Our Guild members enjoyed getting together so much on National Quilting Day that we wanted to find a way to do it more than just one day a year.

The new library in Marcellus, NY encourages groups to use their community room for activities.  The lighting is perfect  for quilting and chairs are very comfortable.  There’s plenty of room to spread out projects and set up ironing and cutting stations.  We’re lucky that our Guild is located in such a community.

One of our members made arrangements for us to use the room on a monthly basis.  Just think the opportunity to quilt, problem solve and interact with other quilters all day – no interruptions!  We were able to have our first get-together today.
I decided to work on the hand-piecing project from a class that I had taken in 2003.  Hand-piecing is easy and a perfect take-a-long project.  But now I remember why I never finished it – I don’t like the scrappy look.I’ll have to go through my stash and coordinate some fabrics before I can go back to it it again.

I’m not any closer to my plan only to work on UFO’s this year.  I put that plan aside when I found the “perfect” earth tone fabrics and learned about Seminole Patchwork on a trip to Florida this winter.  Of course I had to start a new quilt!
Nevertheless we all enjoyed ourselves so much that we are hoping the library will allow us to use the room twice a month – and not just once a month!
Quilting from Home!

Every year the Thumbstall Quilt Guild members make a quilt and raffle tickets are sold.  The proceeds support the guild’s programs and community projects throughout the year.  We have some very talented quilters in our group and the quilts are always exceptional.

This year’s quilt is that and then some!  The queen size quilt,  Country Flowers, is made up of 12 hand-appliquéd blocks surrounded by pieced sashing.  The long arm custom quilting really enhances each of the blocks.

Our quilt is being displayed at Patchwork Plus during this weekend’s Shop Hop.  I overheard one woman say that she would be willing to  remodel a room just to put the quilt in it.

Quilting at Home!

Two rainy days this week -

Just the excuse that I needed to spend some time quilting.

I  decided to begin the Seminole strip for my quilt.

Shape Cut Tool

Cutting was a breeze with the Shape Cut by June Taylor.

Strip Piecing – (My second timesaver)

What an easy way to make this strip for the quilt.  It looks difficult, but the key is an accurate 1/4-seam.

To help me maintain that 1/4-inch seam, my husband etched markings on the clear base plate that came with  my sewing machine cabinet. Now its easy to line up and keep the edge of the material a scant 1/4-inch away from the needle, before it is fed under the machine’s presser foot.

Yesterday,  I had lunch with fellow quilters, Mae and Ruth. At our “mini’ Show-n-Tell I pulled out a sample of the Seminole strip that I’m sewing.  They agreed that the Seminole piecing will add a very unique finish to my quilt and definitely looks harder to make than it really is.

Quilting from Home!

This weekend I realized that I had put some of the 3-1/2″ blocks upside down in my autumn quilt.  Luckily they were the last rows.  So I settled down to use my favorite stitch – “rib-it” (rip it).  I guess it must be my favorite – I get to use it, no matter which quilt I am working on.

I did however, decide to take advantage of the 60 degree day we were having and settled down on the deck.  Talk about making lemonade….

Quilting from Home

Last year at our annual quilters’ retreat at Watson Homestead in Painted Post NY, four of us (Lisa, Pauline, Jeanne and I) decided to make and exchange blocks from  Frightfully Crazy quilts by Janet Nesbitt. Her book features 4 different quilts Harvest Stars, Crazy Jacks (Jack-o-Lanterns), Scaredy-Cats and If the Hat Fits (Witches). Making 8 blocks of one pattern, we each will keep 2 of blocks and exchange the other 6, ending up with 2 each of the cats, witches, stars and jack-o-lanterns blocks.

My pattern is the Harvest Stars. General craziness is the technique used to complete these quilt blocks. Twelve fat quarters were stacked, cut, then shuffled so that each fabric became the star in one block and the background in another. It was fun to see the results as the blocks were sewn back together.

Harvest Stars

The craziness continued as the stars were stitched.  The technique is quite a change from normal piecing, matching seams and sharp points of the star block.  It was so easy!

My last task is to add the center appliqué and I decided to use Kim Diehl’s technique of invisible machine appliqué. I finally started the applique this weekend.   ( There’s nothing like a deadline to make sure you get something done!)  We are planning on our block exchange next week.

I hope everyone likes the results and can’t wait to see their finished pieces.

Quilting at Home!