5/26/15 - NT Nights @ The Hillsborough Library

Welcome to the May meeting of the NT Nights group!  

There were SEVEN (7) members present!! This equated to LOTS of excited chattering and a bit of...

Show and Tell/Projects in the Works:

Jill hand stitched binding on one of the TWO Donation Quilts that she brought tonight:

Here's a close-up of the houses along the bottom, complete with hand embroidery:

This is Jill's other quilt:

Margaret squared up HSTs for the border of her Batik Jewels quilt...

 And matched up the colors for sewing:

Joy was busy trimming of batik scraps from Dee Dee.  (Thanks, again!):

She also had some Show and Tell:

Including THREE fabric "baskets" for scrap sorting and TWO quilts that have been waiting for personalization for nearly a year!!

Linda worked on ripping out a seam that she was unhappy with on her Dragonfly Quilt:

Cheryl B. finished up work early and was able to join us.  What a nice surprise!!

Britt had TWO projects in the works.  Her Bonnie Hunter Mystery Revamp and her Tiny Nine project both saw some action.

Oops!  No photo of the adorable 9-Patch blocks tonight, but HERE she is sewing some of them together at Joy's over this past holiday weekend:

Helena brought a Thrift Shop find that she is deconstructing:

While some of us are dumbfounded, she maintains that she doesn't like the floral so it's GONE!

Hopefully, this is close-up will give you a better view of the "offending" fabric.

We missed Carol tonight , but hopefully, she is having some fun at her conference in Florida!!

Until next time...
Stitch happy!!!

5/21/15 - CCLQ @ Joy's

Thank you to Joy for hosting today's meeting.  There were 9 members in attendance.  After everyone drifted in, we got down to the business of Show and Tell:

Not necessarily in the order in which we shared our projects...

Joy showed her Zentangle quilt, alongside Joanna's Zentangle drawings:

Here is a closer look at Joanna's AMAZING drawings:

And an EVEN CLOSER look:

Joanna worked on removing the paper foundations from her Storm at Sea paper-piecing project:

Ella brought her gifted saris to get some ideas of what she might do with them:

In the photo above, she is listening as Jean responses.

Jean offering suggestions...

While Joy snaps a picture of the BEAUTIFUL collection.

Gayle was caught mid-stitch (looking up to see about the commotion):

Here she is showing off this week's Donation Quilt:

Jean has been busy making more samples for her newest Kitchen Quilt:

She also shared a really slick trick that was shared by Britt (??) who found it on the internet:

Can you see the marks on Jean's thumb nail???

Those marks represent the stitch length that Jean is aiming for as she embellishes her squares.

Pretty slick trick!!!  Huh?!?


Jean also brought along a couple of books to add to the Zentangle exhibit:

I particularly like the hand prints on the cover:

And then she got down to the business of finishing her Circle Vest:

Dee Dee labeled her Missouri Star Quilt Co. blocks for ease of piecing (after layout):

Here she is, working away:

  
Candy was busy looking at books of Baby Quilts... Congrats! Grandma!!!

Deborah made progress on the quilting of her Grandmother's Lone Star quiilt:

 Even though she didn't bring hers today, Deborah requested to see Joy's Lady of the Lake quilt:

Ruth worked on the triangles of her latest quilt:

When our lunch alarm rang, 5 of us were off to China Fuji.  Luckily, Britt was able to join us today!

NOTE:  Special thanks to Gayle for sharing her bumper crop of lettuce with us today.  I'm pretty sure that everyone is  having a BIG salad for dinner!!!  LOL

Until next time...

Quilt much???

5/18/15 - CCLQ/NT Trunk Show @ DOQ

Have you heard the news???

Cherry Creek Lane Quilters (CCLQ) joined forces with the Nimble Thimbles (NT) quilt bee (since much of our current membership overlaps,anyway.)  We were the program for tonight's DOQ Guild Meeting.  The members of each group came together to present a Trunk Show and talk about our day, evening, and weekend groups.


Here are the photos (taken by Barry... Thank you!!!):

Britt and Cheryl B. discussing the set-up:

Twelve of our members were on stage to participate in the presentation:

10 from Nimble Thimbles, 8 from CCLQ, and 5 from NT Nights (if I counted correctly.) These numbers illustrate the overlap within our membership among the three groups.

Great shot, Barry!!  LOL

Closer shots of the participants:

And another small group shot:

And another:

Hey!!  What happened to the last small group shot, Barry?!?!  Oops!!!  Slight error.


We started out by sharing the history of our group(s.)  Two of which were begun with only THREE members (CCLQ and NT Nights!!)  Proving that YOU don't need a certain number to start a quilt bee.  Our philosophy was "Start it and they will come."  And, over time, they did!

What wasn't said (sad, but true) was that THREE of our members had NEVER MET before dinner tonight.  Thank you, DOQ, for providing that opportunity!

Another interesting fact that wasn't revealed...

Two of our members belonged to the same Raleigh-based quilt bee before joining CCLQ.  One moved to the Raleigh area and joined the SAME year that the other moved to the Chapel Hill area!

We told a little about our penchant for random demonstrations:

1. Use of a "binding tool" with Sara

2. Disappearing 4-Patch with Linda

3. Paper boxes with Margaret

4. Fabric baskets with Joy

And went on to share our group projects:

1. SECU Family House Auction Quilt

2. C. Breeze Studio Quilt (Thanks for bringing it to show, Cheryl!!)

3. Margaret's Hope Chest Donation Quilt

4. Lisa F.A. Goodbye Quilt

Then we showed off some of our "NT Workshop" projects...

Strips That Sizzle with Sara P.:

Britt's quilt top

Candy's completed quilt, even though Candy couldn't be with us.

A close-up of Cheryl B.'s completed quilt.

Isn't it AMAZING how different each quilt looks in different fabrics and different settings, even though they were made with the same blocks?

4-Patch Posies (Kaleidoscope) with Britt:

The ONLY completed quilt in the bunch. The rest of us showed blocks!

Quilted Improv Jackets with Joy:

The funny thing is that Joy's star pupil didn't use the same pattern for her jacket.

The "Britt" Bag with Britt:

This photo illustrates how different "identical" projects can look when scaled to an alternate size.

Once all of our group projects and workshops had been discussed, we moved on to individual works.  Round One:

Margaret's Pi Quilt

Joanna's 1st example of a BQ Quilt...

And another, to show how different it can look based on placement of the main color(s).

Britt's Cheerful 9-Patch Quilt

Carol's variation on Strips That Sizzle

Cheryl B. spoke about what the group means to her and how much she's learned from all of us.

Ruth's FIRST Quilt!!  She was a seamstress and had NO IDEA about the challenges presented by Y seams.

Gayle's Jacobean Quilt

Ella's "Living Room Wall" Quilt

Deborah's Retirement Fabric Quilt

Round Two:

Joy's Remnants Quilt

Britt's ABC Quilt

Gayle's Fossil Fern Quilt (She bought the WHOLE line with her tax refund!)

Jean's Ballerina Quilt (One of TWO identical quilts!)

And... Round Three:

Joy's Lady of the Lake Quilt (NC State Fair Golden Needle Award winner)

Britt's Reproduction Quilt

Gayle's Original Applique Quilt

We received a hearty round of applause when our talk drew to a close.  Either guild members were happy that we were FINALLY done or they really enjoyed our presentation!  :P

Until next time...
Join (or START) a quilt bee!!!  You won't regret it!!