For those of you that don’t have a bookmark and want to see what the monthly schedule is for 2012:

January 16th – Bring your own project to work on

February 20th – Needle Felting

March 19th – Bring your own project

April 16th – Crochet Entrelac

May 21st – Knitting Entrelac

June 18th – Double Knitting

July 16th – Bring your own project

August 20th – Crocheted tree skirt, multiple patterns will be given out in July so you can make a choice of what to work on in August.

September 17th – Bring your own project

October 15th – Crochet Crocodile Stitch

November 19th – Bring your own project AND plan classes for 2013

December 10th – meets the 2nd Monday, bring your own project AND stuff for the White Elephant Exchange

The June meeting was special in that we had some of the ladies bring some of their stash to give to two of our ladies that we know had damage in the tornado. Some of us went to visit the one that is still in the hospital as a result.

I do not have time to break them down by the month they were brought, here is the slideshow gallery:

Jan – Bring your own project

Feb – Tunisian Crochet

Mar – Bring your own project

Apr – Quilting Tips – sashing, sandwiching, hand quilting and machine quilting techniques

May – Bring your own project

June – Knitting Basics Part 1

July – Knitting Basics Part 2

Aug – Fingerless Mittens

Sept – Bring your own project

Oct – Crochet Old & New (help in reading patterns)

Nov – Bring your own project

Dec – White Elephant trade, have something you no longer want that is crafty related, bring it to swap with others. We usually have kits, yarn, patterns, you name it and we have probably had it.

Debbie's Orangutan without his arms

You are always welcome to bring your own project to work on, even the months we have classes on something else. We almost always have wonderful Show n Tell (though I have been bad about getting them up on this blog, if you were here, you would see them). Plus you can get help with just about any craft or learn a new one. The group is great about jumping in and trying to see if they can solve a crafting problem.

The pattern has been decided: Simplicity 4282 E

The one in the middle

The pattern calls for 1 1/8 yards of 45″ fabric, but I’m going to get 1 1/2 yards because I want more pockets and I think I’m going to get 2 different fabric (1 1/2 yards each) so I can make it reversible. It also calls for 3 1/2 yard of 1/4″ wide Double Fold Bias Tape. That will have to be a coordinating color that works with both my fabrics for me. The pattern also calls for 3/8 yard of 1″ wide flat eyelet. Not sure I’m going to do that until after I pick out the fabric I’m going to use.

The back of the pattern shows what the apron looks like laying flat:

Remember you will be bringing in your sewing machine for that class. So please practice using it before then. Bring whatever thread you want to sew with along with your fabric, bias tape, scissors, etc.

It will be exciting to see what fabric everyone brings and how the same pattern will look different on each of us.

Here are a some of what you missed:

Lee's Welsh Beauty, only the center section of the queen size quilt

As you can see I had it hung up so you could see the light through the center part. It’s reversible, I selected the back fabric online based on my monitor color. It doesn’t look the same as I thought it would be it still looks nice. My experience of buying fabric online has made me feel I should go to the stores or order out of a catalog. Which I have done a lot over the years. I would be interested to hear what others online shopping for fabric experiences have been.

If you take a close look you can see all the hand quilting that went into this. It tooks months of tons of quilting time. I don’t think you could make enough money to make this.

I also brought my very first quilt, I ever made. I belongs to a quilt club at the time and we were doing one block of the month, starting with the 9 patch because it is probably is one of the easiest

Dinosaurs Everywhere, hand pieced, hand appliqued and hand quilted

and most useful block to learn. If you look at a lot of other blocks you can see the 9 patch it. This quilt took me a few years to complete. I did one block a month for a year, getting progressively more difficult. I used fabric that my son who was into dinosaurs at the time picked out. By the time I completed the hand quilting, he was no longer into dinosaurs. The other part I like is you can’t really tell the blocks all have dinosaur material in them, until you see the outer border.

The last quilt I brought with me to the June meeting, every block was made by a different person. We were not told what colors to make or what block to make. I found the choices really interesting. The upper left block was pieced and appliqued and was the original logo block. The block in the upper right is the one I made. My mother took all the blocks and sashed and bordered to finish the quilt top. Another lady machine quilted the quilt. You can see several of the blocks are 9 patches. This quilt always reminds me that part of the fun in making a quilt is sharing them. I think that applies to all the crafts that we do. If you come to our meetings you get to see lots of amazing projects. Some will be in the library’s large display case in September. These are just a few the ladies have finished so far.

Crocheted hats, we got to see them modeled, they are gorgeous

Lorene does it again. You have to ask her what it is. I hope she brings the completed one in July

Do you see the circle in the square?

Several ladies want to make these

2 different table runners to be. I see some 9 patches

I can see how you could use only squares and half square triangles to make this

Barbara did an excellent job on this, just needs the binding

Hand-piecing a 3 block table runner

Start with 2 colors of fabric, one light and one dark.

Press fabric

Put fabric right sides together

Cut 4 ½” strip (you might need more then one strip depending on the size of your fabric) and 5” strip (I used 2 strips)

From the 4 ½” strip cut 6 – 4 ½” blocks you will also need more light and dark pieces cut, if you choose to go the same as my blocks that you are seeing you will need an additional 3 sets (light & dark) cut and 1 additional dark)

9-patch block

Take 3 sets and sew one side of each set. (1/4″ seam allowance and double stitch a 1/4″ from each end) Finger press them open. Flip them so you have (if you are doing dark & light like mine, I used a total of 5 dark and 4 light for the block), dark and light, next row light and dark, last row dark and light. 1st row add a dark block to the right side of the light block and sew. Middle row (2nd row) add a light block to the right side of the dark block and sew, last row (3rd row) add a dark block to the right side of the light block and sew. Now you have 3 strips of blocks. Place the middle row of strips face down on the 1st row of block. Match the seams and sew straight across. Finger press open then place the 3rd row face down onto the middle row and sew.

For the last 2 blocks you will need to make the half square triangles, before piecing the blocks.

Mark on the light side with a mechanical pencil (.7mm) & your quilters quarter ruler

From the 5” strip cut 4 – 5” block. Use the quilters quarter and mark each side of the ruler and the center. Stitch both the solid lines with double stitches ¼” from the ends. Cut down the center. Finger press open with the seam going to the darker side. Square up (trim) to 4 ½”.

After cutting, press open each one and trim to 4 1/2"

Now you have all the pieces ready for your other 2 blocks. Half-squares and full-square pieces.

Completed Shoo Fly Block

Shoofly or Hole in a Barn Door or Snowball block

• Make two strips by piecing two half-squares with one light square.
• Make one strip by piecing two light squares with one dark square.
• Piece the three strips together to form the finished Shoo Fly block.

Or you can switch the layout so the finished block will look like this .

Hole in Barn Door Block

It is called either a Hole in a Barn Door or a Snowball I. To make a Snowball II change the center block to a light instead of dark.

Friendship Star Block

Take the last 4 of half-squares, 4 dark squares (for the corners) and 1 light square (for the center)

Piece the 3 strips as pictures

Here are my blocks that I’ve been working on. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the others will look like. Hopefully some will have theirs done in July.

9 patch block

Shoofly block

Frienship Star block