GHQG Sharing Day

Tomorrow is going to be nice. Our Greater Hartford Quilt Guild will be having a fun event called Sharing Day, which consists of all 13 chapters getting together (this one is at Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, CT) and 'sharing' projects that our chapter has been working on. Demonstrations are given at various tables and lots of handouts and ideas are shared. It certainly gives you a 'boost' if you ever feel like you're in a 'quilting slump'. See our great projects at Sharing Day for a slide show. The only downfall, is that it's only from 8:30-noon. Not long enough! It was very nicely done. LOTS of room at this facility, wonderful snacks and lots and lots of demonstrations that taught me some great timesaving tricks ( who can't use that!!!). Great day!

Heartstrings arrived!!

Got word from my church that the quilts we had sent out to be quilted had arrived home!! As soon as I was able, I zipped on over to church and picked them up (didn't even wait to get home to open the box and see them -- click on the title of this post to see one of them), and they are GREAT! Thanks Mary.... can't wait to finish the bindings so we can put them on them at the next mtg. (April 7th).

Progress on Amber's baby quilt!

Okay, maybe that's premature... the Amber part. I was all set to put the 'fish' blocks together, and I realized that amount of blocks that I got from the fabric piece I bought didn't make a very big top, ... even with borders. And of course, I can't find it in the local qs. Well, that's what happens when you buy a small piece (under 2 yds), because you don't know what you'll do with it...yet. So, solution is to add sashing and a couple of borders. Now, as much as I'm not on No-Buy (on Stashbusters group), I've been really good about not buying any fabric unless it's the "b's" (borders, backing, binding, basting thread, and batting). I suppose that this falls into the 'b' catagory, so off I went to my favorite quilt shop http://quiltingbytheyard.com/ and got there just as they were ready to close up for the day. Thankfully, Pat, helped me pick out a GREAT sashing that makes the blocks "POP" off the fabric. We found a border fabric that matches the fish fabric exactly (same designer-- and it goes horizontally and vertically!!) and threw in a bright yellow for a flange piece between the sashing and the outer border. YEA! It's washed (don't usually wash fabric first unless it's a deep color) and ready to iron. I hope to get enough done on it this weekend to make it a top. Off to sew!....

Excited to see one of our quilts done!-almost

Here is one of the tops we sent to Mary to quilt.... Now to bind and send it off. Click on the title of this post to see the latest quilt to be done!

Catching up

Since I have a mtg of our Peace by Piece quilters tomorrow night, I think I'll finish putting the strings on the remaining blocks for the next top were doing. One of the ladies likes things to 'match', so I pulled a busy print with colors I loved and I'm putting 'matching' strings to go with it. She'll be pleased. Hopefully, we can cut and put on a border by the time I get to the mtg. Okay, so I had a chance to put this together this weekend (3-8-08) and it kept going just fine, so I finished the top. I really love this one!!

Project Linus Quilt-a-thon

Well, this was a productive day!! I took the day off (as I do every year) to go 'play' with 'Linus'... Project Linus, that is.

Our church, St Mary's Episcopal, sponsors a Quilt-a-thon every year and our quilts have gone to various charities. We usually go from 9am-2pm or 3pm and bring a lunch. Various groups work on quilts on their own and donate them on 'our day' to add to the pile. This photo is what we had done by 11am.

Some ladies only crochet and we were lucky enough to get 29 crocheted blankets that we bagged. We didn't want to 'hang' them and stretch them out.

This year we had 14 women 'sign in' although I think there were a couple who forgot to sign in that came to help.

Some cut batting and backings, some ladies tied them, some of us sewed them envelope style (remember, we're doing production mode along with doing the job well), and some pieced some tops to add to the donation pile.

Don't I look busy at my machine?

My quilting group at the church, Peace by Piece Quilters

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/560673651AYbwPF collected our 'orphan blocks' that we made into 2 tops for our donation. I made them into halfstring quilts and added borders to make them big enough for baby sized quilts.

This one I did at our 'bust' of a workshop (see the post from yesterday). It's different, but I like it!

I've been involved with this project for only the past 4 years or so, but I plan to be there as long as these two ladies keep it going. This photo is of the organizers.

Thank you, Jean and Jane!!

I have become the 'official hanger' (I think because no one else is NUTS enough to climb the ladder!) and hung as many as I could. The total....? including the afghans, 107. !! It's not a record, but we always consider it a success if it tops 100! Here's just a few of them....

Workshop a BUST!

Tonight I went to a workshop to teach heartstring blocks to my local quilting chapter's members,hoping to get a few blocks for charity quilts (they cost of taking the workshop was donating one of the blocks we learn how to make). Thankfully, we had good weather this time. I was at the last meeting that didn't happen (although didn't get the cancellation message until I sat for 30 mins in the parking lot- my fault, I had my cell phone off and went right from work to dr.'s appt then to mtg) and while I was disappointed that it got cancelled, I understood why(snow/ice storm coming). Unfortunately, we had to switch it to another night that may or may not be good for our members, but I did try to coordinate another workshop at a different venue. I'm not sure why no one (that's right, no one) showed up,but Janet G. ...but, we had a blast!! She got her 24 heartstring blocks trimmed and put together, and I got some 'split' strings put together for a (Project Linus Quilt-a-thon) baby quilt,... with borders done, at least to a top stage. Anyway, I'm very disappointed, and not sure why NO ONE was there. I did get an email from one person who was nice enough to let me know she couldn't make it, but had a block for me. Thank you. I hope to get it from her at our guild's Sharing dayin March. I started to think it's the change of venue, because I've had two other charity workshops at my church in the next town and had 4 people at one of them and 3 at another, however, I remember our former chapter president organizing a few charity workshops at our normal mtg place and no one seemed to show up at those either. Don't we have over 45-50 members? I don't get it. I'm not sure, but it's very discouraging when you'd like to teach something different and new in quilting (isn't that what our guild's purpose is??) and no one is receptive at all. We have had a few workshops at our normal mtg place that people stayed to do, however, I felt that we only got the project half-way done and everyone was packing up to leave! What ,... to finish this at home??? Well, another UFO in the pile... I don't understand it. All I know is, I think I'm better off joining our quilting guild in June as an Independent and go to chapter meetings that are doing more of the type of projects that I want to work on, ... those that benefit someone. I've developed a few nice friendships there, so in that regard, I'm Blessed. (Can you be Blessed and disgusted at the same time?... WELL, I am!) Tomorrow I take the day off from work and go to our church from 9am-2pm and make quilts for Project Linus. (I'll take a picture of the baby quilt I finished at this workshop, along with all the other quilts that get done. (this is my project on the design wall, but it came up very different when finished).Every year they do over 100)!! Can't wait!!