Sunday, May 26, 2013

No meeting Memorial Day

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Saturday was just gorgeous here in Southwest Virginia, where I am visiting my family and doing lots of qulting! Today isa bit overcast, but that's pkay--we don't need sunshine to quilt.

I just wanted to remind everyone that we are not meeting this week since many people were going to be out of town or had other plans. Meetings will resume at normal time next week.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Coming right along

We had another great meeting this week, with lots of laughter and plenty of quilting.

Our charity project is in full swing, with Norma and Penny spending the meeting pre-sorting squares for those members who want to sew blocks in bulk. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of all those beautiful stacks of squares!

We do have a Facebook Group now, so for those who use Facebook, be sure to join us. (Search for Queen Bee Quilting Club and request to join us if the link didn't work for you).

Finally, tonight is the award ceremony for the Joshua's Hands Valiant Warrior Quilting project, which was selected as the Charity Project of the Year by Volunteer Loudoun. While our club is not officially connected with Joshua's Hands, it is one of our favorite charities to support, thanks to kindness of Joyce Guthrie, the founder of Joshua's Hands, in allowing us to use her property for our meetings.

Thanks to everyone who makes this club such a joy! Monday's are now my favorite day of the week!

May your bobbin always be full, and your quarter inch always be scant...

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Another great meeting

We had another great meeting earlier this week. Not quite as many people as we've had at some of our meetings so far, but still a nice crowd. And of course, we were all just as talkative as usual.

Nothing too exciting to report, but at our next meeting we plan to vote for our first group "bee" activity. If you'd like to pitch in your ideas about our quarterly group activity, please make sure to try and come on April 8th. Or if you aren't available, please email us your suggestions for activities.

Now here are a few pics from show and tell for this week:
Joyce finished the twirly scarf she started at our very first meeting!

Lisa finished this gorgeous quilt top for Loudoun Hospital
as part of the Station Stitchers charity quilting group.

Another gorgeous finish by Lisa!

Norma made this gorgeous Churn Dash.

Sandra finished this beautiful patriotic quilt.
You can't see from this pic, but the words to the
Pledge of Allegiance are embroidered in the white strips!

Another beautiful project from Sandra.
It's hard to tell from the picture, but this is actually a "puff" quilt.
She plans to add some "Minky" to the back for a wonderfully soft finish.
That's all folks!

May your bobbin always be full, and your quarter inch always be scant...

Monday, April 1, 2013

Happy April

Happy April everyone! I have never really liked April Fool's Day--first I was never very fond of practical jokes, and second I don't really like the name. But, on a gloriously beautiful April 1st like this one, I can't help but be excited to welcome April in. So, Happy April Fool's Day!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed holiday week and got to spend some time with their friends and loved ones. I wasn't able to visit my family, but I actually had a great week anyway, and thanks to the modern conveniences of easy and free long distance, I got to spend lots of time talking to my family this week--it was almost like I was there celebrating Easter with them. :-)

For those who may check the blog to see if we are meeting, tonight's meeting is on as usual. I hope you can make it. And if you have any old 45mm rotary blades you'd like to try sharpening, please bring those as well. I bought a Dritz/Omnigrid sharpener and figure it can't hurt to try. What's the worst that can happen? We end up throwing away the blades that were destined for the trash anyway?

I'd like to share a few pics from last week with you. We had several ladies bring quilts they have been working on, some of which are just about finished. Enjoy these lovely show & tell quilts!
Suzanne has been working on this quilt for a long time. She did free motion quilting on it last week.
Her first time trying "pebbles" and she did an AWESOME job!

This was Trish's first meeting with us, and she brought a nearly completed Disappearing 9-patch quilt.
She was just finishing up hand-sewing down the binding at this meeting.
 
Ann found this vintage beauty at a flea market years ago, and pulls it out
whenever she needs a break from other projects, or just wants to do some hand quilting.

This is Toast. He is upset that he doesn't have a show & tell for you this week, because
I have not done any quilting at home where he can help. But he wanted me to let you know that he
often "helps" me on quilting projects and hopes I'll bring some home for him to work on soon. ;-)

Monday, March 25, 2013

Tonight's meeting, cancelled due to...

...betcha thought I was going to say "snow", didn't ya? But nope, we can handle a bit of snow. The bigger problem for tonight is mud. That's M.U.D. As many of you know, the small activities "barn" where we meet is on a farm. I mean, this is a nice barn, hardwood floors, plumbing, heat, etc. But still, you have to drive on a gravel/dirt road to get there, and there is not any asphalt around. And thanks to the aforementioned snow, you can't really see where the gravel ends and the grass begins. So, to keep us ladies from potentially getting stuck in the mud when we try to park, we decided we'd better just call it off.

That said, I will be there during the day, teaching Joyce the secrets of free motion quilting, so if you feel brave enough to risk getting stuck in the mud, you're welcome to come on out and hang with us. But we'll probably wrap it up by around 5:30 or 6:00--if we are going to get stuck, I want it to be early enough that I have time to get unstuck before dark!

So, see you all next week. Hopefully April showers won't keep us away from the important things...QUILTING!

Wishing you a wonderful and blessed Easter with your loved ones,

Queen Bee Quilting Club


May your bobbin always be full, and your quarter inch always be scant...


Monday, March 18, 2013

Come rain, come snow...

I woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow in Western Loudoun County. But to show that quilting waits for no woman, we are planning to proceed with our regularly scheduled meeting today, Monday March 18th. 

As a reminder, we'll follow the closure schedule for Loudoun County, so if school is canceled (or evening activities called off), we'll cancel that week's meeting. Otherwise, we're on as planned.

Pics of our first meeting

You all know that quilters are sharers--hey sharing is caring, and who cares more than a quilter, who spends hours making a gift of love?--so it should come as no surprise that one of our quilty gals was nice enough to take pics from our first meeting. Thanks Joyce!
See the pile of quilts in the background?
Those are charity quilts for wounded warriors made by Joshua's Hands.

Our token knitter was kind enough to share her skills.
See? We're an all inclusive group--even if you don't quilt, we'll still love you!

Handwork and machine work are both equally welcome!

Another fabulous pic of the finished quilts.
Oh, and a lovely shot of one of our quilters. :-)

Here we have someone finishing up their very first free-motion quilted (FMQ) project.
Any guesses as to what she's making?

Our token knitter has moved on to her own projects now.
Which come to think of it, may be a crochet project. But token crocheter didn't have the same ring...

Another view of our handquilters. Can't wait to see what they're making!