The March Meeting

March is always exciting because of the Dallas Quilt show.   I went to the  show and saw lots of wonderful quilts!  Lots of inspiration and alot I want to make too. Some of these wonderful quilts were from our members!  Some of you won ribbons, congrats to you!  If you didn't win a ribbon, too bad, but you are still a winner as you finished that quilt or quilts,it was on display for all to ooh and ahh over and is now usable, congrats to you!  If you have any pictures of the show you want to share, please send them to me and I'll put them on the blog for you...

Now, this month's meeting!

These are the blocks we turned in for the Church quilt and this is two different settings. We still need more blocks.  If you have any to turn in, please bring them to the next meeting and give to Carolee, Irene or Ruth.  This is going to be a beautiful quilt.  I like both settings and I really enjoyed making this easy block.  I think they still have some blocks available, if you haven't made one but want to, please check with them...

This month's program was T-shirt quilt and Sharon H. shared her knowledge about making them.  Great info!  She had a hand-out and if you didn't get one, please see her. 

Thanks so much for the great program!

Here's some cute mug rugs!  There were 5 participants this month. This month's theme was 4 letter "good" words.    Next month is with selvedge edges, so if you have been saving them up for a fun project, here it is!  Sharon said she will give us the list so we can be working on mug rugs ahead of time.  Each month has a theme and I'll be updating the blog with the schedule when I get it.

This next picture shows the cute quilt that the fabric swap will make.  Helen is in charge of this and will give us more info when she finds out how many of us want to do this swap.  If you didn't sign up at the meeting and want to participate, please contact Helen and let her know. 

Now for some show and tell from our members and guests!

This one was made by Sandy R.  Beautiful! 

This Vintage Valentine quilt belongs to Martha. It was in the Dallas show and won Honorable Mention, right, Martha????  It's lovely!  Martha took a class from Sally and didn't plan on buying anything...well, you know how that ended up!  I think Martha said, a few hundred dollars later, her and her friend walked out with all that was necessary or maybe just the beginnings on making this wonderful quilt!  Ha ha!  We've all done the same thing, haven't we?  I think it was worth it. A beautiful quilt and some lasting friendships too....priceless!

Some wool work by Martha.

Look at this beautiful One Block Wonder!    She was one of our guests for the night.  I love this quilt.  Very colorful and springy! 

This quilt was made by another guest. She was Jackie's friend and learned to make this quilt from Jackie.  Jackie used patterns from a website called the Painted Quilt.  She has all the patterns and will share if you are interested. Jackie has a group that meets at the library in Royse City on Tuesday nights.  They are making a quilt now to raise monty for the library.  Maybe we can talk her into selling us some tickets???? 

This is Jessica. She is our new member and she made this scarf for charity.  Jessica is Ruth's sweet daughter and we met her last year when she came to retreat.  Retreats are so much fun and you can make new friends at them too.  Right, Helen????  That's how Helen came to us. I met her at a retreat in Quitman many years ago! 

Jessica and Ruth do charity knitting and crocheting. They will be giving me the info for their charity group and I will be updating the blog with it shortly. I'll let you know when it is available.

Ok, ladies, I hope I didn't miss anything.  I hope you all have a wonderful month and bring lots of show and tell to the next meeting.  Until next time, happy sewing!

What's going on at our February Meeting

I had to put these up first, it was February, the Love month!!! 

This was the mug rug swap this month.  Aren't these all just so cute!  Good job, ladies!  If you want to participate, make a mug rug with the month's guidelines, bring it to the meeting and you will go home with someone else's mug rug.  Look for the mug rug guidelines on the sidebar under labels....I think Sharon said next month is a four letter word.  Yeah, yeah, not what you are thinking, these are good words that lift you up.....Love, Yeah, Lift, Hope, Care, etc....you get the idea, right. See, there's another one...Idea. The list could go on and on....  Now, get busy and have fun!

This is a monthly swap that Sharon and Bev came up with.  Sharon sent us the instructions and we signed up at the meeting.  So far, there are 13 people signed up for this swap, if you are interested in participating in the swap, please email or call her and let her know. It is made with Civil War fabric and the blocks are not too hard.

This is the summer block.  Sharon and Bev are also in charge of this one.  They passed out instructions only at the meeting.  You use your fabrics to make the block.  Here's the front of the block.

Here's the back of the block showing the pressing directions.

This is going to be the church quilt this year.  Irene, Ruth and Carolee are in charge of this.  They passed out instuctions along with the background fabric. You put the block together using your colors from your stash.  They asked for Autumn colors.  You can make more than one if you want to....contact them.  These blocks need to be turned in as soon as possible so we can get started putting the quilt together.

This is going to be the swap this year.  Helen has chosen another cute quilt.  More info will be coming along on this one next month. If you want to swap fabrics for this one, there will be a sign up sheet and Helen will let us know how much to swap....Stay tuned for more info.

This month we had our first guest speaker of the year, Donna Abel. a professional machine quilter, presented "My Quilt Journey with Wilber the Moose."  I'm sorry I did not get a picture of Donna, but this was just a sample of the great quilts she had to show us.

Donna started off her program with this beautfil quilt and her touching story. This was a quilt made by her Grandmother. Donna picked out the fabrics and her Grandmother started the quilt. She passed away while making the quilt and her church friends finished it for Donna.

This trunk show showed Donna's progression through her quilt journey.  I did not take all of the pictures she presented.  Like all of us, she started out very basic and grew from there.  These are the

hi-lites.

Machine Embroidery quilt

A Row by Row Christmas quilt

Wilber the Moose!  This was a round robin quilt that went all over the country.  Her group had alot of fun with this quilt. 

This is a crayola quilt.

A Stack and Whack quilt done through her small group.  Everyone used the same border fabric but chose different backgrounds.

A quilt made for her cousin in honor of her friend's passing.

Jelly Roll String Quilt

Her Braid quilt

Half square triangles.

Her half square snuggle quilt.  She said this quilt had magic powers. Every time she used it it would put her to sleep!

A little Halloween quilt.

A beautiful paper piecing quilt.

Another paper piecing quilt.  This is half the quilt.

This had sayings on the quilt, sorry, I didn't get close enough to see what they said. She said she made several of these and gave away as gifts.

A quilt made for her late husband.  He was a true cowboy.  This quilt now belongs to her daughter.

Her new husband's quilt. Very manly.

Their wedding quilt made for her by her friends.

A close-up of the border.

She made four memory quilts.  This one is her daughter's quilt and is has pictures of her late husband, the daughter and herself.   She made 3 others and gave to each of her step children in memory of their Mother.  Each quilt was a little different but the same too.  The quilts were personalized by having pictures of their Mother and themselves too.  These were given to each child (they are grown children) this past Christmas and she said it helped make them a family.  It was a very touching story. 

Hmm, I think she said this was a Quilt of Valor quilt but I might be wrong on this one...I don't remember, any thoughts????

Great trunk show, huh!  Now for some show and tell from our members!

This is Joyce's beautiful Civil War quilt.  Patterns were available each Saturday on-line from Barbara Brackman....I'm still working on mine!

Judith's beautiful little wallhanging.  I think she said this one will be for the Dallas Miniature Quilt Auction.  It's lovely, Judith, I hope it brings in lots of money!!!

A quick baby quilt by Judith using the pattern, Will Work for Fabric.  This is one of my favorite baby quilt patterns...

Judy H's beautiflu One Block Wonder.  The picture does not do this one justice.  It is lovely!

Judy H and some of her blocks she is doing her wool work on.   She's having fun with this!

Martha L. made this beautiful One Block Wonder!  I think this one is her 5th or 6th one and they are all just stunning quilts.  Martha said she bought sale fabric for this one and it had stripes too!  Simply beautiful!

This one is Sharon H's quilt.  This was a friendship block quilt.  A few years ago we made blocks for each member on their birthday month.  Sharon chose this block and provided the fabrics and pattern.  We made them and returned to her for her to make this cute quilt for her nephew.  (I think she said that was who it was for!!!) Anyway, she's giving this cute quilt away and I think it's great!  This pattern was a Eleanor Burn's pattern out of her book, Victory Quilts.  Fun, quick and easy! 

These are all mine. I missed last month due to family illness and didn't get to show my Row by Row with everyone else but I did get it finished and I enjoyed this little quilt alot!  Thanks, Martha, for helping us along on this project.  It was fun!  She's already got another one for us to try too.  I put a link up on the side of the blog....

Here's my Christmas present quilt.  It's all together except for the final border.  The pattern calls for just a plain small border but I was playing with my left-over 2 1/2" Christmas squares and decided I would do a border with those.  I don't have enough so I'll be collecting Chistmas the rest of the year and hopefully, this little quilt will be finished by this Chistmas!  If you have any 2 1/2" Christmas squares just laying around your house, I would gladly take them off your hands or trade for them!!!

Here's my Snowman quilt.  There were 10 of us involved in this little swap. Some from this group and some outside the group.  We each made two different snowmen and exchanged with each other.  Martha and Dee showed theirs a few months ago.  These quilts will be on display at the Mesquite Quilt show in June, 2012 as a special display. Come see the cute quilts...

I made this for Valentine's Day. I was in a blog hop to promote the Accuquilt Go Cutter and Dies.  I made three different little projects for Valentine's Day. This is the first one.

This is the second little wallhanging I did.  I follow a blog by Kathleen Tracy. She is a quilter and an author too. She does little quilts and they are mostly geared toward Civil War but this month she also had a red and white quilt in honor of Valentine's Day. 

This last project was a quick tablerunner.  I saw this on the internet before Christmas and just didn't get around to making it.  You can use this pattern for any season or any fabric you love and don't want to cut into...It is very simple and quick too.  Here's a link to the pattern and I'll put in on the side of the blog too so you can find it easier. 

Well, that's all for this month, if you missed the meeting, you missed a good one.  Please come next month and bring your show and tell.  Til next time, happy sewing!