August 2014 Charity Workshop

Club had a charity workshop on Saturday, August 9th.  We had a wonderful day together.  It doesn't look like there was a lot of finishes, but we got alot of projects started and brought home the unfinished work.


Here is Alice making up kits in preparation for our pillowcase project in November.  Alice appears over-worked, but I think she had all the fun by rummaging through all the donated fabrics and making up pretty sets.

Here is Arlene, sew hard at work!  Arlene has a work ethic that promptly knows what to do with something, and gets right at it..... a truly gifted and serious quilter.

This is our fearless leader, Stephanie at the work table.  She is the backbone of our missions.  She totes the totes with the donated supplies to our events and she offers encouragement in abundance!  and not to be slighted,  here is Dee at the ironing board.  It appears that her attention is distracted and she just may iron over her fingers!

Here is Kathy B.  She is also a regular elf at our workshops. Kathy is deep in thought....sashings and borders....which fabric?.....how wide?......  common decisions we face with every project.

I was here too.  There is not a photo of me because I was having another bad hair day or maybe because I was taking the photos!   We had a small group this month, but we were in good company and it was time well spent!

August 2014 Club Meeting

We had a great meeting on Thursday, August 7th.  After taking care of club business,  we enjoyed a presentation on prairie points by Arlene S.  Arlene demonstrated how to make prairie points, how to plan their spacing and how to secure them to the edge of your quilt and finish it on the back.

Arlene owns a bundle of traditional quilts, all designed, pieced and mostly hand quilted by her.  We got a close-up view of these quilts which included prairie points.

She also passed around samples of prairie points  'in-progress'.  This example shows how you might alternate points in two layers without having to insert them into each other.  I really like this effect.

Show and Tell

Our show and tell program was amazing.  Arlene creates very large bed quilts.  She shared several with us tonite.  This first one was part of the prairie point demonstration. If it would be  possible to narrow down my choices, this autumn quilt is one of my favorites.

This is a Scottie dog quilt.  Arlene said every block was embroidered by hand!

This quilt has lots of open space. She said she loves to use a continuous line quilting stencil for her hand quilting tasks.

Jan M. made this Christmas Twister quilt for her holiday decorating.

This is a very special memory quilt made by Jen M.  The appliques and other details  are made from clothings and special items meaningful to the intended recipient.  Up close, it is another gorgeous piece, by Jen.  

This special bag was made by Valerie. It began with a quiltsmart interfacing pattern.

Charity Sewing

This beautiful Quilt of Valor was made by Jan M.  She is donating it to be given to a special veteran in our community.  Thank you, Jan.  Our veterans are most deserving!

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The following quilts will be given to the local hospital children's ward.

made by Karlita S.

2 quilts made by Joyce D.

Dick and Jane made by Joyce D.

made by Suzanne & Susan and quilted by Shirley

top made by Rose Hughes, quilted by Kat S

made by Kat S

made by Kat S

Piecemakers Quilt Club had another great month.  See you all soon!

June 2014 Club Meeting

The program for our meeting this month was the UFO Challenge.  Last year, we committed to finishing a UFO.  Our club historian, Kathy B, logged our commitments on paper.  We had one year to finish it.  This month was the reveal.

This quilt has the most amazing embroidery...where you think there is fabric, it is actually created with thread. This photo does not do the quilt justice.  The colors were deep greens and rich purples.

Embroidered quilt by Jen M.

close-up detail by Jen M.

This is a  H U G E  I-Spy quilt by Jan M.  Jan said she had so many I-Spy blocks that she has another top equally as large.

I-Spy by Jan M.

This is the Kinda Kansas Dugout.  It started as a club mystery quilt project.  The border pieces were cut the wrong size and wouldn't fit around the center, so it sat in a bag for 2 years. Once I discovered my triangulations software, this border was made.  It still took forever.

Kinda Kansas Dugout by Kat S.

This is the back of the Kansas Dugout.  All those leftover pieces were stitched together and included between the yardage.

Kinda Kansas Dugout - back

Presidents 'Going-Out' Gift

This month is the end of year for club officers - a changing of the guard.  Our going-out president, Jean, was gifted with a lovely basket of 1930's  fat quarter collection, accompanied with a new pattern and a gift card to buy fabric for the backing.  She will have to make her own quilt.  LOL

Show and Tell

Jen made this beautiful quilt for her first granddaughter.  The colors are so radiant with black, limes and fuscia.

Baby Quilt by Jen M.

This is the most recent comfort quilt that was made as a club project.  Everyone made a star block with blue and yellow.  Some members put it together and Valerie B. quilted it on her mid arm.  We will keep it on hand until it is needed.

The next 3 quilts were made by Joyce D.  They are made for one of our charity missions - the childrens ward at the local hospital.  Joyce is our biggest provider of childrens comfort quilts.  Thank you, Joyce!

Rail Fence by Joyce D

Scrappy 9-Patch by Joyce D

Bowtie by Joyce D

July 2014 Charity Sew-In

Yesterday, our club held a charity sew-in day at EUM Church.  We also invited church members to participate along with us -  quilting lessons and biased direction included.  This photo is our July crew standing around a very small portion of the supplies provided.

We had a great sewing day and accomplished alot.  Some of the ladies rummaged through the boxes to pair up tops, backings & batting combos.  These kits were taken by several folks to quilt and bind at home.  Some of the ladies collected fabrics to kit up into other projects.  We all had a great time and teamwork prevailed.

There is only a few projects showing off here today. Several went home to be finished. Here is Arlene showing our 9-patch quilt top.  We worked together to make this top.  There was still an outer border of royal blue added after this photo was taken.  I brought it home to finish up.

Bev M. found a small stash of bowtie blocks and went about creating this adorable bowtie quilt. Bev often works with us on charitable projects.

Here is Lesa S. showing off a stormy seas quilt top.  She also picked some orphan blocks and built this quilt around them.

We all had a great time together and a little chocolate.  I think we will be seeing lots more quilts finished for gifting to our community outreach.  Thanks to EVERYONE for taking part!

July 2014 Club Meeting

Our meeting opened with a program about Susan McCord, an Indiana quilter with 12 quilts in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.  Marilyn Goldman provided an interesting presentation with slides of the quilts and a published book.

There is a historical write-up  here:  https://www.pickledishstore.com/productDetail.php?PID=1040.

Susan McCord is especially known for this bar quilt which was intricately hand pieced.

https://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/quiltinggenius/quilts/72_140_1.asp

There was a calendar  in 2007 exhibiting  Susan's quilts.

It is said that Susan loved pink and she put some pink in every one of her quilts.

She also made quilts with little hexagons

               

and crazy quilts

Show and Tell

Show and Tell is always a treat at our Piecemakers meeting.  It began with Jean S. sharing the quilt she made for her son's new housewarming.  He loves halloween.  Jean used some wonderful fabrics together and added some ghost appliques.

and here is the back where you can see all the wonderful quilting......

Lisa S. made this quilt for her grandson. It has a racing theme.

Shirley P  shared this antique quilt.  She said it was made by her great grandmother, Ella Byler,  approx. 1927.  She's not sure what the original color of the tan squares was. It might have been a blue or brown.

This is a photo of the back which shows the intricate hand quilting.

and here is Shirley showing off one of her patriotic placemats, made just for fun.

Here is a photo of my (Kat S) 4-Patch Strippy with an oversize chenille flower.  It is backed with a cuddly fleece.  I haven't yet decided which special little girl I will gift it to.

Here is our Mrs. Stephanie modeling her new apron.  Stephanie teaches health and nutrition to early elementary students.  Her apron is a fabric displaying 4 of the 5 food groups.

and here is Steph's new Shop Hop bag...everybody needs one of these.

Finally, we save the best for last.  The next 6 quilts are donations made by Joyce D., for our hospital children's ward mission.  Every month, we thank you, Joyce!

So until next time,  let's reach for lots of  happy and creative times.