quilt meeting

When I go off to a Bama Belles quilt meeting, I never know just how the day might shape up. I thought I would get a little bit of stitching done on TSP and help pin. LOL, you just know that is not where the day led, dontcha?

We are a relaxed bunch so there is no need to have a meeting agenda, elect officers and all that. People come when they want, leave when they must. Help pin, sew if you want, bring things for show and tell, get some quilting opinions, just stop by to chat, whatever.

I get there ahead of everyone because I am the one with the key to the Fellowship Hall and the group's leader. The first thing I spotted once I opened our closet to pull out the library cart was a bunch of printouts and magazines that need to go in a notebook for our use. We have known for awhile that one of the gals (Linda C) would be moving to TN at some point so she is weeding things out at home. This is not the first time that I have had to file printouts or stuff she had torn out of magazines. I filed what I could at the meeting but still needed to stop at Fred's on the way home for sheet protectors and another notebook.

Oh, the stack of fabric you see above? I raided the donation bin as my 15, almost 16 donation tops in the closet need backings before I bring any of them in to be pinned. Some of this stuff might work. If not on what I have made so far, then down the line. Some need backs, some don't but I couldn't tell you which ones without taking them out and checking at this point. Binding yes, backing maybe not. I am thinking that the brown print right above the white with black shirting stuff will work on the Prairie Stroll top but will need piecing.

The next thing I spotted in the closet was more yardage in the donation bin and tops. Some of the tops were paired up with backing. 3 of them were already pinned but that is as far as it got. SIGH. I know I am going to have to quilt those down the line even though I begged her to try herself first. There were a few finished quilts in the stack, as it turned out.

As I went to take the quilts out to the car, a woman who I had not met before pulled up asking if this was where the quilt group met. We did the introduction thing; she told me that she goes to the Lick Skillet Guild and the JOY guild. I don't go to either of those groups but I do know folks from both, including some of the Belles. Bev said that she had come in possession of mega yards of fabric from a friend. Some of her local friends suggested we might be able to use some for our donation quilts. She had brought 5 yard sections of 3 different ones. Bless her, and bless the friends that suggested it!

I needed to get the existing tops organized a bit. Some where just folded up, others have been hanging up but what tops needed backs and just how many are there? I think I counted at least 7. Was any of the fabric she put in this pile intended to go with her tops? And, thanks to Bev, would any of it work with the fabric she just brought? LOL, we blew thru about 12 yards of it in no time at all! Those three tops on hangers on my bed that you see above?? Too wide for the backing and will have to be pieced. I'll get this taken care of later in the week and haul them back next meeting. Perhaps with a few of my own.

Next Bev's friend and neighbor Shawnee dropped by as she had Gadsden Quilt Show forms to drop off---today is the deadline. Shawnee still had binding to put on one of her entries so I suggested she drop them off at my house next week as Jane will be coming by to get mine. As long as she had it up to my on the 21st sometime, it will work. And I could have kissed her----Shawnee asked if she could take a couple of the tops to practice quilting. Girl, you don't have to ask ME twice! Which ones would you like and do want some of the batting?? No hurry either since they waited for me this long and would wait even longer for me to get caught up.

The subject turned to basting, pinning and the like. Bev was not familiar with the process being a fairly new quilter who so far had used a long armer, I guess. I said "stick around and we can do this one I just paired with backing." About that time, Beverly and Lois arrived. Yep, Beverly had a quilt for a new baby in the family, Lois had some completed tops too. We definitely could walk her through the process and provide the hands on opportunity. And did, LOL.

I had finally gotten this corner of my bedroom cleared out not long ago. Now look at it---back to quilt central appearance. See the stack on the hamper? 6 pinned tops in the stack---the one on top is Aline's that I offered to do. The one below that is one of my own tops, pinned earlier this year. The middle reddish fabric one, Linda C's, pinned today. The three below it are the ones I found in the closet today. I can't put them on top of the armoire where they normally go as my Gadsden quilt show entries are up there. But they can't stay on top of the hamper. It would take me a 10 days to 2 weeks to get them all quilted. None have binding either. SIGH.

Then the finished quilts are in the basket. I went off without my camera today so "Quilt Holder" did the honors when I got home. There are 9 in the basket, 5 "new" ones. They need to be logged into the document and roughly half need a label applied and number assigned if they are to be donated locally. I'll do the documenting but I am going to drag the label-less ones to the next meeting and ask the girls to help get those on the quilts. I prefer to sew them on the corner of the quilt, stitching it down on two sides with the machines and then putting the binding up over it. Easier to do right after they are quilted, not after the fact but that didn't happen. A few of these might fit in the closet behind till we decide where they are going but someone else may have to provide the storage space from here on out.

The other thing that needed attention? One of the members of the group stopped by with a friend, each carrying a box. Rosa had quilt magazines to share. She had recently sold her home and moved but was in the hospital with a broken ankle followed by 21 days of rehab when this all happened. She didn't have our phone numbers to call, that was packed up. She didn't get much time to go thru things before the move and is having to do it now. I separated those by publication and stacked them up on the library cart. I need to see what issue of APQ I am looking for that has the Mabeth Oxenreider pattern "Trail Mix" in it. (Brenda said she might have it in her collection. )

Half the group had brought something for lunch but those of us who didn't made the Wendy's run for half salads. We love that apple pecan chicken salad! The next thing I knew it was 2 p.m. and time to go home. Well home after I did the Fred's run. I needed two more 20 qt. bins as I am slowly replacing my storage systems baskets. Another project for later in the week, LOL.

I had thought that I would finish the last two rows on my BQ 1 tonight but that looks doubtful. They are pinned and ready to chain through the machine but I know it will have to wait till tomorrow. After all, I still have "homework" to tend to today. The stacks on the cutting/pressing table cannot stay there if I am going to sew. Don't ask me where they are going till I can get my own tops inventoried.

Since I do have pictures of the finished quilts to share, I will share those in another post. That's all for this one, LOL.