 
Below is a close-up of Shirley's quilt.  Love the colors!
Almost everyone had something to show and tell.  We are captivated:

Some of the projects are works in progress:

And some of us are overachievers.  Sharon purchased a block at the SCQG silent auction on Monday the 15th and had it assembled into a table runner by the following Monday! 
Speaking of silent auction blocks...check out this quilt by Sue.  She has been purchasing these blocks since 1991.  Every block has been signed and dated.  And she can tell you a little about each person who made the blocks.   It is a very special Christmas quilt with lots of memories!
 
Sharon also brought 2 other projects she is working on.  The yellow, red and green is part of the "5:30 workshop" project that Pat Wade is teaching this year.  The bargello is from a recent class--"Bargello with a Twist." 
 
There were several who were working on sweatshirt jackets.  This method was demo'd at a meeting back in the summer.  Squares and rectangles of fabric are cut and layed out in a pattern on the sweatshirt that has been cut open.  Then the patches are machine stitched in a grid:
Shirley brought a couple of small Halloween wall hangings.  Love the cat in the candy corn hat!!!
Cely made use of the disappearing four patch technique that was demo'd a couple of months ago and created this lovely baby quilt:

 
Next month this group will meet again at the library and Jo Anne Thompson will show us how to make Christmas ornaments using folded fabric:
We are to bring the following supplies:
1 - 3" styrofoam ball
300 1" sequin pins
fabric 1 for center star and 3 star from center: 12" x 4" scrap cut into 24  2" squares
fabric 2 for alternating rows: 16" x 4" scrap cut into 32  2" squares
lace, sequin trim, ribbon or braid,
decorative beads
glue gun and glue
 
Until next time,
Gwen
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 




Saturday, October 20, 2012

Confession: I love candy corn!

October 30 is national candy corn day!  Woo hoo.   You've got time to create something to celebrate.  Make a candy corn pincushion  here 
You can sew fabric candy corn decorations for the Thanksgiving holiday.
 
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 Side note:
Would you believe...candy corn oreos?  A limited edition was introduced by Nabisco last month.  You can order yours here from Amazon or maybe find them at Target.  (No, not getting paid for this plug.  Just want you to see I'm not making this up!)  And don't worry.  We're going somewhere with this.  I love Oreos and I love candy corn---just not when they exchange personalities.
 
 
Now here's a happy combination of oreos and candy corn.  When the Halloween candy goes on sale this month, be sure to stock up on candy corn because you're going to want to make these for Thanksgiving:
 There's a wonderful tutorial for making these cute little treats over at  Our Best Bites.

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Okay...back to quilt-related ideas.   Check out this quilt by Katrina.  It is made with tumblers and can be seen on her blog Sunshower Quilts.  She has very generously created a pdf file that you can download.



Here's one last candy-corn-related quilt item created by the clever Kate at Kate's Artsy Bits Blog  I like the arrangement of colors and the quilting.  It's very appealing.
 
Until next time,
Gwen

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Guild meeting

Although attendance was down a little, we had a great meeting last night.  The theme for the semi-annual silent block auction was "fall."  Some lively bidding ensued over several of the blocks and other items.  Two stood by with pens poised over the bid sheets as the auction hostess announced that time was up.  Below you can see a few of the blocks.  (Unfortunately the author of this post is not the best photographer in our midst and failed to get shots of all the blocks.  And even though the blocks were holding quite still, she managed to blur a couple of them!  Excuses, excuses!)



 
 
Do you see the yellow basket above?  That's what caused quite a ruckus.  Henrietta made it and the black basket behind it with wrapped clothesline.  The witches feet are from a free paper pieced pattern  by Caroline Press of Trillium Design and is available here 
 
Our program was delightful.  We were asked to bring antique quilts and each one had a unique story to tell.  Most had been lovingly made by a favorite relative and handed down.  A few were made by people who had lived in the 1800s!  One had a grandmother's flower garden with blocks made by both of her grandmothers.  Sondra showed us a sewing tin she inherited.   The stories that were told with each quilt were touching.  Below are a few pictures and again, please accept my apologies for the quality of the photos (see first paragraph for the explanation excuses):



As always--you should have been there....
Until next time,
Gwen
 
 


 
 

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

QA


QA: Quiltaholics Anonymous---n . A loosely organized group of quilt addicts fanatics that meets the first Monday of most months at the Herzfeld Memorial Library.  Anyone is welcome.  We bring  projects or problems and there are always experts willing to help.  Doesn't it look like we are having alot of fun??

I seemed to be the only one with a problem yesterday.   Happily I received some good advice.  Various excellent suggestions were given on completing a border for the table runner I'm trying to finish. 
 I also got several ideas on how to quilt a red, white and blue antique quilt.   Sidney suggested a good solution for mending a very large hole in an antique quilt:  copy the fabric onto a  printable fabric sheet.  Then stitch it in behind the hole.   Can't wait to try this! 
 Fay brought some lovely applique to work on. 
Sidney and Pat were putting finishing touches on quilts for charity.  Windy was making a cute little purse out of a neck tie---something she demo'd at the day group last month.


 Marge and Sidney worked on hexies. 
 
 
Now you know what you've missed at QA!


 
 

Monday, October 1, 2012

Beulah's Birthday

One of the guild's charter members, Mrs. Beulah Wright, had her 90th birthday in September.  To celebrate this milestone, her children honored her with a reception at a local church.   Beulah has been quilting since she was a child and many of her quilts were on display.   The photo collage below is just a tiny taste of this memorable event. 

 
Happy Birthday Beulah!  We love you!