Meeting Update for November 5th and 12th

 November 5th get together:

We met at Joyce's on November 5th.  There were lots of completed projects for Show and Tell.  Colleen had little stitched bags with Halloween treats for everyone.  We discussed upcoming events such as our get together with Michi on November 19th and also Sharon's choir performance on December 17th.  There will be a separate post with details and follow up information for your calendars for these two events.

We celebrated Betty's birthday (Nov.7) and Joyce's (Sep 29).  Here is their cake:

Betty and Joyce looking very serious about their cake cutting responsibility.

Nancy made this paper pieced spider at the Harrison Retreat of the FVQG

Here is Betty showing us some finished onesies which she is making for her entire family for Christmas.  Love those dinosaurs!


Here is the Spiderman version and there are still more to come.  Betty also has plans to make some little velvet dresses for the girls.

Nancy and Leng defluffing the back of the first finished heart quilt.  Leng also finished sewing 20 of the heart squares for the second quilt which will probably be finished in January.  

Here is the first finished heart quilt for our 2024-25 donations.  Still lots of strings to trim and a label to be added.

This is Nancy's second quilt quilt top made with this pattern.  We immediately made plans to add some of these to our donation inventory since we all wanted to learn this method.  It's made with some dark and light jelly roll strips which are divided up--light and dark which are then sewn together in strip sets of three with two darks with a light in the middle and two lights with a dark in the middle.  Then the strip sets are layered, right sides together and sewn along the long edges, pressed and the rows are cut with a triangular ruler which results in all your completed blocks.  

Joyce and Sue showing off their joint project.  This is an I Spy made from Split Nine Patch blocks.  Joyce did the piecing and quilting and Sue hand stitched the binding.  

Here is a baby quilt for donation that I made.  I wanted to use up a small jelly roll that I had around for awhile which turned out to be not very suitable for the pattern I chose.  I was warned in the tutorial to make sure the pinwheels were made from a highly contrasting fabric.  When all the fabrics were together the green did appear to have good contrast but when sewn the pinwheels completely disappear.  Oh well...  One of my oft repeated expressions during my quilting journey.  I did manage to quilt my first spiral which I enjoyed doing.  The following photo is the back of the above quilt.  I can recommend this walking foot design for small quilts.

This shows the spiral quilting better.  Also the soft, brushed cotton that I used on the back.  I got it at Fabricana.  I bought it in three different colours.  I think it was 54" wide and on the sale table. 

These two little tools were indispensable for my quilted spirals.  It is probably best to use a walking foot with an arm gauge but my generic walking foot causes my needle to loosen and fall out which is pretty scary so I just go slowly and don't have a problem with my layers feeding unevenly.  That also allows me to use this foot with built in gauges which measure one inch from the outside edges which is perfect for a spiral.  I made the little cardboard template to mark the start of the spiral.

Here is a Carl's big quilt getting quilted with spirals.  A real pain on a big quilt on a domestic machine and I would not recommend it.👎  I am getting to the outside of the spiral here but if you imagine how much of that quilt I was trying to squeeze under the arm when I started (about another 12") you will see why this is not so easy on a big quilt. 

Nancy let me borrow her Super Slider toboggan to help with my machine quilting setup.  I can give that tip a two thumbs up.👍👍

I am still working on Carl's quilt.  I need to get it done asap because he says he wants to put it on his bed for at least a little while before he heads back to Prague on Dec. 2nd.  

November 12th get together:

Yesterday, November 12th we met at Marybeth's.  DeeDee was back from her trip and had a little Teddy Bear panel that she wanted to make into a quilting project to practice some new quilting techniques.  Fall and winter are travelling seasons for Dee Dee and she is looking for some little hand projects for her travels.  We can check up on her progress between trips.

Betty had her little girl's dress pattern along to study for more hand made Christmas gifts.  She is making the view in the upper left.  We will definitely want to see pictures of the girls in their dresses.

Betty is still making onesies as well.  We just have photos of the leftover scraps.  I will remind Betty to post her photo of the plaid ones which she worked hard on to get all the lines of the plaid to match up.

Here is a jelly roll and a piece of pale blue batik yardage that I brought as a suggestion for fabric to make a couple of quilts from Nancy's jelly roll pattern that she showed us last week.  We thought this would make a really good group project, also for January.  We have volunteered Nancy to guide us through the steps.

That is all that I can remember.  I will be doing a separate post for the following meetings before our break for the holidays.  There will be a lot of things to add to your calendar and don't forget to RSVP ASAP if required.