January - Sit and Stitch Mini Group

Everyone is welcome on the 3rd Tuesday of every month at the Willmar Community Center anywhere from 5:00 - 7:30 PM for Sit & Stitch. Bring any kind of handwork (including knitting/crocheting) and work on your project in the company of friends.  This is such a fun relaxing group! Come and go as you like; there is no specific meeting or agenda. It is just a social gathering where we share quilting tips, get ideas on what to do with our projects, show our works-in-progress, and get to know each other a little better.

At the beginning of the year each member made a list of their top 12 UFOs (unfinished sewing objects). Each month a number is drawing and they attempt to do something with that project.  This month the number is 3. It is fun to see the expressions when they take out their paper to see what that project is.

January - 30's Mini Group Meeting

This is the last "Disappearing Nine Patch" quilt the 30's Mini group finished for the Quilts of Valor.

The phase disappearing nine patch suits the method perfectly, because to make the quilt blocks a simple nine patch block is sliced apart -- it disappears and is replaced by four smaller units.



This quilt is made using nine patch blocks with 5" squares. This quilt looks different to the ones that were on the post on December 18th. Click here to see the ones we made that night. This 9 patch block was made with a white square in the middle, red squares around it and blue squares in the corners. They stitched the squares together to form a traditional nine patch. Then each block was cut into four equal pieces by cutting through the block vertically and horizontally.

 

There are many free patterns for this quilt block.  Click here to find one of them. This is from "Popular Patchwork" website.

 

 Deb showed us how she sews on her quilt labels.

We always love show and tell.  It doesn't have to be 30's fabric. Our next 30's mini meeting is February 5th, 6:00 at the Community Center.

Upcoming CQ Meeting on January 14

Marilyn Forman from Quilt Moments will be our presenter for our January Meeting.  Many of you might remember her from our Country Quilters Meeting on June 14, 2011. She gave a wonderful program that night. Here is the post from our old blog about that meeting.

Marilyn Foreman of Quilt Moments was the presenter on June 14, 2011 . The quilt behind her is called Twilight Kaleidoscope. It is an easy 4-patch kaleidoscopes creating stunning results!

Marilyn lives in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota with her husband and three kids.  She chose the name Quilt Moments for the pattern company since she tends to work on her designs at night when the kids are sleeping or during stolen moments during the day between activities.

Please check out Quilt Moments web site to order or to see more of her quilts.  http://quiltmoments.com/ or her blog at http://quiltmoments.wordpress.com/

Members of the guild checking out Marilyn's quilts after the meeting in 2011.

 

This will be a fun evening.  Hope you will all be able to join us Tuesday, January 14th, 2014. This is our first meeting of 2014.

 

Quilts of Valor - 3rd Sew Day

 Today was our last scheduled sew day for making the "Quilts of Valor".  It was a very fun day. Here are a few of the finished quilt tops that will go to the long arm quilter.

Thank you to all of you that donated money, fabric, and your time to this project!

December - 30's Mini Group

The 30's Mini Group decided instead of having a Holiday Party they would have a Sew Day for "Quilts of Valor".  Making a quilt using the pattern "Disappearing Nine Patch."

They started by making a nine patch block with 5" squares. Each 9 patch was made with a red square in the middle, white squares around it and blue squares in the corners. They stitched the squares together to form a traditional nine patch. Then each block was cut into four equal pieces by cutting through the block vertically and horizontally.

 

There are many free patterns for this quilt block.  Click here to find one of them. This is from "Popular Patchwork" website.

 

The phase disappearing nine patch suits the method perfectly, because to make the quilt blocks a simple nine patch block is sliced apart -- it disappears and is replaced by four smaller units.

 

There are a few ways to lay this block out.  This is what the group decided on.





Members of this group were asked to make the nine patch blocks at home and bring them to the meeting.  The group of 10 ladies were able to complete 2 quilt tops and 2 more almost completed tops in about 3 hours.  What talented members we have in our guild!



Lullaby Quilters - Article featured in the West Central Tribune

For the last five years women from the Country Quilters group — many of them moms and grandmothers — have volunteered their time and talents to make “lullaby quilts.”

Anyone interested in quilting is invited to attend the monthly sessions.

Photo by Carolyn Lange

Volunteers make hand-made connections of love and support to babies in Kandiyohi County

By Carolyn Lange on Dec 13, 2013 at 11:15pm

 

 

You can read the whole article here http://www.wctrib.com/content/volunteers-make-hand-made-connections-love-and-support-babies-kandiyohi-county

 

Marking your Quilt Rows or Quilt Blocks

While working on the Quilts of Valor on Thursday, Colleen shared this fun tip with me.  She puts numbers on her quilting pins and keeps these pins in a separate pincushion. She uses these pins to mark her quilt rows and blocks while she is piecing her quilt top.

This photo shows how she marked these two quilt blocks. 

Smitty also shared a similar tip with me.  She puts the number of pins to match the rows.  Row one has one pin, row two has two pins, row three has three pins, etc.

I love these tips, thanks for sharing them!