Thursday, January 10, 2013

January 2013

     We met at Meg's house for the first meeting of the year. Present were Diane P., Sylvia, Debbie, Meg, Estela, Susan, Sheila, Cyndi and Marcia. All meetings will be at Meg's for the foreseeable future. Thank you, Meg!

CLUB NEWS:

      Diane P. informed us that she will be stepping down from leading the group for awhile, so she can concentrate on home remodeling. The group decided to try going leaderless.  We will see how that works out.

     Estela has decided to become a snowbird!  She and her husband have bought a second home just north of Ft. Worth, and will be living there during the coldest months.  During her absence, Marcia will be updating the blog. It may look a little different for that reason. Please forgive any mistakes!

     Marcia hosted the meeting, providing refreshments of Rum Cake with Cool Whip, and a crunchy party mix. The program was a swap of 8" squares of spring fabrics.  After swapping twice, leftover squares will be used for donation quilts.

     Susan talked about a new project for making donation quilts--if everyone will bring their "orphan blocks," panels, or even pieces of blocks, we will work on piecing them together into attractive quilts. Most of us have blocks in our stash that we didn't use, didn't like, weren't the right size or the right color, or were just trial blocks.  Rather than having them collect dust, bring them in. Any size, any color, pieced, appliqued or paper-pieced; it doesn't matter.  That way there will be minimal effort needed to complete our donations!

     Meg gave the treasurer's report, and the consensus reached was that we do not need to charge dues this year.  We will probably have a fund-raiser later in the year, possibly another white elephant auction.

     We have people signed up to host for the rest of the year, but some are doing more than their share.  If you intended to sign up but forgot, please let us know.  If you have an idea for a project, there may be someone signed up who would welcome the help for their month.

     Other members told us of their intentions to bow out of the club for awhile, some due to health reasons, others because of lack of time, etc. Mozelle, Lola, Diane B., Dollie, Diane P.--we hope your time away from us will be short. We will welcome you back when you are able to return.

     The club owes Mozelle a great big Thank You for hosting the meetings in her home.  We really appreciated it, Mozelle!  You are in our thoughts and prayers.  Get well soon! We miss you!

     Susan talked about the project to provide fleece blankets to a local oncology unit, started by Mozelle's daughter. Mozelle has a rotary blade that cuts slots in the fleece along the edge, so that an edge may be crocheted around it.  Susan currently has this blade and will let you use it on request. In the photo below, Susan is showing a blanket that was crocheted by Mozelle for the project.


     The Accuquilt die-cutting machine is at Meg's for the use of any club member.  Give Meg a call if you have a desire to use it.


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SHOW AND TELL:

     Two recent Thursday projects were the Moebius (or eternity) scarf that you can see Susan wearing in some of the photos.  It's very easy to do, but the instructions sound complicated until they are shown.  The other project, shown below, is a pin made from a strip of fabric gathered around an empty metal bobbin, then decorated with a jewel in the center and a pin back on the reverse side.  Very cute and easy!  Contact Susan if you would like to try one of these two projects. 






     Sager Creek Quilts gave Susan a box of fabric scraps, to which were added scraps from Estela and Iris.  The Thursday group divided these into color coordinated batches, and Marcia suggested each of the Thursday ladies take some of the batches, and issued a challenge to make a quilt using each batch.  Fabric from our own stashes could be added if needed.  The quilt above is one Meg made from little bitty pieced segments, most of them only a part of a small block.  A challenge indeed--and one she successfully met, don't you agree?




     Here's Marcia's finished quilt that started with a small pile of browns and aquas with just a small strip of coral thrown in to confuse things.  She added the lighter pink and the brown border fabric from her stash.



     Susan's challenge was to use these square-in-a-square segments with the stripe.  She had to get creative with placement and design on this one, but the result is a very lovely and graphic quilt.  These quilts are all donation quilts, by the way.

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     Susan made this lovely quilt as a gift for a friend's baby.  She explained the braid was pieced from half-hexagons, and said the hardest part was that each "block" seemed to go on forever when she was piecing it!  It was worth it to get this result.



     Susan also made this quilt in yellows and greens.  It's a real eye-opener! Beautifully pieced, Susan.
It's sometimes difficult to use yellows, but they blend in very well in this quilt.
                                                              
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     Sheila has also been very busy, "playing" with her embroidery machine.  This towel is one of two she embroidered over the holidays.  She also embroidered names on these stockings for Cyndi. In addition she made several table runners (27?  or was it more?) for gifts.






 ...AND Sheila is making this bandanna quilt for her 'honey.'  The bandannas came from Tractor Supply--a new source for quilting materials???




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     That's it for this month.  Remember to send any news for the blog to Marcia for the next few months.  Have fun in Texas, Estela!





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