Quilt Show Update

While I am trying to get caught up………………….let’s have a minute about the upcoming quilt show!

The show is FAST approaching! We set up Friday, July24 from 1 to 5. The show is Saturday from 9 to 4. Take down starts at 4 pm.

Heidi is working on tags for the quilts. You can e mail her at hbflint_30@msn.com the following information…….

Owner

Quilt Pattern

Quilted By

Story ( any additional information )

……………..use size 28  standard font , e mail her by the 15th or let her know that you will be writing it out and giving it to her no later than the July  meeting!

The Challenge fabric is available at Rather Bee Quilting! The title of the challenge is ” I Never Promised You A Rose Garden!”

March Meeting

At the  March meeting, we collected food for the local food shelf! ( I have pictures of this also to put here!) We will collect again in November and at the December meetings! With the economy the way it is, I am sure that they appreciate anything we can give! Thank You to all who donated!

For those of us working on our UFO projects, #6 was drawn for the project to be finished next! (Although, we have decided that as long as we are all done with our six ufo’s by the July meeting, it counts!)

Round Robins were traded and I believe that there are four of us doing it this time! Deb’s is quarter  circles and she included extra blocks to use in the design if wanted/needed. Jan’s center was a Lone star out of batiks.  Sue’s center is an oriental piece! And mine was the bear, I used the pattern from the lottery block  for March! This will be a quilt for Abby!

The lottery block was the above mentioned bear block! And Diane’s name was drawn !! Big Smiles!! She is to bring the lottery block for April!

The February Retreat

The weather was a bit cool, but we had fun making it tropical!

We had plenty of food to eat and lots of good friends to share it with! We made new friends and learned a lot of new techniques! I made a ton of pillow cases and demoed how to sew on the band and turn it so that you don’t see the seam! Then we learned how to stitch the sides and bottom and enclose the raw edges, from Jan and Judy! It is a quick, fun project!

We also learned about double fabric binding and Jessie bound two pair of embroidered pillow cases after she got home and brought to show and tell. (I am having problems and not able to put pictures in the post!!??? I will have to talk to my computer guy, a.k.a. youngest son and see what is going on!)

Jan also had a demo on how to cut a Four Patch Posie!! What a neat quilt!

Another big hit this time was the Two Tea Towel Tote that Jan and Judy showed us how to make! They are great for many things from carrying your groceries or a  quilt project. Or  just to use as a purse!

Several of us from RCQ, made our bear blocks for the March lottery block! Diane let us know that she really enjoyed this block and since her business is Bear Creek Quilting, she  hoped that she would win the raffle blocks.

Retreats are such great fun! You go to bed when you are tired and get up when ready! You can stay up until 3 AM and get your bindings on and finish ufo’s that have sat in your basket for what seems like forever! Or you can start ( and finish) a new quilt! You don’t have to cook or do the dishes! There is ALWAYS plenty of snack food if you get hungry between meals! And the phone never rings!!!! Good friends getting together and sewing!

I hope to see you all at the next retreat!

(I will post pictures as soon as I figure out what the problem is! I know you all want see the picture  of me all ready for a tropical paradise!)

Catching Up!!

I am far behind in my postings!

I apologize.

I will  start to catch up now!

February meeting

Well, it’s about time!! If I don’t get this done soon, I will have another RCQ meeting to report about !! And the Retreat. Where does the time go??

Sue won the red and white blocks of the month!!  Everyone loved making this block, there were 39 all together.  Sue will bring the block for next month.

We have a Bear block that Lori sent from Florida, for the March Block of the Month.  Make him in Batiks with a cream background.

The number drawn  for the UFO’s was #4.  We decided that to qualify for the drawing at the end, you need to have your projects done by the end of the 6 months. That would be the July meeting!

In March, we will start our round robin exchange. Bring your center and fabrics to be used in the quilt. These ALWAYS turn out beautiful.

Don’t forget to bring a donation or two for the Food Shelf!! I imagine that they are being hit hard and will probably be hit even harder as we go through this period of hard economic times.

We don’t have an extra block of the month this time! Instead, we  have a table runner exchange.  Make a table runner and bring it to the meeting and we will do a  exchange!

Friday is the Retreat!! I am excited, as I am sure those of you who are registered to go are!  The theme is Spring Break !! We are to wear our tropical shirts and flip flops!! I believe that they are talking snow showers for Friday, but I don’t think that is going to put a damper on our fun! Friday night is the potluck! That’s always a good thing!

I will report on all the fun next week!

I will leave you with this picture of a proud grandma with a pink quilt for a new baby that I am sure is here by now!!

Update!!

Bonnie received a phone call at 4:30 this morning,Wednesday,February 11, that Dave had slipped away!

I saw her tonight! Sounds like they are planning a Celebration of Life to honor Dave!! It will be from 4 until 7 pm on Saturday, February 21st at Slippery’s!

My thoughts, love and prayers go out to Bonnie and her family!!

Tuesday, February 10

I talked to Bonnie Friday night, February 6th. It was an emotional conversation and I didn’t think to ask if I could post this here. I had heard the rumors that Dave had died in Mexico and they were not true! Tonight is Tuesday and I have spoke with her again and it is okay to post this here!

Dave had a heart attack in Mexico (I believe on Wednesday, January 28). Becky and Troy made it down there the following day.

They had Dave airvaced to Rochester, (I believe on Wednesday, February 4). Bonnie was not able to ride that plane home and came home Thursday.

Dave’s kidneys have failed and he is on dialysis. He no longer squeezes her hand or wiggles his toes. His eyes open, but they don’t fix on anything, they constantly move. They have him on a morphine drip to keep him comfortable!

Tonight, she said that his breathing is a little more labored. Yesterday, she could count to six between breathes and today it was 13.

Please keep Bonnie and Dave in your thoughts and prayers!! I will keep this updated.

January meeting

We had a full meeting last Tuesday! A lot of fun projects were put into motion! The friendship bags were exchanged, we committed to finishing up our UFO projects and we discussed the upcoming round robin project.

We welcomed three new quilters to join the fun, Margaret (Lori’s sister), Sue and Janet!

We talked a little bit about the July quilt show. Irene will get the standards reserved for the show. We need to get a quilt show committee together and a theme lined up for the show.

Jan H. has stepped down from the treasure’s position. We thank her for all of the work she has done in that area, for several years! Jessie was nominated and graciously accepted the position! Thank You, Jan and Jessie!

I did a little demo on making a “green”  baby quilt using panty hose as the batting.

I have cut the legs and the toes off the panty hose and folded the legs in half. Cut them on the fold and folded them into thirds! After laying each little hose square next to each other, I am tacking them down with a running stitch. When I have the piece of flannel covered with panty hose, I will lay the top of the flannel on and tie the the quilt at each spot where it was stitched before! I will then bind it. I am using a piece of flannel that I purchased ( in Iowa) this summer at a dime store that went out of business, for a $1.00 a yard. The panty hose have lived out their usefulness, so basically free. I will use, maybe a 1/4 yard to make the binding.  So, I will have $1.25 in this project.

The lady at work, who told me of this project made these for her children when money was tight, when her husband went off to Vietnam. She still has  a couple of these quilts. The flannel has started to deteriorate, but the panty hose are still holding up! She also talked of cutting the panty hose up into squares and using them for stuffing pillows. Jessie shared that her husband has one from childhood that is still in good shape!

The number “drawn” for the UFO list was #1.  That means that the two little  Nurses Quilts that were the first thing on my list,  that need to have the bindings stitched down are to be finished by the February meeting.

We exchanged our Friendship Bags! What fun.

Debbie received mine again this time! She said that she already had an idea!! This should be a little different project for her, since she only has granddaughters!! And the fabrics in my bag were basically blue for a little boy!

I received Lori’s exchange!!! She has requested a bag!! Oh dear!! She is pushing me out of my comfort zone!! I hope that I don’t let her down!! Here are pictures of the fabrics and embellishments that she included.

Lori was the big winner of  both block exchanges! She will send the block of the month for next month! I believe that she won six of the winter berry blocks and nine sampler blocks done in 30’s fabrics!

Annette had the blocks for February! Scrappy reds and white fabrics are to be  used for the 16 patch. The appliqued heart block is an extra to be made if you want! And, we have a extra raffle block of any red and white heart block in any size!

Here are her scanned directions.

The heart measures about 4 1/2 ” at the fullest point across and is about 3 7/8″ from the “v” at the top to the point at the bottom!

I will close with a picture from Sew and Tell. I love the pink and brown mini quilt! And the table runner is very interesting! Thanks Jessie!

Ready for the January meeting

We have a lot on the agenda for the January meeting tomorrow night.

*The Block of the Month this time is a pretty leaf pattern that Lori gave us . Mine are done in Thimbleberries  fabrics.  I don’t have much for purple fabrics anywhere in my stash and using only Thimbleberries made it  even harder to find! But, I managed to pull it off.

*The extra block this month was any 12 1/2″ (unfinished) block  in 30’s fabrics. Not sure what this block is called, but it sure used up the two pieces that I wanted to use! In fact I have  six blocks to put in the hat! Two of the yellow dominate blocks and four of the blue ones!

*The bag exchange is tomorrow night also! I have chosen some fun fabrics for my bag. I purchased 5 1/2 yards of several pieces of this line at RBQ awhile back. I see a little quilt for Little Will and maybe a pillow case too! With that in mind, I didn’t put any embellishments in the bag!He is only 2 1/2. What do you see? Wonder who will get my bag and what they will see!!?

I can hardly wait to see who’s bag I get and what they have put in it! I will post pictures!

* The UFO Challenge starts in January. We are to bring a list of six project’s that need to be finished! Number them one to six and each month we draw a number and that month you will have to finish the project with that number. To make the challenge a little more interesting, we are going to donate an item to the “kitty” for a drawing at the end!!

My list is as follows:

#1. My two little nurse’s wall hanging that I made at the Halloween retreat, STILL need their bindings hand sewn down.

#2. Four carrot table runners that only need bindings made, sewn on and the carrot tops made and sewn on. I will put one of these in the “kitty ” . I will donate one to St. E’s Bazaar in November and one to UCC’s December bazaar!

#3. Finish up step number Four in the All Dressed Up  Mystery. This step is started but I have a ways to go. There are 84 blocks with 15 pieces in each block!! Uggh. This is probably the worst block left to finish.

#4. Steps 5 and 6 in the above mentioned Mystery.

#5. Steps 7 and 8.

#6. Steps 9 and 10. I am not promising to have this quilt done, quilted and in the July show. I just want to have these steps completed. We will see what happens after that. I want to make this do-able. Not stressful!

I will share my “green”baby quilt tomorrow night also.  I will post pictures, at a later date, of this idea here, also.

Be working on your medallion for the round robin that starts with the exchange at the March meeting.

All of this should keep us busy during the winter months anyway!

Hope to see you at the meeting.

Christmas Day

I am sorry that I have not been blogging. I have been very busy and am glad that Christmas is over!

So, let’s catch up!

Our December meeting started off with our potluck! This is always a hit!! Plenty of good food and good conversation.

Then, we drew the name of the lucky winner of the Christmas quilt!! We sold 830 tickets and voted to round up the donation to the Food Shelf to $1000!! That’s fantastic!! Be thinking of another idea and recipient for a raffle for this year.

We drew for the Block of the Month, the basket block that Annette had given us in November and  she won them. So she will bring the pattern for next month. Lori brought the pattern for January’s block. We are to make two, one with a blue border and one with a purple one. The pictures of her blocks  are posted here.

There are little beads where the leaves meet the stems. What a beautiful block Lori!!Blue beads on the blue block and purple ones on the purple block!

We also have an extra block to draw for in  January. It is any 12 ” finished (12 1/2 ” ) block in 30’s prints.

I am going to share an idea for a “green” baby quilt at the January meeting. Does anyone else have an idea for a demo?

We talked about some special things to do this year. We will start out in January with a UFO Challenge. Bring a list of 6 UFO’s numbered one to six, to the January meeting and a gift for the “kitty”. Every month we will draw a number and that is the item you are to finish for that month’s challenge! At the end of the six month’s, whoever has finished their six projects will have their name put in the hat for the drawing of the items in the “kitty”. Diane has already said that she is going to put a quilt in. It certainly doesn’t have to be that big of an item, but something sewing related! If we have six items done by the July meeting,  think of all the new things we will have ready for the RCQ Quilt Show.

Speaking of the quilt show…..We again will set up the evening of July 24th with the Show being the 25th, at St. Felix.  Jan and Judy will be sponsoring the show this year! Thank you,  RBQ, very much!! They would like to show the Block Of The Month Quilts that they have been doing! What a great idea!!

We are going to do a  Brown bag exchange! This is where we put about two yards total of fabrics  in  a brown paper bag, add embellishments and a note about the items that you chose.  We will exchange these at the January meeting and return them in April to their rightful owners! The person receiving the bag of goodies has TOTAL control of the project!

At the March meeting we are going to trade center medallions for the start of the Round Robin. These are always fun, and the quilts are ALWAYS beautiful!

I passed around the patterns that had been at River’s Mercantile in our pattern box. I will have these again for the February meeting to share with anyone who has not gone through them. There are quite a few and some date back a ways.

The store has been closed a week, as of tomorrow. The store , John, Bonnie and the girls will be missed! Bonnie has hopes of coming to the RCQ meetings once she is back from her vacation! It will be good to have her back, I know how busy she has been.

Thanks to all who donated non perishable items. I delivered 3 full grocery sacks, to the food shelf,  the Saturday after our meeting.

I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and hope that you have a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Hope to see you at the next meeting, on January 6th  at 7 pm.