Tricky Ice in some areas kept our numbers down!

Cold weather is on it's way and this morning it brought ice.  Unfortunately not everyone was able to attend our Christmas meeting.  But the Lord was good and other than a few hours delay with a flat tire for Machelle - we all made it safe.

 

 

Working on projects to get done for Christmas was the biggest goal for many.  Deb is doing kitchen towels that are darling.  This one she is keeping for herself.

 

Lorraine found a  H U G E  crocheted afghan that she is taking apart and then putting back together again in a smaller usable size.  Lovely colors.  Hard to think of someone getting rid of something they put so much work into.

 

 Leila is working on a wall/table size quilt.  Shown first is the back.  She is hand sewing this together.  Wow - does she do a great job.

 Then you turn it over and are even more astounded with the pattern.

 Susie was working on some applique and the rest of us were doing some much needed visiting and sharing of how to's.

 Our Christmas dinner was very exciting with all the new recipes and wonderful things to try out.

 And of course we can not forget the desserts.  No, we did not eat part of that cake before dinner.......one of the husbands had a taste test to see if it was good enough and safe for us.  hahahahaha

 Show 'n Tell is always so interesting.  Judy had made this dresdan plate candle mat for the guild challenge in Clay Center and won Best of Show with it.  We had watched her work on it and it was great to see it finished and to hear how well she placed.

 Deb looked on line and found out how to bind with different fabrics on both sides.  She brought in a doll blanket that she had done this technique on - Now she has to have a hands on class and show the rest of us what she learned.  The folded over binding that you see here was yellow with designs, with the front edge out of blue.  Deb said the corners were a dream to do.

 The quilt itself is pretty, the two color binding brings it up another notch.

 Vevia did the BOM project at the Manhattan guild this past year a little differently than "Robb-n- Graves" presented it.  It was 12 blocks approximately 8 1/2" x 11" each, in applique.  She shrunk the patterns down, placed them on point, and embroidered them.  Small log cabin blocks finished the setting.

 Machelle is rushing to finish this pirate quilt for a grandson.  Glad she brought it in so that we could see it - so many different looks in that disappearing 9-patch pattern.  Great job Machelle - take a picture for us please.

After a little bit of talking about next years projects and clean up, we were all on our way early.

2013 was a great year.  Till January....................

 

Wishing everyone a blessed Christmas, safe holiday travels and a wonderful New Year.

Surprise Visit at November's Meeting

Thank you ever so much to our Morganville Friendship group members, Palmer/Linn Deb and her group, and members of the Piotique Quilters Guild of Clay Center for their donations to our Micro Wave fund.  A new micro wave was purchased and installed first thing at our meeting this month.  You now can bring soup and have it heated up in less that the usual half hour it had been taking.

After all the fun the new micro wave generated, we all got busy on the little projects that Susie had brought in for those that wanted to work on them and then low and behold - guess who showed up?

 

IOWANA!!!!!!!

It was so good to see her up and doing pretty well.  Russ is such a doll to bring her out to see all of us.  Well of course we had to go right into Show 'n Tell so that Iowana could see everything before they headed back home - first one up was Deb and pictures of the new granddaughter.

Not sure you can see her well in the screen above, but she has some pretty long and dark hair and Deb had threatened her daughter that she would be back and braid it the next day.  We all got to laughing and just enjoyed the pictures of the new little future quilter.  Congratulations Deb and to all your family.

Susie was out shopping and came across this quilt shop where she saw a darling purse that she went home and made up to show all of us.  Guess what it is from?  That infamous 10 minute table runner.

Yes, no lie!  Isn't it the greatest.  Susie turned it inside out so that we could all see how easy it went together.  When it is in the tube shape before you finish off the ends, you do add batting to it to give it some form when it is turned into a purse.  Darling and soooooooooooo easy.

Susie said she would bring in the directions for anyone that has misplaced theirs.

Donnis finished her tilted log cabin blocks that she had made while showing us how to do the technique last month, this is a runner to cherish - love the colors.

And then Donnis went even further and put this scrap one together for a doll bed.  So many different looks just by color changes.

Vevia had borrowed Leila's sisters doily (on the right), took it home and made her own version (on the left).  Love those fast projects after a big quilt.

Vevia finished her tilted log cabin blocks also.  Added some sashing that she tilted and corner stones to really confuse the looker.  New name - "Fractured Tilt".

Leila has been working on this quilt top for 4 years (think that is what she said)  The stars were hand sewn pieced and the courthouse steps paper pieced.  The blocks were put away several times as she didn't have quite enough scraps for certain areas, then Leila pulled it back out and finished the top and put it away again, then pulled out and put on the border, and now will put away till a little colder - then she is going to pull it out and hand quilt it.  Gorgeous just doesn't seem to do it justice - it is more than gorgeous, but not sure what that word would be.  LOVE IT Leila!

Judy finished all 4 of her tilted logs.  She made two reversible sets by putting two together for each table topper.  We all loved the idea - one side gets dusty, shake it and turn it over. 

Deb made this quilt for herself, for her home.  Such an easy design and yet so perfect.  Makes you happy just looking at it.  

Deb also told us that she had heard that we should only use wool or 100% cotton batting in our baby quilts.  If the baby spits up/vomits on a polyester blend, the body heat of the mess could melt the polyester and be a possible smothering danger.  Something to think about.

Behind this beauty is Russ and a helper.  This is Iowana's top that she has been working on since around 2005 when it was a BOM from Bobby's shop.  Susie is going to quilt it and perhaps add a little to the sides.  Take a look and see if any of these blocks we could shrink down to the 6" finished blocks we are going to do in 2014. (Read to the right side of blog the project we will be working on next year)

After Iowana and Russ left, everyone got back to making their pincushion in a bottle, scissor fob, or......

 in Deb's case - a scissor chatelaine.  Susie loved her color choices on the beads. 

We also all worked on some new head coverings for Iowana.  Donnis and others cut them out, Machelle sewed them up and we all helped decide where to put the flowers and leaves.  Our "models" did a fine job of showing them off.

And then on Thursday, Susie gave them all to Iowana and she thoroughly enjoyed them when they went to the Nebraska Quilt Show.  They kept Iowana's head warm and she received several compliments on them.   Heard they had a great time and Russ only took them out of their way by ?????? miles.  (tee hee)

See you all next month.

Classes and Guests add up to a GREAT day!

What a turn out for our class on "Tilted Log Cabins".  Donnis had 14 eager listeners giving her their full attention - scary or not - Donnis did fantastic!

 

 This class came about because of a quilt that Donnis had made from Lynne Edwards book.  Donnis said it was very easy and of course - something new, we all wanted to learn how.

Donnis had some examples to show us and get our creative juices flowing.

 So whether a table topper or a wall hanging - we had some wonderful finished projects shown us.

 As you can see here - start with a log cabin block, do a bit of whacking and you have a tilted log.

 And we were off........................................

 Esther's color choices gave us some future possibilities, hers is shown above the table runner that Donnis brought in as an example.

 Machelle's off to a holiday start

 Jan is going for the gold

 Deb's flair of color is the two on top

 Had to get Donnis in here with her browns and surprise yellow home position.  Love the contrast.  Thank you Jan for letting mom borrow your runner back to show us how color can really change the look.

 Don't get confused - we had THREE (3) Deb's with us for the day- our Deb shown above and two guest Debs.  This is sisters Lori on the left and Deb on the right.  Deb works and wasn't going to be able to come, at the last moment she got the day off.  Wonderful sis Lori shared her log cabin blocks so they both could learn the technique and produce a joint effort.  No fighting sisters on who gets the end results, which by the way are stunning.

 Susie's blocks are the three just above the single.  We had Susie turning and turning her blocks to see which way to put them together.  Don't know about Susie, but some of us where getting dizzy.

 Remember Lori and Deb?  This is another guest and their other sis - Idana.  Love, love, love her color choices in blue.  Sure hope we get pictures of finished projects from you ladies.

 Tah Dah!!!!  Guest number 4 and the third Deb - who we call Deb from Palmer.  Bonnie taught her how to quilt just "a couple of years ago" and since that is how Bonnie introduced us - poor Deb got the Palmer distinction even though she now resides in Linn.  Looking forward to pictures Deb - hint, hint, hint!

 Everyone claims that this person never gets her picture on the site - so here she is in two poses and of course her gorgeous blocks.  (Vevia for those of you who do not know, the camera person)

 Judy made two different color schemes, the two on the bottom, from left overs from her granddaughter's quilt.  Think we heard reversible some where in the future.

 We had a fantastic spread for lunch to share with our guests.  Thank you to everyone that brought something in.  Yum, Yum, was it good!

After lunch we shared another of our favorite past times - Show 'n Tell! 

Judy had brought in her finished top of  her granddaughter's quilt so that Susie could take it home and quilt it.  Don't know about the rest of you, but we enjoy seeing the before quilted as well as the after quilted.  Lovely batiks through out and great left overs for Judy's tilted log.

 Shirley brought in lots of Show 'n Tell for us to highlight the season coming up...can't decide which

 table runner I like the best............

 or the bag she brought them in.  Thank you Shirley.

 Donnis also shared with us her bargello wall hanging.  Isn't that lovely.  How many of us have always wanted to make one..............well, a wall hanging would be do-able.  Thank you for even more inspiration Donnis.

 Susie made the Jacobean/fantasy flower in a class that Vevia taught on different applique techniques and decided to showcase it on a bag.  Susie loved the Reynolds wrap technique for small pieces.

 Susie also brought in her current project called Japanese Star.  The stabilizer becomes part of the block..........

 as you add the strips of fabric to it.

 Crab Apple Hill has a gardeners alphabet block series and Susie has bought a couple of the blocks, Iowana is coloring them and then Susie is embroidering them.  The picture of the thread she is using is of the Premium Sulky 12 weight heavier thread (330 yards) that Susie is trying in stead of the DMC floss.  As you can see, it looks great.

Susie had read all the directions on the alphabet blocks and shared with us what she learned about smearing the coloring - you can correct it with a little baking soda, water and a Q-tip BEFORE you heat set the color.  Now that is a tip worth putting down in your hint book.

 

 Even though Lori did not bring a show and tell, we cornered her into giving us a quick how to demo on the lovely basket that she brought her work in.  Lori had seen it done in a shop and this technique did not use the cotton clothesline.  They had used fusible batting and folded and folded the fabric over it and then did the zig zag sewing to bring it all together.  The folding and batting gives it the firmness.

 Lori is such an animated demonstrator..........the basket is backwards so that we could get a good picture of what all your body has to contort to while getting the sides under the needle.  Thank you Lori for being such a good sport - we all enjoyed the antics.

It was a great day with great friends, lots of shared info and a great technique to learn.  Looking forward to seeing those finished tilted logs.  Till next month..........