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.