10/29-CCLQ Road Trip

Five Happy Quilters!

Five happy Quilters riding in a car.
The first one said, "Oh my it's not too far!"
The second one said, "There's a mountain over there."
The third one said, "But we don't care."
The fourth one said, "Let's spend a lot of bucks!"
The fifth one said,  "Is that a zombie on that truck?
OO went the wind and zip went the car.
And the five happy quilters traveled very far.
(from the Five Little Pumpkins poem)

The CCLQ bee had discussed going a road trip for some time and thanks to Ella, our organizer, leader, driver and inspiration....the Road Trip to Virginia became a reality!

What beautiful fall scenery on our journey...
here's Pilot Mountain near Winston Salem.

Here's an "impressionistic" photo somewhere near Virginia.

Lots of visual inspiration...check out this old barn.

Our first stop was in Floyd, VA at Schoolhouse Fabrics.

 

We had a wonderful lunch at the General Store Cafe. http://www.floydcountrystore.com/cafe

Next we traveled to Wytheville, VA .

    

We surprised Ella with a "thank you" fabric for organizing this wonderful trip!!!

10/22 - CCLQ @ Joanna's Mountain

This week, 7 members of CCLQ were hosted at Joanna's Mountain.  We got a bit of a late start, but enjoyed a wonderful get together.

We had a bit of Show and Tell, as well as some discussion of a Road Trip (or two!)

Joy passed around her new book to show everyone:

Deborah showed off her Paint Chip Challenge:

The inspiration print (now showing at the Nasher Museum)...

Along with her (partially) paper pieced quilt:

Dee Dee made another iPad cozy:

And showed off her Paint Chip Challenge piece:

Note: Neither she nor Deborah had done paper piecing before. Nice job, ladies!  And Linda...  You need to claim that iPad cozy before the next Quilt Bee meeting!  This is a test to see if you are reading the blog.  :P


Deborah finished the quilting on her Lady of the Lake quilt and had attached the binding... er... facing and is now in the process of sewing it down:

This is ONE of the quilts that Joanna is working on.  Her sister fell in love with it and we can certainly see why:

THIS is what the quilt was "supposed" to look like, but Joanna wasn't satisfied with the clutter:

SEE??  Deborah WAS working on the binding:

Ella made a truly scrappy quilt:

Sorry!!  The close-up shot is blurry:

Look who drove herself to Quilt Group today:

Candy was busy working on a pair of baby booties for Lily:

Joy shared her birthday surprise from the Nimble Thimbles.  She plans to make a quilt that incorporates 50 quilt blocks from these (and any other scraps that she receives before the blocks are made.  The quilt will be called "50 - It's Just a Number":

Cheryl was planning the new quilt for her bed.  DH didn't approve the last design:

Candy needed help with paper piecing and Deborah had some fresh insight:

 Ruth B. attended via FaceBook (enjoying her cup of cappuccino in Italia):

Joy used this time to attach a label to another quilt:

THIS was today's specimen:

Along with a close-up of the "E" that was appliqued onto the quilt top:

Joanna asked for opinions about THIS quilt on one of her design walls:

HERE is the pattern that she used, shown sideways for added interest.  That's my story:

Joanna also made a new Holiday Table Runner:

Smile Dee Dee!!

You, too, Ella!!!

Speaking of Ella... She is planning and scheming.  THIS is a copy of the email that she sent out after the meeting:

There were 7 of us today at Joanna's.  Good dessert and coffee!!!!!!

We talked about going on a road trip next Thursday to VA.  There were a couple 

that will not be able to go, so we talked about a trip next Thursday and then another one in 

November.  I think that is good thinking.

Now the decision  is, do we go to Floyd and Wytheville, or to Phenix  and Lynchburg.

For either place I think we would need to leave no later than 8: because each place is 

about 2 hours away.

Let me hear your thoughts.

Ella

Well... after LUNCH, after the meeting!!

Speaking of lunch...  FIVE of us enjoyed lunch at Bennett Point Grill in Durham.  The standard place after a meeting at Joanna's... YUM!!

We missed Gayle, as she wasn't feeling well, but have since discovered that she is quilting her LAST donation quilt of 2015!!!  Congrats, Gayle, on attaining such a lofty goal of FIFTY-TWO (52) Donation Quilts in (less than) 52 weeks!!!  You are an inspiration to us all.

Until next time...
Mix in some REST with all of that quilting!!!

10/17/15 - NT @ Britt's House

Welcome to the monthly meeting of the Nimble Thimbles Quilt Bee!  October's meeting was held at Britt's house.  There were 10 members present.  Thanks to everyone who brought food to share!

Members who attended the CCLQ @ The Bluff Quilt Retreat were asked to bring along their Lancaster shopping bags, as there are still a number of folks who haven't seen these fabrics in person (and it's truly a sight to behold!)

It turns out that only Britt brought her fabrics for Show and Tell...

We'll get to that after we make our way around the circle.

Jill started off Show and Tell with her William Morris animal applique quilt:

Here's a closer look at it:

Just LOOK at the adorable embroidered "B for Baby" on the back:

Margaret's Day Break quilt isn't finished, but she added to it and is trying to decide about borders:

Helena finished the top of her Paint Chip Challenge (She's never worked with equilateral triangles):

Karen W. shared her paint chips and Helena is interested to find out what Karen has made!

Helena also had TWO Tells:
She used fabric from one of our Dye Frenzies for her Paint Chip Challenge AND she closed on her old house yesterday.  A weight has been lifted from her shoulders.  Congrats, Helena!!

These are the THREE Beads of Courage Bags that Margaret made for UNC Hospital:

Jean used up some of her dyes on one of her Quilt Show T-shirts.  (Nice job!!):

Helena (?) brought this card to share about a quilterly art exhibit:

THESE are the details:

Linda has made some progress on her Shot Cotton quilt:

It's going to be a lap quilt for her couch.  The pattern came from Missouri Star Quilt Company.

Gayle brought along the quilt that she made for her grandson for Christmas.  Tommy will absolutely LOVE his car play mat!  (I don't know where she found the time, considering she only has 2 more of 52 Donation Quilts to make in order to meet her goal for the year!!!

Gayle talked about Karen Eckmeier and her Happy Village Quilts.  This is an example by a student:

Gayle is working on one of her own, along with a Ricky Timms' Kaleidoscope Quilt, and an on-point Hexagon quilt using 3/4" per side.  AND...  she's been designing again!  It's the first time since 2012. This time, she drew (then consolidated) 8 designs in rapid succession.  The resulting quilt will be 50" square in solids of undisclosed colors.

Here's a look around the room:

Before we moved on to...

Carol's Dye Challenge Quilt (completed quilt top):

She's also finishing up a Halloween Quilt for her 7 year old grandson:

Carol also had a TELL:  She ran her 10K and felt wobbly at the end!  Runs 3 miles every other day.

Then we came to Britt...

Being the hostess with the most-est, she kept running upstairs when someone would ask about one project or another.  She began with her CCLQ in Lancaster, PA shopping trip purchases.

She found borders for the quilt top shown:

Then went on to tell about the other SALE fabrics from Berkholder's:

Then she moved on to the prints she found at Sauder's:

They match her niece's quilt and she needs to make another.  AND a BOLT of fabric for the back:

She was done at this point, but helped Candy at the Old Country Store finding this bird batik:

Next, Britt showed off the gelli print that Joy (and Jean) made for a Retreat Challenge:

She also shared the adorable button print that was a gift from Ruth S. in a "Yankee Swap":

Britt's Paint Chip Challenge has been quilted within an inch of its life!  The fox image came from a FREE Clip Art site online.  She and her husband modified the design:

Then she brought out her Little Lobelia.  Her original hangs at the NC Botanical Gardens:

And lastly, Britt went up to get her brother's quilt to share her "Center Solution":

Joy passed out Mystery instructions for those who needed the next step and Margaret shared her fabric choices.  The BEST part... They came from her STASH:

Britt brought out the handmade bottle opener that her husband made:

This is the other side of the opener, made from 2 pieces of pressed steel (pounded together):

Cheryl K. showed an iPad photo of her Leftover Blues Quilt, which has been given away.  It was well received by the neighbor who brings in the mail and checks on the house when Cheryl is away:

LINK to PHOTO here!!  (It's about halfway down the post.)

Joy showed the quilt that she was labeling, passed along Strawberry Upside Down {short} Cake for Jean to deliver to DOQ and then got a BIG surprise:

SCRAPS!!!  (She absolutely LOVES fabric scraps.)  A couple of CARDS...

And a HUGE Birthday Cake:

Thank you, everyone!!!

Who KNEW that 50 could be so much FUN?!?!

After lunch, Helena showed Carol a look at the fabrics for her Halloween Quilt...

And Joy sneaked a shot of Helena's Bat Socks:

Joy brought her projects and goodies to share in a GIANT bag from IKEA.  Here's how the bag looked on the way home, happily stuffed full of scraps from all of you.  Thanks, again!!!

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!!!

NOTE:  Linda and Carol want a copy of Lime Twist from the Donation Workshop.  Make some copies for next time!!