Sold!

At the last meeting we discussed options for the original officer's quilts that were being stored at Miriam's. Vicki Brannan offered to try to sell them at her booth in the Ashland Antiques Mall. She took 1 quilt and the quilt stand and they both sold in 2 days!

The quilt sold for $250 and the quilt rack for $30. Less the sellers fee the total for us is $252.

Thank you Vicki!

Here's another recipe from our December potluck:

Quinoa Party Salad

Adapted from Clean Eating, Nov/Dec 2011

 

I allow 2 hours or more to prepare this.  Hands-on time is 10-15 minutes.  Serves 8.

In a fine-mesh strainer, thoroughly rinse

            2 c quinoa (tri-color looks festive)

In a medium saucepan, bring to a boil

            4 c water

Add the quinoa, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes, until the water is absorbed.  Let cool (but if you don’t have a long time, it will work to use the grain while it is still warm.)

Prepare the dressing:

In a small bowl, whisk together

            ¼ c olive oil

            juice of 1 lime

            1 T ground cumin

            pinch of red pepper flakes

Stir until well combined and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine:

            3 c frozen corn kernels, thawed

            1 15-oz can black beans, rinsed and drained

            1 medium red pepper, chopped

            1 medium orange pepper, chopped

            1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped, or to taste

            1 c fresh cilantro, chopped (measure first, then chop)

Add the quinoa and stir to combine.  Top with the dressing, then season with salt and pepper to taste; mix well.  Serve cold or at room temperature.

Toffee Recipe

From Julie: So here is the toffee recipe that everyone was asking for.

 

Ibby’s Metaphysical English Toffee

                (from the book "Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder" by Joanne Fluke

 

Also, recently known as

 

"Christmas Crack"

 

Preheat oven to 350, rack in the middle position.

 

16-oz. box Keebler Club Crackers

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups milk chocolate chips (12-oz. bag)

2 cups chopped pecans or sliced almonds

 

Line a 10 x 15 cookie sheet (jelly roll pan) with foil.  Spray the foil with Pam or other nonstick cooking spray.

 

Line the pan completely with Club crackers, salt side up.  Cover the whole bottom, breaking the crackers if necessary to make them fit.  Set the pan aside while you cook the toffee mixture.

 

Combine the butter with the brown sugar in a saucepan.  Bring it to a boil over medium high heat on the stovetop, stirring constantly.  Boil it for exactly five minutes, stirring constantly.  Adjust heat if it sputters too much.  Pour the mixture over the crackers as evenly as you can.  Slide the pan into the oven and bake the toffee for 10 minutes.

 

Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle the milk chocolate chips over the top.  Give the chips a minute or two to melt and then spread them out as evenly as you can (I put the pan back in the oven for a minute).  Sprinkle the chopped pecans over the top of the chocolate and refrigerate (or freeze) the pan.

 

When the toffee has thoroughly chilled, peel it from the foil and break it into random-sized pieces.

This stores very well for a longer period of time in a plastic bag in the freezer.

 

Portable Ironing Table

Debbie brought her ironing table to Friday/Saturday sewing this month. Isn't this a clever idea for having a small ironing board right beside your sewing machine or anywhere you need to sit and iron.

It is a TV tray table covered with several layers of batting and fabric - just staple the fabric onto the underside of the table. Easy as can be to make and can be folded and put away when not needed.

A friend of Debbie's made this for her - a great gift for a quilter!

 

Debbie used the CSQ design wall to create this very patriotic quilt for a veteran. She used blocks leftover from a recent CSQ BOM and the center panel was found in a box of donated fabric that someone brought that morning. The light fabric with little flags was also donated to CSQ! Nice job, Debbie! 

 

 Notice her iron and table in the lower left.

 

 

Quilts for Veterans

Sewing on Friday and Saturday was a fun time visiting and sewing and especially nice that some of our newer members joined us. These quilts for veterans are all a result of group efforts - cutting, sewing, pressing together and discussing fabric choices, etc.  A couple of them still need borders, but we ran out of time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meeting photos

If you missed the meeting this month you missed a fun program about using men's ties in quilts. Elsa and Estelle showed us how to prepare ties to use in a quilt (or other project) and gave us lots of great ideas. Then we had a  fabulous show-and-tell.

Carol took the photos and you can see what you missed (or revisit any of the quilts) in our Flickr file:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/94945132@N03/with/22530829657/

WHEAT Food Drive at the December meeting

The next meeting will be our annual holiday pot luck. Bring your favorite dish to share and consider also bringing something for the WHEAT pantry. Cathy Williams sent along this note to let us know what they need. Money, of course, is always helpful! They purchase perishables every time they have the pantry so any funds raised would go to that.

We continue to assist with several bags of fresh and staple groceries to approximately 80 families residing in Western Hanover County. 

Following is a list of items that will assist us in assisting our community's needy and food insecure:

any type of canned vegetable or fruit

6 ounce cans of tuna

spaghetti sauce to feed a family of 4

boxes of mac 'n cheese

8 ounce boxes of spaghetti noodles

cereal or oatmeal

pancake mix and syrup

dish detergent to hand-wash dishes

clothes detergent

bar soap

shampoo

toilet paper

paper towels

small jars of jelly

pouches of dried milk

boxes of dried mashed potatoes

boxes of dressing

hamburger helper

$ to offset the cost of fresh foods purchased the day of the pantry (Make checks payable to WHEAT and include your address. Yo will receive a tax receipt.)

 

Also, if you are doing your holiday shopping at Amazon please consider using smile.amazon.com. It's the same Amazon but you also pick a charity (WHEAT is one and so is the Virginia Quilt Museum). A percentage of the sale goes to the charity you choose. It's a small percentage but it all adds up!

Bring any finished Veterans quilts to the November meeting

We are going to try to do a delivery to the VA this month.  Please bring any completed Veterans quilts to our meeting tomorrow.  We're hoping to have 20- 25 quilts this time around.  Thanks!  Susan should be there and we can discuss scheduling the delivery.

Nov BOM & SEW-ATHON

Karen started our year off with "Back to Basics" and we are going to re-visit making 4-patch blocks again this month. All those 4-patches we made during Karen's program turned into quite a few 4-patch quilts for veteran's. 

Our block this month is a traditional 4-patch block - pieced blocks set with solid blocks.

4-Patch - 12"

 

Kits have been made that include:

2 strips of fabric, a light and dark

2 6-1/2" squares. 

 

Sew the strips together, press towards the dark, and cut into 3 1/2" segments

Sew into 4-patch blocks

 

 

Sew the blocks together, positioning the DARK fabric to the center - See block above.

 

Please note: The kits contain various strips of fabric for the pieced 4-patch blocks, so yours may not look exactly like the sample block. Just remember to place the dark fabric towards the center. 

 

 

REMEMBER, we are having a SEW-ATHON dedicated to making quilts for veterans on Friday & Saturday, which are our regular second Friday/Saturday sewing days. Karen and Betsy have already prepared several quilts so sewing, ironing and assembly can begin right away. There will be lots of fabric and we will keep cutting and sewing and see just how many quilt tops we can make in 2 days.

 

Please  join us - 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

4th TUESDAY SEWING

4th Tuesday sewing days in

Oct, Nov and Dec

have been postponed, due to

everyone having busy holiday schedules.

October Block of the Month

Our block for October is Country Lanes, suggested by Annie who was inspired by this blog.  It's an interesting block and works well with our Union Blues fabric to make quilts for veterans.

 

We will be making 10" blocks from
kits available at the October meeting.
        

                                     A - cut 2-1/2" squares (or strip piece, keep reading)

                                     B - cut 2-1/2" x 4-1/2"

 

      Stitch 1/4" seams with blue/brown/beige/gray thread

Country Lanes - Block Base #1829

10" blocks are easy to make because they can be sewn using 2-1/2" strips.

(Remember this block for future quilts if you like using Jelly Rolls)

 

I have cut 24 kits for each of you to make a block.

 Each kit contains 1 square for the center and 3 strips.

 

Sew the dark brown and blue strips together and press to the brown.  

Cut into 2-1/2" segments.

Arrange into 4-patches and sew.

Press seams to either side or press open.

Make four 4-patches

Check the size of your 4-patches before you start putting everything together.

They should measure 4-1/2"  

Cut light fabric strip into 4-1/2" pieces 

Arrange pieces, adding the blue square in the center.

 Sew into rows and sew rows together.

Follow example placing the brown to the center

Block should measure 10-1/2"

They will be set on-point with setting blocks and a border.

Please return your block at the next meeting.

  

Finished quilts could look something like this.

 

Note: For those making a "ROW by ROW" quilt,

adjust the size to what works best for you.

Miriam is collecting blocks from the program she did a few months ago showing us how to stitch crazy blocks on printed foundation fabric. So far 17 blocks have been turned in and we need 3 more to make a veteran quilt. She plans to set them with black sashing between the blocks. Won't it be striking? 

Please remember to turn your block in at our October meeting, or if you would like to make a block, we still have some printed foundation fabric. The theme is "bright colors" and feel free to embellish it with black thread if you want to play with some of those fancy stitches on your machine, you know, the ones you never use.

Close-ups of untrimmed blocks. Aren't they great?

 

Fabric!

CSQ has been gifted with fabric to be used for making quilts for our veterans - lots of fabric!

The Moda fabric line is "UNION BLUES" by designer Barbara Brackman. The colors will make very nice quilts for our Veterans Quilt Project, which I'm calling V.Q.P. It's a lot of yardage - 35 pounds worth. Does anybody remember the formula for converting pounds to yardage? I'm guessing 70-100 yards! 

I see lots of sewing for V.Q.P.  -  maybe we can plan some 2-day workshops where we sew like crazy and perhaps we can get You-Know-Who to offer us an easy mystery quilt design.

I can see it being used for our block of the month (I'll make kits) and Karen and Julie are sure to come up with some good ideas for turning all this yardage into quilts!

Please bring your ideas (example or pattern) to the meetings and let's see how many quilts we can make from this donation! 

CSQ Upcoming program notes

The October Meeting is Tuesday, October 13 and the program is being presented by Marion Moody. She will be sharing her favorite quilting web sites. Bring your Shoo Fly blocks to turn in.

Future note: The November program will be Elsa Brooks and Estelle Porter sharing how to use neckties in quilts.

Julie and Karen do a great job of organizing our programs but they need our help too! Have you learned a new technique that you can share? Is there something that Please consider volunteering to provide a program. If each of use presented one program we could schedule about 3 years of programs!

Veteran's Quilt Project

Annie, our cyber CSQ member, donated this great quilt to our veterans in 2014 (one of many quilts she has sent from Vashon, WA). She also shared the pattern with us.

 

Annie saw an antique quilt made from this pattern and was inspired to draft it. She doesn't know the name of the pattern, so if someone does, please let us know, as we are calling it Annie's Star. We started the year off featuring this as our January Block of the Month, using leftover batiks from a raffle quilt we made for W.H.E.A.T.  - for the pattern and directions see the link here.

 

 

 

 

It's an easy pattern to cut and sew and offers all sorts of possible looks. Betsy made a veteran quilt in red and black, her trade-mark colors. You can see it by clicking on FLICKER at the lower right and scrolling through all the pictures.

 

The blocks each month are turned in, sewn together by a volunteer and the tops wait to take a turn on a volunteer's longarm. Vicki so generously quilted FORTY quilts last year, and this year we have another volunteer, Terry, who has jumped in to help, and I've lost track of how many she has done in a very short time. Thanks to both Vicki and Terry, for making our on-going project possible. The cost of batting and backing fabric is covered by donations to our club, as well as such things as the silent auction we had last month.

 

 

Guess which quilt had its turn on the longarm? If you guessed Annie's Star from our January blocks you would be correct. I saw Terry yesterday and she gave me this quilt, ready for a binding. The picture doesn't do it justice - see below for a close-up showing Terry's beautiful quilting!

 

 

 

All quilts are given to veterans receiving dialysis or out-patient chemo at  The V.A. McGuire Hospital in Richmond, VA. The need there is great and we welcome your quilts.

 

THANKS to EVERYONE for sewing and caring about our veterans!

 

I have some other very good news regarding our Veteran's Quilt Project, but I will save it for another post, in a few days.

 

Happy sewing on this much needed rainy day in Virginia.

 

 



Tuesday Sewing

REMINDER:  Tuesday, Sept 22 is a sewing day - 9 a.m. til 3 p.m.

Hanover County Parks & Rec has given us the use of the building on the 4th Tuesday of each month.
 
As always, bring your own project and supplies along with your lunch. (We have cutting mats, rulers, iron and ironing board, so you don't need to bring those.)

Please let me know if you are coming on Tuesday, by leaving a "comment" or emailing me - I don't want to be the only one there.

Enjoy this beautiful weather and happy sewing!

September meeting notes

We had a fun meeting last night. Carol gave us an excellent pressing lesson and then we had one of the most successful trash-to-treasure sales ever! We made a whopping $378.42!! Thanks to everyone who provided stuff to buy and to the buyers. All of the leftover fabric will go to Estelle for donation to her friend who knows all of the organizations around town who can use the fabric.

Other notes:

- Virginia Quilt Museum: Elsa is looking for volunteer docents for October 31. The exhibits are:

• Caryl Bryer Fallert Gentry's 30 Quilts for 30 Years
•  100 Years of Quilts: The Unger Family
•  Treasures of the Vault: Curator's Choice
•  Charlottesville Area Quilt Guilds

- The September block is the Shoo Fly block. You can make one or more to hand in or make them for yourself for a row quilt. For 1 row you would need 5 blocks with spaces to make the row 48" wide.

 

- Susan Ryan shared a letter that she received from McGuire VA Hospital thanking us for the quilts that we delivered earlier this year.

 

- Did you know that you can donate to your favorite charity every time you shop on Amazon? Just use the site http://smile.amazon.com/ . There you can select your charity and then shop as normal. Every time you shop a small percentage will be donated to your charity. Our two favorite charities are represented there: Virginia Quilt Museum and Western Hanover Emergency Action Team (WHEAT).

- Sewing Friday and Saturday is this weekend! Bring your machine and lunch and join us!

 

September Block of the Month

We have taken a summer break from making blocks, so it's time for us to get back to making blocks for our veteran quilts. I thought it would be nice to start off with a red/white/blue quilt, sure to please any veteran!

The block we will be making is an old favorite, Shoo Fly, #1645 in Block Base.

Cutting direction for 9" blocks - See diagram for color placement.

A - White - cut 3-7/8" squares, slice it on the diagonal*
A - Red - cut 3-7/8" squares, slice it on the diagonal*
B - White  - cut 3-1/2 squares
B - Blue -  cut 3-1/2" square

*Use any method you like for making Half Square Triangles.

FABRICS:  My white is probably not the same as your white - that's okay. Set together, they will all look fine.  A nice mix of reds and blues will give us the scrappy look we are going for. (prints and solids). 

NOTE: If anyone has extra blue and red fabric we could use it for the setting blocks.

Here is just one possibility of what we can make with our blocks:

September Meeting

Fall is fast approaching - where did Summer go? Now is a good time to tidy up your sewing room and get rid of things you don't want.

Our September 8 meeting will be one you won't want to miss!

TWO things on the agenda:

1.  Carol Clark will be giving a program on "Pressing" - showing us some pressing methods to help improve our sewing and make it easier. Carol is a very prolific quilter so I know she will have some good tips to share.

2. Annual Silent Auction (bids written on paper). This is always a big hit because one person's trash can be another person's treasure. All items are donated to CSQ and the $ goes to CSQ.  Please mark an opening bid on your item, and from there others will bid up on it. In the past some very nice items have changed hands. Remember, it can be sewing related or a jar of jelly - all donations are welcome.

Veterans quilts - great news!

Many of you met Terry Muller at the last meeting. She and I met at the Innova new owners training last month. I talked her into visiting our happy group. She did and had a great time and has offered to help me quilt the veterans quilts!

YAY!

 

 

So, you can now bring me any quilts that you have and, between us, we should be able to get them all quilted.

 

As a reminder, here are the rules:

 

• The must be pressed and ready to quilt, we do not press the quilt tops before quilting
• We only do veterans quilts and nothing larger than about 50 x 62
• We get them done as soon as we can but we both have other obligations. So they get done when they get done.
• We choose the backing, thread and pattern for quilting. It's, hopefully, a happy surprise for you!
• In return we ask that someone apply the binding on any quilts that we make. So far this year I think that's been a grand total of 1 quilt. :)

 

I think you will be thrilled with Terry's quilting - she has automation and a huge library of patterns. She'll be using the veterans quilts as a way to stitch out samples for her customers.

 

PS - She also quilts for a business!

 

The end is in sight for the quilt that I've been working on for the past 3 months so I'll get back to veterans quilts in the next few weeks.

Fiber Art Class at the Montpelier Center!

We know that the Montpelier Center has art classes but did you know that they are offering a fibert art class this fall?

Leaves and Flowers in Stitches    Instructor:  Anne McCahill - 4 week class starting Saturday Sept. 5th,  9am - 1pm in the Art Studio.  This class is for beginning students who would like to learn the art of needle painting through embroidery. Students will work on individual and class assigned projects.  A suggested supply list will be available upon registration.
$270 members/$300 guests.  Call The Center at 883-7378 to register.

Sewing Together

We are on the calendar with Hanover Parks & Recreation to sew Tuesday, August 25th.  It will be a nice day to sew and visit in the wonderful facility provided to CSQ by Hanover County - our tax dollars at work for us!  9 a.m. - until mid/late afternoon.

Just bring your sewing and your lunch. We have ironing boards, iron, cutting rulers and mats. If you need help on a project there is always lots of free advice. If you haven't been before, I can tell you this is a nice way to get to know others. The room is spacious and there are plenty of tables for laying out blocks or basting quilts. Hope to see some of our newer members there. 

If you can't come on Tuesday, plan ahead for September 11 & 12th, (Friday & Saturday).  Come sew one or both days, or stop by to visit.

Happy sewing!

Sewing Days

Our next Sewing Days are

 

 Friday and Saturday, August 7 & 8,

 

9 a.m. until mid/late afternoon.

 

Bring your stuff to sew, or come by to visit. 

Challenge fabrics are in!

At the June meeting we talked about having a challenge fabric project. We did this about 10 years ago and it made for a great exhibit. We wanted to do another in preparation for our exhibit at the Montpelier Center in September 2016.

Here's how it will work. You will receive 2 fabrics and you make a quilt project no larger than 80" in total perimeter (the total of all 4 side dimensions are 80" or less). There has to be a recognizable amount of both fabrics in your finished quilt.

That's all there is in the way of rules.

You can add any other fabrics, embellish any way you wish, make any pattern, use any technique. ANYTHING.

I decided to unveil the fabrics here on the blog in case you want to purchase any other fabrics from the same collection. The fabrics are Color Crush by Timeless Treasures and I got them at a great sale price from Hancock's of Paducah.

In selecting the fabrics I decided on 2 colorways. I know that we are sometimes more comfortable with warmer or cooler colors so you will get your choice (until supplies run out) of these sets.

 

Cool Fabrics

 

Warm Fabrics

 

I have 16 FQ sets of each.

 

If you feel strongly about which you want just leave a comment on this blog post and I'll reserve a set for you. Fabrics will be available at the August meeting and finished projects are due August 2016!

Quilts for Veterans on Display

Quilts made by Country School Quilt members to be given to

Veterans are on display at The Montpelier Center for Arts & Education.

Three quilts fill the wall in the library entrance.

Thank you to everyone for your continued interest and support in making quilts to be given to our veterans. 

Accepting these veteran's quilts only

I reviewed the list of veteran's quilts and these are the ones that I will take to work on. If you are not at the July meeting do not worry! I will not be quilting any of these before September. I'll take them any time this fall.

From Becky: 2 CSQ BOM tops
From Karen: 2 CSQ BOM tops
Peg: 2
Carol: 3
Betsy: 1
Ann Ober: 3 (Karen and Becky can to work out which 3 of the ones she sent)
Karen: 2
Annie: 1
Estelle: 1
Judy: 1

They need to be pressed and ready to quilt. I do not press them before quilting. If I receive them wrinkled that's how they get quilted.

That's all for this year! Hopefully I will have them quilted by December but no promises.

SEWING DAYS

CSQ  sewing days this FRI. & SAT. from 9 -4. Come anytime for as long o.. short a time as you want.  The building is available to as many or few as want to come.

Now accepting veteran's quilt tops!

I'm going to start taking veteran's quilt tops again. I set a goal of quilting 40 this year. 20 are done and I have 2 tops at home so that means that I'll take up to 18 tops.

Based on what I've heard I think we have a lot more than 18 tops to be quilted. At the last meeting we agreed on a priority ranking. First, all tops made from monthly blocks (up to 18) will be quilted. The remaining slots will be filled in with member's tops allowing "turns" so that hopefully everyone will get at least one top quilted. So I want to use this post to determine which quilts I will take in July.

If you have any quilts to be quilted please leave a message on this post and tell me how many veteran's tops you have to be quilted and how many of them are made from the monthly blocks. After we get a tally I'll let you know which ones to bring to me at the July meeting.

July Sewing

Our July Sewing days are July 10 & 11. I know this is a busy time of year for many people, including those going on vacation. There was some talk about cancelling sewing this month, but let's see how much interest there is. Please leave a comment if you are planning to come! 

Dot Holloway is home after being in the hospital and Sheltering Arms Rehab for nearly two months. She is a founding member of Country School Quilters whose birthday is July 4th! Her address, if you'd like to send her a birthday card:
17065 Huckleberry Hill Lane, Montpelier, VA 23192

Our July 14 meeting will be our annual summer pot luck dinner. Please note our meeting time will be 6:30. Please bring a covered dish and your appetite.

Quilts for Veterans Delivered

Susan Ryan posted the following on facebook today: 

Delivered 21 quilts this morning to the dialysis unit and outpatient chemo clinic at McGuire VA Hospital. Made some very nice veterans happy.


Thank you, Susan, for delivering all the quilts. There will be more at the end of the year!

(Susan is a CSQ member and retired O.R. nurse from McGuire VA Hospital)

Veteran Quilt Display at Montpelier Center

Please bring all veteran's quilts to the meeting Tuesday night. There were several quilts that needed a binding, and we are ready to hang them at The Montpelier Center.  The plan is to hang 3 quilts and we will change them every 3 months. This is a great way for us to share with the community!   Thank you and see you Tuesday. 

JUNE MEETING

REMINDER: Our June meeting will be June 16, (due to the election in our building on June 9.) 

 

June sewing will be our regular 2nd Friday & Saturday of the month - June 12 & 13.

Free Quilt Patterns

The other day I was thinking about how many free quilt patterns that there are on the web. Then I set out to make a list of as many sites as I could find and share them here. There are more than what's on this list but these are the ones that I think have the best designs.

Riley Blake Designs has tons of patterns. Most are simple with one block repeats and simple borders but there are a few really unique ones. Cinema is one that's interesting and, I think, could be changed to make it veteran's size.

Jinny Beyer has several free patterns and they are more complex than most free patterns. There are even a few bargello designs.

In The Beginning fabrics has lots of patterns and there is a lot of variety in designs. You are bound to like something on their page.

Blank Quilting has a couple dozen free patterns.

Pat Sloan has a bunch of patterns and Traffic Jam would be great for scraps.

Andover Fabrics has TONS of patterns. Sherwood is one that could be a veteran's quilt by eliminating the outer border and making the middle border a little wider.

Hoffman Fabrics has a decent collection of free patterns.

Robert Kaufman has pages and pages of free patterns!

About.com has 5 pages of patterns.

Michael Miller has a lot of "modern" quilt patterns.

Clothworks has about 100 free quilt and project patterns.

Fabri-Quilt has a nice variety of patterns.

Windham Fabrics as 33 pages of patterns!

Timeless Treasures has 19 pages of patterns.

Of course Bonnie Hunter has THE best collection of scrap quilt patterns.

There's a Pinterest Board for free patterns and there's even a Facebook page for free patterns!

If you are looking for a new pattern maybe one of these sites will have something you like. If you have a site that I don't have listed here leave a link in the comments.

CORRECTION - MAY MEETING

The post I made yesterday was about our MAY meeting - I have changed the post to say May, not June.

May Meeting

Our MAY meeting will be an interesting one with lots going on!
 
Miriam Ahladas will be presenting a program on crazy quilts - which will be our block of the month. Please bring any crazy quilts (old or new) to share during the program.
 
1. Bring your oldest quilt and share its story.
 
2. Remember to bring ALL veterans quilts to the meeting as they will be delivered soon. If your quilt doesn't have a label, you can get one at the meeting and sew it on.
 
3. Return your 3 Wonky Square blocks to Vicki.
 
4. Bring your regular Show & Tell.
 
5. We will NOT be meeting for sewing on Tuesday May 26 (the building is not available to us).
 
6. JUNE MEETING. Our building will be used for voting on June 9 (our regular meeting date) so we have rescheduled our meeting to JUNE 16.

See you Tuesday - come early to visit - meeting starts at 7 p.m.

May Dates

May 8th & 9th: Fri.-Sat. sewing, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
May 12:  meeting 7 p.m.  program on foundation piecing crazy quilt block by Miriam Ahladas
                                         also bring your oldest quilt(s) & share it's story ( did you or someone in your family make it, was it found at flea market, etc.)
May 26:  NO Tuesday sit & stitch










t

Schedule Change

Just a reminder that we will not be able to use our building for sewing Tuesday, April 28.

Next sewing days are: Friday and Saturday Sewing on May 8 & 9th

Hope to see you then!

Wonky Square blocks

How are you doing on your wonky squares blocks?

Don't be surprised of they look like this when you are done. These are all OK! I'll trim them once I have them all back. These 3 are all going to be perfect in the quilt.

April's Block - Wonky Square in a Square

Our April block is a wonky square in a square block. The fabrics you have from the meeting are patriotic. These photos are from blocks that I'm making for another quilt. The blocks that you make will be made into a Quilt of Valor.

 

 

It's a pretty straight forward block to make but we want to make these blocks so that each "square" is complete without cut off corners like the block on the left. We want to avoid having blocks look like the one on the right.

 

You have 3 fabrics. Stack them together and cut them all at once.

 

 

 

The first 2 cuts are diagonal on opposite corners. They are wonky so they can be at any angle but at least one end of the cut should extend beyond the middle of the block (white lines).

 

 

The next cuts are on the other corners. Cut these far enough into the block so that end edges are blunt, not pointy like is shown in the white circle. This is how you make sure that none of the corners are cut off.

 

That's the outside square done.

 



Next we cut the middle square. Cut it with the same rules. The ends of the cuts should extend beyond the middle of the shape.

 

 

Cut the other 2 corners again with wide blunt edges. That leaves the center shape. Don't worry about how small this might be. It's OK!

 

 

Now sort the fabrics so that you have some of each fabric in each of the 3 blocks. I take the top fabric from the 4 outside corners and put it on the bottom and then take the bottom fabric from the center and put it on top.

 

 

Now, sew your 3 blocks together. Sew the pieces together in the reverse order of how you cut them. The blunt cut corners get sewn first. It's easy to get things out of order with these wonky shapes so give yourself a system to keep everything in order and turned in the right direction.

 

 

As you sew these wonky shapes together you will need to trim off edges so that you have an even edge to sew to.

 

When your 3 blocks are done you are done. Don't trim them. Once I get all the blocks back I will measure them and cut them to the largest possible size.