Kindred Spirits Group

Our small quilt group met for the first meeting of 2017 on Saturday, Jan. 14 at Stitch by Stitch Quilt Shop in Chesterfield, Virginia. Since Pam was not at our Christmas Tea, she opened her gift from her Secret Santa--Celestia. Celestia made her this adorable wallhanging, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" featuring Pam's dog, Maggie Moo. The adorable skirt is a handkerchief! Pam is planning on moving back to Texas this year, and this will make a lovely memento of quilting buddies back in Virginia.

Our first project starts with a disappearing 4-patch.

for my demo, I cut 4 5"squares of fabric, two blue, and two background pieces. Sew them together to make a 4-patch. 

Place the 1" line of your ruler on the center seam line. Cut at the 1" mark. You just made a vertical cut. Move the ruler 90 degrees (a small movable mat is especially helpful) and slice with the 1" mark on the seam line. This time you are making a horizontal cut. Turn the mat 180 degrees and repeat the two cutting steps. You wind up with 4 squares in the corners, a square in the center (it measures 2" square) and 4 rectangular pieces at the north, south, east and west parts of the block. Now turn the rectangular pieces 180 degrees. 

You have a block that looks like this (above). Now seam the block together to create your "Disappearing 4-Patch." Clever, right?

The little table runner above starts with squares of fabric that measure 3 inches square. Making just 3 blocks, your little mat/runner will measure about 6 inches x 17 inches. 

We love options in our group! So Anne demonstrated what fun you can have with a Disappearing 9-patch. She started with 5" squares (see the two blocks at the top of the design wall.) Cutting again just like you did with the 4-patch, you create 4 different pieces, each with a small gold square in the corner. The three  blocks on the bottom of the design wall are just three separate options for different ways to set your blocks together. One of the beauties of this design and the Disappearing 4-patch, is that NO fabric is wasted. These are great projects for those charm squares you've been saving. If you need more of a tutorial, go to YouTube and search for Missouri Star Quilt Tutorials. They are soooo helpful!

Anne (photo above), Pam (photo below) and myself (the blue/white photos) sewed along with Merry Mayhem and her Mystery Quilt project on January 1. We each ended the day with 4 large blocks.

I made 5 more blocks to create a lap-size quilt (above). Each block measures 16 inches square, a HUGE block for us mini quilt lovers!

Vickie is working along with Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt "En Provence." She brought in a block that she has finished (above). Great job, Vickie.

I took a few other photos at our group Saturday, but alas, I can't find them! I'm still learning how to use my iphone. Perhaps there is an "IPhone for Dummies" book out there! 

Till next time,

Keep Stitchin!

Mary in Virginia