One of our ‘must’ stops in New York City was a trip to Ground Zero.

On display is a quilt by Deborah Fell.

Does God Have Enough Hands?

The accompanying plaque certainly gives us pause to reflect, especially as we approach this Fourth of July weekend.  Please don’t let us forget how and why this country was founded – on Christian principles and ethics.  The song that Congress chose to sing on the steps of the Capitol on that horrific occasion was God Bless America. Partisan politics were set aside showing the world and ourselves the solidarity of our country.    I wish we were able to do that every day!

(Unfortunately with my photographic skills, or lack thereof, the plaque is very hard to read in this picture so I’ve repeated the wording below.)

”  ‘Tuesday’s Child:  Does God Have Enough Hands?’

A news story about a young child epitomized the week’s tragic events.  The parent was trying to explain, why Daddy wasn’t coming home from work at the World Trade Center.  In her explanation, the mother said that God came down and lifted Daddy to heaven that day.  The little boy looked up at his mother and asked,

‘Does God have enough hands?’

The art quilt is a response to the horrific events that changed the United States forever.  It is an abstracted image of the toppled World Trade Center Towers.  The rubble below are photographic transfers of newspaper articles, headlines and photographs.  It is unorganized with chaos reigning everywhere.  The quilt is unfinished — the building is exposed & charred & threads are not trimmed — reflecting the vast number of lives that were so unfinished when the World Trade Center was destroyed.

There are no words.  Only frozen thoughts.

This piece is dedicated to all the victims of the World Trade Center bombing.  It is specifically dedicated to my friend who carefully walked away from the bombing, navigating the darkness until he & a colleague reached safety across the Brooklyn Bridge.”

Let us never forget!

Quilters are by far some of the most generous people I know.   While searching for possible charity projects that the guild might be interested in, I came across the Moda challenge, Just One Star. As part of the Quilts of Valor program, Moda is planning on making 100 quilts in 100 days. They need 1800 to complete the 100 quilts.  When finished the Flag of Valor quilts will be sent to injured military personnel as they return to the United States from Iraq and Afghanistan.

True to this generosity, Thumbstall guild members are joining together to support this cause.   At our monthly sew day earlier this week, we got together as usual to work individual projects.  Some people worked on the star blocks while others were planning on completing them at home.   Given the short time to complete these blocks (May 1) I was certainly heartened by their generosity.  I’m anxious to see just how many blocks are actually finished by our monthly meeting next week.

Just One Star

Can’t believe it, but the 2011 Raffle Quilt for the Thumbstall Quilt Guild is completely finished. It’s been a long year of planning and putting it together – but the final result is more than worth it.  Now all that’s left to do is show it at various venues and sell the tickets!  One of our members, Marion, who is a master long arm quilter just finished the quilting.  She used a leaf pattern in the center of the quilt.

Leaf Detail

Detail of applique border

and meandered the applique borders, outlining the applique itself.  Just beautiful!

The border is an original design by another guild member, Sandi.

I just received the finished quilt today and couldn’t help but spread it out on the bed.

Understated Elegance

My husband liked it so much that he insisted on buying the first tickets!

Saturday was National Quilting Day.  As we do every year on the third Saturday in March, a few members of the  Thumbstall Quilt Guild got together to share our favorite pastimes: quilting, camaraderie and good food .   This year 10 of us spent the day making  Memory Bags for local Central New York hospitals.  We were able to finish, or nearly finish 15 bags.   If someone dies in the hospital, their personal belongings are given to family members in these bags.  Certainly better than the see-thru plastic bags that the hospitals normally use.   To date the guild has distributed 34 bags to three area hospitals,  With the 15 we completed Saturday, we’ll be able to give them 35 additional bags by the end of the month.

Looking for a quick, easy charity project?  The directions follow here.

Sew and Flip Memory Bag (Adapted from Plank Road Guild pattern) rev. 11/2010

Materials: 19” muslin or lining material [subdued print] (must be at least 43” wide) 21 fabric strips 2 ½” wide, 19” to 20” long (muted fabrics; no brights or child prints) Strips may be pieced and pressed (Or substitute yardage19” x WOF for strips). 1 strip 8” by WOF (width of fabric) for handles, ties and binding.

Construction of Handles, Ties and Binding: From 8” by WOF cut: 1 – 2-¼ ” by WOF for binding 2 – 4” by 18” for handles 2 – 1” by 18” for ties Handles: Press each 4” by 18” piece in half lengthwise. Open out. Press each side to center, press in half again. Top stitch both sides of handle. Make two.

Ties. Press each 1” x 18” piece into thirds lengthwise. Top stitch close to raw edge on side and one end. Make 2.

Binding: Press in half.

Bag Unit Construction: Press lining and strips. Fold lining in half, salvage to salvage. Press crease to find center. Open lining and place right side down. Place strip one, right side up centered over crease in lining. Pin in place. (This is the only strip that will need to be pinned). Place strip two, right sides together over strip one and sew with ¼” seam from top to bottom. Keep lining smooth underneath as you sew through all layers. Open strip two and press away from strip one. Continue in this manner adding 10 strips to the right and 10 strips the left for a total of 21 strips, sewn and flipped, pressing as you go. Do not trim. From right side, secure last strip on each end to the lining with 1/8” basting seam. Stay close to end of strip so stitches won’t show in final seam. From right side, trim away extra lining material from top and bottom of bag. Turn the bag over to the lining side. Trim away the extra strip material from each side of the bag. Size should be 18” x 40” at this point. Make French fold seams on sides of bag (like pillowcase seams): With the wrong sides of bag together, join bag sides with a scant 1/4” seam, making sure that strips on the outside of the bag line up. Turn bag so new seam is on the inside; (right sides of fabric will be together). Sew. Push seam to outside and iron, so you have a nice sharp edge. Enclose the first seam with a ½” seam. Turn right side out. Iron side seams so they are flat.

Handles, Ties and Binding: Ties: Pin the ties at the center of the inside of the bag, making sure they are hanging into the bag and don’t get caught up when you sew on the binding.

Handles: On outside of bag, measure 4-½” from right and left bag edges. Pin the handle at the 4-½” marks. Do not twist the handle. Make sure the handles are not up and away from the bag – they should be lying on top of the sewn strips and will be flipped up later.

Binding: With both handles and ties hanging down, attach the binding strip with a ¼ ” seam allowance to wrong side of bag. Flip binding up and press seam up and away from bag. Bring binding to front, handles and ties down. Top stitch binding to front of bag. Flip handles up; ties remain down. Top stitch close to top edge through all layers including handle area to secure the handles a second time.

Memory Bag is complete. Finished bag size is 17-¼” x 21-¾”. \

The 2011 Thumbstall Raffle Quilt top is finished!  It’s been a a year of organizing and stressing over color choices, pattern adaptation, distributing blocks, follow-up – but definitely worth it!  A group of us got together a couple of weeks ago and put the blocks together.

Unfortunately some of the star point tips were a little short. May shared a tip that helps preserve most of the points.  She called it pivoting the point.

Quilt Tip:

The first step is to insert a pin in the star point vertically,

and then eyeball the quarter inch of the facing block.

Then pivot the remaining fabric resulting in a near perfect 1/4 ” seam.

Julie and I added the borders and now the quilt is in the hands of a guild member who is a long arm quilter. She will custom quilt the top proving that ‘quilting really makes the quilt!’