Blanketeer Project Day

Yesterday the Bee Blanketeers had a project day with lots of fun, good food and yes, some work did get accomplished!  Here, Sheila can be seen holding up a recent group project.  She and Rachel and another Blanketeer exchanged scraps and made this festive quilt top.

Sheila's sister, Gerri (you can tell they are sisters by their similar taste in footwear lol) can be seen holding up this black and white border quilt.

I'm not sure why everyone was staring at Rachel for this picture, but at least they were all holding still for the picture.  lol

We had a terrific potluck.  As I recall, Gerri asked for Virginia's breakfast casserole recipe, which is already on the blog here.

Pebbles and Leaves and a Jelly Roll Race

I made some progress quilting my bunny quilt.  I'm pleased with the way the pebbles turned out.  I had never done pebbles before.  They were time-consuming, but fairly easy.  I'm happy enough with the leaf shapes.  I got the effect I was going for, and it was fast.  

The parts I'm really not sure of are the straight lines on the multi-colored fabric.  I wanted to keep it simple, but I'm not sure blue was the best choice thread color.  And the straight lines aren't working out the way I thought they would.  I'll probably add additional elements between the lines, but I'm not sure what yet.  I swear, the most difficult part of free-motion quilting is all the decision-making!

The Blanketeers had a Project Day last Friday where everyone worked on her own Jelly Roll Race quilt.  You start with a jelly roll and sew all the strips end to end.  Takes forever.  Then you divide the long strip in two slightly offset pieces and sew them together lengthwise.  Really takes forever!  Lather, rinse, repeat.  Eventually you have something resembling a quilt top.  It is definitely not my favorite technique. I'll probably never make another, but it did completely use up an old jelly roll that was gathering dust in a drawer for the last 5 years.

Actually, this one isn't too bad.  I've seen some really butt-ugly jelly roll race quilts, and I feared the worst for this one, but it's not too awful.  I have a cool idea for quilting it, but that will have to take a back-burner to the bunny quilt.

Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative Round-up

The Blanketeers managed to create six AAQI quilts in 2012 to help generate money for Alzheimer's research.  From the left, I'm pictured holding Rachel's light Guadalupe quilt and my own Clothesline Capers.  Sheila is holding Mary's Butterfly quilt and her mother's (Bea's) applique quilt.  Dorthy is holding Rachel's dark Guadalupe quilt and Jonquele's tiny little Baltimore Beauty.

I found it lots of fun to work on something this size.  I really want to make some more!  Life interfered with the plans of so many Blanketeers this year that we have decided to continue making AAQI quilts as a group throughout 2013.

I'm hoping by this time next year we'll have well over a dozen little "Priority Quilts" ready to send off.  Hope on, hope ever!

May Project Day Fun

We had another lovely project day a few weeks ago.  Our theme project was scrappy nine-patch quilts.  Here is Virginia working on her blocks.

And here is Sheila, with Mary in the background.  We were glad to see Sheila's thumb had completely healed from our last project day.  (The paper plate she was carrying collapsed, and hot barbeque sauce spilled on her thumb - second degree burn, ER visit, special ointments. Yuck!)  She was very patient with us hovering over her in the kitchen this time.  8)

We were glad that Nancy was able to join us.  She's a very experienced quilter, who actually got her entire quilt top pieced during the time we had together.

Mary put together some very lovely leftover blue and brown polka-dot fabrics.  She came very close to finishing her top too.

Here is the layout of the quilt which Rachel and I pieced.  We split it up to take home so we could each assemble half the quilt.  Rachel is new to sashing, and when I picked up her half, the rows were sewn with the sashings together.  lol  That would be LOTS funnier to me if I hadn't done the exact same thing myself once  **blushes**.  Oh well, all fixed now.  8)

Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of quilts in progress, but with luck, I'll be picking up some of the completed quilts at this week's meeting of the Blanketeers.  If I do, I'll be sure to share them then.

Disappearing Nine-Patch Top Complete

Today was supposed to be French Braid update day, but I haven't made any progress on that one because I was putting the finishing touches on this one. I think it turned out nicely. The colors are more vibrant than this picture shows (and Larry is much sweeter than he appears; he's just... concentrating REALLY hard. lol)
The Disappearing Nine-Patch is one of the easiest quilts I have ever made. Simpler even than the "First Steps" quilts, which I could make in my sleep. I would rather be working on the French Braid quilt, but I have to create a bunny applique pattern for the center panel before I can put any more of FB together. It's too bad, but you just can't put together quilts from the borders inward. 8)

Disappearing Nine-Patch Project Day - and Farmville Update

Today was "Disappearing Nine-Patch" project day for the Blanketeers. Here's Sheila with the first quilt top of the day completed. Love that pink and turquoise!

Here we are, all hard at work. Look how fast Rachel's hands are going; they're just a blur! 8) And check out Virginia's cool kitty prints. We all used the same quilt pattern, but they SURE don't look the same!
Here's Dorthy on her trusty old Singer. It's amazing how well the old machines are holding up. I hope my Artista 180 is still plugging along when it's 50.

I didn't quite get my quilt top finished. Too much gabbing and too little sewing, I guess. I didn't notice until I laid out the blocks to take this picture, but the top row is clearly put together wrong. Sigh. I guess there is more "frogging" in my future. You know, "rip it, rip it". 8)

Today was supposed to be Farm Play Mat update day. You can see how much of THAT I actually accomplished. lol It's a start.

April Project Day

It has been a busy two weeks. The Blanketeers had a productive project day two weeks ago. This project day didn't have a real theme; it was more of a "get 'er done" sort of day. Here is Rhonda with the quilt top made from the sailboat blocks we all made at the last project day. I made the boat in the lower right corner. I fussy cut a ruler from some ruler fabric and made the yellow boat out of that. I think this is going to be our Peppers & Pinatas offering this year.
Here is Rachel's latest snowball quilt. Those "Baby Fats" quilts just keep on giving. The Blanketeers have kind of divided into two factions, Rachel & the "Chubby Cheek" snowball group, and me and the "First Steps" cohort. The "First Steppers" are a little faster, but the "Chubby Cheekers" end up with pinwheels from the corner cut-offs that make into lovely quilts of their own, so I think it's a tie. I can't wait to see the pinwheel quilt that results from this vibrant color scheme!
Sheila found a way to use the darling little lamb that was one of the door prizes at our Christmas party last December. It looks like it was made for this sweet little quilt top.
And here is Mary with her latest "First Steps" Is it not gorgeous? I just love the pink & green combo. And her work has gotten so fine! This one just knocked my socks off. I finally got the chance to give her the Friendship Star pin that was her Christmas present (Mary's been busy). Now it represents a token, not only of our friendship, but of how incredibly far she has come with her quilting skills. Way to go, Mary!

I worked on the Quilt of Valor for the first time in probably five months. It is now mostly in rows. It was painful how much the points had to be hacked off to square up the blocks, but that's life. It's more important that it lie flat than for the points to be perfect. It's still going to be really beautiful. I keep telling myself that; that and "finished is better than perfect!" 8)

Blanketeer's - June Project Day

June 12th saw the Blanketeer's hard at work at the "Quilt in a Day" Project Day. Our goal is to complete 20 quilt tops for the USO reading program at DFW Airport before the July Blanketeer's meeting. Judging by the level of industry and enthusiasm, we shouldn't have any trouble meeting the goal. Brandy is in the foreground with Sheila hiding right behind her. (Thanks again to Brandy's church for letting us meet in this wonderful space!) There is Rachel hovering over her daughter, Veronica. Bea, Sheila's Mom, is sitting in front of Virginia P. (standing), Mary has her back to the camera and Virginia is facing her.

Here's Virginia hard at work on her block for the Peppers 'n Pinatas quilt effort that Brandy is chairing. We're so glad to have Virginia with us, since the last project day (fleece) Virginia had quadruple bypass surgery followed months later by an allergic reaction to an antibiotic that put her in the hospital almost the whole week I was in New York.

Look how pretty Virginia's block turned out too! (I need a better camera, my current one doesn't capture soft pastels very well at all.)

Here's Rachel and her daughter, Veronica, who joined us straight from driving up from school in College Station today to start her summer vacation. This was the first time most of us got to meet Veronica, and it was a great pleasure having her with us for the day.

Bea, Sheila's Mom, often makes it to our project days, and there is a very strong correlation between her being there and us getting lots accomplished! lol Bea is our most experienced quilter and is always happy to share her expertise. We almost got her to promise that she would teach us how to applique for our next Quilt of Valor project, if we promise not to paper-piece anymore stars. lol (Bea is a member of the Trinity Valley guild, and apparently their group projects have a heavy bias towards stars, so much so, that Bea is heartily sick of making stars, besides, she much prefers applique!)

Here's another picture of the back of Mary's head. Mary is new to quilting and made excellent progress on her "First Steps" quilt during the project day.

Here are Brandy (on the phone) and Sheila. I just noticed the TV behind Brandy. I never even saw it there before! We certainly didn't have cause to turn it on.

Here is Sheila with "Kissing Kitties", a "First Steps" inspired baby quilt. We were all admiring it as it was one of the first quilts completed, and the kitty-patterned fabric is adorable, when Sheila noted sadly that she didn't intend for the four patch "steps" to meet color-wise (aqua to aqua and purple to purple). I jokingly said, "Oh, that just makes it the Kissing Kitties Quilt", and a quilt was named forevermore. lol I think the colors are stunning. Sheila added the outermost border, which sets it off from every other "First Steps" quilt I've ever seen.

We were glad to have Karen join us at the end of the day, bringing the fruits of her machine quilting labors back to Sheila. (Karen very generously machine quilts any of the Blanketeer charity quilts for free - thanks, Karen!)

Here's what was in the bag. Check out the absolutely fabulous heart in a heart pattern quilted on the back of Sheila's panel quilts! Some happy little kids are going to be the lucky recipients of these beauties.

Virginia P. was soooo happy to finish her Quilts of Valor Ohio Star block. The last little bit gave her LOTS of trouble, but with some coaching she was able to easily finish it. What an accomplishment! And look how great her corners turned out. More paper-piecing, Virginia? lol

Here are Mother and Daughter holding up Bea's Dutch Girl quilt. Bea is hand quilting this for friends at church who are expecting a baby girl. We all oohed and aahed over it; it's really something special!

Here's a better picture of the Dutch Girl quilt. Isn't it lovely? I especially like the lace on the bonnets and the dresses. OK, Bea, you really need to teach us how to applique like that. Your skills are phenomenal!

Here's what Bea did on the project day. I think she called it Bales of Straw. It's a design of her own making and it looked just darling when it was done. I'm not sure how she's planning to quilt it. (I can see I forgot to ask lots of pertinent questions during my brief stint in photojournalism. lol Better not quit my day job!)

Here's Brandy's Delight (also named by yours truly, but sewn entirely by Brandy.) I just love the dimensionality of the design, the dark blocks seem to leap out at you in this picture. Brandy is a fellow stippler, and I can't wait to see the finished product.

Funniest thing heard at the Project Day: Rachel asking, "But, how do you get a stash (of fabric)?" Most of the rest of us just cracked up laughing, but Sheila I think it was, gave the best answer. She said, "You just buy the fabric that speaks to your heart, without any idea of how you're actually going to use it!" Perfect!

Blanketeers for the Snowball Express

The Blanketeers got together yesterday for another fun day of... well, what do you call it when you get together to cut and tie fleece blankets? Blanketeering? lol I think the final count was 12 blankets and they went together super fast. They make a nice, impressive heap!




















What a relief! Rachel and I were worried we wouldn't get them finished in one day and we REALLY wanted this to be our Final Focus on Fleece Forever, well, at least for 2009. She and I have just assumed responsibility for the SS Blanketeer and we have vowed that the ship will NOT go down on our watch, so a successful blanket day was essential. Here are Virgina, Virginia, Rachel, Christine and Brandy (above only) holding up some of our best efforts.






















Here is Brandy with the pretty sailboat fleece and I think that's Rachel's arm. lol The sailboats were backed with a lovely yellow fleece that this picture doesn't do justice. All the fleece was of a wonderfully high quality. I'm always amazed that they can get very realistic images to "take" on such a soft fuzzy fabric. That plane looks like it's going to fly right off the blanket.























Our Snowball Express contact wants patriotic quilts and blankets to distribute to the children of our fallen service men and women at the big 2009 event coming up in Dallas this December. I think this blanket definitely qualifies as patriotic! We have Brandy to thank for having this nice venue for our efforts. She volunteered her church, which had a lovely space for us to work and a great kitchen to store our potluck food.

















We all had our doubts about whether or not a red Mickey Mouse blanket backed in yellow would qualify as "patriotic", so this one will probably be donated to the U.S.O. at DFW Airport instead. Everyone thought that some little kid will be very happy to snuggle up with Mickey! Below Virginia and Mickey, is the red, white and blue afghan that Christine knit this month. Christine is retired and is an unbelievably prolific knitter. Every month she brings one or TWO knit baby blankets to donate.

I didn't get any pictures of Carol, who had to leave early but tied more than her fair share of knots, or Sheila who was taking pictures at the same time as me. After we had finished our blankets, we still had time for a few special projects. I was successful in teaching Rachel and Sheila how to spray baste their quilts. It would be hard to fail at that endeavor unless the fabric blew away in the wind or we accidentally gassed ourselves with the fumes indoors. I don't think either of them are going to miss pins.

I had less luck teaching them how to stipple; though I'm sure they could easily become as proficient as I am with practice. After I got back home I tried to think back to how I learned how to stipple and I remembered something I had totally forgotten. I initially thought I would make my sewing machine embroider the stipple pattern, so I carefully drew out a full page of stippling to scan into the computer. Now I wonder if the exercise of drawing out the stippling pattern on paper wasn't very helpful , maybe even essential, in me learning where to go and how to go back and fill in empty spots. And I'm all about practice too. Even now, before stippling a new quilt I will do a little practice sandwich to get back in the groove. Anyone else have any hints for how to teach stippling? I'm definitely not much of a teacher!