April 16, 2016

Wow! What weather we're having, right? Snowing one weekend and sunny and 70's predicted for this weekend. Why couldn't last weekend have been sunny and 70's for our quilt show?! Oh well, when you live in Ohio you have to take weather like it comes. They say "wait 5 minutes and the weather will change".

Despite the weather we had a pretty good turnout for our quilt show at the New London Alliance Church on April 9th. There were over 80 quilts and quilted pieces on display. The youth of the church had their coffee shop open and served beverages, muffins and cookies. Lots of comments were made about the quilts being beautiful and so much work had been put into stitching each one. We gained 3 new members from the attendance of the show and we are glad to have them join us. They will be additional assets of talent to our membership. If you weren't able to join us, here are some pictures.












 We held our regular meeting on April 14th, there were 11 member in attendance, 3 were our newest members.

Marcia reported on the sale of tickets for our raffle quilt. As of this meeting we had brought in $154.00, minus $82.50 for supplies (backing, batting, quilting) we are to the good by $71.50. Not bad for only a month (?) of selling tickets. We have until the Hometown Holidays in December to sell tickets. If you need more to sell Marcia will have them at every meeting and workshop. Please turn in your sold ticket stubs and money at meetings and workshops so we don't take a chance of losing them. Here's a picture of our raffle quilt.


This picture does not do it justice. It turned out just fantastic!

A few of us had made a trip to the I-X center for the International Sewing and Quilt show last month. Reports varied from the new quilts they had exhibited to vendors. The quilts were amazing while some were disappointed in how many vendors there were and what type. If we had any input we would request more vendors with quilting supplies. There were a lot of sewing and quilting machine sellers set up and seems like fewer supply vendors than before. All in all it's a great way to spend a day with your quilting buddies.

We were asked if we would be willing to do a quilt show at the New Haven Methodist Church. I'm going to find out more information about when they would have an opening for a date. So that means keep in mind what quilts you would like to show again. I'll need your information again because I didn't have the foresight to save all your information sheets on the quilts we had showing last week.

Next workshop is April 30th from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. If you can't be there right at 9:00, that's okay, come when you can and stay as late as you can. Bring your machines and any tools you may need. We will be having a salad bar for our lunch. We already have lettuce, cucumbers, chips shredded cheese, raisins, seeds, eggs, croutons and tomatoes signed up for. Let me know what you will bring so I can add it to our list. We will be working on the rest of the walker caddy bags. We need batting for these bags. The size is 15" by WOF (width of fabric), low loft is preferred. We may even start on our next project, the strip quilts for Teen Challenge. These quilts use 2 ½" strips in a certain pattern and a certain size. If you have some strips you want to get rid of, bring them in. We have lots of fabric left in our stash we need to use also.

Next regular meeting is May 12th. One of our new members Joey Watts will be demonstrating paper piecing. Information on what you need to bring will be coming soon. Look for an e-mail on this.

Future plans were discussed. An exchange block idea was brought up by Rachenea. Our Christmas party gift exchange ideas were discussed. If you have an idea, bring it up at the next meeting. Nothing has been decided yet. We will again be participating in Hometown Holidays in December. Set up may be in the Hileman Building this year. More information later.

We always have a couple show and tells.


This baby quilt was done by Karen for her daughter's friend.


One of our new member, Brad did this twister quilt



This is Joey, Brad's wife with her New York Beauty paper pieced quilt top. The colors really make it pop!



Joey did this umbrella at M & E Quilt Shop in Sandusky. Gorgeous! The fabric is then treated with a water repellent spray.

This was long but I hope it was informational. See you at the workshop!

Chris

April 5, 2016

I know I haven't updated the blog recently, please forgive me. Time just flies by. Here's what's been happening lately..

At the last workshop we started working on walker caddies for the residents of our local nursing home. These will come in handy to carry books, glasses, water bottles, kleenex or whatever fits in the pockets. These are easy to construct and we will continue making these at the next workshop on April 30th. If you aren't a member but want to join us in this project you are more than welcome too. We do need low loft batting such as warm and natural or other similar cotton batting. The polyester batting that is "fluffy" is too "fluffy".





Members have been gearing up for our quilt show coming up this Saturday, April 9th at the New London Alliance Church from 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Admission is free and the youth of the church will have their coffee house open offering coffee house type beverages and pastries.

At our last meeting Rachenea demonstrated different types of machine applique.





Raffle tickets were passed out to member for our quilt raffle to be drawn after Hometown Holidays on December 3rd. If you would like a ticket contact any member or they may be purchased at the Gas Depot in New London. Here is a picture of the raffle quilt. It measures 69" x 80".


We had a few show and tells lately too.




 The above quilt is Rachenea's 10 minute block challenge. The back is just as interesting, that picture is below.



The scrappy quilt above is by Chris Porter. It is the same scrappy string block that thet raffle quilt is constructed of except the border is a green fabric.


Hope to see some of you at the show this weekend.