In the Windy City of Morganville

Deb brought a new "Friend" to our Morganville meeting this week........Pat.

Welcome to our group Pat!!!!

Pat had gotten a quilt that she was very interested in sandwiching and hand quilting.  Yes it was only yesterday, but I forgot to write down where she got it.  Deb mentioned Machelle's sandwich work last month and how nifty using all the tables were.....so.....

Tables were set up and Deb showed Pat how to "iron" out the batting wrinkles.

Everyone had to check out the quilt.  So full of someone's history.  We saw shirts, dresses, aprons, flannel shirts, etc in the various fabric patterns displayed.

The pieces were embroidered on a back square that also were very interesting to look at and contemplate where they might have been collected from.  Deb also taught Pat how to baste her sandwich together with thread instead of pins.

Leila is working on another hand pieced block and Susie is working on her Jacobean blocks.  Think she said she has three left to do.

Judy finished her end table mats and is now working on her coffee table runner.  She is doing the faux piping binding.

She also brought in her square - disappearing 9-patch and with a little help from her friends, recreated how to sew the 9 patches together to produce the same look.  Now that was a fun zig saw puzzle to reconstruct.  Thank you Judy for the brain work out.

Machelle and Donnis compared notes....

Donnis has finished her retirement home quilt and it is off to the quilters, so she brought in left over strips and is making another quilt with two different blocks.  Looking forward to seeing this one also.

Machelle was working on a tea cup caddy.

Deb and Pat compare quilting techniques, use of different thimbles, etc.  Discussion of quilt hoops was joined in by quite a few of us.

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Lunch was great as usual, for those that bought from the restaurant - fried chicken.

After lunch was our almost favorite part of the day - SHOW 'n TELL.

Deb (*note correction) this lovely baby quilt.  She would not let us look close at it as it wasn't as perfect as she would have liked it.  She's crazy of course - just looking at this quilt made us all want to grab it and run away and take a nap.  So soft and comfy looking.

(*Deb e-mailed us to make sure that we noted that it was machine quilted  not hand quilted, and the flannel on the back made it drag so some of the stitches are a little big.  Thank you Deb)

Does anyone remember what year this quilt was taught by Bonnie?  Several names of the pattern were passed around and it looks like North Wind won out.

If you look up North Wind quilts, wow, there are a lot of ways to set them also.

Judy showed how she used two different fabrics sewn together for her binding that make the Faux Piped Binding as show by the green on the front of her end table mat.  She brought along the directions which are show below. (click here)

Here is another site that you can go to and learn more.

Judy will be putting the faux piping on the coffee table runner also.

Leila just got this quilt back from the quilter (Susie) and had to show off the beautiful quilting.  Leila - it is a beautiful quilt.  WOW!!!!!!!  The star blocks she hand sewed together and machined the courthouse step blocks.

Click on the picture above to make it larger so you can see the quilting.  yes it is gorgeous.

Do hope that Leila brings this quilt back in when she has it bound.  We need to see this one twice, or even more.......

Vevia finished her wall hanging using two of each block taught last year.  She put it together with sashings and cornerstones AND hand quilted it.  On the back was the legend naming the block and who gave the instructions to make.  She also finished a baby set for a new great-great niece due in August.

Just had to get a close up of it.

See the arrow above that one piece - that is how much the last row faded on this pillow cover that Machelle had made her mother.  She took the last row off and is thinking about what she will do with the remainder.  Really weird that only one fabric faded like that. 

Deb showed us the project that she is working on from her book she brought in last month.

Here is the back.  She will be adding a stiffener and then folding the sides towards the back to give it the curved look.  Looking forward to seeing this project finished.

Vevia almost forgot to show us her purse she bought in Paducah at the quilt show.  She got to meet the Hmong woman that does these and the woman's husband showed Vevia how it is done.

Click here to read up on this ancient group of mountain people.  Correction Vevia - it is pronounced 'mung'.

This is one piece that Vevia has at home obtained at an auction.  Pat is going to bring in one of her pictures made by the Hmong's next month.  Very very tiny and beautiful work.  They also do some fantastic 'story cloths' using embroidery.

All quilters - this is what Vevia found in Paducah.  Esther had shown us the Finger Gloves (click to find out more), you get 12 for $4.99 and they can be cut to length.  Then the Quilter's Tips  which Vevia got 6 for $5.99.  They are made of different materials and Deb is trying out the quilter's tips to see how those are.  Great for gripping.

Have fun this month and stay safe.

1st - No Fools! - Meeting

Don't you just love getting to the meeting a little early and seeing what everyone has found over the last month?  The first few minutes are full of chatter of projects under way and interesting things located on our travels.

Iowana had given Susie a bunch of her 30's fabrics and Susie has been on the look out for how to use them.  She saw a quilt in a shop and was fortunate to find on e-bay the book for a good price.  Amazon has some used ones starting at $9.41.

Then Deb had been out to California and found this little gem.  So fun to thumb through the pages and pick up little hints as you went along.  Now we know why some fusible interfacing's seem so stiff - we might possibly be holding the iron on them too long.

Vevia had her Bel Air with her to sew on and was using a magnet to measure her 1/4" seams.  Susie mentioned the part that you can screw in and measure the distance - and Bless Shirley, she had her's with her so Vevia could see what it was.  So be on the lookout for one of these please!

If you buy your garlic cloves three at a time in that nice little bag - look what you can do with the bag afterwards.  It is a great "bra" for your bigger spools or for your serger spools.  And -nope- they do not smell of garlic.

Deb was doing hand quilting and she had on a finger cot.  Deb and Esther got to talking about the benefits of the cots and or the finger gloves.  The tan item here is a finger glove.  It has little nubbies on it and is great for putting on your index finger and grabbing hold of the needle and pulling it through.  Speaking of needles.........Susie was introduced to a new brand at the Severy, KS.  quilt shop.  . . . Hiroshima applique needles #10, 6 needles for $8.50.  They have a much bigger/longer eye than the John James needles that Susie has been using and they do not bend - or haven't yet anyway.

And as you can see, Susie is using the needles a lot.  This is the Jacobean quilt that she is working on.  Not much longer and she will have all the blocks completed and ready to start assembling.

Machelle brought in her table mat so Vevia could get a good close look at it before she starts putting her version together.  If you are interested in giving the "biscuits" a try, click here for the pattern directions.  After the initial making of the biscuits, the rest is great handwork and it would also make a wonderful showcase for some favorite buttons.

Susie brought in another "circle" of crazy quilting with the ribbon and regular embroidery.  This one was embellished with beads and a piece of old lace that Susie made stand out with a little paint.  Make sure you check her circles out and see what she is up to.

It takes a village to raise a child - ever heard that saying?  Well it takes a group of friends to "raise up a pinned quilt".  Bless everyone for all their help with Machelles quilt.  Some helped her hold pieces while she ironed them - AGAIN. Your long armer's want you to iron everything before you bring it out, and then you have to fold it for transportation and .....ta dah!  Look at all the wrinkles.  Susie stated that she had gotten a steamer to help her release creases as and while she loaded her machine.  She also suggested that we could get hangers from a cleaners maybe that are much wider and then we can hang stuff with less folds.

We have a great meeting place to lay out 4 tables and sandwich for basting.  Machelle is going to quilt this on her home machine - You go Machelle!!!!!!  It was a great time to take a good look at the inventive way that Machelle did her disappearing 9-patch.  Some people are always coming up with great ways to make the old = new.

Some of us can stretch out better than others - you go Deb.

Everyone helped out some, and Esther and Deb stayed with Machelle till the process was done.

Look at these pins that Machelle used on some of the basting.  Machelle had taken a class with Dee and learned about them - Basting Brights.  They are very sharp and with the help of her basting tool, they go in so easy.

After lunch - before the Show 'n Tell started - Machelle took away her endorsement of OdoBan.  The product may remove some odors - but do you want the new odor it leaves.  Machelle's dryer is down stairs and when she put some OdoBan in her wash and then that wash in the dryer - yuck.  The house reeked of OdoBan. A person can only stand so much of some things.  Took Machelle's breath away.  Thank you Machelle for keeping us up to date.  We are still on the look out for something that you can use to remove the musty smell that some fabrics have.

Shirley had a good story with this snails trail quilt.  

Look closer at the fabric - 70's - 80's ?  It has been quite awhile in the making.  Shirley finished it and then had to hunt around for something to bind it with.  She picked a lovely polka dot fabric that went well with the blue in the quilt.  Course after it was all done, she found more of the timeless paisley print.  

Love the way that she did the outside border so that it adds so much to her design.  And look at her quilting - another benefit.

Take a look on the internet and see all the ways that you can set these blocks together.  

And you can even make cats or witches hats out of them.

Some people are just too good.  Donnis (and Esther) are the first to bring in their finished 2014 BOM Project quilts.  Love Donnis's and learned so much from her about hanging techniques.

Her back has this lovely label on it and taking a suggestion from Esther, Donnis had each of us present, sign her label.

Esther finished hers too - and got a second surprise pattern from it - a cross.  Way to go Esther.  Don't you love it when you get an extra bonus from your work.

Esther had one of her blocks on the back for a label and had everyone sign it.  So remember, when you bring in your finished BOM quilt - bring in a pen for signing.  Great way to capture all the friends that were involved with the making of this quilt.

Vevia had a charm pack start from Iowana from about 2010 when Barb taught us how to do a dimensional bow tie.  Unfortunately all that work does not show up when you look at the quilt.  There are 56 bow ties in this quilt - can you find them?  They are all the colored blocks.

Vevia's label on the back was a pocket with two bow ties in different stages to remind her later how it was done.

BEWARE!!!!  Bias is created with the bows and you have to be careful to keep them square and not to quilt down the "tie" or catch the folds.  Susie is going to check with Barb to find out if she finished hers and what hints she has for us.  Thank you everyone for your tips, making the bows out of the plain fabric to see if they showed up more might be a good way to go.  The crazy quilting thread you see here is three different variegated threads of Iowana's and one of the borders and the binding is from Iowana's fabrics and the backing fabric is from Bonnie.  The thread was a machine quilting thread and seemed a little thick.

Susie had this panel and what a cute quilt it made.

Susie also had gotten two new pantographs and used one on this quilt.  Love the look of the back too.

This quilt was a top all put together that Susie "rescued".  Someone that has a need down the road will be much blessed with this warm quilt.  The leaves seem to be made from different patterns of upholstery type fabric.

Another new pantograph was used in the quilting.  Sorry - not as good of a picture to show you.

Another "rescue" quilt that Susie got for $1 is out of this world.  Drunkards Path is the name of the blocks and there are so many ways that you can lay these blocks out.  As you can tell - it looks like someone was a little tipsy when they put this top together.  The pattern goes along beautifully and then takes off in another directions.  And no, Susie is not laying down - the quilt showed up better in this direction.

Susie has a lot of checkered fabric that she is using up - don't stare at it too long here in this picture or you might put yourself into a trance.  Checks don't photograph clear.  If you click on the picture to enlarge - you'll see.

We had gotten after Deb last time for not bringing in Buster, her Doxie-Bull, so she brought him in for us all to see how with a creative "twist" you can get an entirely different breed.

Esther asked how you put them together and Deb went right to work taking the front legs off to let us see.

Cloth covered florist wire threads all the yo yo's together and then a twist here and there - and voila!  You have the cutest little guy.  The others she had finished will go to the grandkid's this coming Sunday.  Thank you Deb - we love Buster.  He is so bright and cheery.

This is the project that Donnis is working on.  Caught a picture just as she was packing up.  Not sure how many more rows she has to go yet.

Check out the arrow - see the fabric it points to and that Deb is pointing out - that is a piece from Marcella.  She had given the girls each a small piece and Donnis decided to use some here for a great memory statement.  Lovely fabric.

Before the last of us left for the day - Machelle trimmed up the excess on her quilt for better handling when she takes it to the machine.

We had a great day - and Lorraine.......we had a great laugh with Vevia running out the door to wave at you in the little bus - only to find out it wasn't you.  Ha hahahahaha  We do miss everyone that can not make it.  Judy will be back soon and perhaps Jan and Dee will get a chance to drop by before long.  Barb and Bonnie - if you are in town on the first Wednesday of the month - drop by.

Till next time - have fun quilting.