A fine day making Cuddle Quilts

A hard-working band of quilters gathered on Saturday for our Cuddle Quilt Workshop, and we had a most productive day.  Sherry had done an excellent job of setting up the space with tables for sewing, cutting tables, basting tables and also had a large selection of pre-cut fabric strips to use for the cuddle quilts.  She also had a big supply of backing fabrics, and plenty of batting for everything we produced that day.

A few photos of the day's activities:

Some of the 17 quilts basted and ready for quilting - all done in one day!

A great set-up for our cutting.

Ginny with her completed Magnetized top

The mystery pattern for the day - Magnetized!

Front and back of a quilted, bound and washed quilt by Veronica.  Notice the lovely quilting!

Spray basting - a real time saver!

And the pat-down...

We had plenty of strips, backing fabric and batting - all ready to go!

Thanks to Sherry for all her pre-planning and organizing our workshop - it was a great day with friends and working together for a good cause.  The finished quilts will be donated to the Chambliss Center for Children.

Cuddle Quilt Workshop, August 17

Our annual Cuddle Quilt Workshop is fast approaching! Next Saturday, August 17, the Choo Choo Quilters will meet at Cross of Christ Lutheran Church, 3204 Hixson Pike, from 9 am to 2 pm. to work on cuddle quilts for the Chambliss Center for Children.

Pre-cut eighteen 2.5" strips for the CQ workshop.

Do you have your eighteen 2.5" strips cut? There's a little cutting pre-work to be done so you can put the pedal to the floor to make the Cuddle Quilt Mystery quilt. Our masterful CQ Leader, Sherry, has got it all planned so everyone can get a quilt top made, layered and spray basted on Saturday. "Brunch treats" will be served to fuel your creative sewing juices.

The guild will provide batting and have some backing fabric available. Feel free to donate backing fabric if you have extra. Bring an iron and ironing pad to use beside your sewing machine, if you have one. Several boards and irons will be provided if you don't. Fill a few extra bobbins ahead of time. A station will be set up to spray baste the quilts. (Read about how we spray basted 27 quilts here.)

Here is the Mystery Quilt pre-work instructions:

1. From 18 different fabrics, and cutting from selvedge to selvedge, cut one strip 2 1/2" wide from each fabric.  This will result in a 36" x 36" quilt.  If you want to make a longer quilt, you'll need 24 different fabrics to make a 36" x 50" quilt. A jelly roll can save you some time if you have one to donate to the cause.
2. Separate your strips into light and dark, 9 strips in each category. Medium hues can go either way, so just separate out the obvious lights and darks, and then just divide the remaining medium hues into one or the other. You'll just need to have 9 strips in each category.
3. Pair up a set of one light and one dark. Use the darkest darks to pair with the mediums that ended up in the "light" pile, and the lightest lights to go with the medium hues that ended up in the "dark" pile to have a nice contrast for each pair.
4. With each set of 2 contrasting strips, snip off the selvedges and cut each strip set into 4 pieces: (3) 11" pieces and (1) 6 1/2" piece. After you have cut them, keep each set of contrasting strips together. Continue until all strip sets are cut.

It promises to be a great workshop. Come and join us next Saturday and invite a friend!

And we'll also have our regular August Meeting on Monday, August 19!

You will have two opportunities to get together with the Choo Choo Quilters in August.  The Cuddle Quilt workshop is this coming Saturday, August 17, and then a mere 2 days later we will have our regular guild meeting on Monday August 19.

Team Janet will be leading our program, and they have asked a special guest to come.  Maddie Kertay, the owner of a new quilt shop Spool, will be showing us her quilts and discussing her plans for the new store, which is opening in September.  Come and see all about this new quilting resource in town on McCallie Avenue.

In addition, everyone participating in the Brown Bag Challenge should bring their bags in and we'll redistribute them for another round.  We'll have show and tell, some information about the AQS Show coming to Chattanooga in 2014, and a recap of our day making cuddle quilts.

I hope to see all of you there!