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Archive of Past Meeting Summer of 2006

Wednesday :  October 18th,  25th and November 1st the Gathering group is working on CRAZY STAR Quilts.  Elaine will not be available on the 25th October.  She will be teaching at Davison Evening Star Quilt Guild Four Corner night.  Elaine will be teaching, WHERE DID THE NINE PATCH GO?

Louise will be opening the shop for the early birds at 5:30 pm for those who want to work on their Crazy Star Quilt.   Below are pictures of my quilt in progress with the basic directions. 

 

A picture of the original quilt in Elaine's shop.

The quilt is a basic 9 patch with random scrappy irregular star points sewn on the patches. The squares are then arranged to form a star. The original quilt was 4-1/2 inches square. Any size square can be used. I use 6 inch squares fron a UFO project. The squares were already cut out.

 

 

Points are sewn at random size and shape on to the squares then they are arranged to form a star. The scrappier, the more uneven the shape of the points the better the star looks.

 

 

Once the points are sewn on the block is squared up. If I were going to cut my blocks over again I would make them slightly larger then the finished square. It would then be easier to square up my blocks. I am becoming a firm believer in "MAKE IT BIG THEN WHACK IT OFF!"

Some of the girls at the Gathering do not have large scrap sources and they are making more planned quilts. Some of the girls are using up their fat quarter stash. Each quilt will have their own look.

 

 

Many of my points were made from pre-pieced scraps from other projects. If I did not have big enough scraps I often sewed other scraps on top layering several scraps to form one point. This made some of the points very eclectic. I also had watched SEWING WITH NANCY, where she demonstrated using a FLANGE STRIP between boarders on th quilt. I used flanges ( strip of fabric folded in half and sewn under the point, making the points dimensional.

 

 

This is a picture of 4 of the blocks placed together (without the sashing) on my design "floor." I like to check the over all look of the blocks before I piece them together.

 

 

This is a picture of the four blocks placed with sashing between the block forming a secondary pattern. Please note sashing strips that are on the boarder have points only on one end. Sashing strips that are in the body of the quilt will need points on both ends as they will need to make the secondary stars. i have choosen to make my star points much longer than the square;s points. I am planning to take advantage of the length of the sashing to make over size stars. You could also make them smaller.

I have made my sashing 6 inches in size because these strips were already cut out from a previous quilt. The sashings size can be smaller then the square sizes. I will change the look of the quilt.

 

 

I hope you may be inspired to try this fun little quilt.

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WEDNESDAY  ...... October 18th

We will be meeting to work on our CRAZY STAR QUILTS....

bring your fabrics cut out and ready to go.... 

You need 4-1/2 yards of background fabric

Tons of scraps for the points of the stars

Cut the background into 4-1/2 inch strips, you will need seven of them

Cut the strip into 12-1/2 inches x 4-1/2 rectangles

You will also need (24) 4-12 inch squares 

Bring your sewing machines and basic sewing equipment... including your manuals in case we have problems.

Shout outs:  Cheryl needs blue scraps for her stars... she brought the background tonight but she says she does not have enough blue.  She wants to make her quilt blue and yellow as a gift for Christmas. 

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 New:  Hadley Appliqué Society ( TAS)

Tonight we announced the appliqué society meetings... to be held on Thursday night.... first meeting November 2nd.  We will need to decide how / when we want to run our group.... i.e. what days we plan to meet ... etc.   Bring some background fabric, needle thread, scraps of fabrics.

If you have some appliqué books that might be fun to bring too.  We can then share ideas.

Equipment / Supply list

tiny pins if you have them

small embroidery scissors

curved blade scissors

small seam rippers

your favorite thimble

threads......  silk thread is considered the ultimate ( 50 weight )

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Next week, October 11th,  we will celebrate the Quilt Show with a pizza party.  Elaine is also giving us the directions to cutting out the background for CRAZY STAR background fabric.  Gather up your leftover and scrap fabrics as  you will need them to make the points.

October 18th  we will be sewing the Crazy Star patches, so bring your machines and sewing supplies.

October 25th, Elaine and other Davison Evening Star Quilters go to the monthly meeting... The Autumn Harvest Quilt is being raffled off at this meeting.We will also be doing 4 corners teaching stations. Elaine will be teaching WHERE DID THE NINE PATCH GO? at FOUR CORNERS.   The other Gathering members will announce if they are meeting at the shop the week before.  Sometimes they come in an work on their own and sometimes they stay home. Elaine is hoping the girls will work on their CRAZY STAR quilts this evening..... but it is to be announced.

Once the Crazy Star Quilt is competed the ladies voted to work on Charity Baby and Toddler Quilts.   We tentatively have plans to do the charity baby quilts on November 15th.  Elaine is planning to donate some fabric.  We usually like to make some of the quilts at home depending on everyone's time frame.    Finished baby quilts will travel with Elaine to be donated to the Birthing Center in Weslaco Texas. This is a charity dear to Elaine's heart as she knows the Sister who run the mission. As ever there is a great need for these baby quilts. Come and join us if you want to work on charity quilts. There is a task for everyone regardless of your level of sewing expertise.        

November 22nd ..... no Gathering unless otherwise announced due to the Thanksgiving Holidays. 

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Update September 2nd, 2006:   Elaine says everything is going better at home.  She plans to be in to the shop every AM while JoAnn mans the afternoon hours.  The shop times are going back to NORMAL  10AM TILL 4PM.  New class schedule is being devised so keep posted to the home page.   Last week there was no Gathering as there was a meeting of the Davison Evening Star Quilt Guild.   For our next meeting on September 6th and 13th, we will be working on UFOs until after the HADLEY HARVEST FESTIVAL AND QUILT SHOW on September 15th and 16th.  Sign up sheets for volunteering have been passed around to work the show.  Set up is at 9 or 10 am (???)  Quilt displays are from 1pm til 4pm on Friday and from 10am til 4pm on Saturday.  We need ideas for up coming meetings..... Also it was suggested we do some charity quilts.   If anyone has any ideas please bring them in so that we can work on something as a group.

It started with this block sent to me by and on line friend from Tennessee.

Instructions:

1. Four squares sewn together form the block.  On the diagonal you have one consistent, dominate color used to form a secondary pattern in your block once they are sewn together.
2. You can use newspaper, freezer paper, old phone books,  light weight pellon, or muslin to make your foundation.  Each of these foundations have been suggested by those who make a lot of these quilts. With the muslin or pellon you do not have to rip paper out at the end of your project.  Cut the foundation to the desired size square.  Fold on the diagonal corner to corner, iron or mark if desired.

3. Sew strips from the diagonal to the corner of the block.  Make your stings of various color and size of scraps. You can use any angle you want. Be sure to cross the diagonal / center line.  If your strings are not long enough sew them together.
4. You should select one dominate color that will be used to sew on the diagonal of your square.  ( I have used 1-1/2 inch green strings in my blocks)   Be sure you cover the ends of the sewn strings and try and keep the dominate color string on the true diagonal at the corners.
5. Sew more strings along the diagonal dominate color to finish your block.  When you have 4 squares sew them together to form the block.  Continue making these squares and blocks until you have enough for  quilt.  My friend says she makes one square at the end of every sewing session then sews them all together when she wants to make charity quilts.

Now we are going crazy making sting quilt blocks.

I will be posting news and updates for the GATHERING each week as well as sending out emails.