July Meeting

The Sassy Quilters met on July 14 at Mozelle's home. We had a full house, including several guests. Mozelle's daughter Donna and Donna's daughter were there. Mozelle's friend Lola attended as well. Joyce Snodgrass brought her friend Essie Helm.

Most of the Sassies are working on the sampler quilt, and several brought blocks to show, but I forgot to take pictures. Several people have completed the first two rows of the quilt. Sylvia got everyone laughing when she said she was so frustrated with some of the blocks that she just threw them away. We've all done that at one time or another! But most of us don't admit it--we remake the block and pretend it turned out perfect the first time!

There were lots of quilts at Show and Tell this month.

Susan is making a quilt for each of her nieces and nephews. This batik quilt is for one of her nieces. The dark brown border really makes the blocks pop. The layout makes the blocks look as if they were set on point, but Susan says they are laid out in horizontal rows.


This is another one of Susan's quilts. She called it her "jewel box oops" quilt. She cut and pieced the blocks for the jewel box pattern, then realized that she had sewn ALL the half-square triangles in the wrong orientation. At that point she had to decide whether to take the blocks apart and resew them, or cut and sew new blocks, or use the blocks as they were. She decided the use the blocks as they were, and this is the resulting quilt--it's gorgeous! It may not be a jewel box, but it is still a jewel!

Meg made this darling baby quilt using embroidered animal motifs for the center of each square. The colors are so soft and pretty!

Joyce called this quilt Christmas in July because it uses Christmas colors and she finished it in July! We're glad to have Joyce back in the group now that she is not working as a caregiver.

This is Eva's original design. She will submit a picture of this quilt to a magazine for publication. She and Susan are writing up the detailed instructions for cutting and piecing this quilt.

Eva made this quilt too. The lighting in the picture makes this quilt look like it has a reddish border, but in reality the color can best be described as burnt orange. The fabric that looks almost gold colored in the picture is actually closer to a peach. It is a beautiful quilt, and I apologize for not getting a better picture of it.
This is Eva's "long four-patch" quilt. It is a very simple pattern, and a wonderful stash-buster! Eva says she bought the fabric for the backing first, then made the quilt top to go with it!

Essie is Joyce's friend, and she showed us this beautiful red, white and black quilt top that she said took about a week for her to piece. Essie surprised everyone by telling us that she is 91 years old and that until she was 85, she worked at "taking care of old people."

Last year Susan showed us how to make sweatshirt jackets. Dollie made hers in red, white, and black. If you look closely, you'll notice that she personalized it with a monogram.

Debbie showed off this beautiful red and white quilt. The blocks are a variation on the log cabin block. Although the block itself is fairly straightforward, the layout requires attention to detail.

The donation quilts are almost all finished. We will have about 15 or 16 of these lap-sized quilts to donate. Here Mozelle is showing five of the quilts that have come in:

Corn and Beans revisited

After posting the first update about the Corn and Beans block, I realized that I had not included the pictures showing how I marked the sewing lines on the block. Here is a picture showing how you place the ruler--notice that the 45 degree line is placed along the long side of the block and the edge of the ruler is placed so that it intersects the corner seam of the half-square triangle (long red arrow) and the bottom right-hand corner (smaller red arrow). Mark along the edge of the ruler.

After you have marked the first seam line, flip the block so that the unmarked half-square triangle is at the lower left. Line up the ruler in the same way, 45 degree line along the long edge of the block and the edge of the ruler touching the corner of the half-square triangle (long red arrow) and the lower right hand corner (shorter arrow) of the block. Mark this line as well. Proceed with the other steps shown on the earlier post. Sorry about the omission; the blog does not lend itself well to editing and inserting pictures once it is published.

Corn and Beans--Sampler Block

I don't know how far along everyone is on their sampler, but I just finished making the Corn and Beans Block, shown at left. In this blog update, I'm going to demo an easy way to make the large center blocks.

The center blocks look like a big half-square triangle with an inset small half-square triangle. This combination is known as a "Magic Triangle" or "Mary's Triangle" in many quilt patterns. I call it Magic Triangle because it lends itself to many different layouts.

To make the Magic Triangle, start with two half-square triangles that are 2.5" square, and a strip that is 2.5" by 3.5". Sew them in the arrangement shown. Please note that the half square triangle needs to be positioned as shown so that it will be in the right place and orientation in the Magic Triangle.

The pieced block should look like this at this point and should measure 4.5" x 5.5"

Flip the block over and clip the vertical seam about halfway betwen the two half square triangles. The red arrow shows where I clipped it. Press the seams in opposite directions so that the half-square triangles lay flat and the corner intersection of seams is visible on both half-square triangles.

Using the 45 degree mark on your ruler, line up the edge of the ruler so that it intersects the corner of the half-square triangle AND the bottom right hand corner of the block. Red arrows point to where the line should go through. This is your sewing line.

Repeat the marking on the other half square triangle. Place the marked block on top of a solid color piece that is 4.5 x 5.5. Sew on the marked lines, being sure that the seam exactly intersects the corner of the half square triangle and the lower right hand corner of the block.

Cut the block apart between the seams. For illustration only, I made the blue piece of fabric larger so that you could see it beneath the pieced block. In your block, the pieced block and the solid-color fabric should be the same size.

Open up the block and press open. Voila! Magic Triangle. If you look at the pattern, you'll notice that the block requires 4 Magic Triangles, two with a colored (blue) triangle and two with a white triangle. To make the white Magic Triangle, repeat the steps of sewing the strips and marking them, but piece it to a piece of white fabric.

The rest of the Corn and Beans block is made of half square triangles and flying geese. Arrange the block as shown.

June Meeting

The Sassies met on June 9 at Mozelle's house. Everyone was there except for Estela, who was out of town on business (drat that work schedule!).

Looks like the Sassies have been really busy. Debbie made this intricate looking quilt called "Calico Crossing." It looks like the blocks intersect each other, sort of like chain-link fence. Very nice colors!

This is Susan's idea of a "scrappy" quilt. Looks really well coordinated to me, not at all scrappy. But she said that she used up a bunch of her blue, yellow and tan scraps--some of the pieces were just a few inches long! Terrific piecing, and great sense of color placement!

Susan made a red-white-black version of a quilt pattern that's been popular with the Thursday lunch bunch. The original pattern called black, white and brights forming the criss-cross pattern, but Susan used only red for the criss-cross. Look at this same quilt made by Mozelle (below).

This is Mozelle's black-white-bright crisscross quilt. I love the bright lines that go diagonally across this quilt. And notice that she made a piano-key border--you have to do very accurate piecing to get a border like that to lie flat!

Diane Baker made a beautiful baby quilt--lots of bright colors and a playful center panel. I didn't hear, but is this for a grandbaby?

Diane B's grandmother made this quilt and gave it to Diane's mother. Diane's mother has given it to Diane to quilt. It's such a nice feeling to hold something that goes back into family history. I know Diane's quilting will be lovingly done.

I told you the Sassies have been busy! Below Diane B. is pictured with a sampler quilt that she has finished. The blocks were made some time ago and Diane decided it was time to put them together. Samplers are a great way to experiment with a lot of different blocks.

Diane Purcell has finished piecing a scrappy little four-patch! Great way to use scraps, and the colors always seem to work together really well, even when you don't think they will.

Here's Mary Ann with her "north woods wildlife" quilt. That's my name for it; not sure what she calls it. The fantastic thing about this quilt is that there is NO paper piecing here. She's pieced those intricate-looking animals and houses the old-fashioned way--CAREFULLY!!!

The donation quilts are rolling in! The following 7 pictures show these lap-sized quilts in various patterns. Some are in the "framed 4-patch" pattern, but others used different patterns that could be made from the 2.5 inch strips that we cut up earlier this year.

May Meeting

Our May meeting took place on a stormy night (nothing new there!). Just as we were pondering the severity of the storm, the lights flicked on and off several times. A loud clap of thunder and flash of lightning made up our minds--we decided to do show and tell, eat our snacks, and go home!

Here's Mozelle showing off all the sampler blocks she's made so far. She has picked a gorgeous fall pallette for her quilt--lots of browns, golds, some greens, and a dash of russet.


Eva has moved onto the second row of the sampler quilt, and this block is from that row. The rest of us will have to speed up to catch up with her! She made lots of flying geese for this block.

Susan showed us the next block in the sampler. This block can be made a number of different ways, depending on whether you want to work with triangles, flying geese, or paper piecing. Susan used the flying geese method for this one. By making it with flying geese, she avoided having to make mitered seams at the corners of the block--smart choice!

Susan is shown here with her Peace and Plenty Block. Susan has also picked a fall pallette for her sampler quilt, but her colors are totally different from Mozelle's.

Meg's Peace and Plenty block. The central pinwheel is so full of motion because of her fabric choice.

Our guest this evening was Eva's sister Jimmy. She's been one busy lady, and had lots to show. Here she's holding up some tissue boxes made using plastic canvas and yarn.

Jimmy holding up one of a set of 4 place mats. Love that hot pink binding!

Here's another one of her set of place mats. Very cheery color scheme.

I told you she'd been busy! Here's a beautiful set of placemats using a floral print.

After all that, we packed up our stuff and went home! Here's hoping our June meeting has better weather. Looking forward to next meeting!