Our March meeting was well attended, informative and fun.

 We were happy to have some of the members of the Canyon Country quilt guild join us. They added a lot to the meeting.

Ilene announced that we have been invited by the Tropic Quilt Guild to do a trunk show at their April meeting. Please let her know if you have quilts that you would like to show.

A reminder that April 12th is the machine quilting class taught by Helen Butler. This will be an outstanding class and we are very fortunate to have Helen come from Alpine to share her knowledge with us.

We had a good time learning the answer to our question of the month hearing where our members were and what they were doing in 1972. We sure are getting to know each other in a fun way.

Nayna did our blocks of the month which are Flies in the Barn, Gentleman's Fancy and Hayes' Corner.

Everyone that made blocks last month did a great job. What a variety of colors we are seeing.

We had a great show and tell and as usual had a display of beautiful quilts and a few other items. Margaret showed a jacket that she made using a Laurel Birch panel. 

Margaret also showed her beautiful bargello wall hanging. Lots of oohs and ahhs.

She showed a cute quilted portfolio cover. Hopefully, we will make these in one of our meetings.

Micky showed a card trick block that she made using fabric given to her by Judy. It is very pretty and bright.

Alana showed two gorgeous quilts that she started awhile ago and finished up. As usual her work is amazing. She also showed darling little dolls quilts that she made for her great-granddaughters. Lucky girls.

 Mariel showed two bargello tablerunners. They are both beautiful. She said that she is through with bargello but we all sure hope not.

 Pam showed a block that she made in high school and another that she is making from a panel. She asked for advice in choosing sashing fabric to make the blocks work together. Everyone agreed that she did a perfect job with the fabric that she is using and we are anxious to see the finished product.

Next, Marla showed three quilts that she has finished up and we were pretty much speachless. Each one is just beautiful and her work is incredible.

 Cheri showed her gorgeous quilt. She surprised us by showing that she does indeed quilt. She also makes very unique bags and koi fish. The colors in this quilt are stunning.

 Peggy made this very feminine quilt for her 8 year old granddaughter. She will love it. Look how cute the back looks.

Sue made this cute little baby quilt for a friend's baby. She used baby fabric for the back and told her friend that she could use it as a wall hanging when baby is finished with it because the front is not as baby like. Very good idea.

 She also made this sweet baby quilt using blocks that were meant to be made into a book. The blocks became a darling quilt.

 Lynda showed the front and back of a very pretty quilt pattern that she taught to a group of ladies. They were thrilled to see that they really can quilt. Good job Lynda.

Kathy showed this quilt called Fractured flowers. She said that she named it Albatross around my neck. Finally finished!

Joan showed this beautiful little quilt that she started awhile ago. She really did a good job with it and it is beautiful.

 For our TIPS TRICKS and TOOLS segment, Alana taught us how to keep track of the many little pieces of a quilt or project or multiple projects by stacking the pieces on a paper plate and then layering the plates. Doing that keeps things in order and organized. She said that she learned this from Nanelle and has been doing it for awhile and then saw the tip on a Fons and Porter show in TV. She is ahead of the game. She also showed that if you match up the stretchy sides of two blocks and the non-stretchy sides they will fit together perfectly everytime. That will eliminate the frustration of cutting two blocks perfectly and then finding that the sides don't match when it's time to sew them together. Brilliant! Thanks Alana.

Our next tip was from Marla who showed the many products available to us to make labels for our quilts.
We can print them on purchased fabric paper or we can treat our own fabric with a product that sets the ink. We can also just write on the back of our finished quilt. Whatever we do we need to make sure and LABEL our quilts. Marla said that we have no excuse we just need to do it. Thanks Marla.

We  were then treated to a lesson taught by Margaret on using photos in our quilts. She showed us how we can manipulate our photos with programs like Adobe Lightroom. She showed ways to crop and change the contrast on our photos to print on fabric. She also explained how you can posterize your photo which defines lines and shapes and makes the picture very interesting. She also showed how you can layer photos for a very different effect. She suggested that we look at these sites for more information and examples: http://www.spoonflower.com and  www.inked-cloth.com. Thank you Margaret for a very informative lesson that we will put to good use.

 We ended the meeting with a delicious lunch. Thanks Ilene, Pam, Nayna, Vickie and Kathy for providing the lunch.