March Meeting

Susan showing her mini wallhanging.

Susan showing the Asian wallhanging (above) and the floral stack n whack (below).

Debbie's Little Dresses (above) and Sylvia's Blue/Lime Green quilt (below). You can't tell from the picture, but she mitered the borders!

Sylvia's Black and White Half-square triangles with Appliqued center squares.

We gathered at Mozelle's in March to work on donation blocks. Present were: Mozelle, Eva, Susan, Joyce, Diane P., Sylvia, Debbie, and Estela.

Eva demonstrated several blocks that she is working on, some of which would be suitable for making donation blocks. We decided that the lap quilts would be better if they were made of five rows of 4 blocks each; the blocks are to be 8.5" square. That would make a lap quilt that is approximately 32" wide by 40" long. Eva also showed us how to press seams to avoid having a lumpy intersection where you have 4 pieces that come together at a single point.

Estela handed out the pattern for the quilt sampler we will be working on for the coming year, and demonstrated some tips for cutting and piecing the first block. There will be a separate post on this blog showing some of the steps for piecing the block, which is called Grandmother's fan.

The pictures are from Show and Tell. Sylvia brought 2 quilts for Meg to quilt for her. One is the Blue Squares sashed in Lime Green; eveyrone loved the green, maybe because it reminds me that maybe, just maybe, spring will come to cold NW Arkanas. Sylvia also showed us a Black and White Half Square Triangles in which she appliqued a square in the center. Love that Applique!

Debbie showed a really cute quilt she made from a pattern called House Dresses. Each little dress is a different color--the pattern is not for beginningers because it has "Y" seams (inset seams) that require great accuracy. Fantastic piecing, Debbie!

Eva finished a queen-sized quilt that she showed, but I forgot to get a picture of it. I'll get a picture on Thursday and post it later. Sorry, Eva. Besides, I'm not sure I should refer to it as your quilt, since I think Mozelle has designs on it to match her draperies!

Susan, ever the over-achiever, showed us 3 items she worked on. The first was a "stack and whack" type quilt made from carefully cutting identical squares of fabric that had a large floral print, then rotating them in various ways, like a kaleidoscope, to get very different looking blocks. All the blocks shown on this quilt were made from the same fabric; the squares are different because of the place where the fabric was cut and how the squares were rotated. The second item she showed is the large Asian-themed motif that combines Susan's love--and great skill--at embroidery, with very careful piecing. The wallhanging inspires serenity (and envy!). The third item that Susan brought was the small wall hanging that she said her husband claimed for his potting shed.

The next meeting is on April 14, at Meg's house. See you there. I hope you will have an opportunity to gather/buy your fabrics for the quilt sampler, and put together your basic sewing kit to bring to the April meeting so we can start making the sampler blocks. See you then if not before!