april 10 meeting

We had our meeting tonight at Miriam’s house. Her home is filled with quilts and photos of many family members.

Show and Tell
Janet was planning to join us but she became ill during dinner. Staying home seemed like the best option for the night.

First we all shared our blocks for the special quilt we are making for Cory. Patricia will be preparing the sashing, Harriet will freemotion stitch the squares, and it will be assembled as a quilt-as-you-go project.

Shannon just finished working at a four-day Bernina embroidery show (that Ingrid attended). As the president of her PTSA, she is a very busy gal. Plus she has been working at Fabric Crush.

Flora has been in Pink Land. She showed us three pink quilt tops that are delightful. One is for a late cousin's daughter, one is for a YFer and one is for the Treehouse warehouse. Treehouse supplies clothing and necessities for foster kids. Flora is committed to making quilts for this cause and welcomes any juvenile fabric that you may have. Flora is also finishing up a stole project.

Flora’s friend Diane joined us tonight to show the finished Volkswagen quilt. This is the one that Flora made with Diane's granddaughter. The quilt is filled with memories and healing qualities—fabric from a favorite shirt of a recently lost grandpa and buttons from the collection of a recently lost grandmother.

Diane R, with a sprained her ankle, cross stitched placemats with a strawberry design while we met. She showed us a remarkable quilt made with an eight-person round robin group over a two-year period. Diane had photos of all the quilts made by the group and hers was definitely the winner.

Susan brought a wonderful baby quilt, in progress, that was her first foray into machine quilting. It will probably be finished by the weekend which is even more remarkable as she is in the middle of a major home renovation.

Miriam showed off her Quilting Girl socks before producing her finished YF quilt. She also brought out a whole cloth quilt that contains the WSU school motif—which might be useful for a YFer who is going on to Pullman.

Patricia brought tales of an anime quilt she made for a patient at Children’s Hospital and news of Maurine in southern California. Visit okanarts.blogspot.com to see the anime quilt and Maurine’s most recent quilt project. She also delivered a plaid YF quilt and a high-contrast log cabin House of Healing quilt from Maurine.

Harriet wowed us with another knock-your-socks-off YF quilt. Titled Fish Ladder, it’s a quilt-as-you-go production with wonderful freemotion stitching. On the back of the richly colored quilt is a square patterned fabric that Harriet bought from Sarah at her Fabric Crush store.

Ingrid took a Bernina class with Diane R and showed us her sampler. She also progressed on her Girl Scouts quilt top. Her first quilt, with orange-ish fabric, has been machine quilted by Diane and is ready to be bound by Janet.

david's quilt

We said goodbye to David Shinn today as Minister of Parish Care, after seven good years. The “Happy Man” quilt was designed and quilted by Harriet Naf. It’s exceptional in its craftsmanship and the bold color palette.

march 10 meeting

A healthy-sized group of us gathered at Ingrid’s townhouse in Ballard this month. A segue to our evening was the comment "Dont be afraid of color," referring to all the brightly painted walls in Ingrid's home.

Patricia brought 12 kits for making quilt squares for a special project. They were all adopted except for one, which will be mailed to Maurine. For those of you who got kits, please remember to pre-wash the fabric. The outrageous fabric was chosen by Sarah Stine at the new location of her store, Fabric Crush, in the Wallingford Center. She cut the fat quarters and fat eighths plus gave us a fat discount.

Janet has finished her shirt quilt! it's really special. The design, piecing and details are noteworthy and there is additional piecing on the back. (Diane, Janet has a Bernina 153. Please check to see if she has a built-in quilting stitch.)

Susan is still working on her quilt with the Jeanne piecing that she received at the last meeting. She wowed us with a hand-stitched charm quilt top from the 1890-1900s. Susan bought it at an estate sale in Magnolia almost 20 years ago and stores it in an acid-free fabric box for safe-keeping. Some other quilts made during this time included a gold triangle to signal that the quilt maker supported McKinley as a presidential candidate and the gold standard.

Harriet brought back the Happy Man quilt for us all to enjoy again and to hand-off for a label—which Janet has volunteered to handle. She also showed us a large quilt-as-you-go quilt made for a nephew. The workmanship and design are top-notch as Harriet has really been perfecting her quilting skills.

Miriam's book bag was like a magic purse as she pulled out quilt after quilt project from it. First there was a beautiful and bright baby quilt made with a Jeanne top. Then there was a second baby quilt made with some fun strips of fabric that Miriam finished with contrasting borders. The crowd-pleaser was a top she's making for a YF quilt with off-set triangle blocks. This quilt needs to go to a Dawgs fan as it has UW fabric in some blocks.

Pris has been a busy quilter. She made a baby quilt with fabrics recycled from little girls nightgowns, entitled "Sweet Dreams," for a family friend's baby and a delightful quilt for another friend (see pictures of pictures). Pris shared her fabrics and ideas for an ambitious YF quilt that she has started. It will feature NW fabrics with mountains, coffee, fish, lighthouses, horses, apples and more. This quilt will be perfect for a student who is going far from home for school.

Diane made four intricately embroidered sample squares, showing off the capabilities of her Bernina machine, which will be displayed in the NW Bernina shop. She is also working on a quilt, for a client, made with family hankies that also includes crocheted pieces in a dashing composition along the top border. She's been working on this quilt-as-you-go piece for a long time and is focusing on finishing it up.

Ingrid bought some Girl Scout material for a quilt for her daughter. Flannel for the back is patterned with the classic chocolate mint cookies. She’s also about to start a fun quilt for a teacher that requires paper piecing. Ingrid handed over some fabric that Maurine gave her for a YF quilt to Susan, which was a good exchange for both women.

february 10 meeting

show and tell
Janet arrived with a quilted apron and oven mitt from Flora as a gift for Patricia, and news of her "shirt" quilt. With a brand new design wall, her YF quilt is pinned up on the wall. After reading the whole Twilight series and Three Cups of Tea, Janet is ready to get quilting again in her free time.

Patricia showed the YF quilt she has been working on--with indigo fabrics in the middle and Indonesian ones on the border. She shared parts of her first commission--a quilt for Cindy Anderson's mother-in-law with some outrageous global fabrics. Patricia also pulled out bins filled with Japanese yukata cotton that she has been importing since Thanksgiving.

Miriam delivered a wonderful assortment of finished projects tonight. The first was the baby quilt that was shown at the January meeting. The second, for Plymouth Healing Communities, was a large quilt with pastel squares that came pre-quilted. Then Miriam brought two more small activity bags for the Sanctuary and a knitted lap afghan made by Ellen Germain for Plymouth Healing Communities.

To our delight, Susan Underwood joined us tonight. An early member of Piece Makers, Susan came back after reading our lively emails. She showed us an amazing project -- a 104-inch square quilt that was pieced by her great aunt in Iowa many years ago. Susan took quilting classes over a year-long period to prepare for the challenge of finishing the broken star quilt. It's all hand-stitched ever so precisely. If the first project didn't confirm our belief in Susan's skill, she went on to show us a needle-turned applique square in navy and pale yellow.

The meeting finished with a review of available Piece Maker fabric from Patricia's basement. That was a huge success with two of Jeanne's quilt tops going home with Miriam and Susan.

january 10 meeting

show and tell
Pat stated that she and her husband have moved most of their furnishings into their Goldendale home, but will still be commuting back and forth to Seattle until her husband retires in April. Pat brought a quilt top pieced from fabric she had dyed delicate pastel colors. Some of the fabric was dyed by the Shibori method which involves wrapping fabric around a PVC pipe before dying.

Harriet came empty handed , but enjoyed the cookies, socializing, and seeing the other projects.

Mariam turned in a baby quilt composed of crisp green and white fabrics acquired from Diane. A highlight of the evening was her predominantly lavender quilt she finished as a New Year’s resolution. It will be a tough choice for her to either pass it on to her granddaughter or keep it for herself.

Ingrid presented her daughter Mckenzie’s American Girl doll, dressed in an adorable crisp jumper her daughter (10 years old) had painstakingly made. Ingrid is taking classes on Bernina software.

Flora presented numerous projects. One was a quilted apron made from fabric featuring a San Francisco scene that she may donate to the YF auction or another cause. Last month she had time to practice on her long-arm machine. She displayed several projects in varying stages of readiness including the start of her pink YF quilt, a baby quilt, and quilt tops featuring flannel squares, a log cabin design, and an assortment of plaids. Whew!

Janet displayed three colorful graphic fabrics she’ll make into table cloths for a fund raiser. For the benefit of members who missed the meeting last month, she again displayed her shirt quilt.

december 09 bonus meeting

show and tell
Patricia showed us both the quilts she made for her daughters this Christmas. As they weren't photographed at the meeting, you can check them out on her blog: okanarts.blogspot.com Patricia has recently imported over 35 bolts of vintage Japanese cotton, mostly indigo patterns. The bolts, from the sixties and seventies, are narrow--at 15 inches wide and 12 yards long.

Janet wowed us with her YF quilt in progress, made of men's shirts. It is wonderful, with pockets, buttoned cuffs and even collars showing up in the piecing. Janet also showed us small bags she has been whipping up for packaging gifts and a cigar box a friend personalized for her.

Shannon has been working at Fabric Crush on Wednesday afternoons and is completing a fun quilt for the store. Plans for her YF quilt have begun to get simplified—with her initial star blocks as great corner squares and the rest more basic.

Harriet brought back the large coral/green quilt that she showed in November for Maureen to see. Then she impressed us with her Happy Man quilt, an celebratory composition with bold shapes appliqued to the front and hand-stitching throughout.

Maureen reported that, during her 10-day return to the Northwest, she was in Leavenworth for four days celebrating the holidays with family. She shared the quilt top made with squares produced at granddaugher Sierra's school. Then Maureen regaled us with tales of more school quilts she has made with young students. (Be advised that Maureen may only make one YF quilt instead of two, in case you can take up the slack.)

Flora pointed out a piece of an old crazy quilt that she has hung on the wall. It is a family heirloom from an old friend who lives in Michigan. (See a corner of it in the picture of Shannon.) We discussed the girly YF quilt Flora is making for Cory Hubbard and how she might add appliqued flowers to the design. The quilt top she showed is a fun project featuring VW bugs with fabric pinwheels and buttons for the wheels. Flora is working on the car quilt with a style-savvy 11-year old young friend.

Jeanne, the quilter who has given Piece Makers so many delightful pieced tops over the years, arrived with Janet. Jeanne, bless her soul, had boxes and bags of fabric to give away as well as three small quilt tops. Thank you Jeanne for all your generosity over the years towards Piece Makers. (Fabrics that weren't adopted are now stored in Patricia's basement.)