First Meeting is rather productive

First meeting of the year (after our summer break) proved to be good. We got some decisions made on designs and talked about what is up and coming.
 This is the Motorcycle quilt (Cycling in VT), that we needed to figure out what to fill in on those corners. Decided to go with HST with white on one side and selvedge strips on the other side of the triangle, to kind of 'box' it in. Center four squares that surround the middle block will be orange (not white). Also will put corners with motorcycle fabric.

This is a cutie made by Enid... Makes me think of a baseball diamond, missing 1st base. "Where's First Base?" is my choice of names. What do you think?

 More Pocket prayers.... yeah! We haven't run out yet. That's good.

 This is one of the last of the Blue Belly quilts... made by Kathy S. (I think it's #5).  Will make a good guy quilt.

Kathy made this Mountain Majesties quilt top, but said it would be her last (of this pattern). These are smaller than the blue/purple/gold one shown in an earlier post. We decided to add a border and dark green binding with a green /pink floral backing. "Green Mountain Majesties"...

 Sent off some pillowcases and tops (below) to Alycia Carmin in CO who does wonderful work with a long arm finishing these quilts and delivering them to our veterans. Thanks Alycia.

 This is Kathy's "The Last Hurrah", as she is out of RWB fabrics (as she says "No more QOV quilts for me!" What she doesn't know is that QOV quilts can be any color at all, so it won't be the last from us, LOL)

" Navy Men"...

 Close up

" A Military Thank you"

 close up

"Service Salute"

 Here is the pile of blocks for the cycling in VT  quilt top. Hope to have it put together by the end of the weekend.

 Cut the borders (rust), and the binding (dark green) and the small square of fabric poking out is the backing.

 This quilt, made by Kathy S. I'm calling "Just Ducky" was sent to a 5 yr old girl dealing with kidney issues. Just had a 'port' taken out while in the hospital. Glo (my co-worker) says she thought she had HPV, but I think she may have the initials mixed up.

Well, can't wait to see what gets done for the next meeting!

Re-cycling in Vermont

Every year, my family heads to VT for some time at a family cabin. My mom always had a week there  and I usually head up at the end of her vacation, to help shut the cabin down. This is one of the quilts I had to work on..."Mountain Majesties" is the pattern, but I joined them so I could call it "Pawlet Mountain Trails" (after all, I'm on Pawlet Mountain).

 Really do love the colors on it and will use scraps of the golds/creams for a backing. Needed to just add the one last column, then straighten out a few of my seams.

 

 I think this will be close to what I name one of these quilts...."Cycling in Vermont". It was requested by a parishioner for a friend who is ill and they love motorcycles. She bought us the cycling fabric (and a bribe-food-, lol...never needed, but appreciated) and working with was I had on hand, I thought the deep blue was perfect. Since it was cycling' fabric, I thought I'd use my selvedge edges (the parts you all throw away!) to brighten up the quilt. (I found it hard to lay this quilt out inside the cabin...did I forget to tell you the cabin is a one-room building-unles you count the bathroom?)

Well, at least I have the deck outside (as big a floor plan as the cabin itself). I think this will be the plan ...so far. 

 If I need to make it longer,I'll add two strips (2.5" finished) above and below.I'll fill in the muslin with more selvedge edges to carry the theme throughout the quilt.

 

 This is the bunkbed I slept in...bottom one. But I found a small end table from the porch for my machine, and used the dresser as my cutting table. Worked for me. You are actually looking at a quarter of the room! Oh, did I forget to tell you it's a one-room cabin? yeh......(I'm leaning against the other bunkbed to take this photo)

 Nothing like having an ironing station on the back porch. It isn't very wide, but it doesn't need to be. Can't wait until we go to the first meeting to see what else we can do for these two quilts!

A few more quilts delivered!

It's wonderful when you can deliver the quilts yourself, some people are really surprised that you thought to give them one, so it was nice to be able to have some nice big quilts for them.

This quilt, "Angel Among the Stars"  went to Pat, a parishioner who just recently had total shoulder replacement. (It matches her couch perfectly).

The quilt was made by Mary Ellen Z. with scraps from all her fabrics. She took a project I assigned with 'wonky stars' and made it really great! The quilting was done by Laura McCarrick, co-owner of Quilting by The Yard quilt shop in Vernon, CT, who quilted angel wings into it....Beautiful work, Laura!

Mary Ellen also made this "Road to Oklahoma" quilt....When you step back, you get to see the stars. This went to Alycia, a lady in town who is going through kidney dialysis, waiting for a transplant.

Something fun to try, before we meet in Sept/Oct.

The woman we send our Quilts of Valor to (in CO), is having a Big Blowout Block Drive and is offering prizes..... Anyone wanting to play with these blocks is welcome to send her some. Good luck and have fun!!! Thanks Alycia for doing this fun event.

http://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/2013/08/big-blowout-block-drive.html

Donations

I never talk about our funding much, but I'd like to take a moment to thank some people. The Emblem Club of Manchester #251, for their donation. Also, Shirley, a parshioner. Sometimes we have no clue as to the way we touch those who receive our quilts, but then, ...sometimes we do.

Obviously, "Someone" wants us to continue. Okay, God, we will....

Hot Pockets!!

No, not the food... These are what Kathy called her 'collection' of Pocket prayers done during the heat wave for two weeks. And what a collection she has made for us! Just enjoy the 'eye candy'.

(Try and keep count of the new ones...did we tell you that some or two-sided designs? )

Some of adorable all on their own...animals (mostly cats or dogs). 

 I think one is hiding under the bottom right one.... don't forget to count.

 Nice framing of the cat.

 

 There were many that were duplicates, and sometimes in photographing them I tried to vary where I placed the duplicates.

 Then I decided to have them photographed by 'themes'... the soft muted cools colors.

 The ladybug collection...

 Ladybugs and florals

 More cool collections...

 Cats playing...

 Animals in the house?

 Brights and animals... some of these are reversible.

 Pastels...

 and the rest....

 Stacked in piles of ten...yup, totaled 110. So much so, that they didn't fit in the 'blessing basket'.

 See all the bright colors!!! No need to make anymore for quite a while. Thanks Kathy!! You are one powerhouse (and thanks for letting me see the "kingdom'-sewing room).

Another quilt has found it's home...

I was so glad to be able to deliver one of our quilts, 4-patch Orphans, to a woman (38 yr old, mom of a 5 yr old who was a teacher) with brain cancer today. How I found out about her was not the usual way. I have a classmate from High school who was applauding her friend's struggle with her cancer, when I asked her if we could send her a quilt. I sent her our blog, so she could see what we do and she was thrilled to have us do this.

We named this quilt 4-patch Orphans, because each of the blocks are made up with 4 blocks put together to make a larger one. Then we put 9 of those together. I reason they are 'orphans' is because they were leftover blocks/or didn't seem to 'get along' with the other quilt blocks made like them. By putting them together THIS way, they work beautifully and 'sing'.

Of course, the week I planned to get the quilt to her, was one of the hottest weeks on record for CT... so I waited until Sunday (temp of 93 vs 101) after church to drive it to her. the 58 miles to 'hand-deliver' it was costing me the same as if I put it in a box and sent it, but I didn't have a box a hand, so off I went.

As I knocked on the door, I heard dogs barking. Now, I'm not afraid of them, per se, I just would rather not deal with them (they jump usually). The woman that answered the door had a big dog by the collar and it had sounded like she'd already put another one in a side room before answering the door. When she struggled to keep hold of the dog and open the outer door, I told her I had something for "F". She asked if I wanted to come in, as she was upstairs in bed, I declined coming in, but just said I had something for her from her friend, R.K. I didn't want to impose.

It's funny. All the way home I wondered ... what if I'd gone upstairs? Would she have felt uncomfortable 'greeting' someone she didn't know (who she would have figured out KNEW about her condition)? What would  have said to comfort her? Could I have done that by just telling her about the quilt and what it could do for her? That the quilt had been blessed... That the ladies who made the squares LOVE doing this. Love giving them away in the hopes that wherever they land, maybe, just maybe, they will wrap themselves about the shoulders of the new owner and whisper that they are loved. That they could feel better for JUST an instance. Maybe. Just maybe, when she reads the letter we enclose with the quilt, she'll know just what we wanted to say to her, without ever saying a word. Maybe she'll hear those four-letter words you want to hear when you're sick...take care, have hope, ... and love.

 God shows his face in many forms.... may she see that today.

Wrong Named Quilt-"Baby Blue Blocks"- NOT

Okay, here's the deal.... At our first fundraiser, I was to bring a quilt that one of our members would pick up and deliver to her friend's son, who was just diagnosed with throat cancer. I picked out a few that I thought might work, and let her choose one at the fundraiser.

The problem is that I never looked at the blog to see the names I'd given the quilts BEFORE I left the house. In all the excitement, I also forgot the name when I wrote it on the letter to be given with it. I know the memory is failing, but I figured if I thought about it long enough, I'd remember. NOT. So I gave it a name "Baby Blue Blocks", because all the centers of the blocks were a soft blue. When one of the other quilters came into the fundraiser and I related the story of which quilt was taken, she said, " I just love the name you gave it, 'Blue Bellies' ." DUH! Of course.

When I got home, I looked back in the blog to the photos I'd taken and what I'd written about it and I realize that I really called it "Delaney's Decision" because one of our newest members, Delaney, was designing the blocks that way she liked. Hence the name. The  "Blue bellies" were another quilt all together.

So, I'm putting it in the sideboards as "Delaney's Decision", but if the owner of this quilt looks for the name on his letter, "Baby Blue Blocks", he won't find that name. ....Boy, is it tough to get old.

Fundraiser @ Sweet Frog in Manchester

I realized how beneficial frozen yogurt is (AND need we say delicious?!!), so I've planned a night at

Sweet Frog

1500 Pleasant Valley Road

Manchester, CT

 on

Tuesday, July 16th

6pm-9pm

 

 

All the sales that evening will be tallies and Peace byPiece Quilters will get the benefit of 10% of ALL sales in those three hours. Click on their name to find out more info about their store.

 

Please come and support us!! What a better (or more delicious) way to cool off this summer. And helping someone, to boot!


*** Update... We made $211.39 (10% of their earnings from thse three hours)

New days for the upcoming meetings

Please take notice  of the new dates we will be meeting. Previously, we met the 1st Monday of the month. NOW we will be meeting on the 2nd Monday of the month.

Our formal scedule is as follows:

Sept. 9th,

Oct 14th,

Nov 11th,

(skip Dec),

Jan 4th (Saturday, 9am-3pm),

Feb 10th,

Mar 10th,

April 5th (Sat, same hours),

May 12th,

June 7th (Sat, same hours).

 

We have it cleared with the church calender, so please mark your calendars accordingly.

Hope there is no conflict with anyone who missed this discussion at the last mtg.

 

See you in Sept.

"Fall in my Lap"

That's the name of this newest lap quilt that will get Blessed on Sunday. It was made during our "Man Up!" event to make more 'manly' quilts. Kathy S finshed the binding on this one. Since it has fall leaves/colors in it and it's lap sized, the name "Fall in My Lap" seems to fit. My grandson, Kai, loves it!

More Pocket Prayers

I wasn't sure how the Pocket Prayers were gonna go, but it seems like the original ten I put in the basket in the Narthex at church weren't enough. They WENT like crazy! I put them in at the 10:00am service last week, and I'd heard that they were gone by the 7:30am service the next week (we ran out).

I hadn't realized that the knitting group is also making something similar. They are knitting "Prayer Squares" with a cross knitted right in it. They are neatly packed in plastic with a prayer enclosed and are also in the Narthex of our church. I'm leaving ours UNpackaged (I'm staying 'green'), so they are uniquely different.  It was funny how we both thought of them at the same time, without the other group knowing! Great minds tend to think alike. LOL.

Guess I'm making more and getting the rest of the crew to make some soon. No sense waiting until we meet again in Sept. THEY ARE NEEDED and going like hotcakes!

Here are a few more that Kathy S made (very patriotic for the 4th of July). I added another 10, but will keep making some more that will get Blessed this Sunday.

Some nice Asian designs that have a two sided look to them (flip some over). 

I'm off to make more. They get made up so fast, it's easy to 'just keep going'.