Saturday, January 31, 2015

Adventures in BlogLand

Hello, Nimble Thimbles!

I was just surfing BlogLand (Thanks a LOT, Britt!!) and found a Busy Crafting Bee to the Mircrowave Potholders that Margaret showed at Gayle's house this month.  I found it after to Julia's Place @ Creative Ribbons (blog no longer available) and scrolling through to see what she was up to.  She had a link button on Em's Scrapbag.  I'm pretty sure that Margaret didn't provide a link so...

There you have it (and SEW much more!)

Oh!  Speaking of blogs... if you are interested in what Joy's been up to this month, check out her most recent blog post.  It details her adventures as a participant in the 2015 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Here's a preview:



Until next time...
Happy Quilting!!!

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

1/27/15 - NT Nights @ the Hillsborough Library

Four members were present at tonight's meeting.  Jill was still recovering from the flu.  Wonder what happened to Linda???  I guess she was busy.  Hopefully, they will both be at the March meeting!  We missed them.

Carol brought her grandson's quilt, but FORGOT her thread!!!

Carol is playing "Vanna" pointing out one of Margaret's projects that I thought I didn't get a shot of.  LOL


Margaret brought several projects and got a little bit done on an old UFO.

Three different projects are on the table! Sorry, I didn't get pics of the others.   :o((


Here's the paper-piecing laid out.  Notice the missing piece?  She trimmed off the WRONG part!!  :o((

Joy was busy binding her Crumb quilt...  aka, The Joyful Scrap Addiction.  When her hands got tired of binding, she brought out her Travelling Scarf  and did a bit of knitting..

She even remembered to bring her Ott  light... too bad the batteries were almost dead!!!  :o((

Britt was a little delayed in getting to the library, but made up for it in productivity.  She got ALL of her blocks trimmed!


The colors are true in this photo.

Here's a full-view shot...

A close-up photo...

And detail shot. Those small squares are cut at 1.5"!!

We had a lovely evening chatting and/or working on our current projects.  Here's something to keep in mind, if you live close by and are a quilter... The Nimble Thimbles Night Bee is open to the public.  YOU are welcome to join us for our monthly meetings.

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!!!

Friday, January 23, 2015

1/22/15 - CCLQ @ Candy's House

It was a full house at Candy's today with TEN people in attendance!  While not everyone was there (we missed you, Linda!), an extra chair was brought in for a late arrival (me!)

Following coffee and chatter, everyone was working on something.

Care to have a look???

TWO people were hand quilting:

Ella refused another shot of her Red and White quilt...

And Deborah is almost done with the dark blue diamonds on her grandmother's quilt.

TWO people were knitting:


Candy is trying a vest with an interesting construction...

And Ruth had just put down her scarf, in favor of one of Candy's yummy cookies.

ONE person was working on cross stitch:

Here's Joanna digging out (what I'm assuming is ) her pattern.

There were FIVE people hand sewing binding:


Ruth S. was sewing down the binding on a Donation Quilt made by Joanna.

Cheryl was finishing the Heart Quilt that she started at Dee Dee's.

Dee Dee worked on finishing her Winter Quilt.

Gayle stitched one the binding of her latest Donation Quilt.

Oops!!!  I forgot to have a photo taken of the progress I've made on the binding of my Crumb quilt.  Oh, well... I've only sewn 24" since the last picture.  You'll have to wait for a photo update next time.

It was a productive morning.  Thanks for having us, Candy!

Here are some better shots of a few of the projects:

Ella showed us her newest project (for her dining room wall.)

This is the Donation Quilt that Gayle recently whipped up. 

Cheryl is making this for her neighbor who is crazy about Valentine's Day.

Here's a better look at Joanna's Donation Quilt.
 
Candy got a new Kindle and it didn't fit in the old case.

Here's a close-up of the new case and the "C" that Candy plans to applique on the flap.

The majority of attendees (we missed you, Deborah!) enjoyed a delicious lunch at Mebane Downtown Table.  Joy did a bit of shopping afterwards at one of the lovely shops lining Clay Street.

This photo shows the antique file cabinet that tried to follow her home.

She texted a picture and a price to her husband.  He wanted to know what she planned to use it for and said that he thought that it was TOO EXPENSIVE for fancy fabric storage.  Hmm...   Just THINK of all the fabric that could have been stored in this 24" deep, 20" wide, 54" tall cabinet!!!

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!!!

Sunday, January 18, 2015

1/15/15 - CCLQ @ Ruth B.'s House

I'm sorry to say that I wasn't able to attend Thursday's meeting so there will be no pictures of Show & Tell or our busy hands.  :o((

Thank you to Ruth B. for hosting.  Sorry that I wasn't able to bring the cream (that was missing from your fridge.)  It was one of those weeks!

Judging by the attendance at lunch, I believe that there were 7 members present.

Deborah
Cheryl K.
Ruth B.
Ruth S.
Ella
Joanna
Gayle (didn't make it to lunch)
Joy (finished her appointment in time for lunch, but didn't think to take a picture!)

Hopefully, Dee Dee will be feeling better next week and Candy's procedure went well!  And... if anyone has information for me to add, please send an email.

It felt really weird when I realized that it was Sunday night and I hadn't posted the meeting notes...

And weirder still that I missed the meeting and had nothing TO post!!!

Insert your mental image of my pout face here.

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!!!

Monday, January 12, 2015

1/10/15 - NT @ Gayle's House

We had a large crowd at Gayle's house on Saturday.  13 members were present, including Lisa from England via FaceTime.  Thank you, Gayle, for hosting and thanks to everyone who brought treats to share.  We enjoyed quite a feast!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

January:
1/27 - NT Nights 6:30 PM @ Hillsborough Library

February:
2/21 - NT @ Cheryl K.'s House 10 AM
2/24 - NT Nights 6:30 PM @ Hillsborough Library

March:
3/14 - NT @ Ruth B.'s House 10 AM
3/31 - NT Nights 6:30 PM @ Hillsborough Library

April:
Margaret (11th or 18th) and/or Mary Jo's Trip (about 6 for MJ's)
4/28 - NT Nights 6:30 PM @ Hillsborough Library

** MEMBERS:  Please email your "vote" to Joy concerning April's meeting.  Options include: meeting AND Mary Jo's Trip on separate days? (Margaret volunteered to host.) or meeting AND Mary Jo's Trip on ONE day? (Who will host the NON-trippers?) or Mary Jo's Trip ONLY with NO meeting for April? We will discuss the outcome in February to better plan for April. (For those going on the MJ Trip, think about whether you will be able to volunteer to drive.) Thanks!

After a brief business meeting (Gayle brought up a point of order, to which we all agreed - we will cap our active membership at 20 - and Cheryl B. noted how thankful she is that we keep our business portion of the meeting to a minimum).  Maybe that's because we are all about the...

SHOW AND TELL!!!  (Boy, did we have a lot of great stuff to share!)

Cheryl K. - 2 Autumn Table Runners and 1 of 3 that she made for Christmas.  She also brought along her Cocktail Apron made from men's ties.





Note: For the faux binding on Cheryl's runner, add a half-inch "binding" fabric and then "pillowcase" the runner to finish.

Here's the tie apron she made on request.

Ruth B. shared a mysterious package from Apple that arrived on her doorstep before she headed to the meeting. It was a lovely photo calendar that her son, Steve, had made of pics from their trip to Greece. The man's got TALENT!!! (And knows what his mom likes!)
Just couldn't resist sharing a photo of a printout of a photo...

Linda showed off her Sashiko stitched turtles. She's planning to make a pillow out of the piece.

 
She also brought the Oriental quilt top made for her daughter, who graduates from college this Spring. It's done in the BQ1 pattern which is GREAT for those prints that you just don't want to cut up.
You can tell it's a big quilt and we were short on space! 
Cheryl B. didn't have a quilt to show but was working on her beautiful needle-turn applique blocks.



Jean reported she is on a cleaning rampage.  She brought 3 sets of Snap Bag instructions and 5 sets of measuring tape lengths (leftover from her Kids Quilt Camp) to share. Jean gave Margaret a ribbing over how slow the supposedly fast Batting Buddy technique was.  Margaret tried to claim she said it was COOL not FAST!  Well, as you can see from the photo, the technique might go a bit faster if you don't add all that wonderful quilting!  Jean went over the top!  (you might see it better if you double click on the photo).



Jean also shared an Australian pattern that she found on the net.  You've heard of Block of the Month programs, well, she's starting a Quilt of the Month program.  Jack's Chain was linked to from Bonnie Hunter's blog or FaceBook page and Jean's in love with this pattern.


.
Here's a small sample Jean pieced:

Joy forgot her GIMQ top at home (but you can see it if you scroll back to the previous blog post) and showed the picture on her phone as a precursor to...

Britt showing her star blocks that she came up with from her own GIMQ pieces. Some of her Bonnie Hunter mystery clues such as the green & white checkerboard sashing didn't want to be in the quilt (so they will be part of a donation quilt) so she decided to punt.  Then she found that she didn't have enough of one of the fabrics that she would need... but Ella did!  :o))  Yay Ella - what a lifesaver quilt friends are!!!

Here are the Star blocks...

Here's a better view of Ella's fabric! (Just ignore the shadows. There were some REALLY bright lights over the hearth.)

She also shared the progress that she's made on her Kim McLean quilt:



And the fabric that she got from her mom for Christmas:


She also showed the Super Hero Cape that she made for her nephew (there's one for her niece, too.)  Picture will have to wait til they've been delivered.  ;)

Carol started off by TELLing how she had sorted the mountain of fabric scraps Gayle brought and gifted to the group at last month's meeting. She noticed a color theme and that started her off on a new quilt adventure. So for SHOW she had not 1 but 2 quilt tops underway!. She brought the first completed top from Gayle's scraps - they now are a Valentine's Quilt top for her son and his fiance!

Sorry about that picture Carol!
She also shared that Walmart in Hillsborough is now selling Waverly fabrics on the bolt.

Candy - had a darling project to show us. Her Malaysian friend's daughter is having a baby girl and Candy made little fabric shoes from a pattern given to her by a friend.  They are SO cute that she has NO IDEA what she would have done if it had been a boy!








Candy also had a Donation Quilt top that posed a design challenge.  Jean thought of appliqued cars to turn the whirligigs into roads.  Thanks, Jean!


Gayle shared a Donation Quilt made from precuts purchased at Quilting with Nana ABC in Burlington when she, Candy, and Ruth went on a field trip there shortly after the store opened. The fabrics were darling!



She also had an Amish-style Donation Quilt that she REALLY wants to keep!

And...after watching Ella for the last while, quilting away on her Red and White quilt, Gayle has been wanting a hand quilting project, too. Being "Go-for-it-Gayle", she has made one of her own in order to have something to do at the Thursday meetings.


Margaret showed some fabric Bowl Cozies she made recently.  They are sort of a cross between a pot holder and a hot pad. You place a bowl of food in the cozy, pop it all in the microwave and no burned fingers when everything is heated.  The directions come in 3 sizes and tell you how to adjust the darts to fit your own bowls.  From Margaret's point of view, she likes a single fabric on the bowls rather than 2 fabrics.
(Uh oh, somehow no pictures of the bowl cozies!!! -but they are cool).

She shared a simple yet effective Rail Fence quilt that she made for her niece's 2 y.o. daughter.


She also gave us a peek at her friend Julie's quilt made from 5 - 1 yard pieces and a 2.5 yard POP color. Here's a square to show the pattern.


 Cheryl B. quilted both of these quilts and Margaret's friend Sheila made one, too.  Hers is done in florals for her mother.

Dee Dee brought her UN-bound Winter quilt that she quilted herself (on Sara's long-arm) using her own loop and leaf design. The photo does not capture the true beauty of these batiks! It's just lovely.

She also showed us her Christmas present to herself... 12 - 1 yd. cuts of Dupioni Silk from Mary Jo's because once they are gone, they're GONE! The store won't be able to get this silk again, but will be carrying a lesser quality fabric and Dee Dee likes this fabric for her Art Quilts.

Silken gift to herself and...
 She also showed a printing on fabric project that she and Jean worked on together. They used screen printing, jelly print, and stenciling. Jean thought the mono-printing turned out the best.  What fabulous results from the varied techniques attempted!!!

 


Lastly, Dee Dee asked us if we has a THEME or Word For the Year.  Cheryl B.'s is Finish It! Candy's is Deal. Jean's is Rampage. Well, Dee Dee made a quilted reminder of hers!

Maybe we should tell you DeeDee does photography in addition to quilting and drawing?  :)
Lisa was happy to announce that not only was her sewing machine set up but she also had something to SHOW! She found one of her mother's UFOs and decided to work on finishing it. The center is done and the rest is all laid out to sew together. We couldn't tell what the scale was and Lisa said that the quilt is 4 or 5 ft. across.  BIG!  Here was our view of the stunning quilt in progress via Facetime:

Corners are missing, but there's no more fabric for additional blocks.  Most suggested that she use the background color for the corners.  (Joy thinks that she should just leave it the "funky" shape.)

Here's Lisa in her "seat"  She looks happy to be able to join us from "across the pond."  We were certainly happy to have her with us!

This shot shows "The Girls" behaving themselves during the meeting, but we suspect they REALLY thought Margaret and Dee Dee were being awfully rude blocking their view of the quilts!

Tentative Future Scheduling:

May:
Candy (Britt for back-up)
5/26 - NT Nights 6:30 PM @ Hillsborough Library

June:
Dee Dee (13th or 20th) for Annual Dye Frenzy
6/30 - NT Nights 6:30 PM @ Hillsborough Library

July:
Cheryl B. (11th or 18th) for Sew Saturday (?)
7/28 - Nights 6:30 PM @ Hillsborough Library

August:
Jean (8th or 15th)
8/25 - NT Nights 6:30 PM @ Hillsborough Library

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!!!