June 2014 Meeting

We met on Tuesday, June 24 at Helen's house with Peggy, Randi, Helen, Linda, and Tricia present for dinner. Tricia brought a taco salad that she thought would be enough for the whole group, but just the five of us managed to clean out the whole bowl. Dawn arrived later, but there was nothing left. Fortunately, she'd had dinner earlier with her grandson. Later we had Drumsticks for dessert.

Next Meeting

***  No Tuesday meeting in July  ***
Instead:
Sew Day, Saturday, July 26, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Coop Extension meeting room, 2621 Northgate Lane, Carson City

Business Meeting

Peggy served as Queen Bee for this meeting, and she presented for our discussion an idea called "The Slow Stitching Movement." She had watched a webinar presented by Mark Lipinski, which she found inspiring because it brings back the idea of sewing what we really want to sew for pure enjoyment instead of feeling as though we need to hurry up and produce a finished product. It also introduces the idea of making a "legacy" quilt as one's lifetime quilting achievement. Definitely food for thought. More information can be found on Mark Lipinski's Slow Stitching Movement blog. 

After that, we mainly discussed the Mackenzie quilts, and Randi (who ended up purchasing the fabric instead of Tricia) showed us the fabrics. Almost everyone preferred the red and purple fabric, and Peggy and Tricia volunteered to purchase coordinating fabrics for the the sew day. Linda volunteered to find coordinating fabrics for the pink and green fabric. We decided the materials could be paid for from our dues, so those purchasing supplies can bring receipts to the sew day for reimbursement by our treasurer. 

For the sew day, We will all bring our own snacks and lunches. Linda will bring spray baste, Randi will bring batting, and Peggy and Helen will bring irons. We didn't discuss who would bring sewing machines, thread, and cutting tools, so I'm guessing that most of us will bring all those things. The goal is to get at least one quilt top completed and sandwiched. I don't have in my notes anything about backing fabric, but I think Peggy is going to bring backing to go with the red/purple fabric. Although Dawn will not be able to attend the sew day, she has volunteered to do the quilting. 

Demonstration

Peggy demonstrated the square-in-a-square ruler and highly recommends it for accurate piecing. She demonstrated how to cut square-in-a-square as well as flying geese, and we all had a chance to give it a try.

An important tip about flying geese came up (from Linda, I think). Instead of ironing the point of the goose unit up, which seems the natural way it lies, iron it downwards, which is called "breaking the beak," to make the perfect point stand out more. Ironing up can cause the bulk of the seam to obliterate the point. 

Show and Tell

Peggy showed us the newspaper article about her award winning quilt. It was a very nice piece in the Minden/Gardnerville Record Courier.

Randi made a quilt-as-you-go table runner with the back being just as fabulous as the front.

Linda made a fabulous scrap quilt that Tricia loves but just can't seem to figure out how it's made. 

Speaking of scraps, it seems as though some of the Bees were truly inspired by Linda's "Sunday Morning Quilting" talk at the April meeting. Helen started making little fabric storage boxes last month, but now she has them all organized on shelves, and Peggy and Tricia sorted out their huge scrap bin into color-coded (mostly) containers. 

May 2014 Meeting

We met at Helen's house on Tuesday, May 27 with Rita, Helen, Randi, Linda, Margie, and Tricia attending. For dinner, we had super-scrumptious homemade cannaloni from Rita, a salad made from home-grown lettuce courtesy of Randi, along with bread and other accompaniments from the other Bees. We acknowledged the sad events of the past two months, including the passing of Randi's father and of Peggy's and Tricia's mother, and Rita said the comfort food she brought to the meeting was made with much love.

Next Meeting

***  Tuesday, June 24 at Helen's house  ***
Tricia - main dish;  Dawn - salad;  Randi - dessert
Queen Bee: Peggy

Business Meeting

Tricia served as Queen Bee for the meeting. We began with Helen asking for tips on constructing a polar fleece quilt. Ideas from the group included tying and just clipping the edges into fringe. Many memories and much laughter arose as we reminisced about ourselves and our children's favorite blankets and stuffed toys. It was one of those perfect spontaneous "Bees moments"!

We then discussed the Mackenzie quilt(s) and Tricia passed around some print-outs of fabric she found online. We decided that Tricia would order some of the fabrics and bring them to the next meeting. Helen showed a sample block she made, and we all agreed it's a major contender for at least one of the quilts.

Demonstration

Tricia demonstrated the "kaleidoscope ruler," which is used to cut 45-degree wedges that can be sewed into an 8-spoke circular design. There are wedge rulers available in several different sizes that allow for more than eight wedges per circle. For example, a 22.5-degree ruler makes 16 spokes per plate. She shared a few tips she learned at a Kaye England workshop about constructing a Dresden plate type of unit that can be appliqued onto a background.

   

Show & Tell

Inspired by Linda's "Sunday Morning Quilts" demonstration at the last meeting, Helen made adorable fabric boxes to use for her scraps. The color scheme of the box indicated the color or scraps stored inside. Very, very clever.

Helen attended a home-based workshop sponsored by the Old Clear Creek Quilters and made a beautiful wallhanging. The poppies prompted Tricia to share her recent experience of painting a picture of poppies at a place in Reno called "Picasso and Wine." Rita mentioned that there is a similar place in Minden on Airport Road called "Van Gogh and Vino," and we discussed the idea of using some of our Bees' dues to do a girls' night out there, maybe some time during the summer.

(I don't have anything in the notes about it; please fill me in.)