greetings

HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY! to all my friends and fellow quilters.
I am thankful for you all.
blessings,
Karen Arbaugh

W.H.E.A.T. - Food Pantry

W.H.E.A.T.  - Western Hanover Emergency Action Team

As we have in past years, we will also be collecting non-perishable food items at our December meeting on December 10.

It is sad to think about hungry people in our own community but with the efforts of many we can help provide food to approximately 80 families now in need.  For additional info:  www.wheathelp.org

Suggested items are:

Peanut butter & jelly
Cereal, pancake mix & oatmeal
Rice and instant potatoes
Pouches of dried milk
Pasta sauce and spaghetti
Small boxes of mac & cheese
Canned fruit and vegetables
. . .you get the idea

We will collect the food on a table near the door - Thank you!

Our Pot-Luck dinner will begin at 6:30. 

Fabrics that "Bleed"

Posted by Becky

If you've ever experienced fabric whose colors bled, and haven't we all - you'll want to check out Barbara Brackman's blog on the subject. Barbara turned to Vicki for advice on a quilt with bleeding red fabrics. Following Vicki's advice Barbara had success with her quilt top. 

Barbara also introduces us to St. Hunna, the Patron Saint of Laundresses.

Here's the link:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2013/11/running-reds.html

Sewing Friday and Saturday

Sewing Friday and Saturday is always fun but it was extra special this month. Becky offered to teach an applique class. She had so many students that she did sessions on both days. Everyone had a great time and we all discovered that Becky is a fabulous teacher. Here's what you missed.

Behind Becky are some applique blocks that she's working on for a new quilt.

Cathy and Nancy making stems.

Linda, Betsy and Nancy paying close attention to Becky.

Kris working on her first circle.

Karen and Georgie trying to bee good students. (The Saturday class was rowdier than the Friday class!)

Elsa making great progress.

Kitty preparing a leaf for applique.

10 Questions - Peggy Ladner

If you've been a member for a long time you already know that Peggy Ladner is multi-talented. She's not just a quilter. She explores a lot of other crafts and is very skilled with a paintbrush too. She's the one who has made the beautiful decoupaged boxes that we use for our quilt raffles. Recently she shows us how she does it. Well, I wanted to see where she does all of this great creating so I asked her to be our featured member this month. 

1. If you live in Hanover (or the area), how many generations of your family have lived here and how did they come to settle here? If you moved here, where are you from and what brought you here?

I'm originally from Baltimore County, MD, but lived in the DC area for about 12 years before moving to Hanover County in 1989 for my hubby's job transfer.  We moved to Caroline county's Lake Caroline subdivision in 2012, in a house we custom built.  I'm hoping to not move again. 

2. When you were young what did you plan to be when you grew up and what happened with those plans?

I wasn't that focused on what I wanted to do, just what I didn't want to do.  I didn't want to stay home and keep house, I wanted to work.  I'm over that now and am looking forward to retiring in a few years.

3. What are your favorite things to do in the area?

I like going to estate and yard sales.  I have a running list of things I'm looking for, and it's amazing how often it's possible to find the things on the list in a fairly short timeframe. I love going going out to Syria in Madison county or Culpeper or Sperryville - I like the mountains. 

I also like going to Fredericksburg, both the old down town and the town center at Spotsylvania mall.

  

4. What hobbies or activities do you do other than quilting? Where do you do them? How did you get involved with them?

 I love painting stuff - like furniture, but there are limitations on how much furniture you really need. After Christmas I plan to paint a hutch that I've had for about 20 years.  It was unfinished originally, and I stained when I got it, but now I think painting is in order.  Time for a change.

I crochet some, have taken a couple classes in glass fusing and used to do some fabric dying (I learned from Joyce Hartley) but not for the last several years.  I made sure there was a utility sink installed in the garage when we were building our house, because I would need it for furniture painting or fabric dying, since I do both in the garage.

 5. What’s your favorite vacation spot? Where do you want to go next?

My favorite vacation spot is Hilton Head Island in the off season.  The weather is moderate, and there are no crowds.  I have my mom's very basic Kenmore sewing machine so I take it and work on piecing a quilt, read, or go outlet shopping while Eric plays golf, then we go out to eat - very relaxing! 

  

6. What saying best describes how you like to live your life?

"Always an adventure".  Approach every day with fresh eyes and an open mind.  Don't get bogged down in the negative.

7. Show us a photo (or photos) of where you create.

This is my sewing room, which is in the walk out basement.  I have good light here and lots of space.  I'm lucky to have a dedicated sewing storage room as well.

8. Show us a photo of the quilt that’s on your bed right now.

This quilt is made from shirting prints.  I have a book by Lesley Lindsley that has a quilt made from shirting prints.  I didn't follow the pattern, but I liked how the quilt looked with that type of fabric.

9. What quilt is your least favorite quilt. Not necessarily the ugliest but the one that you liked the least or struggled with the most or just plain hated making. Why did you choose this one? Do you have a photo of it?

I don't have a least favorite.  The most nerve wracking was making a quilt, bedskirt, bumper pads and pillows - all with machine appliques of dinosaurs - for my sister when she was pregnant with my nephew many years ago.  My sewing machine was acting up, so I bought a new one - it was awful so I returned it, then I bought another new machine - returned it as well, and finally found a repair shop for my machine.  I thought I'd never get everything done.  

  

10. What is your all time favorite quilt and why? Do you have a photo of it?

My favorite is a wall hanging quilt out of five different colorways of Kaffe Fassett's Lotus fabric.  I like the repetition of the fabric print in different colors.  I've made a couple other quilts where I've repeated a fabric print in different colorways.  

There is something about repeating the fabric print - not just a block pattern - that I'm drawn to.  I've made other quilts using a print in different colors.  Each has it's own personality, just one of the things that makes quilting so interesting. 

The last 3 quilts!

My personal quiltathon is done! These 3 quilts are numbers 18 - 20 and are the last I will be quilting this year. Now it's time to work on some of my own quilts although these 20 were a lot of fun to do.

I'm sure you can guess that Betsy made this one. All of those little HSTs are a great clue. I quilted this one with an all-over leaf motif.

This quilt is Elsa's. She found it in her UFO pile and thought it would be a good veteran's quilt. Because of the floral print fabric I quilted the leaf meander on this one too.

This is the last of the mystery quilts. Peg made this beachy version. I quilted it with the wavy cross hatch in a pale blue thread. It really emphasized the beach feel of this happy quilt.

I'll bring all of the remaining quilts to the Montpelier Center this Friday. It's very exciting to know that we have 20 more veteran's quilts to deliver in December.

Three more quilts!

It was a productive weekend and I finished quilting 3 more quilts.

Peg assembled this one from out block drive in October. Cathy volunteered to bind some quilts so I'll take this one to her along with the next one.

This quilt was pieced by Annie, our member from Washington State. I love the color palette and the backing is a pretty pheasant print. Perfect for a male veteran!

This one was made by Carol.

Quilts that aren't picked up will be delivered to the Montpelier Center Friday for Friday sewing.

Two quilts ready!

These quilts were made from blocks sent to me by a blog friend. She made them but then didn't like them. I pieced and quilted them and now they need binding. Whoever does these needs to have binding fabric. Reproduction brown prints will work best for these. These are quilts 13 and 14.

November Meeting

The November meeting is Tuesday, November 12 and we've decided to start the meetings a little earlier for the winter so the meeting will kick off at 6:45 instead of 7:00.

Peg asked everyone to bring any orphan blocks. She's going to sort through them and group blocks together to make into veteran's quilts. This is a great time to clean out your cupboards of orphan blocks!

The program will be the Shoo Fly block. Betsy will show us how to make the blocks and a variety of ways to set it.

Also, the December Sewing weekend will only be on Saturday, December 14 so mark your calendar for that. The December meeting is the annual holiday potluck. We will also bring all of  our veteran's quilts to display during the meeting. Betsy and Kitty will take the quilts after them meeting for delivery to the hospital Christmas Eve. If you are pre-washing your quilt please consider washing it in fragrance-free detergent. Since the recipients are in the hospital we don't want to send them anything that might make them sicker.

See you November 12!