Coastal Quilting

Fire Quilt Workday

2010-03-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

We got together to make quilts for a Piecemakers by the Bay charity project dedicated to victims of fire. Those that experience such a loss are given a quilt to bring comfort in a very difficult time.
Pictured right are Judy McKinley and Judy Williams trying to salvage some wobbly star blocks donated to our cause.

And here is what the wobbly stars ended up becoming. GREAT!

Sometimes it is like putting together the pieces of a puzzle, that all came out of different boxes.

The blocks in this sampler were brought together from a variety of block exchanges our guild participated in over several months.
At the end of the day we had three finished quilts, one quilt that needed binding and 5 quilt tops that still need to be pinned and quilted.

Photo Imaging

2010-03-13T18:52:00.000-08:00

Susie Monday conducted a workshop for Piecemakers by the Bay Guild Members. The class was designed to show quilters how to transfer photo images onto fabric, then incorporate the image into their quilt art. Susie showed examples of her work for inspiration.

Note: Double click on images for a larger view.

Charlotte McDonnell and Karry Crump become technology wizards, when printers and laptops replaced sewing machines for a moment.

Mimi Braniff and Terri searching for the right button.

Jettie Lahoud and Linda Sumner

Susie Monday gave a lecture with slide show presentation the following morning.

While students of the class got to show some almost finished projects.

Mary Ann Miller and Terri Welthiemer

Mimi Braniff, Laura Davidson, and Roxana Boinker

Throwing Down the Gauntlet

2010-03-13T14:34:00.000-08:00

We are all eagerly awaiting the new Challenge project for the next show (to be announced at the next PBTB business meeting), so there has been a lot of talk at Wednesday night Bee about the different type of challenge projects out there in the world. There has also been a lot of talk about English Paper Piecing and Judy Williams' penchant for all things small. There has also been some talk about knitting.

So what came of all this talk? Well last Wednesday at Bee Mary Ann Hedge challenged Judy to knit using toothpicks (small).

We just happened to have two toothpicks and the rest....well, let the pictures speak for themselves.

Quilter's Have Baggage

2010-02-25T09:28:00.000-08:00

Piecemakers by the Bay (PBTB) Quilt Guild has had some fantastic classes over the past two years. Mimi Braniff and Karry Crump head up our Education Committee and they helped enrich our quilting experience by bringing in great teachers. Some of our best teachers are also guild members.

PBTB member, Laura Davidson taught our guild members how to make a Quilter's Travel Bag. I attend part of the class to finalize some treasurer duties and take pictures.

I heard her talk about using a French seam finish inside the bag. My mind raced back in time to my college tayloring class where we learned all about seam finishes: flat-feld seams (used in blue jeans), and the Hong Kong finish (used in very expenisive suits). Man that class was hard, but I loved it.

Sewing/quilting classes are fun. Nothing is more fun than finishing a project and here are pictures to prove it.

Sue Fisher made a small version of the bag.

Flora Boren made a bag big enough for her cutting mat.

Sue at work.

Linda Sumner

Annette Fowler

Raffle Quilt

2009-08-04T19:38:00.000-07:00

This is the 2010 Piecemakers by the Bay raffle quilt. The blocks in the center were made by many members of our guild. The applique borders were done by: Mary Schott, Sheralyn Humble, Pat Harrington, and Brenda Burk (pictured above). They are all known for the applique work. The machine quilting was done by Jody Smith. Jody has a long-arm and knows how to use it.

All proceeds from this quilt will go to n0n-profit organizations in this community. Ticket are $1.00 each or $5.00 for six. How many do you want; I'm taking orders.

Christmas in July 2009

2009-07-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe I should just call this blog the Christmas in July blog since I seem to only get on here once or twice a year. No, I'll get better.

We gathered once again to show off Christmas crafts and eat food while listening to Christmas songs. Our craft project was Christmas mittens.

Joanne trying to figure it out.

Sandy cutting on wool she felted.

Cheryl working with the freezer paper.

Linda Rae, our newest friend.

Final products. Some of the grandmas are making them for their grandkids, and putting money in them. I asked them if they were going to put $100 dollar bills in them. You should have seen the looks I got.

Merry Christmas Y'all!

The Man Quilt

2009-07-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

What is a "Man Quilt"? I was asked at Wednesday night Bee. Mary Ann heard me referring to the Man Quilt and she posed the question. It's a quilt made of manly fabric, like the one here of deer in a field just begging to be shot by a hunter, fisher, killer type man.

This pattern is called Just Can't Cut It. It is a great pattern for big scene fabrics or those with a 12 or more inch repeat. It is very easy to make.

Jeri Cox, Joanne Ray and I are working on this version of Just Can't Cut It (seen here without the border) for a friend Greg. Right now the quilt is at the quilter.

I like team work better than flying solo.

I Need a Rake

2009-05-31T18:14:00.000-07:00

I have two roles in our local Peacemakers by the Bay quilt guild: I am the treasurer and I am the block and square exchange coordinator. Oh, and one more role, I am the "cruise director" who organizes a shop hop every year (always with help).
Tomorrow all who signed up must come prepared to turn in Asian themes fabric for our square exchange, and Maple Leaf blocks for our block exchange. I didn't sign up this time for the Maple Leaf block, and now I am kicking myself because they all turned out so cute.

The next block I want to do is called Chinese Lantern. I made two and it was fun. I like strip piecing much better than a whole lot of half square triangles. I think I will sign up twice for this one. Who wants a lantern quilt?

Now I must stop and prepare a treasurer's report.....ho hum.

2009-01-23T20:43:00.000-08:00

This year the San Patricio and Aransas Counties A & H Show opened an adult division.

Sandy Stanley entered her Spool wall hanging and a green and pink quilt made out of vintage handkerchiefs.

She also entered this Red work wall hanging.

I entered a quilt I made for my friend Susan Beree. It's a pink and brown split-rail fence.

Joanne Ray entered her black and white "Drunkard's Path".

Joanne won a rosette with this nature inspired quilt. I wonder if the judges new how bad they were showcasing this quilt when they folded it.

Mary Schott's entry and......

her Pineapple quilt that won Sweepstakes!

You've GOT to Have Friends!

2008-11-22T22:23:00.000-08:00

Our next block exchange is due December 1st and as is my nature, I have procrastinated. I had 8 weeks to do something I am now forced to do in less than 8 days.

The Friendship Star block exchange is easy enough until you realize you are making 17 and each one has 4 half square triangles in it. Argh! When two guild members came over to turn in their blocks, I told them I hadn't started. So they INSISTED I join them the next day and we would all work on it together.

Belia, Mary Ann and Catherine

Mary Ann had a new way to make a ton of half square triangles at once and she was raring to go.

I went like a kid going to detention, but once I got there and the dog stopped barking we had a lot of fun. Finish? Just one so far....16 to go!

Block Party

2008-07-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

I recently agreed to head up the Block Exchange activity of the Piecemakers by the Bay Quilt Guild. We started with Pinwheels, then went to an easier Four Patch, and next month we begin Pieced Spools. You can see some samples pictured here on my "design board".

I wanted to put with this post a step by step, pictoral instruction for our Pieced Spool Block exchange, but much to my frustration taking pictures of fabric isn't as easy as I thought. Since that didn't happen, I will provide my next favorite thing: a handout. You can get instructions for the Pieced Spool block by clicking on: Spool Block Exchange. I recommend you print it out for easier reference.

Seventeen ladies signed up for the Spool exchange and that is enough for a snappy wall hanging for any girl's sewing room.

You can see our calendar of exchange themes on our guild website.

Christmas in July 2008

2008-07-13T22:46:00.001-07:00

I don't know what it is about the Christmas in July party, but for some reason it is always a good time at our Tuesday night Bee. I originally thought you should have an event in July to start or complete Christmas projects in order to avoid the hectic, "stresstic" rush of starting them after Thanksgiving. What I didn't bank on was the Christmas Spirit is willing to show up anytime and anywhere you let Him.

This year we had an ornament kit buffet. It began with a zip-lock bag and a pattern. I put a fabric four-patch in each and a heart template. The ladies could then pull from other fabrics, piles of buttons, ribbon or rick-rack to embellish. The could sew it right there at the party OR they could put everything in the bag and take it home to sew at their leisure.

I was very pleased with the creativity of my friends at the Bee and their willingness to indulge my Christmas Fa-la-las.

Quilts for Heroes

2008-05-26T17:12:00.000-07:00

The Piecemakers by the Bay Quilt Guild has service project called Quilts for Heroes. It began as a interactive project in our 2008 Quilt Show.

People would come and sit at our booth and sew together 4 strips of patriotic fabric to make an 8 1/2" block. These blocks were then assembled by guild members into lap size quilts for wounded soldiers returning to our area.

It was amazing to see how responsive the crowd was to this project. People young and old, male and female sat and sewed whether they had any experience or not. Many who didn't sew chose to give monetarily to help purchase batting and materials.

In this picture above I am putting the binding on a quilt that was cut into strips by one person, pieced together by another and then quilted by yet another. It truly is a group effort.

Christmas in July

2007-08-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas! I say that because I just hosted a Christmas in July party at the Tuesday night Quilting Bee. I have wanted to do it for a while, but I didn’t realized I had been talking it up so much, until these ladies started making comments like, “Well, you’ve been talking about doing this for a couple of years.”

My logic is as follows, the time to start or finish your Christmas projects is in July, not in December (when I tend to do it).

I didn't expect this idea to snowballed (pun intended) as it did, but the Christmas Spirit has a way of taking over if you give it an opportunity. It was fun to see everyone get excited and start "keeping secrets" about what was going to happen at the party. What's a party without food, so took honey dew melon chunks and watermelon (green and red). I wanted to cut watermelon slices to look like Christmas trees….but I couldn’t find my metal Christmas tree cookie cutter….so they had to settle for triangles.

The spur to have this party came when I was visiting Elizabeth Hicks and her mom, Susan. Susan use to be in the stationary business and was a rep for several lines. She isn’t in the biz anymore but consequently she has boxes and boxes of "samples" she wanted to get rid of. These samples included Christmas gift bags. I brought home two huge boxes at her insistence. I bet I had over 300 Christmas bags. Anyway, I decided to bunch them up into party favors and share them with my friends. The day of the party I made a Christmas CD and sat on the floor putting together the gift bag party favors. My cats, Buttons and Bo were on had to help.

At the party, Cheryl Wilson gave me a homemade Christmas apron….cute! Joanne gave every one a small Christmas theme fabric panel. Others brought presents so we put them on a table and then had a drawing.

It was funny to see Mary Ann randomly selected a gift of the table only to find inside a disposable camers. Mary Ann is the Piecemakers by the Bay Quilt Guild Historian and provides me with most the pictures (regarding quilting) for my blogs.

There were many "show and tells" and then we ate, but I won’t mention how much.