Marden's March Madness

Okay.... there was only 5 of us... However, we should have warned them we were coming. REALLY. Cricket and I knew what to expect, so as much as I had mentally put a $35 budget in my head, and Cricket's budget was slightly higher than mine, WE would know how hard it is to STICK to a budget going in the store. The ladies had chipped in $5 each (for buying backings) for the tops we had made, but I knew one of the ladies that couldn't go had said she'd donate some money and my mom was gonna add a little; so when we got done, I only went $15 over budget (for my personal stuff) and once we have the additional $$ come in, we'll have only gone $10-15 over-budget on the PbPQ donations (and that's already in the church budget-special funds).

Please take note that all the bolts on this table (second photo) are ONE person's purchases....(no names to protect to guilty, LOL).

 These ladies that waited on us were AMAZING!! "The boss" on the right of Jane, was gracious to give us 10% of anything we all bought, because we were making charity quilts, Project Linus, and Con-Kerr Cancer pillowcases. (they are collectors of Project Linus quilts....)

 We spent the day there.... felt like the night, too! We arrived at 11:15am (3 hr car ride), then shopped until some of us were ready to drop!! By the time all the fabrics were cut (some of us REALLY behaved- others, NOT!), it was 3:30pm and we WERE STARVED!!!!!! As Cricket's fabric was undergoing the 'knife', I (who was in the van with the rest of the ladies) went back into Marden's and got m & m's, granola, ...you know... the special stuff you want to survive on if the van goes into a gully (I call it "gully food").

Okay... now at home...Well, this is the stuff for me, plus the backings for church group.... the pile in the front are the quilts that we were trying to match fabrics for.

Boy, was it nice to spread it all on the table. MY pile is on the far right., church quilt tops on the far left and the two piles in the middle are the fabrics for church use.

 Here is a few photos of the QOV backings...

 Some wonderful fabrics... nothing was over $2.99 yd. Some of the designers were Michael Miller, Henry Glass & Co, Timeless Treasures, etc. good stuff.!

 Here is some Easter egg type of fabrics, we have a quilt or two in mind.

 The top fabric in the photo below, could be borders on the Yellow/blue heartstrings block-party blocks. The ocean waves will go on the Blueberry quilt, and not sure about the top fabric, but ain't it pretty?

The black fabric in the middle will go for borders, pretty swirls of color in it. 

Great kids fabrics. 

 Landscape fabric panels with a nice terracotta marble-y fabric to use somewhere....

Wouldn't this look great cut into strips for heartstring quilts? Just funky enough for me!! Yeah! 

 Loved these prints.... Never thought I'd find the bottom 'map' fabric. I used it 5 yrs ago to make my grandson's quilt. Do I dare tell you it was $1.99 and it feels like silky cottons..... heaven.

 More of MY personal stash....

This is also, mine....

 

Okay, here is some of the tops with their counter-parts.  This one just had all the brights in it that were in the top.

Four panels long will make this backing (we're planning to add a border on this quilt for a returning wounded veteran).

This one I'm sharing the 'map' fabric with the PbPQ to use for the backing on this quilt.

... the left is the border?, and the right is the backing. Will make a cute kid's quilt.

Waves for the blueberry...

And this light print for the border and maybe even for the backing.

The one thing I discovered with I got home with all my goodies, is that when they laid out the bolt on the cutting table, they folded over the raw edge, put the fold on the edge of the yardstick (on the table) and then began the measuring. The thing I loved was that they amount of fabric that they folded over, was at least 6-10 inches of fabric, so most of our 1.5 yds really measure at almost 2 yds!!! I love MARDEN"S!!

Last large quilt requested

One of our members called to see if her sister-in-law could have a quilt... She was in a car accident and has numerous broken bones, and a chunk from her knee. The recovery will be long so I hope this quilt brings her some comfort. Thanks, Anna for letting us know. I didn't think we had a photo of it, but I found one.

Dunkin Donuts Quilt- bye bye

I got a request for one of our quilts for a friend (in her late 50's) of our former deacon, Karen Fedorchak. Karen's friend is undergoing surgery for breast cancer and she wanted to know if we had one without a home.

I chose the "Dunkin' Donut" quilt, hot pink and oranges against black and whites. I LOVE this one. I thought it had breast cancer fabric in it, but that was another one. I think she'll like it too.

Tropical Tiles Heartstrings Quilt

This little beauty which I've decided to name "Tropical Tiles" was put together by Anna Robillard and put together (from the borders out) by the rest of the ladies at the beginning of this year.  It was blessed during a Sunday service. the ties are extra long, so prayers may be tied into it by doctors, nurses, visitors, etc so that comfort might be gotten from the knots (prayers) you feel in the ties.

We got an emergency request for a 47-48 yr old woman with leukemia, from a member of Heartstrings quilt Project (yahoo group)- Mavie Quarles. I offered to send this one, since it had no home. I mailed it off to Jackie L in Maine today. She is a registered nurse at a medical center, in the adult cardiac intensive care unit, has gone on numerous healthcare missions to other countries, just the kind of women you really respect and care about. Hope if brings some peace and comfort to you ,Jackie. Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Mavie.

March Madness...?

Well, this was a productive mtg!! First of all, the pillowcases we made for Jan and Feb (for the http://www.allpeoplequilt.com's/  1,000,000 Pillowcase Challenge) gave us a total (made from the group) to be....(da tah dah daa!), 89!! Thirty-seven will go to the Con-Kerr Cancer organization, 20 will go to the local shelter and 32 to Alycia (member of HeartstringsQuiltProject) for her QOV quilts. I had the ones we made, prior to this mtg, blessed in last Sunday's church service, so I'll deliver them this week to the respective places.

These are some quilts that one of our members donated to our cause. The Drunkard's Path is more for my reference to go with a set of plastic rulers she gave to me. The Black/White and the other green one are Lasagna Style quilts, and the red/green one looked like a slice and dice quilt. (Note the pillowcases in the baskets? They're already blessed.)

This one really just needs a border (I think they found a gold fabric), but it also needs a larger one (maybe teal?)... We'll see. It's for a 9-yr old girl swimmer with bone cancer (relative of a parish member). Do you see the star? "Swimming Star"?... Get it?

We had quite a few members last night and it was good, because we needed to find a few things for upcoming quilt requests (one for a premmie), so Anna & I sorted (some even took strings/crumbs home to sort), and got rid of some fabrics we know we'll never use. We'll use them for more heartstring quilts.

Muriel, Marilyn and Enid worked on Chandler's quilt. Marilyn donated the pretty blue binding for this quilt. It just set it off beautifully! The pattern is a Wonky Happy Block put together by Janet G. Nice work, Janet. Even the back looks beautiful! Mom has one more side to finish. I'll post that photo later.

One of our members, Enid finished a beautiful yellow heartstring quilt. Not sure where it's going yet, but once we get it blessed this coming Sunday, we may have a taker.

I also, finished fixing a border on this beautiful quilt  made by one of our members (it was "waving at us"). It was nice to go there a little early (2:30-3pm-ish) to set up and sew in the quiet of the church hall. It's no longer waving so frantically, lol.

This one was found in our quilting area, must have been done by a quilt fairy... We're gonna donate it to Heartstrings Quilt Project. It's bigger than we feel we can quilt. Great QOV quilt, though when Mary gets done quilting it.

We are also planning a trip to Marden's - right after Easter- to buy fabric for backings (mostly), but I'm sure those that come will be spending some money to fill their own stash. It's a great place to get fabric (although it's in Sanford, ME- 3.5 hrs away) at a really reasonable price ($2.00-$3.50 vs. $10-12 a yd, for the same designer fabrics... RJR, Kaufman, Timeless Treasures, etc). I'm gonna hit it again in May when I'm on vacation, but this one will be a 'field trip' for the group. We set aside 4 quilt tops that need a back...we'll bring them with us. What fun!

February mtg-- Can you say... "productive'?

Well, we had a good turn-out and boy, were the girls productive!! Marilyn brought another basket full of pillowcases and Margaret brought in the seven that she took home the 'parts' for. I tried to separate them into kids and non kids, as the non-kids will be going to a local shelter and Alycia's QOV NSF project. The kids ones will go to Conn-Kerr Cancer (drop-off at the CT Children's Medical Center in Hartford).

This group is for the kids...

Here are more for the kids (think we have 29 so far)....

These are the more adult ones for the shelter and Alycia.... I think how we talked about dividing them was to bring all the adult ones to the shelter and have them choose, since they would know how many women and men they usually have stay there....

I found a few more for photos..... I think we ended up with close to 60 pillowcases.

I, originally, thought I'd get the Gold/Purple HS quilt sandwiched, but I realized the ladies were diving into making a back for Chandler's quilt (this is a little girl with Leukemia, who loves the turtle across the street from her house-lives in a pond. Her mom and one of our members know each other from a book club). ... And they were having such a good time with it, I let them go. They found a great block and added a border around it, but then I had to tell them they needed the back to be slightly bigger (at least 2-3" a side) than the front. I should haven't taken a picture of their faces.... :-( We had plenty of the back's border material, so we divided the center panel into quarters.... It worked out fine! And we have a wonderful quilt shop owner, Laura McCarrick, who will be quilting Angel Wings design into it.

And THEN we tossed around a few ideas for our Strips and Strings Log Cabin blocks, pattern from Mary's Heartstring blog. This was one idea...

Or we could do furrows...(is that the name of this pattern?)

Here is Janet's Purple Log cabin.... I'd love to call it Lilac Garden or Lilac Logs. Not sure what it will be til we're done. Isn't it a beauty???

We figured out we have enough to make a 4x6 block purple, a 5x7 block size scrappy and more scrappy blocks for a smaller size, maybe 4x6 blocks (we always add some borders to it to expand them). Works for us!!

Great day even having "Cabin Fever"!

Well, I must say the "Cabin Fever" was a success!

We had some things worked on at home before the event ( 19 Pillowcases by Marilyn alone), but all in all, it was very productive. Here are some of the pillowcases that were done by the end of the day.

We had 13 women show up, and while some had to leave at noon (party animals!- one being my mom at the age of 82!!) and Cricket and Ginny (and son Steve, who I kept calling Scott!- hey, Steve, that's a compliment, since I have two sons in the family named Scott) got delayed by the tractor trailer accident on I-91 in Enfield, they still got a couple of hours in. I even extended it until 4pm. It was even nice to see an old friend, Linda H from my old guild chapter. Thanks for inviting her, Marilyn! Here Linda is showing Donna how to make her first pillowcase.

We had lots of goodies that people brought to share and thanks to Jane P who knew how to set up the coffee machines, we had great coffee. Everyone kind of had their lunches when and wherever they were.

We had some strips already cut before we started. Some donated and some we cut up there. Marilyn's shoulder wasn't doing well after surgery, so she was kind enough to come just to cut 'pillowcase kits' to be ready when we switched over to making them.

After getting some brief instructions on Mary's Strips and Strings Log Cabin pattern, everyone kind of dug in to the strips and started spitting them out. Janet found a lovely bunch of purples and put them together with the cream strips. They came out nice. I think she ended up making 11 blocks (I'm sure we can add one or more to that and put a border on it. I personally have TONS of purple to add.) Cricket and Ginny still had some work to do on their's (12) , although they got 14 done between them that were finished. They will add the 12 to the pile by the NH sew-in  at the end of the month.

Here's Anna getting started.

 Once they started, they found they had to keep track of which color strip to add next. We did take Mary's advise and just 'cut' off the mistaken strip vs. seam ripping it off. Much faster. I did find each table having a sample was beneficial and I even printed off a few copies of the instructions. That helped, too.

Ginny and Cricket gave some great advice to the group regarding the care of our sewing machines which I know I for one, found VERY beneficial!! (I'm a bad woman, I don't think I've ever oiled mine-- the saleswoman said I never had to !!) After the NH Sew-in, I'm sending mine to be serviced!!Jane and her friend Peg had fun, but,... Peg, don't I see you seam ripping??... NIX on that! LOL

I found putting the irons at the ends of the table groups worked out much better than at the far end of the hall.

Janet finally got to the measuring stage... how much more will she need for those last sides? I LOVED her jacket!! Those colors are my favorite.

 

Here is my mom heading off for a birthday party for her 90th yr old 'beau'. ( I heard she had another party on Sunday!! She's more of a party animal than I EVER was !!!!)

Linda's pillowcases were hanging off everywhere, while Peg and Jane diligently worked on log cabin blocks.

I think we ended up with 35 blocks done and trimmed, but Janet had a little more to do for her 11, and Cricket, the same with her and Ginny's 12, I had a little more to do on my 8, so I think we may have ended up with enough for 3 log cabin quilts (24-30 blocks each, if we put borders on them). Hopefully, we'll get them tuned in at the Feb. mtg.

By the end of the day, this is what was left for making pillows. I scooped them all up and may make the rest of them by the weekend, depending on the babysitting schedule. If I can't get them made, I'll have them cut up into kits, so we can sew them at the Feb mtg.