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!

Making Fabric etc.

As usual we had a good time getting together. We had decided that for May we would all  bring a shoe box full of fabric scraps and pool them, using the "15 minutes of Play" book by Victoria Finlay Wolf, we would make fabric. Some us had a plan but most I think had a wait and see how it goes attitude.

This was the way the fabric pool table looked when I got there. Lori had cut some squares and triangles from phone book pages to use for foundations. On the right is Diane's contribution, some big shoe box I'd say. As more of the group arrived the table filled up and spread out to other places.

 We were all  to bring  1/2 yard of fabric to use ourselves for continuity; this is Lori's fabric. I brought a multicolored mostly yellow Kaffe fan fabric for mine. I did  not get any shots of anyone else's 1/2 yard. Most seemed to forgo that suggestion.











I think most of us were making blocks vs. larger made fabric pieces to cut into blocks. I did not  see a lot of finished blocks.


These 3 blocks on the top left are Maryann's blocks, very precise as usual. Below that are Judy's triangle blocks which she pieced on phone book paper foundations. Judy seems to have a plan and is still deciding which way to go. On the right are Gwen's blocks, she has a color scheme in mind and she too is still processing ideas as to how to use her blocks.



 Here we see Kathy and Gwen at their machines. I only got a couple of shots of people working. I thought I had more photos but I think I deleted some while I was reviewing them.

At the end of the day we selected fabrics from the table to fill our shoebox to take home to work on making fabric. We will do this again in June, hopefully the rest of the group will be with us at that time.

 

After lunch we got around to our other agenda. We were to bring a UFO that we decided to commit to finishing.

 

These are Maryann's two UFOs. They are not both the same size; the one on the left was make with the Lil Twister template so you can gauge the size. She wanted suggestions for quilting and Fran gave her a really good suggestion for the twister.

These are Lori's two UFOs. I was so interested in all the different fabrics that at first I didn't realize that the 9 patch blocks were wonky.

I had another photo,which somehow got deleted of Lori's e other UFO blocks. She wanted suggestions for centers and seed shapes for her pieced arcs. I suspect that this is going to be a WIP for awhile as that shoebox is full of arcs that seem to be all batik fabrics. Lots of work ahead on this UFO.

 Diane has been working on a Stack and Whack quilt that she started in our basement meeting a few months back. Our Stack and Whack guru Kathy on hand that day to give her suggestions. She has the pieces laid out on a sheet and had pinned tissue paper over it to bring it along to the meeting. It is only partially sewed together.




 Here is a close up of a piece of the original fabric. It is a very large floral print that makes a  stunning "Stack and Whack quilt. Below that is a close up of a few of the blocks. Those 3D hexagon blocks add a lot of interest.





Here are Guru Kathy's Stack and Whack UFO blocks.  Top left is a bunch she laid out 3 x 3; I failed to notice that there were also several blocks on in a  pile on top. Top right is close up of one block and below are close up of two different size blocks. One is a small version of the square blocks and the other is 2 of several hexagon blocks. Kathy is still  thinking about what she wants to do but this is the UFO or UFOs that she has committed to finish.

 This is my big 13 year old UFO. These blocks were made by the Friendship swap group the first year I was part of the group. Several of these ladies are Basement Divas. On the right is the 12  inch block showing the pieced sashing on 3 sides which formed another secondary pattern. These blocks have lot of pieces and I asked for 2 blocks with the fabrics to all be different and to give me any left over 4 patch blocks for the sashing. It is a testimony to how nice they are that we are still friends. I  have committed to work on the hand quilting one day every week until it is finished.

Here we have: a Diva who shall remain nameless, Syd, and Kathy all worn out at the end of a good day with good friends.