12/11/14 - CCLQ Holiday Pot Luck at Ella's

Two members were missing.  Cheryl is off on a travel trip and Linda is at school.  We're at Cheryl's next week and hoping to see Linda on Saturday at the Nimble Thimbles' Holiday Pot Luck Party at Carol's.

Here are the happenings for the day:

Joanna brought her travel bag (with instructions) to do a demo, but Joy had work to do.  Sorry!

Joy was trimming T-shirts for TWO quilts that she was hoping to finish by Christmas.  If that will be possible, remains to be seen.  Here she is showing off the NEXT TO LAST of her Custom Tote Bag orders.  Hooray!!!

Ruth B. was chatting and having coffee before being presented her Origami ornament from Gayle.

Listen. Respond. Sip. Repeat.  :P

The colors suit her perfectly!

Ruth S. was working on the binding for a Donation Quilt...

 Then she pulled out this lovely purple Crazy Quilt block:

Apparently, the camera thinks the block is blue.

Ella was busy being the helpful hostess and making sure that coffee was served.

Dee Dee worked on her Ayr Mount drawings.

Candy worked on binding a(nother) donation quilt.  Almost done!

Deborah showed off her Star Trek stuffed toys made for her grandson.

Gayle started off with the blue petals that she has been cutting out...

Then moved on to these green leaves during the meeting:

During the meeting, Ella showed us the Lumitask lights that Barry purchased in Houston.  The difference is quite remarkable:

The photo above shows the machine turned on and ready to sew.

This one shows the Bernina with the additional light illuminated.

Here are the (adjustable) "runway" lights that Barry installed.

Isn't the difference AMAZING???  The ladies were so impressed that we are planning a group order to save on shipping costs and Barry will install them "for a small fee."  Contact Ella or Joy, if you would like to be included.

Then it was PARTY TIME!!!

Thanks, everyone for not spoiling Barry's surprise.

Happy Birthday, Ella!

Here's Ella opening her one of her gifts.

This is the collection of "ugly" Fat Quarters that Barry asked us to bring.  Ella actually LIKED some of the ugliest ones!

Here's Barry with the bolo tie that Jean made for him after the Houston trip...

 

And Ella with her flower pin.  (They both loved them, Jean!)

Thanks to Barry, here we all are (sans Cheryl K. and Linda) posing in front of Ella's new Christmas Quilt.  Joanna did a wonderful job on the quilting and look how BEAUTIFUL it looks hanging on the wall by the tree!

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!!!

P.S. Couldn't resist a full shot of Ella's Red and White quilt in progress.

Mystery Monday Link-up, Week Two

"You might have seen the single unit in THIS post.

It doesn't look too intimidating, but I can tell you this... I, for one, am hoping for an easier clue this coming Friday!!!  It's Monday and I only have a small portion of the required blocks completed.  Britt has EVEN FEWER blocks made!  (In her defense, she was busy preparing for a business trip.)

Here is the block that the clue's directions led Joy to create:

Britt's block look like this:

Here, Joy gives you an idea of what the blocks might look like when set together:

OK, so maybe not.  It certainly made a cool picture for the Magical Monday Link Party, though!!  We're number 103 in the Link Party.  Look for the "Britt's block" photo.  :P  (Not sure if I'll be able to change that.  Oops!)

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!

Grand Illusion, Week Two

Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville dot com sent out the second clue of her Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt (GIMQ) this morning.  It's a challenging one!

These were the units that we were instructed to make:

Joy's version:

She used these neutral strips...

=

And these black and "pink" squares...

Combined to form these units.

Britt's off to NY for work. She'll post her progress upon her return.

Here's a single unit:

Have patience.  You will have to wait for the Mystery Monday Link-up to see how we assembled these (challenging) units into blocks.

Anyway...

Bonnie, being Bonnie, gave us 3 different methods to create these units.  Britt found a link to roseprairiequilts.blogspot.com.  The industrious quilter there came up with a strip-pieced technique to arrive at the desired unit.  (Don't look until the Mystery Monday Link-up or you'll spoil the surprise!)  Joy found an alternate way to create the units.  It was recommended on Bonnie's FaceBook page by a woman who created the units using only HSTs.  This leaves you with an extra seam, but cuts out the bulk of the stress associated with this portion of the quilt.  Might be worth a try!


Monday's coming...

Until then,
Happy Quilting!!!

A finished baby quilt

Yes, that's right - a finished quilt - woohoo!  Soon this quilt will wing it's way over the ocean to Britt's very special brand new niece, Baby K.  It's utterly spring/summer-like in appearance so if you are feeling winter's chill and scratching your head about that it can all be explained. It's going to live in New Zealand where it IS summer (which I believe in Wellington NZ equals NC in the spring)!

Here's a peak at the quilt (it does lay flat...my quilt holder had trouble holding still!):

And a closeup of the quilting

It's sure to cheer up a tearful baby and chase any rainy day blues away! I love it and can't wait for it to snuggle a far-away darling baby.

12/4/14 - CCLQ Meeting at Candy's

Here are today's happenings:

We discussed the 30 YARDS of Amish Black fabric that Candy ordered from KeepSake Quilting!!!

Calm down.  It was a group order to save on shipping costs.

Anyway, she delivered the orders to those who were here and will continue to make deliveries when she sees people between now and the NT Meeting on the 13th (at Carol's Christmas House.)

Dee Dee brought up the fact that she will be coming up with the January - March schedule for the group's meetings.

Some mention was made about the fact that she and Joy started the group and maybe Joy needs to take over leadership.

Joy's response to that was (something along the lines of,) No thanks! I gave it up when I went inactive and don't plan to resume the role. I've got too many other things on my plate.

Keep up the good work, Dee Dee (or pass it on to someone else!)

The plant that Cheryl K. gave Candy THIS SPRING!! (I think it likes Candy's sun room.)

Joy was knitting away on her Tubularity cowl/wrap/hood.

Joanna was working on the cross stitch pattern that she designed.

Gayle made TWO more dolls!  This is Naomi. (More details to follow - 12/13/14 NT meeting.) Sorry, Gayle! I take (mediocre) photos, but I don't take any notes.

Gayle has been busy making ornaments.  This one is Joy's.  (Thanks, Gayle! I love it!)

Ruth S. has made a TON of progress on her wool applique block!!

Here's Gayles Naomi posing on Joanna's lap.  :o))

Candy showed us her 10 minute stars. They can be used for coasters, mug rugs, ornaments, or really adorable package decorations. The holidays will be here before we know it!

Here's Deborah casting on the final sleeve of an OLD knitting UFO that Candy found.  (And working on quilting her Grandmother's quilt.)

Dee Dee is telling the story of her friend's daughter's "tote bag."

Here's the tote bag, turned purse, turned Snap Bag. (LOVE those batiks!)

Here's Gayle with Noel. (Sorry, Ruth S. Holly was a good suggestion for a holiday doll, but the maker gets to choose the name.) Just ignore the hand in motion. Gayle was busy fussing with Noel's hair so that she'd be ready for her photo op.

 

u

Here's Deborah modeling her ornament from Gayle.

Ella's ornament matches her outfit and...

Dee Dee's ornament from Gayle matched her outfit, too!!

Candy decided to make an earring out of her ornament.  LOL!!

Here's Ruth S. with the ornament that Gayle made for her.

Joanna's ornament had the perfect neutral backdrop.

Ella was quilting on her Red and White quilt today.

For those of you who were absent today, we talked about you!  :P

Smirk.

We talked about where you were and when you might be back with us.  Maybe next week...

Maybe next month...

For those of you who were present at today's meeting, you may notice that some of the photos (OK, many of the photos) were out of order in this post.

Sorry about that!  I suppose that's the price we have to pay for an absent camera and a present "Smart" phone.

Hopefully, you can overlook the fact that the meeting didn't necessarily take place in the manner that it was depicted.  (Or perhaps you'll fire me and hire a more accomplished photographer!)

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!!!

Mystery Monday Link-up, Week One

Britt and Joy are off on a Magical Mystery (quilt) tour.  Sewing machines were humming all over the world and we are THRILLED to be a part of it!  Sew far, we are off to a great start on Bonnie Hunter's 2014 Grand Illusion Mystery.

Be sure to look for the mystery at quiltville dot com (there's a tab at the top of the page) and join in the quilting fun.  It's a 6-week adventure (in leaders and enders, Bonnie's method for making more quilts.)

Joy got a fair amount done on Friday, but not HALF of the blocks that were prescribed in Bonnie's first clue.  Oops!  Here is what she came up with on the second sewing day:

Thanks to Britt's handy-dandy triangle cutting machine shown here:

The triangle cutting was painless (see machine above!)

Next we sewed pairs of HSTs.  LOTS of them!!  Here are some of Britt's HST's - she's doing the mystery in Bonnie's colors.

Those were then paired with black or yellow squares and transformed into block parts like these:

Joy's blocks:

Can you tell what the quilt is going to be, yet???  Probably not!

That's OK because we don't know either.  :P

But here's a look at what we made in the first clue:

Joy laid her blocks in a ring (since there's NO WAY to know what Bonnie has in store for us!)

We've got a scrap pile going (because you KNOW how much Joy LOVES scraps!!)

Here's a closer look at this Joy's blocks from this weekend.

Britt has yet to put all her units together, but she's half way there. She should be ready for the next clue by the time Friday rolls around!

We tried really hard to get some good photos throughout the weekend.  And the good news is that there will be 5 more weeks of this photographic fun.  :o))

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!!!

Linking up with Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville dot com.  (At least, that is the hope for this post and others that follow on Mystery Mondays for the next 5 weeks.)