April Show and Tell

 Thanks for coming to our meeting last night!  We had such a nice group.  Some of our long time members came back to visit, and we got to meet some new friends.

Here we are at last night's meeting, just visiting a little before things get started.
We always have the most amazing show and tell, and last night was no exception.

We started off with some of the charity quilt tops that were worked on last week at a work day.  I didn't get everything photographed (just not fast enough!) and the pictures don't do them justice, but here are two of them anyway.  Above is a bright quilt made from 2 in. wide strips left over from other projects.

This quilt was made from Nancy's pattern Crazy Eights, with a beige background.  There were several others, and even more in the works that are not yet finished.

Look what we've been making!  This is such a talented, productive group!

Wasn't this terrific?
And if that wasn't enough, Ann M. brought her newest in project.

She is reproducing, in quilt form, a book about a giraffe who couldn't dance.  The details are perfect, right down to a bug on a leaf.  All the work is done on her sewing machine.  Ann has permission from the illustrator, and is making the quilt for her grandson.  She did a similar project with a different book for her other grandson.  We got to see several "pages" in progress.  This will be an absolutely stunning quilt.
This was a lovely evening--visiting with friends, delicious refreshments (as always!), and the inspiration that comes from sharing our quilts with others.
See you at our next meeting, on May 18th!

Friendship Star

There are many occasions when we share our friendship with each other.  Most of these are happy times.  Our friendship is most important, however, when our friends really need us.
Sometimes we just need to show that we care.  We can't take away the pain a friend is feeling, but we can let them know that we are thinking of them and praying for them. 
Making a quilt is a small thing we can do.  It takes small scraps of fabric and time. But when we put our blocks together, we can wrap our friend in warmth and love.

Today we're making Friendship Star blocks that finish 6 in. square.  Our colors are blue and white.  Choose whatever blues and whites you like.

To make one block, you will need:
1    2.5 in. square in blue
4    2.5 in. white squares
4    half square triangles that measure 2.5 in unfinished (2 in. finished).

To make the half square triangles:

Cut 2 squares of white fabric 2 7/8 in. square
Cut 2 squares of blue fabric 2 7/8 in. square.

Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the white squares. 

Place each white square right sides together with a blue squares, and sew 1/4 in. on either side of the drawn line.  Cut on the diagonal line.  Each pair will make 2 half square triangles, for a total of 4.

You could also use the Easy Angle ruler to make the half square triangles, or any other method that works for you.

Once you have the half square triangles made, assemble the block like this.  The hardest thing for me is always placing the triangles correctly.

Here are two of them, ready to go.  I used a different fabric for the centers than I used for the half square triangles, but you could use the same fabric.  One of the best things about a scrap quilt, in my opinion, is the variety of fabrics used.

We are collecting these blocks at our next meeting, on Wednesday, April 20. 

Thank you for participating.