Marilyn and others made many pillowcases last year for us to donate to our usual charities. Today I delivered 7 fun 'kids' prints to Conkerr Cancer organization of which the local quilt shop, Quilting by the Yard is the drop-off center.
We also have 15 more that I'll be dropping off tomorrow at the Manchester Shelter on Main Street. (Done!)
Feels good to get them dropped off, but they had 30 people at the shelter last night, so maybe we can get more made for next month.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Feb Meeting
Unfortunately, it's the time of year when people come down with illnesses, so a few of our ladies couldn't make the meeting. But we had four of us, and although we didn't do much 'sewing', we figured out a lot of where we are heading and what 'homework' needed to be done!
We talked about the challenge with the HeartstringQuilt Project 6 month challenge, which made us look through the 'heartstring' box to see what quilts are in what progress. It was VERY productive because Margaret is finishing a child's lime green top,
Nancy will continue making lime green with selvedges,
Kathy is making white centers with homespun plaids (my favorite!),
and Janet took The leftover pink blocks from Oct 2009.
We have one QOV quilt with one more row to go (my homework), but Kathy has been going like crazy on the RWB HS blocks. She has a son going to Afghanistan in three weeks, so she's been 'on a mission' to create these blocks -she brought in 96 blocks- enough for two adult quilts!! (I borrowed 6 from her pile to finish this one - shown- and she's gonna make 6 more to complete the two we need to put together. I think I'm gonna put them together all differently, so they can each get their own 'name'. -- I LOVE to name them!!)
I'll be posting them and adding them to our count. I'll be posting photos of them as they get done, too. Come May and June, we'll be focusing on 'backs' to add to these, and hopefully, the June 6 hr event will consist of putting these together and tying them.
We did talk about going to Marden's, but I think a few of them can't make the trip due to car sickness/ can't sit for extended periods of time. We'll take a poll through emails to see if a trip is in the offing. (Maybe I'll just go with my hubby for a day trip!)
We talked about the challenge with the HeartstringQuilt Project 6 month challenge, which made us look through the 'heartstring' box to see what quilts are in what progress. It was VERY productive because Margaret is finishing a child's lime green top,
Nancy will continue making lime green with selvedges, 
and Janet took The leftover pink blocks from Oct 2009.
I'll be posting them and adding them to our count. I'll be posting photos of them as they get done, too. Come May and June, we'll be focusing on 'backs' to add to these, and hopefully, the June 6 hr event will consist of putting these together and tying them.
We did talk about going to Marden's, but I think a few of them can't make the trip due to car sickness/ can't sit for extended periods of time. We'll take a poll through emails to see if a trip is in the offing. (Maybe I'll just go with my hubby for a day trip!)
Monday, January 30, 2012
Two more found a home!
Two more quilts found a home last week.... in the process of blessing one quilt ("Lasagna with Tiger Stripes") on Sunday, a parishioner (LR) came up and spoke of a co-workers husband who has been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. She was very emotional about it, and it 'would be the perfect quilt', she said. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of this one. After going home to package it up and write a note with it (all our quilts arrive with notes), I had my daughter drop it off one morning before work. I hear it was so well received.
We also had another one ("Orange/Purple Scrapworks") that needed to comfort a woman (MY) in her late 50's/ early 60's who is suffering with Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. I personally delivered this quilt and met the woman and her husband. We received a thank you (not always done, never expected, but always grateful) that I'll share with the ladies at the next meeting. This was the back of another quilt, but I told the ladies if I could find a backing in Maine, then I'd make it into the front of a new quilt. (I'd used up all the 'scraps of fabrics' from the other quilt, hence the name.
We also finished another quilt (thank you, Muriel for binding it) that was a quilt 'fairy' gift. In the fall of last year, we found that someone had left us a few quilts that were just squares serged together into small quilts. Since we have not many requests for baby quilts, we put two of them together (they matched) and added 'side borders' to widen the quilts and voila, it was a top! I think I'll call this one "Blue Stone Path", since the squares are like cobblestones, and the borders along the sides make it into a path. (Isn't it funny? I've been pondering the name of this quilt -- I think they all need names-- for three days and it just came of me in the middle of writing that sentence!) This presently has no home....
Maybe next meeting we can just play with the jar quilt!
We also had another one ("Orange/Purple Scrapworks") that needed to comfort a woman (MY) in her late 50's/ early 60's who is suffering with Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. I personally delivered this quilt and met the woman and her husband. We received a thank you (not always done, never expected, but always grateful) that I'll share with the ladies at the next meeting. This was the back of another quilt, but I told the ladies if I could find a backing in Maine, then I'd make it into the front of a new quilt. (I'd used up all the 'scraps of fabrics' from the other quilt, hence the name.
We also finished another quilt (thank you, Muriel for binding it) that was a quilt 'fairy' gift. In the fall of last year, we found that someone had left us a few quilts that were just squares serged together into small quilts. Since we have not many requests for baby quilts, we put two of them together (they matched) and added 'side borders' to widen the quilts and voila, it was a top! I think I'll call this one "Blue Stone Path", since the squares are like cobblestones, and the borders along the sides make it into a path. (Isn't it funny? I've been pondering the name of this quilt -- I think they all need names-- for three days and it just came of me in the middle of writing that sentence!) This presently has no home....
Maybe next meeting we can just play with the jar quilt!
Saturday, January 14, 2012
"Can We Quilt?" event
Today was a great day...
There was not a lot of preparation (good on MY part) and although we only had 6 members show up, it was rather productive. If you've looked at previous postings, you'll see I tried to give a few 'hints' about what we'd be working on. I didn't even tell the members of the group. (It's much more fun that way!)
This is what I thought we'd work on.... (only three sections to put together, really). I wanted them to work on a 'jar quilt'. I'd been collecting a bunch of fabrics for my own jar quilt and decided that since I wasn't getting mine made, I'd live vicariously through the group project. (At first, I thought that was a terrible thing to do, but we had so much fun, that I didn't regret it at all!)
Here is my 'mass production' of jar lids. It would have been a great idea, until I figured out that the lids were the 'exact' size of the jar openings. If you look at a mason jar, the lid really does extend over the opening a little. Crap. That means I better have some other fabrics to make bigger lids, as I think I cut all of the lid fabric for the 'smaller' sized lids. (I did have some others, but they will be different).
This is the sample I drew up for the ladies of the jar and the lid.
The samples of the jars were a smaller size than I planned to make for the group quilt. The 'raspberry' fabric is the correct size (5.5" x 10.5"). I added borders to the 'samples', but I figured that when we made the jar blocks, we'd decide how wide to make the side bars that separated the jars when they sat on the shelf.
These are the pieces I had to have pre-cut.
Once I set everything out, I knew I would be cutting more sections, depending on how many and what size jars they chose to make. (We almost made them all, they enjoyed making them).
As much as the weather was good (no snow--OH! I said the 's' word!!), I think someone forgot to set the temp in the room above 64 degrees! It did get rather chilly in there. Poor Anna is freezing!!
Janet and Kathy were busy sewing jars.... My mom, Muriel kept busy ironing the sections of the blocks all morning.
Once we got going, we trimmed the blocks and laid them out on the tables, just to see what the plan might be to organize them on the 'shelves'.
We finally realized that if we spread out the black fabric, and laid the jars on it, that we'd get a better idea of what it would look like. We also added the pantry shelving so it would really have an audition. (Nothing is sewn in place, just 'placed', so we could move it around. Notice that we decided the shelves were getting kinda 'boring', all being the same size -see the above example). If you look at the one below, see how we made the top shelf divided and the next one down would be a 'short' shelf? It was more asthetically pleasing to the eye, don't you think?
We started really getting crazy (which is why the quilt top never got put together), and thought of adding a moth to the corner (or should we embroider a spider web in the corners?).
Or maybe figure out how to add a cricket/grasshopper to the top of a jar...
And how many grandmother's would have added a ruffle of fabric under the top edge of the cupboard? We thought yellow might be nice (nothing is written in stone, so we're still poondering ideas). Anyone have any ideas to offer? We'll be working on this for the next few months, I'm sure. Please feel free to make comments.
The other thing that did get done is that Marilyn was able to drop off the red, cream and blue HS quilt that she put together (she couldn't stay and play...:-( ). We may add a border or just make it this big. Next month, we'll look for a backing for it and maybe get it ready to be tied.
We also finished tying a blue /pink quilt and got it trimmed. Now I just have to sew the binding on it (hope to get it done on Monday-- MLK day), and have my mom finish hand-sewing it and add a label.
Not a bad day at all.........
There was not a lot of preparation (good on MY part) and although we only had 6 members show up, it was rather productive. If you've looked at previous postings, you'll see I tried to give a few 'hints' about what we'd be working on. I didn't even tell the members of the group. (It's much more fun that way!)
This is what I thought we'd work on.... (only three sections to put together, really). I wanted them to work on a 'jar quilt'. I'd been collecting a bunch of fabrics for my own jar quilt and decided that since I wasn't getting mine made, I'd live vicariously through the group project. (At first, I thought that was a terrible thing to do, but we had so much fun, that I didn't regret it at all!)
Here is my 'mass production' of jar lids. It would have been a great idea, until I figured out that the lids were the 'exact' size of the jar openings. If you look at a mason jar, the lid really does extend over the opening a little. Crap. That means I better have some other fabrics to make bigger lids, as I think I cut all of the lid fabric for the 'smaller' sized lids. (I did have some others, but they will be different).This is the sample I drew up for the ladies of the jar and the lid.
Once I set everything out, I knew I would be cutting more sections, depending on how many and what size jars they chose to make. (We almost made them all, they enjoyed making them).
As much as the weather was good (no snow--OH! I said the 's' word!!), I think someone forgot to set the temp in the room above 64 degrees! It did get rather chilly in there. Poor Anna is freezing!!
Janet and Kathy were busy sewing jars.... My mom, Muriel kept busy ironing the sections of the blocks all morning.
Once we got going, we trimmed the blocks and laid them out on the tables, just to see what the plan might be to organize them on the 'shelves'.We finally realized that if we spread out the black fabric, and laid the jars on it, that we'd get a better idea of what it would look like. We also added the pantry shelving so it would really have an audition. (Nothing is sewn in place, just 'placed', so we could move it around. Notice that we decided the shelves were getting kinda 'boring', all being the same size -see the above example). If you look at the one below, see how we made the top shelf divided and the next one down would be a 'short' shelf? It was more asthetically pleasing to the eye, don't you think?
We started really getting crazy (which is why the quilt top never got put together), and thought of adding a moth to the corner (or should we embroider a spider web in the corners?).Or maybe figure out how to add a cricket/grasshopper to the top of a jar...
And how many grandmother's would have added a ruffle of fabric under the top edge of the cupboard? We thought yellow might be nice (nothing is written in stone, so we're still poondering ideas). Anyone have any ideas to offer? We'll be working on this for the next few months, I'm sure. Please feel free to make comments.
The other thing that did get done is that Marilyn was able to drop off the red, cream and blue HS quilt that she put together (she couldn't stay and play...:-( ). We may add a border or just make it this big. Next month, we'll look for a backing for it and maybe get it ready to be tied.We also finished tying a blue /pink quilt and got it trimmed. Now I just have to sew the binding on it (hope to get it done on Monday-- MLK day), and have my mom finish hand-sewing it and add a label.
Not a bad day at all.........
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Dec meeting- Back up and Running!
Now that the power is back on (see previous post), we are back in session!
It's always good to get together with the ladies and see what they've gotten done since we last met (some do take home homework!)
And of course, we have a moment of personal 'Show and Tell".
This is a quilt by Margaret M (on right), who didn't really start quilting until we got this group together in 2007 (although I think she sewed some)... Great job! (This is a gift for someone who picked out the fabrics for her (Margaret doesn't like orange).
She had the quilting done by the lady who sometimes quilts our charity quilts, Laura McCarrick. Love the teapots, since I'm a tea drinker.
This one is so rich with color, and the color of the varigated thread is 'prime'!
Last one she brought wasn't further than a 'top'.... looks nice, M.
Here is one that Kathy (one of our newest members) worked on. She's made most of the blocks at home and during the meeting, some tied a blue/pink quilt while others placed the blocks for this quilt. Janet, Mary Ellen and Marilyn pinned this out, and Marilyn took it home to put together. Can't wait to see it in January!
It's always good to get together with the ladies and see what they've gotten done since we last met (some do take home homework!)
And of course, we have a moment of personal 'Show and Tell".
She had the quilting done by the lady who sometimes quilts our charity quilts, Laura McCarrick. Love the teapots, since I'm a tea drinker. 
This one is so rich with color, and the color of the varigated thread is 'prime'!
Last one she brought wasn't further than a 'top'.... looks nice, M.
Mary Ellen also finished a lasagna quilt (forgot to photo it, but will and will post soon) that I've decided to call, "Lasagna with a Tiger edge", since the binding looks like tiger stripes. I have to put a label on it, then it's done!
We did send off a quilt to Margaret's friend of 30 yrs who is suffering with liver cancer. I have to post the details later (notes are at church). See side bar for which quilt.
If I can get the label and ties and maybe a binding done for the blue;/pink quilt, we may end up the year with 23 projects done!
A ps.... sometimes it's meant for a quilt to go where they go. One of our parishioners came up to me after a service this past Sunday and thought she needed to request a quilt for her sister-in-law who was waiting to hear if her cancer is reoccuring (they are pretty sure it is). If it is what they think it's not good news at all. This lady who will receive the quilt is in her 70's and very small. She loves purple (and don't you know it, we had three to choose from). "Orange Comets" was just the right quilt for her. Glad we can send some prayers and comfort her way... We're praying for you, Bonnie.... (and no, there is no cost to request a quilt, but we also thank those who feel the need to donate to us, so we can continue what we do). Thanks, Kim.
A ps.... sometimes it's meant for a quilt to go where they go. One of our parishioners came up to me after a service this past Sunday and thought she needed to request a quilt for her sister-in-law who was waiting to hear if her cancer is reoccuring (they are pretty sure it is). If it is what they think it's not good news at all. This lady who will receive the quilt is in her 70's and very small. She loves purple (and don't you know it, we had three to choose from). "Orange Comets" was just the right quilt for her. Glad we can send some prayers and comfort her way... We're praying for you, Bonnie.... (and no, there is no cost to request a quilt, but we also thank those who feel the need to donate to us, so we can continue what we do). Thanks, Kim.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Storm Alfred cancels our Nov mtg
Due to the fact that our church had no power for the week, and we had so many families without power, or power, but lots of debris to contend with, I decided to cancel this month's meeting.
These photos are of my front and back yard... and the tree that came down between our house and the garage (they are separated by 10'). God was watching over us. My prayers were just for 'no structural damage and no injuries/loss of life' and I got it. Thanks be to God.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
First meeting after break
After a nice summer off (actually too much time off for me, because then it's hard to get back into quilting), we had a nice meeting with some 'show-n-tell' quilts, some updates on requests and some new faces!! Sorry, no photos this post.
First of all, welcome Kathy, and Laura. Kathy was introduced to us by Marilyn and Laura wanted to just 'check us out and help in any way' (she's a parisioner). I won't post last names to at least have some privacy for our members.
Some things brought up at our meeting.... We have three requests, ALL of which were able to be filled. THAT'S a rarity, so it was nice to be able to do. One request was for my cousin, D.P. who is battling ALS. another was for a parishioner, WP who is battling pancreatic cancer and another SA who has been suffering with a dibilitating disease that no one has been able to diagnose correctly (at least that's the last I've heard) and she is now house-bound. I was able to deliver WP's quilt (given to his wife at church on Sunday), and another parishioner (who provides us faithfully with rotary cutter blades--thanks Edith) volunteered to deliver it in person. I will send off the one for my cousin with my mom, when he's home (she visits his dad every month).
We also finished pinning a lasagna quilt (we rolled it out with pool noodles) and Maryellen took it home to quilt. We also had one of our quilt fairy quilts put together and the 'new girl', Kathy volunteered to pick out borders to make it wider and she'll take it home and add those. I think she even picked out a backing to go with it....if I remember correctly, it was fabric that I'd donated-- used to cover a love seat a long time ago.
I was hoping to send some 'homework' with the girls so we could make some black centered HS blocks for Mary Johnson of HSQP. No one took anything home, but they may surprise me and bring some to next month's meeting. Speaking of next month's meeting, last year I had to postpone the Oct mtg, due to my work schedule. I hope I don't have to do that again this year.
Okay, more clues to our Jan mtg project (the mystery)....I'm having the ladies actually make part of the project without really knowing what they will be working on. The 'focus' fabric will not be seen until Jan's event, but they will be cutting 1 1/2" strips our of black fabric, with some cut into 1 1/2" squares. Also, we'll be needing some marble-y browns and tan for part of it...(this doesn't sound pretty yet, does it? Don't worry it will be). I'll see what I can come up with next mtg.
For now,.... sew long...
First of all, welcome Kathy, and Laura. Kathy was introduced to us by Marilyn and Laura wanted to just 'check us out and help in any way' (she's a parisioner). I won't post last names to at least have some privacy for our members.
Some things brought up at our meeting.... We have three requests, ALL of which were able to be filled. THAT'S a rarity, so it was nice to be able to do. One request was for my cousin, D.P. who is battling ALS. another was for a parishioner, WP who is battling pancreatic cancer and another SA who has been suffering with a dibilitating disease that no one has been able to diagnose correctly (at least that's the last I've heard) and she is now house-bound. I was able to deliver WP's quilt (given to his wife at church on Sunday), and another parishioner (who provides us faithfully with rotary cutter blades--thanks Edith) volunteered to deliver it in person. I will send off the one for my cousin with my mom, when he's home (she visits his dad every month).
We also finished pinning a lasagna quilt (we rolled it out with pool noodles) and Maryellen took it home to quilt. We also had one of our quilt fairy quilts put together and the 'new girl', Kathy volunteered to pick out borders to make it wider and she'll take it home and add those. I think she even picked out a backing to go with it....if I remember correctly, it was fabric that I'd donated-- used to cover a love seat a long time ago.
I was hoping to send some 'homework' with the girls so we could make some black centered HS blocks for Mary Johnson of HSQP. No one took anything home, but they may surprise me and bring some to next month's meeting. Speaking of next month's meeting, last year I had to postpone the Oct mtg, due to my work schedule. I hope I don't have to do that again this year.
Okay, more clues to our Jan mtg project (the mystery)....I'm having the ladies actually make part of the project without really knowing what they will be working on. The 'focus' fabric will not be seen until Jan's event, but they will be cutting 1 1/2" strips our of black fabric, with some cut into 1 1/2" squares. Also, we'll be needing some marble-y browns and tan for part of it...(this doesn't sound pretty yet, does it? Don't worry it will be). I'll see what I can come up with next mtg.
For now,.... sew long...
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