March 2010 Meeting

This morning we met for the March Guild meeting and there was lots to sew 'n tell!

First thing to show is our Guild Raffle Quilt.  Tickets can be purchased by emailing kybarra at neo dot rr dot com 

Maura is making picture frames from fabric!

April made 7 or 8 pillowcases to be donated to our local service project and a grocery tote for herself.

Sue brought in a gorgeous quilt she finished recently

Doris made an apron for a small child!

Kathy brought in 3 projects.  The first is a small wall hanging from a class she took in Upper on Machine Appliqué.

Second, a table runner that she made for a Christmas Gift that was embroidered and raw edge appliquéd, very cute!

Lastly, Kathy brought in the very first quilt she made . . . it was huge, not to mention finished!

Doris finished two projects she was working on at the Retreat:

Project Two was huge 96 x 110 and Doris said the blocks were a breeze to construct:

Deb made one too, but she has to add borders

Judy has been working away to catch up with last years BOM!  Love, love, love the bright colors!

Carolyn brought in her Challenge Quilt from the 2009 Retreat

Joanne's been busy again, as usual!  She made a reversible handbag from kitchen dish towels!

Then she showed a UFO which she recently finished!  A lot of the fabrics for this quilt were purchased from a trip to Lake Tahoe

and this quilt which only took her 5, yes five hours to construct.  It is made using the Twister Ruler which can be found online at The Country Schoolhouse

Our Quilt Retreat was a great success!

Our Quilt Retreat was this past weekend was a great success! Because we have increased our membership since last years retreat, we had to move our Retreat to a larger venue! This place was great, much bigger, lots of large windows, a fully functioning kitchen, cable TV and a separate room for our Licensed Massage Therapist Deedra! Deedra decorated the room with little lights, relaxing music and incense - very relaxing! Our optional program this year was a Mystery Quilt. The quilt was pictured on the cover of the June 2009 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. I like it so much, that when I am done with the one I am working on now, I plan on making another from my stash!  I was so busy trying to catch up to everyone else that I am afraid I neglected my photo duties - these are just a few of the many, many quilts being worked on!

OK, the pictures below are from the 2009 Quilt Retreat Challenge.  At last years retreat we were each given an bag containing 2 fat quarters and we were required to make something using the 2 fat quarters and the sawtooth star block.  They could be any size and we were allowed to add as much other fabric as we chose.  As you can see, there were several members who participated in the challenge returning this year with their projects unfortunately I was not one of them as my challenge kit is still in the bag it was given to me in buried somewhere in that pit I call a quilting studio . . .

January 2010 Meeting

Today we had our January meeting and we had a workshop afterwards to go over the pre-cutting and sewing instructions for the Mystery Quilt. The Mystery Quilt will be constructed at our February Retreat!  This year we will have 24 members attending the weekend retreat and I will be posting pictures as soon as I return home for everyone to enjoy!  Below are the pictures from today's sew 'n tell:

First up is Deb with a Christmas Tree wall hanging  and then an "I Spy" quilt for her grandson to use at Preschool!

Next up, Janet made several pillowcases for a local shelter.  Two of the pillowcases she made would be suitable for a woman as she made them from some floral fabrics.  They were very pretty, don't know why any of the rest of us hadn't thought about the adults that may be in the shelter too as we have all been making pillowcases from children's novelty fabrics!  The other two pillowcases were made from some Halloween fabrics!

Janet has been busy finishing her version of the Guilds BOM.  She isn't really happy about her choice of the rust colored fabric for the sashing, but everyone else thought it was a great choice!

Pam was busy making pillowcases too from M&M NASCAR fabric, a ladybug print and a bunny print

This is Joanne with her Thimbleberries Safehaven Quilt that she just picked up from Rachel, the longarmer!  Below is a closeup of the quilting on this quilt - it was exquisite, especially the checkerboard border where Rachel quilted an orangepeel design in each block which makes it look like a cathedral window quilt design!  If you would like to see more of Rachel's work or contact her to have one of your own quilts quilted, click on this link:  Sew Behind

This is another of Joannes quilts called Stacked Coins that was also quilted by Rachel!

This is a quilt that Joanne made for a family member that she quilted herself on her domestic sewing machine!

And lastly is a picture of the sweatshirt I received for Christmas from my granddaughters!

December 2009 Meeting

We had our December Meeting today and a catered Christmas Dinner by Creative Cuisine.  We had several productive members this month, so there was a lot to Sew 'n Tell!

First of all, each member who constructed a raffle quilt block received a button of the actual block picture from Sue!  I think that Sue stays awake at night thinking of neat little ditties like this to reward us!

This is a quilt made by Irene and it's a twisted nine patch. It is huge!

This is a quilt made by Eileen for her granddaughter.  It was another large quilt with a panel in the center!

This is a quilt that Doris made from a BOM program at Quilts & Kreations in South Amherst.  I was really glad that she showed this project as my completed blocks are stored in a pizza box somewhere in my quilt room. I never can figure out how to set them.  Am I the only one who does this?  Can you feel my pain?

 This is another BOM from Quilts & Kreations in South Amherst.  This setting has a panel in the middle.  I really like the setting of this one, it's really different.  Guess what, I have completed blocks and the panel for this one too in yet another pizza box.  I think that Doris must be staying awake at night too thinking of different settings because she just got an APQS longarm.  That is one of the reasons she's been getting so much done lately!

These are some blocks that Doris had that were sewn together and she took them apart and added some sashing and created this quilt for one of the boys!

I am so bad, I cannot remember what Doris said about this quilt, but I can tell you that the nested clamshell quilting on it was awesome!

Here's another one from guess who - - yeah, Doris!  It's a Christmas tree made from men's ties!  I have never seen anything like this, it was so cool.  Now do you believe me when I tell you that she lays awake at night . . .

This is the Guild BOM and Mary got every single one of her blocks done and her top is all put together. 

My instructions are still in the notebook . . .

Here is Mary once again with the other Guild BOM.  She was up until way after midnight getting this one done so she could show it today!  Her machine even broke down, but that didn't stop her, she whipped out her Featherweight so she could finish it!  Mary added some pre-printed blocks that she found at Helping Hands Quilt Shop in Berlin, Ohio too!

Here is Diane with a table runner that she made on her embroidery machine!

Here is Eileen with a couple of the blocks she made. Eileen took an applique class at Country Fabrics in Shiloh. She learned a lot and is looking forward to working on a Baltimore Album Quilt when she finishes this one!

Karen has been busy sewing up a storm for a craft show . . . here is a baby quilt - can't remember the name of it, eighths or something . . . maybe Crazy Eights? 

These are some purses and bags that Karen made too!

This is what I got accomplished - a Girl Scout Cookie pillowcase for Madison, my Daisy Scout granddaughter!