September 2008 Newsletter

We welcomed three guests to the September meeting, held at Helen's home. Carol's daughter, Trisha; granddaughter, Lacey; and sweet baby great-granddaughter, Paizley, joined us. Lacey is interested in learning to quilt so welcome! We hope that all of them will continue joining us. Due to illness, Carol decided to relinquish her role as the scribe for the Quilting Bees. Hopefully this is a temporary situation because Carol is blessed with a writing "voice" that can be compared to a comfortable, well-worn and cherished quilt. A writing style that just wraps around you. We were actually delighted that Carol joined us at the meeting because she didn't think she had the energy. All of us are keeping her in our hearts and prayers.

All the members present introduced themselves and told how they got involved in quilting. The stories were great and we enjoyed learning more about each other. The only Bees missing were Rita and Trisha. We missed them!

Margie delighted us with family quilts. The blue and yellow silk quilt was sewn and tied for Baby Margie by her paternal grandma, Myrle Lindt. The 1930's quilt, sewn from flour sacks, was created by her mother's Friendship Club. It is also a signature quilt and her mother, an unmarried woman at the time, embroidered her first and last name, Bernice Freemyer. The married quilters signed "Mrs. _____" Have times changed!

I was excited to bring two quilts; a birthday quilt from Dawn ( I love it!) and the quilt I created for my granddaughter, Chaja. I used three spools of Aurifil thread in quilting this...dragonflies, lily pads, cattails. It was great fun! Now I finally finished my grandkids quilts and am excited about returning them as they were originally Christmas gifts.

Dawn had a busy month and finished quilting the cross stitched Iris Quilt embroidered by Emma Dell Myers, born in 1921. The echo quilting was beautiful as you can see in the photo. In her spare time, Dawn uses the selvedge that she cuts off fabric to crochet rag rugs. She demonstrated how she chain sews the fabric strips together and this gave everyone a great idea how to use those narrow fabric strips.

Peggy brought along two beautiful quilts - a "Flip and Quilt" project that she took at a recent workshop and a quilt she made at a "Thimbleberries Quilt Camp." Such talent! Peggy is remodeling her home and creating a quilting studio! We know the end result will be well worth the effort.

Randi surprised all of us by bringing in her finished Box Quilt 2006. This was the Friendship Quilt - with each Bee completing a square. She had to negotiate with her granddaughter who adopted the Sunbonnet Sue square designed by Carol. The result was two quilts, one for Randi and one for Helen. Both of them were happy with the end result!

The blocks are all collected for the donation quilt we are making for Moms on the Run. Randi plans to assemble the quilt and pass it off to Dawn and she will quilt it. The blocks are beautiful!

The next meeting will be held again at Helen's home on Oct. 20. Thank you, Helen, for being such a gracious hostess and sharing your home with us. So, as the days shorten think of those longer evenings when you can sit at your machine and quilt the night away.

Have fun and keep bzzzy!

Linda C