There were 12 members and 1 guest present at Saturday's Holiday Pot Luck Party. Please know that if you were absent, your presence was missed. Thank you to Carol, for hosting our meeting and thank you to all who brought treats to share. Candy was heard to comment, " I think we've really outdone ourselves this year!" (I tend to agree. The selection of foods and drinks was DE-lish!!)
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Saturday, Jan. 10th, 10 AM @ Gayle's house
Tuesday, Jan. 27th, 6:30 PM @ Hillsborough Library (Open to the Public)
Saturday, Feb. 21st, 10 AM @ Cheryl K.'s house
Tuesday, Feb. 24th, 6:30 PM @ Hillsborough Library (Open to the Public)
Saturday, Mar. ??, 10 AM @ HOSTESS NEEDED!!! (Contact Joy, if interested.)
Tuesday, Mar. 31st, 6:30 PM @ Hillsborough Library (Open to the Public)
Before the meeting Jean posed for pictures with her Starry, Starry Night at Night shirt/jacket. She did the painting and then toned down the yellows.
Lisa was with us from England via FaceTime:
As the meeting began, several members kept no idle hands:
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| Jean crocheted an edge on a hand knit silk scarf. |
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| Candy got started on that long-lost sleeve... |
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| And Cheryl B. worked on the binding of her grandson's quilt. |
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| Ruth B. was also keeping her hands busy knitting a scarf. |
SHOW AND TELL:
Carol's show was her beautifully decorated "Christmas House."
Britt brought her "Bag of Mystery" and showed the various parts of her Bonnie Hunter Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt. She also shared Baby K.'s newly completed quilt,made from scraps of Big Sister's quilt. Most of the strips were already cut and ready to sew! (Sorry! I didn't get a picture of the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt parts, but you can see them here on the blog. Just look for posts titled Mystery Monday Link-up that were posted for Week
1,
2, and
3.)
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| Here's a close-up of the quilting... |
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| And a shot showing the well coordinated backing fabric. |
Britt also brought her Mother's quilt. (Pattern by Kim McLean.) She did some of the piecing and is doing the quilting.
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| Since Mom likes puffy quilts, Britt used 2 layers of batting, an 80/20 batt with a light poly on top. This also creates a light, but WARM quilt when done with wool batting. |
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| This photo shows the "cat-proof" back of the quilt. :o)) |
Next came our guest, Jill, who THOUGHT she didn't have any show and tell, but after some digging in her bag, she realized that she had a hand quilting project with her. (Dee Dee told her that it didn't have to be finished to share with the group.) It's a doll's quilt made from one of Jill's "pencil dabblings."
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| The central portion of the quilt. |
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| Corner detailing on Jill's doll quilt. |
Dee Dee talked about an Ayr Mount outing with Jean. They decided that walking the grounds would be wonderful exercise AND an exercise in boosting creativity. As they walked, they sketched various potential quilt parts.
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| Dee Dee drew out a magnolia seed pod... |
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| And found a frog sketch at home that was the beginning of a nature-inspired quilt. |
She also brought along the prototype for a Snap Bag. It was made from a broken metal tape measure that she had on hand. Dee Dee also had the "real" Snap Bag (to be gifted), which she made from a Dollar Store metal tape measure that she bought for this purpose. The tensile strength was quite different and the quilters had a little debate over which might be better to use in future bags.
** Note: If you try this at home, you need to round the corners of the tape measure and cover with masking or painter's tape (so that they don't cut through the fabric.) The curved side of the tape measure goes toward the outside of the bag so it snaps!
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| Here are both bags shown together. Notice the difference in the casings for the top of the bag. |
** Also note that Dee Dee used the technique shown in a YouTube video from The Gourmet Quilter (SusanClaire Mayfield) in New Zealand. Some of the other options weren't as clear with the way they presented their instructions. Here is a link to her YouTube offerings.
https://www.youtube.com/user/GourmetQuilter She also seems to have a website.
http://www.gourmetquilter.com/ and a blog
https://gourmetquilterblog.wordpress.com/ in case you are interested.
Jean, being Jean, has been busy. In addition to the sketching (grass & the motion on the pond) with Dee Dee, she has been knitting and sewing.
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| Jean didn't MAKE this bag, but it certainly is cute! |
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| This sari silk waste "yarn" was purchased in Houston. |
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| Jean knit it into a scarf... |
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| AND also pressed it open to weave this scarf/wrap. She laid the piece out on her cutting table for weaving, fused wash-away stabilizer on the intersections, and then stitched with smoke colored invisible thread. It's her new FAVORITE scarf & you can see why... it's GORGEOUS!!! |
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| As if that wasn't enough, she then used this book by Sarah Kaufman pictured above... |
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| To create this Folded Log Cabin quilt block using thrift store ties and Amish Black cotton fabric. Notice the gridded (non-fusible) stabilizer that she is using. It REALLY helps with lining things up! |
NOTE: If you have ties that Jean could have, please contact her or bring them to the next Nimble Thimbles meeting.
Candy has been busy making Star Ornaments/package decorations/coasters. These cute little stars can be made to any size. They start out and end up pentagons. Very interesting design and VERY quick to make... 10 minutes!
She also made a stocking for her son's friend, Matt, who has invited them all to Christmas at his house. The house is decorated beautifully, but there were no "stockings hung by the chimney with care." Candy decided to remedy that!
Cheryl B.'s new grandson was born on October 27th (and you KNOW that he needed a quilt!!) She used an improved "cheater" panel that she purchased at Mary Jo's. The panel was bordered and embroidered with her grandson's name and date of birth on the front and a "Grandparent's Promise" on the back.
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| Front |
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| Back |
Note: Cheryl used the services of:
Happy Stitches
367 Ja-Max Drive
Hillsborough, NC
(919) 644-8455
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| Stellar photography skills and a beam of sunlight conspired against this shot of the applique quilt that Cheryl finished to send to her brother. |
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| Here's a close-up of an individual quilt block. |
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| This quilt also got an embroidered label. (Cost? $8/embroidery piece. Not a bad deal!) |
Ruth S. showed a finished wool applique piece she's been working on since her trip to Houston. Ruth used perle cotton, but said that you could use regular embroidery thread to complete the block.
And she told the story of what wonderful company this (and the Thursday) group is. How could she tell???
Well, it seems that she had her watch on backwards at the last meeting and didn't realize it until the meeting was OVER!!! She never once looked at her watch to check the time. :o))
Joy showed off her next-to-last custom tote bag...
AND... the VERY LAST custom tote bag (for this year.) Hooray!!!
LOOK!!! Helena brought something to show! :o))
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| She made a Christmas pillow case for herself (and one for her daughter, but didn't want to take it off her bed, as she was sleeping on it when Helena left for the meeting.) Congrats! for getting back to your very lonely sewing machine. :o)) |
Ruth B. had nothing to show or tell, but she has an ASK. Can we get all of the emails together so no one gets left out of the loop when meeting times roll around? (A new membership list is long past due. Sorry! One was begun this time last year, but never completed.) Helena volunteered to take on this task. Thx!
Gayle has been working with stained glass recently and created a dragonfly piece that she really liked. She liked the design so much that she decided to do it in fabric, too. Very nice!
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| Gayle's Dragonfly Mini-quilt (with flight path quilting.) |
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| She also brought the pattern pieces that she made from Britt's antique floral quilt pictured... |
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| And a kitchen garbage bag full of scraps (whose remnants can be seen in the photo above.) You should note that Joy was NOT the first person to dig in the bag! She showed GREAT restraint (before she attacked.) Lunch distracted the fabric vultures and the leftovers went to the hostess (who was THRILLED to be the lucky recipient.) |
Joy had hoped to get a group picture (since we had a guest present to take the photo), but the timing wasn't right when she remembered after Show & Tell began. Unfortunately, if something gets put off... it often doesn't get done. That was the case this time, what with being distracted by all of that yummy food! Oh well, we will have to do it another time...
These will have to suffice for now:
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| Look how good the food was...only TWO people even looked up at the camera! |
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| Same with the other half of the room. LOL |
NOTES:
** Helena requested that Joy remember to send out the soup recipes from November's meeting. Those will be forwarded to member email addresses.
** We worked up a new membership list. Helena will send it out and plans to set up a ListServ for the group (so that no one is left off of any group email.)
** Cheryl B. and Dee Dee will host during the summer months.
Tis the season for greetings and wishes. We wish you safe travels, good food, and special times with family and friends.
Happy Holidays, everyone!!!
Until next time...
Happy Quilting!!!
