Columbus Star Quilt Guild Meeting

Our local quilt guild meets the first Wednesday of every month and I'm usually scrambling to get things put together for this meeting.  My goal this year was to have at least one thing for Show & Tell at each meeting.  So far, I've been hitting that goal with some help from my friends!

As I'm one of the co-chairs of the Sewer's Boutique for "A Gathering of Quilts," our biennial Quilt Show coming on October 2 - 3, it was a thrill to be the recipient of neat gifts at the SeaSide Stitchers Retreat.  You can be sure the ideas shared at that retreat will be finding their way into gifties that will be at the boutique.  I have to say that the entire guild fell in love with the Snap Bags.  Here's a sample:

We had a lesson at the retreat on how to make the bags.  Of course, being the rebel in the group, it took me longer to complete than the others.  I just couldn't wrap my mind around why you would stitch a 1 1/4" seam allowance and the very next step trim the seam allowance to 1/2".  Still can't figure that one out.  So I reworked the measurements so that I didn't have to trim that seam allowance.  Saved  a whole 1 1/2" of fabric!!  By the time I was done, everyone else had completed all of the steps of their Snap Bag and moved on to other projects. 

Even though I didn't have one of my own quilts to show at the Guild meeting, I had completed the quilting on one of Jeannette's quilts.  She showed it and there were lots of Ooohs and Aaahs - particularly as the back was a plain piece of muslin so the quilting showed up well.  I had used a red thread to outline quilt the leaves and berries that were on an inner border (next to the green triangles).  It was part of a two piece border.  The second part of the border got quilted daisies that were in the tan fabric so they're not as visible. 

Here's Jeannette's quilt.  Stitching around all of the applique was time consuming!  The dense quilting in the light areas around the applique helps it stand out from the body of the quilt.

The back looks great, too!

With a little bit of breathing space, I now have to decide what to do next.  I do have a customer's quilt but I'm waiting for her to drop by with a book showing the quilting design she wants.  Although she described it to me, I'd really feel better seeing what she's talking about so I quilt it to her expectations.  Sometimes (most of the time?!) my interpretation of what someone describes is not quite what they intended.  Remember that exercise where you sat with your backs together and your partner tells you how to draw something by telling you where to put your pencil and which direction to go?  My drawings NEVER turned out like the original picture!

I've been enjoying the Spring flowers that are now blooming all over the place.

Cheers!