VQM Christmas Ornaments

I delivered the Christmas ornaments to the museum.  They are pictured below.

These ornaments were made by Sandy A., Elsa B., Mary K., and Peggy L.  If you have a Star ornaments, the museum would like to receive them by November 15, 2013.  You can mail them to the museum at  301 S. Main St., Harrisonburg, VA 22801.

Volunteers are always needed at the museum.  The November schedule is online.  You can access it at the museum's website, www.vaquiltmuseum.org.  At the site, click on volunteers.  I will be sending a email to members with the password.  Currently, Country School is scheduled for the 5th Saturday in November.  WE NEED SOME FOLKS TO VOLUNTEER.  CURRENTLY WE HAVE TWO MEMBERS ARE WILLING TO GO.  Take the opportunity to go.  The Farmer's Market located behind the museum, has homemade crafts in addition to local produce and baked goods.  Also, there are some nice shops and places to eat on Main St.  Call me if you can help.

Elsa

Two more quilts are ready for binding

I quilted 2 more quilts yesterday. Both of these have a blue hand dyed backing. You are welcome to come pick them up or I'll have them at the next meeting. These are quilts #11 and 12.

Carolyn made this quilt but I think someone else was going to bind it.

This one was made my Miriam.

As of today I have 4 left to quilt but I'm expecting to receive another Tuesday.

Betsy's quilts are ready!

Here are 3 quilts that Betsy made that are quilted and ready for binding. Peg picked up the 3 I posted Wednesday and she and Carol will bind them. We are making great progress.

Fragrance free

I am having a great time quilting all of the veteran's quilts and am willing to quilt as many as I get between now and the end of the month. However, I do have one big request.

As much as possible please avoid using fragrance products, including pre-wasing fabrics in scented detergent and using Best Press. I have a respirator and am wearing it when quilting the fragrance quilts but a respirator is not the most comfortable option (and it's really bad in the middle of a hot flash). So, if possible, please send your tops fragrance-free.

I will be eternally grateful!

Quilts ready for pickup - Peg, Carol and becky

I'm going to post quilts here as they are ready for pickup. It doesn't mean that you must come get them but they are ready if you want them before the November meeting. Any quilts not picked up will be brought to the November meeting.

If you have veteran's quilts that need to be quilted you can get them to me before Oct 23, between Oct 30 and Nov 4. I'm not going to be able to quilt an quilts received after Nov 4.

Here are the quilts that are ready today.

Becky's courthouse steps (from the bock drive a couple of months ago)

quilted with a wavy crosshatch

Carol's (I don't know the name of this one)

quilted with dwirling pattern (looks like a topographical map)

Peg's mystery quilt

(quilted with stipple ribbon)

Veteran's quilt-athon

Thanks to everyone who replied to my backing post. I found the backing at an even better price and ordered about 50 yards of backing fabrics for the same price that we got 33 yards in February! Most of what I ordered is white which is the least expensive option. Since I have leftover dyes every week that I pour down the drain I can now use those dyes to dye quilt backs for your veteran's quilts.

Here are 2 that I dyed recently. Most of them will be blues, greens, grays or browns because that's what I generally have leftover. 

If you missed the meeting last week you missed my offer to quilt any veteran's quilt tops that members have completed this month. I'll do as many as I can between now and the November meeting. 

I am quilting these very simply and quickly. If you have specific ideas for how you want yours quilted you will not want to bring it to me! Call me if you want to drop off a quilt top. I'll post here when quilts are ready to be picked up.

Here are the first few that I finished this weekend and delivered to the Friday and Saturday sewing groups.

This one was pieced by Karen from blocks from one of our block drives.

This one was pieced by Becky from one of the block drives. Peg is binding it.

This one is from Carolyn, also from one of the block drives.

These are from the mystery quilt. One was made by my Mom and one by Nancy. Thanks to Betsy for binding my Mom's quilt!

Applique, anyone?

by Becky
Let's have an appliqué class and I'll show you a technique I learned from Annie, who lives on an island in Puget Sound and has supported our veterans project by sending quilts the past two years. Annie inspired me and introduced me to Kerry's blog: www.simplebirdapplique.com and that is when I started my Civil War Bride quilt using the freezer paper/starch method. I've used many methods for applique over the years, but this one is definitely my favorite and I want to share it with you.

Block 2 of my Civil War Bride quilt - Pattern by Corliss Searcey.

 

WHEN: November 8 & 9 at our regular meeting place

TIME: 10 a.m.

CLASS DESCRIPTION: I'll give a demonstration of the technique and provide a fabric kit and help each of you make and appliqué a stem, leaf and circle, which are some of the basic shapes used in appliqué. Class is for all levels, no fee.

BRING: your regular sewing kit and lunch

Supplies - I'll share with you:

Freezer Paper sheets by C. Jenkins

Starch

Small water color paint brush

Roxanne Glue-Baste-It
Silk Thread
Appliqué needles

Please leave a comment or send me an email to sign up so I will know how many kits to make and let me know which day you prefer.

Meeting Photos

I completely forgot to post the slideshow from the September meeting so today you get both the September and October slideshows.

September Meeting Photos

  

October Meeting Photos

 

You can go into Flickr and add any additional descriptions that you want.

Sewing Friday and Saturday

Posted by Becky

This is our seventh consecutive day of rain - not the norm for us here in Virginia. Even though it was wet we had lots of people come for two productive days of sewing together. Many were working on quilts for veterans and Vicki stopped by both days to pick-up and drop-off quilts after she and Willie (her long-arm) had finished them.

She also told us she had ordered 50 yards of wide backing for CSQ, (GREAT price) some of which she will be dyeing for us by using left-over dyes at the end of her dyeing sessions. Pretty cool, huh? - that future donation quilts will have such special backs!

Mary came on Friday will her supplies in a clever bag made from sewing together the bottom of a T-shirt and cutting out the sleeves for handles.  The T-Shirt/Bag said:

"My husband said if I don't stop quilting,

he's gonna leave me. . .God, I'm gonna miss him!

Thanks, Miriam for taking the picture. I didn't get any other pictures, but we should have lots to show & tell at our November meeting.

Those who came to sew or stopped in to visit included: Julie, Nancy, Michal, Betsy, Miriam, Linda, Sandy, Karen, Mary, Elsa, Carolyn, Vicki, Kitty and Becky.

Okay, I'm getting tired of these cloudy, wet days with it getting dark so much earlier. I think we all ready for some sunny and beautiful warm fall days.

Happy sewing, everyone!

Veteran's quilts dilemma - need your feedback!

Last night at the meeting I offered to quilt as many veteran’s quilts as I can get done between now and the November meeting. Today I got started on some that I already have and decided to get some quilt backs washed and read to load on the longarm. That’s when I realized

WE ARE ALMOST OUT OF QUILT BACKING!

I have enough to do 6 quilts and will use 3 of those on the quilts I brought home last night. So we need to do one of 2 things. Either I need to get backing with the tops ( the backings need to be 4: larger than the quilt on all 4 sides) OR I can order 2 more bolts of quilt backing.

I did some looking on line today and found a source for backing fabric at $8/yard and I think a bolt is usually about 15 - 18 yards. To get 2 more bolts of fabric would be about $180 + shipping so let’s just say $200.

1.5 yards of backing fabric is enough for 2 quilts so that works out to about $6/quilt. The backing that we bought in January has backed a LOT of quilts.

We are good on batting. I just opened the last roll and that should last us a while.

I believe we have about $600 in the treasury and will have membership money rolling in in January.

My recommendation is to order the backing fabric. It saves the members a lot of money on fabric for quilt backs so we can make more quilts.

I’m sorry I didn’t bring this up last night but I just didn't think to check the supplies before I came to the meeting. But I want to get a decision quickly so I can get on with quilting all of the tops you have ready. So would you please leave a comment on this post and let me know your thoughts.

If anyone has any other ideas please share them!

Montpelier Exhibit Continued

This will be the final post for the remainder of the quilts on display at the Montpelier Center during September 2013.

 

 

Batik Fish on the Waves by Kitty B.

 

 

                                     Illuminated Blocks by Vicki W.

                                        Cambridge Star by Eileen B.

                                             Sunflowers by Cathy W.

                                   Nine Patch Veteran's Quilt by CSQ Members

                                   
                                    Fish Bones by Betsy S.

                                 Blue Jean Quilt by Mary K.

                            Monet's Water Lilies by Elsa B.

                                 Family Tree by Estelle P.

                             "Second Sunday" Quilt by Betty B.

                             Top:  Necktie Medallion by Linda M.
                             Bottom:  Snowball by Linda M.

                                          Convergence by Elsa B.

                            Tropical Flower by Linda M.

                                  The Patriot (Veterans Quilt) by Vicki W.

                                Veterans Choice  (Veterans Quilt) by Estelle P.

                                       Veterans Choice (Veteran's Quilt) by Becky B.

                                      Veteran's Choice (Veteran's Quilt) by Karen A.

                              Veteran's Choice (Veteran's Quilt) by Becky B.

On Sunday, September 29th, many members (including two husbands) arrived around 5 PM to take the exhibit down.  By 5:15 PM, all the quilts were down, and sorted by members' name.  The show came down to quickly, I didn't get any pictures!

Thanks to everyone who helped organize; hang the exhibit; share their wonderful quilts; and take the exhibit down. 








                                              

 

Montpelier Exhibit - Challenge Quilts

This is a scan of the Fabric Challenge.  The gold and brown fabrics did not scan very good.  The pictures of the quilts properly reflect the colors in the quilts.

                                      Mary S. - Lattice Wallhanging

                                   Betsy S. - Hexagon Challenge

                                   Becky B. - Blue Waves

                                   Elsa B. - Little House of Geese
                                   Pattern Designed by Gail Garber

                                   Vicki W. - Ground Cover

                                    Mary K, - Kaleidoscope

                                     Carolyn M. - Australian Storm

                                       Kitty B. - Starry Path

                                          Peg S. - Ivy Twist

                                    Julie V. - Grid Lock (Veteran's Quilt)

                                     Estelle P. - Egrets of Emerald Isle

                                   Carolyn M. - Bear Cub Puzzle

                                    Linda M. - Challenge Quilt

                                         
                                  Nancy P. - Sunset Star

                                 Cathy W. - Bamboo