Hosting quilt group in October is so fun for me - I love having my friends come to The Slaughterhouse...it gives me an excuse to decorate (like I need one!) I always plan to wear my witch's costume but trying to get lunch ready and the house spruced up leaves me with little time so once again I had to be costume-less. Stephanie is the only one who consistently shows up in costume each year - and I am always excited to see what she comes up with...this year Stephanie was a quilting elf - and she brought along her Christmas stocking that her mom made for her many years ago.
Now that's a real Christmas stocking folks! Hand knitted and personalized and it's just the right size and it can stretch to hold a bit larger size item or two (the stretch is key!) I'm telling you, this kind of stocking, which is so hard to come by, is authentic...I think I need to learn to knit! Stephanie is THE cutest elf!
This quilt top was made with scraps, cut into strips and as you can tell, it sews up really quickly. This top will be donated to Project Linus. Stephanie gave us some of her "ugly fabric" for us to cut into strips to donate to Project Linus. (Ugly fabric is not necessarily ugly, it's just fabric that is hard to use in most projects.) In the past, when we held sewing days for Project Linus, we spent a lot of time going through fabric, trying to decide what to do with it...by cutting strips and donating them, the group who gets together to sew can spend their time sewing instead of deciding. If you have fabric you aren't going to use, think about cutting it into strips, putting those strips into a Zip-lock style bag and donating to Project Linus - there are Project Linus chapters in every state!
Jenny was gifted these two vintage quilts and she decided to pass them on and Stephanie and I were the lucky recipients. I took the one on the right - I think I'll cut it up and make a tote bag or two out of it...or not...I'm really not sure yet because it needs a lot of help to even get it to that stage but ONE DAY I'll do something with it! Thanks Jenny! Stephanie is going to give her quilt to a friend - that will make her day for sure!
Jenny brought the three quilts that will be on display at the Block Party Quilt Show this coming weekend. The show runs from November 8th to the 10th and is at the Issaquah Community Center. If you go to the show, and I hope you do, please vote for one (or ALL!) of Jenny's quilts...they are all beautiful but I am partial to her State Flower Quilt which is just amazing in person!
Janet is peeking over the tops of her 2 batik quilts. The piecing on her quilts is just perfection...and there are SO many pieces! Janet is a humble quilter, always deflecting compliments about her work but I think you can see what an amazing quilter she truly is! Plus, TWO quilts at once! Unheard of in my world!
This is a pillow cover Janet brought back from her recent trip to Morocco. This style of embroidery/stitching is called Zemmouri and you can read more about it here. It's very beautiful and the stitching is done so the background stands out as much as the stitching. Janet said this type of work dates back to 800 BC. If you want to see more Zemmouri, there is an entire Pinterest page where you can see some amazing work - click here. Janet loves to travel - I love that she shares part of her adventure with us!
Kareena made this black and white quilt top - said it's not her favorite but of course we all loved it! I'm sure once it's quilted and bound it will be just as loved as all of her other quilts...or if not, I have just the spot for it in my house!
Last month Barbara showed us her witch hat quilt and so it was fun to see this one that Kareena made. Different fabrics make for an entirely different quilt, right? I think I'll be making one of these for myself as one can never have too many Halloween quilts. Feel free to quote me on that!
Terry had two of these Halloween panels and she gave one to Helen and one to me. Helen's panel quilt is finished, it's on the left. She bordered the panel with black and white stripped fabric so I copied her...which is the most sincerest form of flattery, right? My quilt isn't finished yet - and it will be smaller than Helen's as I trimmed the sides and took off one row at the bottom. I didn't have any solid black fabric on hand so I used what I did have. Thanks Helen, you spurred me on as I think I would have let that panel age for a year or two before I decided what to do with it! Thanks to Terry, too!
Denise showed us a darling table runner she made but I failed to get a picture of it. Luckily I did get this picture of her counted cross-stitch. It's pretty sweet! I'm hoping this is going to be Denise's Christmas gift for our gift exchange...would be lovely...I would love it ever so much...
Helen brought in an oldie but goodie for us to see - one of her Halloween quilts made with blocks that we made for her. I recognize my block, it's the embroidered Jack in the bottom row. I made about 10 of those that year - which I think Helen said was 2004? Maybe not, maybe I'm imagining that! It's so fun to see "old" quilts - those that we all have a bit of history with. As Helen was leaving last week we decided we need to do blocks for each other again this coming year...well, we didn't decide actually, just said it would be good...so in January the group will decide!
Sometimes I see a quilt and it kind of takes my breath away - this is one of those. I love everything about it. Maybe because it was late October, the peak of Autumn, it spoke to me in a different way or maybe it's because it's vibrant and colorful and yet warm and wonderful...or all of those things combined. Diane made this quilt - half-square triangles for the win!
Barbara made this bookshelf quilt. She brought it for Stephanie to use - I didn't get the story but I'm so glad Barbara brought it because I have not seen it before. It's so fun! I love the picture on the books and the plate of truffles...very cute pattern!
This sweet baby/bunny quilt was made by Kareena or Diane or Janet...I didn't write it down and I can't remember! It's made with really charmingly sweet fabric so some little child is going to be loving on this soon! Whoever made it - well done!
I'll sneak this one in to show you what I've been working on...at the time of our meeting I only had the center completed but now I've finished the border and after some social media "consultation" I decided to hand-quilt it...so now I need to live long enough to get it finished! Tick-tock! This is a Lori Holt pattern that I fell in love with many years ago and with the help of a kidney infection that flattened me, I was able to sit still long enough to get started on it and then I was bitten by the bug to get it finished!
I'll leave you with a picture of my table for our lunch - no skeletons with innards coming out as the centerpiece this year - no spiders in the soup - nothing really weird...should I worry about my sanity?!? Probably...but now that I think about it I did have worms in the salad so I'm good! Hope you had a great Halloween and are now speeding towards Christmas...with a pause on Thanksgiving. Amen.
