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.)