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....

March meeting done between snow storms!

FINALLY! We get to have a meeting where it isn't snowing or I'm not sick!! YEA!

Granted we only had three people there, but we got lots done for just Margaret, Kathy and I being there. Here are some of the quilts Kathy made while we were home and snowbound.  I haven't named any (I think I'll leave that for the ladies in April. Unless I get an urge to...lol.

 Okay,,, this one spoke to me. I had to name it.

Construction Site

"I River Runs Thru it"

 This one is Janet's that got the stars mchine-quilted into the large squares...

Stars Abound

Lent in Lavendar....?

Lent in Lavendar

Marden's may be off 'til Spring at this rate!

Sorry, had to cancel another round of our annual trip to Marden's... too much snow!

Needle Sizes and what they are best for.....

Post by Quiltville.

Monday night meeting may be cancelled!

I'm sure I'll have to pay attention to the weather closely today, but I'm thinking that the storm may cancel out our meeting on Monday night (tomorrow). We're supposed to be getting about 12" of snow and I'm not taking the chance... I'll be making phone calls tomorrow I'm sure (or emailing people tonight)

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.

First meeting of the New Year...

 Hi everyone!

I was very concerned that there wouldn't be anyone at the first meeting. I knew one member had some surgery to her hand, and one wouldn't be there, but not sure who would. Well, they didn't let me down at all!! We even had guests (the Altar Guild)!

Working on a plaid heartstring quilt that is soooo soft! Love it.

This one we've been working on since June 2012. I made the top with selvedge strips and lime green Center strings, and while we had a chocolate brown binding already made for it, the girls got so carried away with finishing it, that they trimmed and rolled the edge. We'll just save the binding for another quilt.

 This one is one that Janet G made, but she felt it needed some ties or quilting in the blocks without the stars. I'll take it home and sew them in... "Stars Abound"

 This is another quilt (baby) by Janet G... "I spy Blue" may be the name.

" A Dozen Stars out Tonight" may be the name of this one.... lovely one for a boy. or "Star Breaker"

This lime green pinwheel quilt is perfect for a boy or girl. ... not sure of the name yet, maybe "Spinner", but many thanks to all those who come any time we meet.

Here re some updated photos of quilts that were finished after the meeting. This one is the Lime Selvedge Heartstring quilt...finally done! Only started it in 2012.

back of quilt

label made from extra block

 This is my mom, at almost 87 and with Alzheimer's, still keeps busy doing our bindings. She doesn't get to the meetings anymore, but she still is part of our beloved group! Thanks, Mom.

Muriel still able to do bindings!!

Prep for First meeting of 2015

Hey Gang!

We are meeting in a week, so get your sewing bags (personal) ready, pack a lunch and see you at church 9am-3pm... Let's see what we can get accomplished!

Tally for 2014

We made 34 quilts/projects (completed) and found a home for 30 of them! I include 'projects' as some of these are our pocket quilts (counted them as a whole) and some of them were tops that were sent to be finished by the Heartstrings Quilt group in WI.

Thank you for all the hard work and love and prayers that were put into all we made.... I love you ladies.

Keep stitching.....

Finishing the quilt that will go to the cancer center

This one I had to finish before Christmas as it was being delivered to the Hartford Hospital's Cancer center on the 26th. One of our parishioners who is undergoing treatment there, asked for two quilts for some other patients. She is hand-delivering them for us.

I did get a chance to set up my sewing station so I could hibernate... good sustanance!

Attaching the binding so I can hand stitch it later (in front of a good movie)

Would help if I stitched in on correctly, not backwards... (rip, rip, rip.)

 This quilt is being enjoyed by one of our recipients who was hit by a car in Boston, while trying to catch her train! So glad it's being enjoyed... That's it's purpose.

Smallest to Tallest

Over the Thanksgiving weekend I had a variety of requests for quilts.... one is not even finished, but it will be by the time we need to send it 'home'.

If you're wondering about the post title, it's really simple. One request came in the form of an email from a parishioner about her friend who had a papercut on her finger on Monday. I thought it was her, pulling my leg, but then as I kept reading, I realized this was more than what it seemed!  This little papercut, turned into an infection, that wasn't seen as anything drastic, until two days later, it turned her finger black and the finger actually DIED!! She has since had it operated on, and amputated to below her knuckle, removing tendons too. Now her fingers are moved over to fill the space in, but she feels lots of pain (phantom) where her finger used to be! We're sending her this one...

Royal Strip Twist

The second request was more me pushing the quilt in the direction of my daughter's best friend, who was crossing the street in Boston to catch the train, and was hit by a car! She has a few metal plates in her leg now and they think she also broke a few ribs. She has to pass the "walker' test before she can leave the hospital (but she had to eat Thanksgiving dinner there---boo). Hopefully, she'll be home before the end of the weekend. I sent her a quilt that I'd made, but was struggling with to 'let go'. I hadn't decided to donate it (yet), but when we were here after the holiday dinner visiting, I knew it was either go to church and pick out a large one, or give her this one (which was upstairs)... Triptophan won out. Ironically, the name of the quilt had her last name in it!

This one is going to my sister-in-law's BFF who is battling breast cancer for the third time.

American Farmer

This one is one of the quilts requested by a parishioner who has been going through chemo treatments and wanted to offer some warmth and comfort to two other people she sees at her cancer center in Hartford Hosp. I'll send this one and finish the binding on another at my house. It will be blessed when it's done.

Early Snowflakes

Amazing what these ladies do when I'm sick

I had to cancel October's meeting, but came back with a vengance (kind of, lol) for Nov, because I knew were wouldn't meet in December (church's schedule is crazy). Mary Ellen brought it two beautiful quilts, one in my favorite colors/Purple and batiks, no less (I'm calling "Royal StripTwist")... and a beautiful paper pieced block of the month quilt (I'm calling "Early Snowflakes", since it came to us in November and looks like snowflakes- each one different). These both need labels.

"Shifting into Gear"

Kathy brought in a cute jungle-y one and a shifted pattern (which I'm calling "Shifting into Gear"). The jungle-y one, I'm calling "Wild Thing" will go with the quilt "Wild Fences" to my grandson Felix, who was hospitalized and brought into surgery for a Diaphramatic Hernia at the age of 4 days old. His twin sister, Phoebe and big brother Finn will be getting one also (have to contact Jane P for a Project Linus Quilt for Finn). We worked on three quilts and got one to the point of the binding on it before we left. I pinned the binding to the other side and had my mom (who doesn't make the meetings anymore- 86 yrs old with Alzheimers) sew the binding on it. All it needs now is a label. I'm calling it "American Farmer", since the backing on it looks like hay.

"Wild Thing"

center of "Wild Thing"

"Royal StripTwist"

Beautiful border on "Royal StripTwist"

Backing was perfect

Paper-pieced by Mary Ellen, called "Early Snowflakes"

backing for "Early Snowflakes"

"American Farmer HS" quilt

backing for "American Farmer HS" quilt

Lots of ladies attended this meeting, Jane P, Kathy S, Mary Ellen, Margaret M, Anna R, me, AND Jane G- been missing you , but glad you're feeling goo enough to attend...and Lee made an appearance to help set up tables. Thanks to all the ladies.