July 2015 Meeting

Greetings Piecemakers!  We opened the July meeting by gifting the president's quilt to our president, Jen M.  Jennifer has been a great president and so she was re-elected for another term.  The club members took part in its construction.  Jennifer says she doesn't have a quilt of her own, so  glad we could oblige.

Arlene S. presented a program on the log cabin and all it's variations.  She created a block of each variation; i.e. traditional log cabin, courthouse steps, curved log cabin, triangle, diamond and hexagon shapes.  She also brought some log cabin quilts of her own.

Arlene's LC Quilts

Arlene's LC quilts

Arlene is noted for her  hand quilted , bed size quilts and often includes prairie points.  You'll notice she also has a flair for the traditional and eye-pleasing  color combinations.   Thank you, Arlene, for a thoroughly interesting presentation of the log cabin.

Pres. Jen presented Part 2 of our lesson on color.  She brought in her stash .... (Really?) Obviously, she has great self-control.

A swatch of fabric print was passed around, then everyone was to dive into her stash and choose 4 coordinating fabrics.  Then we were to lay out the fabric squares in different positions in the block and take notice how different each combination looks.

Val & Barb with the color challenge

Here's Jan taking it up a notch.

Jan is finally back from Winter Retreat

Jen, Kathy, Jean & Suzanne

Here's Mary & Jan B. hard at work

Show and Tell

charity quilts for the hospital

Shirley's patriotic placemats

a close-up, love the binding!

At the meeting it was decided that we would speed up the preparation of the Veterans Quilt which we are committed to.  It needs to be finished by mid September.   Since we are not having a sew day this month, it will be easier to get this quilt  together if everyone makes 1 stripset and brings it to our August meeting, along with your favorite cutting tools.  

The stripset needs to be minimumb42-1/2 inches long,  so if your strips are not quite long enough, just add a piece to the individual strips that are too short, press that seam open and it won't show that it was pieced.  It needs to have 5 strips of patriotic blues and reds, cut at 2-1/2 " wide.  Please put the darkest blue strip on one edge, the rest can be in any order you choose.  Your stripset will measure 10-1/2 " wide by 42-1/2 " long.

                                        This is how your stripset will look:

This is the quilt we are making:

If you can't be at the August meeting, please get your stripset to another member to bring in for you.

Thanks everyone for your participation.  See you in August!

June 2015 Meeting

We had a good meeting in June.  Lots of  decisions were needed to be made for the upcoming summer and fall activities.

Remember you can click on any photo for a larger view.  Use the back arrow to return to this page.

After the meeting, we enjoyed a program from Val B..  She demonstrated a special tool to make pineapple blocks.  It looked so easy and lots of fun. You just needed 1-1/2 inch strips and this ruler for trimming into the right angles.

Here are some quilts she made with the pineapple tool.

Pres. Jen also presented a program on the color wheel.  She explained the concept of the wheel and how to use it.  She handed out some printouts and sent us all home with some homework to prepare for the next meeting.  This is a 4-part lesson.

SHOW AND TELL

We'll begin with the bundle of children's charity quilts

made by Joyce D.

Shirley P. showed off her heartfelt special project

Arlene showed off another gorgeous quilt made for a family member.

I wonder if she is interested in adoption?

Jen M. shared an adorable 'puppy' quilt.

Kat (me), showed off a special veteran's quilt.

and here is the pieced back

There were some other wonderful projects presented, but my camera batteries died out.  So sorry we are missing them!

So ladies,  don't forget to do your homework and bring it to the next meeting.   LOL  

Have a great month  and  keep on quilting!

May 2015 Retreat

Greetings everyone!  I've finally edited the photos from our overnight retreat in May.  If I don't do things right away, it is so much harder to get yourself back to it.

We had a great time.  Actually I think the time went by quickly.  We did indulge ourselves with a cat nap, then got right back to it.  There was plenty of sugar to keep us energized.

We had a pot luck carry in,  lots of food and desserts, vegetables were scarce.  But then what is the most important ingredient at a sew-in ............. chocolate.  Yep, we had chocolate. Here is our buffet table.  Everyone was invited to dinner, even if they couldn't stay overnight.

Click on the photos for a nice close-up view.

Our buffet table.  Is Mary here leading the line-up  or going back for seconds?  

Here is Susie and Alice having an after-dinner chat.

Here is a pic of ladies working hard at having fun....Dee, Susie, Mary  and Pres. Jen waaay at the back.

Alice is working hard on her quilt.

Arlene is always working on a traditional masterpiece.                                        

Kathy B.  is seen here  knee deep in projects for her annual craft sale.

Here is Pres. Jen hard at work.

Pres. Jen brought a troubled medallion, looking for ideas to turn it into a quilt.  She received much help, since quilters can't resist sharing their creative ideas.

It's truly evident that Stephanie is enjoying her work!

We had a great time and fondled lots of fabric.  I thought I was too old to stay up all night,  but each year gets easier.  I'm looking forward to next years' quilting marathon!

May 2015 Club Meeting

We had another productive meeting this month.  Lots of programs to talk about and lots of things to share.

Our program this month covered a collection of effective and helpful tips for quilters, presented by our V.P. Kathy B.  Kathy provided a multi-page handout with tips and tricks to share.  She demonstrated several tools.... of special interest was the Accu-quilt Go cutter and dies.

Here is Pres, Jen and Shirley P, showing off a wonderful T-Shirt quilt.

Here is a delightful pictoral hexagon quilt made by Jan B.  We all need to make one of these!

Here is a  not-so-shabby stack of children's comfort quilts made by  Joyce D.  Joyce is our high-volume monthly contributor for charity quilts. She is such a blessing to our group!

Here is a set of children's quilts made by Kat S.  It is the "Supersize 9-Patch" pattern by Anita Grossman Solomon.  You could make one too.  It is a free pattern  HERE .

That's it.  Check back soon for the report on our annual overnight retreat.

April 2015 Monthly Meeting

President Jennifer opened our April meeting with a question ..... " How did you meet your husband ?   We enjoyed many interesting and funny stories from everyone.

Jennifer also provides a prize drawing every month ... your name goes into the bucket if you wore your name tag.  Arlene won a lovely plant this month.

Show and Tell

Kathy B. showed off this lovely quilt made with civil war fabrics.

Pres. Jen M.  shared  these 2 vintage tops and asked for finishing suggestions.

50's  Bow Tie

Sunbonnet Sue

Charity Sewing

Shirley P. made these baby quilts -- from a  3 -in -1 pattern by Anita Grossman Solomon.

Kat S.  made these 2 childrens quilts.......

Quick Strippy

Joyce D. is our over-achiever  in providing charity quilts.

Her show started with   ..................

this .............................                    

and this .....................................    

and grew to this ..........................

and finished with this pile of 20 quilts !  

Thanks Joyce !

Remember the Forks of the Wabash and Piecemakers Quilt show next weekend, April 18 & 19.  Be sure to stop by and see the wonderful display of quilts and place your vote.

And lastly, you will find many free patterns, great for charity quilts at  www.maryquilts.com.