It started when...

... I organized my sewing room after the holidays

Instead of putting away the strips I'd cut some leftover fabric into, I connected them end to end (all by color) and made a cute top. Added some borders and voila!

This is the lasagna quilt top I'd made, but it just wasn't big enough for comfort.

Added a black border (it was the wrong side of the fabric since the other side had lame on it)

Added borders here, but they seem wonky. I'll straighten them out later. Not sure why....

Wowwy, KaZowwy!!

That's all I can say......

We had a great turnout this month, it was so surprising! Two reasons, really.
First, it was the first meeting of the year (school year) and although we usually meet on the first Monday of the month, this being Sept, we met on the SECOND Monday of the month and that will sometimes screw up people's schedules, so we usually have very little people remember that it's even on this month.

Second, I didn't advertise much (in the church bulletin, or any other way). I'll get better at this one someday soon, I promise.

Well, the ladies surely surprised me this month, in any event. You can always tell who has air-conditioning in their sewing rooms. This summer was exceptionally hot and my sewing room faces the south side and is on the second floot, so I wasn't in there ALL summer! But Mary Ellen and Kathy were phenomenal with what they put out.

This is one of the last of the lasagna quilts, which I'm calling Lasagna Leftovers. We finished it that night and as soon as we had it blessed on the following Sunday, someone requested it for a friend (Rebeckah M) in VA who was having a very hard time with "Pots Syndrome".  She also requested one with motorcycles for the husband who has been ill for some time.

We had another one similar to the one above, that went to Jessica T's uncle in WA who is suffering with stage 4 Pancreatic cancer. I sent that out from work last week.

I also had one called "Enid's Black Beauty" that Lynn K requested for a former roommate who has been having difficulty after surgery (ovarian). She's already had breast cancer, and now this. Lynn said she's a bit of a wild one, a rebel, so I pray that she fights hard on this one. Lynn took it home to deliver to her friend.

 

This cute little one was made by Mary Ellen. I called it Baby Blue bubbles, since the fabric on the backing is soft little blue bubbles. These are adorable.

 

See the next post for photos.....

 

We did discuss that we haven't very many 'manly' quilts, so I think I'm planning to have them work on 'homework pieces to bring to the Jan. mtg. I did pick up some beautiful fabirc with leaves and birch branches on it (greens, grays, browns) that may be great for a border and/or center strips for more heartstring quilts. I pulled all the fabrics we had in the cabinets at church that would go with it and I think it will be beautiful!.

 

We also have some plaids still (LOTS!) that we can use with a dark center strip to make some HS blocks for Jan. 2013.

 

The nice thing was, some people who haven't been able to come to the meetings lately, were able to show up (Pat, Dot, etc)... nice to see you ladies. We did miss Janet. Will see you in Oct., I hope.

 

 

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...