The NW Arkansas Sassy Quilters met on July 12 at Mozelle's house. Everyone except Cyndi was present. In honor of Independence Day, Diane Purcell gave a little "trunk showing" of her collection of patriotic quilts.
MINI TRUNK SHOW
This last quilt that Diane brought was given to her. We guessed at the name of the pattern--Orange Peel? Robbing Peter to Pay Paul? Neither one. Both the Orange Peel and Robbing Peter have the "curved" patches, but neither Orange Peel nor Robbing Peter have the four patch in the center. Give up? I'm posting the name of the block at the bottom of this page, just to tease you.
GROUP PROJECT
In keeping with the theme of Independence Day, Diane P brought paper piecing patterns and a good selection of red, white and blue fabrics for the Sassies to use in making blocks to be sewn into a donation quilt. Paper piecing takes a little getting used to, so some of the Sassies who had done it before teamed up with Sassies who weren't as familiar with it, and together they learned from each other. No one finished a complete block, so everyone took the block home to complete. Please remember to bring it back when it's finished so we'll have enough. Here's a picture of the pattern that Diane brought.
Here's a picture of just a few of the red, white and blue fabrics that Diane P brought for the Sassies to use.
SHOW AND TELL
After we sewed on the paper pieced blocks for about 30 minutes, we went back for snacks and show and tell, which is always a favorite with everyone.
Estela's Sampler Quilt (queen sized) and one of two pillow shams she made to go with it.
New member Marcia Gilbreath made this baby quilt using a variation of the "stack and whack" quilt pattern. Multiple prints of the same print of fabric were cut into 4 squares, then the squares were rotated in different directions before being sewn back together. It's the rotation of the squares that gives each block a unique look.
This is Marcia's "round robin" that was done for her by her quilt group in Texas. She made the center block using applique and machine sewing, then her friends added rows around the central panel.
This is also Marcia's quilt, but this one is a "row robin," in which each quilter in the group makes a row in the same theme and color palette. This quilt used 30's style fabrics in pastel prints--they work really well for the kinds of patterns used--nosegay, Sunbonnets, butterflies, flowers, etc.
Marcia made this White House Steps quilts using fabric that her sister Meg gave her. Of course, Meg had made quilts for her other siblings, but Marcia had to make her own!
Marcia's and Meg's mom loved the Snail's Trail (or Monkey Wrench) pattern. Meg has it painted on her sewing room floor. Marcia's mom made this quilt for Marcia, who loved it so much that it wore out. So Marcia took it apart, salvaged the blocks made by mom, and pieced it into a new quilt, which she loves just as much!
Meg finished this little wall hanging which she had started several years ago. It's a Christmas star pattern using log cabin blocks.
Unlike the very traditional Christmas Star shown above, this quilt looks more like an art quilt, with its random arrangement of triangles and bright colors that just pop out of the white background. Meg saw a picture of this quilt in a magazine, designed the pattern, and pieced it. The binding is a striped fabric that picks up on the colors of the triangles.
Susan (peeking around from behind, at the top) shows off this gorgeous red and white pieced stars quilt. The white starts pop out easily, but look carefully and you can see red starts surrounded by white stars.
Notice the woven fabric bucket or basket that Susan made. It's got a drawstring cord that's used to close it.
Susan is shown holding up a "lovey" for some lucky kid. She took a teddy bear, cut it in two between the arms and the legs, then attached the opposite corners of a fleece square to the top and to the feet. It's meant for the child to cover herself with the fleece square, while cuddling with the teddy's head, and having the teddy's feet down by the child's feet. How clever is that!?!
Joyce made this yellow and turquoise Delectable Mountains quilt, and told us that some of the fabric she used in it was very thin, so she had to back it with a second fabric to give it the body that it needed to go with the other fabrics. Very clever way to solve a problem!
Essie made this quilt using a muted palette. For some of the blue (may look gray in this picture), she used a chambray fabric, which she said was all she could find that would go with the other colors. But who doesn't enjoy the fun of searching for just the right fabric to go others that you've already got?
Diane P took some blocks embroidered by her mom and pieced them into this table runner. The theme of the runner is birds, butterflies, and flowers. Diane noticed that the fabric she used for sashing and borders in this runner is the same pattern (but in green) as the fabric that Essie used in her quilt shown above!
DONATION QUILTS
One of Essie's donation quilts has been quilted and bound by Meg, so it's ready to stay with Mozelle, who is keeping all the donation quilts until it's time to select our recipients.
This is Sheila's donation quilt, which she turned in to Meg for quilting. This one was made using one of the jelly roll strip sets that we cut up last year.
THIS MONTH'S BIRTHDAYS
This month the birthday girls were Diane Baker and Joyce Snodgrass. Here they've just received their birthday baskets of fat quarters. It's great to get new fabric!
And the name of Diane's red and white quilt? It's a variation on the Melon Patch! Here's a picture of a quilt I found on the internet bearing that name. Note that the curved patches (which are called melon seeds) are set diagonally, and are connected through a four patch, just like Diane's quilt.
Below is a picture of an Orange Peel Quilt (sorry for the poor image quality). The curved patches are arranged diagonally, but there are no connecting four patches.
Below is a picture of a Robbing Peter to Pay Paul quilt. Note that the curved shapes are bi-color and are set vertically or horizontally, but not diagonally, and there are no connecting four patches. A Robbing Peter quilt looks more like a cathedral windows quilt.
