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!

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.

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.

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...

Winter Quilting Event... (hint)

Between now and Jan 14th, I'll be hinting at what we will be working on at our Jan 6-hr quilting day. I really want to keep this a surprise, but the 'fun factor' is too much for me to keep quiet about. So, let the hinting begin... Hints are capitalized...

What CAN we do that will be different? Something we haven't tried before. Something to FEED the souls. But I don't want to keep everything behind closed doors. We should at least keep one door AJAR...

Any ideas, yet?

It's FOOD for thought, at least...

I love it!! Thank you...

Here is a recent recipient of one of our quilts.... the nice part is the quilt pattern is called Soduko and this lady plays Soduko every morning with her best friend (one of our 83 yr old members).

She was so comforted by it, she dozed off.....
It's machine quilted by Laura McCarrick with angel wings (design) and it's appropriate in the fact that this lady's husband died in the accident she was injured in.

Somehow, the quilt spoke to us that it needed to be with her.

Summer off...

Well, I have a few things to organize, schedules to plan, a quilt or two to 'fiddle' with and come Sept. we'll be back to having fun and finishing more quilts.

Last Year's Record broken!

Okay, so it isn't the MOST we've ever made for this group in one year, but it just went over last year's numbers.

We have just struck 20 quilts/items made for the year!!

I recently gave four away... Black Rose Panel (to a young woman with ALS, who is now bed-ridden), Rectangle Sudoku with Wings (given to my mom's BFF, who was injured in a terrible car accident- broke 6 ribs, collarbone and split lip-stitched-- and who's husband died), Shattered Italian Tiles (to a young woman who is going through 9 months of chemo for breast cancer), and Monet in Teal (to a woman who is going through her 3rd bout of cancer). And thank God we are blessed to have more in our stash for others.

I have two in my house I'm working on.... one that needed quilting (SITD) and binding(an orange one that WAS a pieced back-turned in to a top). One that needs to be pin-basted and tied, then bound (lasagna).
I think I'm gonna be a tad more laid back this summer. After all, I have a wedding I'm imvolved with for my oldest daughter (July 24th).

Sad news.....

Back in spring of 2010, we sent an emergency quilt to a friend of Mavie (of Maine). Mavie, a well known quilter on the Yahoo group, HeartstringQuilt Project, didn't have a finished quilt, but felt the need was urgent. We sent off one of our quilts that had been blessed in St Mary's during a service, with Mavie's thanks. Check out our last post regarding this amazing lady, Jackie L.
http://peacebypiecequilters.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html

The sad news... Mavie's friend passed away recently. Under the quilt. Her husband will find comfort in holding onto that quilt, I'm sure. Thanks for the update, Maive. It means a lot to us, too.




Mavie sent us 48 heartstring blocks as a thank you (I'm sure to replace the empty spot in our church's stash- it wasn't necessary, but appreciated). We put them together and named the quilt, "I Got the Blues in Maine", because it had blue center strips in each block.

We backed it with a lovely yellow print which we rolled the backing over to the front to make the binding and sealed the deal.

June Event!

What a success this was! Although I didn't have people show up right away (and let me tell you, I got nervous), I did end up with a great crew. Let's see... who showed....

Margaret M, Muriel S, Brenda K (who is usually in FL when we meet), Janet G (who's dad is doing much better-- must have been the quilt we sent him! LOL), me, Marilyn L, Carol "C" G, ... yup, that's it. Seven of us.

Here is my mom, Muriel (age 83) and Margaret on the right working on Wonky Log cabin.
Here is the noodle table (you'll see them in action later in this post), and the "Fishing Lines" at the other end, ready to be tied.

Marilyn's "Monet in Teal" was finished and ready to be sent to it's recipient, but it need to be blessed on Sunday. I'll send it from work tomorrow.

We were auditioning the binding for "Shattered Italian Tiles" , but after tying it, we decided to roll the backing over and use that. At least we have some extra bindings to use at some point.

Margaret rolled the backing over and is pinning this, so I can hand-sew it. Then it should be done.

Marilyn is stitching the rolled backing, used as the binding on this one. Almost done... yea!

Now, this shows the pool noodles in action. The backing and batting are rolled on the back one (left). The top is rolled on the (right one). Line them up, then press out wrinkles (if you have any--since you should have hand-pressed them out when the initial rolling was done). I think they tied it as they rolled it (although you could pin it instead. Just move the pinned area off the table in front of you and you can keep rolling the two noodles 6"-8" back further. We figured out we need a stiff dowel in the center of the noodles so they don't curve. Of course, they ended up with wrinkles on the back (we fixed them), but they figured it was because they were talking and having too much fun!

BTW, Brenda (middle), what are you using those scissors for?... lol (I know the truth, don't I?). I'm SURE you were helping "C" and Janet...

Marilyn's done! Now that one can get blessed.

Number 3! This one is finished....

This is the backing, but we 'oops-ed' the label on the backing, so we had to 'patch it'. It worked, but we still have to label it.

What WAS the best part??? (other than getting four quilts done and ready to bless..)

Dessert, of course! I had a blast making home-made ice cream cones (and waffle bowls) the night before. I brought all the fixin's for ice cream sundaes

Now, who says we don't have fun!!!!???? (this is me)

The funny part was, that a few others in the church found us and we offered to share our dessert... and after a discussion of the waffle cone maker and where I bought it, I heard there was a 'run' on the store and three of our parishioners bought them out!!!! (at $15 each they WERE a steal!)

Glitch

Just got a heads up that there will be a reception after a wake/funeral at 4pm on the day of our event. (!)

What do we do now? I usually have a relaxing time taking all the tables down, cleaning up, etc. after all the ladies have left. Now, I'll feel as though I'm rushing to be out of there much earlier than usual (we usually have our quilting event from 9am-3pm or 4pm). Now I'll either have to have it from 8am-2pm or move it to another Sat.

I'm hoping to talk to the secretary to see what can be done.(we can't move it to another part of the church as the only other space is downstairs and I'm NOT lugging ALL the stuff needed for our event, to the other end of the church AND down a flight of stairs! I'd rather move the date. We spend too much time going into our cabinets for supplies and that's right off Anderson Hall (where we both need to use the space).  Hopefully, we can find a compromise. Hard to have to change the plans at this stage of the planning. Somehow, God will provide (just wished his timing was different, ... but then, it's HIS timing, not mine. )

 

Pre-May mtg

Well, we've gotten a few quilts to the done stage since our last mtg.

1. "Geisha's Fan-fare"- My name for it, anyway. We added a fabric to the back that looks like a map, and it seemed to fit the Oriental front.

2. "Peachy Cream"- We chose a nice dark brown for the binding and my mom sewed that to it. Looks nice.
I have a few more that need to be finished to the top stage and then maybe put together at the June mtg (all day event).

I have three thoughts for the June event...
   1. Orphan blocks
   2. New blocks ideas
   3. tying marathon again (seemed to work fine last time).

We did give a few quilts away this month. "Where's My Shirt?" went to Nadine B. in OH, just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The quilt was requested by her daughter in Toronto. We sent it out UPS ($23) to the daughter so she could have the kids sign the blocks (hopefully, it will be subtle, although it's Nadine's quilt now, so she can do what she wants with it).

We also gave Edith B a quilt for her Aunt Sally in CO. She has carcoma. We gave her the "Purple Batik HS/Aqua" quilt. Edith will get it to her aunt.

One of our youth in the church will be going to Mexico for a mission (2nd yr) and asked to bring a quilt with her. We have no problems with it as long as it isn't used as a gift to the padre that is in charge of their mission. It needs to be used for a family in need. Until next mtg...

April meeting- Massage Therapy

Well, not actually massages, but the backs ARE being worked on. lol. Just not OURS....

I really wasn't sure how many would be at this meeting, as our UConn mens game would be tonight (that's what I'd heard- I don't watch it). Our March and April meetings are always a little dice-y because of March madness. However, we ended up with 9 women there and we really got a lot done.

Hazel was there VERY early, so I got her started on some leftover Project Linus quilts that I took from the weekend's 'quilt-a-thon'. Four PL quilts, done! (They just needed tying).

 I had also come over very early yesterday and set up the tables and set out the quilts that we had bought backings for in Maine, and made sure that the backs actually 'fit' the tops (some needed to be altered/divided). I split and divided three. So, when the ladies got there, we had a brief show-n-tell of a few of the projects in the works, then heard of the recipients that quilts were being requested for.

One recipient contacted us (actually the daughter did) after finding us online, googling the type of cancer her mom was diagnosed with.After finding out a little about the mom and her family, the ladies and I decided to send her the quilt she requested- (that's my favorite) with a suggestion of how to include her grandchildren in it. I had thought of 'pocket prayers' for each of the family members, but the ladies suggested that, because the fabric on "Where's My Shirt?" is so light, maybe the family can trace their hands on some of the blocks and sign their names. We'll suggest that (as it's much quicker than waiting for us to make the minis).

Here are the ladies tying one that we finished (I'm doing the binding at home).

We also have two others to contact to see if they would like to have us send their requests out at this point (we have been finishing a lot of adult quilts... something we were short on). As we finish them, we are posting them on the sidebar, by year. Once they have a home, we post that too, so you get to see where they reside (the quilts, not the recipients! lol).
Our Rectangle Sudoku quilt needs to get blessed this coming Sunday... Mom finished the binding on that.

 These two shots, showed how close we came to the edge of the backing- we'd already widened it. We wanted to roll this over to make the binding, so I guess I'll have to trim off an inch from the edges.

I have three to finish at home. One above, to just machine-stitch the binding on (was gonna give it to my mom, but it's a rolled edge, so machine quilting is easy and fast), and two - see the peach quilt that Marilyn made and donated) to machine quilt (I have an idea that this will be nicer than tying- the quilts 'told me' that's what they'd like, too). No, I'm not that crazy, but the quilts do tend to let us know what works and what doesn't work on them. This one I'd like to call "Peachy Cream", but I'll check with Marilyn to see if it already has a name.

 
We also planned to meet in May, but have our 'summer event on June 4th, not sure what we'll work on yet, but it will get planned soon. Then we won't meet again until Sept. (unless they convince me otherwise...grin).

Field Trip!!

We started this last year, doing a field trip to Marden's (store in Maine), and this past Tuesday was our day. I got a 'heads up' to call the fabric dept manager and 'alert her' that we were coming and I thought considering last year's trip, that would be a good idea. She was excited that we would come all the way up to Maine (from CT), she even put out the cookies! Literally!!

They gave us sooo much fabric for our Project Linus event for this Saturday, probably thousands of dollars worth! FREE! And 10% off everything, some things were even 50% off when they were already on clearance. Amazing.... They are such good supporters of our charity quilting. We are so blessed to have them on our list of contributors.

Here are some of the fabrics and the tops that I had to match up....

This is one (front) that we made a pieced back for and no one wanted me to waste it on the back. So I said if I found a backing for BOTH of them, I'd make it into two tops vs. a top and a bottom.

Well, I found the backing for this one, too (the dark purple/blue will be the binding), so we have an extra top.

This is a green lasagna quilt...great 'forest' backing.

This Shattered Italian Tiles will get a brown backing, and we'll use a section of the leftover tiles for a part of the back. It'll be cool, you'll see.

This aqua was voted by all the ladies, as it will go around the outer edges and be the binding, too. It should bring out all the beauty of the border's feathery strokes.

This one looks weird, but in person, the striped backing will be beautiful. We'll use a black binding which will look great on both sides!

These two fabrics will be great in some future block.

This 'shirting material' will be beautiful on both of these two tops...We still have to put a blcak border around the second lasagna quilt.

We did learn something valuable last year.... After taking 3 hrs to get there, we decided to eat first, before shopping. Come noontime, we were 'fed and happy' (so to speak...) and ready to shop. when we got to Marden's, Bonnie did indeed have the cookies out. lol...

I only bought what we needed for the backings and some replacements for the frontal altar cloth I've been commissioned to make for the church's main altar by our priest, for a total of $70. Some of the other amounts spent were in the ranges of $160, $124, $48, $80, etc.... Not too bad for the 2 1/2 hr of shopping.

Maybe we'll go again in late summer. Who knows what we'll need. (Actually, we won't need anything at all). It's always a fun trip though....Re-energizes us.

Just in Time

We had a request, very casually, for a parishioner who has been in a Rehab center and not attending church recently. She was very involved with choir, and her family has been VERY involved with the church for many, many years. In fact, one of our halls is named in their honor, Anderson Hall.

In finding out info regarding the health of this woman, we found she had recently been diagnosed (unbeknownst to the woman making the quilt request) with cancer. We made arrangements for this woman's sister to pick out a quilt and hand-deliver it to her in the hospital.

We were thankful she got to find some comfort in it for the short time she lived after. She died Monday morning (one week later). Isn't it interesting how God works at just the right time and speaks to the right people in just the right way.... Rest in peace, Karen.

Behind the scenes

What you don't see behind the scenes that is going on, is ladies BINDING!!

I had given the ladies quilts to bind and I've been getting them back like crazy!! Muriel (my mom) loves to bind, so I've been 'throwing' them in her direction, but Marilyn has been a 'house a-fire', too! I just received quite a few back (check out the list on the sidebar-right- for February 2011) and can't wait to get them blessed (next Sunday). We are creating quite a list of recipients (that's always a good thing), so I hope to send some quilts on their way, to do the work they do (comfort). So far I have lots of kids quilts, some could be lap quilts, so the goal this year is to make more adult-sized quilts.

There. I said it.  Now let's make it happen.

These are the quilts that got blessed... I was honored to have the "Where's My Shirt?" quilt on the main altar... this was a special project that the plaid shirts that we cut up for the blocks came from parishioners donated shirts.

This one I especially loved the label that went with it...

I'll be posting some tutorial photos soon of the blocks I'm having the ladies try at the Mar mtg. One (the quilt we'll make from these blocks will probably be called "Black Diamonds at Sunset") took a little while to figure the 'right' way to put these blocks in order, but I've figured it out. Putting it in a tutorial will help the ladies with a computer be able to refer to this blog to refresh their skills when they need it.

Can't wait to meet in March. We also need to figure a day to take a field trip to Marden's (in Maine). I think this is getting to be an annual trip. I personally don't need any fabric (unless it's for a backing), so my expenses will be slight. Part of the Mar mtg will be to decide which quilts we have made into tops that don't have anything we can make into backs and bring those to Marden's with us to find a back. Last time we did that, Marden's made out with other people there getting inspired (from seeing our group's quilt tops) and therefore buying more material than they originally went there for. We are good business!

"Let's Tie One On"-quilting event

Well, did we have a great time, or what??!!

We had beautiful weather, plenty of projects to finish and 9 women show up to help. I am thankful Margaret came even though she had a baby shower to go to at 1pm that day.

We had the room set up on Friday, laying out all the quilts that we had sandwiched and backed. I even put the embroidery threads at the tables to save time.

This is one of my favorites... It's one that I asked the parishioners for a specific donation. I told them to look in their closets and see if they had a plaid shirt that they just couldn't wear anymore and donate it. I had a box at our church and every week a few would show up in the box. Then our 'ironer', Pat H. decided we weren't getting them fast enough and she bought a dozen of them at the thrift shop in town and WHAM! we had MORE than enough! Thanks Pat.... This is what I planned on making with them (but we have plaid heartstring blocks that we're making too, so plan to see more plaid quilts. They make great 'guy' quilts, although I LOVE this one! I think I'll call this one, "Where's My Shirt?".

This was my experiment, Free form Stars... I can never quite get the color right when I take a photo of the blocks, but it's really stunning in person. I loved the batik in the background. Named? "Orange Comets".

We had a demo table that we never got to address in any manner, because we 'visit' so much. I'm sure I'll come back to that in the future.

This is another favorite of ours... This was a panel print from Marden's in Maine (last field trip), I just added the black borders on it, and we hope to quilt around the blocks to make it look as though it was pieced. Named? "Black Rose Panel".

This was a cute idea... envelope blocks (I saw one online in a photo and decided I could design it from memory. Not bad, huh?) I call this one, "P.S. I Love You".  We plan to put a 'real' envelope pocket on the back for the label. These envelopes you can't open, but we'll make one for the label on the back that you can open.

This cute boys heartstring quilt was made by Margaret when the hearstring yahoo group had their yellow center string project going (how long ago was that?)... Named? "Yellow HS Boys quilt".

Pat B.'s cream heartstrings are finally getting done. She gave us about 5 different size ones 18 months ago...Boy, it does take us a long time to finish things, but don't they say, "anything worth something is worth waiting for".

This little cutie, called "Critter's Picnic" was finished before this event, we hadn't had it Blessed yet. We did that on Sunday.

The supply table.

Batting and cutting table. (And another quilt to sandwich).

This is the tops we have in the wings... they have no backings yet, which is why they haven't gotten done.

Some of our members brought in their personal quilts to show us (always inspiration). Anna did a beautiful job on this quilt.

Marilyn does lovely work. She has been a quilter for years.

The back of this quilt is beautiful...

even the little owl. I love it.

This quilt, Marilyn donated to our group. It's a beauty!

This was another one she wasn't sure what to do with (we suggested a chocolate brown border). She donated that one also.

And these were a 'stack and whack' set of blocks she just was 'trying out'. We found a sashing fabric, so that may be another quilt when it grows up. We'll keep you updated.

Now they have finally settled down to 'work'. Ya know, sometimes you have to crack that whip to get them all to focus.Here Marilyn and Margaret work on the envelope quilt. We tied it from the back so we could tack down the flaps without the strings being a distraction. We found a navy blue binding for it. Marilyn will take that home to finish.

Anna and Wendy (a new guest) were busy tying Pat's heartstring quilt.

Since Pat H. (our diligent ironer) couldn't make it, my mom (Muriel) filled it. See what a wonderfully big space we have to work in? Praise God and St Mary's for that.

Jane and "C" were having WAYYY too much fun! But this one got finished to the pre-binding stage (I have the bindings to finish this one at home).

These guys are still at it, and it's going quite well....

Almost done....Anna, Wendy and Muriel are pinning the binding (the backing is just rolled over) and I'll sew this one before the end of the day. No label, but it will get done!

Almost done.... go girls!

Here is this one, sans the navy binding. Marilyn will finish this one.

This one is done!! We'll bless it on Sunday.

Anna is rolling over the backing (green plaid) for this one. Once we did that, we realized it was slightly crooked (the back plaid), so we are cutting it off all the way and I'm cutting the strips from the leftover plaid to cut 'straight' and attach it. No one will notice that the back itself isn't straight. (Okay, now that I've posted that here, someone will look when they get the quilt. Darn).

Sunday morning, this quilt and "Critter's Picnic" baby quilt were blessed. This is June T. who was given this quilt for her cancer treatments. I hope it keeps you warm, June.

Just an update a week later...

here are some of the finished quilts as the last minute touches are done on them.

PS I Love You...the only thing I need to add to this is the functional envelope on the back (we'll put an uplifting message in the envelope when we know where this one is going).

This cute little one is one of Heartstrings Quilt Projects "Yellow centers"..with boy fabrics.

Hey Mavie, this one is from the blocks I picked up from you in Maine last May. You had given us these blocks to thank us for your friend's quilt we made for her. My grandson LOVES this one!! Not sure where it's going, but it's got HIS okay. Named? "I Got the Blues in Maine".

What do you do when you get a quilt finished and realize one of the seams is pulling away?/??? You sew two selvedges together (raw edges to raw edges), open it up, then blindstitch it over the seams. Worked for me!

Thought this was a cute heartstring label for a couple of our quilts.