As Nora would say, "I'm a Lucky Lizzard!"

As I left tonight I almost had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming!!! I felt like a LUCKY LIZARD to get to be leaving to drive over to the big town next door and go to my FIRST ever QUILT GUILD meeting!!!!! I've only been trying to attend since last October! However, either it was a Girl Scout Round Up, or a main water line burst at the plant, or PTA meeting, or a fire at David's plant, or ________ fill in the blank. :P

And so all day I was thinking about it being the "3rd Thursday" but didn't get my hopes too high... I did call David at work around Noon to see how his day was going... then again around 4:00. He said he'd be home before 6:00 and sure enough he was! :)

Can you tell by the huge smile on my face that I skipped and leaped my way to the car and took off *all by myself* to go to something just for me - KID-LESS!!! Weee! If you're a stay-at-home mom you know what I'm talkin about!

Before the meeting started I introduced myself to a lady standing next to me which turned out to be the guild president - she then showed me around and let me straight to the workshop binder. Who knew this woman could read minds, as this was exactly the reason I came!!! .... I've known for over a year that "THE" Bonnie Hunter is coming in August this year! ;)

I was relieved to find that the class was not full yet - well actually the Friday class I think only had 3 or 4 openings, but since I can not go during the day it was then an easy choice for me to choose "My Blue Heaven" workshop on Saturday! and I was tickled that the price of the class was so affordable! I'll call it a belated "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME" gift since my birthday falls at the end of July ;)

After the meeting was called to order and opened with a prayer, the president welcomed new members and guests then asked if anyone had any Show-n-tell. I hesitated but when there weren't any others that I saw...I went ahead and raised my hand and what do you know - I got to go on up and be the first to talk with the microphone! ***which when I told David that he about fell out of his chair laughing and said, "WOW, they really don't know anything about you do they Bonnie!!! hey gave YOU a microphone!!! LOL :P

Of course I had brought with me my HGTV Crayola Challenge Quilt which I had planned to mail off to Quiltaholic just this week...but didn't get to on Wednesday. They all seemed intrested in hearing about the challenge part of getting a crayon in the mail...and using any shade of the crayon with only 1 other fabric of our choice...

And guess what!? I even SOLD some chances on it! Thank you Bev & Denise!! So it paid off to not have mailed it yet. ;) Several even asked to see it again after the meeting and they oooughed and aaahed over the gold shimmer in the backing fabric and of course all of Margret's gorgeous feathering!

After I surrendered the microphone and sat down another lady had a 15-18" square art piece she had made for an online Art Quilters group - I don't remember the site.. and unfortunately I had forgotten that I had my camera with me so I didn't get a photo of it. :/

Then they had a quick break and while I was coming back from the lady's room I heard the president asking with a smile on her face....this guy sitting behind me - What about you? - They want to know what brings you here?" Since they figured out he wasn't "with" the guest speaker of the night.

Turns out he is an art major and was visiting and after talking he said he had made a quilt .... I said too bad you didn't bring it with you to show and he admitted that he had actually and it was out in the car. So we all insisted he run out to get it which he did.

His very first quilt and it was fun to hear him talk about it, and see his excitement. He said that he found a youTube video to watch over and over about how to apply binding... and what a challenge that was. LOL but good for him to stick with it and get it done don't you think? He said he'd love to one day teach art to Elementary Students wouldn't it be great if he continued making quilts and young children about quilting?

The rest of my photos were taken with permission from Denise Green, the guest speaker. She is a guild president herself in Seabrook, TX and brought with her a large variety of quilts, and quilt tops to share with everyone the fun of doing block exchanges within a group! When I hear that I thought Oooough!!! (....since I'm such a sucker for swaps on the HGTV board! I'm on break this year from participating or hosting *not looking, not looking* so that I can use this year to make progress on MY projects...) so this was this was right up my alley and a real treat to see!

"The name of the first quilt is Triple 4-Patch aka Timeless Treasures, it was featured on the front cover of a magazine several years ago and that is what got our first swap going."

Even revisiting this photo and seeing this gorgeous CW reproduction fabrics quilt (above) makes me almost want to write up swap guidelines for those blocks and post over at the HGTV board!!! I won't ..... but one day I will! :P This was Denise's very first block exchange only by the luck of someone from the "full" swap needing to drop out, and that it's so popular among her guild members that they have completed this exchange 3 or 4 times.

Then she talked about Round Robins. This first one she showed was especially special because after the RR was over her dear friend who made the final round passed away and now she has a part of her work to remember her by.

and I had never heard of this next type before... but it's a LONGARM RR. They were at a show of some sort and had 10 machines set up and went around machine to machine longarm quilting on each others pieces and they each started their choice of design in the center and could do what ever, where ever they wanted on the others... but had to sign their name in the stitching before hopping over to the next machine. Cool idea ea? This photo does not show as well as it looked in person.

What caught my eye about this next quilt was what caught everyone else's eyes too. Can you guess?

That tiny tiny jewel tones chick-let sized squares border! The strips are all cut 1" and then sewn together and cut into subsets of 1" cut... to create this tiny tiny .25" block strip.

And the only other details I remember about this quilt was that after she was finished putting the top together she mailed it off to another longarmer friend as an exchange -they'd each longarm a quilt for the other and be surprised by what they did on each others quilts. ;)

The quilt above, The Garden Lady, had that same tiny jewel colors border - this time on each side of a white middle border where she featured fancy feathered quilting. And apparently there is a "technique" on how to make it fit - which next months speaker/teacher will be revealing the secret on ;) click below for a close up. Her 4-patches on point between the golden yellow and plum borders reminded me of Bonnie Hunter's scrappy style which I loved about this quilt.

Then Denise told us about how sometimes a swap goes wrong... just doesn't work out like planned. They had made 12" blocks with two sides and corner in autumn colors (I think any pattern) and exchanged between the 4 friends... but in the end they all decided to retun blocks to one another and use each person's original 4 to go together into the same quilt and showed us hers. I can see where it wouldn't have the same effect as this one does using blocks and fabrics all different.

and then she quickly showed us a variety of fall colored blocks - she told the pattern from Quilter's Cache but I don't remember... something knot? maybe? Each one with beautiful batiks! What's not to love??! Denise emailed me to help fill in my bits & pieces that I was having a hard time remembering... she says, "The batik blocks are called Indian Puzzle"

I only got one photo of this set of 1930's blocks. However, I did notice that each block had star points of a different featured color. I tried not to look too close as I currently have 3 different 1930's quilts "in slow progress" but if I didn't... I'd.... LOL

These appliqued flowers were worked on among a group of 3 friends. I think she said they each made their own 3 backgrounds and then person 1 made 3 of the same "pink ones on the right" and 2nd person made 3 of the same of the middle panel and same for the one on the left. Then they gave each person 1 of each. I don't know anything about applique but I think that it would be a lot of work and that this method, I'd surely be pretty good when I got to my 3rd of the same ;) and make for it to go easier to be in the rhythm so to speak ;)

and the next one was an I-Spy quilt done as an exchange! Where she added sew-n-flip corners to 5.5" novelty fabrics (half her blocks with black and the other half of her set with white corners) She did say that now looking back, she thought it would have been better to just simply exchange 5.5" novelty blocks and each person do their own sew-n-flips. After the presentation was over I admired it thinking of my own I-Spy project I have going and all over my dining room floor and another guild member was looking it over and mentioned she had 3 grand kids that these would be perfect for. ;) I told her how I was adding colorful frames around my blocks but that I loved this style too!! With these you are not so limited on what to use b/c there is a larger area to feature larger motifs. Where as with mine... they are cut at 3.5"

and to think - wanting to make an I-Spy quilt for Nora who was 11 months at the time was WHAT got me INTO quilting - one Google search for fabric swap lead me to the HGTV boards and the rest is " 5 years & history in the making" :P

I don't remember how many participated in this one - again beautiful batiks, but she did say that someone in the group figured out how many complete blocks and how many half blocks and such they each needed to make for one another to make it all work out. Also that they had paper pieced a certain segment instead of using template rulers.

The next two quilt tops were made by Denise and her niece. One of them had traveled to Hawaii and bought fabric (see where she's pointing to the dark blue background fabric below) and they could use it with any pattern to create a small lap sized quilt and make 2 of the same. One to keep and one to give to the other. The quilt on the left is Denise's creation of what to make with the Hawaii fabric and on the right is her niece's.

Below wasn't an exchange.. or maybe it was? but that she had bought them for a bargain at a guild yard sale type thing and she had put them all together but not pieced it yet. She even laughed and said that perhaps she would re-sale it in the next guild yard sale if she hadn't quilted it yet... But wouldn't a pumpkin exchange be fun to do?

This was a quilt top she bought at an auction and had quilted. It is the prettiest lavender purple fans and bright yellow background. I really like how the original quilter set them to fall facing on point on both sides of the bed. I regret that I didn't get a close up of this one.

The Christmas tree was a combination of two block exchanges.

Edited to add = Denise emailed to let me know that this pattern from Quilters Cache is called "Chinese Knot"

She also talked of being in a Friendship Bee where on their birthday month they made blocks for the Birthday girl. These were machine embroidered cat blocks she had made and let everyone take with them and add 3 varied sized strips to each of the sides then she used a ruler to slice them and make them wonky. She called it her "Conk Eyed Kitty" Quilt. Isn't that a cute name?

She called this one "Quilt in the Window" and you'll notice one house facing opposite.. love these 6" blocks featured this way -and of course I love red/white quilts! This could SOooo one day be on my list of swaps to host....

I'm loosing my memory if these were an exchange or another Friendship Bee Birthday thing - but everyone made various sized stars and also other filler units like HST's and such.

and this one I remember she saying they swapped all the units 4 patches, solid blocks and the pieces that are red square with only 2 sew-n-flip corners and vice versa... This is how she had put hers together to make all the stars. Again, I love red/white together! And if you are like me a scrap lover - this is an easy way to get a variety of scrappiness - by making blocks all the same and then swapping them out!

More swap blocks that she has completed and ready to exchange.

And this block she shared just with us (the night time meeting) b/c she ran out of time in the morning. But it is a block from one of Susan Garman's Designs (must be brand new b/c it's not on the website yet) and I forget the exact number she said but something in the range of ....over ONE THOUSAND of those red circles are on the whole quilt. Which her traveling buddy Trudy, made for not only Denise but also another friend of theirs for their quilts, in exchange for longarming services which I think is pretty clever! Also that makes *Trudy* a BERRY good friend! ;)

Afterwords I got a few closeups... and again - this one is calling my name!!!

Those 4 patches are TINY!!! I wish I could give credit of the pattern name or designer, but I didn't catch that part. I think I will send an email to Denise and ask her. She was super nice to chat with following the meeting while walking out to the car and even mentioned that she's on Facebook so it looks like I've found a new friend!

And up for next month..... Winnie Flemming! This was a book of hers that Denise had with her on the table by her quilts.

I really hope I get lucky enough to make it back next month to hear her speak. I'm just sure she will have great quilts to share during her lecture/trunk show. While writing this post I Googled her name and found this page. Click the pic below to visit.

Oh and before I left I took a photo of the Seabrook, TX Guild's Raffle Quilt. Denise had brought it with her. Isn't it stunning!!? Edited to add - here's a link to more info on the quilt below - http://www.lakeviewquiltersguild.org/DonationQuilt.htm

So there you have it - my first ever Quilt Guild Recap. For 5 years I've thoroughly enjoyed seeing photos shared on blogs of what took place in meetings and pretending what it would be like to one day go to one - and finally tonight my dream came true. ;) Maybe there is a reader out there like me - mom of little ones and hard to find the time to get away. Trust me, when the time comes... and it may seem like forever away... but when the time does come, it WILL be worth the wait! ;)

and speaking of waiting - I was starving after we got out around 9:00 and so I swan by Chick-fil-A and this girl had no idea I was taking her photo :P but I had nothing else to do while I waited and waited... why were they so slow at 9pm? I've gotten thru there much faster in the lunch rush.

Oh well - it was worth the wait too - VERY HOT and fresh! Yummm! and I know Miss Nora will love what I got for her in my kid's meal. ;) A Veggie Tale CD-Rom for the computer! After all.... I have to make her a "lucky lizard" too and bring her something, so she'll let me go to another guild meeting again ;)

Love from Texas!