Cotton Quilters Guild April Meeting

On Monday, the Cotton Quilters Guild held it's April meeting, with little ole me at the helm. It's Friday so it's been four days, which I tell you so that you'd understand how long I've been a-bed. (I'm reading Henry James' Turn of the Screw, so expect more of that old-fashioned, British nonsense.)

I'll say I have a stomach bug, but it's possible someone in my life is poisoning me by putting something in my Gatorade. It would be believable if I weren't so darned fab. Anyway, I'm only drinking Gatorade because I'm losing fluids much too quickly. Regardless, if necessary, the computer will come with me into the camper bathroom. I am getting this post out. And that's all I'm going to say about that. 

So the meeting--we took care of guild business, then Mrs. Marilyn and Mrs. Priscilla had a hand at presenting how they created these beautiful works. Mrs. Priscilla made the wall-hanging above several years ago, based on a pattern she purchased. The pattern contained the girl, and Mrs. Priscilla added all the extras that are attached to the outer edge. She mentioned that she was going for a 1920s look. I think she nailed it! This piece was made to hang over a guest bed in her home. 

Mrs. Marilyn's rooster is also from a pattern she purchased but is a more recent piece. She used Steam-a-Seam II to make the rooster and attach it to the background. She also used only Kaffe Fassett fabrics and fussy cut them to get the look she wanted. She's a great Kaffe fan. 

I discovered that there are now tools available that I wish I'd had back in my days of applique. "Daddy's Barn" (of five years ago) would have benefited from that Steam-a-Seam, certainly. Let's not forget the Mayeaux Barn. I suppose I'll have to find a bit of that product and play. 

We also shared our first BOM--that I'm hosting. What a great laugh everyone had at my math inability. We were supposed to make 12" log cabin blocks. How hard can that be? Well, much more difficult when the pattern writer says 15" instead of 12. Plus, the pattern writer writes 2½ instead of 2. Oh, it was a mess! Someone found an error and I shot out an email to make the correction. Then someone else found a different error, and I shot out another correction. 

Somehow only two people came to the meeting with 15" blocks! I offered to rip the seams out. It was my mistake after all. Sweet sisters they declined. They said they'll just start over and make the correct size blocks.

Despite the commotion and craziness of the mix-up, I loved seeing what everyone had as a beginning to our row quilt. A simple log cabin block is a chameleon with just a few changes in color. 

We have about eight members who are going to try to figure out what a la Mary means. That's the term they say when they talk about some wild, crazy, modern quilt idea. It's French for like Mary or Mary's way. They mean it as a compliment sometimes and as a kooky, who-knows kind of way at other times. I take it as a compliment regardless of the real context. I'm cool like that. 

And we ended with a couple of show and shares, but I got so involved with something else, that I took only one picture of Mrs. Mary C. who made lots of table toppers for her daughters. She said it's a fast, easy project that uses up some of her favorite fabrics and she gets to share them with the people she loves. How wonderful is that?