Quilting Bee

Our quilt guild has smaller groups, organized by location, and our area usually has about 30 ladies attending. In Dec. we lost our usual meeting place, as the clubhouse is being remodeled. Fortunately for us, a local retirement center offered the use of their facility and bless their hearts, they even provide coffee and Krispy Kreme doughnuts! I think they are hoping some of their residents will attend, but this is our second month there and no visitors yet.

This week we had the unexpected pleasure of viewing a quilt dating back to the 1870s! One of the residents, a man who looks like a gold prospector from one of those old westerns, brought in a quilt handed down in his family for many years. I wish you could have seen it. It wasn't particularly gorgeous, but was obviously a planned quilt, not a utility quilt, and was in awesome condition. It was hand stitched of course, with only a little fraying on the edges. I didn't have my camera with me or I'd have photos to post. One of the border fabrics was a turkey red color with a paisley print, only the paisleys were all turned in the same direction and in a straight line--not like the paisleys we are accustomed to seeing. He says he has 19 more, but is moving out soon, so it's not likely we'll get to see the rest. I don't think I've actually seen a quilt that old, though I do have some blocks and a couple of tops from my great-grandmother.

One of the ladies there had a friend who recently died and left her (Pat) all her handwork and accessories. She brought some things in for anyone to take. I took one of the candlewicking books, as I've always wanted to try that, and a pattern for some Christmas items. It was very old (see the photo), but I wanted it for the apron pattern.


Another pattern that caught my eye was one for billowy pants:

Now, I would look like a blimp in these, and besides that, the pattern sizes are too small for me, but I thought of all our younger seamstresses on blogger and how these pants are coming back in style a bit. So, is there anyone out there who wants this pattern? I'd be glad to send it out to you. The sizes are for small through XL and unisexed. If you're interested or need more information, let me know and I'll get it back to you.

Well, the sewing room is almost finished--just some odds and ends to find a place for, and the mirror and bulletin board left to mount. It doesn't matter--I intend to sew SOMETHING today as I am in serious withdrawal. J-Man would like me to hem the pajamas I bought him for Christmas (the nerve), but right now, even that would help satisfy this craving!

Maybe photos tomorrow!

Christmas sweatshirt

Hurray! (Doing the Happy Dance) The 2007 WNCQG Holiday Luncheon is over! Woohoo!

Our quilt guild is broken down into smaller areas, and JK and I were the co-leaders this past year--a first for each of us. As luck would have it, it was our area's turn to host the Holiday Luncheon. Several meetings have been devoted to deciding the menu, the theme, the favors, and the centerpieces. Have you tried to get 30 women to agree on a name tag? It's surprisingly difficult.

Now, since JK is a chatty, outgoing person, and since I have flashbacks of high school book reports if I have to talk in front of a group (shudder), it was understood she would do any announcements, etc, and I would be the go-fer. That really is a workable situation for us.

This morning she woke up with laryngitis.

I accused her of doing this on purpose.

Our guild leader would be running an abbreviated meeting for December, so why would one of us have to talk, I asked. Well, because we need to welcome the group, explain about the door prizes, fabric swap and raffle tickets, give away the centerpieces, and draw the names, she whispered. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder reared its ugly head. My pulse rate was a good 15 - 20 beats higher, I just know it was, and my palms were damp and I couldn't sit down nor could I stand in one place.

I managed to stumble through the welcome and the announcements about the goodies without making a huge fool of myself, and then the president got up to run the meeting. Now, folks, the business part of our meetings generally lasts about 35 minutes, with 10 minutes or so for show and tell. Today, she was through with the business part in just over 10 minutes--and lunch was due to be served in almost 20 minutes. TWENTY MINUTES. Do you know how long 20 minutes can be when you're hyperventilating?

Time to punt. We told the ladies to check under their saucers and the one at each table with the colored dot on her saucer won the snowperson centerpiece. That took about a minute. Then we awarded the six extra snowpeople we had. Knock off 5 minutes. Door prizes--another 5 minutes. Then we drew the tickets for 580 donated fabric squares (which, BTW, was won by my co-leader). Two more minutes down. About 13 minutes total. The president said grace, and fortunately, the food was ready. Whew!

Last February one of our members brought in a sweatshirt jacket she'd made in a class. It was cute and everyone oooed and aaahed and decided we all had to make these to wear at the luncheon. So in March we ordered the sweatshirts, and in June JS brought in the patterns for us all to trace onto freezer paper. We were to decide what fabrics we wanted to use, and September was the opportunity to bring in our garments for a sit and sew and have her help us. You'd think there was plenty of time to get these done, wouldn't you?

I started mine last weekend. Below are some photos of the ordeal. First came choosing the fabrics and making sure to write them down, since I kept forgetting which green fabric would be the holly and which I would use for the tree.


Then, even after cutting the ribbing off the sleeves, they were too long and too large, so I decided to make it a vest instead.

Never having made a vest before, I knew the armholes were cut in deeper, and knew this would affect the patterns, but I was only guessing how much to cut off. It wasn't enough.

Then to make the appliques--measuring, measuring, measuring to make sure the panels would fit on the front of the vest now that it was altered. I ended up remaking 4 of the panels because I didn't like the way they looked.



The tree was redone because I cut the panel too small for the front, and I opted not to include the trunk of the tree.


The house and snowmen turned out well enough, and I left my house windowless in the interest of time. Also there was supposed to be a yo-yo on the end of the snowman's hat, but I didn't think 11:30 last night was a good time to learn how to make a yoyo. Then I forgot the pom-pom I'd planned to use in its place.


Of the upper panels, I remade the holly and the gift so they'd fit, and I had to remake the stocking because I reversed the pattern. (sigh)


I finished the embellishments (well, at least as much as I figured I could do at the time) by 1:30 this morning. With all the applique, the vest got a little stiff and I looked as if I were wearing wings, but couldn't tell until I put it on. And then I was for DARN sure there would be no more do-overs.


Now, all my non-sewing friends will think this is wonderful, even though I can only see my mistakes when I look at it. But every project teaches me something. And it was really fun to see how differently everyone interpreted the same pattern. Only 2 of us made them into vests, and a couple of people never got theirs done, so I just might wear this out in public, after all.