July Guild Meeting

Our monthly guild meeting was held in Newtonia on July 16th. We had 12 members and 4 guests there. It was our quarterly Project Linus meeting so different ones brought their sewing machines to work on this or their own projects. We worked on weighted blankets for children with Autism or ADHD/ADD. More information on these blankets and how they can help is available through your local Project Linus Chapter.

Lucy won our Amish Basket BOM blocks. This could be a very beautiful quilt..

Next month's BOM block is the Butterfly. It will be a pieced block.

Vea described how she wanted this block to be made. Pale neutral pastel background, 2 bright pastel colors for the wings and black or charcoal grey for the body. The antennae can be added by machine or embroidery.

We had several Linus BOM Flip Flop blocks turned in as well as the Faux Paper Pieced Star blocks. Very nice.

Before our Linus work meeting began, we shared with the group the Sweet Treat Bags that we made as our May Challenge.

Another challenge that we were given in June was a "scrap bag" challenge. We each drew a number that corresponded with a bag of scraps. We were then to take the bag home and make something with all the pieces. Some were harder to use than others since they were so very tiny.

We then received a new challenge that is due in October. We each were given 4 fat eighths of fabric that were printed with large fruits or vegetables. It is called our "Harvest Bounty" Challenge. We have to use all of the fabric in a project of our choosing. More fabric can be added to it as desired.

The Raffle quilt for the September Fall Festival in Newtonia was finished and we took pictures of both sides. It is a fully reversible quilt and it was machine quilted. Very beautiful. We will be selling tickets to earn money for our guild's needs for the coming year. The top is made of blocks that the guild members pieced. The back is just as bright and lovely. Quite a treat to look at.

June Guild Meeting.

Our June Guild meeting was held on the 18th and we had several members in attendance. We received the word that our raffle quilt is at the quilter's and we should have it back soon to take pictures and start selling tickets.

Rebecca Lesue won our Honey Bee BOM blocks.Our new BOM for July is the Amish Basket. Solid colors are to be used for this and black is to be used for the background.

Our Project Linus BOM is the Flip Flop. We are to make one or more of these blocks to turn in to be made into a linus quilt.

Lucy started our Program part of the meeting with a drawing to give away all the larger prizes left over from the retreat.

Then Rebecca showed us how she does Fauz Paper Piecing. Those that make the blocks and bring them back will get to see how they are set together in a linus quilt.

We had Show and Tell with several personal projects and linus projects shown.

The BOM bylaw rules were reviewed so we better understood when and how often we were eligible for winning these blocks.

Our meeting was adjourned until July 16th.

It was great.... We had our Retreat on June 12th and 13th. It was supposed to be a "mini" retreat, but we had so much to do, I prefer to call it just a Retreat. Several projects were worked on and some were even completed. The most fun was had by those who participated in the Hand Dyeing of fabrics. I may be bias since that is the main thing I did and had a wonderful time doing it.

We had fun with the basics of hand dyeing and ended up with 9 beautiful colors and a black. Each one is unique and beautiful.

We then played with soy wax and tried our hand at "batiking". Some of these are quite lovely and unique too. We stamped the wax onto the fabric with household items such as potato mashers, empty thread spools, cookie cutters, and even a wire whip. After the wax dried, the fabric was placed into one and sometimes 2 colors. After the fabric set for several hours, the wax was removed to reveal the great designs left behind by the wax.

Then we tried a couple of methods using shaving cream. Both of the methods using this were great at giving soft colorful pieces of fabric. The one method has the shaving cream in a layer on plastic and you add the dyes to other shaving cream and apply it however you wish to the shaving cream layer. Then you lay your fabric on top of this and let it set before removing it to dry.The other shaving cream method has the fabric "painted" with the dyes and the shaving cream is added on top of the dye and allowed to dry. Such beautiful fabrics to play with and use in other projects. Just how do you choose which ones and how to use them. Hmmm.

Anyway, we also had a class on making tote bags. Aprons were made, quilts started and some finished. But most of all, we enjoyed getting together, chatting, sharing ideas and enjoying the yummy foods that come with such a group of ladies.

Our next retreat is scheduled for November 6th and 7th this year.