May 2016 Meeting

The Bees met at the usual place on May 31 with Dawn, Margi, Helen, Linda, Rita, and Randi attending.

Next Meeting

*** Tuesday, June 27 ***

Queen Bee: Peggy

Food: Helen - main dish;  Linda - salad;  Margie - beverage

Business Meeting

The Carson Valley Quilt Guild quilt show is on June 4 and 5 at the Douglas County Community Center, 1329 Waterloo in Gardnerville. Admission is $10.00 for one day, $15.00 for two days, or $20.00 for one day plus lecture with David Taylor. Linda gave us a bio on him, and he sounds interesting.

Fidget Quilts are appropriate for folks with dementia. They are made with textured fabrics and other materials that provide tactile stimulation to restless, "fidgety" fingers. For some people, opening and closing things like buttons and zippers is a soothing activity. More information and ideas can be found at Michelle Bilyeu's *With Hearts and Hands* website. Quilt size should be 36 x 36, and we are not setting a date for them to be finished.

Margie was Queen Bee, and the topic was UFOs. Margie opened a box of squares she was in the process of making for her sister for the sweat shirt jacket Peggy taught us to make several years ago. Rita will finish it. 

Linda brought a book called the "Goodbye Quilt." We talked about what defines a UFO from our perspective.

Helen has 64 blocks consisting of 1,200 small pieces. We are supporting her in finishing it!!! Randi is just taking a picture, but is not taking it on!

Here is the book it is made from.

Helen also has another UFO. Absolutely beautiful! She is purging and feeling great:)

Rita UFOed a bag full of tee shirts and handouts on creative ideas for refurbishing tees -- possibly great for a sleepover.

Margie UFOed 12-inch blocks that she is donating to the Troop 1101 for a Linus quilt. They are working on a Silver award and are starting a quilting club for teaching kids how to quilt. Both Randi and Rita are very happy!

Next month Helen and Linda have challenged each other to finish one project. Both will show their results. Good luck girls!!

Show and Tell

Randi shared little Helen's quilt. How lovely! The color and placement of the blocks are beautifully done.

We supported Randi on a quilt that she isn't happy with the placment and colors of the blocks. We offered suggestions and encouraged her to move on.

Minutes by Rita, photos by Randi.

April 2016 Meeting

The Bees met on April 27 at their usual gathering place. Randi, Peggy, Linda, Helen, Dawn, Tricia, and Margie were present. We missed you, Rita!

Dinner was tumbleweed soup from Randi, quinoa salad from Margie, and polenta cakes from Linda.

Next Meeting

*** May 31 (last Tuesday) ***

Queen Bee: Margie

Food: Dawn and Tricia

Business Meeting

Dawn was Queen Bee, and she introduced us to some fun adult coloring, which is in some ways reminiscent of zen doodling. Tricia is already into it and confirms that it's a creative, relaxing activity.

We then had fun looking through and cutting up the textured fabrics several of the Bees brought to the meeting for the Alzheimer's quilts.

Show & Tell

Randi showed the quilts made by Heaven and Little Helen. They completed the tops and Randi did the quilting.

Peggy and Tricia made quilts to donate to the May "baby shower" held by St. Gall's in Gardnerville for the benefit of the City of Refuge.

Peggy and Tricia made cute little roll-up cases with mesh zippered pockets on the inside and a clear plastic pocket on the outside. They are fun and easy to make, and come in very handy for makeup and other toiletries.

Peggy bought two "molas" on her recent trip to Panama. While the molas are beautiful and handmade by the indigenous Cuna women, the bags and clothing made from them that can be purchased in Panama were of poor quality, so Peggy decided it would be better to buy just the molas and make things ourselves. The stitching and designs are a combination of reverse applique and hand embroidery. 

Margie finished her memory box quilt and had it quilted with a dragonfly motif. Nice work, Margie!

Dawn made a donation quilt for a car show raffle at Crowley Lake. It's hard to see the car fabric in the shadow box square (click on the image to enlarge it).

Tip: Notice the "faux" mitered corner. It's a half square triangle cornerstone that looks like a mitered corner. Very clever!

Helen shared a crazy Christmas tree quilt top that she says she has never liked. She said she's going to make it into a closet baffle for Ladd's trumpet practice.

February 2016 Meeting

For the first time in many months, all Bees were able to attend our February meeting at Helen's house. Dinner consisted of savory spaghetti sauce served over spiral-cut zucchini "pasta" brought by Peggy. Everyone agreed the zucchini was a delicious pasta alternative, and Rita brought a beautiful fresh salad to accompany it.

Next Meeting

*** Tuesday, March 29 at 5:30 PM ***

(Note that this is the last Tuesday of the month)

Queen Bee: Dawn

Food: Margie - salad;  Randi - main;  Helen - dessert

Business Meeting

Tricia was Queen Bee for this meeting. We began with Linda showing us a "fidget quilt" she made for her step-mother who has dementia. It is similar to the Alzheimer's lap quilts made by Dawn a few years ago. The quilt contains fabrics of many interesting textures to fidget with. The conversation evolved to discussing donation quilts, and it was brought up that it has been awhile since the Bees as a group participated in any of those projects. Margie then brought up the issue of dues, which we had been paying when were members of the Nevada Quilt Guild and that she is still holding for the Bees. We decided we would use that money to buy fabric for fidget quilts and then be reimbursed from our dues at the next meeting. Rather than have a workshop, each Bee will make her own quilt, to be completed by the May meeting. We will then decide where and how to donate the quilts.

Show & Tell

Here is Linda's fidget quilt.

Peggy showed an adorable fishy quilt that she made for a friend's newest grandchild. Look at that beautiful and creative quilting!

Tricia made yet another purse.

Randi brought a crocheted bedspread that she made many years ago. The picture doesn't come close to doing it justice. It's truly an heirloom quality masterpiece. (And look at Randi's halo!)

Dawn shared a patriotic quilt she made for her brother who is a Vietnam vet. The quilting doesn't show in the picture, but again, Dawn's skill at free-hand, free-motion quilting is impressive!

Tools Sharing

As Queen Bee, Tricia asked the Bees to bring some of their favorite quilting and sewing tools to share, and we came up with quite an interesting collection.

Linda showed us a pincushion that she marked up with sections for used lightly used sewing machine needles, making it easy to find the right size to use later.

Peggy showed a little tool for finger pressing, which she uses all the time. In fact, Peggy seldom irons seams anymore while piecing.

Helen showed a tool for cleaning the bobbin area of a sewing machine that looked like a little toilet brush. It's actually a pipe cleaner with a fluffy, brush-like end. She also showed us an Easy Half Square Triangle Template from Sewing with Nancy. (I know Helen is a Thangles fan; I wonder if she likes this template even better.)

Randi recommends the Add 1/4 and Add 1/8 rulers, and she is also a big fan of Mary Ellen's Best Press.

Margie likes the little clipper scissors that look like a hedge clipper, and Tricia is very fond of her magnifying glass that helps her to read the writing on gently used needles. (Tricia isn't as organized as Linda about storing them.)

January 2016 Meeting

Finally, after a long break, the Bees met again at Helen's house with everyone but Dawn attending. Dinner consisted of two delicious salads -- a chicken Caesar from Peggy and a gorgonzola/cranberry salad from Margie. Helen made a fabulous pasta fagioli soup, and both the soup and Margie's salad have been added to the Recipes section of our blog.

Business Meeting

Linda was Queen Bee for this meeting. We really didn't have any business to discuss, but after Linda showed us the T-shirt rug she is making (see Show & Tell, below), we spent some time talking about crafts we used to enjoy as children. We reminisced about woven potholders, and someone (Linda, I think) said that those looms and kits are still available on Amazon. We also talked about the various types of yarn-crafts and crocheted rugs, afghans, and clothing we used make, including granny squares, daisy looms, and hairpin lace. Tricia said she tried to crochet a baby blanket a few years ago but couldn't get past the row of chaining. She would like to relearn how to do it.

Idea: Maybe a Bee who still crochets could hold a mini-workshop.

Demonstration

I think it was Helen who introduced us to the Star Serendipity quilt she was working on. This is an interesting pattern that creates a main quilt and then a secondary "serendipity" quilt from the scraps cut from the blocks of the main quilt. Helen showed us some squares and tried to describe the process to us, but some of us (who are spatially challenged) were having trouble picturing it. YouTube to the rescue! We were able to watch a video on Peggy's phone, and here is a link to the Missouri Star Quilt Company's Serendipity Quilt video, and here is a link to printable instructions.

Here is a picture of the main quilt and the secondary "serendipity" quilt.

 

Show & Tell

Linda showed us a T-shirt rug she is crocheting. I think the Bees offered to bring her old T-shirts. Please confirm, Linda, if you would like us to do that.

Peggy showed the quilt top of a mystery quilt she just finished. (Now it goes into the queue for quilting.) This is the end product of a Queen Bee demo she did quite a few months ago on a product called Triangulations. (You can look that up in the blog index if you're interested.)

Tricia made a quilt for her daughter's birthday. This is the same pattern as the first quilt Tricia ever made about 15 years ago, a Christmas quilt, which she gave to her daughter. It has been used a lot over the years and is now threadbare and torn. Her daughter requested a replacement, and Tricia was happy to oblige.

Randi showed a quilt made by one of her Girl Scouts named Heaven, who pieced the quilt top. It was then quilted by Randi.

December 2015

We were never able to come up with a date for a holiday get-together, so we didn't have a December meeting.

November 2015 Meeting

With our meeting place temporarily unavailable, the Bees didn't meet during September and October, so Queen Bee Rita arranged for us to meet for dinner at the Ole Restaurant at Gold Dust West. It was a cold, stormy, and icy night that evening, so only the more local Bees, Margie, Helen, Peggy, Tricia, and Rita, were able to make it. We enjoyed excellent service and surprisingly good Mexican food, which along with some wine and margaritas, made for a very jolly time.

I didn't take notes, so I don't remember much of the conversation. I know we discussed planning an after Christmas holiday party for late December or early January.

Show & Tell

Margie brought a quilt she made for the 3-year old child of her good friend in Oregon.

September & October 2015

No meetings.

August 2015 Meeting

The Bees met at Helen's house on August 25. Dinner was a fabulous Mediterranean chicken brought by Tricia (Peggy's recipe), couscous, and a multicolored salad from Randi. Linda brought brownie bites for dessert. We missed Dawn, but all other Bees were present.

We didn't have much business to discuss, but Randi brought a ruler called the Easy Circle Cut Ruler from Sharon Hultgren, and she gave us a quick demo. This is the ruler she used to make the hexi quilt she showed us last month, and it's available at JoAnn's.

Show & Tell

Randi showed a picture she received from a friend named Stevi Kittleson, who lives rather primitively (as I recall Randi's story) on Hornby Island in British Columbia and who makes her artwork from photos she takes of recycled junk. She has a website called Junkyard Byrds, where you can see a lot more of her work. This picture of a bee is completely fascinating, and we spent quite a bit of time passing it around and examining it, trying to decide what all it was made from.

Randi also shared a quilt she made for some friends from Girl Scouts.

Peggy showed a fabulous quilt she made from a Ricky Tims design. It is called Lady of Shallot. 

Rita showed some woodblock prints with quilting. 

Helen made a purse and a puzzle quilt she's been wanting to make ever since she worked at Sierra Sewing.