April's meeting

April was filled with tons of show and tell! We still aren't revealing the cushion challenge yet, but I promise there are some great ones you'll want to come back to see.

Everyone brought in their finished Quilts For Kids quilts. If you would like to work with this great organization, follow the link above. They provide quilt kits that you put together and they go to children in need.

Bobbi made a wonky log cabin for them.

These were made by Bobbi and Andrew.

Tricia and Stephanie had two also.

This one was Denise's quilt.

And Cathy made the purple one!

Then we got down to showing challenge projects. Nancy had her paper pieced Madrona Road fabric challenge block.

And she made this sweet heart quilt for the log cabin challenge.

Then when she realized they weren't large enough, she made two more matching log cabin quilts!

Pat made pineapples from log cabins!

 And showed us a really great way to make this with the extras from the pineapple process.

This was another version of the pineapple block that Pat showed us.

Sarah made wonky log cabins all from triangles rather than squares.

Tricia made a pillow cover from her log cabin block.

The back was just as cute!

Anna Z.'s take on the log cabin resulted in an off center giant log cabin.

Andrew's was also off center with random pieces of color in the strips.

The back really showed off the circular quilting.

Then we got to show and tell that wasn't related to a challenge. Kathy has all these sea creature blocks and was looking for a fun way to set them.

 Sara B. showed us her jelly roll race quilt from her homemade jelly roll.

Tricia had an applique block of the month quilt finished.

Jill had a challenge piece to show off from another guild. She had to make something red and white.

Cathy had her Madrona Road fabric challenge quilt finished.

Emily showed us two beautiful quilt she made from mostly vintage fabrics.

Anna Z. also had this amazing quilt finished.

It was a night with a lot of inspiration!!

Quilts for Boston

After the terrible events at the Boston Marathon, the Boston Modern Quilt Guild has organized a charity effort to distribute quilts to those affected by the bombers. If you would like to contribute, information can be found on their blog post here. Let's help support the victims and our fellow MQG Chapter!

Quilts for Kids event

On Saturday March 23 we went to Quilts For Kids (QFK)  in Fairless Hills, to stitch quilts destined for children who are hospitalized and in need of a little comfort and cheer.   What a fun day we had!   The very organized folks at QFK had kits all ready for us with pieces perfectly cut and color coordinated so all we had to do was set up our machines and get stitching.   We all worked on the same quilt block motif but every quilt was different due to the variety of fabric choices.  

Here we are in the sweatshop, I mean, workroom.  That's Linda Arye the founder of QFK talking while Kathy concentrates on her stitching. 

After a few hours stitching we took a little break for lunch and power socializing,  and then it was back to the machines.   We got the tops pieced and the quilts sandwiched for some machine quilting, and a few over achievers even got their quilting done.   But we all took our quilt home to finish up the quilting and binding.   So we hope to see them back at our monthly meeting to collect to return the finished quilts to QFK.  We are lucky that Stephanie lives nearby so will be our deliverer when we finish them up.  We were delighted that Stephanie's husband and daughter stopped by for a quick visit!   Nice to meet the family! 

Speaking of meeting,  while we were there a mother and four year old son stopped in just to say hello and see what QFKs is all about. Turns out he is actually a patient at a local hospital so after he and his mom toured the workroom, Linda had him choose a quilt to take with him next time he has to go in.   He chose a John Deere motif quilt and was really excited to get it!  We felt privileged to see his joy! 

We brought a bag full of seven or either quilts that some of our members had completed.   Most had been shown at one of our meetings but there were a few surprises in the bag!   Here are a few that we brought with us that had not been previously shown:  

Here's Janet's X and Cross quilt - recognize the block?   We had a swap of these blocks last year.  Aren't they great!   This is a good I-Spy quilt.  

Tricia made this one, designed to meet the QFK's call for quilts that would be great for boys.  Just look at the border with the dogs interspersed.  Very clever and sure to be loved. 

Bobbi made this one from a charm square packet,  kind of an I-Spy also, with a happy gingham sashing.  

Linda Arye and Nancy Haddad of QFK were so pleased to host us and hope we will have a return trip.   We were nine (including two guests!) and the room can accommodate many more so if we do it again, perhaps even more of us can participate.  We had a great time and felt good at the end of the day!  

March PMQG Meeting Highlights

A highlight of our March meeting was the Kona solids distribution.   We had signed up for a batch of Warm or Cool colors in quarter yard cuts (the smarties signed up for both!) and received about 26 of each color within each group.  Aren't they pretty!   Don't you wish you had participated?  Can't wait to see what people do with these.  

We shared some of the cushion covers that were completed and they were fabulous!  We are not showing any on the blog because we learned they will be shown as a small special exhibit at the Pennsylvania National Quilt Show at Oaks in September so they shouldn't be shown online before then.   We can post them after the show in September.   Really great representative work, showing just how rich we are in talent (and how eclectic we are!).   How's that for a tease.  Some of us didn't finish so we hope to see the rest at our regular meeting in April.  Those are the cushion covers that will be submitted for the exhibit so get going!  

Show and Tell was great, as usual.  

 This quilt is Cathy F.'s beautiful quilt.

Danette had several quilts.   She said she learned a lot while putting these together and she might do some things a little differently but we thought they were great as is!   And I think we were all inspired by the solids, especially those of us going home with a batch of Moda solids! 

Stephanie had this very cheerful small quilt.  Love the color combinations. 

Andrew made this raffle quilt to benefit an African village water project and we all agreed it would likely raise a lot of money!   His employer had agreed to match whatever was raised in ticket sales and it was a bundle.  Lucky winner was a co-worker of his.  Many of us tried for it!  

Anna had two tops and as usual, her sense of color was exquisite.  Loved them.  

Ann finished her paper piecing with the challenge fabrics we had been given in January.   She's new to paper piecing and this is amazing!   Maybe she will turn it into her Cushion project?  

Bobbi made this tiny Red/White keychain for Kathy,  in the spirit of the Sniper Quilts Kathy made for her son and his team since she had to give them away.  Just a little thing, for Kathy to hang onto.  

Kathy made this sample for the store.   She laughed that she realized after it was done that she had done it wrong but hey, looks great to us!   (But how many students will get messed up, trying to follow the pattern and not getting what she did) 

Sarah also finished her challenge from last month.   That border is great, those big happy flowers.   But even more fun was her Tolkien quilt!   So imaginative and clever!   Can't wait to see this after she finished quilting it. 

Thank you to member Bobbi for the photos and write up!

February PMQG Meeting

February's meeting was postponed due to QuiltCon so we held it this past Tuesday. Andrew filled us in on all the QuiltCon news (which should be posted soon on the MQG website) and was generous enough to bring back some goodies for door prizes.

Everyone brought in their paper pieced Madrona Road Challenge pieces for reveal. Again we were in our secondary location and I swear the lighting is the strangest in there. I did my best to get good photos, but the colors are definitely off.

Pat's pillow:

 

Bobbi's block:

 

 

Cathy F's quilt top:

Denise's blocks:

Becky's pouch:

Cathy's Hexies (look closely, she put sparkles on there!)

Janet's block:

I got a close up of Janet's block because some of the pieces were so tiny!

And Nancy S.'s block:

And of course we had some great show and tell. Nancy brought in a Granny Square quilt and a hand tied baby quilt.

Judy had a Quilts for Kids quilt:

Stephanie made a large chevron quilt:

Denise had a purse she made:

Ann had large paper pieced Hexies:

Nancy S. brought a table runner.

And Sarah brought a quilt that she will be teaching at the Round Bobbin.

Seat cushions were distributed for next months swap. That meeting will be held Tuesday March 19th.