Nisbett Quilting Picture...

Thought I would share this with you. Jess and Matt got us a local peninsula artist, Don Nisbett, print of three crabs quilting. The original three crabs that are still in S & B would be April, Jan, and Mary. Since then, we have added Karen, Pinky, and Lyla. I thought this pic was appropriate for the 3 original S & Bers :>))

We're All Here!

Tuesday was another great day with the five of us physically, and Lyla...our co-partner in crime...long distance. We are so happy Karen is joining us again and feeling better each day.

Jan did the hostessing and served us her wonderful muffins to get us off to a good start. She also showed us two or three different online demonstrations of using different inks and making your own stamps. All of it inspired us to have a workday next Tues., here at my house, working with new paints and stamps, embossing, and heat guns. We are excited!

Pinky brought us all little cigar boxes...here we go again. It is to be a challenge, but we have awhile to work on them...no rules :>)) Make something from the cigar box...that is it! It needs to be done by Nov. 22. The last one like this was sooo fun and all were so different. That is what is fun about putting 6 different personalities together making art...super!

The pictures are top left...Jan showing us her latest project...a fantastic quilt using a method of doing one 12" square at a time, sandwiching them, and finally...putting it all together. It is just beautiful. Double click on it to see the detail.

Top right is Karen working on some cards and writing notes with them.

Next is April's Alaska journal she is working on. It will be a keepsake for her to look back on for many years. I know Amber will enjoy reading through it when she gets home at Christmas.

Mary and Pinky were working on crochet. Pinky worked on her rag rug in greens, beiges, browns and Mary was working on some wash cloths.

All in all...it was another too fast day and it was time to head home. The time always goes too fast for all of us! We did solve some problems of the world while we were together :>))

Tuesday...YEA!!!

We had a really full house today at April's. We had our regulars there, missing Karen as she is on a little camping vacation. We also had April's daughter, Amber and grand daughter, Haley. An added bonus was Bob's cousin, Nita and his aunt Betty and Nita's niece, Stephanie.

In the pictures below, you will see April and the girls working on cards and ATCs.

Jan is working on her hand project. Betty is showing us her quilt that she made out of scraps she had...very creative. Nita is showing us the hand quilting she is doing on the birds of her quilt. No pictures of Pinky or Mary, but we were working on ATCs...very relaxing.

Red River Of Truth...

I forgot to include this wonderful hanging that Jan is working on. I meant to put it with Karen's birthday picture. It is called Red River of Truth... If you double click on this, you might see all the tiny 1 inch squares that make up this entire piece. It is amazing! On top of stitching all those tiny pieces, Jan has beaded and hand sewn strips of different fibers. There are hours and hours of work in this piece and she is not done yet...She is always an inspiration to our whole group.

Nita's quilt

This is one of the quilt panels April's cousin Nita got to make a quilt for her Mom. She wasn't really sure how to quilt it so she started hand quilting and this is what happened. Turning out fabulous! I got to see it earlier, last year, before she had done any quilting on it. It is a beautiful panel, and Nita has done a wonderful job with it. Her Mom is going to love it! I'm looking forward to seeing the finished quilt. That is a lot of stitching!

Joan Unwrapping Her Presents.

These pictures show Joan opening two frames that were put together by Jan of ATCs that we all made. She has no pictures as of yet, so we thought this would be a fun present. Jan did a great job of filling the frames. The other pictures are of Joan opening her quilt and the matching pillows. She really had fun opening all the goodies. We all, also, made Joan a journal to keep track of life in her new home. Each of us did several pages in the book until it was full. We left pages blank for her to write on. We just had so much fun making these presents and watching her open them. There was lots of laughing going on that day...good medicine.

Getting Ready For The Party...

On Tuesday, we met at Joan's new house for a housewarming. We all brought goodies for lunch, presents for Joan and brought the quilt and three pillows to go with it. We all had such a fun day. Joan has many llamas and peacocks and we were able to watch them out her brand new windows while we ate lunch.

Tying the quilt

Jan wrote: Good thing Pinky has a big table. Here is April, Pinky, and Mary, busy hand tying the quilt with big needles and some embroidery floss. It went fast and we had time to go play afterwards.

Finished!!!!

After we tied the quilt, it was finished and here's how it looks...We had some time left over and decided to go to town and hit the scrapbooking store called the Picture Attic in Long Beach. We also went to a store called Consign Me and I think we all left with something from each place!

Now This is Cozy...

We all took turns to see how cozy it will be and decided that we all should probably make one of these...the fleece just is so warm and cozy, too.

Jan Did The Sewing Of The Front to The Back...

Since not all of us could sew, Jan did the honors. She placed the front of the quilt top to the right side of the fleece, sewed around it once and then 1/4" in and sewed again. It made a nice finished look to the quilt. We used the fleece for coziness. I don't have any pics of us tying. We tied the quilt with Jan's hand dyed cotton thread (beautiful...by the way) in the center of each bull's eye block. Pinky has a huge table and we just all got on a side and went for it. It really went quite fast.

Our Project Before The Backing Went On...

L-R Jan, Pinky, and April holding our project (quilt front). We are preparing to put the the backing on and tie it.

Pinky was busy all day cutting sqares, cutting blocks, doing dishes, pinning rows...My sewing machine was on the fritz this morning, so Pinky let me use hers...thanks Pink!

Can you tell we have lots of fun together? Tuesdays are the best! Good friends and lots of fun!

Sewing, sewing, sewing....

Once the blocks are made, they are cut into 4 parts and reassembled. These pictures are of the cutting process. Karen, Pinky, and Jan were doing this cutting.

We really put Karen to work today! She not only did the cutting on the blocks, but ironed all those sewn quilt blocks...Maybe we can get her on a sewing machine yet :>))

Go Girls!

Pinky in the front cutting blocks out for the quilt. Jan (left) and April sewing the quilt blocks.

Bull's Eye...

Mary says: We met today at my house and I am amazed at how much we accomplished in a very short time. April, Jan, and I did the sewing and Pinky and Karen did the cutting out, pinning, and ironing. This was a real assembly line. We used mostly batiks...our favorite fabrics. This picture is of the blocks laying on the floor as we adjust them before sewing. The colors are just amazing. We started sewing all the pieces together, but ran out of time. After everyone left, I continued sewing the rows together and we now have a quilt front. Our next thing will be to get some batting and some backing and get it all together. We had a little sense of how the Amish women all work together to make a quilt today...very fun!

Tuesday...YEA!!!

Mary says: Hey Girls...The chili is a cookin' and I can't wait to see you all here tomorrow! This is going to be one busy place...See you all soooooon!