January 2013

 It was nice to have quilt club again.  It seemed like a long time since the last club meeting-almost two months-but last meeting was our shop hop.  
Here is my baby chevron quilt completed.

 And the back-cute fabric that I picked up at the thrift shop that worked perfectly with the top.

This was supposed to be a hidden wells quilt that I just finished.  It had been languishing with  other WIP's.  I am really going to try to get these WIP's finished this year.  At least make a big dent in them.

 Here is a baby quilt I made with the extra blocks from the Serendipity quilt I made previously.  That was a Missouri Star Quilt Co video.

This is Warm Blessings quilt that I made for a friend.  The pattern was for a table topper and she wanted extra length added to it.

 This is the back to a quilt that Sue made that has had a long journey.  She made it as therapy for herself and a dear cousin who was suffering from cancer.  Her cousin did not survive and never received the quilt.  Sue attached the handkerchiefs to the back.  They are to commemorate her relatives.  She added embellishments and embroidery to them.  I believe they were for her grandmother, mother and father.

 This is the front of the quilt.  The tulips were for the Dutch Dancing her aunt did.  This is Sue's first large quilt.  The quilt was given to her aunt who cherished it.  When she was updating her will, she wanted to make sure this most cherished item of hers was given to Sue.  So it has made a circuitous journey back to Sue and now resides on her bed!

 Sheree also had a couple of completed quilts.  This is a pumpkin quilt that she got as a kit on the Bedford shop hop some of the quilt club members went on.  The cute pumpkins are machine appliqued.

 This is Sheree's "Jared take a wife" quilt that she started at the Bonnie Hunter quilt retreat,  She added the border to the original pattern.  The colors truly sparkle on this one.  When the weather gets nicer, I may have to take some of these pictures outside so we can really appreciate the beauty in these quilts.  This one was gorgeous!

 Linda is working on her snowman quilt that we started today.  (Sheree finished her top previously!)  These are made in the same fashion as the Christmas Tree quilts we made a few years ago.  Some of us were thinking about making another Christmas Tree quilt, but after making these Snowmen quilts, I for one may rethink that!

Sue and Rhonda discussing something-obviously not the snowman quilt-Sue is smiling!  Just kidding.

The snowmen weren't nearly as insane as the christmas trees.

We missed Cathy and Peg today.  Both have some kind of ugly bug that seems to be going around.  Hope you both get well soon!



Next club date is Feb 23rd.  See you then!

First Annual Christmas Shop Hop

We started our day by meeting up at Rhonda's house, then driving to Hershey to meet up with Cathy.  Cathy's birthday was Friday-so Happy Birthday Cathy!  Cathy was so gracious to be our chauffeur for the day.
Our first stop was Martin's Fabric Barn in Myersville.  This was a new shop for us.

They had a nice selection of fabrics. The prices compared to Sauder's-our old favorite.

Cathy bought some fabric for her Easy Street quilt.

Martins' was a little complex-fabrics here, yarn and gifts upstair,
another building housed iron knick-knacks, another had household item like candles, curtains, quilted purses, etc.

Deb is buying some Christmas gifts in one of the other buildings where you can see some of their wares.

We even saw some hexi tiles in their outdoor furniture area with a couple of flower designs.

We went to Burkholder's Fabrics in Denver next.  This is an old time favorite.  It is a beautiful shop with a huge selection of fabrics.  Comments were  made about the lighting being Otte type lighting so you could see the true colors of the fabric.

They even have deer in a pen outside so husbands who aren't quite as interested in the fabrics have something to do.

Peggy, Rhonda and I are standing in front of one wall that has a huge selection of rulers.  I even saw a ruler here that I couldn't find on the internet.












Next we met up with Linda, who was delayed due to being a super responsible pet owner and taking her dog to the vet for his yearly vaccinations.
We met at a local restaurant for a nice lunch and small break in our adventures.

Sauder's was next on the list.  I didn't even think to take a picture here as we come to Sauder's so often.  

Next stop was Obie's country Store in Goodville.  One reviewer of the store said, "so much fabric it's frightening."  I will have to agree.  The pictures speak louder than words.

                                                                                                                                   

There is one more fabric shop to visit.  This one we spied on our way to Obie's.  It is Goodville Fabric Outlet, just a few doors away from Obie's.  The front section was quilting cottons.  There were back rooms that went on forever with upholstery fabrics, polyesters, etc.

We decided to go to Good's next.  This is a variety store that carries a nice selection of fabrics.  We did buy a few pieces of fabric, but I know I didn't get to look around as much as I would have liked to.  Stores close early in Lancaster.  We had about 15 minutes til closing time.  Enough time to do a little bit of damage to our wallets.

One more stop in our day.  We went to a candle/ dried flower/ craft store.  If someone gives me the name I will update our website with that info.  This was another huge store with extra large Christmas decorations, rooms of scrap booking supplies, candles, country decor, etc.  

We were finally running out of steam and congregated in their little food court.  We all enjoyed this Shop Hop so much we decided this will not be a one time thing.  There are a lot more shops in the Lancaster area for us to explore. We are sad that we don't have great fabric stores in York where most of us live, but we acknowledged we are really blessed to be so close to all these stores with such great prices on their fabrics.  

On our way home we stopped for dinner and unwound from this wonderful day.  Great fun with a great bunch of ladies.

November 2012

Show and Tell.  Here is Linda's quilt from the retreat the club went on with Bonnie Hunter.  Jared Takes a Wife.      It is just beautiful.  She wants to share on Bonnie's website, so hopefully we will be able to figure out how to do that.

 This is Rhonda's table runner from the Shop Hop she did in Bedford.  How cute is this?  Can't wait to see it all done.
There were a few tops pieced, but not quilted.  We decided to wait to showcase them until they are done, done, done!

 We started working on Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt-Easy Street.  All but two of our group are going to be making the mystery this year.  Should be lots of fun!

This cute little make and take was so easy.  Rhonda had little kits made up for us.  Now I think we will be making more on our own for little Christmas gifts.  This was from the Shop Hop in Bedford too.

I didn't do such a great job with pictures this month.  Too busy trying to get those little four patches done!  Everyone was at club this month-though not all at the same time!  

Sheree brought her friend Jody (I think that was her name.  Forgive me if I got that wrong-old age.) and they were working on memory quilts of Jody's grandmother.

Next month we are going to do our own shop hop for our Christmas Party/meeting.  We will be meeting up at Rhonda's at 8:30 on December 8th.  If we have time we may even go out to eat!  We will be visiting some of our old favorite shops in Lancaster and even some new ones!

October 2012

We had a lot of show and tells again this month.  Rhonda totally amazes us with all that she gets done.  She quilted 13 quilts this past month in addition to finishing this lovely reproduction quilt.

 This is one of the quilts that Rhonda quilted.  This is Linda's Alaskan quilt.

 Here is another of Linda's quilts that Rhonda quilted.  This one is Jared Takes a Wife.  This is the Bonnie Hunter quilt that the club started while on the Bonnie Hunter retreat.  Beautiful colors!

 Rhonda made a scrappy quilt with leftover Connecting Threads scraps.  This is a D9P.

 Peggy finished her Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt Double Delight.  I think this is for her sister.  Those Bonnie Hunter quilts are difficult for me to gift to someone.  They all look so different with just one color change. Beautiful!

 This is one of my show and tells.  I made this Christmas quilt from a Missouri Quilt Shop youtube tutorial.

 Here is my Christmas table topper.  This was so easy to make, but it helps if you pay attention and follow the directions.  This didn't turn out with the colors where I wanted them.  :(

 Peggy followed along with Craftsy this year making sampler blocks.  She put them together with sashing for a Christmas sampler quilt.  Here is number one.....

and here is number two.  There are some fun and interesting blocks in these quilts they both look different with the different block arrangement.

After we went through all of our show and tells we worked on our different projects and planned for our next group project-a snowman quilt to be started in January.

For eats we had a wonderful Butternut Squash soup that Deb made.  She is going to be sharing the recipe, so I will post that here.  We also had broccoli salad, bologna and cheese, chips and I think there was a coffee cake for dessert.

Here is the soup recipe.  It is called Harvest Soup

Ingredients

1 Tbs. olive oil

1/2 cup chopped carrot

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/3 cup chopped onion

1-1/2 lb. butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes

2 medium Golden Delicious apples, cored and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth (Deb used seasoned veggie broth and the chicken broth.)

    Ground black pepper to taste

      Whole grain croutons

Directions

In a large pot heat oil over medium heat. Add carrot, celery, and onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender and starting to brown. Add the squash, apple, and broth. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until squash is tender. Cool slightly.

Puree the soup, in batches if necessary, in a blender or food processor, or with an immersion blender.  Season to taste with pepper.  Makes 4 to 6 servings (about 6-1/2 cups).

Next week a few members of the club will be going to Bedford to do a Quilt Shop Hop.  Have fun!

Next month we will be getting together on November 24th, the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Happy Thanksgiving all!

September 2012 Quilt Club

 We started quilt club with another fun show and tell.  Here is Peggy's quilt top she made for her mother in law in her MIL's favorite fall like colors.

 Another quilt top Peggy completed-a spider web.  I found a tutorial for this pattern.  Peggy said it was an easy quilt to make-the best kind-it just looks complicated.  This is in Christmas prints.

 Peggy's third show and tell entry!  This is a mystery quilt by Alycia and Craftsy for Quilts of Valor.

 And finally Peggy finished the Tree's Up! Lights On! quilt that we did as a club.  We are thinking that we would like to make this quilt again.

Rhonda has been busy quilting some of Cathy's tops that we saw last month.  Here is the Arrowhead quilt ready to be trimmed and bound.

 This is a Chevron baby quilt that I sewed while on vacation this month.  It is quilted and ready to be bound.

 Sue finished the amazing art quilt for Jesse and Audra's wedding.  See last month's blog for some close up pictures of the talented work in this quilt.

 Linda's grandson Bronson helped her quilt at club today and helped to display her show and tell-more of the Hoito bags she is making as gifts.

 Here is a block Rhonda was playing with to use up some of those scraps.  Great idea for another fun quilt.

You can get a peak at Rhonda crocheting slippers here.  I was taking a picture of the dessert.  I should have taken the picture of Rhonda to share too-sorry Rhonda.  Rhonda made chicken corn soup and sopapilla for us.  I can attest that the soup was delicious and everyone else said the cake was too-yum!
We also had cucumber dip/crackers, sweet bologna, and apples with caramel sauce.

Peggy made a cucumber dip with Greek Yogurt.  I will add the recipe here when she shares it with us.  This was really good too.

ZESTY CUCUMBER DIP

1 medium cucumber seeded and diced

1 medium tomato seeded and diced

1 container of plain yogurt (I used greek yogurt)

3 scallions diced

1 packet of Italian dressing (dry)

1 tbsp lemon juice

can be eaten with crackers or fresh veggies  

Finally here are the babushkas that we made for cancer patients.  Deb will distribute them to people that she knows who have lost their hair after chemo/radiation treatments.   That looks like a pretty good variety for them to choose from.

We talked about our Christmas get together and we decided to combine that with some fabric shopping in Lancaster.  We will be going to Shady Maple on the 8th of December and then on to Obie's, Good's, Sauder's and Weaver's!    

Next month we will be getting together on the 20th.  One project that we may work on is a seasonal table topper.  See everyone next time!