Quilts and Reindeer and Sally Ann Finds - Oh, My!

I've resolved my problem with blogspot by paying for more space to post and, with that solved, I have gone post crazy by creating two posts from the party:  this one and the following one which is our left/right game along with some photos of some of the gifts received in the game.

Our Christmas party on Tuesday, December 4th was well attended and we started the evening with a meal catered by Myrna. Yum.

 

 

Then it was on to show and tell with Barb starting it off with the pillowcases she has made for her grandchildren.  She got the idea from Marg at last month's meeting.

 

Two charity quilts, part of the number we will donate to the hospital this year, were shown.

 

Vera showed the bag she made with the block she designed in

 the Anna Hergert class.

My mind is going.  I can't remember who showed the next one. 

My apologies.

 

Jan showed a couple of cute baby quilts.  Lucky babies!

 

 

 

Vi finished the hand quilting on her embroidered ladies' quilt.  Superb!

 

 

Sharynne, one of our newest members, showed that not all handiwork has to be in fabric.  Yarn works too.

 

 

Ethel showed this pink and black pillow which made me want to go out and buy a lot of pink and blacks.  Later she showed me a photo of the pink and black quilt she made.  Wow!

 

 

One of Marg's granddaughters is getting this for Christmas.  Marg better oil her machine as she has three more grandchildren on the way.  Lucky Marg.

 

 

Terry Whitman, the longarm quilter from Torquay, enhanced the butterfly motif by quilting butterflies.  Just so you know, Terry does NOT smoke and she does NOT burn holes in client's quilts.  My camera has a spot I can't clean ... I hope to have a new, better camera by the next meeting.

 

 

Jaynie showed this art piece and you can see a close-up of it next.

 

 

 

Then it was on to a crazy game where teams had to choose one member to model reindeer antlers which they created out of pantyhose and balloons.  Trust me, there was a laughter!

 

 

 

 

Trustworthy, non-bribable judges took their job seriously.

 

 

Every team was a winnter.

 

 

Thanks for the great evening, friends.

 

I mentioned at the meeting that I found a treasure at the local Salvation Army.  There was this unfinished table topper in stunning batiks.

 

 

I dug some more and found this piece of batik with instructions

for creating the border.

 

Yet more digging and the fabric to bind it surfaced.

 

 

There was no price on any of it, but when I took it to the cashier, she inquired, "is $2 too much?" 

 Actually, it wasn't, so I happily took it home.  :0)

 

Merry Christmas!

 

 

Our 2012 Left/Right Game

This year's Christmas gift exchange was to bring anything homemade.  That choice was very popular as everyone who attended took part and one person who wasn't even there (ahem, Yvonne) played along.  Here's the cheesy story used to play our 2012 left/right game.  You might want to read it to see whether you are mentioned.  It might be too tedious to read it straight through so I have interspersed it with photos from the fun we had with the game.

2012 Crocus Quilt Guild Left/Right Game

RIGHT before a guild meeting, I decided that I wanted to do something bigger than the LEFT/RIGHT game.  "I know," I said to myself, "I will WRITE a book."  Now I had promised Donna W. that I would WRITE the LEFT/RIGHT game so I realized I needed to do that too.

"I will write a book called Fifty Shades of Gray," I said but Michele pointed out that that title wasn't LEFT; it had already been used.  Okay, then I would WRITE Fifty Shades of Chicken.  No, Jan informed me that that book had been written too.  What was LEFT?  Then I had an idea.  Colleen S. was teaching us about color so why couldn't I WRITE Fifty Shades of Color?

 

 

RIGHT away I realized I was too stupid to WRITE it on my own so I asked Verla, Vera, all the Barbs, and Sharilyn for help.  Soon my head was turning LEFT and RIGHT and LEFT again as their comments came from both sides.

 

"What if you assigned everyone in the guild a chapter and they could WRITE those for you?  Any LEFTover colors, you could do, Brenda," suggested Marion.

 





 

Before everyone LEFT the last meeting I asked them to decide which colors they were interested in WRITing about.  Bonnie, Ethel, Vi, and the two Shelleys wanted blue, Dorothy, Dot, Sharynne, and Eva wanted pink while Gloria, Kathy, and Leona wanted to do a chapter on browns and beiges.  There were still lots of colors LEFT but that was all RIGHT because there were lots of guild members LEFT too.

Jill, Lydia, and Marg all wanted to WRITE about yellow because they said yellow matched their cheery dispositions.  Yah, RIGHT!  I was thinking of assigning purple to Elaine, Judy, and Vickie because I was worried it would be LEFT over.  Who ever uses purple in a quilt?  It seemed RIGHT that Joanne and Marlene were willing to work together, and they chose red.  RIGHT away I wondered if one of the chapters should be on both red and purple and that maybe those colors should be taken instead by Elma, Renee, Lynne, and Darlene if they are part of the Red Hat Society.

 



 

 There were still members LEFT who wanted to WRITE chapters so I had to look at the list of colors to see which ones were LEFT.

 

Green was still LEFT!  I couldn't believe it as it is used so much in quilts.  Once I mentioned that it was LEFT, Audrey, Esther, Yvonne, Donna L. and Adeline started squabbling about who had the RIGHT to it.  "Stop your arguing RIGHT now, ladies," I shouted above their voices.  "I'm in charge of the book and I am going to let Brenda C., Jaynie, and Rose WRITE that chapter.  The argue-ers said that wasn't RIGHT but they LEFT me to have the final say.

 

Black, white, orange, and various other colors weren't LEFT for long as Joyce, Helen, Eileen, and Elda said they would WRITE about them RIGHT after the meeting.

 

Our book on colors seemed to be working out until Debbie pointed out that to WRITE a book about color you needed to include information on achromatics, monochromatics, analogous colors, triadic colors, and many more.

"Drat," I thought, "when it comes to WRITing a book on color I know as little about that topic as I know about the main topic of 'Fifty Shades of Gray'."  Both topics are better LEFT alone by me and the other 48 amazing women of the Crocus Quilt Guild.  Besides, we wouldn't have time LEFT to quilt or party if we wrote the book so let's just stick to WRITing LEFT/RIGHT games.

 

Happily, the end!





Delayed Entry for Guild Party

Blogspot has informed me that I have exceeded the number of images I can include in the blog and that I must now pay monthly to post images.  I think another option is to delete old entries to create more space, but that would defeat the purpose of using this blog as our archives.

I'll try to figure it out tomorrow, but in the meantime, no entry or photos about our great Christmas party.  Sorry, ladies.  Check back here on the weekend.

Getting Lots (of chatting) Done! - November 19, 2012

Hopefully everyone remembers that we have use of the public library's programming room on Mondays from 9:30 until 3:30.  It's  a great place to get some of your piecing and quilting done removed from the isolation of your own sewing room.  It's a bonus when you can chat and quilt at the same time and, in the next month, it's a great place to get some of your Christmas projects done.  Join us there.

 

Elma was even willing to help with the charity quilts ... one armed and not her predominant arm either!  She's diligently doing her physio and exercises so that she can two-handed quilt soon.  You've got to see the totally hand-pieced quilt she'll finish once she up to it.  Get well quickly, Elma.

 

Here she, Dorothy, and Bonnie are laying out a charity piece we are doing for the Weyburn hospital.

And here Leona and Marg are working on another quilt for the hospital.  Only the binding needs completion.

Jill is back from England so she got busy too.  And Bonnie has the most beautiful purple batiks which she is using for her mystery quilt.  I'm not in this challenge, but can't wait to see everyone's results.

We took time away from quilting to present one of the two $500 charity cheques that we are giving from our quilt show profits.  Here a presentation is being made to the Wor-Kin Shop; our other one goes to the Ag Society.

That's all for now as I must go write "50 Shades of Color."

 

 

Guild Meeting - November 6, 2012

Lots of ladies were out for a fun, entertaining, informative night.  Highlights were Arlyce Thompson's presentation on using panels,  ***SHOPPING*** right at the meeting when Arlyce of Quilters' Haven brought lots of goodies for us to purchase, and lots and lots of show-and-tell.  People have been busy creating.  The December meeting should have lots of show-and-tell too because we'll all be finishing those Christmas projects, won't we?

Arlyce's "Vanna" did her proud!

 

 

Can you believe this jacket was made from a panel? 

 Here we are being happy shoppers.  Arlyce also had door prizes and I'm embarrassed that I won one because I have not received flowers in a very long time.  Bob has been duly warned that he will be taking abuse from each and every one of you when you see him.  Truly, I am embarrassed so I am willing to reuse the beautiful panel as a door prize at our next meeting.  Besides, Michele has since given me flowers!  You are a great friend, Michele.

 

 

While some were shopping, there was time for coffee and time to sign up for some classes.

Here Jaynie, Jan, and Colleen S. are showing what they designed in Anna Hergert's class.  I had mine there too but missed taking a photo of it. 

The beginners' class had a lot of talent as can be seen in these next photos:

 

 

 

A couple of our members took an alphabet class with Wayne Hollinger.  There's a chance he will be teaching that class here in the fall.  Can't wait!

And then it was on to wonderful, marvelous, inspiring, creative show-and-tell.  Here's one Judy made:

Marg made pillowcases using the sausage method.  We all have time to make some of those for Christmas gifts!

Jaynie's "creature" is so cool!

And here is a quilt Jan made in the most lovely forest floor colors:

It's so easy to picture a baby or toddler cuddled up in this quilt.

You may have seen this one before.  It's our contribution to the Family Place's Festival of Trees.  It's been hand-quilted by Vi and I dare you to try outbid me!  Speaking of hand-quilting and thinking about the guild's recent charity work making quilts for the hospital, I have to tell you that I was in the hospital overnight (nothing serious, just a hernia repair, so DON'T send flowers) ... and I got to sleep under a lovely hand-quilted quilt.  It had obviously been washed many times and was as soft as silk.  Lovely!

Here's another cosy baby quilt:

A lucky boy is going to get this rag quilt.  I love all the sport motifs.

Helen went out of her comfort zone to make a quilt with pinks in it.  The batiks and technique are great.

Here's a growth chart with fun applique:

I believe Marlene said she used left-over blocks to make this quilt.  Leftovers! 

I wanted to draw on Vera's blackboard placemats.  She even put a little pouch on each to store the chalk.

Here Vera shows a technique she learned in Anna Hergert's previous class.

Esther did a great job of blending colors in this quilt.

Here's more of Vi's hand quilting:

And even more from her.  Where does she find the time?

Elaine, I missed getting a good photo of your embroidered quilt and there's a brownish hue to this so I apologize.  The piece is really beautiful and it sounds like you and your grandchildren had a memory-making time together.

I love how you added dimension to the wall hanging.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday, December 4th at 6 p.m.  This will be our Christmas party with a catered meal (it will help the treasurer if you bring the correct amount of money - $13) and a gift exchange of anything homemade for those wishing to participate.  The gift exchange is based on the left/right game and as a tribute to our theme this year, the story is entitled "50 Shades of Color."  Whether you go into the exchange or not, come out to see how your name is used in the story and for great food, memorable show-and-tell, zany games, and camaraderie.

 

I hope your partners were "enjoying" winter as much as Bob was

as I was inside quilting!