Time to catch up - - -

Here are a few of the quilts coming together at our November Open Sew.

 Jean was just finishing up this Ocean Waves quilt for a grandchild's wedding gift. The colors they requested are blue and orange. Aren't they going to love this?

Sarah finished a block of the month. Nice

Sarah also worked on this quilt made using striped fabric. You cut squares and quarter cut each square.

Then you sort pieces so all the horizontal stripes go in one block and the parallel stripes go in the other block. See a closeup below.

I tried doing it with a layer cake of striped fabrics.

It will make a pretty quilt but not net the same design - - -  because, before you cut the squares, you refold the width of fabric and match the repeat in the stripes.

The next day was our November Sisters of the Cloth Class:

We had two speakers at our November Sisters class. I was so happy to have my cousin Joy bring this quilt to show. It is an heirloom from her husband's side of the family. Labeled and dated for the mid 1800's, it is just in pristine shape and of excellent craftsmanship. She is considering a permanent home in a museum, for it, maybe at ISU.

Here is a better picture of the quilt plus Joy also brought her Periwinkle quilt to show. Another family heirloom, this one was not so well made. The background fabric was too heavy to hand quilt and was puckered (you know - seams with attitude). So, she took the whole quilt top apart, replaced the background fabric and trimmed up the colored pieces. Then she put it all back together again and hand quilted it. Really lovely.

Other members shared hand made items they are working on for holiday gift giving.

 

This is cool. Trish shared the quilt she made from the 9-patch block exchange we did in our 2015 series of Sisters of the Cloth. I really like what the clam shell machine quilting does to this square block pattern.

This year, instead of a block exchange, we exchanged packets of
3 1/2" squares each month to make a very scrappy selection of fabrics for these six-pointed stars.

This year, we also included a block pattern to follow our monthly program, "Pioneer Quilts, A Comfort through Hardship" by Judy Ann Johnson Breneman·       

Above is the runner I made with my 3 blocks. The center block features a verse and can be turned, of course, depending on how you plan to display it. I think it will be pretty laying across the pillows at the bed top.

After a break for refreshments, Helen Lewis from the Iowa Speaker's Bureau closed our program with an informative and inspiring reenactment of Jane Aadams and her work with the Chicago Hull House in the 1800s.

This has been another really fun series of classes with our Sisters of the Cloth, maybe my favorite so far. I think we are all looking forward to the 2017 series (3rd Saturdays in July, September and November).

Thank you to all who participated. I really cherish my Sisters of the Cloth!