July Group... and the Fall!

We had fun at the July group meeting.

Baby Dedications
Debbie has let us know now that there's a couple of month reprieve on baby quilts, but that usually creates a busy spell shortly after... October could be busy! And we are really low on boy and girl quilts... so don't stop now! I think the consensus is to have our Friendship Quilting Day which is on September 8th be a baby quilting day. It's also Debbie's birthday... how appropriate!

Needs

• Lorraine would like to make a quilt for Ruth-Anne Heath, and would accept any jewel tone batik donations that you might have!
• If you have any items you don't need (particularly fabric that others could use for our Fall Block of the Month program), please bring it to our August meeting!

Upcoming Dates
August 24-26: APWQ Show
September 8th: Friendship Quilting Day/Baby Quilting Day
September 27th: Quilt Group meeting (and our first Block of the Month block... see below)
October 4-7: Quilt Retreat at Seabeck

Retreat
We still have several spots open for the October 4-7 retreat at Seabeck! It's a great time to get lots of quilting done, and have a marvy time chatting and getting to know each other. It can be tiring and so refreshing, all at the same time. And fall is a wonderful time to go to Seabeck!

The Fall aka "What are we going to do next?"
We looked at an intro video to a fun Block of the Month (BOM) on Craftsy that we decided to do. We'll learn one new technique that you can use for two different blocks each month, as well as learn some basting, quilting, and binding techniques.

This program is on Craftsy.com for free. We'll watch a video each month starting in September, and start working on blocks at quilt group each month (so bring your machine if you'd like). Because it's free, you can sign up for it personally too, and watch the video again and again, if you'd like. I will print the directions, but you need to work ahead you can actually print them yourself.

On Craftsy there is a supply list, but I'll give you all a printed version at the August meeting. She suggests a number of fat quarters and background fabric, but you certainly could make it out of scraps and/or stash. Black or some other color would be a cool background... whatever you like! Here's an abbreviated list. I wouldn't run out and buy anything until you need it... and we'll have lots of these items that we can share among the group... like fabric markers or large rulers:

• Background fabric – 4 yards (3.75 m) will give you enough for background, sashing and border.
• Binding fabric of your choice – 1⁄2 yard
• Backing fabric of your choice – 41⁄2 yards
• Batting - The quilt is 55" x 68 1⁄2" If you buy batting prepackaged by bed size, in most brands, this is a twin. Off a 96"roll, you’ll need 2 yards.
• 35 fat quarters (FQ) in a variety of prints and colors – I’m working with a 35-print bundle, but
• I’ll probably have a few unused fat quarters at the end, of prints I chose not to incorporate. You may not need 35 exactly; it really depends on which fabrics you choose for which blocks, as it’s a very scrappy quilt. I’m not sure I’d go out and purchase 35 individual FQs, but if you’re buying a bundle, a 36-print one will be perfect.
• Thread
• Rotary cutter and mat
• Fabric scissors
• Sewing machine
• Iron
• Water-soluble fabric marker/pen
• Faultless Heavy Starch
• 24" clear quilt ruler
• 12 1⁄2" square quilt ruler
• 4 1⁄2" square ruler for half square triangles
• Fabric glue stick
• Templates (optional, see patterns)
• Template plastic, or cardboard
• Hand sewing needle

Show and tell

Diana's mystery quilt 

Nikki's daughter's very first quilt! Amazing, and donated to the babies!

The back of Betsy's denim quilt...

And the front of the denim quilt!

Terry's Baby quilt

Sherri's baby quilt

Sherri's Baby Quilt 2!

Val made this quilt for her niece's wedding... lovely!

This is the curtain for Tricia's kitchen... cute!

Jennifer is almost done with a cute quilt!

Debbie finished her cute Tinkerbell quilt

June Meeting Recap with Pizza Box Quilt Block Exchange

In case you missed it, here is the recap from our June (5/25) meeting / Pizza Box Exchange Reveal / potluck. We primarily ate dinner, and revealed our pizza box square quilts! 19 of the 20 Exchange participants were able to make it! That's amazing!

Verses from Linda:

• "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." Romans 12:2 
• "Deep lasting change requires me to attend to how this present age impacts my thinking." ~ from Christ Formed in You by Brian G Hedges
• "And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worth of praise." Philippians 4:8

We had 3 new visitors! Judy Kreft and her sister-in-law Ilene came. Judy has come to Crossroads a few times, and Ilene is an amazing hand piecer, quilter, and appliquer from Hawaii. Also visiting was Tricia Curtis. She's been sewing since she was young, but is just learning to quilt, and has a quilt under way already!

We voted to keep meeting through the summer, even if the meetings are small.

Companionship Quilters Calendar

• July Friendship Quilting Day - July 14th
• July Group Meeting - July 30th (Quilt Group meets the last Monday of the month, January-November)
• September Retreat has been moved to October 4-7, 2012. $35 will hold your spot!

Next Meeting: Monday, July 30th, 2012

• 6:30 - 9pm - Room 420
• What to bring to meetings:
• Show & Tell
• $2 donation for kitty
• Baby quilts for baby dedication

Show and Tell

We showed each one of our Pizza Box Exchange quilts one at a time... boy it was exciting to see them when they were turned around! They all turned out so fun! (The links on the names below will take you to bigger versions of the pictures on Flickr.)

1. Terry, 2. Sherri, 3. Melanie, 4. Sharon, 5. Barb, 6. Lorraine, 7. Lorraine, 8. Val, 9. Diana, 10. Ginger, 11. Betsy, 12. Linda, 13. Micha, 14. Cherice, 15. Sue, 16. Heidi, 17. Nan, 18. Wendy, 19. Brittany, 20. Brittany and Chirsa, 21. Lorraine shows the back!, 22. Praying, 23. Jean, 24. Micha's test diaper bag, 25. Val, 26. Diana, 27. Ilene's hand pieced and hand quilted quilt, 28. Ilene, 29. Ilene's hand applique season blocks, 30. Back of Ilene's amish quilt, 31. Linda, 32. Linda, 33. Linda, 34. Cherice's pot holder, 35. Cherice's quilting!

June UFO #

In case you're still following along, according to Judy over at Patchwork Times, the June UFO # is 12! I've struggled to get anything done the past couple of months, but hope to get back on the "finishing" bandwagon! Betsy

June Date Change

Friendship Quilting Day is now going to be June 23rd (in lieu of June 16th)! Hope to see you there!

May Meeting Recap

In case you missed it. Here is the recap from our May (5/21) meeting:

• Thirteen quilters attended.
• Betsy gave the treasury report.
• We showed several pizza box squares. We are done! Our June meeting will be the big reveal! We're going to do a potluck, meeting on our usual day, but half hour earlier at 6:00. Melanie will be coordinating the food... keep an eye on your email!
• Show and tell from Micha, Diana and Terry.

Verse from Linda: 

Romans 15:13 " I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit."

Companionship Quilters Calendar

• June Friendship Quilting Day - June 16th
• June Group Meeting, potluck and Pizza Box Reveal - June 25th (Quilt Group meets the last Monday of the month, January-November)
• June Retreat June 7-10, 2012 - there is still one spot open!
• September Retreat - September 20-23, 2012

Next Meeting: Monday, June 25th, 2012 - Special Time!

• 6:00 - 9pm - Room 420 (or possibly the Fireside Room) 
• Potluck - Melanie will be telling us what to bring!
• Pizza Box Block Exchange Reveal
• What to bring to meetings:
• Show & Tell
• $2 donation for kitty
• Baby quilts for baby dedication

Show and Tell

Terry finished this Block of the Month quilt that she started maybe 10 years ago.
JoAnn's got her copies of the pattern she was missing... nice!

Diana's finished umbrella girls quilt!

And the back of her quilt. She built in pockets in the corners to put a dowel to hang it from,
and a couple of loops to keep it from drooping in the middle.

Micha showed us her cute necklace she made... of wrapped felt!

April Group Meeting (April 30th, 2012)

In case you missed it. Here is the recap from our April meeting:

• Fifteen quilters attended.
• We showed several pizza box squares. Most boxes already have the 12 needed blocks. There are still about 3 boxes that still need blocks. We will schedule the “reveal party ” when those boxes are finished - likely a Friday potluck at the end of June!
• Debbie Walker reported on the Baby Dedication Quilt ministry. She currently has about 9 quilts. Dedications are typically on the 2nd Sunday of the month. We are always in need of “boy” or neutral quilts. We had one baby dedicated on Mother's day.
• Show and tell from Terry, Betsy, Debbie, Diana and Cherice.

Companionship Quilters Calendar

• May Friendship Quilting day – cancelled
• May 21st Group meeting (May meeting is a week earlier due to Memorial Day)
• Quilt Group meets the last Monday of the month, January-November. 
• September Retreat --- September 20-23, 2012

Next Meeting: Monday, May 21st, 2012

• 6:30pm - 9pm - Room 420 
• Socializing 6:30-7pm 
• Announcements 7pm 
• Show-and-Tell 
• Pizza Box Block Exchange

Show and Tell from April meeting

a picture of the baby quilt Terry has already given away from her iPad

Cherice's baby quilt that she free motion quilted herself!

Betsy's baby quilt

and the back.

Diana's quilt for one of her kids' leaders... made from a pattern from last year's Quilt Shop Hop!

Diana's mystery quilt from a magazine.

Diana's musical pillow case.

Debbie's baby girl quilt

Debbie's baby boy quilt

Terry's bag - clever!

Tissue holder - "Gifty Project" shown at October Meeting

Here is a little project to make a fabric cover for those little packs of tissues you carry in your purse.

I do realize that having a fabric cover for your purse tissues is completely unnecessary; the little tissues already come in a plastic sleeve! But to me, a project doesn't have to be useful  if it is only made out of scraps.

You can make a tissue holder that matches your purse. Very stylish I'm sure.


There are probably lots of easy ways to make this, but I wanted mine to have no raw edges -- even on the inside. It is not cool if you pull out a tissue and it has threads stuck to it.

Tissue holder                  Cut fabric 6x14”

With RST (right sides together!) sew across 6” ends together to form a loop. Leave a large gap for turning. Turn loop right-side out and flatten, leaving seam side up. Seam should be off-center as shown.

Fold over left and right edges, with slight overlap in th center and iron into place to crease folds well.

Turn loop wrong side out and refold, so that overlapping occurs neatly inside. Side view of the loop below:

Flatten again and sew across each raw edge. Find the turning hole and turn inside out. Flip the flaps to other side.

Christmas Tree Skirt Instructions and Demo

At the October meeting, Nan Sanborn demonstrated how she and her sister make quilted Christmas tree skirts. She handed out diagrams and instructions. Her diagrams and instructions can be found here Tree skirt instructions.

Nan also provided a full size template for cutting the wedges of the tree skirt. If you were not at the meeting to get one of her templates, check with Nan, or ask to trace someone else's. Nan noted that newer fabric keeps getting narrower. Her instructions were written for 45" width fabric. You can still use the same instructions for the new narrower (42"?) fabric, but instead of lining up the short edges of the strips, the strips have to be shifted/staggered to fit the template as shown at right.

Coin Purse with window - October Meeting Demo

I found these instructions on the internet for making  a cute little coin purse with a window in it to display your ID or a picture. It's called the all-you-need-bag.

Click on picture for full instructions.

The instructions are fine, but the first little bag I made didn't turn out exactly like I wanted it to, so I made some notes as to what to do differently. So, hopefully if you make one, your first one will turn out perfectly.

The pattern describes  a super easy technique for putting in a zipper. This method could be adapted to make little zippered bags of all sizes. I plan to make an eyeglass case and an make-up bag to match.

The pattern calls for 2 fat quarters, but I've added cutting diagrams and you need only two pieces 7x9".
Here are the cutting diagrams and the rest of my notes.

Click on picture to see full sized.

Thread Catcher Project from October Meeting

 

ThreadCatcher

Click on picture to download pdf instructions  for the thread-catcher project shown at the October meeting. I happened to inherit some fabric that has textured rubbery dots on it. I'm sure it was for making non-slip soles on toddlers footy pajamas. It helps a little, to put this on the underside. But my first one did not have it, and so it  probably not necessary.