We had an awesome fun class yesterday with the Friendship Square Quilters in La Habra/Fullerton, California!
It was a reunion of sorts –I was here a couple of years ago, and so nice to see several of them again, and really nice to see new faces who came from distant places to join in on our Star Struck Day too!
Yeah, we are cutting it up here, can’t you tell these girls are trouble? LOL!
Everyone was turning out such great blocks!
I think those with the biggest frustration were those sewing from Jelly Rolls or Pre-Cuts. They are just NOT accurate on any account. Not only do the pinked edges throw off the measurement, but there are inconsistent, and not even straight, some strips had curves to them. I am so not a Jelly Roll fan for this reason…what a pain to have to trim each one, or compensate for inaccuracies by changing the seam allowance. Sometimes, there are just no good “short cuts” with a pre-cut. But we persevered!
Blue sky, puffy clouds, and PALM TREES!!
We were even honored to have a couple of roosters in our hen-house! Meet Don and Bill:
Bill on the left, Don on the right with the Real Men Quilt shirt!
Not only do these two dudes quilt, but their wives do also. Don runs a quilting ministry through his church, and he met Bill when Bill came in while convalescing from a near fatal motorcycle accident and wanted to learn to quilt himself, after being the recipient of a gifted quilt during his recovery.
Having never sat at a sewing machine before, it only took about 5 minutes to hook Bill completely ---A sewing machine “IS” a power tool, isn’t it?
Having never sat at a sewing machine before, it only took about 5 minutes to hook Bill completely ---A sewing machine “IS” a power tool, isn’t it?
They brought in a couple of show & shares from their quilt ministry quilts for our lunch time sharing:
Diamond in a Square strings!
Dancing Crumbs!
Don told me that they had a crumb piecing workshop teaching other “not so experienced” sewists to make crumb blocks which were then trimmed to size ---he used the setting from my Dancing 9 Patch pattern to set the blocks in this fun layout – isn’t it a great one? I love the black and will have to remember to try this too with things other than just nine patches! You can find the pattern for laying out whichever blocks YOU want by clicking the Dancing 9-Patch link under the Free Patterns tab.
It was great meeting these hard working quilt dudes, and fun to imagine the great time they have, both men and their wives quilt retreating together ---four machines humming and everyone sewing up a storm for a long weekend. I’ll be seeing these guys this fall when I come back to Poway. Looking forward to seeing what they’ve been up to!
Of course there are more photos to share from our day yesterday. Click the image below if you are unable to view the slideshow on your mobile device. You’ll be taken to the photo album for viewing.
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| Star Struck, La Habra, CA 2014 |
This morning I'm in Downy presenting a lecture to the Los Angeles County Quilt Guild -- another fun day ahead!
23 comments:
Love the slide show, as usual great quilts.
Love, love your new hairdo. You look so cute!
Just have to say that I love your shorter hair cut!
How frustrating for those students using Jelly rolls and other Pre cuts. I have never bought either and now probably won't in the future. Lovely Show and Tell quilts - how great to have some men in your class. The hair cut is looking great, hope you are finding it easy to manage.
Your new hair style is very, very becoming. A girl needs to switch it up once and a while and you hit a home run with this one, just in time to be a true California girl.
Loved the profile on the guys and their awesome charity work. My hubby rides a motorcycle. He has a great eye for color and for old sewing machines that need love. Wish I could get him to try quilting.
Those roosters are really crowing with their quilting. I hope you're enjoying your new do, cause we all love it! Thanks for taking us along on this trip.
I watched your taping with Alex and Ricky and enjoyed every minute of it. You are much more polished in your tv presence than they are.
Nice story about the guys! Love that their wives quilt as well. And somewhere along the line I must have missed a post about you getting a new hairstyle! I like it. It really brightens your face :)
I love to see men quilting almost as much as I love to see them in soapy dish water! I love the string diamonds and think I know what I am going to do with those blocks I have been mindlessly making. Who would have thought od using crumbs for the dancing nine patch. Don and Bill are true gifts to our craft. Is there any information on Don's ministry?69343252 35
Thanks for sharing Don and Bill's story and quilts. I have a son that just might end up a quilter - keeping my fingers crossed.
I always though it would be great to work with precuts. Quilts would be finished faster. However, you are so right about the sizes not matching up. I was using Moda white and Wrens & Friends, both charm packs. The whites definitely were larger, and the fluff from the pinked edges got into my throat. Not a good experience. Won't be buying them again, that's for sure. BTW, your new haircut is awesome.
I also love the star struck blocks. I have some of the rectangle pieces from a Bonnie NYE Mystery quilt that I put the triangle going the wrong direction. I could do this and they'd just be spinning the opposite direction.
The crumbs sashed with black remind me of stained glass windows. Pretty!
I also had trouble with precut strips. I then got an excellent tip on Quiltville Open Studio, you can read the trick here: http://www.bearpawproductions.com/userfiles/file/Strip%20Width%20May%20Vary.pdf
It doesn't work with specialty rulers, but it's excellent for patterns like Strip Twist, where you're sewing long strips together. After joining pairs of strips, you can switch back to 1/4 inch seam allowances.
LOL - had to delete too many typos to read!
Bonnie your hair looks so very good on you with this new cut! Hope you like it also.
Folks quilting with you are just having too darn much fun !!!! As always, right!
Smiles, JulieinTN
Ditto on all the hair do comments!
Is there a way you could share about the quilt ministry- do they have a website or public information?
Wish I was a mouse in the corner :) Love the new hair.
The quilt guys are great. Bonnie, I love your hair. Funny how much darker it looks.
Love the quilts the guys brought to show. Just beautiful! Love your new hair length, too.
I almost didn't recognize you in the picture with your cute new hair cut! Had to do a double take! :)
Love that Diamond In a Square quilt.
Another one to add to my list to make. I had better live a long time since my list keeps growing and I suffer from Bonnieitis.
Great quilts the guys show there. I do like pre cuts sometimes. But the bali pops, they have no pinked edges and so far I have been lucky not too much curves on the strip.
How cool to see other men enjoying the art of quilting! It truly is therapeutic! So nice to see so many patriotic variations of Star Struck as well!
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