Daytime Stitchers

The Daytime Stitchers group met at the Herzfeld Memorial Library in Benton today. 

Shirley brought her "Old Saint Nick!" quilt that she had made using Karla Alexander's pattern (which is available here if you can't find it locally).  She shared some tips and tricks that she discovered while making her quilt.  It is a rag quilt using a clever placement of fabrics to achieve a cute pattern.

front of quilt

 

back of quilt

 

 
Following Shirley's presentation was show and tell.  Some brought things that they work on only at these gatherings.  A few brought completed quilts.  Several were working on handwork.   Below are pictures of some of the things that were brought. 

This is a close-up of Cathy's gypsy bag made from fat quarters.  You can go here to get the free instructions for making your own bag.  The pattern is by M'Liss Rae Hawley.  Cathy says you can carry aLOT of stuff in it!!

 

 

 Judy showed us some of the blocks she is making to use up her 30's prints.  She will be sharing her technique with us at the Daytime Stitchers group at a later date.  This is going to be a lovely quilt!

 

 

 Marge showed the baby quilt she is working on.  The quilting is done and she is applying the binding.  A tip she shared:  when you have machine stitched the binding to the back of the quilt and are ready to hand stitch it to the front, pin the binding down from the back side parallel with the seam.  That way, as you are hand sewing it down on the front side your thread won't catch in the pins.  By doing this you will also be able to see that your binding is the same width all the way around.  (Sorry, no pictures of that tip.  It might have made more sense that way.)

Okay, this is not a quilt or handwork.  It is a sanity saver---especially when you lose your electricity.  Several people attested to the fact that they would have gone nuts without this handy little gadget during the recent power outages.  (Edited to add:  This hangs around your neck to light your work.)You can buy these online at amazon.  Just enter a search on their website and you will get quite a few options.   I think these little wonders also come with a magnifier.

 

 

 JoAnn showed us the progress she is making on her quilt.  These are Civil War prints and the little 9-patches are 5 inches square.  She has made 90 of them and is now in the process of assembling the quilt.  She said there was a small mistake that required some un-sewing.  I think her good friend, Jean, got talked into that job! 

 

 Barbara joined us for the first time in ages and it was good to have her there.  She showed some little blocks that were pre-stamped with Hummel figures and she is stitching them in blue.

 

 Jean showed a small wall hanging she is working on from the book, Simple Graces by Kim Diehl.  Jean changed the outer border to include her favorite color--blue.  I love the cheery colors.

Pat is working on some blocks that are from a pattern called Friend-Sheep by Paula Stoddard.  These are hand appliqued wool on "wooly flannel" which has the "look of wool but is the weight of cotton."  Maywood Studio makes this product.  If you can't find it in your local quilt store, you might try "googling" it. 

 

That's not all there was for show and tell.  Unfortunately there is not a photo for every item because the battery died in my camera. (If you've read this blog before, I seem to have alot of issues with cameras!) Anyway, it's always fun to see what everyone is doing and we learn alot from each other. 

Until next time~~~Gwen

Saturday Workshop

  Fay taught our Saturday Workshop
which was held at the Herzfeld Memorial Library today.  We worked on previously assembled quilt tops and learned how
 to spray baste, straight-line quilt
and apply a binding.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using a small 9-patch quilt that Sidney had made of 1inch squares, Fay demonstrated the steps.

1.  Layer your quilt with the backing wrong side up,

then the batting, then the top, right side up to make a quilt sandwich:

 

2.  Without disturbing the quilt sandwich too much, fold the top back on itself about half way, exposing the batting.  Using your favorite spray basting product, spray only the batting.  Smooth the top down over the sprayed batting and repeat with the other half of the top. (If you are working with a very large quilt, you may find it easier to work with only a fourth of the top at a time.)  When you are finished spraying, smooth the top down over the batting and make sure it is adhering nicely. 

3. Then flip the quilt sandwich over and repeat the process with the back side of the quilt.

4.  Now you are ready to quilt.  Fay recommends selecting a decorative stitch and quilting in straight lines.  Not only will you be able to get your quilt finished more quickly, but the decorative stitching will add interest. 

 

 She decided to do all of her quilting in the sashing on this little quilt.  The decorative stitch made a pleasing secondary pattern.

Below is a close up where you can get a better look at the stitching in the sashing.

Fay then trimmed her quilt:

and applied the binding:

She stitched the binding to the back of the quilt so that it could be brought to the front and stitched by machine with a decorative stitch.  When she uses this method of applying a binding, she never uses a straight stitch on top.  It is hard to keep straight stitching exactly on the very edge of the binding.  Using a small zig zag stitch on this particular binding added to the overall design and was very pleasing.

Helen worked on a quilt made of tumblers.  When she was finished quilting, Fay showed us how to trim the edge of the quilt so that it would have a straight edge instead of a zig zag:

You can see that just a little bit of each tumbler along the edge is being trimmed off.  Helen used a decorative stitch along the outer edge of each row of tumblers.  As a result, it appears that the stitching has been done around each tumbler.  It is hard to see it but you can trust me--it's there.

 

Marge got this one quilted during the class.  She was going to take it home and finish quilting the borders. 

 

There were several different quilts that had been made using our bingo blocks.  Marge put most of these bingo block quilts together so she hopes we don't play bingo again for a while!!

 

 

Close up of the decorative stitching done in the sashing and straight lines through the blocks:

I enjoyed taking this class and am happy that soon we will have at least seven more quilts ready to give away!

Until next time~~Gwen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Guild Meeting

Eddie Landreth was the special speaker at our guild meeting Monday night.  He brought a number of his quilts with him for a trunk show.   You can go to his blog, The Arkansas Man Quilter,  to see some much better pictures than I have taken and also to learn more about him.   He's only been quilting a short time and yet has accomplished so much.  What an inspiration!

(This post was edited to rearrange pictures and add one that was missing) 

 

Thirties prints--blocks made by members of Arkansas Quilters Guild, sashed, assembled  and quilted by Eddie.

 

 

 

This is a close-up of the last quilt Eddie has completed.

 

 

 

 

Following Eddie's program was our regular show and tell.

 

Our youngest member, Callie, shows off a quilt top she made with help from her grandmother.  The center block was one purchased at one of our silent auctions.  Great job, Callie!

 

Cathy made a neat tote that has elastic in the sides.  It is big enough to carry a quilt.

 

Pat shows off her Swoon quilt.  She says this pattern is addictive!

 

Sue shows a lovely quilt she made as a wedding gift for her daughter.

 

Cookie shows a king size quilt she made and said it is 150 miles around the edge of it!  (I guess it took forever to bind!)

 

Marge made a sweet baby quilt for a grand child.



It was a good meeting and a great start to a new year!  Until next time~~~Gwen

 

1st Wednesday

We met at the Saline County Library on Wednesday, Jan 2 for our monthly social gathering.  The event was hosted by Cathy and we all brought our own lunches.  (I'm only a week late in posting this!) 

 

Everyone brought projects on which they were working.

Kathryn's applique.

Sharon was finishing up a charity quilt.

Cathy's hexies.

Pat's roomy tote.

Jane is ready to do some redwork on a towel.

Kathryn's tote she made in a class.  You can't see it very well but there is a ruched flower.

Henrietta is working on a Baltimore album blackwork pattern only she is doing it in brown.  She's almost got all the blocks embroidered!

Sue's project:  You can't see her pattern very well but she is going to cut all of these appliqued leaf blocks in half diagonally and then sew them back together.  It will be beautiful.
 

 

Pat is working on a BOM she purchased from Sew Graceful .  She spread out all the blocks that are mostly finished.  (There were about 25 so I took pictures of them in groups.  That's why there are duplicates.)

 

Jane has infected another person with the knitted-scarf disease.  Here is Windy showing off her new skill:

 

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished scarf at our next guild meeting!

 

 

 We missed you all who couldn't come! 

Until next time~~Gwen

 

P.S.  There won't be a post about QA this month because I arrived very late and didn't take pictures.   More than usual were in attendance and all had projects in progress.