UPCOMING EVENTS



Next Meeting:

Wednesday, There will not be a regular meeting on Wed. September 2nd. Next meeting TBA.

Susie has been conducting Sew Days on every Wednesday - except for the 2nd and 9th of September.

Susie is cleaning and attendees are keeping a social distance and wearing masks when this is not possible.

Please bring your lunch and drinks and thank you for not attending when you are not feeling fit and fiddle.




Thursday, March 5, 2015

Yahoo! Yeah! Yippee-i-o!!!!!! We met in March!

Nature may have been sending out cold chills - but the sun was shining as members attended this month's sewing group.  Believe it or not - the photographer got so excited to see everyone that she forgot to take pictures of many things.



Susie is working on hexagons with the same flower appliqued on each hexagon in different fabrics.  It is from the book - "Lovina's Pressed Flowers", Quilts & Projects by Blackbird Designs.  This one is Lovina's Pressed Flowers Quilt designed by Barb Adams.

Susie showed some of the aspects that interested her in this project.  She borrowed a piece of luan from Mark.  It is water and heat resistant.  Hope we have the right spelling, this is what was found on the internet:

(Luan as Underlayment 

Luan is 1/4 inch thick and it comes in 4-by-8 sheets. Made from mahogany, luan is manufactured by layering thin strips of mahogany at right angles and bonding them together under pressure to form large panels. Each luan panel has a rough side and a smooth side. The smooth side faces upward when installing luan as an underlayment.)  

Cover it with a sturdy cloth like canvas and use it to press your pieces.  Susie had watched a video Click here to hear about this technique that she first heard about from Barb C.  If any one would like to see it - please get with Susie.  Now the Faultless Premium Starch makes sense to Susie.
You press on a light fusible interfacing to the back of your hexagons and you use Pattern Ease interfacing for your reusable placement in lieu of tracing onto every hexagon.

The quilt is going to be gorgeous and we are all looking forward to seeing what Susie's looks like.

Susie also spoke of Pat Sloan (click here for her blog) and the quilting she does.

Donnis worked on her strip piecing.  Machelle was working on a UFO that she needed larger, was running out of certain fabrics and not sure how she wanted to finish.  Leila and Vevia had hand work.

Then came lunch.

The restaurant next door is open now and they had fried chicken on the menu.  A few of us were drooling over potatoes, corn, etc.  Susie had her bottom bun hamburger.

During lunch, everyone spoke about different eating habits and what they were finding out. No GMO, no wheat, very low carbs, Paleo life style, etc.   Machelle shared Lyn-Genet's ideas on food reaction.  Lucky Donnis and Leila eat what they want and are doing great.  You learn a lot in our group, even during lunch.
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After lunch came a surprise?!

Leila had a gift for Vevia - it was perfect.  Old time watches that she can take apart and use in her steam punk creations - which by the way are on the side board as she works through her quilting UFO list.

Donnis is the first one to bring in her Morganville Friendship Group 2014 BOM project completed.  It is the perfect size for the wall space she wanted it for.  We did hear from others that were working on theirs.  Looking forward to seeing all the finished projects.

Leila has been busy with her hand work leaf quilt out of scraps.

She showed us this magazine about "Seeing Red" where she got the idea to make.....

"Seeing Blue"  WOW!  Leila said the pattern is "just" a drunkards path, but it sure takes on another look when put together like this.  She didn't put the flowers and vines all around,

however, she did include them on the back.  Teresa B. quilted this for Leila.

Deb has been working with passion for Easter - for her 4 grandchildren.  We hope we have talked her into bringing in her "boxer" that she made first by turning the middle portion of the head around.

We all fell in love with these darling yo-yo dogs.  The grandkid's are going to love them.

Deb wished Esther could have been with us today as she deserves equal credit on the quilting of this "almost thrown away" quilt.  When you don't have quilters in the family to complete tops - it can be a very sad ending for your work.  Someone saved it - gave it to the Clifton ladies to quilt and now it is going to be gifted back to a grandchild of the maker.  This is done with the traditional diamonds and they are so tiny and beautiful.

Deb and Esther did a fantastic job on the hand quilting.  Such a lovely heirloom now.

Yeah! Machelle!  This is one of her UFO's that is now completed.  Click on the picture to blow it up some and take a look at all the quilting she did - ONE HER HOME MACHINE!  

Back in 2006, Dee taught a different block to the group every month.  And now - 2015 - Machelle has done her teacher proud - she even included the names of all the blocks on the label.  Love her colors and the planning of the sashings and borders.  Quite a standout.

Machelle also told us about "OdoBan", Eucalyptus Odor eliminator and disinfectant.  She used it in a room that gets closed up for the winter/non use, and it took away that funky smell.  Someone had told her about it to use on items that had been stored too long and were not "fresh".  Looking on the internet, you can get in a gal. concentrated form at Home Depot for about $10.00.

NOTE UPDATE ON OdoBan!!!!!!!!!  3/17/15
Machelle is not as impressed with this stuff in the wash.  She has tried it in the rinse - stinks
in the wash - stinks
even used less - stinks
She would not recommend it if asked today.



Vevia had mentioned the quilt that her great grandmother Mack had made in Florida where you take a 9-patch and then......

fold it in half and sew up the two sides, then put the seams together and sew part way across, turn right side out, whip stitch the opening closed and then sew them all together.  You have a reversible quilt, light weight and so different.  Only the back of Vevia's version is shown above.  It is made out of flannel.  Great-Grandmother's was made out of old shirts, dresses and apron fabrics back in the late 1970's when great-grandmother was in her late 80's, early 90's.

Vevia brought in her all about the boots quilt that she had made for a library program from a boot pattern that Leila had loaned her.

Frustration of not getting to meet in January or February, prompted Vevia to go ahead and do her strip piecing table throw so that we could meet.  hahaha  It worked, we met in March.

Past members - Bonnie and Marcella had started a "Quilts for the Heart" group at the Manhattan quilt guild.  Vevia made two quilts for them out of fabric that was donated.

Wild colors - but some little girl will treasure them.

Susie had brought in a magazine (Quiltville I think) that had the picture shown below here.

It is a diamond strip piecing project.  Counting just one of the points - there were 24 striped diamonds used to put it together.  
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Individually we might not have accomplished a lot this day, but as a group - we had an awesome, fun filled, laughing, educational exchange of ideas, techniques and thoughts.

Thank you each and every one for what you bring to our friendship group.  Do pray that the others may be able to come next month.