Meeting wrap up

 LOL, we met on Tuesday so I am a little late in getting this post written but I was a little tied up yesterday trying to back up my computer.  I was late in getting started on it, decided to make a whole new set of discs since it had been so long since I had officially done that with the Windows deal.  BIG mistake!  It took from 1030 Wednesday morning til 0413 this morning.  Since I had tried to do this on Monday and lost like 7 discs worth I was going to see it through no matter how long it took, by golly.  One thing though---I slept very, very well for 5 straight hours.  Trust me, that does not happen often.  I think I am in the market for an external hard drive rather than babysit the discs for hours and hours.

So want to see some quilts?  At left, and probably above, you have Linda C's watermelon "Just Can't Cut It".   I quilted it either late 2011 or early 2012.   Jane had finished the binding on three of Linda's quilts that she left behind when she relocated.  We may have taken this before I laundered it to get the blue marks out.  I do NOT free motion and I never have any clue how to quilt these things so I kept it as simple as possible.

Next up, Bev is hiding behind her wild Pineapple Blossom quilt.  I was happy to hear that she located her other pineapple blossom top after she had made 2 and could only find 1.  I don't know how well it will show up but she "hid" some cool things on the top.  Up in the upper left of the photo she has a yo yo with a folded ribbon flower.  I would have asked her if she made it had I noticed it.  I honestly did not spot it till I was logging it into my quilt document.  There is also an applique butterfly motif and a little thing that read "this is the life".  Bev and the gals pinned a large wolf panel quilt top that she will be giving as a gift as well.

At left, Brenda shared her very feminine bow quilt.   The bow blocks end up looking like a pieced spool block but that is not how it was pieced, she said.  The dimensional ruffle part is just plain cute.   She said the pattern was from McCall's Quilting magazine and she'll update the issue for me later.

I wish I had gotten a picture of her pieced, just it all up back too but the camera was giving me a "no remaining memory on the internal memory card" message that I had never seen before.  As it was I had to have DJ hold up a few quilts just to be sure I had indeed gotten the job done, LOL. 

Here is another one of Linda C's quilt that I quilted as above.  Jane is hiding behind it.  I called it Snuggle Up variation though I don't know if she used that time honored pro bono quilt or not to make it.   Seriously nothing could be easier to make if you need a quick quilt. Adjustable and you can use as many colors as you like from 2 to whatever if it gets to the length you want.  PLUS quick zoom lines to quilt it!!

Not sure I took this one before or after I laundered it either but here is Linda C's Scrappy Disappearing Nine Patch.  Another of the late 2011-early 2012 bunch.  Poor Jane got these three done and 3 others to take their place.  She was also busily working on the binding for a comfort quilt for someone in need related to a JOY group activity. 

Bev said that she has been quilting for about 3 years and took classes at the local quilt shop before it closed but no one had actually shown her how to sew down binding.   She asked for help.  I noticed that both Bev and Linda do what I call "skirt hemming"  working from right to left with a tacking stitch and two strands of thread.  If the shop never showed them the basics of how to hid their stitches, then no wonder they both adopted this method!   When I said you use a blind hem stitch similar to what you do when you hand applique and work left to right, Bev said she had not tried hand applique yet.   Aha!  Teachable moment.
 
Brenda and I used Aline's quilt for an impromptu lesson on this.  Of course, when you do that hemming stitch, all the thread shows up along the edge.   It holds it together all right but it just doesn't make for a nice neat finish to your quilt.  The other thing, it is usually spaced too far apart so a little finger can get caught in there or it won't hold up to a child's use for something other than cuddling with and covering up.  It appeared to me that she had done a great job on her corners as far as the mitering thing went and she had matched her thread to the binding, not the backing color.  Kudos for that!    Our next meeting we do not get to use the big fellowship hall of the church as another group is setting up for a function the next day.  We'll be down in one of the classrooms and I have suggested the girls bring some hand work.  Binding help would be a good thing to touch base on. 

It was a busy meeting for me.  I had two tops to pin with the girls help but my primary assignment for the day was to measure off a large roll of batting that Marilyn was going to sell back to the group.  I had ordered her a roll the last time we placed a batting order back in 08 or 09 but she had found that she didn't have to have it anymore.  Some of it was gone from the original 60 some yards but how much?  Teresa, Bev and I took it back to the 6 ft tables that were set up end to end and rolled it off onto an old cardboard roll.   I know what it cost us per roll including the shipping so will pro-rate it.  Marilyn and Roger had dropped it off at the meeting place last week when they were headed out that direction,  for which I thank them. 

The other thing I had on the list:  get that stuff in the donation bins sorted through and get rid of the stuff I knew we were not going to use.  Some had not seen the light of day for a couple of years, therefore we probably did not need it.  Teresa was a great help though I had Beverly help with some of the measuring.  Some of it the fabrics went home with her---in particular, the flannel that none of us wants to work with but she makes rag quilts.  And yes, some came home with me but some of it had originated thru here in the first place, LOL.    (Not much but some and I have ideas in mind for some of it!)   Brenda took some with her for a beginning quilter friend who had said that quilting was an expensive hobby to have---she had a different way of phrasing it but that was the gist of it.  What she may not want, off to Salvation Army. 

Teresa and I measured off what kind of yardage was on each piece so we would know at a glance if it would work on our quilt tops.  If there was a lot of yardage then we knew it could be seamed without routing through the whole length of it.  We found some things that could be paired up for whole cloth tops and a small baby sized quilt hiding in there as well.  That is hanging with some of the other tops now.   All in all, a productive day.  Once I got home I had some numbering and logging into the quilt document to do along with some other tasks to follow up on----like what the heck was the matter with my camera, LOL!!

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I got a little of the machine button hole work done on the February Button Up---the last row of hearts but have not touched it since Monday evening.   Not likely to happen today either at this late stage of the game.  This might just be a stitchery evening if I do anything at all.  I was looking at cat themed patterns for something else and may continue on that kernel of an idea I have floating around upstairs. 

We received a call from DJ's golfing friend from IL who plans on being down here either Tuesday or Weds next week.  Translation:  house needs to be cleaned up sometime between now and then but what also needs to be done between now and then is some cutting for the upcoming FAB Par-Tay.  Norma is finally going to get to celebrate her November bday with her FAB pals a week from Saturday!  She picked Atkinson Designs Popsicle Sticks as her sewing project for us.  It will take a whole pile of 2 1/2 inch strips to do a full-queen sized quilt but I have stuff for it-- see THIS POST for some of the fabrics that will be included.   I need to get some of the strip sets seamed so I can keep up with the gals.  Some days/weeks there is just too much going on to keep up.

I have another post to  make probably tomorrow---stay tuned, LOL.