Betty Blackwell Passed Away

As many of you already know, one of our long time members, Betty Blackwell, passed away this week.  There will be a celebration of her life at 2 pm on Sunday, May 24th at the Historic Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales.  There is an obituary in today's Journal.

Quilt Show Recognition

Ladies,

What a fun day we had today.  Just wanted to send out some thank yous and acknowledgements:

To all of you who were on the weather committee...The best weather ever!

To Kathy Lyon and her husband and all of you who baked or brought something....we had so many yummy treats for our visitors.  We were also able to make up a nice plate of cookies as a thank you to the guys who set up the park and beautified it just for us!

To Irene and her team of terrific ticket sellers.  It looked like we made some serious money on our raffle quilt.

To Bob's, Busy Bee and ThreadBear, our spiffy vendors.  I hope you all found something you couldn't live without!

To Pat's band...you guys really drew a crowd...and that lively music had people tapping their feet and dancing through the show.  Thanks!

To Barbara and Suzi, thanks for delivering water bottles to thirsty Tweeders and for staying to help at the end of the show!

To the Konetznis...thanks for help with set up and take down and for inviting your Iris Society buddies!

To Kathy Sublett who did a lot of the publicity work, so we had a crowd of visitors!!

To my sweet husband, who is just so handy and helpful, for bringing his old timey music to liven up the back side of the show!

And to all of you, more than 30 of you, who brought more than 250 quilts to show off...I am truly appreciative.  

You are all part of what makes Thimbleweeds a special group!

Wow, that was a lot of exclamation points...my journalist daughter would be aghast!!

Donna

Class on May 7, 2015 Supplies needed

At our May 7, 2015 meeting Judy A. will be presenting a class on constructing the Fat Quarter Gypsy Bag. Here is the supply list and parts to prepare: This list also appears under the Upcoming Classes Tab:

YOU WILL NEED

FOR THE TOP (outside)

6 fat quarters YOU WILL NOT BE USING THE FULL FAT QUARTER – from each fat quarter (doesn’t have to be a fat quarter either) cut one rectangle   17 ½  x 19 1/2 inches  YOU WILL NEED  6  (when you sew them together you should have a piece of fabric  38 ½  x 51 ½ " )   

                                                 

OR

ONE SOLID or PIECED OF ANY  FABRIC (you can also use a ufo, do diagonal strips,  make a scrappy patchwork – anything you want as long as it is the same size as your lining- 38 ½ x51 ½

- if you are going to use directional fabric  you will need to cut it in half – turn one side upside down and sew back together -  cut it wide enough to allow for the extra seam ( if you are using a half inch seam you will need to add 1" so your fabric will start out 39 ½  x 51 ½ " ). 

FOR THE LINING

A  PIECE OF FABRIC 38 ½  x 51 ½"   (THERE IS NO BATTING)

PLEASE CUT/SEW YOUR TOP AND CUT OUT YOUR LINING BEFORE CLASS

FOR THE HANDLES – you will be making two handles - ~ 1" WIDE x 40 - 72" LONG.

1/3 yd.  Coordinating fabric

thin batting or flannel for handles – aprox 2” wide and desired length

22" of 1" wide non-roll elastic cut into two 11” pieces

Couple of BIG safety pins   ( I WILL SUPPLY THE ELASTIC AND PINS)

WE WILL BE MAKING THE HANDLES IN CLASS

HANDLES - This pattern calls for cutting 2  2 ½ " x 40" of fabric and one of batt or flannel sandwiching and sewing down both sides – this requires turning – if you want to do it this way you will need a turning tool.

ALTERNATE METHOD -  cut 2 strips  4x as wide as you want your finished handle  - I use 5"  and as long as you want your handle (44" is good )  

Cut your  batt or flannel  TWICE  the finished width ( ~ two inches) x desired length

FOLD YOUR FABRIC IN HALF LENGTHWISE AND THEN FOLD EACH SIDE TOWARDS THE CENTER – PRESS – OPEN (you will have four sections)   PLACE YOUR BATTING IN THE CENTER (over the middle two sections) –  FOLD THE TWO SIDES IN AND FOLD IN HALF.  You should have no raw edges and a handle about 1" wide – SEW THE OPEN SIDE WITH A STRAIGHT OR ZIG ZAG STITCH  (can sew both sides for  esthetics or use decorative stitches – whatever you like)

YOU WILL ALSO NEED

Your sewing machine with accessories and coordinating thread (throw in your zipper and walking foot)

Sewing scissors

A ruler

A fabric marker – if you don’t have one – don’t buy one – we will be marking two lines – you can borrow or use a piece of masking tape

A rotary cutter and mat to cut the handles  (you can certainly use a pair of scissors instead )

An iron – I will be setting up the thimbleweeds irons but some like to bring their own

pins

This is UFO week, so bring something to work on a snack or sack lunch and hang out with friends!

Remember our Outdoor quilt show is coming up.. on April 19.  Please start thinking of quilts you'd like to show...old, new, even if you've shown them before, we love them all!  We need about 250 all together, so bring a trunk load.  You'll need to make a tag with an index card and attach it to your quilt with whatever information you wish to share.  Use a colored card if it's for sale.  And start crossing your fingers for a still, balmy, beautiful day.  The guys at the park are already sprucing up, so it'll be beautiful.  Pick up a stack of flyers to deliver to your church, hair salon, school, friends, family members :)

I received a note from Glennda that Linda Littman's husband passed away today.  I'll share more news as I receive it.

Annual Outdoor Quilt Show

The Thimbleweeds Rio Rancho Outdoor Quilt Show will, weather permitting, be held April 19.  Over 200 quilts hanging clothesline style, fun vendors, music, refreshment, and FREE admission!

New items posted!

Look for the new items added to Upcoming Meetings. Click on the tab above to see what your quilting friends are offering!  Be sure to browse the Show and Tell page. Lots of great work to inspire you and it's updated shortly after each meeting!

Fiber Arts Fiesta Submission Dates EXTENDED!

Due to the weather and technical difficulties people have had using the electronic entry form, we have decided to extend the postmarked deadline for entries to March 4.    But please, if you are having problems, email info@fiberartsfiesta.org


Entry is easy and FAF is looking to have lots of quilts entered. Entry information is on the Fiber Arts Fiesta website at fiberartsfiesta.org/FiestaEntry.html   
 
Looking forward to see all of your quilts at the show and your other fiber entries.

Also note that they have extend the Youth entry deadline.  The date of that deadline is March 10.