Whacky Ladies Sew-In Day

Today was a day of fun and fellowship for the Whacky Ladies, my local quilt bee.  For three years in a row, our January meeting has been a sew-in day to make charity quilts to donate to Capital Quilters Guild.  The guild donates to neonatal intensive care units, rest home residents, children whose families are in a program for  prevention of child abuse, and other worthy causes.

Instead of meeting at Quilts Like Crazy, our LQS, we met at Donna Sontag's new storefront business, Whatever's Quilted.  Donna was formerly housed at Quilts Like Crazy, but has moved just down the street at 1318-156 S. Main St. in Wake Forest, NC.  Donna offers both hand-guided and computerized longarm quilting service, and also is a dealer for Handi-Quilter machines.  She will even train you to use the machines and then rent them to you to quilt your own projects.



 Donna showed us the raffle quilt for the Carolina Longarm Association's next show.  She did a fabulous job using both computerized and hand-guided quilting.

Many members contributed green fabrics and helped piece the quilt top, which has Tree of Life blocks with an applique vine in the outer border.

Donna cleverly extended the outline of the vine into the plain parts of the border.

The alternate blocks have a beautiful feathered design.

She will turn it in at the CLA meeting in Greensboro on Saturday for someone else to bind.

Another show-and-tell was this amazing American Flag quilt top that Kathy Miller and a group of women are working on for the Veteran's Administration Hospital.  It will be used when there is a death of a patient, to respectfully honor and cover the body when it is being moved.  Much nicer than draping a white sheet, yes?  It will be quilted and donated.

Mary made a quilt at home and donated it to the guild.  I think it will be perfect for a Safechild quilt with its happy colors and frog motif.

On to today's projects!  I went through a stack of my UFO's and handed them out.  Marilyn finished a top made from a pattern in Quilts From Aunt Amy.  It is made from muted Civil War reproduction fabrics.  It has free-hand circles cut into quarters, then sewn together with raw edge remaining.  Once it is quilted and washed, the edges will fray, making a ruffled look.  I think this will be great for a rest-home resident as it will have a tactile quality.

Kathy took some of my 5-inch cut squares and made this joyous quilt top for a child.

Two years ago, I made a Yellow Brick Road quilt for Quilts on Wheels, and had lots of leftover blocks and partial blocks.  Mary put those together along with some other fabrics that I cut up for her as needed. 

Lori also dove into her UFO (Un-Finished Object) pile and came up with enough blocks for two quilts.  She made one and Carolyn made the other.  They both have nine-patch and alternate blocks in a scrappy design.

Sharon came late and started putting together a top from some orphan blocks of mine.  Donna got out her quilt tops from our meeting two years ago, and got them started on her computerized machine during our get-together.

It is so much fun to work on these projects together.  In just a few hours we made a lot of quilt tops which will later warm their recipients, body and soul.

Charity Quilts and Quilt Bee

Yesterday, I was able to finish the two donated quilt tops that I picked up on Wednesday, and pass them along to volunteers from my bee to bind in time for the guild meeting next Thursday.

The first is a small 24 square inch walhanging with calico butterfly appliques on a cloud background fabric.  I chose to quilt flowers for the butterflies to visit with loop-to-loops to represent their flight paths.

I went inside each butterfly  and added some quilting.

This quilt was done quickly due to its small size.  The backing is the same cloud fabric.  That white streak is afternoon sunlight peeking between the curtains!

Next up is a lap-quilt size Stack and Slash quilt done in muted dusty shades of calico so popular in the the eighties.  I did not like all the contrasting angles and the dated fabrics when I first saw this.  However, after adding some curvy all-over freehand feathers, I think it looks pretty darn nice!

This one has a muslin backing.  The feathers make a very nice textural pattern on the back.

Thanks to Jean and Irene for agreeing to bind these for the guild in time for the Heritage Days auction on October 1.

When I picked up the two tops from Cathy Kirk, I saw that she had another quilt top in the back of her car, (which is so cute...an off-white Mini-Cooper with the license plate "Mini Pearl")  and I agreed to quilt that one, too.  It is much larger, 88" x 82".  I will quilt that one when we get back from the mountains next week.  I'll probably bind that one entirely by machine due to lack of time.

Last night, The Whacky Ladies met at Carolyn's house.  We had a great turnout and lots of interesting Show-and-Tell.

This is another quilt top Carolyn made from the Warm Wishes pattern. 

And this is Carolyn's Lhasa apso, Pepper, who entertained us throughout the meeting. I believe he was smiling for his portrait!

Janice showed us lots of interesting works-in-progress.  She participated in an online jelly-roll quilt contest, and made this original top.

We all loved the fabrics that she chose in different colorways.

She showed a little quilt she is making for her son.  I am so excited that she is starting to play with Shiva paint sticks and other art quilt materials!  You can read about this quilt and see a better photo on her blog.

Irene showed us the table runner she made using an instruction book for place mats with this braid pattern.

Jean has finished making the Cowboy Boots quilt top that she is making for a niece who is graduating from high school.  She had a lot of fun choosing the fabrics for the boots.  The niece also asked for sunsets, so she got this beauty right in the center.

You might be seeing that one again on my blog...she is giving it to me next week to quilt it for her.

Off to our cabin again in a few hours for a weekend of beautiful weather and family fun.

Whacky Ladies Quilt Bee- More Charity Quilts finished

Last night the Whacky Ladies met at Mary's house.  Several people brought the completed quilts that they started at our Sew-in Day in January.  It is so much fun to see these projects rolling in!

Irene tackled a hand-quilted patchwork Trip Around the World that we found in my friend Marcia's mother's stash.  It was too small to be used as a baby quilt, so she had to figure out how to add quilted borders.  Mary had the perfect fabric to make a border for the front side.

The back has a colorful map, so Irene devised a scrappy border in bright colors.

I think it turned out to be a delightful quilt!  This will be donated to the Capital Quilters' Guild Quilts for Kids programs.  These are donated to neo-natal intensive care nurseries, or sometimes other worthy causes.

Mary finished the frog fabric quilt that she started at the Sew-In.

How cute is that with those fun frogs leaping around?

At the meeting, Kathy brought a bag of fabrics donated by her church members to make charity quilts.  One of the "fabrics" was actually an indigo African dashiki-style shirt.  Mary cut it up and made this fabulous quilt.

I am honored to be part of such a talented and generous group of quilters!