June 9, 2016

We had a really short meeting on June 9th,

There are a couple area quilt shows coming up. Uniontown Quilt Guild will have their annual show July 1st and 2nd in Ashland. Plymouth has a show the 1st week of August which runs Tuesday through Saturday. this coincides with their Silver King festival. If you visit the museum there you will see a quilt representing all the counties in Ohio.

Next meeting is July 14th. If you would like to do a demonstration for this meeting or any of our regular meetings, let us know. This could be anything, a new tool, new technique or just something you think would be interesting to others. You may know something none of the other members know or maybe it could just be a refresher course for others.

Coming up are the July 30th workshop. We will be working on quilts for Teen Challenge. Bring your machines and tools. We have fabric available, but if you have any 2 1/2" strips you need to get rid of, bring them along. These quilts are very scrappy.

Election of officers will be November 10th. If you would like to take an office, speak up at this meeting.

Hometown Holidays is December 3rd. We will set up in the Hileman Building in the New London Recreation Park this year. We need items to sell and they don't need to be holiday themed. Leftovers will be sold at Cure For Cabin Fever in March, so non-holiday or spring themed items will be needed also. We will be holding the drawing for the string quilt after the show. Here's a reminder to be selling tickets and turning in any monies you may have.

Our December 8th meeting will be our Christmas party. This is a potluck as always. We haven't decided what we are doing for our gift exchange yet. Let us know what your idea is so we can get this nailed down.

January will see new officers taking office and discussing what we would like to accomplish next year. We have discussed doing a block exchange after the first of the year so this could be our gift exchange for our 2017 Christmas party, The idea is to have several people sign up to make a block for each person on the list. The blocks will be in the same colorway and in a certain size. They will be signed by the person who pieced the block and then presented at our meeting in December 2017.

Cure For Cabin Fever is in March and we will have a table set up. If you would like to volunteer to work the table, please let me know.

Also for the March 25th workshop we have decided to do a beginner's sewing/quilt class. We will do a basic 9 patch block for ages 10 and up.Class size will be limited and participants will have to provide their own machines, tools and fabrics. If you would like to be in charge of arrangements for this class, please let me know.

We have been asked to do a quilt show at the New Haven Methodist Church in May 2017. This will be at the same time of their swiss steak supper. Details to follow at a later date.

At our last meeting on June 9th, we finished up the walker bags. Marcia and I took them to The Laurels on Saturday and they were glad to get them. We have an additional 5 that need to be dropped off at Grandma's Place. If someone could volunteer to do that it would be greatly appreciated.

We had a couple show and tells:

Our snowbird Marcia brought this pinwheel and applique top.

She was asking our opinions on borders.

This applique quilt is by Marcella. Although none of us would have thought of putting these colors together, each color is represented in the border fabric.

No workshop in June due to conflicting schedules with the church. Next regular meeting is July 14th.

Chris

May 12, 2016

What a wonderful turnout for this meeting. We had quite a few members and 2 guests from the Bellevue Quilt Guild and join us. They told us a little about what they do at their meetings and what projects they work on. They meet on the 1st Wednesday of the month and maybe we can get a group together to make it to one of their meetings sometime.

We started off talking about our April workshop and the progress on the walker caddy bags for residents at The Laurels. So far we have almost 40 bags completed. We would like to have 50 made before we distribute them. We also started on a quilt for Teen Challenge. This is an easy pattern that used 2 1/2" strips and works up quickly. If you would like to work on one on your own, I have the pattern instructions. It's a great way to use up those oddball strips.

We were asked if we would be willing to do a quilt show at the New Haven Methodist Church and members agreed this would be a good idea to get the word out about our group. It won't work for this year with the church's schedule but we will look ahead to maybe next May.

We are still discussing doing a block exchange sometime after the first of the year so this could be our gift exchange for our 2017 Christmas party. The idea is to have several people sign up to make a block for each person on the list. The blocks will be in the same colorway and in a certain size. They will be signed by the person who pieced the block and then presented at our meeting in December 2017.

There was discussion of doing a beginners quilt class doing a basic 9 patch for anyone aged 10 and up in the area who is interested in learning how to piece quilt blocks. No date has been set yet and class size will be limited. Participants will have to provide their own machines, tools and fabrics.

There are a couple area quilt show coming up. Uniontown Quilt Guild will have their annual show July 1st and 2nd in Ashland. Yvonne has the forms if you are interested in displaying a quilt. Plymouth has a show the 1st week of August which runs Tuesday through Saturday. This coincides with their Silver King festival.

This December we will be again participating in the Hometown Holidays in New London. The date for this is December 3rd. Set up will be in the Hileman Building at the recreation park. Times will be announced later. This is when we will have the drawing for our raffle quilt. Keep up the good work selling those tickets.

Be thinking of what we can do for our Christmas gift exchange for this year. Do we want to do the notions exchange like we did last year? Is there another idea that someone would like to do, we're open for suggestions. That meeting is December 8th.

An idea was brought up about another service project recipient and one member volunteered to check out if they needed anything.

Our next workshop will be May 21st. We will be working on the last of the walker bags and the quilt(s) for Teen Challenge. Bring your machines and any tools you may need. We have the fabric available but we do need batting. This can be scraps that can be sewn together. Luncheon will be potluck and we already have volunteered sloppy joes, buns, chips, jello salad, potato salad, cookies, and drinks. If you plan on attending and want to bring something, please let me know so I can keep track.

Our June meeting will be on June 9th. If you have a demonstration you would like to do please let me know so I can let members know if they need to bring anything. The June workshop will have to be cancelled due to scheduling conflicts with the church.

July meeting is set still for July 14th and the workshop is set for July 30th. Be sure to watch the blog and I will e-mail everyone if we need to make any changes.

At any time if you would like to volunteer to do a demonstration please let me know. You may know a technique or about a new tool that none of us know about and it would be very informative to all of us.

Speaking of demonstrations, two of our new members Joey and Brad, demonstrated a paper piecing pattern by Judi Neimeyer. Here are some pics.

We also had some show and tell. These quilts below are ones that have been made and donated to Teen Challenge.

Hope to see you at the next workshop May 21st. If you have any questions you can e-mail me at acp1955@hotmail.com.

Chris

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.

February 27, 2016

Hey all! Sorry I haven't updated the blog lately, but we had a very small meeting on the 11th. We've had 2 workshops since the last update and here's what we've been doing.

At the last meeting Marcia brought in her DVD on The Cotton Theory of quilt as you go. It was really different than what you would think and we'll have to give it a go in one of our workshops. Maybe it will be our challenge for next year.

Our last couple of workshops we've been working on our string quilt for the raffle. We finally have all the blocks together and now it just needs the borders put on and then just quilt and bind and it will be ready to raffle. We plan on selling tickets until Hometown Holidays in December when we will have the drawing.

Our next meeting on March 10th Rachenea will be demonstrating machine applique. We'll leave it up to everyone if they want to bring their machines to try out the different techniques or just watch how it's done. We have fabric available you can use. We will discuss what we will be working on for our next workshop in March. We think it will be walker bags. If anyone has a pattern for these let me (Chris Porter) know.

March 16th is Cure for Cabin Fever at the Hileman Building at NL Recreation Park. It will run from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and I will need a couple of volunteers to sit at the table with me. We will be selling items we had leftover from Hometown Holidays and anything else anyone wants to donate. Set up time is from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

For our workshop in March we need to move the date back to March 19th as Easter is the next weekend. We will probably start on the walker bags at this workshop.

April 9th is our Quilt show at the New London Alliance Church. Set up will be sometime on the Friday before, time to be announced. The show will run from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The youth of the church will be providing a coffee house during this time. Show forms are to be in to me by the March 10th meeting if you haven't already turned them in. This is open for the public to display their quilts also, so if you know anyone in the community who quilts, ask them if they would like to show them off.

We had some show and tell at the last couple workshops.

This table runner and table topper were done by Marcia from a pattern in EQ7.

 A nifty table topper from Karen Ruggles.

This is a Quilt of Valor done by Karen Ruggles

Karen used the Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial to make this Binding Tool Star Quilt pattern. Love the blues, greens and purples.

The 3 quilts above were also made by Karen to be donated to Teen Challenge.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland redwork by Marcella Workman.

Small hand embroidered table topper by Rachenea Eagle.

This above is a what they call a compression quilt, each square is filled with heat safe beads to make it feel weighted. They are used by people who have special needs such as autism. It was made by Rachenea also.

Rachenea is explaining the use of the compression blanket.

This is Martha Hecock's snowman rag quilt. All ready for those snow days we haven't really had to experience yet this year!

 This baby doll was Rachenea's (who is holding her) when she was a little girl. Her dress and bonnet are made out of Rachenea's husband handkerchiefs. She explained she is missing all her fingers and toes because she used to chew on them. We can all relate to that!

The above quilt was made by Gloria Biddinger using her sister's old curtains and is going to another sister when it's finished.

 

The unfinished quilt above is going to Gloria's grand nephew for graduation. The wildcat was cut from a single piece of fabric and appliqued.

These next quilts were from our January workshop. I apologize because some I have forgotten who did them.

This quilt is one from Marlene Stevens which will be donated to Teen Challenge.

Stick and Stones from Missouri Star Quilt Company was done by Chris Porter.

The middle panel has the name of this quilt. Over the River and Through the Woods by Chris Porter.

I'm taking a guess on this one. I think it was done by Chris Kaufman out of her storybook fabrics.

 I think this was also Chris Kaufman out of scraps from her stash.

Another table runner by Chris Porter from a pattern in EQ7. Like Marcia's above.

I'm thinking this was Marcella's. All hand embroidered.

I really apologize. I can't remember who's this was. Isn't it pretty though?

Jennifer Jones's BOM from 2015. She's really scrappy!

This was going to be the center of Jennifer's but she liked it all by itself.

 A toddler quilt by Jennifer.

This is also Jennifer's. Love the colors!

Lots of pictures to look at. Hope you enjoyed them

Chris