March meeting

As I told most of you when you arrived in the morning for our March gathering, this day was all about backup plans.  We found out early in the morning that someone was coming to see our house at 3:00. Everyone was very diligent and kind in helping me tear things down and clean up in time for me to vacate.  I really appreciate it.  Mike and Brady were out and about with activities most of the day so I really needed the extra help to make it happen.

Based on the craziness, much of the day is a blur to me.  Many Divas were industrious at the tables. Others were content to socialize--myself included.  We had a great lunch, as always, with many dessert choices.  I failed to get a photo of Judy's fruit centerpiece. :-(

Once it was clear we were going to be tidied up on time, we decided to do show and tell.  I'm glad Dianne and Fran spoke up because it was a great showing.

Dianne got the borders on her amazing jelly roll.

She also got the other three quarters pieced for the top she started at the January retreat. Just look at that perspective!

 

Fran got her jelly roll quilted. Just look at that A+ muckling of reds!

And the pieced back.  What a composition!

See you all soon!

Jelly Roll Race 2016

I still can't believe it's the last race in this basement.  What fun we have had sewing laps and trash talking.



 

It is funny to compare and contrast our first race from this one.  How relaxed and jovial we are!

Some racers are very serious.  Others are just avoiding a potential win.



Dianne seems to be making a very serious point about something here.  Abstinence, perhaps?

Maybe not ...

Despite how many times we've raced, there's always something new.  This year, we had our first bloodshed.  I still can't believe how nonchalant Lynn was when the needle went in (and then we weren't sure if it had gone through). 

I had to pretend to be the medic since neither of our nurses were in attendance.

Here's a shot of the needle.  Pretty scary looking!

And, now, on to the racers.  Judy and Gwen had the same Kate Spain jelly rolls and, yet, they still manage to come out looking different.  So Spring-y!

Jan dug into her vast Marcia Derse stash.  What a great combo!

I believe this is Kathy's top and I don't remember the origin of the strips.  I love the orange.

Mary Ann did a cute dots combo.

Susie did hers in elegant batiks.

Lynn did a foodie version.

I, too, did dots and I am sure I won the award for the worst spacer clumping EVER!

Leave it to Dianne to reinvent the concept.  She cut multiple strips of a smaller variety of prints.  The photo does not do it justice.  Really stunning!

I am working on sewing down the binding from last year's Xmas top.

And the back ..

Dianne finished the fused and machine embroidered quilt.  What a tremendous amount of work she put into this one and it shows.

Here's a closeup of the stitching and machine quilting.

There were margaritas, of course ...

 

 

 

When the awards ceremony came, Susie was a little worried to see a certain cow print box appear.  She was momentarily relieved until she saw the twice regifted battery operated relaxation enhancement device and, also, a pointless screwtop bottle of wine.  Never fear, the topiary did not make an appearance.

Our referee Jan provided fab tote bags for all of the outstanding gifts.  Thanks to Jan, too, for some of the action photos in this post. 

Kathy also brought personalized medals. I wish I had recorded all of the great awards.  Kathy's was "Didn't cry" so that gives you an idea of how funny and imaginative they were.  I got "Best Twist" for managing to put a horrendous two rotation twist in one of my laps.  Here's Judy modeling hers.  You'll have to zoom.  Thanks to all who donated gifts.  For this event, it is often better to give than to receive but both have their merits.

 

Here's to another great race, Divas!

The morning after

What a great day!  There was lots of laughter and a competitive spirit—sort of.  We are developing our own competitive style, that is for sure.  Now that everyone knows that there be prizes no matter what, it takes the pressure off first place (as in … DON’T come in first place).

This year was a series of firsts.  It was the first year that I thought … we can fit everyone into one spot.  We don’t need to have people sewing in the tv area.  That led to the first ever power outage.  I guess 8-9 machines on one circuit is too much.  It was the first year we had a DNF when Mary Ann’s machine balked under the pressure.  We are all sending positive thoughts her way as she takes it to the spa on Monday. It was the first time we had one extra prize bag and one orphaned sewing machine at the end of the day.  It was the first year we had dancing and the first year Ruth wasn’t stressed about a late finish. It was the first year to have some folks posting and commenting on the blog (Ruth’s prodding has finally paid off).  As many have also pointed out, it was the first year that the topiary did not make an appearance.  I wonder what that could mean?

All in all, it was a great race.  I agree with Ruth—it gets better every year.  Thanks everyone for being such great sports and for all of your enthusiasm.

The Race

Yes it really was a fun race and a fun day all around.  I am happy to see Kathy's post and  posts by Laura and Mary Ann who are new to posting. I am hoping to see a few more.
I have a confession to make I CHEATED; I sewed 2/3 of the first long seam at home.  Actually it was more of a handicap because I am always slow and I am old and I burned my thumb and I did it for my friends so they wouldn't be waiting and extra hour for lunch.  I didn't come in first anyway so it didn't matter. Just to keep myself honest I told 2 people before the race started.

We got there an hour before the race so there was time to set up and catch up on what is going on with everyone and drink coffee, and partake in some pre-race nourishment. Brady is very good at playing host he always makes sure no one is feeling left out.








We did have 2 power failures which were quickly fixed. Some of us took advantage of the time to have another quick snack and then it was back to work.
There were also 2 dance breaks. I didn't dance because I was too busy snapping photos. But it looked like everyone was having fun.

 There was some serious sewing going on too and everyone except Mary Ann had a flimsy to show off.





For some reason we didn't get individual photos of all the flimsies but we did get a group shot. You can see Mary Ann holding up her Jellyroll which her sewing machine refused to sew. I think the race quilts get better every year  this being the best so far IMHO.








Everyone received a prize and there were goodie bags made and filled by Judy and participant patches made by Lori which were signed by everyone there.












Because Gwen finished first she was the Queen Diva today and she received a purple crown.

Happy New Year and Happy 100!

Did you realize this is our 100^th post?  Here’s to the next 100!   Speical thanks to Ruth for guilting us into a few of those to get us into the habit.

I have to say, I do a pretty horrible job with quilt photography.  It is always a last-minute recordkeeping task rather than something that is likely to turn out to be a quality photo.  I wanted to review what I’d accomplished sewing-wise in 2013 and decided that a blog post with a few photo collages might be the best way for me to remember what exactly I’d spent my time on last year.  It turns out that I am even less proficient with photo collages so you’ll have to bear with me.  This was only my second turn at it and, again, I put function over form.  Here goes.

 I made a few crafty things last year as well as a few projects that only made it to the block or flimsy stage.  I didn't bother to include the 20 pillowcases I made for Brady's birthday party.

 

I was surprised to see how many charity quilts I finished.  Some of the things that helped me in that area were the Wildwood charity sewing day, digging through Dianne’s leftovers, and a more realistic review of some of my stash (cut up those flannels and big prints I’ll never use!).

These are all of my finishes that were given to family and friends.  I’ve decided that it is silly for all of these tops to be hanging in the closet instead of on beds.  The biggest challenge is that I seemed to really enjoy making queen sized tops for the first few years.  I’m slowly and steadily working through the pile, though, and I’m using up quite a few yards for backs, too.

I managed to keep up with some of the challenges this year, too.  Thankfully, these are small pieces.

Fellow Divas, I hope you are getting your fabric together and revving your engines in preparation for the Jelly Roll Race on February 22.  It’s always a crowd pleaser and, of course, everyone gets a specially chosen prize!

A Charming Little Quilt

Yesterday I was the recipient of this little 18 x 21 quilt. that Jan made for  me from a pack of 5 inch squares that she won  last year at the first Diva Jellyroll Race.

 

Last year when I was decluttering  Lori asked if I would like to contribute some of what I was weeding out as prizes for the race I had put together some packs not so charming 5 inch squares and called them "Notso Packs". I think it demonstrates that when you put it in a quilt it goes from "Notso" to "Oh so". I love it. I received it without the binding at this years race and Jan took it home and finished the binding and gave it to me last evening at our Friendship group. It is going up on my sewing room wall as soon as I take down the Christmas wreath quilt that somehow got left up when I put all the Christmas away in a stack to be put away. I guess sometimes it really pays to procrastinate; now I can put everything away together.

 Maybe I should take a last look around to make sure I got it all.

 

More Race Photos

Two more photos from the race.

 

First the Collaborative Quilt that Syd won, which we all worked on over a period of time and which Diane quilted.

 

Our First Collaborative Quilt

 

 

Second Jan and her scissors holster which was made by Margie, our long distance, honorary member.

 

 I also added a labels gadget to our side bar. When you are posting (and I know you are all going to be posting and adding photos) you can add a label to your post; then when you want to find all the posts with one label you can click on it on the side bar and they will all come up. All you have to do before you click to publish your post is click on "labels" on the right side bar and type in the name of the label. When you start to type, a list of the labels that are already there will pop up. To avoid confusion click on one of them if it is appropriate instead of typing something similar, which would result in another category.

And it was a race

What a great race, as expected!  Kathy mentioned that the addition of Laura, Judy and Syd may have had a calming effect on the room.  It is certainly possible because, although we were all very enthusiastic, there wasn’t as much nervous tension as last year.  It could just be that we’d all gotten over that “winning” thing after we witnessed what happened to Lynn last year.  J

We didn’t do derailers this year, but all were aware of our referee Jan’s watchful eye.  We all made a lovely quilt top so that is a bonus.  Several racers brought numerous and generous prizes which were all appreciated.  I appreciated the thoughtful and evil input from the esteemed prize committee.  Diva Dianne graciously and beautifully finished our improve quilt and it was offered as a raffle prize.  I was glad that Syd won, especially after I saw her relief that it was not another pile of UFO ingredients.  I was excited to receive one of three food jelly rolls donated by Kathy.  They are one of a kind and not available in any store.  First place winner Judy (plus me as hostess) received hand-painted topiary margarita glasses provided by our honorary Diva Margie.  Custom, commissioned artwork … wow … can we top this?!?!  Here's a shot of Judy in her 2013 Jelly Roll crown, admiring her topiary glass.  Many thanks to Margie!

 

Of course, "The" topiary needed to change hands.  It made sense that it go to someone who had not yet experienced its splendor.  Ruth was a prime target … I mean recipient.  Fran was happy to turn it over and I believe this photo shows her satisfaction and relief.

 

After prizes, we had a delicious lunch.  Comfort food to the max.  Dianne and Judy did their usual and wonderful cleanup effort.  I love the fact that my house looks the same or better at 3:05 as it did at 10:00 a.m. 

Ruth had the great idea to ask Mike to take a group photo since everyone was present for the race (we talked about our Florida satellite and missed them).  What a great picture of an exceptional group of friends.  Without all of you and your enthusiasm, there wouldn’t be events like these.  Thanks to all for showing up each month to laugh, complain, and quilt (talking about quilting also counts). 

 

 

Mike, Brady and I all went down for a nap soon after everyone left.  Brady belted out a few songs then fell asleep in his doorway with his blankie and stuffed animal.  It would have been a great photo but I didn’t want to risk waking him.  All three of us really enjoy Diva Saturdays.

 

 

Race Day

It was a GF3 day, Good Friends, Good Fun and Good Food.

I am sure there are some other photos yet to be posted but here is my collage of most of the finished quilts ( this was after lunch when no one wanted to stand up alone and have their quilt top photographed). The rest of the collage is most members admiring their prizes, I missed Syd and Kathy with their prizes. Syd received a quilting book. Syd has more quilting books than all the local libraries combined but i am sure she has room for one more. I think Kathy received some leftovers; I never saw her open her prize..

The second and third photos from the left in bottom row are Lynn, first place winner last year, and Judy, first place winner this year, wearing their crowns.
I don't suppose I will ever get a crown as I came in dead last this year and next to the last last year. However I did get a special trophy, The Topiary. It has been passed around from unsuspecting person to unsuspecting person for a number of  years. I should let someone else tell the story about it as I was not there at the beginning. Though I had heard about it many times, I only saw it for the first time last year.