WE quilters

Today (well, this was now a few days ago, sigh) was our November meeting. I was able to sew and share two quilt tops from the September pattern donated blocks. 

I sewed the first random stars one first. That was a bit of a challenge and took more time than it should have. Reason: I didn't have a pattern. Because of that I had to take some blocks apart. I am determent to write a better "lay-out" and do it again. 

I also had way more blogs without stars. The second top went quite fast together. There are three blocks across in each row and a strip of single squares down on each side. And a single square row on the bottom to make the size close to 48 inches x 60 inches. This is our preferred charity quilt size.

The first quilt top done with the BOM blocks donated in November. I think it definitely will please a man receiving it.

I hope you like seeing the results of the BOM effort of our group. I do enjoy it! Thanks to all.

BOM

I think I should write an update about the 'done' WE Quilt Group BOM. Here is the last one.

The August 2022 pattern was "A Friendship Star"

The first pieced quilt top shown at the September meeting.

The next pieced quilt top from these patterns shown at the October meeting.

The September 2022 pattern was "Oh my Stars"

I was traveling in September and could not be at the meeting. Nancy was so nice and did my job for me to present all to the group. It was also decided to use the same pattern for the next month as well so there would be more blocks. 

And here is the first lay-out on my design wall from those blocks.

The November 2022 pattern was the "Nine-patch with Cross-bars"

The meeting is in a few days. We will see whether this pattern will be a success.

All the BOM patterns are now as PDFs on this blog. Just click on the tab on the very top.

WE Quilters BOMs

Wow, it is already a year ago that I wrote about the WE Quilters "Block of the Month" HERE!

There is more to report since then!

In the above mentioned blog I had already posted the pattern for September last year. As it didn't have to be the specific leaf pattern I had to try out another pattern. I really liked it.

And here is the pieced top made from the blocks the members had brought to the meeting. 

Here is the pattern for the October meeting:

I think that was a fun project. I had not enough blocks for a whole quilt. But one member had gifted the autumn tree to the project. I made two more and also a fir type tree. And ... was rather happy with the result.

This was the BOM pattern for November. Not many blocks were brought in. There were not even enough for one quilt. Of course before Christmas everybody is so busy anyway. 

And then we didn't meet in December. And I think also not in January or February (? not sure whether it was the weather or covid). When we met again I didn't know whether members wanted to continue with this. But in March we decided that yes, continue. We used the same block again. I added the "scrappy feature". And here is the April BOM:

The turn-out this time was really great! And the results were two quilts with sashing.

The May pattern:

We had some interesting entries. Here is the result:

Something totally different for the June meeting:

The pattern was smaller and not many bird came flying. So we put them into the box with the left-over blocks from previous month and came up with this challenge: bring your orphan blocks!

That was a bigger success! Here is the first of the charity quilts were I started with all the birds we had in the middle. 

The second selection was laid out on my loft floor for quite a while. 

But it is finally finished now too. The two in the middle were a larger size. Somehow I had trouble with the math. Who would have known.

I should hurry because we have already blogs from the next month. What a great problem to have. But I must admit that making quilts out of random blocks is actually not so easy. It is a challenge I quite enjoy though.

Quilting club BOM

You think retired people have nothing to do but somehow it seems that I don't have that much time for my hobbies. Of course I do admit that I have too many (hobbies) but this blog is a little about sewing.

Once a month I spend a couple of hours at quilters' meetings. The WE Quilters (West End) meet on the 3rd Tuesday in the morning. When the pandemic situation got better we started meeting again. At our first (new start-up) meeting we all decided to have a BOM (Block of the month).

* * *

Here are the rules:

At the May 2021 meeting is was decided to begin a BLOCK OF THE MONTH PROGRAM.

-   Each member who wishes to participate should make two blocks (set) and bring them to the meeting. 

-   Blocks will be collected at sign-in, one to be used for charity quilts and the other to be raffled off.

• For each two blocks (set) a participant brings she will receive a raffle ticket.
• Of course you can bring only one and add it to the charity pile. No raffle ticket. 

-   These are volunteer hours.  Please keep track and record on our sign-in sheet at each meeting.

* * *

This was the write-up for the first one:

Blocks to bring to the June 2021 meeting: 

Size: blocks should be 12" finished (12 1/2" unfinished). 

Pattern: any of your choosing

Colors: background should be pure white or white-on-white 

with blue and yellow fabrics 

If you need help to find a pattern: google on free 12 inch quilt patterns 

One of those free pattern places:
https://www.generations-quilt-patterns.com/12-inch-quilt-block-patterns.html has a lot of samples. If you scroll down far enough you find sections 3x3 and 4x4 etc which is interesting. 

Here are some samples: 

https://www.generations-quilt-patterns.com/susannah-quilt-block.html 

https://www.generations-quilt-patterns.com/evening-star-quilt-block.html 

* * *

It was a great success. We had enough blocks to make two quilts. Friend Janet (also a member) sewed the blocks together with sashing. Here they are unquilted:

I had volunteered to head this program. Meeting is at my church now and sponsored the raffle tickets which we needed.  

I like to come up with the next "pattern" and write up the directions. June and July we had verbaly agreed on in May and it didn't need much writing. 

Here is July.

Again we had enough blocks donated for two quilts and Janet sewed them together again. One with blue sashing and one with red sashing.

All quilters do not work the same. Some like to be creative and some just would like the pattern and do it. Picking out the fabric is enough creativity there and some didn't like to have to search for the pattern. So for August I wrote directions for cutting and all. I designed it to be a 14 inch block finished so no sashing was needed when making the quilt top.

Again we had a great response. We had 22 blocks in the charity pile. Of course there is almost the same number in the raffle pile. Some members are choosing to only make for the charity and don't want to participate in the raffle (which is very nice I think!).

So I crawled around on the floor and laid out the two quilts ... and changed them around ... and changed again until I liked it. You see the 2 missing. I could now pick colors which would fit best into the places out of my stash. Hubby is holding up the two finished quilt tops. I might take them to the Stitchers Group (they are the recipients and will quilt/finish them) and add a border around them to pull everything together, probably with fabric of the back and binding. Will see. Happy that I got so far.

At the August meeting of course was given out the September meeting. Autumn is coming so I thought this might make nice quilts. Again it is a 12 inch (finished) block. I made two blocks and used those to create the second page how the whole quilt might look like. The creative members have the option to make just a 12 inch leave block without the "logs" which could make the quilt even more interesting. I look forward to that meeting.

Nashville grandson started 6 grade couple of weeks ago and needed more masks. What does he like. Fitting? We should have done that when he was visiting in summer. Sigh. The apple one could be a gift to a teacher?

My quilters group in Montpelier is a once a month on the second Tuesday evening group. This month' lesson was on EPP (English paper piecing). It was very well done by member Liz with demos and even a kit for everybody but I can't see myself doing that anytime soon. Handsewing is not really my preferred way of doing this. It was very interesting though. Look at the tiny pieces she had made!

And now it is time to get back to what keeps me from sewing. Sigh.

6 Heads / 12 Blocks (ROM) - March

Here is the link to this Row of the Month March block!

Just finished my row. I used a different background and NOT red and green as for the first two rows. I find this a bit difficult to decide since we don't know the whole picture. I am taking risks. I used two blues for 5 stars and two different blues for the other 5 stars and alternated them when I sewed them together. You don't really see that in the photo.

There were 40 corner triangles to sew (the light blue smaller star tips). I drew no lines as it was suggested in the pattern but used my method (link)  which you can also find in the QuiltTutorial/Patterns tab on the top of the blog.

I would love to know how you like this tip. You could leave a comment.

Für meine Deutschen Freunde (es ist ja schließlich ein Muster von einer Deutschen Seite) jetzt der Tip in Deutsch:

Ich ziehe keine Linie wie im Muster beschrieben sondern lege das Quadrat für die Ecke auf wie es sein soll. Man kann es gut mit Nadeln feststecken (mache ich aber nur bei größeren Quadraten). Dann lege ich ein Stück steifes Papier drauf wo die Linie sein würde, Fuß hoch und schiebe den Anfang unter den Fuß bis ich mit Papier und Stoff an die Nähnadel stoße. Fuß runter und zwei Stiche. Dann kontrolliere ich ob das Papier noch richtig am Ende liegt und nähe den Rest. Da ich ganz ein wenig neben dem Papier nähe paßt die Ecke haargenau wenn ich es Umbügel denn das Falten nimmt ja etwas von dem Stoff weg. Ich muß ganz selten trimmen und es geht flott. 

Manche bügeln einen Kniff rein anstatt der Linie aber den kann ich meistens nicht sehen. Oben hinter dem Quilt Tutorials/Patterns Tab könnt Ihr diesen Tip mit mehr Bildern sehen (All those corner triangles!).

Ich würde mich freuen von Euch zu hören wie Euch dieser Tip gefällt. Ihr könntet einen Kommentar lassen.

I am not sure about the color choices of my first two months ... but we will see ....

And now I will have a look and enjoy all those link on that German website.

NQC Block # 4

All I can say is: what a difference it makes when you spray the fabric with starch and iron before you cut your pieces. The corner meet so much easier that way.

The colors in the photos are not quite true. I like the real thing much better.
The block goes together quite easily.
4 large flying geese (4 at a time no waste method)
4 smaller flying geese (4 at a time no waste method)
8 HST (at a time)
and then the different squares - a fun project!

Since there will be 9 in this challenge - only 5 to go (ha-ha).

NQC Block # 1 and 3

I have blogged about my NQC block # 1 HERE!

After I had done block # 2 (I blogged about that too) I had to do # 1 again in the colors of "the quilt". I have to say that I was rather pleased about it.

After quite some time I just was finally able to tackle block # 3. And the making stretched over several days whenever there seemed to be a minute.

I got stuck here. Which way to turn the HST in the middle? I was leaning towards one idea but asked James for his opinion. He keeps claiming that he has no artistic ounce in his body but I just plainly asked "what do you like better". He (luckily) had the same idea as I. The left side. He even offered a reason: "It is more interesting making another square.

Yes, not bad.

And here are the first 3 on the design wall. I am "only" 5 blocks behind because they are being posted every Thursday.

Btw. they are 16 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches square (unfinished).

Off to tackle block # 4.