QUESTION OF THE MONTH FOR OCTOBER

Our question of the month for October is:
How many sewing machines do you have and what brand is your favorite?

STUFFED ANIMAL AND QUILT SERVICE PROJECT

In September we talked about our service project. I mentioned that Margaret told me that her quilt guild in Anchorage did a Teddy Bear Tea once a year. They make small quilts to match the size of a new stuffed animal. They have a fun party and see all the cute animals and completed quilts. Then they donate the animals and quilts to worthy groups that help children in need. I thought it would be fun for you to see pictures from their party and see all the darling stuffed animals and quilts. 
I think this will be a worthwhile service for our guild and there will be children that love these little quilts and animals.

Click on the following link to see the Anchorage Log Cabin Quilters Teddy Bear Tea.

TEDDY BEAR TEA

Great idea for quilting a large quilt on your home sewing machine

I found a link to a site that has a very interesting idea for a way to quilt your large quilt on your home machine. This idea makes a lot of sense and sounds like it would make quilting a bigger quilt easier.

 Click on the following link to see the tutorial. I hope it is helpful. 

Quilting large quilts on your home sewing machine

HAPPY NATIONAL SEWING MACHINE DAY!!

This important holiday is celebrated on two days...June 13th and Sept. 10th. It is that important. Here are some facts about the sewing machine:

 This day honors the invention of the sewing machine.  It is hard to imagine having to sew things together by hand….. stitch by stitch.
Skilled cabinet-maker and English inventor, Thomas Saint, received the first patent for a design of a sewing machine in 1790.  It was meant for leather and canvas, was never advertised and no evidence of it, other than his drawings, could be found.   In 1874, William Newton Wilson found Saint’s drawings in the London Patent Office, made adjustments and built a working model.  This model is currently owned by the London Science Museum.

• Walter Hunt invented the first American lockstitch sewing machine in 1832.
• John Greenough patented the first sewing machine in the United States in 1842.
• Industrial use of the sewing machine reduced the burden that was placed upon housewives, moving clothing production from them and seamstresses to large-scale factories. 
•  This also resulted in a decrease in production time which caused the price of clothing to drop considerably.Today, many people are again becoming interested in the art of sewing and making their own clothing.  Crafts fairs and flea markets are filled with booths full of beautiful sewing machine-made clothes along with  numerous other sewing machine-made items.

Quilters across America are known as sewing machine experts!

This would be a good day to clean and oil that trusty sewing machine of yours. A good way to show it a little appreciation.

Pam's process for making T-Shirt quilts:

This t-shirt tutorial is from the Missouri Star Quilt Company and shows the process that Pam uses for her t-shirt quilts. It is a good thorough tutorial and I hope you enjoy it and also that everyone will want to make a beautiful quilt from those t-shirts.
Click on the link for the tutorial:

T-Shirt Tutorial

September Quilt Guild Meeting

We had lots of fun at our September meeting and learned some very useful things. 
Our alphabet blocks for this month are S, T, and U. Ellie choose Shoofly and Tulip Lady Fingers and Vickie choose Union Squares. They are very pretty blocks and we will soon be at the end of the alphabet with beautiful quilts.

 Micky was very excited to show her bright fun quilt made from a jelly roll. She was able to make two of these quilts from one jelly roll.

 She also showed some darling pillowcases that she made as a thank you gift. All are very colorful and cute.

Ilene showed the raffle quilt that she won. It was made by the guild and donated as a fund raiser for the local skate park.

 She also made this cute baby quilt from a panel.

Lynda shared this quilt that is a prototype of the project that she is teaching to the 4-H kids. Very worthy cause and we appreciated learning about it.

The quilt will be for tramatized children and will include a bags with small gifts. 

 Lynda also made this beautiful trip around the world quilt.

Nayna showed her completed panel project. She received this panel as a gift from her sister who purchased it in China.

 She also showed this applique quilt and we all loved it.

Pam showed two of the many T-shirts quilts that she has made for her grandchildren when they graduate from high school. She told us the procedure for making t-shirt quilts and how she uses light weight fusible pellon to stabalize the t-shirts, then cuts them into blocks and puts them together in a variaty of ways.

She said that her grandchildren just love them.

Sue Jones then showed us a very easy way to make hexagons from a circle of fabric. She showed how to fold the circle to find the center, then take a small stitch in the center and bring each side down to the center and tack it down. You will end up with a perfect hexagon that just takes minutes. Great job Sue.

 Everyone gave it a try and were very pleased to see how easy and fun these hexagons are.

Last but certainly not least we talked about our service project. We will be buying small stuffed animals and making quilts that are size appropiate to the animal. We will donate these animals and quilts to a hospital or organization that can distribute them to children when needed.