To get us caught up I am going to cheat and just paste in the minutes as done by our wonderful volunteers! : )
First up is Wanda's take on our June meeting:
JUNE 20—MEETING IN THE ROUND!
Jessica noted this was a full meeting—and she wasn’t kidding.
Jennifer, one of EMQG’s ‘toddlers’, showed baby quilts; the same pattern in two different color ways. She was really proud of her accomplishment. And so were we! (Then she was off—a date night with her husband!)
With summer just beginning, Jessica encouraged us to identify a favorite summer vacation. As you can see, favorite vacations were varied.
· Camping trips were by far the most prevalent.
· Cross-country road trips. (Phyllis shared a wonderful story that amazed all of us.)
· Grand Canyon trips.
· International trips—Caribbean, Africa, Costa Rica, Cruise through the Panama Canal.
· Trips to New York City, Alaska, Hawaii, the Wallowa’s, and the Adirondacks.
· The retelling of a winter snow showing backpacking trip at night left us in stitches.
Nancy provided two tutorials. The first was on GO and GO BABY, a much-applauded die cutting process that produces very accurate cutting. (At least Nancy, Phyllis, and Deanna/Karen own machines.) Both GO and GO BABY are available (at a better price than found at JoAnn’s) on Amazon and EBay. There are suggestions on the back of each die package. Nancy particularly likes the strip dies.
"I love the Accuquilt Go! Cutter...I could be their spokesperson I love it so much"
The second tutorial was on SEWING HEXAGONS BY MACHINE.
· Cut the hexagons. (Nancy generally uses her dies to cut the hexagons.)
· Mark the fabric ¼ inch in from each point.
· Sew one column of hexagons. (Do NOT press until after ALL hexagons are joined.)
Then add a hexagon to the top AND to the right of the top hexagon. Line up the hexagons and sew the first leg of the Y (from outside to center). Fold the result in half, then pin and sew the next leg of the Y. Continue until the column is completed. Repeat until all hexagons are joined.
"I make a long chain of these..."
Next up, notes from Deanna:
The June exchange called for something yellow. Those that participated made and received some beautiful items. There was quite a variety.
Next month’s exchange will be something white. Have fun creating!
Show and tell brought out some fine pieces and showcased some of our members great talent.
Kelly brought a beautiful snowball and crosses quilt in blues, yellows, reds and whites. Truly a nice quilt that needs to be shown, maybe in our next quilt show!!!
Can you say gorgeous!!!!
Kelly also brought her bee block quilt from 2011. Rectangle piecing in blues, tans, greens and yellows. It was machine quilted with nice hand quilting accents. The back was really cool with wonky log cabin squares.
Front
Back...not sure which is more beautiful! But what can you expect from Kelly,
her work is A-L-W-A-Y-S amazing!
her work is A-L-W-A-Y-S amazing!
Nancy showed us her work in progress, a Storm at Sea pattern in lovely greens, whites, purples and blues. The quilting was done with free-motion. Nancy used her lazy angle ruler for cutting. Another neat tool to look for and add to our tool boxes. She also had a bonus pillow sham she made.
Love, love, love...but then I am a little obsessed with Kate Spain fabrics.
Nancy also told us about the Steady Betty arm support, a foam piece that goes around your hand while quilting, leaving enough room so you can move your fingers to sew while wearing it. And that ladies was a wrap up of June's meeting!
