meeting notes/another try at kanzashi flowers

The Bama Belles met yesterday as planned.  As expected we were minus a few folks for various reasons----it happens, maybe 6 of us with a couple of guests passing through.  Life happens, after all.

Bev had a double attic window quilt to show us and pin.  I had taken a picture of the top but when I went to edit and move some of the photos I adverently deleted them.  GRRRR  I'll get it when it is done instead.  Sorry about that, Bev.   Donna was working on her blue and white chevron quilt but we had her seam up what looked like the perfect backing that had originally come from the donation box.  She also showed us a purse she had recently made but had not quite completed.  She promised to bring it back when it was completed.

Teresa had taken the yardage home to use on the back of a panel quilt but I found a nice yellow check in the closet that fit the yardage better after a slight trim down.  Then we were able to use the stripe on Bev's quilt---though I mis-cut it out later and under estimated how much more we needed on the side.  Good thing there was plenty.

Teresa wanted me to show her how to cut bias binding as stripe always looks really cool that way.  I have no luck with the tube thing as I never have gotten the offsets done correctly.  So I showed them how to cut a big square and then fold it in half and trim away at the fold and then just cut and seam it, offsetting the points of the strips to sew a quarter inch seam.  Of course I cut enough for two maybe 3 quilts, LOL.

Beverly and Jane were helping Bev pin her top while Teresa was closing in pillows that she had been commissioned to make.   I had intended to do a little embroidery or at least attempt to put the purse clasp on my Tammy bag.  It didn't happen.

Bev needed help in figuring out the color sequencing from a quilt she and her cousin Nancy want to make from Lone Star Quilts and Beyond.  The book was written by Jan P. Krentz  The quilt is called Spiral Lone Star and it has some stretched strip pieced web sections as well as quarter Mariner's Compass sections in addition to the typical diamond shapes associated with Lone Stars.  The book had an orangey, red, violet version but they wanted to do it a coloration she had seen online with pinks, greens and blacks.   Wait, I found a gallery image on her website for the original quilt that I can point you to.  With that small picture on her Ipad and the book, we were able to figure out the colors 1 through 9.   I don't know where she found the pink and green version but it was somewhere online because we kept losing the image on the screen and she would have to go back to bring it up, LOL.  Bev said that she would be taking a foundation piecing class soon from Debby Kratovil who will be teaching in Oxford (AL) next month.  It is based on her new book Paper Piecing Perfect Points.   Debby was one of the featured bloggers in Day 2 of the hop if that name sounds familiar.  LOL  (I said surely the mariner's Compass elements were foundation pieced.  I don't know if they are but they should be!!)

DJ had played golf yesterday morning and stopped by to get me for lunch.  As it turned out, Beverly's DIL and sometimes Belle, came to get her for lunch too.  Teresa and Bev went out for a sandwich and brought something back for Donna who wanted to keep sewing.  Actually that was good because I had found out what I thought was the spare key was not and I had locked myself OUT when I tested it.  The church secretary was in so I was not completely without resources but I would have hated to find out the girls could not get back in, had I passed the wrong key on to them.  Jane had an appointment so she passed on lunch but I ran into her when I stopped at one of the stores that sells fabrics and notions on my way back to the church.
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After we all reconvened then I started working with Bev on those Kanzashi flowers.   She has several of the Clover makers and is a whiz at these things.  Remember LAST WEEK'S POST when I had tried the conventional folding methods----and failed miserably, flunking Flower Making 101?   I tried round circles that were far too small to work with  especially when they had you fold them in half and then in half again.  The squares version?  Well, I pulled all the joining string off thinking this cannot be right.

Truthfully, I think Carol, our head cheerleader this round had a wonderful tutorial on her post on Monday for making round petals. You can find that HERE.  For one thing she used 5 1/2 inch circles and only folded them once and then stitched on the curved edge to gather up each petal.   They looked great and she did a whole quilts worth of them!  You could probably still do a gathered petal like my attempt on the right, above but better to work in a string of them.  Like the Kanzashi makers, you need a long length of string, doubled and do not cut them off when you complete the petal.

Bev lent me 4 of her flower makers to play with so I did make a few flowers last night and this morning.  I'll share the pictorial results-----

A cute little round petaled flower.  I used the fabrics on this previously made Tagalong Tote (pattern from Atkinson Designs. I made 5 of them several years ago)  You cut squares, fold them in half diagonally, trim to the shape of the blue holder and then the stitching lines are in numbered sequence.  The blue holder is hinged so you pop it out and follow the instructions for stringing them along just as Carol did with hers.  Quick and easy really and then I topped it with a covered button.

This was next up last evening----

Gathered petal  and truthfully, I think that there is one petal too many in there, LOL.  They said 10 but many of the other types had you use an uneven number.  I either need a larger button at center or a yo-yo button combo.  I am not quite done manipulating the fabric yet.  Actually, this is not a whole lot different than the one I attempted from the links I gave you in the previous blog posting but the raw edges are stitched and encompassed.   Bev wanted to see these so I posted some of the results on Facebook.  She said to not expect it to be "perfect".  And I said "why not?"  just joking with her.

Then I started on this one-----BUT!  See below the picture for the what went wrong.

I cut the squares out and on the first one, I thought why does this NOT look like the picture,  they should be gathered, not rounded.  I tried another---same thing.  I started over unraveling the threads.  Same thing.  SIGH something is not right but I was tired and called it a night.

This morning after Skyler drug me out of bed at 5:30 to feed him (kitties cannot tell time!!)  I sat down and looked at the starts to the flower again.  Immediately I spotted that I had the wrong directions out for that maker.  That  maker should be like the first flower, the squares folded diagonally.  I had the wrong plate out so no wonder!!!!   I started over and with some orange colored "object of my desire" fabric that I have pulled out to finally make a purse with it and other hot pink/orange fabrics. So I have a flower made if not the purse.  It calls for prairie points but I might skip that.  (Fabrics and pattern found HERE in this post.)

So here we go---this is what the "wrong" plate was supposed to make!  A nice gathered five petal flower like this----

I like this shape and flower!  I like the round ones too. I would probably like the other one if I got a little better result.  One of my FAB friends said she had flunked Flower Making 101 as well and apparently she has a few of these things.  She told me to check with her first if I plan to purchase any as I could buy hers.  I may take her up on it as these are fun!  Well, more fun if you do things right, LOL.

There is my experimentation and if I do get any of these from Pam, I will have this to refer back to.  I'll probably link back to this on my blog hop entry that I need to prepare and schedule for later this evening.  Somewhere along in here I really should be thinking about typing up the guild meeting minutes and show and tell lists as the newsletter editor is going to be asking for them in a matter of days.  Get on the stick, Mdm. Secretary!