Wednesday Sewing Sisters

There are several members of our local quilt guild that, for a variety of reasons, do not go to the night-time meetings.  We didn't want to miss out on the social and sharing aspect so we organized a daytime guild meeting at our LQS in 2011.  With the closing of our LQS last summer, our day meetings came to a sudden halt.  By the time October rolled around, we were missing our gatherings and I arranged to use a room in our local library to gather and sew.  

Since many of us a guild members (some do attend the night meetings) we do share guild information, but we decided not to be a "guild" meeting with a specific agenda or project to work on.  Everyone brings whatever project they are working on and we sit and chat and sew.

Judy was frogging the ditch stiching she did last month

Peggy was pinning her cancer ribbon getting ready to quilt

Merry was handpiecing her apple cores

I stitched the inner border onto my Easy Street top.  It was nice having lots of space and bigger tables to work .

I also finished stitching this little wall hanging I began in a class at Becky's Quilt Barn last September.... you can read about it here:

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4545104586551376905#editor/target=post;postID=8659972040860552852

I returned home from class and got busy and it has been patiently waiting for me to decide how to complete it.  The problem is that it is too small for my wall and I don't have enough of that blue to make it bigger.  After consulting with the girls today, I have decided to add a wide muslin border and applique some flowers and or baskets and make a final scrappy border to finish this out.

It was a fun morning and I look forward to our next meeting.

A day of Sewing

My friend Becky was hosting a piecing class in her newly opened quilt barn.  
See her blog here: http://beckysbarn.blogspot.com/

This is the planned project for the day, but some will be making quilts or wall hangings.

 We start with a string swap... We each brought a quantity of 1.5inch strips then took turns walking around the table make 16 piles of assorted strips.   This gave each of us a nice assortment to work with.

 Then the sewing began.  I didn't get pictures of individuals sewing... I was busy sewing myself!  But I did take this picture to remind me how to line up the pieces so I don't cut off the points on my basket base.

Becky's husband, Rick, prepared a nice lunch for all of us.... salad, corn muffins, cooked vegetables and beef and gravy.  YUM!

Here are just some of the blocks completed by mid afternoon.  Some were made with dark backgrounds...

 This one was made with some pieced strips!  See.. there in the middle the one strip is part gold and part blue batik... and to the right of that is a pink/green pieced strip.

Some blocks on the design wall showing alternative layouts.  

 Here are my blocks laid out.

It was a fun day and plans were made for another gathering next month.... maybe an overnight stay!

As I was loading my gear back in the car I noticed this beautiful butterfly garden!  I tried to get a picture with the wings wide open... they were beautiful... but fast!