Our Thursday charity quilting group began in earnest last week, but then three of the six of us had to go on vacation, so today the remaining three of us picked up where we left off last week. You can imagine that organizing a weekly sew-in is a challenge, and yet we usually have what I think of as a quorum, so projects actually do get made and turned over to our fabulous quilter, on a timely basis. Our first of the year joint effort is made from batiks which I got when Joann's had a 75% off sale. Fat quarters for 75 cents each. Whamo!
We used 6.5" squares, sewn into half square triangles and trimmed down to 5.5" and sewed them into three simple blocks. When they are all sewn, we will have the fun moving them around to a satisfactory arrangement. No matter what we do, it will look fabulous because the fabric does all the work for us.
While we have six members, not all of us are sewing at the same time. We have cutters, trimmers, and pressers, as well as someone putting the blocks on the wall or getting them from the cutting table to the sewing machines and back to the pressers, all the while laughing and talking and just having a great time.
Here's a long view of the sewing room,
and now we have three, yes three Janome 6500P machines, so no one has to deal with a different machine each week. My sister works at
Chattanooga Sewing Machine Co. and this week a 6500P was brought in as a trade-in and I was Melody On The Spot and took advantage.
Here it is on one of our little tables, but soon to be placed in a custom Sew Ezi table, which I ordered and will arrive on Saturday. Woowoo!
I love the one I got for machine #2 and it is portable and doesn't jiggle when I sew 100 mph.
Tony is our welcome committee and thinks it is his place to bark-announce the arrival of each car in the driveway. Then he fake-cries for pets when the door is answered. Everyone is trying to teach him to sit and not jump on their legs, to no avail. Bad doggie.
Some months ago when I moved our sewing room out of the third floor church room to my sunroom, I brought some red calico prints with me, figuring I would use them for a donated quilt. Finally got aroundtuit. Yay!
Today Tuesday quilter Patsy came to pick up the quilt above and brought her latest qayg in progress to share with me. I LOVE it. I've always wanted to make one of these scrappy beauties, and man, have I got the scrap strips to do it. Each block is individually quilted and joined later to the other quilted blocks, which means it can be done in free moments whenever one has time. Eventually it is finished, and only needs binding. What fun is that! Her blocks are about 10 or 11" square, so this is 40x50" but what if the blocks were 15" square? 4x5 (20 blocks) would make a 60x75" quilt. O my. See you later, gotta sew!
