Clay Center Piotique Quilters Guild

It was a fantastic evening to have our meeting downtown. Beautiful weather and a great night to gather.

The museum had a very nice set-up for us to be at.

Carol started us off with her "trash to treasure" type theme. She had gotten this from a sister of Janet H.'s. Take 2 square pieces of cotton fabric and some cotton batting (or the batting that is meant for microwaves), sew across, make some darts, lay both right sides together and sew around leaving a turning space. Turn right side out and stitch along the top - made these darling bowls to heat up your soup or oatmeal in the microwave in and then have the "handles" to take out the hot - OR - when you have a bowl of ice cream - keeps your hands from freezing.

Bev then got us going with the roll call and Show 'n Tell:

Teresa E. brought in her baby blanket that she has just finished for one of the grandbabies - who is only turning 2. hahaha She stated that she is getting faster, last one turned 3 before they had theirs.

The back was as pretty as the front, with butterflies on it.

Jan went through her scraps and pulled out pieces to do this "mile a minute quilt" that Bonnie had demonstrated years ago.

The setting makes each block really stand out on it's own.

Leila took a drunkards path block and by twisting and turning just right, made this gorgeous 'circle' quilt.

Her back had posies on it and the label had yo-yo flowers.

Erlene showed us two of the blocks that make up the mystery quilt that she is working on. The green throw is one she got at a consignment shop that she could not get all the stains out of so she dyed it the lovely green you see and has it on her bed with the lovely quilt that Audrey P. taught her how to make.

Erlene showed us how Audrey had taught her how to pick out a color and then go to the next 'border' using that. Made a lovely quilt. And she even has pillow cases for it. Darker one is for Robert of course.

Marilyn has finished another UFO. She had hoped one fabric was going to stand out and be the focal, but it was not coming out like she had hoped - so off to the closet it went. Finally decided that she needed to get it out and finish it. Marilyn - it looks great and what a perfect time with all the greens in this for St. Patty's day.

Bev had her hands full - with the roll call, helping to hold up the quilts and then reading the minutes. Good job on all Bev.

Frances B. showed us her idea on the charity quilt and had kits for anyone that was interested in helping. The bags consisted of 5 dark colors and 4 light colors. She asked that they be sewn with a 1/4" seam with the darkest purple in the middle and the other 4 on the corners. The lighter 4 fabrics in the centers on the outside as shown in her hands. Jan held up what the block is to look like when you turn it back in to Frances. You cut twice, half way - once across and once up and down - to get 4 sections. Turn two opposite sections so that the middle dark fabric is outside. You can find a tutorial here . There are many ways to put the block back together, but please do as shown here. If you have any difficulties or questions, please give Frances a call.

Sara is chairing the 2015 Guild Challenge and everyone was to bring in one yard of fabric that met the criteria of "What was I thinking?". Sara brought in extra's so that she would have "kits" for those that could not make it. Even ladies that were not going to do the challenge this year got in on the fun of setting it up. We all got in a circle.........

while Sara read a story - when we heard the words "LEFT" or "RIGHT" in the story, we were to pass the fabric accordingly. Then at stated times we were to cut and rip in half the fabric we had at that time. Kept one half and then back to passing only a half yard, etc. etc. until each bag kit contained 4 pieces of fabric, 1/2 yard of one, 1/4 yard of another, and 2 - 1/8 yards of 2 different fabrics.

As you can see - this was a blast. Course we now know that we all need to learn our left from our right and to listen carefully. Instructions were passed out - click here - to read. If you were unable to attend, Sara will bringing the extra challenge bags to next months meeting. The finished Challenge item is to be delivered to Sara the week before the Oct. 19th meeting.

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Vevia introduced our speaker for the evening.

Diane the main speaker, and

Jeff on the electronics.

Kathy sat in back and added additional information at times.

The slide show was very informative and helped us understand the size of the job.

There were quite a few concerns as to how the caring for the quilts could/should be handled and Diane covered the whys and ways of each step.

In front was a piece of equipment that many remembered held clothes at Pamida (shown top left). These are now being transformed into racks that hold the quilts as shown in the bottom portion of the picture above

One of the first quilts donated to the museum back in 1975 was the one shown here. It had been left at the dump, picked up and used for many years, then stored between a mattress and springs and then finally brought into the museum. Documentation, pictures and the quilt will be able to be seen when the new home for the museum is finished. Sizes, fabrics, names, stories - all have been captured by the ladies that have given their time to this project.

Judy C., Lynn S., Charlotte K., Lorraine H., Leila K., Bev R., Martha W., Pat T., Tracy H., Erlene S., and Vevia.

This is their 3rd year of volunteering with almost 280 hours and 34 quilts accomplished to date.

Jeff has taken the pictures that were shown in the slides and these will all be made available at the museum for viewing when the project is finished.

This quilt (called by the museum the 'Civil War Quilt'), has over 263 names of solders, their ranks and where they served during the Civil War.

The fun part is reading all the names and trying to figure out who they are related to here in our area.

Diane stated that "Quarrels" of the past lead to some very interesting stories for us today.

Take this lovely quilt that two daughters decided should be cut in half as neither wanted to give in to the other.

Finally the two parts of this quilt are back "together" at least in the storing of.

This is a picture of a quilt top that Diane had done all the processes of. It is a strip quilt that was put on 1930 magazine paper. Very interesting to see all of the advertisers and such.

Remember, you can click on a picture to get a larger version to see.

There are only a few large quilts left to do. Then there are tops, comforters, baby blankets, etc. The committee would appreciate any help or volunteers it can get. Give Vevia or one of the other members a call and find out about joining in on the fun.