July Meeting - Red, White, & Blue

After business it was Show & Tell by Michaela, Rita, Debbie, Ruth Ann, Christine, Barb, Maria, and Kathleen.

Michaela finished the quilt of raffle blocks she won last month.
Strawberries of many varieties were featured,
including a chocolate dipped one!

A butterfly quilt that's nearly ready for a granddaughter.
Little did Rita know at the time that a new grandchild's
early arrival would delay the finish!
Congrats, Grandma!

 

Debbie brought two beautiful old quilts that she was given..... 

keeping them in the family :)

 

Ruth Ann's quilt is almost ready to be gifted.

 

  

Christine wasn't so fond of her quilted runner but we all loved it.

It's the hundred dollar runner with a story.

 

Everyone knows if you bring a purse or bag to show and tell 

you must model it.  Work it, Barb.

Maria's patriotic pillow

Kathleen's "finally figured out what to do with the stripes" quilt


Next up:
Red, white, and blue with a story.

When Cari's kids were little, quilter's would gather each month at Cari's house. For Cari's birthday the quilters each took a month or holiday and made a little themed quilt for her.
 

This was Barb's "make it work" log cabin with kitties project.

 Louise and Kathy display the QOV challenge quilt that we presented to Mr John Johnson, a veteran of the US Air Force.  Kathy attended his funeral in late June and prior to his death he asked her to give his quilt to his daughter.

 FUN & GAMES!

We brought charm squares that were any variation of red, white, and blue.

Cari brought special dice.

We rolled the dice and traded squares.  Hilarity ensued at times as we tried to figure out who we were trading with & where we were grabbing squares from. 

A few of us changed the rules a little (don't tell!) for added fun.

 

I'm pretty sure a few of us went home with enough 5" squares 

to get a good start on a quilt for Sage Cancer Center.  

Hurry!  They are due in October!

 Next meeting:  Shibori by Marge Schnieder

Photo credit:  Margie Paffrath
Thanks, Margie!

June Party!

Our celebration of the founding of Country Quilters of McHenry was held a few months early this year so we could spread our parties out a little.  The Black and White themed party organized by Jan and Karen was fun!  Many of  us sported Black and White attire. 

Pretty, delicate teacups and saucers with fresh Peony flowers decorated the tables.  Were you lucky enough to win one to bring home?  I was.  It sat on my bedside table looking fresh and pretty for nearly a week.

Check out all the blocks (so many!) for the Black & White block swap... 

Look closely at the two blocks at the bottom of the picture.  Some of us (I was one!) just can't seem to get things right!  Blocks were to be 9". One was 6" and one was 12".  Michaela won the blocks and I'm sure she'll figure out a way to handle the odd sized blocks.  We were just trying to provide her with a challenge ;)  I'm sure she's up to it!

The ladies used a couple of games to test our knowledge of quilt block names.  Back to school, y'all!  We failed miserably but it was fun to look at all the blocks and hear the names.  If you want to explore a little, Block Crazy has a list of over 500 quilt block names with links to pictures for some of them.  Or hang out for a while at Barbara Brackman's blog. Barbara is the author of the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.  Thanks to a donation by our guild, the McHenry Public Library has a copy of the book that you can borrow.

We enjoyed a little silliness with a cookie on the forehead game.  You had to get the cookie from your forehead to your mouth with NO HANDS.  Jackie Voltz mastered the move!  And there were calls for an encore because she was so fast some people missed seeing it! 

And of course there was food - always a favorite part of our parties, right!? - and conversation and laughs.

And....

• Cari won the I spy squares - 200 hundred of them.  Can't wait to see what she makes. 
• Did you buy a raffle ticket for the Gazebo Quilters quilt?  Good luck to you (and me)!

Have a safe 4th! See y'all at the July meeting!