Wednesday, November 7, 2012

November 6, 2012

If you are not too "hung over" from watching the results of the election, we'll hope to see you tomorrow in the Fiber Room at the Lyndon House--9:30 AM.  We have lots of things that we can do to get some more quilts made and donated before Christmas.
See you tomorrow.  Remember that we will NOT meet on Wednesday of next week, but we'll meet on that Friday--it's the third Friday of the month.  Ellen


November 2, 2012

We did some sorting of blocks to get ready to make a group of disappearing nine patch quilts.  We also have some quilts that could be bound.  We will meet as usual next Wednesday, 9:30 in the Fiber Room at the Lyndon House, but the following Wednesday, November 14, there is a Guild workshop planned for the room, so we will NOT meet on November 14, but we decided that since Friday, November 16 is the third Friday in the month and we usually gather to work on UFOs or anything that suits your fancy, we will meet on Friday, November 16 at about 9:30 in the Fiber Room.  Bring something that you need to work on, or you can work on items for the Charity group.
        Ellen


October 30, 2012

See you tomorrow in the Fiber Room at the Lyndon House.  Come ready to cut, sew, straighten and enjoy the conversation.
See you there about 9:30 AM.
        Ellen


October 23, 2012

It's that time again.  I have to attend another meeting, so I won't be there to "check up on you gals."  By now, you know the drill.  Cut what needs cutting; iron what needs ironing, and sew what needs sewing!  Be sure and leave the room  neatly organized.  Last week I forgot that there was going to be a group doing some soy dying, and I had left some disappearing nine patch blocks lying out on a table.  I guess this week, you can see if you can find them and also find the others that have not gotten to that stage.  We had originally set our enough blocks to make one quilt.  I'll see you next week, same time, same place.  Another Ellen just may show up.  I met her at the Gwinnett Sewing expo last Thursday, and I have put her on our mailing list, and she knows the meeting time and place, and she just may join our guild.  I believe she lives in Watkinsville, but don't hold me to that thought--I have a bad case of CRS disease!!    
    Ellen


October 20, 2012

Nancy, Martha and I showed up on Friday at the Lyndon House for our UFO day.  Martha, God bless her, continues to cut blocks out of our scrap fabric--without complaining!!!  Nancy had a beautiful Christmas disappearing nine patch (but in black, beige, and gold!!!) that she was working on.  She also brought a darling table runner that was a Happy Birthday celebration.  She put alternating bright colored prairie points around all sides.  I brought a 95" square quilt that I had promised to the gals from Elbert County Schools for a raffle to raise money to send all 5th graders to Washington, DC in the spring.  I needed to sew the sleeve on the back.  We left (whoops, because there was a soy dye workshop this morning in the Fiber Room that we had forgotten) some of our disappearing nine patch blocks arranged on one (only one) of the tables.  I imagine they could easily move them if they need the room.
    Next Wednesday, October 24, we hope you see you all back in full force.  We are still cutting blocks from scraps, but we have started sewing them together into disappearing nine patch designs to begin a stash of "older" quilts to give to Santa for a Senior.  Other blocks that we find to be juvenile, we will do the same for our "kid" quilts.  Since we have completed our rush for Sandy Creek items that we sell so we can buy supplies that are not donated, be will concentrate on our "real" purpose--to make charity items for local needs.
    See you on Wednesday--9:30 until. . . . . .  If you bring your sewing machine, you can sew; if not, don't feel left out, we'll have something you can do to speed the assembly line process that we use to get quilts out.
    Ellen


October 17, 2012

We had a small group today--about half a dozen, but we got some work done.  We sorted through all the items left for sale and donated many of them.  Martha cut squares, Phyllis worked on a kit, Nancy arranged some of our 4 1/2' blocks by color and I sewed them together.  Frances ironed the blocks, and Jan picked out stitching on several blocks that were not uniform in size.  We've got a good start on two quilts using the disappearing nine patch pattern.  Three of us, Nancy, Martha and I said that we were able to return on Friday (3rd Friday--UFO day) to sew.  If you have time, come and join us.  We'll either be doing our own thing or finishing those quilts we started today.
    Ellen


October 10, 2012

We had a good group of gals today.  We got things ready for several of us to "demonstrate" quilting tomorrow at the Lyndon House's Harvest Festival.  I'm sure that we'll be busy.  We got two quilts ready to be quilted (got to purchase fabric for the backing for one of them), and I brought them home.  We arranged the room ready for an influx of students, parents, and visitors.  Martha and Kathy cut blocks and Barbie and I sorted and put our blocks into storage.  Judy took several blocks home with her.  She plans to add appropriate matching fabrics and create two Hop Scotch quilts.  She's traveling for the next two weeks.
    Happy quilting!
        Ellen


October 9, 2012

I'm late getting out this reminder (I was at the Guild Meeting tonight).  We had a pretty successful day at Sandy Creek on Saturday!  Terri bear is planning to offer for sale our left overs on Thursday at the Harvest Days at the Lyndon House.  Several of us plan to be in the Fiber Room working on quilting projects for community members who want to see what quilting is all about.  We'll have our usual meeting tomorrow from about 9:30 until 12ish.  Come and get in on the fun.
    Ellen


October 2, 2012

We just got back from our trip to Wash. DC.  I'll be at the Bee tomorrow.  I didn't get all the quilts quilted, but I am home now, so they will be getting done soon.  I got a call from mary Myles (Sandy Creek).  She said that it has become too complicated for her to get name tags for us, and  she asked if we would be willing to pay the $2 per person entry fee, and when you get to the booth, she will have supplied us with an envelope of cash to reimburse those whose name is on the list.  I told her that would be fine and that most of the attendees would be at the bee tomorrow.  See you tomorrow.
    Ellen


September 26, 2012

    Today we had about a dozen ladies who dribbled in at various times.  In addition, we had a guest who had spoken with Phyllis about writing an article for a magazine that has a target audience of fourteen counties that surround Athens with Jasper County being the most western county and Oglethorpe the most eastern.  She wants to feature quilting, and she probably experienced a long learning curve today because she started with zero knowledge of the craft.  She asked a lot of questions about not only our guild but others in the area.  She wants photos to accompany her article, and one that we will definitely give her is one of our Opportunity Quilt.  She took a bunch of notes, even looked at--and then purchased--a couple of our Sandy Creek quilts.  She plans to do some research on quilting, in general, and then plans to revisit us next week when she is at the Lyndon House already for her garden club.  While the interviewing was going on, we trimmed quilts that had been quilted, measured and priced items for Sandy Creek, matched backings with quilt tops that came in, cut blocks from scraps, and added scraps to our latest Dog bag.
    Next week will be our final opportunity to finish up anything that we planned to do for Sandy Creek which will be Saturday, October 6, from 10 AM until 6 PM.
    See you next week.  Same time (9:30 or so); same place (Fiber Room).
    I am sending Terri Jarrett some  $$ from our early sales.
        Ellen  


September 21, 2012

A BIG Thank You to all the worker bees that showed up today (our normal personal UFO day) to work on organizing the items that we will take to the Fall Festival at Sandy Creek on Saturday, October 6.  We got all the quilts measured, priced and inventoried.  We also came close to finishing EVERYTHING.  Nancy Bruce took 4 wall hangings to put sleeves on when she and Frances L. go on a mini vacation.  Several ladies took quilts to put bindings on (then they will be measured and priced).  We were beginning to be "brain dead" as noon appeared (maybe we were just hungry), so we decided to put ALL the unfinished items in a large plastic bin.  Those items barely covered the bottom of the bin.  We vowed to finish them up next Wednesday at our usual meeting time.  I have about 6 kid quilts left to quilt, and I hope to get them done.  I thought I only had to finish the flower girl's dress to complete all MY part in the wedding preparations, but my granddaughter came over today to see if I could do a few things to the dress that she is wearing.  I spent all afternoon making loops for hooks (and eyes) and I spent a good bit of time making tucks along the back of the dress so that it would lay flat against her back.  Then we found out that the lady who had altered the dress had not sewed part of it together correctly, so that got done also.  Now all I have to do for Sarah is shorten the ruffled slip that she bought at David's bridal so it won't peek out from under the dress.  In addition, there is the remaking of the upper part around the waist since it is high-waisted and is fitted elastic above the waist.  The elastic needs to be made more narrow since the dress dips to the waist in the back, and the zipper needs to be reinstalled.  That was way more than you wanted to read, but by writing it, it is giving me courage to attempt something that I've never experienced.
    Make plans to attend the Bee next Wednesday.  We'll finish up with our Sandy Creek items and then get down to making some new quilts with some of our new pattern ideas.
    See you then.
        Ellen


September 19, 2012

    The Worker Bees came in today with lots of items finished for our trip to Sandy Creek Nature Center for their annual Fall Festival.  We plan to return to the Fiber room on Friday of this week to begin the process of pricing and listing all the items that we have for sale and display.  We've got a nice bunch of ladies who have agreed to go to the festival and demonstrate quilting and answer questions about what we do and how we do it.  So, if you have "nothing to do" this Friday, why not join us sometime after nine AM; we'll stay until . . . . .  We still have lots of finishing up to do, and I have been busy quilting all this afternoon.  I plan to work at home all day tomorrow with wedding stuff, quilting for the Fall Festival and putting a sleeve on a quilt that I made for Presbyterian Homes for their silent auction.  See you Friday, if you can come.
    Ellen


September 17, 2012

This Wednesday for the Charity Bee, why not bring your machine (if possible) and let's all work on sewing up something that we could offer for sale at Sandy Creek.  For Example:  I bought some fabric at Mary Jo's last week that is 18 potholder-sized cartoons of that "bitchy" lady that usually has a coffee cup in her hand and gives you her opinion--straight from the shoulder.
My alzheimer's is catching up with me--I can't remember her name, but somehow, Sybil pops into my head.  Those who don't sew can be "gofers" for the rest of us.
    Ditto for this Friday--which is UFO day (3rd Friday of the month).  Bring a sewing machine so we can make something.
        Ellen


September 12, 2012

  Today there is a workshop in our Bee hive.  But next week, we'll be back to the hive working on new creations.  Our stash has been newly reorganized (almost complete), and we will be busy working on items for Sandy Creek and new kits.  We've decided that we might begin to concentrate on Scrappy quilts in order to use up lots of our smaller pieces.  No need to cut kits from bolts of fabric if a scrappy look will work.  That way we can "bite into" our growing stash of smaller pieces.  Save the larger pieces for backing fabrics.  
    Also, bear in mind that Friday, Sept. 21 is the third Friday when we often gather in the Bee hive to work on our own projects.  We'll finalize just who will be showing up on that day when we meet next Wednesday.
    Also remember that Saturday, Sept. 6 is Sandy Creek day.  if you are able to work our book during the 10 - 6 hours, you get free admission to the event.  Work awhile, and then spend some time visiting the booths and always enjoying the fellowship of quilters there.
    Ellen


September 5, 2012

There was a big hustle and bustle today at the Bee.  Phyllis brought in a quilt ready to be quilted.  Sylvia brought in two Christmas vests for Sandy Creek, and I brought in the Halloween vest I started last week.  Judy Cole was back from the wild west, and she may think she shouldn't have come back.  She was immediately given several tasks to do; the first was to match the quilt kits that she had cut out previously and the instructions had been removed from them.  She had no trouble getting the two things together again.  Sylvia worked on a new quilt that she had started, but the rest of us jumped into sorting and rearranging AGAIN!!  Kathy Burkes, Vicki Bauer and I jumped right into the unorganized mess!!!  It seems like we are always doing that.  It's just that we found zip lock bags with parts of quilts, other bags with fabrics in them, bags with contents stashed into some of the bins, etc., etc.  We decided to relabel all the big bins.  One has fat quarters in it.  One has batiks in it.  One has pieces larger than fat quarters.  One has Florals, and three have juvenile fabrics.  We also stored all the blocks that we have been cutting from the one bin that has scraps that need to be cut into blocks.  We decided that we are going to work on quilts that will be primarily scrappy--from either the smaller pieces of fabrics that we have or the blocks that we have cut, and use our solids to go with the scrappy pieces.  We all felt GREAT after scurrying around so much today.  We left the room in PERFECT shape for the workshop that will be held there next week, so, please remember that the Charity Bee will have a week of vacation.  Maybe by the time we get back to our usual Bee meeting, we'll be so fired up that we'll get tons of work done.  It should be easier to make quilts from the bins that we have organized.
    Ellen

August 30, 2012
Try this one out!!!

Something else to do with squares!!!!! After Teri's d-9patch this would be fun, too!
~~N.


August 29, 2012

We had a good day today with a handful of ladies present.  Kathy cut blocks out of our stash of scraps, and Ellen struggled with lining the halloween vest that she had taken home last week.  I think we finally figured it out, but not the "easy" way that the new patterns show.  Oh well.  Sometimes you just feel stupid!!!  Sylvia brought in some more "cuties" that we will offer for sale at Sandy Creek on Saturday, Oct. 6.  Jodie and Madelyn came today and gave us a copy of the entire workshop programs for the year.  Now if I can just get them all entered on the calendar!!  Our stack of quilts continues to grow, slowly because we can't seem to interest very many guild members to make one for us.
    Come and join us next week.  We'll always have something that you can help us with.
        Ellen

August 22, 2012

  Today there were about 10 who were at the Bee.  Lola has had an accident and broke her heel, and then Le'Ann came in toward the end of the meeting with a cast on her leg!!!  Another broken bone!  Le'Ann took (rather her husband and daughter carried) a huge stack of scraps and a mat, rotary cutter and ruler home with her so she could work while sitting down.  What a trouper!!!  The rest of us either cut blocks from scraps or ironed or straightened up.  Mary Ann Cox cut out the blocks for a quilt like the one using a new SIMPLE pattern that I had brought in.  I started that one and brought home the remainder to finish it at home.  Terri Bear was busy showing us two new blocks (to some of us) that we can use in making quick, but effective quilts.  One, her favorite, the disappearing nine-patch, and the second one I don't know what it is called, but it is made of 5 patches all the same size, and you sew it together using three seams, but the front side looks like a four-patch with a smaller block "on point" in the middle of the four-patch.  You probably can't visualize what it looks like from my description, but it is nice.  Terri says the lady who "invented" it sews the edges of the center patch by rolling the four edges to mimic the cathedral window look.  Seeing is believing!!!  Julie brought in a table runner that she is doing for Sandy Creek.  Phyllis took home a bunch of cute halloween blocks to put 3 each into about 6 door hangings.  By the way, Phyllis, we found the missing block; it has green borders on it.  Frances L took it home to remove the borders; you can get it next week.  Sylvia bought in two grocery bags of cute Christmas tree ornaments for Sandy Creek.  Oh, I brought in Vicki's "broken" mangle.  She told me that if Stuart couldn't fix it--just junk it.  Stuart grew up on a farm where as soon as the Christmas presents had been opened, he and his brother went outside to the junk pile to see what they could make.  Needless to say, both are engineers.  Must be nice to KNOW at about age 10 what you are going to do with your life!!!  And, of course, it now heats and even steams--and as evidence of that, when I put it on the counter, I tipped it "just so," and it soaked my t-shirt!!  Sylvia offered to iron it dry for me.
    About 10 quilts have been finished in the last week, and Jan took the last one that needed binding.  We have stacked them (SH-h!!  Don't tell anyone because we don't want our hard work to "walk out" the door) to decide next week where their permanent homes will be--Project Safe, Prevent Child Abuse, Loren Smith Cancer Center, or to Sandy Creek for possible sale (anything that doesn't sell gets donated as soon as the Harvest Festival is over).
    Gosh, we just have so much fun planning and doing for Charity items!!  Come and join the fun!!

August 21, 2012

See you tomorrow for the regular meeting of the Charity Bee.  We always have plenty that we can do when we meet.  We might want to concentrate on Sandy Creek which will be October 6.  Our stash of items that we can offer for sale is growing slowly.  This will be a good way to use up small pieces of fabrics that we have--not enough to do a quilt, but too big to cut into blocks. 
    See you in the AM.
        Ellen

August 13, 2012

I may be able to get to the meeting on Wednesday--late.  Stuart and I have doctor appointments in Lawrenceville at 9 and 9:30.  I'm going down in a few to work on the quilts I brought home last week.  If I get them finished tonight, I'll drop them off with Nancy when I'm out running errands tomorrow morning.  We still have blocks to cut out from the bin of scraps, and we now can get serious about items to take to Sandy Creek as well as quilt kits to be handed out at the Guild Meetings.
    Hopefully, I'll see you on Wednesday, but if not, you know what to do.
    Ellen

August 8, 2012

I just got an e-mail from Frances Arnold.  She knows that the Fiber Frenzy group is meeting this Friday in the Fiber room.  I was feeling so bad this morning that I failed to check with the "powers that be" at the Lyndon House to make sure that the room was available.  Can we postpone the Friday sew-in until next week, and on Wednesday we can check to see which Fridays are available for sewing.  I feel a little like Vicki; we had new fabric to get organized, quilt tops to find backings for, scraps to cut into blocks, so none of us really had time to let our creative juices get moving.  I've been wanting to do more sewing, and a few more Fridays at the Lyndon House would be fun if we could meet as a small and often varying group to work on quilt tops for so many of the charitable opportunities that we find in our community.  So, this is an announcement that we WILL NOT be meeting at the Lyndon House this friday, but we'll try to schedule other Fridays as openings occur.
    Maybe we can find some time at home this Friday so that when we come together next Wednesday, we'll have some show and tell.
    OH!!  New News!!  Joan Garland, one of our newer guild members has a long arm, and she VOLUNTEERED to help with the charity Quilting.  I brought an entire bolt of Warm and Natural to the Lyndon House today, and we put it in her car.  Joan and I split the quilt tops that had been completed, and she indicated that even though she can't always make the Wednesday morning Bee, she will be glad to take quilt tops along with backings) home from the Guild Meetings.  Now we should really be able to turn out the charity items.  I had been keeping up fairly well since I caught up from that big pile that grew while my ankle was broken.  Joan and I each took four quilts home because several of you gals have been busy!!!
    See you next week.
        Ellen

August 6, 2012

See you on Wednesday to work on quilt kits, bindings and getting rid of that bin of scraps!!  I hope to have the label ready to go on the Opportunity Quilt, but it depends on how the lettering fits that is in my Embroidery machine.  I usually use the letting in the Bernina software and save the design to be stitched out on the BabyLock embroidery machine.  The sizing of the letters is just about infinite going either direction--large or small with the Bernina software, but the lettering built into the Baby Lock is Small, Medium and Large--that's it.  Pam is using my PC that has the software on it while her PC is being repaired since I don't need that PC very often--my first choice for the internet.  Vicki plans to bring her laptop that has an older version of EQ on it, and we will muddle through a few designs with what I know about the program.  There is LOTS more that I need to learn in order to be efficient with it, but I manage to get some designs done for us to use.
    See you on wednesday at 9:30 AM.
        Ellen

August 4, 2012

I'll see you next Wednesday, same time, same place (9:30 in the Fiber Room at the Lyndon House).  I'm sure that you got LOTS done while I was gone.  I got lots of reading done, so it was a mini vacation.
    I got the form for the Sandy Creek (N. GA Folk Festival) which I promptly filled out, and it is now in the mail.  The date is October 6 (ANOTHER conflict for me--my granddaughter is getting married).  I trust that those of you who can go will have a good time--we always do.  Lots of music, food, conversation and even things to purchase!!!  We have got our stash started on items that we will be taking to sell.  Nancy has made a "ton" of really flashy luggage tags--a great way to identify your luggage on the luggage carousel!  We will probably spend every meeting until then getting ready for that event.  We  take threaded needles in a pincushion so kids and adults can hand sew blocks together.  We also take black and white diagrams of quilt blocks and crayons so kids can color a block.  We'd better get some new crayons; some of those from last year melted together.  We also need to take a stack of cards to hand out about our meeting date and location.  And, last but not least, we'll take some items to sell.  We usually do well enough to replenish some of our much needed "reads as solids" fabrics to go with fabrics that have been donated.
    See you on Wednesday--ready and raring to go!!
        Ellen

July 30, 2012

Just a reminder about the Charity bee this Wednesday.  We are making progress on the big bin of scraps that need to her cut into blocks.  Last week we had a GREAT attendance for the Bee and we got several large bags of fabric donations from the Loren Smith Cancer Center put organized and put away. Now we can get down to the job of producing more quilt kits.  I have been  creating some new designs in EQ7 and next week, I'll bring in the notebook so we can try out some new patterns.  As we try out the new patterns, be aware that we need to proof most of them since they have been adapted from larger patterns to fit the size we need.  Joan took a kit recently, and reported to me via e-mail that corrections need to be made.  Those corrections have been done.  Joan has also volunteered to quilt some of our charity quilts on her long arm (I think that the calvary has just arrived to help out the worker Bees!!  Thanks, Joan, for your offer.  We'll take you up on it.
    Hope you'll show up on Wednesday even though I will still be in Dallas, TX in a hotel that is actually 3 hotels joined together with their three lobbies.  Seems like we have to walk miles to get anywhere we need to go!!  We are not going outside since it is HOT, HOT, Hot!!!  The nearest restaurants to the hotel are 2 1/2 miles away, so we are eating all our meals inside.
    Ellen

July 23, 2012

We plan to meet this Wednesday--same time--same place.  Nancy and Frances have gone (Tuesday) to get some more fabric that we might be able to use.  Nancy has received the Opportunity Quilt from Mary Beth.  It is BIG!!!  If Nancy doesn't have the binding on it by Wednesday, I guess each of us could grab a needle and thread and sew about a foot each.  Hope to see a big crowd for the photographing of the Opportunity Quilt.  Maybe it will be done then.  See you early.
    Ellen

July 16, 2012

    We're back to "normal" now.  We will meet this Wednesday to continue the "usual."  That is making blocks out of that bin that seems never to get empty, make quilt kits, and put bindings on quilts already quilted.  We didn't have much success at the guild meeting getting  our quilts "adopted." so we may need to put the bindings on ourselves.  Come ready to work; there's always something to do in addition to visiting with other quilters.  We even had JAN LEONARD back with us last week--fresh from knee replacement surgery!!!!  She showed us her 5 week old scar--can't believe she's up and "dancing" around on that new knee so quickly!
    Nancy got the FINISHED top for the opportunity quilt to Mary Beth for quilting.  It should be ready in about two weeks--then binding and the label.  We're waiting anxiously to see that quilt finished!!!  It has been pretty intense!!  TONS of half square triangles with required use of the design wall to get things together correctly.  Then there was the appliqued borders that had to be designed from scratch by Jeanne Lindberg since the borders with the quilt pattern just didn't seem to be "just right."  Thanks to her committee, the finished quilt looks beautiful.  Next comes the selling of the tickets.  I know that members of the Charity Bee will be first in line for those tickets!
    We're in luck!  Friday of this week is also the 3rd Friday of the month.  UFO Friday!!  Come and bring your unfinished projects and work all day where everything you need is readily available--a huge design wall; plenty of irons and ironing boards and even some FeH2O bottles supplied by Vicki Bauer.  You will also find large tables that can be pushed together to allow you to pin your quilt ready for quilting.  Lots of cutting mats, rulers and rotary cutters are available for the big center table that is the perfect height for cutting.
    See you Wednesday or Friday--or even both.
    Ellen

June 28, 2012

We had a good day yesterday.  I brought two new quilt tops (one from Frances Lang's granddaughter and one from Julie) home to quilt.  Several (Julie, Martha, Silvia) cut blocks from our bin of "scraps."  Lola worked on preemie quilts.  Frances A cut the border strips to go on the opportunity quilt and Nancy began the task of getting them affixed.  Nancy also cut out a bunch of quilted luggage tags for Sandy Creek.  Pam used my computer and drew up three new quilt patterns in EQ7.  If you want to watch/learn how to use it, I plan to bring the computer back each Wednesday that we meet during the summer.  Maybe we'll get those printed out soon.  Seems like I, like everyone else, am running from one task to another with the feeling that there are not enough hours in the day to get the things done that I "need" to do.  much of it is probably self imposed work that I don't really have to do, but. . . .  We finished filling another doggie pillow and I brought it home to close up.
    ATTENTION!!!  Since next Wednesday is July 4, we decided that if you don't have family plans for the day, you can just sew at home without coming to the Lyndon House.  In fact, they MAY be closed.  I didn't check.
    In case you are interested, Barry, from Atlanta Sewing Center will be at the Lyndon House this Saturday to service sewing machines.  I will be there with him (I'm bringing something to work on), and he will stay until he finishes the machines that come in OR 5 PM.
    Happy sewing!!
        Ellen
   

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Busy Bees’ Charity Blog by Ellen Nelson (Queen Bee)

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Thursday at the Lyndon House (June 21, 2012)

Well, I got to the LH around 9:45.  Had to access thru the children's studio (camp this week) since they don't 'open' until noon on Thursdays.

Went upstairs and put up one of my UFO's on the design wall.  Around 10:15 Martha showed up and began to cut squares.  Then Frances came around 11:00 and then Julie showed up right after.  Suzanne Reeves brought a lovely hand applique piece she's working on.  Well, Frances pulled out one of the machines and worked on her BOM from Wild Child.  I worked on a couple of things.  Julie cut on her Pat Speth border.

Doc Eldridge stopped in and thanked us for coming.  Lunch was served in the 2nd floor atrium (big window on the end ) for the dignitaries (mayor, Chamber of Com, council person, Clarke and Oconee)/Caterpillar people.  Nancy L. came and asked us if we'd go downstairs and listen to a woman in a wheelchair who was with the disabled citizens art show now hanging in the galleries.  The group who was to hear her didn't come.  Yes, sure.  We toured some while she told us about the main artist and some of the others.  We returned to the Fiber Room, did our thing, and then a couple of foreign visitors (with locals) stopped in. 

THEN  WE  WENT  HOME around 3:00.  No one from Caterpillar came close to us, but they saw us milling around and looking in the gallery.....guess we served our purpose.  When we left all of them were gone, and the staff - each one - thanked us for coming and being there.  There were children until noon, then middle schoolers this aft. in classes.  Also an art class on the lawn.  Impressive.

I got some things done, and we had a good time together.  What more can you ask of a day?!   :-)       Hope you are both having a good time.   See you Wed.

~~Nancy Bruce

June 20 & 21

On my way to Hilton Head this morning, I got a phone call from Phyllis Rother. Remember that we are NOT meeting this next Wednesday, but we had planned to meet again on Wednesday, the 20th. Phyllis wanted to let me know that Shannon had called her and said that there was to be a big meeting (luncheon) at the Lyndon House on Thursday, the 21st, and she (Phyllis) was called as President of the guild to see if we would also meet on Thursday. They (Lyndon House) want to impress the Caterpillar people that the Lyndon House is a "rocking" place. Phyllis called me since she will be out of town. I remembered as we talked that I am supposed to be in Las Vegas (poor me!!) with my husband four a scientific meeting (cheap room and eats). So, I am alerting all you fine Charity Bees that the regular meeting will be held on Wednesday, the 20th, and we will do a UFO day on Thursday, the 21st. You are welcome to work on Charity stuff, but you may also work on your own UFOs. Please invite others to show up also. The least we can do is help the Lyndon House make a good impression since I overheard the staff talking about current cuts in the budget--40% for exhibitions and 25% for education. Let's make them realize that we use the facilities and we want to continue to have that available to us.           --Ellen

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

      We had a nice group today. Martha, Sylvia and Pam cut blocks all morning. Pam cut four dog pillows (double denim in weight) which I sewed together and then we stuffed from the remainder of the scraps that Suzanne brought to us last week in one of them.. Julie cut blocks and began planning a new quilt while Nancy got out the batik blocks (a 3 block rail fence and a 2 block rail fence) and began laying them out for a new quilt. Mary Ann and Phyllis brought in quilts that they had put bindings on and Frances did all the ironing on all the scraps that needed cutting into blocks. Jane helped with cutting out blocks, planning new quilts, and sorting fabrics that had been donated. Frances L. loaded up a big bag of "other than cotton" fabric to donate to the Goodwill or Salvation Army. Nancy Bruce brought in the Opportunity Quilt and pinned it on the design wall. Gorgeous!! Jeanne Lindberg came in with the applique design that she had done. The crew is now working on the applique. We decided that we would take next Wednesday off since several of us have other engagements. We'll meet again on Wednesday June 20 where everything will be "to be continued. . . . " More blocks to cut, quilt kits to assemble, and bindings to put on quilts.
      I had SO MUCH FUN the rest of the afternoon running 3 ply ROPE through the grommets that my husband applied to the tote bags that Vicki and I made a couple of weeks ago. Once the rope got run through the grommets, I had to tie a Matthew Walker knot (don't ask) in the one end that hadn't been tied yet. I tied 34 knots in that rope that was made of hemp or some other very rough fiber to finish off the other 34 knots that had been tied earlier. In other words, I finished the remaining 17 out of 31 bags that will be donated to the United Methodist Church's UMCOR group (committee on relief). These bags will be filled next week with either school supplies or toiletries by the attendees at the North GA Methodist Conference at the Classic Center. All the bags that used rope required four knots each (84 knots in all for the rope bags--my and my husband's poor hands!!!). When tied properly, you can cut the rope tails snug up to the knot and the knot won't come undone. Yea for Sailor's knots. My husband was a sailor (from Nebraska and couldn't swim when he joined because the water is about 1" deep in the rivers there), but he learned to tie knots from his Dad who sponsored a rope tying club for the boys in the community when Stuart and his brother were growing up.
      Have fun on the day off next week. Maybe, however, you can find some time to get some Charity sewing done.                              Ellen

Monday, June 4, 2012

      Last week, just as we were getting close to the bottom of the large bin of odds and ends (cutting small pieces into blocks and sorting larger pieces), Frances L. walks in with two large bags of fabric that someone left for her at JoAnn's. A quick look (we'll really get into those bags on Wednesday) revealed several pretty large pieces of cotton suitable for backings and other things. Only a complete emptying of the bags onto the table will completely reveal whether we have winners or duds. We finished another doggie bag and have a bag of scraps left over that Suzanne Reeves brought in--she said that she has had that bag for several years. I guess she was just waiting for a "worthy" use of the otherwise unusable scraps. Now I need to make a few more bags to have on hand when the next one gets filled.
      If you have some extra time and want to share some good laughs with the "worker bees," come and join us this week on Wednesday from about 9:30 till noonish.
      We are starting up again on kits to be given out at the Guild meetings, and we still have some fabric scraps that need to be chopped up into blocks. We're saving anything from 7 1/2" down to 2 1/2" to be used in scrap quilts. several have already been created by members picking out a color family all from one size and putting them together. Some of our prettiest quilts have been made that way!
      If you want to sew, bring your sewing machine; if not, we have plenty of jobs that you can do while you visit with some of the Guild members.                Ellen

Thursday, May 24, 2012

From Nancy:

I have all the essential "parts" for the quilt...got the middle all in one piece and borders are on two of the sides. Have to construct the strips w/ X & Y's for the other two sides. Will do that here sometime in the next TWO weeks. Just didn't want to leave it there....sooo much work invested here!

So, it appears that the Opportunity Quilt is meeting the timeline!! When I saw it yesterday, the entire middle was completed and just needed sewing together. Pam Pontenberg (out for the summer), Jan and I left "early" (at 12:30) so I could go home and get some quilts quilted. I did 5 yesterday afternoon before time for supper. I was pleased with what the group got done yesterday (not counting Frances A and Nancy's work on the Opportunity Quilt). I think we got about half of the items in the big bin sorted and cut up into blocks. We decided to put each size of blocks into Zip Lock bags and then put them into either the drawers under the counter or into another bin that is now empty. Jane reappeared and helped us cut blocks; but she came bearing the most beautiful calla lilies. Someone asked her where she got them, and she replied "God made 'em." Vicki, Phyllis, Julie and I KNOW I'm missing several others were still working furiously as I walked out the door. God bless 'em!

Come next week. We may try to finish the bin of scraps to make blocks, we will cut some more quilt kits, and we may even do a little work using EQ7 to draw up some new patterns.

Friday Sew-In, May 18, 2012

Four of us showed up for the UFO day. Nancy worked furiously on the Opportunity quilt. The top half of the interior of the quilt is about finished. She used the design wall to work out the placement of the bottom half of the quilt. She pinned those rows together for sewing later.

Frances L. showed up and sewed two blocks to be used in a quilt. She got the instructions for those blocks from The Wild Child.

Vicki and I used some sample upholstery fabrics that Vicki brought with her to make tote bags that will be given to members of the North Georgia United Methodist Conference. During that conference which will be held at the Classic Center, there will be a "charity day" where participants at the conference will perform various altruistic activities. One of those will be to fill donated tote bags (like those we worked on) with hygiene items to be distributed somewhere in the world by the Committee of the United Methodist Church that deals with relief after devastations. We completely finished about 10 bags and have about another 4 or 5 that only lack the straps. The rest of the bags need hems at the top and straps attached. We are planning to use grommets on some of these bags and feed some rope that I have through the grommets to use as handles. Others have "self" handles, and still others have a braided handle. We plan to finish up a minimum of the 35 bags that we have in various stages of completion. We may continue working on tote bags as the date of the Conference is still a few weeks away.  Sample pictured below.

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+Come join us next Wednesday and help us continue to cut blocks from large scraps and consolidate our stash. Nancy will probably be finishing up the interior of the Opportunity Quilt. We definitely will have plenty for you to do so you won't feel that you have wasted your time. You'll leave with a "warm" feeling that you have contributed to our community charitable outreach!!                          Ellen

I love that warm feeling!  I brought it home with me today.  Thanks for the all-day therapy and delicious cake!  -vicki

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

A bunch of us showed up today.  Nancy continued to sew together the completed blocks for the interior of the Opportunity Quilt.  It's looking better and better, but what a job to lay out and make sure that the blocks are going in the right directions!!!  Jan brought in three quilts that she had made, and Ginny brought in a ducky quilt that she had finished.  Lola worked on a quilt kit that if we don't give away, she wants to sew while we are at the Bee.  Julie, Kathy, Martha, Vicki,  Sylvia  and I either cut blocks out of scraps or ironed or sorted and organized.
    This Friday is UFO day, and several of us decided that we would be back to either work on our own UFO, continue with the Charity stash, work on the Opportunity Quilt or work on some Charity Tote Bags to be donated to children via the North Georgia United Methodist Conference which will be held in Athens in June.  Vicki and I plan to bring sergers to make short work of tote bags.  We might even have time to work on some of our own stuff!!!  Come join us.  You can come as early as 9 AM and stay as late as 5 PM.
    See you on Friday,                                                               Ellen

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

We must have had a dozen or so today at the Bee, and EVERYONE was busy doing something different. There was ironing, putting blocks on the design wall, sewing blocks together, cutting blocks, making quilt kits, sorting donated fabrics, organizing boxes, and even stuffing the doggie bag!!

We should have about 1/4 of the inner part of the Opportunity (Raffle) Quilt sewed together by next week.

Kathy Burkes came and was part of all the activity. She took a pattern form the "Kit book" and got busy and created three kits from it. So, we'll have kits ready to distribute at the next guild meeting. Several others, Lola and Sylvia, among them also worked on quilt kits.

Martha spent the morning trimming scraps into usable blocks and even took home a stack of scraps to sort and cut into blocks. Julie and I emptied the large container and BEGAN the process of sorting through all the STUFF, We found blocks that had already been cut, pieces as large as fat quarters that got folded and put into a marked container, and other larger pieces of fabric that were folded to be put into a large container when we get one emptied. A huge pile of fabric was put back into a bin to be ironed and cut into blocks as we have time.

Since most of the blocks have been completed for the Opportunity Quilt, and only one of us will be doing the sewing (to keep the stitching consistent), soon the group will be back to sorting, organizing, making quilt kits and sewing on bindings on quilt kits that are finished and returned.

We DO manage to stay busy!!! I think each of us agreed that we had fun today even though it felt a little hectic since everyone was working on something different. Maybe next week I'll remember to take a photo of the section of the quilt that Nancy will have put together. It is pretty stunning!

Come join he fun next week. We can always use another pair of eyes to make sure that the flying geese are fluttering in the correct direction!!                    -E

 

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

The Mama Hen is back in town!! I've got a CD from the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln and photos on my camera. I haven't had a chance to view the CD to see if my photos would add anything--probably not, but we can view the CD at any Guild meeting that is convenient--after I see how long it is, etc. I also found out that Ardis James, one of the benefactors, died last year, and they had an exhibit in her memory/honor. I got photos of some of those quilts.

I didn't have nearly the "alone" time while in Lincoln that I had expected, but I DID accomplish the major thing that I planned to do while there--if not MASTER, at least learn more about EQ7. I spent several hours polishing the diagram so that it will be most useful to us. One thing I found out that I don't think I like, is that sometimes when sliding the cursor over a block to get to where I wanted, the block underneath changed either in color or design--whatever I was hoping to do in a nearby spot. Grrr! Probably entirely my fault; will probably go away the more I learn how to use it.

We've got lots to do tomorrow. We'll be starting on sewing the blocks together. As you can probably tell from the picture that I've attached (I hope I don't forget), we'll need lots of eyes to make sure that we get those blocks going in the right direction!!! We'll even need to make a few extra blocks that we hadn't counted on--or ones that are oriented in a different direction. The One Goose block which is dark red in the diagram uses only the 3rd Goose (the one at the top) to make the goose "fly" in the correct direction.

Thanks to all you gals who showed up last week. We're looking for you again tomorrow, and we're also looking for a few of our "regular" members who haven't been in awhile--Jane?? Some who are missing report to the Mama if they plan to be absent so we won't worry about them, thanks for that.

See you tomorrow. Now for the attachment.                                -Ellen

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Monday, April 30, 2012

Ladies:
Don't forget that this Wednesday is another "work" day in the Fiber Room at the Lyndon House. Just because the "cat" is away (me); that doesn't mean that you can just play and avoid getting something done. I'm pretty sure that Frances Arnold will have a good many (if not all) of the blocks done for the center of the quilt, and Nancy Bruce will have many or most of the flying geese sashes done. I took 15 of them home with me, and I've worked on ONE of them.

I had a three day meeting over this past weekend, and I leave tomorrow with my husband to go to "flyover" country. He has been invited to give some seminars at the University of Nebraska, and he always wants me to go with him. I am taking my computer with EQ7 loaded on it. I hope I can be left in the motel room most of the time so I can entertain myself by trying to become more proficient with EQ. I hope to have my 15 sashes done by next week.

I can't wait to get back next week to see how much of the quilt you gals have put together. We should get some more half square triangles at the Guild meeting next week.                         See you in a week!                          Ellen       >^. .^<

Wednesday, April 26, 2012

    Today there were about 12 of us who showed up. Jan trimmed the quilts that I had brought in quilted. she then took them home to put the binding on them. Most of the rest of us worked on some part of the "Opportunity Quilt" for the next Quilt show. There are 81 blocks that make up part of the center of the quilt (along with lots of sashing that has flying gees in it), and Frances Arnold took those 81 block parts home to assemble as many as she can for next week when we will start adding the sashings to them. The outside row around the entire quilt is made up of 16 blocks of two types (they are mirror images), and when put together will make 16 "triangles" that extend from the edges--four on each side. Several of us volunteered to take some of the sashing blocks home, but none of us is as proficient as Nancy Bruce. This quilt is THE MOST LABOR INTENSIVE quilt that we have attempted so far, but I think it will be one of the prettiest. After we get the top assembled, I challenge you to find the 81 basic blocks in the quilt. They absolutely disappear and evolve into two blocks that weren't there to begin with!!! Ya gotta see it to believe it! We welcomed Sylvia Jarus back today; she came and straightened out my incorrect count on the number of sashing blocks needed. I had "counted" 97, but would you believe that it is between 160 and 165??? We had 70 done by the end of the session today. Of course, Nancy had done most of those at home. She was curious, and found out that she can do six in one hour. See what I mean by labor intensive? Everybody better buy lots of tickets!! This quilt must stay in the membership of the guild. I think those of us working on it will hate to see it go away.
    We understood that there was to be a quilt workshop this Saturday, so we were sure to leave the room clean and neat! But, we have been doing a much better job doing that since we began sorting through our stash (until we got interrupted by the Opportunity Quilt). We, at least, have sorted the larger pieces from the scrappy pieces, so that should be a time saving bonus when we get back to making kits for children's quilts.
    Come and help us next week. We always have room for a few more hands and we are always ready for some new conversation from people we haven't seen in awhile.
Ellen

Friday, April 20, 2012 “Free Sewing Day”

     Phyllis, Julie and I showed up to sew. Julie brought blocks that she made for Pat "Nickel Quilts" Speth (?), and she put them on the design wall and recorded the arrangement of blocks so she can sew them together at home. That big 'ole design wall comes in pretty handy. Most of us don't have that much uninterrupted space at home to lay things out to check how it looks. Julie also brought a block that she is working on for a sampler quilt that is made up of various stars. The directions that she had did not match the amount of fabric that she was given, so it's back to the quilt shop to get what's missing. Phyllis worked on the blocks that she is going to use on the pieced back of a quilt that she's working on. I brought a stained glass quilt that Nancy Bruce and I started YEARS ago in a class at Dragonfly. Nancy's has been finished for quite awhile. The last time Nancy saw me working on it, she told me to STOP!!!! I tend to go overboard and make WAY too many blocks. I sewed two more rows of blocks on the quilt I was working on and put an inner border around them. Then I used some of the scraps left from cutting my blocks all the same size to put around as a second border. By the time I finished--after 4:30 PM-- it was a rush to get it pinned on the design wall so I could get a photo of it. Of course, I pinned it the wrong way; it is longer going from right to left. But, I got a photo of it. Julie's quilt blocks got photographed, and my quilt also got photographed. Enjoy, but don't make any "helpful" suggestions. We both are probably done with working with those fabrics for awhile.

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Julie’s quilt

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Ellen’s quilt

     See you bright and early next Wednesday to begin sewing blocks together for the Opportunity Quilt for the quilt show in March.    Ellen

April 19, 2012

     Yea!!! We're moving full steam ahead!!! About 10 ladies showed up yesterday, and all the half square triangles that had been done over the weekend were dumped on the table, and Frances A, Phyllis, Julie and Vicki trimmed most of them. Ellen and Mary Ann flitted between half square triangle trimming and working on the "geese" sashings that Nancy Bruce was sewing. Ellen did a couple, and Mary Ann creased the papers and ran "quality control" on the finished sashes. Lola and Frances L contributed. It's hard to remember what everyone did, exactly, as we all were in a flurry selecting more bright batic fabrics to use, sewing, ironing, trimming, cleaning up and on and on. Nancy Bruce even took a photo or two of the worker bees. Jeanne Lindburg came and brought several of her ideas of possible applique designs. That probably just made the rest of us more frantic because we need to get the top done ASAP to allow adequate time for those who will be doing the HAND APPLIQUE designs. We definitely will be putting blocks together next week. Come and be a part of the excitement as we watch "this baby" come to life!!


     Speaking of sewing, Tomorrow is the UFO day that we have scheduled in the Fiber Room. I am planning to show up simply because I have three large UFOs that I haven't worked on in who knows when. If I am at home, I always find something else that needs working on, so if I am at the Lyndon House, I shouldn't be bothered by other projects that are "calling my name." We'll be there from about 9:30 until---whoever decides that they are finished for the day. Either bring lunch, or we can run out to Wendy's for a quick lunch.
Ellen

April 14, 2012

     An early reminder!! We'll be working furiously on the Opportunity Quilt for the 2013 Quilt Show next Wednesday in the Fiber Room at the Lyndon House from about 9:30 AM until . . . . (usually 12 noon or so). We have half square triangles to square up (tons of 'em) and maybe even more to cut out. We would like to make this an Innovative quilt per the slide show that Deb Henderson gave us at Tuesday's Guild Meeting!!! Nancy has made MANY copies of the triangles (not quite flying geese) that go in ALL the sashes of the quilt. It is probably those sashes that "make" the quilt. With the addition of the triangles in the sashes between each block of the quilt, you get two additional "illusion" blocks that make this a very special quilt. Nancy has promised us a "Primer" lesson on paper piecing. I am the first to sign up. I would like to get better at paper piecing, and there are few better to teach it than our own Nancy Bruce. Invite anyone who can sew to come and help. It will be a lot of work, but it also promises to be a lot of fun (as usual). Maybe Vicki or I will be able to remember to use the cameras that we keep with us so we can show progress on our blog!!
Ellen

April 13, 2012

We have updates on Judy Cole and Ginny Lynch. 

From Judy to Ellen: 

Ellen, I had to go the North Dakota to assist my daughter as she  was having some medical issues.  She is better.  When I got home on Sunday, I had a head cold and sore throat and could not talk so I was unable to attend on Tue and did not feel like coming on Wed morning.  We will be leaving for our summer trip so it will be late summer early fall before I see you and the group. Hope all goes well with the group.  I will take my sewing machine and some projects with me, hope I get time to work on them.  Keep sending your email so that I can see what the group is doing.  Look forward to seeing the projects that you do this summer, especially the raffle quilt.   Judy Cole

From Lola Gazda regarding Ginny:

You are a busy lady, Ellen!  I checked on Ginny and the poor girl has been really having troubles.  On Easter day her little granddaughter had to be taken to Emergency as she was having seizures.  This weekend she is leaving to go to see her brother who is in bad shape with pancreatic cancer.  Please keep her in your prayers, Blessings, Lola

Ellen revealed the EQ version of the Opportunity Quilt.  The sashing with the flying geese is missing.  When completed, this quilt will look like the image posted on March 29 in this blog. 

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April 12, 2012

     Yesterday about 10 ladies showed up to work in the Fiber Room. We are furiously working on SEVERAL things--all at the same time--but what else is new??? Phyllis brought in a large piece of toweling that she had used part of. The rest she had hemmed and thought it would make a nice donation to go along with the pillows that we are stuffing with our scraps. These pillows go to the humane society via my granddaughter; she delivers for us. I brought home a filled pillow and sewed it shut, and it along with the towel is ready for pick up which will probably be today.

     Lola took a stack of Preemie quilts to drop off at St. Mary's. Frances L. took a quilt to the Loren Smith Cancer Center, and I took a stack of quilts to Project Safe. But, before we all scattered, Vicki was working on repairing a mostly usable quilt that she plans to donate to the Bigger Vision, the newest Homeless Shelter in Athens. I will deliver it for her when it is finished. She is appliqueing (are there actually three vowels strung together in that word, or did I just make up a word?) replacement stars over some on the face of the quilt that are threadbare. We also decided that it would be more serviceable with a new binding.

     The rest of the bunch got busy cutting and bagging tiny blocks to be made into half square triangles for the quilt that the Charity Group will be making for the next Quilt Show (2013!!!). This quilt is beautiful, we all have decided, but it may just be a bugger to put together!!! Lots of half square triangles and lots of flying geese. Bet you can't wait to see it!!! When we were done cutting for the day, we divided up the bags of blocks to work on and return for squaring up next week. The batch I got made between 200 and 225 half square triangles! Phyllis, Julie and I took most of the baggies home. Lola had already taken some, and Donna Phillips took some on Tuesday night after the meeting.

     I suppose you can guess what is on our agenda for next week. (1) Square up half square triangles. (2) Cut blocks to go with the half square triangles so we can make some of the three blocks that make up the body of the quilt. (3) Nancy will be working on the sashing that will go between each block, and that sashing has 3 flying geese in each piece! We've decided that this quilt will either be a wonderful challenge or a nightmare to put it together bearing in mind the slide presentation that we saw on Tuesday night. But our bunch of Charity girls are up for the challenge!!

   Come join us and help us get it right!!! We'll be "open for business" next Wednesday at 9:30 AM in the Fiber Room, where, by-the-way, the Fibercraft Guild donated nine new chairs that they purchased from Habitat for Humanity. We just may not have to use folding chairs anymore!!                                              -- Ellen

 

April 4, 2012

      Today, there were four of us who stayed most of the time. Phyllis came, but her husband was babysitting the grands, and she didn't want to leave him too long--she wasn't sure who she was rescuing--him or them. Lola also came but couldn't stay the whole time. She took a quilt and binding so she could bind it at home. We got started on packages for the opportunity quilt. Each bag will contain 9 3" blocks of one color of batik and 9 blocks of another color of batik. There are also 18 blocks of background fabric (black) in each bag. That means we will expect 18 half square blocks of one color with black and 18 half square blocks with a second color and black when they are returned to us. Until next week when we can get a better "handle" on what we're doing, we have made 24 kits of half square triangles. Each kit will be the half square triangles for blocks X and Y. In addition we cut some strips for the sashings which will be flying geese, an we also cut some strips that will be used to make block Z. We need to sit down and calculate exactly how many half square triangle blocks of each color that we need AND how many flying geese sashings we need of which colors. This quilt is SORTA scrappy, but it is ORGANIZED scrappy with several blocks of the same color at the same location to complete a block rather than the colors being haphazard. EEEeeeK!!!! I am still trying to figure out how to get my version 5 EQ to put flying geese in a sashing. Version 7 (which is out) will probably do it, but I don't have Version 7. Jan squared up the four or five quilts that I had brought in, and she took them home with her in preparation for her recovery which will begin after her knee is replaced next Friday. I delivered three quilts to Project Safe on my way home, and Lola took two Preemie quilts to St. Mary's.
      I am thinking that we will be furiously cutting blocks and even sewing some next week. We MUST get these blocks put together PRONTO, so we can pass the quilt to the applique group to work on the four corners. I believe it was Vicki who suggested putting a different seasonal motif in each of the four corners, but our applique group can do whatever they want to do/have time to do. This quilt is a real RUSH job!!! We need to have it finished by August to sell tickets.
                                                                                                                                 --Ellen

 

March 29, 2012

     The Charity Bee is planning on creating the Opportunity Quilt for our next show--MARCH 2013.  We must have it ready by the end of JULY--Eeeek!!!  Tickets need to go on sale in August in order to raise as much money as possible.  I am attaching a scan of the design we have chosen.  We have decided to use bright batiks that have been donated and the background fabric will be black or "reads as black."  We are in the process of getting the background fabric now which may have to be ordered.  We will make "kits" for blocks for Guild members to sew.  Each kit will include black fabric, batiks and instructions for making the units in a zip lock bag.  We are asking that the blocks NOT be sewed together so we can square them up and then sew them together using one sewing machine and one seamstress/quilter.  I am trying to duplicate the quilt design in EQ, but I have no clue how to make the "sashings" show up on the quilt since they are made up of flying geese blocks that are 2 inches wide with the blocks at 6 inches wide. 

     Jeanne Lindberg has agreed to head up the appliquers. We loved the idea of the flowers extending into the borders, but we thought that design was a little too "wispy." We're hoping that someone can design a corner with a little more "oomph." The applique is on four corners on the original design, but who says it can't be on just two corners?? The applique group can figure that one out. We will continue to work--almost exclusively on the opportunity quilt so we can get it assembled ASAP.

     There were about eight or so that showed up yesterday, including a newbie, Pam, who says she wasn't scared off by the day's activities.  Come join us if you want to be part of this project.        Ellen

 

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March 28, 2012

Pictures taken today include Bright Log Cabin quilt by prolific quilt maker  … our very own Jan Leonard. 

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The pinwheel quilt top (below) was pieced by Vicki Bauer using UFOs she found at home.

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March 15, 2012

     Remember that this Friday is UOF day in the Fiber Room.  Anyone is welcome to come and sew and visit.  the room is open from 9 AM until 5 PM.  Lunch is bring your own or go out and grab something quick.Fiber Room from 9-9:30 until. . . . .  BOLO--cop speak for Be on the Look Out for a pattern or patterns that we could use in the Charity Group with help on blocks from the Guild members for the Opportunity Quilt that will be raffled at our next Quilt Show--Horrors!!  NEXT March 2013!!!!  Time is of the essence so we need to get started if we are going to do it.  and, why not???  The Community Service which is us usually gets half the money raised so we can do quilting for various charities in the community.  Granted, we raised a good bit of money from our quilting activities last year and used it to "flesh out" our "reads as solids" to go along with the patterned fabrics that we have.  We are still cutting blocks and strips from the box of "scraps" culled from our stash.  There is still one large container that we need to sort through and store/cut up.  I'm still working on new quilt patterns to add to our book of patterns for kits.  Make plans to attend this Friday and next Wednesday.  We always manage to get a lot done!!!

 

March 11, 2012

     We will NOT meet this coming Wednesday for the Charity Bee.  The Guild will be using the Fiber Room for a Workshop.  We WILL, however, be open in the Fiber Room on Friday which is our usual third Friday to "do our own thing--mostly our UFOs.  Maybe one morning off will give each of us a little "catch up" time so we'll be ready and rarin' to go on Wednesday, March 21.

 

March 8, 2012

     We must be doing a lot of quilting!  I brought home pillow #2 to stitch shut.  Each pillow that we fill with our scraps will be taken to the Athens Humane Society for use by dogs that are in the shelter.  I made the bags out of some twill fabric (tough) that I had in my stash and figured this was a worthy way to get rid of it.  I made the bags double thick because Nancy Bruce reminded me that dogs do a lot of scratching before they finally settle down to sleep.  There were at least half -a-dozen of us that showed up to work on Wednesday.  Nancy sewed on a quilt top that she began last week.  Jan and I attacked the box of scraps that needed to be cut into blocks and strips.  Frances L. ironed those scraps to make the cutting easier.  She also quipped that she should bring her basket of ironing to the Lyndon House since she doesn't like ironing at home.  Vicki and I sorted, consolidated and organized the blocks that we have been cutting from scraps.  Phyllis and Vicki also worked on possible kits--one that was donated that had been cut out and partially sew together.  What fun!!  Sorta like putting a jigsaw puzzle together without the lid so you have NO CLUE what it is supposed to look like when it is finished because no directions came with it.  As soon as we finish this most recent renovation of our stash, I think we should be able to work more efficiently preparing quilt kits.

    IMPORTANT!!!!!  We will NOT meet as the Charity Bee next Wednesday, March 14 as there will be a Guild Workshop in the Fiber Room.  Because we have reorganized, we were able to clear the counters enough for use in the workshop without having to drag our supplies across the hall for temporary storage.  YEA!!!

    ALSO!!!!  Friday, March 16 is the third Friday of the month when we have signed up for the Fiber room to use to either work on our individual UFOs or, Heaven Forbid, continue working on Charity Bee stuff.  We are just a driven bunch!!!

 

March 6, 2012

     We'll see you tomorrow morning in the fiber Room.  I am still working on redoing patterns; it is a slow process as I keep finding tiny things that need to be corrected after I think I'm finished.  Right now there is only one copy of each finished quilt in the notebook, and I will leave the notebook in the Fiber room when we leave tomorrow.  I am keeping the large bag of loose patterns at home so I can work those patterns into our format as I have time.  Again, I have been dealing with grandson a good bit of my spare time during the weekend and today, so I haven't gotten any quilting done.  I will see what I can get done between our return from Atlanta today and the scheduled meeting I have tonight; otherwise, I'll be Scarlett--"I'll think about it tomorrow."  We will be continuing the accumulation of squares and strips as we cut up the smaller pieces.  We will probably no longer stitch ends together and iron strips ready for binding as we may find out that we can use those 2 1/2" strips in scrappy quilts.  We can always stitch and iron when we put a kit together, if necessary.

 

March 2, 2012

Phyllis called me tonight and reminded me that I hadn't sent out the up-date from Wednesday.  You would NOT believe what I am dealing with for my grandson! I thought all things were worked out between him and his roommate (who moved out today) until I went over to pick up the key.  I got it from his mother who was still at the apartment--her son had already left to move his items back home.  Stuart and I went upstairs and used the key to open the door to find out that the security chain had been activated, and there was no way in guess where that we could get in.  I call the kid's mother and she came back, and the four adults spent a total of 4 hours cutting the chain with bolt cutters and installing a new lock.  The kid had locked the door while inside the apartment and then left the apartment through the sliding glass door and jumped down to the ground from the second floor.  He evidently was determined to "have the last word" in the back and forth that I thought the two adults had settled on Thursday.  My grandson was at work and he would have come to his apartment about 10:30 and would have been unable to get it.  He would have been furious!!!!!!  I am sworn to secrecy not to tell him because HE would probably want to have the last word. I want it to STOP, so I can get my life back!!!

    All that was more than you wanted to know.  Here's the real stuff!!!  There were about 7 or 8 of us on Wednesday.  Thanks to Phyllis, who had attended the workshop on Saturday, we were able to get right to work without having to move our stash back into the fiber room.  I think we will be forever sorting through our fabrics.  Jan Leonard brought in a pinwheel quilt that she had made during the week from scraps that she had scavenged from our scrap pile.  Jane also brought in a top that she had made from some donated squares that someone didn't want to finish.  Another beautiful quilt.  I am busy trying to rewrite our patterns and find some more simple ones for us to use.  The major thing that we did last Wednesday (along with sending me home with quilts to quilt) was going through our stash and re-filing the pieces into better categories.  In doing that, we have made a box to hold all the smaller or irregularly shaped pieces to be cut into blocks or strips.  We have juvenile fabrics, flowered fabrics, oriental fabrics, fabrics in baggies that coordinate to be used for quilt tops, and larger pieces suitable for backing.  Believe it or not, the reorganization has "compacted" our stash and will, hopefully, make it easier for us to find what we want in a hurry.

    Come and join us for a fun adventure playing with fabrics.  See you on Wednesday.

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February 15, 2012

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February 9, 2012

We had a full complement of workers at the Bee on Wednesday.  Jane straightened out all the blocks that have been cut from scraps while I cut more blocks from scraps for the day.  Vickie made quite a headway in the flannels.  She sent several small quilts for me to quilt.  Nancy finished up the four toddler quilts that she put 4 multicolored borders on.  Jan and a couple of
others squared up the quilts that had been quilted.  Julie brought in another creation that she made by digging through our small pieces--she found bugs, and her quilt turned out to be yellow, black and white.  Really cute!!!  Jeanette finished another quilt top, and I took it home for quilting.  I can't wait to show off our "bully board" so the Guild can see what we've done since January.  It can only get bigger since I quilted 7 quilts this afternoon after I spent the morning buying supplies for "Our Daily Bread," the soup kitchen at Oconee Street Methodist.  My Sunday School Class is responsible for the meal tomorrow.  Did I say that I already have enough to do???  I have four more quilts to quilt from the batch that I brought home on Wednesday--I

Saturday.  I LOVE being able to keep up with the output of the group.  makes me feel good, and I don't feel overwhelmed.  Sylvia showed up for the day, but she's back in Florida today--short visit, but we enjoyed having her.  She brought a friend, Martha, who gave me her e-mail address, and I put it in a safe place on an outside pocket of my purse.  I had to use the ball point pen from that spot today, and I noticed that I safe place wasn't so safe.  I hope that Sylvia will forward this on to Martha so I can get her e-mail again.  Ginny was back at work with us after a short "vacation."  See you next week--same time, same place.

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February 3, 2012 7:02 AM
Subject: different way to hang quilts

Everyone hates to sew sleeves on quilt.  For smaller projects, it is no longer necessary!  Check this out….

Cut four – 5″ squares.

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Fold them in half on the diagonal and press – wrong sides together.

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Place these four triangles in each corner of the quilt before attaching the binding.  The raw edges on the straight sides will be caught in the seam allowance when the binding is attached!

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I like to use screen molding to hang my quilts.  It is a thin piece of wood with curved sides.  If you are an old farm girl like me, it was nailed into the farmhouse screen doors to hold the screening in place.  I am dating myself now – because that was when screen was metal!  It is cheap, thin, and can be cut with an X-acto knife – no power tools required!

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Drill a hole in the center of one piece of wood for hanging.

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If you place a piece of wood at the top and bottom of the quilt, the two pieces of wood work as stretcher bars.  Cut two pieces of wood the width of the quilt – from inside binding to inside binding.

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Now wasn’t THAT easy!!!

  January 5, 2012

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January 3, 2012 12:00 PM
Subject: Tomorrow, January 4

Tomorrow is our first day in the new year to be back to work.  I have "tons" of new fabrics--even some RED to use with our patterned fabrics, so there is no excuse for not  being able to get some quilt kits ready for distribution NEXT WEEK at the Guild meeting.  If we get the quilts squared up that I have gotten finished over our break, we'll also have some quilts for binding.  I'm heading downstairs to the catacombs to finish the last few that I have left to do.  See you tomorrow morning!!

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December 12, 2011 8:06 PM
Subject: Wednesday

We'll be meeting again this week--we'll decide then about next week which will be VERY close to Christmas.  Bring some finger foods to enjoy while we continue to work straightening, organizing, cutting, sewing, cleaning, throwing out, (did I leave anything out?)  I don't promise to bring a huge stack of quilted quilts this week.  I was "bad" last week and went to JoAnn's and bought enough coordinating fabric to go with a pattern that is in the new book that Julie Allen and I both bought.  I bought the fabric late one afternoon (Thursday) and got all the pieces cut out and the blocks sewed together, and I sewed on Friday and got the top completely finished.  I felt like I should be done in about two hours after I had completed all the blocks--I forgot that I had LOTS of long, straight seams to sew to get 35 blocks into a 5 x 7 arrangement with two borders.  I was sick of looking at my machine by supper time on Friday.  But the top was done!!!  I plan to use EQ to make a copy of the pattern in a kid size.  The size in the book is 60" x 84" but by the time I got my borders on it, it was closer to about 80" x 100".  This week is rather hectic for me with lots of meetings (I'm sure it is probably the same for you), and I plan to visit my daughter-in-law in Charlotte (you KNOW what that means!!!--FABRIC!!!) from Friday through Sunday. I am taking my granddaughter with me.  We will have time to stop and purchase for the Bee some "reads as solids" that we seem to have trouble keeping in stock.  We'll make a list on Wednesday of what we need.

    See you on Wednesday (dish in one hand and rotary cutter in the other).



December 7, 2011 7:15 PM
Subject: today

We had a fairly large group of Busy Bees today at the Charity Bee.  Vicki even began to straighten and CLEAN the room.  She moved things around, and after we got all the quilts trimmed and ready for binding, several of us joined in on the cleaning and sorting.  We are working toward cleaning off the top of the counter (on the left side of the room, anyway).  The right side is covered with someone else's junque.  There is talk that we may have a few from each group show up on the same day to work on the room.  Seems to me the biggest part of the problem is the looms that no one is using.  It's NOT that we don't use the fabric that we have in our bins!!!  We are making great headway putting complementary fabrics together ready to be made into kits, and we have a box of UFOs that we will work on next week.  We also decided that we need to go through the binding fabrics strips and put together "bundles" with enough binding to do one quilt.  And we'll store them by color so we can find bindings in a hurry.  Our fabric blocks are growing as we sort through bins and pull out pieces too large to throw away, but too small to be very useful.  We should have a scrap quilt in the future!!  We plan to meet next week, and we decided to bring something to nibble on while we work.  See you next week--all but Frances Arnold who will be with her daughter who is scheduled for surgery on next Tuesday.

    Great day today.  We got LOTS done!!!

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November 16, 2011 9:11 PM
Subject: Congrats, ladies!

We got a real good start on reorganizing our fabrics.  We have quite a stack ready to cut into blocks to be used in scrappy quilts, and we put coordinating fabrics together to begin quilt kits.  I brought home a small stack of quilts to quilt.  The ones I had quilted and brought in have been trimmed and bindings put with them ready to be handed out to volunteers who can put the bindings on them.  There were at least a Baker's dozen at the Charity Bee today, and several quilt tops were brought in finished--just need backing and binding.

    Nancy, Julie, Jane and I and maybe Sophie (New Zealand) plan to be at the Sew-In on Friday.  The Lyndon House opens at 9 AM and we can stay as long as we like as long as we get out of there by 5 PM.  We'll work on our own projects unless "the spirit moves us" to work on our Lyndon House stash.  If you can make it, please come.  The door will be open, and the doctor will be in; the therapy is cheap--cheapest in town!!  We had so much fun today that at least four of us didn't leave until 1:30 or 2 PM.  We also came up with the neatest idea for "Show and Tell" about our Charity production.  Just like Christmas; you'll have to wait and see!!!

    We will NOT meet on Wednesday (next Wednesday, November 23; it is too close to turkey day!).

    I talked with Shannon and she has the Fiber Room open on Saturday, November 26 for our machine servicing activity.  She asked that we NOT come before 9:30 AM; I guess she likes a little later start after the holiday.  She may be the only one working that day; but she did say that she was scheduled.  So, bring your sewing machines for cleaning and servicing at a great price.  We (Barry and I) plan to be there until they close--promptly at 5 PM.

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November 15, 2011
Subject: Tomorrow (Wednesday) and Friday

Tomorrow is get-together day at the Lyndon House.  I'm bringing several quilts that will need to be trimmed and made ready for binding.  We have some massive sorting and cleaning of the bins in the fiber room.  There are many pieces of beautiful fabric that are actually too big to be real scraps but not big enough to feature in a kids quilt.  We need to do some cutting of those into usable squares for scrappy quilts.  In the process we may find fabrics (or large scraps) that we might want to donate somewhere.  Come prepared to make decisions (is it a little apple or a medium apple?????).

    In addition, Friday is the third Friday of the month.  I can come and I may bring Sophie--the gal from New Zealand, but you'll have to let me know tomorrow if I will have company because the only reason I sew at the Lyndon House on third Fridays is for the therapy!!!  I can always go crazy by myself at home!!

 

November 9, 2011

I thought that Nancy's report from last night's guild meeting was worth sending out to our group for consideration.  We might be able to help out that school in several ways--those that Nancy mentioned--and others that we could think of--even mentoring occasionally.  We'll talk next Wednesday about all the concerns mentioned in Nancy’s report.

  September 28, 2011

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April 24, 2011

We had quite a bunch of quilters today at the Bee.  Quilts that had recently been quilted were trimmed and binding put with each of them.  Newly finished tops were matched with backings and I brought home a back seat full of quilts to quilt.  Frances Arnold brought the Interfaith Hospitality Quilt top and auditioned borders for it.  That quilt should be completely finished before we realize it.  We already have a design for our next gift raffle quilt, but we haven't had a request for one yet.  Everybody was "busy as bees" today putting tops together, trimming quilts, searching for bindings and backings, cutting strips and blocks from smaller pieces to be used in quilts, and making quilt kits.