december 12 meeting

Five happy quilters gathered at Miriam’s home this holiday season. Festooned with over 50 nutcrackers as well as holiday cheer, her home was a cozy place to meet.

Our Show 'N Tell:

Harriet’s UW quilt is made with specialty fabrics from Quilt Loft in Ballard and Undercover Quilts in Pike Place Market. She has a lot of fun finding motifs that matched her YF recipient.

This small "UW" quilt uses the same fabric as the larger one, with wonderful dyed fabric on the back.

 This large quilt with nature scenes in the framed squares is for one of Harriet’s many nephews.

Flora made this pretty gingham pinwheel quilt to donate to a charity auction or use as a raffle quilt to raise money for a non-profit group. The quilt will be finished with contrasting flowers with button centers.

Now an expert in making t-shirt quilts, Flora taught QA members how to put one together. The top quilt was made for a co-worker. The smaller one is a sample for teaching her students.

Miriam has been busy since June trying to sell the home of an older friend whom she has Power of Attorney. This quilt top was made by Miriam’s daughter, Miriam Louise, for a couple whose marriage broke up. Miriam will be quilting it.

This fresh baby quilt top was made with scraps from the above quilt.

For all her friends at the meeting Miriam gave gifts of hand-crocheted dish rags and handy pot scrubbers.

Miriam announced that the date of the apartment open house has changed to January 13, 1:30 to 4:30 as the contractors won’t be finished by the 5th.

Shannon handed over a cutting board and knife, the last of the gear needed for the apartment. She proudly displayed the quilt she finished for her mother-in-law, Randi, as well as the beginnings of a complementary pillow.

This modern quilt pattern, designed by Katie Pedersen, was free-motion quilted with loops and triangles. It’s for a nephew of Shannon’s who was married in May.

Shannon also brought a book: 15 Minutes of Play—Improvisational Quilts by Victoria Findlay Wolfe that featured quilts made by her friend LeeAnn.

Patricia showed an out-of-print book about a Japanese applique artist as well as reported on the vibrant YF quilt top that Maurine is making with yukata cottons.

 

november 12 meeting

Six of us gathered at Shannon’s to share our quilting projects and lives. Here is our Show ’N Tell:

Janet made it again! She brought silverware and cups for the apartment project that Miriam was pleased to accept. Janet went to Island Quilter with Kelly and raved about the fascinating Luke Haynes show. At the fabric store in Port Gamble, she bought some sheep fabric to make a pillow for a friend. The back of the quilt is knitted by Janet!

Miriam made a Plymouth baby quilt made with jean fabric! Flora is going to add a Piece Makers label. Miriam also just finished a baby quilt for a grand baby who is not born yet. The report on the apartment: the building at Aurora and 105th will be furnished on Sunday, January 6—right after church. Miriam is the person who led our project!

Using a ruler she picked up at work (Twister CS Designs), Shannon made a sparkling pinwheel quilt for Randi. It was so much fun that she has started on a new top that she will transform into a pinwheel design.

Boy, Harriet had some catching up to do! Her patchwork quilt for Patrick McGee includes UW, music, books and movie theaters. Her yellow and blue quilt, for a niece, looks very French. She brought two tied comfort quilts made by her mom who is now passed. Her quilt with the words: Well behaved women seldom make history is promised for a Parish Care apartment. Finally Harriet showed us an amazing bat quilt that she made for a nephew with both hand and machine stitching.

Flora told her amazing story of meeting Kaffe Fassett on Vashon Island when she got to an event on the wrong evening. The weekend before Flora hosted an event at her home with a master Salish weaver and eight workshop participants—all native women—that completely exhilarated her. Flora also showed us an apron that she made for a friend with wonderful graphics of her home.

Patricia shared the fabrics for the YF quilt that she, Maurine and Janet are making. Her big news was about a quilting retreat she is leading in November 2013 with Joe Cunningham at St. Andrew’s House on the Hood Canal. Patricia is back and forth to Victoria every second weekend to give help to her parents as her father is declining.

october 12 meeting

Four of us gathered at Pris' home with her gluten-free snacks—fresh fruits and Rice Krispie treats.

Show ’N Tell

For Pris, the summer was a time of learning about health challenges and taking time to get better. For someone who has never had anything wrong with her, it was a whole new experience. Now she is doing well and is very thankful. Pris showed us a quilt she is working on. It has fish, feathers, rocks and more—connected together with a fresh summertime plaid. The next thing she has to do is the binding.

Janet is doing better with more and more good days. She drove to Pris' home in the dark which was a big deal! She is in a support group called The Dizzy Group where she is getting information about her "new normal." Janet made a baby quilt for a little one next door. It has huge funny frogs with embroidered smiles. She quilted it on her long arm with fun loopy stitching. She also brought two bags of jeans from a yard sale that she gave to Miriam for her world-famous jeans quilts.

This month Miriam is using her morning creative time to crochet a blanket. It has 48 sqaures. So far she has finished 13 large squares and everyone is different. She has started on her YF quilt that will need 60 squares. She's using some cool fabric that she bought from Sarah Stine.

 Patricia brought one finished quilt named Tangled Garden and one in progress, Bon Odori. She is working on putting together a quilt retreat with Joe Cunningham, a quilter from San Francisco, for Fall 2013.

september 12 meeting

Three of us gathered at Patricia’s home with no-bake chocolate-chocolate cookies and fizzy fruit punch.

Show N Tell

Miriam made an outrageous quilt with 2835 1-inch squares. She got the squares pre-trimmed at a Piece Makers meeting. It was fun to do, working a few hours every day. Youth-bed sized, it will be given to Plymouth for a bed/chair-bound senior.

Her second major project includes pocket squares from Janet and denims from Flora. The quilt is perfect for a 2013 YF senior.

Patricia talked about her struggles of choosing the right sky fabric for her big quilt “Hope Survives.” This discussion grew into a short tutorial on how to make simple pattern pieces with freezer paper. She also showed a quilt with lots of white backgrounds where she transferred the quilt stitching pattern using a screen.

Flora is really enjoying being a member of Quilters Anonymous (QA)—especially with its focus on making charity quilts. She is going to start a satellite group to make quilts for charity auctions.

Flora is going to teach a class to QA members about the tips and tricks of making a t-shirt quilt at a day camp in October. She also designed a quilt for her king-sized bed using EQ7. Flora would like to become an EQ expert so she can teach it to others when she retires.

She made an incredible quilt with butterflies for a friend in California and is finishing up a gingham quilt with fun flowers for a charity quilt. And, of course, she is working on another quilt right now.

august 12 meeting

Five of us met at Flora’s tonight: Flora, Janet, Harriet, Miriam and Patricia. It was a night for watermelon and quilt talk.

Flora was kind enough to take notes on her laptop during the meeting. Thank you, Flora!

Show N Tell

Flora told us about her trip to Maui and the two denim pillow tops she found at Goodwill for Miriam and about her butterfly quilt on the wall downstairs.

Patricia’s quote: “You can never rush a quilt and be happy”

The group didn’t go to Vashon in July due to Patricia’s appendectomy.

Harriett told about a quilt she’s making for a nephew. He brought a sweatshirt with a cartoon character bearing swords and he said he wanted red, yellow and orange, but the t-shirt character was in blue and green. He likes bats. Harriet came up with an abstract pattern of bats made out of multi-colored fabric with black streaks with the cartoon in the center. She has a challenge to figure out how to remedy the zig zag stitches that ended up tearing the fabric.  She didn’t bring it, but will show us before she sends it to Colorado.

Harriet also brought a Queen size quilt she made for her and Rob’s master bedroom in “quilt-as-you-go” style with open seams that were clipped and brushed to appear uniformly ragged. There was a discussion about her wonderful wide binding.

Another quilt Harriet brought is for her sister—a basic rectangle design in batiks with similar colored batiks forming a diagonal design. It’s single-bed sized with a light gray backing so the quilt could be an all-year cover depending on which side is up.

Patricia told a story about pre-washing 100% cotton batting in her washing machine—first presoaking without detergent or agitating, then draining and spinning before fluffing in the dryer.

Miriam reported on the apartment items she is gathering up and what is still needed:

                2 placemats—Harriet

                2 glasses—PB

                Silverware 2 place settings—PB

Miriam produced two shopping bags for giveaways as well as soap she got from the lavender festival. 

Harriet got a miniature die-cast sewing machine from Miriam too, which is a pencil sharpener.

Janet is still working on her double wedding ring quilt and had 95 more football shapes to finish.

She’s also making a pillow for a friend with sheep knitting their own wool and is looking for a black sweater to felt for finishing the other side of the project.

Janet has three Piece Maker quilt tops queued up to practice on her Gammy and three more of her own to get done.

Patricia made the sky pink in her big tsunami quilt and is now starting all over to make it another color

 In August she spent a weekend with modern quilt guild members from Portland, Seattle and Vancouver BC. In September Patricia is speaking to two quilt guilds.

The evening ended with Flora taking us down to her creativity studio to view some projects in-progress—a butterfly quilt for a friend and a memorial quilt honoring a young man.