Shopping fun!

These two are sister-in-laws and enjoying the All Iowa Shop Hop together

This crew, from the Quad Cities area, is having tons of fun as they tour the Iowa quilt shops.

Thanks to everyone that came out for the All Iowa Shop Hop! It ended today at 5 pm. You can drop your passport off at any participating shop or mail it yourself. Either way, it must be postmark no later than July 2.

To mail it yourself, the address is:
AISH
PO Box 221
Mt Vernon, IA  52314

June Quilt Circle of Friends

We just had another great gathering of the friends. We started our evening with a review of our Little Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.

The actual maker of this quilt is unclear but, it won our Best of Show ribbon because it gave us the best chuckle.

By viewers choice, this quilt. pieced by Bonnie Nelsen and quilted by Julia Swallow, got the most votes, making it #1.

Both pieced and quilted by Tricia Beal Snyder, this batik quilt came in 2nd.

And wouldn't you know! The two most competitive (in a friendly way) quilters I know tied for 3rd place! Marty Klatt above and Bonnie Nelsen below.

  

I shared this leftover quilt block I converted to a little zip pouch for our library fund raiser. 

Wowzo! Nancy H. shared this quilt she has been working on for quite some time. Let me say it again - - - Wowzo!

Here's Joyce Scott's village quilt (above) and her animal challenge quilt below. 

And here is my animal block challenge quilt. Joyce and I both shared our quilts at the meeting to show off the nice job of machine quilting done by QC member, Deb Semmens.

Theresa finished this winter quilt for her log cabin bed. All flannel and all quilted on her domestic sewing machine. A big job, very well done.

- - - - and the matching shams.

Nancy J. finished 2 t-shirt quilts and they are ready to present.

She showed us how she utilizes necklines and armholes as needed. Really adds the cute factor, too.

I introduced our Dallas County Fair quilt. These blocks were made and displayed in a challenge at our 2015 Little Sister's Outdoor Quilt Show.

This year, the blocks were displayed as a finished quilt! It will be sold at auction at the Sponsor's dinner, the night before the Dallas Co. Fair opens in July this summer.

Proceeds from the sale of this quilt will be used by Dallas County 4-H to help send kids to camp that cannot otherwise afford to go. We are told there is a big need for these funds and are so happy to help.

Many of your made and donated these blocks. It was pieced by me (Jacque Johnson) with fabric donated from Adel Quilting. Kathy Blomquist donated the machine quilting and Carol Piziali donated the binding. It takes a village - - - - Thank you to all who helped.

Always a treat to gather with my quilt circle of friends. Special thanks to Jackie Orton for taking all these pictures!

Porch sell for library

This is the last week for our annual porch sale. Retired shop samples and lots of donated, hand-made items have been on display for your choosing.

We have raised over $800 so far and what you see here is all that is left. Great gift items at very reasonable prices with all proceeds donated to our local library. It's a win-win-win.

Stop by this week and pick up a few things for your gift stash.

Sunday Sewday

After a fun visit from these guys, I headed downstairs to my sewing room.

I looked around for something mindless to sew on in the cool comfort of the room and came across this UFO. I made all the parts and pieces over a year ago. I think I was testing a pattern for our Quilt Circle Mystery Quilt challenge.  No time like the present to Get it Done! Can you see the mistake?

Another creation by Carol

Isn't this cool? Carol is always up for a challenge and said this went together pretty easily. It's Starburst Prism from Nancy's Notions.

They're having funQ

These sisters are combining Row x Row with the All Iowa Shop Hop and making some serious progress!

 These three are teachers on summer break. We gave them candy and dubbed them The Three Musketeers.

Are you Rowing?

The nation wide Row by Row adventure is on and runs through September 6. The theme this year is "Home Sweet Home".

See our row across the top of this little patriotic flag banner. We were asked us to think in terms of "home" when we designed our row so I decided to feature our courthouse with the Courthouse Steps block surrounded by our brick streets with the star to mark our county seat. Based on customer feedback, we also avoided applique or paper piecing with this row.

Of course, we have kits for our row - just $10 each plus kits for the whole small flag banner quilt.

And the license plates are back. This year we have two as well as the large display banner that we asked customers to sign and write where they are from.

New this year is The Ninth Row. This is a project that brings charity to all of the shopping. In exchange for a donation to The Rescue Mission, we were given this pattern to use and encouraged to do something charitable with it.

This is 36" wide so it could be used as one of the rows in your Row by Row quilt. However, to be eligible for the contest, it has to be --- - - The Ninth Row.

We decided to make our pattern into a wall sign or runner. We have kits that include the pattern free. With every kit that is sold, we will donate $5 to our local domestic violence shelter.  As a footnote, this quilt was made from 1 pack of charms plus the purple for the center background and binding.

The Winners Are - - - -

Finally, it's time to announce the winners of the Little Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show - 2016!

Our show guests were asked to vote on their three favorite quilts, no easy task. 

The results have been kept in a sealed envelope in a mayonnaise jar on the porch of Funk and Wagnall since 4 pm Saturday.

First Place: Bonnie Nelsen for this stunning Black, White and Red Flower Box Medley quilt. Pieced by Bonnie and machine quilted by Julia Swallow.

2nd Place: Tricia Beal Snyder for this adorable and very creative Row Quilt. Both pieced and machine quilted by Tricia.

3rd Place:  A tie between Marti Klatt and Bonnie Nelsen

Marti's elegant violet quilt made with hankies from her collection. Both pieced and machine quilted by Marti.

And Bonnie's happy pink and green quilt with the most beautiful hand quilting I've ever seen. Too bad this picture doesn't show it. Pieced and hand quilted by Bonnie.

More quilts from our Little Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show

Elsa by Abbie Allen

Monster High by Abbie Allen

Spiderman by Abbie Allen - She is someone's favorite Grandma, isn't she?

Fall Leaves - by Marti Klatt

A block of the month quilt by Carol Piziali

Challenge Quilts

Part of our display at Little Sister's Outdoor Quilt Show were these challenge Row Quilts made by some of the Quilt Circle of Friends members.

By Joyce Scott

 

By Margaret Beal

By Tricia Beal Snyder

By Lonnie Keeran

By Abbie Allen

Quilt Circle of Friends also concluded a block exchange of Snowball Blocks this year. A few of the members have made quilts with their Snowball Blocks.

By Jacque Johnson - This one incorporated some of the Snowball Blocks from our exchange with Row Quilt animal blocks.

Marti Klatt made this stunning quilt with her Snowball blocks.

By Bonnie Nelsen. It's hard to imagine these were Snowball Blocks but, with a little diagonal cutting and rearranging, you get this beautiful double pinwheel quilt.

Moda Shuffle Block 15 re-upload

For some reason over my head (which really isn't very far) block #15 loaded blurry this month so, here is a re-do. I will also replace the original.

Our Library Fund Raiser

We sold about $400 worth of hand made items on day one of our porch sale, part of our annual fund raiser for the local library. It's our way of saying thank you for all the time we get to sew over there.

The sale will continue for the next week or two, until we sell out. 

Here is a bit of what is left. Several of these things sold after I took this picture, though and I have new things to add for next week.