"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.........