December 6, 2018 Meeting

We had a lot of lovely Show & Tell at today's meeting, so be sure and click on the 2018 Show & Tell tab above to check it out.

Jeanne headed up the Potholder Swap today and I took photos of the potholders, which are posted under Fun Times tab above, so take a peek there too.

Holly is off somewhere having fun (I hope).

We said goodbye to our wonderful leaders Benee & Irene (although they will be our program directors for 2019) and said hello to our new leader for next year, Evonne. Thank you all ladies!

Here's wishing you all a joyous Holiday Season with your loved ones! See you all next year, in (gulp) 2019!

Selvage Class March 7, 2019

Selvage Class

March 7, 2019

Sign-ups for the Selvage class, being taught by Daryl, started at the November 1^st meeting and will continue at the December, January & February meetings. The last day to sign-up is February 21, 2019. Cost of the class, including a kit with everything you need to make both a mug rug and a small basket (except for thread) is $15. You must pay no later than February 21^st if you want to attend the class so that Daryl has time to put the kits together. You will receive your kit the day of the class. There will be no extra kits made, so please sign up and pay if you want to attend. An email will be sent out in late February to those who have signed up for the class with a basic supply list of things needed for the class, such as your sewing machine, ruler, mat, and more so you don’t forget to bring those important items with you to class.

You not only will learn Daryl’s method of sewing selvages, but Daryl will share with you a lot of tips and tricks that you can use for other things you make too, whether you make them with selvages or not. Let’s learn and have a fun day March 7^th!

Hello Everyone,
Our Nov 1st meeting was easy and brief. There were a few Show & Tell projects to enjoy then the three project demonstrations were presented. Many members enjoyed getting some ideas for gift giving. The rest of the day was spent eating potatoes with toppings and extras while visiting with each other. Hope your day was fun.
Happy Stitching, Holly

October 18 Meeting

Our meeting today had a smaller number of attendees than usual; only about 40 people came. Show & Tell was also sparse with 3 people showing their creations. Check out the Show & Tell under the Show & Tell 2018 tab above to see the lovely creations shown today.

At our next meeting in November is Projects & Potato Day. If you wish to attend please contact Benee. Bring potato toppings, etc. too.

Also, I (Daryl) will be taking sign-ups for the Selvage Class I will be teaching the first March meeting. Cost is $15 for the class, which includes a kit with everything you need to make a mug rug and a fabric basket, including the selvages. (To be safe, bring some selvages of your own too). You need to bring white, off white or light gray thread and your basic sewing supplies, machine, etc. I will post a list on the blog in January and give you a hand out when you sign up and pay for the class. Deadline for signing up is the 2nd meeting in February. 

The first eleven people to sign up for the Selvage Class, I will be including a little something extra. Must pay when you sign up to receive the extra goodie though. How's that for incentive? LOL!

Ann D's Quilt aka Inman Park Quilt

Ann D. showed this quilt at our last meeting. Ann said she saw it on Pinterest and said there was no pattern and she just figured it out. I am sure it isn't too difficult to figure out if you have a sheet of graph paper, but I did find someone who sells this pattern (as a pdf download) on Etsy for $5 if you would rather pay someone else to tell you how to cut and sew this quilt.

It's called the Inman Park Quilt.  Here is the photo from Etsy:

Here is Ann's quilt:

The top quilt has been turned a different direction from Ann's quilt. It's a fabulous quilt to use up scraps! Both colorful scraps and white scraps too!!! Thanks for sharing Ann.

Hello Everyone,
We had a full Show & Tell with all the beautiful projects that happened with Fall Retreat at Hummingbird Camp. As cooler weather is approaching, Thimbleweed Quilters are preparing to help the homeless by providing fleece scarves and hats. Project day is our next meeting on October 4. Please see the Community Service page for more information. Remember to look at the Quilt Shows tab and perhaps get to travel and enjoy the Santa  Fe Quilt Fiesta coming soon. 
Happy Stitching, Holly

Hello Everyone,
Today's meeting included some nice Show & Tell along with regular happenings. Afterwards Kathy S gave is an inclusive review about what the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta judges are looking for to award prizes. Entries for the May 2019 show begin January 4 through March 1, 2019. Please see the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Council Website for the details. http://www.abqfiberartscouncil.org/
Our next meeting on September 20 is the Members Garage sale. Please bring any of your gently used items sewing and non-sewing related and set up a table for free. 
Happy Sewing, Holly

Pot Holder Swap for December Meeting

Jeanne H. is heading up the Potholder Swap for our December meeting. Make a potholder and you will receive back a potholder. Jeanne will explain in December how she will go about doing the swap.

There is no theme for the potholders, so they do not have to be holiday themed at all, just hand made. I (Daryl) have added several free potholder patterns or tutorials under the FREEBIES tab at the top of this blog. Click on "Freebies" tab and scroll down to the potholders. See something you like? Click on it and it will take you to where the pattern or tutorial is located on the internet. If it is in a pdf format, just save to your computer somewhere that you can find it later. Or copy and paste the tutorial to a WORD document and again save it to where you can easily find it later. Hint: create a folder on your computer aptly named Potholders and save all the potholder patterns you want to that folder. Think of your computer as a metal file cabinet filled with folders that you name so you can find what you are looking for and place into that folder. That is all a computer is really a place to store things you want to find later, only a computer takes up a lot less space.

I will add more potholder patterns as well as other patterns under the Freebies tab, so please stop by and check it out.

Here are a few that you will find under the FREEBIES tab:

Hello Everyone,
Today's meeting was eventful and full of information. We had many more Doo-Lollies turned in for the Thimbleweed contribution to Fiber Arts Fiesta - nearly 150 items completed so far of the 200 we need. If you have some parts you signed up to do, please get theses done and turned in soon and we won't have to spend time at a meeting making these. Show & Tell was inspiring as usual with some of our members getting a lot done this summer. Great going, Ladies! To complete our meeting Brandi Perea of Tea Cup Quilts gave us a trunk show of the quilts she's made from pre-cuts from her store. She shared a few ideas about why some quilts worked better than others and how you can use pre-cuts to make your quilt top construction faster and easier. Kids go back to school before our next meeting so we should have the whole room for Thimbleweed again to enjoy working with Irene as she presents the roll-up Travel Blanket on Aug 16. Preparation instructions are on the Upcoming Meetings tab.
Happy Stitching, Holly

Salvage Your Selvages: Upcoming Class

Hello Quilters! I (Daryl) will be teaching a class on sewing selvages at the first March 2019 meeting, so start saving your selvages now. If you are not going to take the class, please save your selvages and give them to me so I can share them with the other ladies who do take the class.

The cost of the class, including a kit with everything that you will need to make both a mug rug and a basket (except for the thread) will be $15. The kit will include selvages too, possibly enough to make both items. However, that will depend on how many people will be taking the class and how many selvages I can gather together, so to be sure, please bring whatever selvages that you can collect as well. Note: I will explain all 3 methods for finishing the mug rug, but will only include straight cut binding for the mug rug. So you can choose to do the pillow birthing method or the regular binding method in class and if you want to bind your mug rug with curved edges using a bias binding, I will explain how, but will not be including the bias binding in the kit.

How do you cut your selvage ends? That depends on how wide the printed selvage is to begin with and how much printed fabric that you want. 1/4" will be taken up on the fabric side in the seam, so as a rule of thumb, I like to cut or rip at least 1" wide measured from the selvage edge, so that will give you 1/2" of selvage and approximately 1/2" of pretty fabric. 1/4" of the pretty fabric will be sewn into the seam, so if you want more than 1/4" of pretty fabric showing, then cut your selvage edge wider than 1" wide. It's all personal preference.

How long your selvages are will depend on the amount of fabric that you have to begin with. If you have a yard of fabric, you will have 36" in length. A fat quarter will yield about 18" or so. All lengths are good to have, because you will use them up eventually in different ways. So even a normal quarter yard that give you 9" is good.

What will we make in the class? To start off, I will teach you the concept of how to sew the selvages, so we will be making a Mug Rug. You will have 3 choices of how to finish your edges of the mug rug: birthing pillow method (not pictured), regular binding like a quilt or curve the corners and use bias binding (Note: bias binding will not be included in the kit, but I will explain how to finish the mug rug using this method, if anyone is interested). Then we will move on to make a small basket.

Regular binding on Mug Rug.

Curved corners with bias binding Mug Rug.

Selvage Basket sample that I will be teaching in the class:

The class basket will be the size of the basket on the right or left (not the taller one in the center). Kits will contain everything needed to make the basket and the mug rug, except the thread and possibly enough selvages, however there will be several selvages included in the kit, just not sure how many at this time.

For inspiration here are other things you can make using selvages:

Here are a couple of selvage zippered pouches that I have made a while back.

Another zippered pouch.

Small basket or thread catcher using selvages.

I will be announcing the class at the first meeting each month and start taking sign ups in December. Please pay $15 as soon as the sign ups begin so that can start putting the kits together. The deadline for payment will be the second February 2019 meeting. I will not be making any extra kits and will need payment no later than the 2nd February meeting in order to assure your spot in the class.

So start salvaging your selvages right now!!! Ask your sewing friends for them too. You will be surprised at how many people will save them for you if you ask. Ask them for cotton fabric selvages only. We will only be using the printed edge that includes one of more of the following: the dots of colors that were used in the print, the name of the designer, the name of the fabric company, the year the fabric was printed, the code number of the fabric line, the country where it was printed and possibly more. Some selvage edges have a fringed edge and that is okay to use too. We will not be using the opposite side of the fabric's selvage edge which will either be white only or the fabric printed to that edge. (see photo above for example of cut selvages).

I will post the additional basic sewing supplies that you will need to bring to class in a later posting. This will include to bring things like your sewing machine, iron, etc. I will bring the kits on the day of the class so that all you need to bring with you is your basic sewing items.

I have lots of tips and tricks that I will be sharing with you in the class on how to sew the selvages as well as the basket assembly. I hope you will join me at the first March meeting for Salvage the Selvages class. Believe me the tips and tricks are worth the class alone!

New Freebies Tab

Hello Thimbleweed Quilters, it's me Daryl and I have volunteered to help Holly take Show & Tell photos (and post to the blog) whenever Holly is off playing and having fun someplace else.

I have had my own personal blog for over 10 years now, so I know my way around Blogger.

I also wanted to create a Freebies tab where I will post links to free tutorials, pdf's and videos as I come across them. I will include a photo for each link so that you can see what the project looks like without having to click on each link to find out what it looks like. You are welcome!

I started the Freebies off with 3 different apron patterns. Since those who will be going to the fall retreat at Hummingbird will be making oilcloth aprons to swap (or keep for themselves), I though it would be nice to have some aprons patterns to choose from. Some might not be suitable to using oilcloth, but maybe you want to make an apron for yourself or as a gift using cotton fabric.

I will add categories and new freebies, all the time, so make sure you check the Freebies Tab often (located at the top of the page under the Header). I also added to the right side bar at the bottom of the list where you can follow this blog by email. So all you need to do is type in your email address and prove you are not a robot to Feedburner by checking the box (to prove you are not a robot) or typing in the Captcha, if they ask you. Then you will receive an email from Feedburner to click on the link and that's it. Whenever Holly or I (or others) post here on the blog, you will get an email notification so you will not miss a single new thing posted here.

You will not receive an email each time I add to the Freebie or other Tab, but if I add several items I will write a posting like this to let you know I have added items and then you will get an email notification if you sign up for email notifications that is.

Hello Everyone,
We had a nice short meeting today with time given to sign up for the Fall Retreat. More information about the retreat can be found under the Quilt Shows and Event tab or the Upcoming Meetings tab. Please call Colleen K, Donna B, or Barbara S to get signed up soon. The cut-off number will be reached soon so don't delay if you want to join in. Some people enjoyed the treasures they purchased at Sue's De-Stash sale.  The general Membership is invited to participate in our own Garage Sale at the September 20 meeting. Also presented was an opportunity to donate a personally made apron to Hawks aloft and be eligible for the contest and prizes. Please see the entry information under the Quilt Shows and Events tab if you are interested. We enjoyed the Show & Tell presented and had many ooohs and ahhhs. Hope your summer is going well.
Happy Stitching, Holly P

Hello Everyone,
Easy meeting today with some pretty Show & Tell. Check the Quilt Shows and Event Tab. Benee's instructions are in the Fun Times area. Hope you are staying cool.
Happy Stitching, Holly

Hello Everyone,
Happy Solstice! We had a busy and interesting meeting about the options for making Giving Tree gifts for the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta. The written instruction parts are shown under the Fun Times tab. We had some very inspirational Show & Tell including a wonderful grouping of the Triangle Frenzy Twist class finishes. There is some new information about upcoming quilting event and shows and call for entries information for the Albuq. Fiber Arts Fiesta. Please look under the Quilt Shows & Events tab for those. I hope your sewing space is staying cool.
Happy Stitching, Holly P

June 19, 2018 - The project for Jaden Paul, the Eagle Scout making the fleece blankets, has been postponed. He is receiving his kidney transplant. We will let you know when this is back on the calendar. Thank you.

Hello Everyone,
We had a busy and productive meeting this week. Some highlights included a great line-up of Show & Tell offerings, A fun and busy class of Triangle Frenzy Swirl participants, and a couple special guest announcements. One announcement was from Nicole Lujan from the Sandoval County Fair. Please see the contact information under the "Quilt Shows and Events" tab about this Fair that she is growing into a fun event for Northern NM.

Another announcement was about an opportunity to assist with a special boy scout, Jaden Paul, working toward his Eagle Scout status. He is leading a group to make 60 plus tied fleece blankets for the Presbyterian Pediatrics Hospital. He is requesting your time and expertise, and use of rotary cutters, cutting mats, and rulers to create these two fabric tied fringe blankets. Other scouts and and volunteers will be present and sewer/quilters are most needed and appreciated. If you would like to participate please meet at the LDS Church Gym located at the East side of Rio Rancho High School anytime on either or both days. Friday, June 22 from 6-9 pm for organization and cutting. Saturday June 23 from 8 am-5 pm for cutting and tying the blankets. For more information please contactSteven Paul (aka "Dad") 891-0436.

Wishing you great ease with all your projects,
Happy Stitching, Holly P

Hello Everyone,
Today's meeting was short and sweet with just a few fun show & tell items. Next was the lovely Mother's Day Tea Party with yummy treats and vigorous bidding on the sewing baskets. Remember to check out the prep instructions for the June 7 project and some photos about what fabrics might work best for your version in the Upcoming meetings tab.
Happy Stitching, Holly

Hello Everyone,
We had an information packed meeting this week. Lots of fun Show & Tell with several members having already completed their Spring Retreat quilts and tops. Barbara G showed us lots of fun quilts to demonstrate the possibilities and an a few techniques for borders. The Thimbleweed Quilters Annual Outdoor Quilt Show on Sunday, April 22 was a colorful success. Highlights of the show are under the Quilt Travels tab. Lots of activities coming up for the rest of May and into the Summer. Please keep track on the Upcoming Meetings tab. Remember to bring your Finish-It Projects and Seminole Rows to be in the small prize drawings at the first meeting of each month! Hope to see you at the Mother's Day Tea on Thursday, May 17, 2018.
Happy Sewing! Holly P

Hello Everyone,
I hope the winds are blowing fun your way. Show & Tell has been updated with photos from Today's meeting and the April 5th meeting that I missed. Many thanks to Faye H for being substitute photographer. Please remember that the Outdoor Quilt show is This Sunday, April 22. All the information is available under the Upcoming Meetings Tab. Today was Part 1 of Spring Retreat. Part 2 happens next week April 26, 9:30 am-2 pm. there is no meeting so you have the whole time to sew.
Our next regular meeting is May 3 with Barbara Gary presenting Borders Revisited. May 17 is the Mother's Day Tea. Hope to see you at as many of the happenings as possible.
Happy Stitching, Holly P

Hello Everyone,
Our meeting on March 15 was busy and successful. We had some lovely Show & Tell, a used book sale, sign-ups for the Outdoor Quilt Show and May Tea Party, and Quilts available for purchase from the collection of Gloria Shapiro. If you want any more information on any of these happenings, please see the Message from Holly tab and contact the appropriate person. We also heard of a great possibility if you would like to use your own photos on fabric. Turbo Threads (1503 Golf Course Rd SE, Rio Rancho, NM 87124 Phone: (505) 999-1234) has a service available in which they will take your photos and digitally print them to quality cotton fabric which results in a deeper dyed and wash resistant finish than a home ink jet printer. Perhaps this will help with your memory quilts and creative ideas. We look forward to seeing you at the Spring Retreat beginning April 19 after the regular meeting and at the Outdoor Quilt Show on Sunday, April 22.
Happy Stitching, Holly

Hello Everyone,
Another information packed meeting for Thimbleweed Quilters on this March 1st day. There were the first of the Finish-It Club finishers and the first set of Seminole Row finishers. We had a winner for the Community Service Panel Quilt Challenge and many inspiring Show & Tell items. Enjoy browsing the Quilt travels and Quilt shows and events that you won't want to miss.
Happy Stitching, Holly P

Hello Everyone, 
Another successful meeting  on a uniquely rainy day in NM occurred Feb 15. We had plenty of information and a some wonderful Show&Tell that members shared. The selling of Raffle tickets began for the 2018 fund raising quilt and it's a beauty. More information will appear on this blog soon. Information about the 2018 Thimbleweed Quilters Outdoor Quilt Show is available on the Quilt Shows and Events Tab. We hope you will join us for Community Service Sewing on March 1st to put together flannel blocks for the UNM pediatrics unit.  May your sewing go smoothly. Happy Stitching., Holly P

Hello Everyone,
Our February 1st meeting was useful and busy. There are some lovely Show & Tell to browse as well as lot of new information about the quilt being presented at Spring Retreat (see Upcoming Meetings.)
Start planning which quilts you want to bring to display for the Outdoor Quilt Show in Rio Rancho on April 22 and Get your electronic entries for the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Council off-year show by February 25, 2018. Information is on the Quilt Shows and Events tab. Many members also had a great day making Fleece Hats for charity. If anyone has photos please sen them to me. Thanks.
Happy Stitching, Holly

Hello Everyone,
Activities for Thimbleweed Quilters have begun for 2018! Please be sure to check out the Finish-it Club 2018 for information about how to join in this year's on-going effort to help you finish (or begin) those projects. Also on this page you will find information about the Row-of-the-Month pattern available called Seminole Sampler by Reeze of Morning Glory Designs. Our Community Service committee has several projects in the works and would appreciate your efforts and skills to help various organizations in the Rio Rancho and Albuquerque area. Be sure to take a look at this meeting's Show & Tell. We have some ambitious and talented members to give you inspiration. We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting! 
Happy Stitching, Holly

Hello Everyone,
We had a pleasant time at the the annual Soup and Conversation meeting to start the New Year.  Show & Tell began with a bang with several lovely quilts and projects presented.There are several ongoing and new projects planned for Thimbleweed Quilters in 2018. Check out the upcoming meetings tab to stay current. Several openings are available in the schedule to present a demonstration or project for the group to participate. If you have an idea for a project you would like to see happen or are willing to present/teach, please let Benee K, Irene R, or myself know and we'll work with you about it. Be planning your list for the Finish-it Club 2018 registration beginning at our next meeting on January 18. There will be more news about a possible Row of the Month and sew-alongs you might want to join. Thimbleweed Quilters is your group. Let's make 2018 a fun-filled year.
Happy Stitching, Holly P