Marden's 2015

FINALLY got to MARDEN"S!! And as soon as I get to photograph all the tops and backings I bought to finish them, I'll post photos. Had a lovely day, Got to see Bonnie our 'favorite' manager up there! Was such an enjoyable visit between the five that went, we went right by our exit! Had to come back 14 miles to be back on track... that will teach US not to pay attention. LOL....

Did have beautiful weather to finally get to go! Only spent $127 for our backings! (and I actually bought some fabrics for myself!)

Nice day for our April meeting!

Finally, there is no snow on the ground... no one was sick, although we did have half of our 'crew' pricing May Fair items downstairs, but on the bright side, they came up for the second half of the meeting.

First I must tell you of a wonderful award we will be getting. One of our members, Brenda K, belongs to the CT Emblem Club and she put in for us to be considered as one of their charities they make donations to. Well, we came in first as their choice to get a $200 award. They want someone to appear at their annual meeting (unfortunately on May 9th-same day as our May Fair) and accept this award and say something about the group! Yup, I'm going. Since we get no funding from anyone in particular, when we're awarded something, .... you bet, I'm going!

Okay, now about our 6 hr day today... Mary Ellen couldn't come, but stopped and dropped off one finished quilt and one top to have us use.

Kathy came and brought a quilt finished... beautiful. Calling it "Leap Frog"...doesn't it look like frogs leaping from one strip to another?

 Back side of the "Leap Frog" quilt.

We finished tying one that we'd started on last month, and all that's left to hand-bind is about 2.5 feet (I'll have my 87-yr old mom do it tomorrow, when she's at my house). It's called "Sunny Patch".

Marilyn brought in two quilts (one is just at the top stage)... "Vermont's Green Mountains"

and choosing between "Earth to Japan",... or "Japanese gardens"

I also finished machine-quilting a purple one (one of my favorites) and stitched down the binding that was rolled from the back. There was a name for this.....darn. Can't think of it.

We did organize a few tops to have bindings ready, added two borders onto one of our heartstring quilts. It just needs a backing (may take it to Marden's). "Blew Balloons"... (hot air balloons, and play on word, blue/blew)

OH! Speaking of Marden's, we are going up there (Maine) on the second Sat of June. YEA!! Finally....

Annual trip to Marden's (in Maine) and Feb mtg

Okay, here is the plan. 

We'll meet on Sat. Feb 7th at 8am at the parking lot for church. We are leaving the lot at 8:30am SHARP as it takes about 3 hrs to get there (we can use the bathrooms at church if you need to go before we leave). 

When we get there, we can eat at Ponderosa (down the road from Marden's), then head to Marden's. The fabric manager will be there that weekend (Bonnie), so plan on getting a discount from their normal prices.

We usually leave Marden's by 3pm and are home around 6:30pm-7pm (if we stop at a rest area for bathroom breaks).

Those that have let me know definitely that they are going are:

Jane, Me, Lee, Kathy, Marilyn

Following us is:

Donna, Judi, Lyn, Evelyn

Please let me know if you want to be added to the list and ALSO if you CAN"T go that day. 

Our meeting on Monday Feb 2nd (6:00pm-8pm-- notice the earlier time) will consist of figuring out what tops don't have backings/bindings/borders, that need to go with us to Marden's. No sewing that I know of needs to be done.

Marden's trip 2014

Well, we planned the trip according the the weather (kept getting snowed out all winter, either here or there), but unfortunately we switched the day one day ahead, so it'was Bonnie's day off (Manager of the Fabric dept). Next time, Bonnie.

Here is what we ended up with though.... great day (the group only ran a total of $108, with $100 of it being a donation from Dee, one of our members). Thanks, Dee.

This is the pile when I finally got it home. Of course, our tops are intertwined (so I can keep track of which fabric bought, goes with which top.

The pile!

  When Jane and I saw this great purple gray panel fabric, with the word 'believe' in it, we needed to bring it home. Nice that we found the purple and aqua fabrics to go with it.

Totally new stuff!

We loved the paroon and yellow striped fabric for this top, but we knew we'd have to widen it, so we chose this maroon tone on tone fabric for a middle stripe down the back.

Maroon Blue Belly

 This quilt top was picked a swirly red print that we'll split diagonally to widen  the backing.

Red Blue Belly

 This one will get warmed up by the brown in the backing. Also will get split diagonally to widen.

Cozy, warm bellies

 This is one of our serged quilts that we combined with another to make it larger. The prints are very 'vintage' and 1940-1950s type, so this lovely yellow print fit it's style just fine.

Kitchen Sink Squares

 This panel was bought last year at Marden's for a potential backing, but no one wanted to use it as a back, so we got a pretty pale grass green print to back it with... sweet.

 This hearstring quilt will get widened with the red stripe as an inner border, the blue stitching stripes as a wide outer border and the beige pieced backing is already made (let's see if it needs to be widened after we add the borders to the front).

Great fabric for a strippy quilt!

 Great deals on sewing machine needles and threads (also, my red fabrics from Marden's will go good in a baby quilt- or two). These last two are my personal projects, but always nice to put a piece of Maine in them...

Thing One and Thing Two supplies

Border fabric for the Selvedge quilt

Deli Sandwiches in June

Our June meeting was actually one of our two 6 hr quilting events of the year. "Making sandwiches at the Deli" almost looked like it wasn't gonna be too well attended with only three of us there. Slowly one more appeared, with another to come after bringing her cat to the vet. With a phone call to one more (who wasn't coming because of work--that got postponed until Sunday), we ended up with six ladies who were so excited to be there!

We had quite a few tops to 'sandwich' and a couple of backings needed to be adjusted, done.
More were taken home to be bound, and quilted, but we got 5 quilts almost to the done stage. These three came in from the last meeting, finished.

Tooling Around was from a panel that was made from a Quilting by the Yard quilt kit that was given to one of our members (MEZ) by one of her quilting friends.

Same with these happy squares. They were leftovers from a previous meeting/homework assignment.

Enid was playing with some batiks and had fun with this. I call it "Enid's Black Beauty". Thanks, Enid!
The Frog quilt is a great kid one. That one got to the binding stage, but Marilyn took it home to finish that part.We got the binding for this (and the backing) up in Maine at Marden's. We had the top from 2009 and just couldn't find the right material to make it bigger until this last trip to Maine. It's made with Happy blocks, so I call it "Frog Hoppy". This one is really done, just not in these photos.

We were playing around with Kathy's latest Quilt of Valor blocks and came up with this configuration. Nice I think.... We sent this to Alycia in CO who is our QOV go-to person.

I took this home to quilt it and bind it. We'll roll the backing over to the front to use it as the binding. This great red backing (you'll see it next post) was also gotten in Maine at Marden's.

 And it's always nice to see our member's projects that they are working on....Margaret brought this one in... It's lovely!! I love black, white and brights.

Well, we are off for the summer (too hot to quilt), so enjoy the blog until Sept. (2nd Monday).

Quilt in the shade!

April mtg

The April meeting went really well. Since it was on April 9th and we were heading to Marden's (discount fabric store in Maine) on the 17th, we needed to organize which quilt tops needed to go with us to find a complimentary backing for.This one was started at our Log cabin 6-hr event (Cabin Fever) years ago, but never finished. I took it home and added the outer border and cornerstones so we'd know how large the top would be. We found a vibrant red print (with black) that I'm hoping to sandwich to it, in June, and wrap the edges around to be the binding. It should be stunning! I'm naming it, "When I get old, I'll wear purple".

This adorable one by Mary Ellen (gray center strip-vintage material) was taken home last month and bordered with Dick and Jane material. It is so old-fashioned!

 I name it, "Look Dick, See Jane Quilt"

This one Enid made using a black batik print for the center strips. She was gonna take it home and add a border (thin) using a similar black batick print, then we'll see where we go from there.

Mary Ellen made this one completely during this past month. Cute fish fabric on the back!! Some little boy will love it... Name: "Boys a-Fishin' "

This is the back of one Marilyn made, but  I forgot to take a photo of the front. Name: "Double Brown Derby".

Thsese are some of the pillowcases that will be going to Alycia in CO, who handles our QOV quilts. Kathy S did them in honor of her son being in Afghanistan.

 We had a total of 7 quilts that went to Maine with us for backings, although I didn't take photos of them before we went. We'll put them together in June. Great accomplishments!

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.

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!!