june 09 meeting

show and tell
Sarah was inspired by Flora's demo in May. She is making a quilted throw for herself with classic pink and sorbet green fabrics. Planned with a crisp white border adorned with applique vines, the feminine quilt is bound to avoided by the three Stine boys. Remarkably Sarah, an Etsy store owner who sells fabrics, bought some fabric for her project!

Shannon ran a race to finish Niko's quilt in time for the senior send-off on June 7. She has made apple and pear pin cushions for the Bernina store where she works. Shannon sold her old Bernina and just bought a 450. Lucky gal.

Pat brought some projects that she has been working on for many years. One is a remarkable king-sized Baltimore quilt with four big squares in the middle and 20 smaller squares bordering them. She is also hand stitching a old-fashioned hexagonal quilt with a white background. The long drives to Goldendale give her time to stitch this involved top.

Harriet solidified the adorable little chair she made out of our exchange fabric with long screws through the legs. She is making another version of the chair, this time with a black and white narrow-wale corduroy. This week she whipped up a tooth fairy pillow for the Daniels family.

Patricia used her hand-dyed fabric to try out some new techniques—oil stick stencil art, curved piecing and a particularly wavy edge with bias binding.

Miriam sported a patchwork vest made out of the exchange fabric. With natty red and white buttons, it is delightful. Miriam brought a baby blanket that she made from a kit that Diane gave her. She returned the fabric to Diane as a finished product that will be added to the Plymouth baby quilt stash. Also Miriam made mini coloring book bags with outside pockets sized for crayons--for Plymouth kids to use during the service.

Flora is working on a gorgeous wall hanging with a repeated vertical pattern of verdigris stems and leaves. She will embellish it with pins, solo earrings and other fun things in the shape of bugs, flies and more. Flora has committed to making a very girly quilt with lots of flowers for Cory Hubbard, a 2010 senior.

Janet is playing with our exchange fabric, making graphic circles within circles—using freezer paper for her applique technique. The colorful double circles are centered on a collection of beige background fabrics. The idea comes from a book that shows interesting stitching added to each square.

Maurine has made our first YF quilt top for 2010! It is quite large at 68" x 80". Triangles of Kaffe Fassett striped fabrics make bold squares outlined in black with a handsome wine background. She has enough striped fabric to use on the back. Shannon has put dibs on the quilt for her graduating firstborn.

Diane enjoyed a wonderful trip up north with Jon that included shopping at fabric stores, lunch at the Rhodie Cafe on Chuckanut Drive and a visit to an iris farm. She picked up a pattern for making a purse and instantly created a perfect multi-pocketed masterpiece with cordova and designer fabric.

Pris has has been a busy hosting meals for large groups of people—a dinner for a visiting youth choir, the Plymouth choir party, and a pie social at Horizon House. Pris was the Piecemaker ambassador who delivered the lavender baby quilt to little Sophia—a welcomed gift and gesture. She recently made nightgowns for her two granddaughters.

youth group seniors get quilts!

This Sunday, the high school seniors of the Plymouth youth group were given quilts made by our group. These gifts are meant to remind our youth of who they are and where they came from, as they head out into the world.

may 09 meeting

Sarah, our online fabric retailer, hosted our May meeting in her Magnolia home. Our evening started with a few shopping sprees in her inspirational basement store.
The main event was stitching personalized labels in 15 YF quilts. With all of our contributions, we had 18 quilts--so we have three left over.

Kris and Bertha, both Magnolia neighbors, visited for awhile. Bertha, a closet quilter, stitched on a label for us. Kris swears that she has no aptitude for hand sewing. That’s okay as we know she has a few other gifts.

Miriam delivered a lavender baby quilt to the group. Pris is going to give the quilt to a ex-choir member and Plymouth friend who has a little girl.

april 09 meeting

show and tell
Flora In need of business advice, Flora showed us her first commercial project. After 20 hours into fixing, quilting, binding and hemming, she was wondering how much to charge for a beautifully finished queen quilt. Not under $250, directed Shannon. We'll see how Flora does with this money challenge.

Miriam Showing us a quilt she made for her great grand-daughter in 2002, Miriam reminded us of the power of hand prints. Miriam has patterns she made over 40 years ago of her family member's hands so she can make another quilt in the future for another generation.

Miriam also revealed to us the beginning of a mauve-themed quilt inspired by a trip to the Lavender Festival where she bought a set of fat quarters. With squares sewn on point, the final quilt is unassigned right now.

Patricia I brought a baby quilt that is my favorite piece to date. It is a scissor-cut composition with a motley collection of mismatched fabrics. My other project was a hand-stitched table topper for a family friend on the East Coast who is being a second mom to my Victoria.

Diane Always a busy gal, Diane brought three projects in progress. The first was two squares of a handkerchief-applique quilt. The second was a square of squares made with a secret quasi-repeat pattern. The third was a bright quilt top that Diane finished for a friend who started the center portion years ago.

Pris A spirited hand-stitcher, Pris produced a remarkable quilt entitled Stars and Stripes for a member of the graduating YF class. Made with an assortment of plaids, Pris got from the fabric from the giveaway at Diane's. There are no stars in the layout but that is because the quilt is not yet finished!

Bertha A nearby neighbor, Bertha came to Piece Makers tonight to meet Emmanuel. She took up quilting a while back and brought one of her creations—an artistic and beautifully crafted quilt. Retired from quilting for now, we hope she will be inspired to return to the fold.

Shannon Although Shannon let us know that her Bernina bag was empty , she was kind enough to join us for the evening. And she generously brought fabric for our special creativity project.

Sarah Sarah brought one square of the quilt that was not meant to be. She shared an unusual story that involved the auction of goodies from a seized OR quilt store. After waiting for hours for bolts of fabric to go up for bid, they were all bought by one woman for $7,000. Sarah and other quilting pros were not pleased with the deal. So Sarah a bought another sewing machine at the auction.

Janet With a splitting headache (yuck, yuck), Janet showed us progress on her quilt-as-you-go project with freestyle stitching. The going is slow but the results are looking good.

Janet also reported that N Sid Sen is opening a new lodge and the camp wants a banner from each participating church. There are parameters such as size and the background fabric. It is hoped that the new banner will travel to Idaho with our church folks in July. Any banner makers out there who want to work on this project? Janet has the paperwork, so please contact her at jsaulsbury@path.org.

Emmanuel A 28-year old Liberian, Emmanuel is a Fellow from the iLeap organization and a refugee leader working with women in Ghana. To help these women--who have lost their loved ones, homes and country re-build their lives, Emmanuel is involved with a quilting cooperative. He brought pictures of the people and one of their remarkable quilts.

march 09 meeting

show and tell
Linda: Our newest member, Linda, went home with some adopted plaid fabrics and came back with a finished YF quilt. The piecing is striking, with dark colors on the perimeter and a diamond of plaid triangles in the middle.

Harriet: Chinese Coins is now Harriet's middle name. She produced another wonderful quilt from scrap fabrics she was given. From a side comment, I think she is ready to delve into her stores of gorgeous fabrics for her next quilts.

Janet: Working on a star/galaxy theme, Janet is practicing her free-motion sewing skills on small squares of fabric. The final piece, with lots of blue, will be a quilt-as-you-go YF project.

Shannon: Our lovely hostess for the evening, Shannon, produced wickedly scrumptious chocolate bar/cookies that we all devoured. Her quilts from last month were still in the bag but she got them out to show us at the end of the evening. Shannon is dreaming about getting an updated Bernina. With a big Swedish (Swiss?) sale at the Bernina store where she works, anything is possible.

Miriam: Not only our oldest Piece Maker, Miriam is perhaps our most prolific. She arrived with another YF quilt—this colorful one bursting with a wide assortment of patterns. Miriam has begun making pet quilts, the first for a friend's chihuahua. Good ol' Miriam perked right up when someone mentioned we needed bags for kid's coloring book kits at Plymouth. "Lined or unlined?" was the most memorable line of the evening.

Flora: Once again Flora showed us a pile of impressive projects—her stunning blue/black quilt with plaid centers, two pieced tops using novelty "house" fabrics, and her new sewing machine cover made with African fish fabric and fun freestyle stitching. At home she is making a 1/12 scale log house with a hand-carved bed that matches her own and a miniature quilt! It sounds like Flora has some new crayons she can add to the coloring book kits.

Pris: Our hand-stitching queen, Pris, told us stories. Pris started by telling us about a Hawaiian quilting project. Then Pris described a "sincere project" she made for a friend--a tablecloth made with coffee-cup-printed fabric for a round table that was a big production and ultimately turned out to be a rectangular piece.

Patricia: I brought a lap quilt that I am making for my "collection." It is named African Night and Day with black patterned fabrics on the front and a white-based fabric on the back. I plan to take a fabric dyeing class later this month at a friend's art studio in Sodo. To see a most extraordinary baby quilt made by my 18-year daughter Vik, visit my blog.

Sarah: Wow. Sarah takes on ambitious 3-D projects. It must be because her husband is an architect. This month she made a designer satchel--with a designer pattern and designer fabrics. Plus she showed us some wallets she made. Sarah was kind enough us some squares of fancy fabric. The piece I took home is the perfect final fabric for a baby quilt I am creating.

Diane: Diane worked all evening hemming a fun quilt sample that Shannon pieced. Recently Diane was in Oregon for a quilt run, visiting many quaint stores along the coast. In the past month she had peridontal surgery which, remarkably, was not too painful.