WISQ – September ‘08

Shirley, the prize winner

Okay. Now that I finally posted our August meeting, I’m allowing myself to move on to the September meeting. Mary was our hostess this month. Again, there was lots of fun, both quilting and otherwise. There were jokes, OPN (old people news from Mary Beth), and a read-aloud from Cathy ( a retired Kindergarten teacher). We always enjoy when Cathy reads out loud to us, but this time was even more special since she wrote what she read. This wasn’t just her usual great writing, this was her get-paid-for great writing. She’s going to get published in a magazine. Isn’t that awesome? We’re proud of you Cathy.

We laughed a lot, which is one of the many great reasons I love belonging to this group. I ALWAYS say I get my monthly supply of endorphins. I’m not sure that’s absolutely true. I’ll have to do some research on that one of these days. In any case, it sure makes me feel good.

We had some fabulous show and tell.

Karen - Glad Mystery Winner

There were several quilts. Karen showed us her Glad Mystery Winner’s Circle, quilted and bound. It’s beautiful. Diane had a really nice seasonal quilt and a red, white and blue beauty. Claudia had a yellow scrappy brick quilt, that everyone oohed and aahed over. More to come on that one later. Shirley brought the cutest cat quote quilt. (Try saying that three times fast.)

Claudia - Scrappy Quilt

It was also a big night for runners, one of my personal favorites. Take a look at a one of the many great ones that Karen brought. The tulip beauty belonged to Claudia.

Karen

Claudia

Bags, bags, bags! Are you salivating Adele? Adele is our official bag lady. She brought a couple of them. It seemed the blue and brown one was a hit. It’s gorgeous. Cindy made another of our favorites from This and That Designs. Karen made a neat one from textured batik fabric. But, I think Diane won the prize for biggest bag that night.

Our Guest - Diane

We were happy to have Diane as our guest this month.

Mary served a dessert everyone raved about. She shared the recipe with us.

Spicy Apple Bundt Cake

1 spice cake mix 1 can apple pie filling
2/3 c sour cream 2 eggs
4 T butter 1/3 c brown sugar

Oil bundt cake pan. Melt butter and stir in brown sugar ( optional 2/3 c chopped pecans).
Mix cake mix, pie filling, sour cream and eggs until well blended. Pour into pan. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Let cool in pan for five minutes, then turn onto a cooling rack. **Watch that 5 minutes very carefully. Otherwise the top of the cake will remain in the pan

Thanks, Mary, for a great evening.

Wordle

Here’s a fun thing. There’s a site where you can type in the url for your blog. or other document, and the words used in it are formed into an image. The more often the words are used, the bigger they are. Here’s what mine looks like.

Image by Wordle

Check out their website.

WISQ Meeting – August ‘08

With back to school happening, I neglected to post about our August meeting. Since we recently had our September meeting, I promised myself to share this one first:

We shuffled out to Buffalo in August for our WISQ meeting at Cathy’s house. It’s always refreshing for me to step out of the car and be “in the country” when I arrive. As always, we had a great night of chatting, laughter, and show and tell (of course). We also had two guests this month, Lynn and Georgia. Thanks for coming.

Since we had a tremendous amount of amazing show and tell, I’m only going to post a few highlights.

Karen - Carolina Crossroads from Quiltville

Karen's Jacob's Ladder Quilt - Warm and Loved Fabric

Karen's Banner Quilt

Karen's Quilt - fabric Cherrywood Hand Dyes

Karen's Hardest Quilt Ever - Jinny Byer Moonglow

Georgia's Star Quilt in progress

Close Up

Georgia's Hand Dyed Quilt

Lynn's Five Yard Quilt

Cathy's Fish Quilt

Shirley's Star Quilt

Cindy and Sue's Matching Bags

Cathy's Signature Quilt

Our Guests - Lynn and Georgia

Thanks, Cathy, for being the hostess with the mostest.

Sadness in the Quilting World

Helen Kelley, a well-known figure in the quilting world, died on September 1 at the age of 81. She was a Minneapolis resident. She is probably most well known for her column in Quilters Newsletter magazine. You can read one of her columns on their website. Scroll down and look for Loose Threads. She also wrote several books. One was Joy of Quilting and another Every Quilt Tells a Story. Here is her obituary. On Helen’s blog there is also a note from her family and a guest book if you would like to leave a message. She will be missed.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I’ve always been a fan of Eric Carle and especially love his book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. When I taught younger children I used to read it to them and do lots of fun activities with it. The caterpillar eats his way through a week’s worth of brightly painted food which leaves a hole behind in each one. The repetition is wonderful, but the illustrations are delightful. So when I saw Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric at the Lake City quilt shop, I couldn’t resist. I didn’t even try to resist. I bought a panel with large pictures of the leaf, caterpillar and butterfly. I also got some food borders. Then added two other fabrics to play around with. Maybe I’ll use them in the corners. The backing is covered with the familiar dots from the book. My friend Mary loaned me two magazines with patterns using this line. Now I just have to find the time to make the quilt. Let’s see, on Monday I can plan the quilt, on Tuesday I can cut the quilt . . . . . .