Loving Hands Quilt Guild

Our church in New Berlin, WI, has a quilt mission as part of the Women's Mission groups.  As my co-leaders Suzi always says, we're "small but mighty".  We have about six or seven core members, and sometimes we pull in other people for a project here or there.

We always have a bag of quilt kits in our resource center, but sometimes our 'parts department' gets a little low.  We love making string blocks, and putting them into quilts, but we stopped making them for a while so we ran out.

This year we wanted to spend a day sewing together, and it seemed like getting some string blocks done would be a good project for all skill levels. You know what string blocks are I'm sure... but here's a sample just in case:

I made these 3 1/2 inch blocks of leftover pieces a while back. 
Our blocks at church are usually 9 1/2 inches. 

We had a whole bag of 'strings', which are the cuts that are left over when you make a project.  Sometimes they're large and can be used again in a quilt, and sometimes the pieces are short but can be sewn together and used, and sometimes you wonder why you didn't throw them away to begin with!

Suzi brought her bucket of strings too, and that turned out to be a BIG pile of goodness! We ended up with a crew of nine or ten, including one teenager and my own Miss A, who is almost 9.  So we went all the way from 9 to 90+!

We work on foundation blocks, pieces of fabric too light to use in an actual quilt; we had a ton of those precut.  Several of the ladies and the two youngsters had never made a string block before.  It's a good block for beginners to start with because it's so forgiving.  A demo of the process was made and we were off to the races!

At various points during the day we ate, played bingo with quilt words and gave away prizes, then returned to sewing.  By the end of the afternoon we had over 30 blocks, 9 1/2 inches square, sewn, pressed and trimmed to size.  Next time someone is looking for a project, this could be the one they pick up!

Sadly I took almost NO pictures during this wonderful day.  Next time, for sure...  A good time was had by all.  I hope we made some new friends, and that they come back again next month.  Our 'parts department' is full again!

Sew on...

Summer Sewing

This summer our quilt group from church is meeting on Saturday mornings instead of Sunday afternoons.  We're also skipping around on dates, instead of meeting monthly.  Vacations are getting in the way, I guess.  That's OK, it's too nice to sit inside in June and July OR IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE!!

I know it's still technically spring, but jeepers creepers, when are we going to get some nice weather??  Today's desk gadget says that here in downtown, near the lakefront, it's 66 degrees.  There was fog this morning and there is haze now.  Yuck.

People often donate things to our group, and the latest acquisition is a sewing machine.  It's a Montgomery Ward and I think the model number is 1265.  I forgot to look more closely at the manual.

So a week ago when we met on Saturday morning, I grabbed it out of the bin and tried to clean it up.  And did it need cleaning!!  Sorry to say, more cleaning than I was capable of.  It still runs well, the tension is fine, and with a  little TLC it will be put to good use for our charity projects.

The funniest thing about it was that it has a kind of unusual thread path.  I told Suzy that it has been ages since I've had to look at the threading diagram on a sewing machine!



Our new old machine!

We counted up our quilt tops, kits and finishes.  We sent 50+ dresses and 30+ pairs of shorts to the group that's going on a mission trip to Burkina Faiso.  We're well stocked on baptismal quilts and we have a large box of charity quilts ready to be distributed.  Our new fall projects might include some Quilts of Valor type projects, if we can acquire some red/white/blue and other fabrics appropriate to the cause.  (Usually we get florals and baby prints, not too often do we get themed fabric or specific colors.)

Then I saw this on a trip through some blogs the other day... lots of jeans patches, I wonder if this is something we could do for fall?  Hmmm, I'll file that one away for future reference.

Sew on!

Many Hands Make Light Work

A couple of weekends ago my church quilting group met for our regular monthly get-together.  We normally meet for three hours or so.  We layer and pin there because we have big tables, and then divvy up the various projects and work on them at home.  I usually kit things up and cut, others sew tops, another lady does the machine quilting, and two or three people do bindings and sew on labels. 

Every month we have to sort through things because the room we have in the 'multipurpose' room is so limited.  We have big plastic tubs, bags and boxes.  We try to be organized but it's hard when you can't see what's in some of the boxes and tubs.  We tried labeling them but things change so that was kind of a bust.

Anyway, we had taken off the month of December for obvious reasons, and we had to think hard about what the plan was for 2013!  Our leader says we have enough baptismal quilts for a while and we were discussing the various charitable opportunities.

When it was time to work, we couldn't find much to be layered and we scratched our heads a little.  Hmmm, seems like we had more stuff in progress!  There were only two or three kits in their gallon sized baggies, and our show and tell was a little sparse over the holidays.

So out came the bins and boxes and low and behold, when we counted up what we had in progress we had over two dozen tops!  Three or four could use some borders, and the rest were ready to be layered and quilted!!  Wow!  We have an embarrassment of riches!

Barb's off to buy some more batting, and I've got borders to cut.  Susie is machine quilting... busy busy busy.

Sew on!

Sewing Again!!

I am so happy to report that I actually did a little sewing tonight after work!!  Yes, I turned on the machine (since I can now see it on the table, it's no longer piled with stuff) and sewed two blocks for my Phone Guy's Wife collection.

First I finished up the Maple Leaf block that I had cut out about a month ago.  It's a spring maple leaf, bright green like the tree in my back yard was before the heat wave.

Then I did a block called Northern Lights.  I think it was supposed to be a lower contrast, but honestly I don't think I like blocks where the colors sort of mush together.  What is the point of doing all that piecing and not have it show, you know what I mean?

So this block looks very nice but I must not have been careful sewing because one side is slightly less than the full 6 1/2 inches, I think you can see the offending corner.  I might have to un-sew, and re-sew this one.

I also pressed some more hearts onto some more muslin.  I'm trying to convince my oldest Grand that she can do the sewing around the edges.  Right now they're just held on by Wonder Under.

Also I am ready for a marathon sewing weekend, (since I have taken vacation the two days after the coming holiday) having cut many small pieces into usable strip sizes...  I have a bin of two inch strips

and another of 2 1/2 inch strips...

just ready and waiting for some production sewing.

Also ready to go is one little girl's dress for the smallest grand

All that is needed is a zipper, and some facings or bindings on the neck and sleeves.  I guess I didn't hang it too well, did I?? 

Oh, and I got a 'housewarming' gift in my new office today.  It matches exactly the green of the guest chairs and the wall and ceiling in the break room.  Thanks went out to the generous guy who sent this to me from Overland Park, Kansas.  What will they think of next??

This is actually a very functional tape dispenser!!  What a hoot!

Sew on, and I mean it!!

Sewing Over the Weekend

Last week Friday was the first time that our 'locals' who attended the February quilt retreat were together.  We compared notes about our various progress (or lack thereof) on the Twisted Bargello we were working on.

I didn't have my camera so I don't yet have pictures of the others' quilts but Amy and Nancy got their tops to the point of needing borders!  Amy of course is a project person and classic over-achiever, and did a queen sized bed quilt while the rest of us are doing wall hangings, and Nancy loves to finish things!

Zel has hers about as far as I do... and Sharon's not telling.

My strip sets are complete, and all the cutting is done.  They are in plastic baggies, waiting for the next time I have a sewing session.



This is my spectrum, laid out by color and intensity, starting with number 1 on the left and going to 20 on the right.  The colors are great!  They're sewn into sections of four and sub cut. 

I pinned the sections on my design board, and I'm just loving looking at them.  Maybe this will inspire a sewing session sometime soon!  Zel, Sharon and I should try to sneak in an extra sewing session to catch up. 

This is not a standard bargello where you just sew the strip sets together.  There is movement and color change giving it a "TWIST" in the middle.  The finished project is lovely, so it's back to work!!

Other things I've been doing include our church quilting group's monthly meeting.  The group has made a number of quilts since January.  We chose to sew patterns with half square triangles in them this quarter.  We make quilts to give to each child baptized in our church.  And we have had a lot of baptisms this year, including three sets of twins!!  I'm in charge of choosing color combinations from our stash of fabric and cutting up kits.  I think I pressed out about 50 yards of fabric in my basement in March...

This isn't what I pressed but it feels like about the same amount of yardage!!

We also sent many charity quilts out, the most recent being 5 to the mission in Ysletta, Mexico.  More will go to Lutheran Womens' Missionary League this summer, and we'll send some on whatever mission trip our congregation goes on this summer.  So we have been busy!

Sewing for someone else, especially to fill a need, is so very satisfying.  Even if you consider yourself a beginner, you can find some project to work on.  Project Linus, Quilts of Valor, LWML, homeless shelters, almost anywhere you look you can find someone who needs what you do.  Or go to the nearest senior home or nursing home and do some mending for the residents.  You'll feel good and be doing a good thing.  Everyone benefits!

Sew on...