May 2008 Newsletter

Hi Bees!

Well those of us who attended were as usual blessed with a beautiful display of completed projects and a wealth of information.

We started off with signing in and dispersing our 6” squares. We have been giving 3 six inch squares times approximately 7 or 8 people. I suggested counting our squares as the pattern requires approximately 442 squares if you are doing the 90 ½”x99”quilt. Should you choose the smaller version of 63’ x 811/2” you will need approximately 252 squares.

I personally like this quilt pattern and would love to do the larger one. I currently have 205 squares. So if we continue to bring 3 squares for each (7-8 people) by November we will have an additional 186 squares. Should we bring 5 squares per person we will have an additional 210 squares by November and if we brought in an additional 6 squares per person we would have 42 squares per person at each meeting times 6 more months gives us an additional 252 squares. So if you want to make the smaller size, does that mean you then stop bringing in squares because that makes my pathetic math problem obsolete if we all don’t continue on the same venue. I will bring enough, I leave the rest to you each of you and we can then discuss further.

Our unfinished discussion so to speak about future meetings for the rest of the year is as follows - we will continue to meet. If you can not or choose not to attend July and August that is fine, no penalties. We are too easy going for that. But you will need to either bring squares for while you are gone or bring square to make-up for while you were gone, ok?

Dawn brought in a wedding gift she made. It was Donna’s table topper pattern and she made 2 pot holders to match with the silver cloth for heat resistance in both, but with one she didn’t put in the batting. Felt, unsafe I guess. I mean we seem to think if it’s thick I won’t get burnt, if it’s thin I may get burnt. But both were beautiful. She went on line to find out the wedding couples colors and lo and behold there it was, everywhere - “ red and black. Great gift and homemade with love.

Dawn also brought in her ¼” idea. Even if you use your quarter inch piecing foot w/flange sometimes it just isn’t that ¼”. So she suggested you try taking three (3) strips 2” wide, sew them together with ¼” seam allowances then measure ¼´” it should be 5”. If it is not, try to move your needle sometimes the machines allow us and some don’t. If your with a machine that doesn’t allow a needle to move then adjust a tape to your machine to help with this ¼” problem. That quarter inch really makes a big difference in the out come of your quilt. Oh believe me!

We are still looking into doing a quilt for breast cancer donation. Randy brought in an article on this “Moms on the Run” and it appears it is local and for only breast cancer research nothing else. She gave it to Dawn to see if she could find out about donating a quilt that they could use or raffle. More on that next meeting.

Tricia gave a demo on Thangles. What a great idea! They came in packages of a
“bunch” and it’s like paper piecing I gather. Anyway, that really helps with
1/4" problems.

Next meeting Peggy will demo on “Easy Angles.”

Randy brought in one of two quilts that she is doing for her mom and dad. She is hoping to finish these before too long as Dad is now 90 yrs old. They (mom and dad) named their quilts, dad named his “Harbor Lights” and mom named hers “Ocean Breeze.” And you know they are beautiful. Randy did a great scrappy backing with the leftovers.

Linda brought in granddaughter Chaja’s quilt. You know all the children have an animal and Chaja’s is the frog. The block is “Toad in a Puddle”; this was really cute with the centers being fussy cut with the frog. She had asked us for help - she received more than she needed and couldn’t decide still. Sorry :(

I brought in a picture of a gift I made my girlfriend for Easter of the Table Graces placemats. I wish I could finish these things closer to our meeting dates so I could bring them in. I will try to do better next time.

Drawing was done with Tricia and Carol winning. They will bring prizes next month.

See you June 16th. Enjoy our summer weather. (Today we had snow flurries. Guess that’s where we live - lucky us!)

Happy Sewing and keep bz-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z,
Carol G.