Daytime Stitchers

The Daytime Stitchers group met today at the Saline County Library in Benton. 

Gwen gave a tutorial on how she did the spiral quilting on a baby quilt she recently made. 

She also shared some items made from felted wool sweaters.  Some of her inspiration came from this book by Betz White:

Patterns for the Christmas stocking and the cupcake pincushion can be found in Ms. White's book.  The chocolate bear holding a honey pot is her own creation. 

 The other items were made from ideas found online.         

After the tutorial, there was show and tell.  Look how busy everyone has been. 

 Jane is making scarves with a new type of ribbon.

 Carolyn is working on another prayer shawl.

 A knitted shawl in progress:

 Shirley is working on the binding of her little witches wall hanging.  All of the pumpkins have different faces which she created by cutting and fusing black fabric.

 This is the back of her quilt and is stitched used variegated thread.  There are little cobwebs stitched into a few of the blocks.

 Windy has a sweet little sewing machine that needs a new home.  Wouldn't you love to adopt it 

 and feed it some fabric scraps?  I'm sure it would be very happy if you would!

 Cely is finishing up a charity quilt which she has hand quilted.

 JoAnn brought several items to show us.  I'm sorry the bunnies jumped around a little.  The photo doesn't do this little table runner justice.  Those are all yo yos that are criss crossing in the center.  There will be vines appliqued all around.

 Here are some more table runners that JoAnn made using the ten minute pattern available as a downloadable pdf here.  She added decorative stitching and appliques to each one to make them special and used up alot of fabric from her stash.  These will make lovely gifts.

 Henrietta is stitching more red work.

 Jean finished a pumpkin following the instructions Jo gave in her tutorial a few months ago.

 Jo is making progress on her fall stitchery.

 Sue finished a charity quilt and had hoped to learn how to apply a binding by machine

today but time ran out.

 Cheri has been making ruffled scarves.  Here is one she completed in Razorback colors.

 Jean put the binding on a charity quilt.

 Marge has been making hexigon flowers.

 She brought a quilt top that she planned on partially un-sewing to rearrange a block.

 Inspired by Shirley and Cely, Beulah has begun work on her quilty dolls quilt.

 Windy made an announcement about the upcoming coat drive in Saline County.

 

It is always good to gather with friends.

Until next time~~~Gwen

 

Regular Guild Meeting

The Guild had our regular monthly meeting Monday night at the Senior Adult Center.  Sondra introduced the new blocks for the 5:30 workshop.  Then she asked for everyone to show the progress they had made on their blocks.  Check out these beauties:

       

Windy gave us a humorous presentation on "Fun Things To Do With a Man's Shirt...Even When He's Not In It."  She said she grew up in a home that placed high value on making do with what they had and on re-using things until they were worn out.  Her mother extended the life of her father's shirts by removing the collars and turning them.  Windy showed us how she makes "memory aprons" for friends who have lost husbands or fathers.

She uses every part of the shirt to create something new.  Windy says this is like butchering a hog.  You use everything...including the squeal.  She carefully removes the sleeves and cuffs.  Then the front of the shirt is cut away from the back. Here is the front of the shirt that is ready to be made into a memory apron.

The back of the shirt is also made into an apron.

The sleeve has a drawstring added to one end.  Now it is a handy bag in which 

to store plastic grocery bags.

Any extra bits can be made into a soft toy:

 The cuff is stitched up on both sides and makes a handy pouch.  There's already a button closure!!

 Another bit of the shirt can be made into a couple of yo yos and used as decorations.

Now, go...find a shirt and cut it up!!

After Windy's program we had show and tell.  Tiffanee brought an antique quilt she had

 recently purchased.  She shared the history of the quilt.

 Tiffanee made this quilt with a panel available from Pinwheel Fabrics

 Tiffanee also made this quilt from a kit at the shop.  It uses five one-yard cuts of fabric.

 Beth teaches a quilting class at Johnston's Home Center.  This quilt is the result of her 

students' practicing.  It will be donated to a local charity.

Several of us took classes from Debbie Maddy where we learned the "no diamonds / no y seams"

 method of constructing this impressive design.  Beth completed her quilt. 

 Shirley and Sue finished their Santa table runners that were begun in the Saturday workshop taught by Fay.

 Cathy finished this little snuggle quilt.

 Fay is working on this quilt that she made using a pattern from Persimmon Quilts.  

There are quite a few Quilt of Valor mystery quilts on this site.

Until next time~~~Gwen