Special Challenge for 2012

New Friends members have been asked to participate in the national Quilts of Valor project. Judy E. and Lorna H. have accepted the chairmanship of this project and have provided us the basic guidelines:The home page for Quilts of Valor can be found at www.qov.org and a gallery of donated quilts can be seen if you need inspiration.

Quilt Celebration 2012

Annual Community Service Sew In
to commemorate National Quilt Day March 17th
American Fork Sr. Citizen's Center basement 54 East Main
9 AM to 4 PM
Potluck soup or salad lunch--bring your choice
(bread , drink and utensils provided)

We're going to stitch bowtie and 4-patch blocks and stitch them into quilts for area infants and children in need through Project Linus (www.projectlinus.org)
Bring sewing machine, basic sewing supplies, and any fabric you wish to donate (cotton or firmly woven blends of quilt quality only)

Come as you can during the day! Everyone is invited to come and assist us!


We need group assistance to help us prepare for this event. You can:
1. Cut squares from your scrap fabrics to be used in quilts.
4-inch, 3-1/2-inch, 3-inch, 2-1/2-inch and 2-inch squares
Cut the largest squares you can, and then cut smalleruntil all scrap is cut up. Keep sizes separated in plastic sandwich bags.
We will need background lights as well as feature prints.

2. Cut strips of fabric in the above widths if using yardage instead of scrap
Keep strip widths separated in plastic sandwich bags. We will use these to create strip sets, or cut into squares later if needed.

3. We'll be using some quilt-room donated fabric. If you can help pre-cut some of this fabric, let Carmen know and fabric and instructions will be provided to you.

4. Contribute fabric for quilts, especially for backs. a 45 x 60-inch piece of fabric will back one quilt. Baby quilts will us a shorter length.

5. Look for quilt designs using 4-patches or bow ties to share with the group. Inspiration is always needed.

6. Share the word with friends and neighbors. We'll love to have them join us!

These dimensional bow tie blocks show sizes from 4-inch squares down to 2-1/2-inch squares.

These quilt tops are some of those donated to Project Linus at the 2011 Celebration. They were enveloped and prepared for school students to tie to complete the quilts.

String Along With Me

Quilt Celebration Sew-In

Area residents are invited to celebrate National Quilt Day on Saturday, March 19th, with a Sew-In to create quilts for Project Linus. Peggy Narhuminti, area coordinator for Project Linus, is often invited into area schools to provide community service opportuniites to children. The students tie quilts which are then donated to hospitals and other organizations which serve seriously ill or traumatized children. Up to 30 pre-sewn quilts are required for each school. visit, thus there is a constant need for these quilts

New Friends Quilt Circle Celebration, "String Along With Me" will feature a day of instruction and sewing of string quilt designs for quilt blocks and quilt tops for Project Linus. Strings are strips of fabric, often leftovers from other sewing projects, which when assembled make multicolor quilt blocks. Displays of string quilt designs will be available. The event will be open from 9 AM to 4 PM at the American Fork Sr. Citizen's Center basement, 54 E. Main St. A potluck soup and salad luncheon will be held mid-day. This project is part of the American Fork City Day of Service which ends April 9th.

Donations of quilt-quality fabric, especially for quilt backs, and quilt batting are greatly appreciated. Project Linus also accepts hand-made quilts, blankets and afghans which follow the national guidelines. For information and patterns for these donations, contact www.projectlinus.org.

It is suggested that string strips be cut 1-1/2, 1-3/4, or 2-inches wide. Long lengths are used for diagonal pieced designs, shorter lengths for spiderweb designs, and triangles or little odd ends are used for corners of blocks. Fabric should be of quilt-quality fabric. No denims, sportweights, or knits, please. Please put separate fabrics or colors into ziplock bags to keep raveling to a minimum.

Base squares are cut from muslin, used sheets or other suitable fabric. We are cutting them 7-1/2-inches square. This fabric will not be seen in the finished quilt. We need 48 squares to make one quilt top.

Please bring a sewing machine, if possible. Some are avaible, and we work in teams so three people work together with one machine. Remember your cords, foot control and an extension cord. Bring your basic sewing supplies--scissors, thread, extra bobbin, seam ripper, etc.

A display of string quilt design variations as well as instructions for them will be available during the day. Sewing will be ongoing, with a break for lunch. A POTLUCK lunch (soup or salad) will be served mid-day. Drinks and bread will be provided, as well as dishes and utensils.

We are cooperating with American Fork City in their Day of Service. Please keep track of the time you spend preparing materials. If you are making a quilt or other donation, please keep track of your time and report it at the Celebration or to Carmen Martinez, Celebration Chairman, and it will be reported to the City with the hours for other participants. The reporting ends April 9th for this project.

We encourage families to participate together in this project. Children coming should be able to stay on task to either sew at the machine, trim threads and fabric ends or help pin strips in place for the next row of stitching.

Additional sewing time will be scheduled after the Celebration to pre-bind the quilts for Project Linus using a quick-turn method. Please call Carmen, or sign up at the Celebration to help complete the quilt tops.

If we have not answered all of your questions, pleas email your questions.
tooquilts4u@comcast.net.

Quilt Celebration 2011 STRING ALONG WITH ME

We'll be celebrating National Quilt Day on Saturday, March 19th with our annual Quilt Celebration. We will be holding a day-long sew-in making quilts for Project Linus, preparing them for the children in our local schools to tie as community service projects.

This year we will be learning to make a variety of designs of "string" quilts, using up odds and ends of fabric scraps cut into strips. These strips will be sewn onto a base fabric making pretty blocks which will them be sewn into quilt tops.

You will hear more about this project in the next few weeks. Right now we would like you to start routing out your scraps of cotton quilt fabric for donation to this program. It will be helpful if scraps are cut into strips from 1-1/4-inch wide to 2-inches in width. Straight cuts are helpful! Lengths can vary. Place cut strips in a plastic bag and fasten so that edges don't unravel all over each other.

Follow-up sessions will be held to envelope (quick-turn) the quilts so they will be ready to tie in the schools.

We have made application to American Fork City to be included in their Week of Service to be held the first week of April. We hope to encourage the public to donate supplies or to make quilts in their homes, as well as help with the Celebration. We'll learn more about this later.

For those who want to make quilts on your own to donate, we need to follow Project Linus guidelines. Talk to Peggy, or check online at projectlinus.com. They include patterns and information at their web site.

Community Service Block of the Month

This year we are adding a new feature to our regular last Tuesday community service. At the monthly meeting you will receive a pattern or perhaps a kit, and during the month you will make a block or as many blocks as possible. At the following monthly meeting you will bring your blocks . They will then be used to create a quilt (or more than one) at the end of the month. Then you will receive another pattern to be sewn during that month. The style, technique and size will change from month to month. Sometimes the color scheme will be specific,. sometimes scrapbag. We hope you will enjoy this project and it will let us see a design complected more often.

On January 4th the first pattern was given out, a 4-patch variation. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

This is a finished 6-inch block. I think an additional 1/4-inch in the cutting of the triangles is helpful, and I would like bright prints used for the four- patches. Remember how great the bright prints looked in our stars? We need 48-60 blocks to make this quilt, so making as many as possible will be very helpful


I discovered a little tip while stitching the block. When joining your seams at the middle of the block, press the top seam toward you and the bottom seam away from you. This is opposite of the way we usually like to join seams, but it does have a purpose. When you finish your seam, hold the block with the sewn edges at the top. Take a seam ripper and release the two or three stitches above the seam you just stitched. Turn it over and do the same on the other side. Now finger-press all the seams so they are going the same way--around in a circle. You are not going to pay attention to which color is darkest. Carefully press the center open and you will find you have a mini 4-patch in the center! This is an Eleanor Burns technique that is very helpful with this block. Now if your triangles are pressed to the dark, all of your seams will butt and match . I also noticed that with this center release technique you can join lots of units together because the seams are always apposing Try this technique. I think you will enjoy it. I drew a little diagram that I hope will help. It's not the best drawing, but I hope it serves the purpose.


If you complete blocks before the next meeting you are welcome to bring them to the quilt room. I am truly looking forward to this project!

We have other quilts to work on and there will be plenty to do on Community Service day in January . We appreciate your suppor with our new plans.

Our Love to Jeani

With heartfelt sorrow we express our love to Jeani and her family in the loss of their son and his sweetheart on Christmas day. It is impossible to even imagine their grief on a day which is an expression of joy on a birth. Our only consolation is the knowledge that the celebrated birth opened the gate through which we are assured we will be reunited with our loved ones again Our love to you all at this difficult time..

2011 Brings New Project Plans

At the January meeting of New Friends, the following ladies accepted assessment (by election) to serve as board members for the next year:
Christina as President
Carol V. as Vice President/President Elect
Peggy (with Ruth B. as helper) Secretary
Carmen as Treasurer
Carrolee as Librarian; assistant Treasurer
Cathie and Marianne as board members
Judy B. as baby challenge chairman
These board members work hard all year to make all of our planned programs successful. Several members have accepted chairmanship of the beg events of the year and are planning some exciting adventures in quilt-making this year. Welcomed Board Members!

Our group is now officially chartered with the Utah Valley Quilt Guild as well as the Utah Quilt Guild. Thank you, Peggy.

SECOND WEEK PROGRAM
This year we are going to take a break from the regular second week block of the month, and begin a color study program. This program was introduced to some members several years ago in a special study group, and it was very helpful to all who participated. Some of us didn't finish all the projects, so this will be a good beginning for us, as well as new participants.

We will be using the book "Color from the Heart" by Gae Perry. Christina will have book availability information at our next meeting. There are seven lessons with a project for each one that helps you practice the concepts introduced in the lessons. They are not large projects and those who completed them were very rewarded for their efforts. Board members will take turns giving the lessons during the year, with a couple of months taken off during the summer.

THIS WEEK Cathie will be conducting the first lesson which will include information on fabric styles. She will give information on future class supplies. For our first project we need 2-inch squares of many colors, styles, print scale, and values. You need 80 squares, no more than two of each. If you want to exchange squares with others you can 4 squares from each of 20 fabrics. You will keep two of each and exchanged for the other half of the squares you need. The exchange is a good experience, and it is highly recommended.

CRAYON BOX CHALLENGE
The first challenge of the year was introduced by Cathie at the January meeting. It is a volunteer challenge concerning color, our group theme for the year. It goes like this:

From a basket you will draw two crayons. These two colors will be used to create a quilt-work of your choice at least 18-inches in size. You may use your choice of white, cream or black to go with your two colors, but only one fabric choice. You may add one additional color fabric as well.

Finished works are due in mid-June and will be in a special exhibit at the Steel Days Quilt Show this year. Cathie reports that 8 members have signed up for this challenge so far.. We encourage all members to participate and make this a successful project.