Monthly Quilt Group

Has it really been that long since I posted something?  Yes!  According to my Monthly Quilt Group it's been just forever.  Needless to say they were laying the guilt on pretty thick at our last get together.  All in good fun of course ;-)
 
Not that I haven't been busy with several projects its just that two of them I can't write about yet and the other two are still at the same stage as the last time I wrote about them.  So I've got some fun show and tell shots of the project that each of the Group members are working on - except the other Deb, for some reason I didn't get any pictures of her project.
 
Here are the rest of the gals with their quilts.  First up is Jane and the Houses BOM quilt.  I love the secondary pattern created by the two toned Courthouse Steps blocks.
 

 

Here's a close up of it.

 

 

Next is Carol.  She's been working on these beautiful applique blocks for quite a while now.  It looks wonderful all put together.  The black background is so striking! 
 

 

Here's a closeup of Carol's wall hanging. Those flower colors are just popping off that black.

 

 

Here's my sister Dutchy just back from her annual trip to Florida.  This snowbird was busy while she was down there for 3 months.  Golfing, swimming, and even teaching a quilting class!  She has promised to share her pictures of the quilt that her quilting class made and raffled off.  When I get them I'll be writing a post to share with everyone.

 

 
Her project is hexagons.  She's making a table runner to go in her kitchen.  I didn't get a clear picture but you can see how she fussy cut those fun chickens She'll have 3 of these hexagon chicken blocks on a beige background for the full table runner.
 

 

This is Tami and her Wonky Churn Dash quilt.  This was a class at the local quilt shop taught by Charlene, one of the other gals in our little group.  Wish I had been able to make it for this class.  Great colors! 

  

 
And she added that fun applique border. She's a whiz at applique, not just fast, her hand work is also beautiful.
 

 
 In addition to the churn dash quilt, Tami also had this cute applique wall hanging.

 

Here's a close up.  I just love those fun flowers, so pretty!

 

 



No pictures of Charlene this time, she was off to Maine to visit family. I'll catch her next month. 

 

And even though I didn't get any pictures of the other Deb's project I can tell you it is a beautiful full/queen size quilt that she is hand quilting. The blocks are hand embroidered flowers of each of the 50 states that her grandmother started. Deb is putting the finishing touches on it with beautiful floral sashing and cross-hatched hand quilting. It is just beautiful. I'm pretty sure our next get together is at her home so I will definitely take some photos of it.

 

Oh yeah, and no pictures of me this time because the project I was working on is a gift.  Besides, my face was so red in the pictures it looked like I'd been out in the sun too long.  LOL

 

A big THANK YOU to Jane for hosting this month. Jane's turn is always in April and it's always raining but this time, just for the record, NO RAIN!!!

 

See you girls next month and I promise to catch up on my blogging :o)

 

Once A Month Quilters

Seriously, we need a real name for this band of friends.  We meet once a month to share some quilting fun and a few laughs.  We've never had a name but if I'm going to be writing about us it's time we had one.  Any suggestions?


In the mean time here's some pictures of our most recent gathering at Jane's house.  My apologies for the picture quality, something was up with the camera that night so most of the faces came out blurry, but the quilts look good!


Tami and Charlene got right down to business with their handwork.  That's my green basket in the forefront.

All of these girls do beautiful work.  We all have different tastes and I just love seeing what new stuff they bring.  I'm the underachiever in the group which is why there are no pictures of my work from that night.  I was too busy taking pictures!


Show and tell is always fun.  It's great to see the finished projects after seeing them in their early stages.  Here's my sister Dutchy with her green alphabet all done.  She's been on a roll lately and finished up three or four projects in the last couple of weeks.   I've never been interested in doing embroidery but Dutchy does a beautiful job.  She takes after our mother who did lovely work.

Now that her grandchildren are getting married she's hoping for great-grandchildren.  So this one and a couple of others will be put away until the next generation starts arriving.  Here's a close up of the blocks, the letters are cross stitched. 

Alphabets are a popular theme this year.  Dutchy was finishing up her blue alphabets and Tami was also working on alphabet blocks.  These are Tami's with a little girl theme.

Isn't this just the cutest rabbit?

Jane's show and tell this month was Cat's.  She's done a beautiful job with choosing the fabrics.  Some of them look like fur!  Check out the butterfly and the dragon fly.

Deb (the other Deb in the group besides me) has been working on this heart quilt for a long time.  It was all finished, even the quilting, but she decided she didn't like the way it came out.  So she took out all the quilting and started over. 

She decided to use cross-stitches of large "X"s between the hearts to give it a bit more character.  We all agree it looks much better.  Then someone, I think it was Jane, suggested that she should quilt around each heart to give them more definition.

And finally she did a cross hatched quilting in the border.  Check out the rick-rack around the inside of the border.  A lot of work but well worth all the effort.  Great job Deb!  We all want to steel her cross-stitch idea.  I even think I could manage to do that kind of quilting.

Just like Dutchy, Deb had a show and tell as well as a new project to work on.  This is her Halloween wall hanging.  Jane's giving her some advice on the quilting. 

Love the colors!  Just in time for fall. 

Last but not least we had to wait until the end of the evening to get a look at what Charlene was working on.  After some much needed TLC and look how it turned out. This beautiful old quilt came to her as a top that had been machine stitched down.  She unsewed pieces and hand appliqued them back onto the top. 

The yellow is truly that bright!  I'm not sure what the design is but Tami took some measurements so we may be seeing one of these from her some day soon.

Here's a close up of it.

Check out those funky fabrics!  Pretty wild for 1930's prints.  I love the open meandering quilting too.  What a great addition to her collection.

The only one missing from the group this month was Carol but she had a great excuse, a new grand baby!  Congratulations Carol.  We all know you were probably busy watching him sleep ;-D  Bring pictures next month so we can ooh and aah along with you.

The time always flies when we get together.  Before you know it the snacks arrive on the table, the needles get put down and we all enjoy another story or two before packing up to head home.  Check back to find out if we come up with a name - suggestions welcome!