Tacoma picnic by the lake

 

Tacoma had another delightful day by the lake at Donna Maxim's cottage. What a treat to be in such a beautiful setting with our quilting friends. We had show and tell, of course, and we got to see what our stitching friends have been up to since last we met.

Meliss made the traditional Roman stripe block done Amish style. Interesting stripe border framing the twelve blocks. 

Andrea showed off her applique shirt that she made years ago. We were all admiring her flowers in the parking lot before we carpooled to Donna's cottage. Andrea is always stylish! Wonder what she said that made Meliss laugh so hard?

I have been busy making small quilts for charity lately. I used a Creative Grids log cabin ruler to make this quilt that features farm animals. I bought the fabric at a quilt group auction some years ago. There are pigs, tractors, cows, and blue skies in this quilt. I'm hoping some future farmer will love this quilt as much as I do!

Another quilt using the Creative Grids log cabin ruler. I like the calming greens in this one. 

I bought another ruler recently after we had a demo from Sue Rap at our last meeting. The ruler is for making folded corner blocks. The ruler was perfect for making this snowball quilt. I chose lots of bright happy prints for the "snowballs". I also tried my hand at free motion quilting on the border using a quilt stencil I have had for years. It was fun to free motion stitch the design and much easier than I thought it would be. Who knew?

Donna had lots to show us, I guess lakeside life agrees with her! 

The Maine themed quilt is from Jane's Quilting and Design Tea Party. 

                                        Donna designed this quilt!

"Dancing Diamonds Gem Bag" from Plum Easy patterns by Bethany Miller. 

Sweet dreams with this sweet pillowcase!

Jean calls this "Woolly Joy" and it is her own design. Good job, Jean, and a nice addition to our Christmas Word challenge. 

Donna W. created another of her fabulous applique quilts. This one is from Yoko Saito called Vases of Flowers. One of the great things about Donna's work is that she finishes what she starts! Amazing, right? 

Speaking of amazing, Leann designed another wonderful quilt using EQ8 software. She calls this "Ribbons of Whimsy". 

Last but not least, Barb designed her own "Christmas Candy" quilt. Who doesn't love Christmas candy?

We all had fun at our midsummer picnic. Here are a few of us enjoying the day. 

Thank you for inviting us, Donna M!

And it's a wrap, folks

 Our last official meeting of the 2022-2023 season. Tacoma show and tell started off with saying good bye to Janet who is moving out of state. She brought along a good sized stash to sell off. There were many who gladly parted with their money to add some interesting fabrics to their own stashes. 

Janet had several quilts that she has made over the years. 

Janet used a rip and tear technique for this little quilt called No More Quilt Police. 

Janet based this on a picture of a 1910 child's quilt that she saw at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Ann used the Nine Wild Blueberries pattern for this beautiful wall hanging. The pattern is by Christy Andrews. Ann purchased the pattern at Bolt during our quilt caravan trip. 

Ann is member of Maine Machine Quilting, too. She made this Welsh inspired mini for a Green with Envy challenge. 

Jean made this very pretty quilt for a baby shower. Love the pink and green! The pattern is called "Playful" by Cluck Cluck Sew. 

Kate showed us some quilts she was working on over the winter months. Asian fabrics look glorious in this quilt. 

And Kate was inspired by a Pinterest post to make this one she calls "African Queens". Not only is the fabric so interesting, there are bead earrings that bounce and glow. 

Leann used the traditional Storm at Sea block as the centerpiece for her quilt. Again, you can't go wrong with pink and green.

"Dinner and Dessert" is what Leann calls this cute quilt. She used fabrics from the 2023 Shop Hop.

Leann really outdid herself with this one! "Prima Ballerina" is a pattern from Pride and Joy. She used a font from Electric Quilt for the letters. Leann is entering her quilt in the judged category at Maine Quilts this year. Look for it and vote for it in Best of Show!

Elly used a Bonnie Hunter pattern called "Jamestown Landing for her blue and orange creation. Lots of string piecing that Elly found tedious but  she kept at it with a great results.

Judy made her strip tube blocks for a charity quilt. Elly machine quilted it for her. Someone will feel very fortunate to receive this gift.

I made this mini quilt after seeing photo of a very old quilt online. I'm going to put this quilt in the Maine Quilts auction to benefit C.R.O.W.N.S., which is the charity for the show and has also been our Tacoma charity this past year. Bid high and bid often!

I bought the Nine Wild Blueberries pattern at Bolt, too! I did not really like the border, although I'm changing my mind after seeing Anne's quilt, so I added a sort of picnic blanket fabric. I'll call my version "Blueberry Picnic". 

That's all for now, have a wonderful summer. See you at the picnic in July!

Christmas in July and more!

Rain, rain, rain. This week we had our next to the last meeting for the year. Wouldn't it be nice to end the year with sunshine, sandals, and thoughts of V-A-C-A-TION? Well, not yet it seems but at least we have our quilts and friendships to keep us warm. 

Sue brought in her Christmas word quilt, our chapter challenge for Maine Quilts 2023. Look for it at the show. Lots of paper piecing which Sue enjoys. Don't you love her little spacer blocks?

 

Barb is making a Christmas candy wall hanging for Maine Quilts 2023. She's giving us a sneak peek with this little block. 

Janet said a fond farewell to Tacoma before she is moving out of state. Here is her disappearing nine patch table runner. 

Elly made her Delectable Mountain quilt with beautiful blues and yellows. Looks like a sunny day in the mountains. 

Elly made this vibrant quilt using Cindy McCoy's pattern called In the Beginning. The pattern was offered as part of an online quilt along at http://needlespot.com/. 

Donna made this darling fall quilt from Bunny Hill. The pattern is 101 Maple Street. A very fun applique project. 

Ramona is so adept at making all kinds of quilt. This is a small table runner featuring 1930's fabrics and hexagons. 

On a trip to Alaska Ramona picked up a pattern that included the animal silhouettes. That was the starting point for Ramona to create this beautiful quilt for her great grandson. Bear paw blocks in the corners and truck fabric on the back. Ramona designed the quilt using EQ8. 

Kate has been away for the winter but made it back to Tacoma. Kate's daughter is a rep for Benartex so Kate gets a lot of fabric from her. She's used those fabrics well in this table runner which will be donated for a church charity. 

Kat made this patriotic quilt for Quilts of Valor. Do you remember seeing Kat work on this at our quilt retreat? The pattern is Patriotic Parade by Ann Johnson for Connecting Threads. Kat said she struggles with patterns but someone will be very glad that she persisted with this one. Lovely.

So Kat has a hard time following patterns but she is a whiz at winging it, wouldn't you say? This big quilt started with the center and just grew and grew. Would you think to put that center on point? It certainly makes a statement!

We had a good showing at our last BOM. The theme was sunflowers and crows. Barbara Duffy was our winner for this last challenge. I hope we get to see some finished quilts at our first meeting in September. Many thanks to Meliss for planning our monthly themes and organizing this fun event. 

Caravan!

 

Many of our members took part in our own magical mystery tour of quilt shops along the coast. We all met at The High Tide restaurant in Brewer for a really delicious meal. I had my first lobster roll since Covid so you can just imagine how good that tasted! Good food and good friends and lots of shopping=the perfect day.

Late Spring

 May 3, 2023

Even though temperatures were chilly on Wednesday, spring has arrived; and with it came lots of rain this week. Rivers and streams overflowed their banks, and some of the roads we travel on to get to our meeting were also flooded. The weekend promises to be sunny, warm, and dry.

Wednesday's meeting consisted of all the usual activities for one of our business meetings. May's Block of the Month was "Upta Camp", and Leanne won them--again. Looking forward to seeing how she puts them together into a quilt. We also talked about items for Quilter's Walk and Silent Auction for Maine Quilts this summer.

Donna will be hosting us again this year for Summer Picnic. For those of you who are entering a quilt in the Christmas Words Challenge Theme Division at Maine Quilts, please bring your quilts to the picnic so I can collect them. 

AnnW, in her Vanna White pose, introduced us to the Curved Log Cabin ruler by Creative Grids. Not only did she show us how to use the ruler, but she used a handful of blocks she made to show us a variety of possible layouts. Great demo, Ann!

What would a quilt meeting be without Show and Tell? Janice's quilt was the result of a Secret Admirer Mystery Sew Along hosted by Adorn It. 

Jean had a lovely antique quilt made from feed sacks, and the back looked just like the front--a reversible quilt. 

Jean also brought a quilt called 'Playing Checkers' from a Kim Diehl pattern...

... and a colorful quilt made of leftover triangles to be donated to CROWNS, the charity we are supporting this year.

David Sirota was a guest at our most recent Members Meeting, and Sandi made a tiny quilt block in David's foundation piecing class, 'Not Your Daddy's Log Cabin'. She commented that it was a whole new way of foundation piecing. 

Carol made a big blocks quilt...

...and used scraps for the backing, always a good way to use up more fabric. 

 

Carol also made a quilt to donate to CROWNS, this one a Carpenter's Star. 

Leanne made a large Christmas tree skirt from a Judy Niemeyer pattern called 'Evergreen Tree Skirt'. 

We know she likes red and black plaid because the back of her tree skirt matched her shoes, lol. 

Donna's quilt 'Flower Festival' came from a Simply Vintage quilt magazine. 

Cec made a quilt called 'Savannah' from a Paula Barnes pattern while she was on a "Civil War" cruise. 

Judy's quilt 'Hide and Seek' was her own design, made for one of her daughters who graduates college this year.

Ann started a quilt in our Whackadoodle workshop with Kathy last month, using one of Gudrun Erla's Stripology designs. Ann is calling it 'Strippy Stairway'. 

Kat, who designs her own very colorful quilts, made a scrappy quilt using her "gem squares" for the block centers. She named her quilt 'Heather', made for her niece who requested a quilt using the gem squares.