A New Quilting Community

One thing I miss terribly by being away from Ohio for three months - besides family! - is my quilting friends. We have such a good time when we are together, and we boost each other's productivity with inspiration and encouragement.

Friends gathering for a quilting retreat.

 

Slowly, my sewing Florida sphere is widening as I have been drawn into a new group of quilting friends that I am eager to know better.

Nobleton ladies putting out lunch.

 

Charlaine, a woman I met through shuffleboard, is a quilter! I discovered this fact at the very end of our first winter here. She's now a full-time Florida resident, and has cultivated some friendships with fellow quilters. I joined her last Thursday for the weekly fiber arts sewing circle in the nearby town of Nobleton. 

 

Stitching and socializing; networking at its finest!

The building is large, a community center with space for many activities, the most common being bingo, from the looks of things. Charlaine also goes to a Monday night craft session where more non-sewing activities are featured. For example, she is working on weaving a basket with pine needles. 

Lunch looked really good!

 

I met about a dozen ladies on Thursday. They were so welcoming. I tried to speak with everyone, but I fear some latecomers slipped past me. I will go again this week to see if I can remember folks. One gal, Polly, is 99! She is the liveliest little gal, and what a hoot! Her parting sentiment as she prepared to have someone drive her home was "Be jolly!" 

While Charlaine worked on EPP hexies, I worked on appliqueing the borders of my Grandmother's Flower Garden. It was nice to have a needle and thread in my hand.

Border is being attached!

 

Working on a project among like-minded folks really makes for a fun and rewarding day.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

 

Oh, What a Finish!

By gosh, I did it!!

I have actually finished my Broken Dishes quilt!

I am so glad to have it finished.

As of 2 weeks ago, I had not one notion that this quilt would become the focus of my work, much less that it would be finished. It's funny how something that was simply grabbed as a diversion for a day of sewing could become a week-long obsession.

I'm going to try to go back and figure out when I began this quilt, and on some future post I will record the story of Broken Dishes. For now, I can say that it's a pattern in this book:

Kaffe Fassett's A Kaleidoscope of Quilts.

Okay, I've again had 2 days devoted to sewing, and it's been wonderful! Yesterday, I sewed with Sharon at her house. She worked on a new project using layer cakes of Aviary, and I cannot believe that I didn't take a picture of it. I guess I was too wrapped up in myself and my own project! Shame on me.

Here is what I started with yesterday - 2 piles of quilt blocks and my trusty diagram.

At the end of the day, I had 5 of the 9 rows constructed.

Today, at Terry's, a group of ladies met for more sewing. This same group met last Wednesday in Grove City when we sewed at Mary's barn. Terry worked on a little project with tiny pieces, Milton's Musket Balls from Civil War Legacies.

This is her first block. One down, 11 more to go!!

Mary had a neat project involving the Civil War, too. Her project is from A Path to the Civil War.

Just look at her beautiful blocks! She was bummed because she didn't have all the pieces cut that she thought she did, but what she did get finished sure looks great!

Cherie and Monica worked on the same projects they had going last week. Cherie continued with her black and white blocks, while Monica was churning out basket blocks.

Cherie's 16-patch blocks. She has a beautiful assortment of  fabrics.

 Monica's basket blocks look amazing. I wish I could get my triangles to look as perfect as hers do!

And Sheryll, who was under the weather last week, worked on some handquilting for a special anniversary in her family.

Sheryll does beautiful handwork. The guests at an upcoming party will be signing this wall hanging - a signature quilt commemorating a golden wedding anniversary. Won't the recipients love it?

And I finished Broken Dishes. Wow. What a job. Let's do the math on how many pieces are in this guy. There are 42 center blocks which have 64 pieces in each block; that comes to 2688 pieces. The border has 30 blocks each consisting of 16 pieces which comes to 480. So added all up we get 3168 pieces. Wow. 

That makes my brain hurt.

But I'm glad it's done. I really, really am.