Cotton Quilters' Guild meeting

The Cotton Quilters met on our regular first Monday of the month. Since it's October, president Margaret Ducote asked that everyone bring in their fall/Halloween themed quilts. Apparently I'm one in the minority since I have only one of those made years ago. Here are a few of them:

As you can see, everyone has been wonderfully busy. Some of these pieces were made much earlier than the past month, but enjoyed seeing them all the same. As Mrs. Mary said, "You can't see a quilt too many times."

There were some new pieces. Here are a few examples. One thing I have to say is that quilters get pretty excited for show and share. The pink and brown quilt above was hand-pieced and hand quilted by Ingrid. You can't imagine how small those little square-in-a-square blocks are!

There were some new pieces. Here are a few examples. One thing I have to say is that quilters get pretty excited for show and share. Keeping anyone still for a moment to grab a picture is always a funny struggle.

Finally, I pray that those of you who are in the path of Hurricane Delta are out of harm's way. I understand that many, many Louisianans were just beginning to recover from Hurricane Laura, but we are a strong, resilient people. Together we will heroically, steadfastly, and resolutely rebuild our lives. Stay safe and wait for the all-clear before returning to assess the damage.

Cotton Quilter's Guild September 2020 meeting

Did you know that you can hover over the picture and the caption appears? Yes, the magic of technology!

How about getting to the CQG meeting's Show and Share before the week is out? A miracle from Mary! I'm actually quite proud of myself. The photos below are quilts, quilt tops, and charity quilts, with the exception of my own shares. I'll tell you about those later. Some things need finishing. 

 All of the following are WIPs to be sold online via the Cotton Quilters Guild Facebook page. So are tops we worked on during our Sew Day two weeks ago.  Did you know that you can hover over the picture and the caption appears? Yes, the magic of technology!

 And that's about all I have of the meeting. No need to bore you with the details of minutes, etc. Right?

CQG meeting

 I almost missed the window of posting about our August Cotton Quilters' Guild meeting. There will be another meeting in just a few days. In addition to having our meeting, this month we held a sew day which, I am happy to report, was a great success. But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

President Maggie

Treasurer Irma and Secretary Mary C.

 social distancing and masks

Some of the blocks for our current BOM, which I have yet to begin. Oh dear me! I've decided to finish my current BOM (Sugaridoo) before beginning another. Hmm, maybe not the best idea, but it's decided. Now for a really cool show and tell. Everyone has been busy. It must be this quarantine business.

And two more items, a set of bags that Sheila made. I love how professional they look. She used cork on the bottom one which really gives it a good structure. 

And lastly, also from Sheila, a felt quiet book about "The Three Little Pigs." This is the cutest little book you can imagine. There are several pieces that are separate from the book so that the reader can play by moving the pigs, the wolf, the building materials, etc. around. I think there's even a pot to put on the fire in the brick house. She explain how she makes them and that she makes several every time she builds a new house. I was really impressed! 

Quilt Challenge Day 1

I'm a scroller. You know how people post food and silly pictures and challenges and every little detail of their lives on social media? Well, this is my form of social media. The (I don't know, maybe 7?) people who come by.... you're my social media. I mean I have Pinterest and Instagram and, of course, Facebook. But Instagram is for when I'm stuck waiting and there are no old magazines from three years ago. Facebook is my grape vine, but I read with dubious interest. Pinterest, well, that's my game. However, I can play only so much, you know?

So, the reason for this post. A quilt friend did this ten day challenge of posting one or two quilt pictures every day. Just for fun, I suppose. A sort of online quilt show, if you will. Anyway, she actually named me as the next challenger. Now, how do you go about ignoring something like that? She named me! Okay, okay. I'm in. Here's what I posted. 

And there we are, the beginning of something I may not be completely committed to. 

Quilt Challenge Day 1

Thank you, Mary Coco.

I'll start with a quilt in progress. These are the first six rows of the Bernina Sugaridoo quilt along. Over 6,000 people from around the world are participating, so it's in pretty good company. I'm using indigos I've collected for a while, off whites and a touch of mustard. (Yes, momma, mustard.)

 

 

BRMQG Retreat -- my projects

Remember reading about the Baton Rouge MQG retreat at the River Retreat House over the July 4th weekend. In this post I highlighted some of the works my friends created. 

Finally, I get to tell you about the pieces I worked on. Admittedly, I played as much as I worked. So the end results won't be much, but nevertheless, here they are. 

I started with the Sugaridoo row that needed doing. I'd packed one basket just for that purpose. Honestly, I didn't like it but once I saw it with the rest of the quilt, I decided it fits right in. Of course I went with the improv option and then improv-ed more as I played. Sometimes I have three white strips, sometimes four. I did make one more to fill in that gap on the left, but for some reason, I didn't get a photo. Isn't the top looking good though? There will be separations between the rows. 

I brought a kit that I'd put together last year. It's as simple as a quilt can be: 8" blocks of various stripes and plaids. It took an afternoon of sewing to slam it together. Of course, I strip pieced it running two blocks through the machine like runner on steroids. I was grateful that the parts to my machine had come in and I had put them in place. Zoom! Zoom!

The plaid quilt was barely folded when I started another. This time I was working with lots of text fabric, some scraps and no one idea in mind. Naturally I kicked it into improv gear and let myself go. I got this far, having decided that I would include small pieces of green to break up the text chunks.

Then Glen decided to mess with me and threw in one of her blocks. I didn't even notice it, according to her, for quite a while. I was in the zone, man! But there was this nagging that something was needed. Boom! I'm not telling her but it think it's that tiny corner of teal that gave me the idea.

As luck would have it, I had a large scrap of teal that looks like it has strips of newspaper on it. Could it be more perfect?

So into the quilt wide chunks went. And basically, I built a chunk and found a spot for it. There was no rhyme or reason. Occasionally I'd look at the whole piece through the camera to get a clearer perspective, but mostly it was simple. 

In the end, I had three long pieces that fit together quite easily. But I do not like that line right down the center. Something will have to be done about that before it can be quilted. I have a few ideas and am open to suggestions. Please share them if you can think of something, anything.