Welcome to the home page of the Stitches & Stories Quilt Guild! We are about sixty quilters, give or take a few snowbirds, and we have been meeting since 1991. Some of us hand-piece and hand-quilt the old way, some of us have rotary cutters and are not afraid to use them, and one of us (she knows who she is) owns a long-arm machine and gets asked to Thanksgiving a lot. Beginners are very welcome. Nobody in this guild was born knowing how to sew a quarter-inch seam.

This page is kept up by the guild officers, mostly our secretary, who learned HTML from her son-in-law over Labor Day weekend and would like you to know that the tables took longer than a queen-size binding. If a link doesn't work, that's why.

The 1999 show is over and it was our best yet! Winners are posted below. Thank you to everyone who came, voted, bought raffle tickets and ate the lemon bars.

Second Monday of every month, 7:00 p.m., in the fellowship hall of the Methodist church on Church Street (go in the side door by the parking lot; the front door is locked after 6). Coffee and something sweet are out by 6:30 for the early birds. We are usually done by 9.

A typical meeting: business (short, we promise), a program or a demonstration, the block-of-the-month drawing, and Show & Tell, which is everybody's favorite part and always runs long.

Our eighth annual show was held Saturday and Sunday, September 25 and 26, 1999, at the community center, with 114 quilts hung (a record), a vendor mall, a raffle quilt and a bake sale that sold out of lemon bars by 11 on Saturday. About 600 people came through. Every visitor got a ballot, and here is how they voted:

The raffle quilt, a scrappy Bear Paw in autumn colors that twenty-two members worked on, was won by a gentleman from two towns over who said he had never won anything in his life. The raffle raised $1,840, which goes toward the comfort quilt fabric fund and the hall rent for next year.

Photos: our secretary's husband took two rolls of film at the show. The pictures are at the drugstore and will go up here as soon as they are back and scanned, so please check again in October.

Since 1994 the guild has made small quilts for the county hospital: crib-size quilts for the babies in the special-care nursery and lap-size quilts for the folks in the cancer treatment center. The nurses tell us the little ones go home with the babies, and the lap quilts get carried back and forth to every appointment. That is the best review a quilt can get.

So far in 1999 we have delivered 73 quilts. Our goal is 100 by Christmas, and with the November sew-in we think we'll make it. If you want to help but can't come to a meeting: crib quilts are about 36 by 45 inches, lap quilts about 45 by 60, all cotton, tied or quilted, washable, no buttons or embellishments that could come loose. Leave finished quilts (or tops, or even just fabric) with any officer, or bring them to a meeting.

How it works: make the block, bring it to the meeting, put your name in the basket once for each block you bring. One name is drawn and that lucky member takes all the blocks home. In September, Marge B. went home with 31 Churn Dash blocks, which she says is either a quilt or a problem.

October colors: autumn prints (rust, gold, brown, deep green) for the star, and a cream or tan background. All 100% cotton, please, prewashed if you prewash.

The Friendship Star is a nine-patch in disguise: nine 3-inch units, five plain squares and four half-square triangles. The block finishes at 9 inches (9½ inches unfinished, before it is sewn into anything). All seams are ¼ inch. Cut carefully and the points will meet.

Sewing:

1. Cut each 3⅞-inch square in half once on the diagonal, corner to corner. You now have four background triangles and four star triangles.
2. Sew each star triangle to a background triangle along the long side, right sides together, ¼-inch seam. Press toward the star fabric. You now have four half-square-triangle units, each of which should measure exactly 3½ inches square. If yours are a hair big, trim; if they are small, your seam is too wide, so check it with a ruler.
3. Lay out the nine units in three rows of three:
     Row 1: background square, triangle unit, background square
     Row 2: triangle unit, star center, triangle unit
     Row 3: background square, triangle unit, background square
   Turn each triangle unit so the star-fabric half touches the center square and the points go around like a pinwheel: the star point in row 1 leans right, the one on the right side of row 2 leans down, the one in row 3 leans left, and the one on the left side of row 2 leans up. Step back and look; if it doesn't spin, turn one.
4. Sew each row together with ¼-inch seams. Press the seams in rows 1 and 3 toward the corner squares and the seams in row 2 toward the center, so they nest.
5. Sew the three rows together, matching the seams. Press. Measure: 9½ inches. Give yourself a cookie.

Questions? Ask any officer, or come early to the meeting and someone will walk you through it at the coffee table. If you'd rather do a plain Nine-Patch, that is fine too: nine 3½-inch squares, five dark and four light, same layout, same 9½ inches.

The year-2000 challenge, to be revealed in December, involves the number 2000 and a great many small pieces. Start saving your scraps now.

Friday supper through Sunday lunch at the church camp up at the lake. Two nights in the lodge (bunk rooms, bring your own bedding and pillow), five meals, all the sewing you can stand and absolutely no housework. Cost is $85 per person. Bring your machine, your projects, an extension cord, a power strip, a cutting mat if you have one, and slippers, because the floor is cold.

There are 28 spots and as of September 20 there are 6 left. Sign up with the treasurer at the October meeting or by e-mail. The deadline for your check is October 11.

Last year's retreat produced nine finished tops, two finished quilts, one sprained ankle (fine now) and a rule about no rotary cutting after 11 p.m.

Dues are $15 a year (January to December; join after the show and you're paid up through next year). That gets you the monthly newsletter, the block-of-the-month patterns, the library of quilt books that lives in the trunk of the librarian's car, a discount at the two quilt shops in town, and the company of people who understand why you need another green.

Come to a meeting first as a guest, no charge. Wear something with pockets for your thimble.

Our online guestbook, guild-style. E-mail us a few lines about what you are working on and we will paste it in here. Newest at the top.

Ruth Ann — Sept. 27, 1999
Took down my show quilt Sunday night and found a pin still in the binding. Two years in and I still can't count pins. Starting a flannel rag quilt for my grandson, who is due in November and will not care about my points.

Dorothy R. — Sept. 26, 1999
Thank you all for the ribbon on October on the Back Forty. My husband wants everyone to know he is the one who thought of the name. He also thinks that entitles him to half the ribbon.

Bev M. — Sept. 26, 1999
I am still in shock about the first-quilt ribbon. For the record I unpicked the curves on that Drunkard's Path four times. Next up: something with straight lines. Many straight lines.

Marge B. — Sept. 18, 1999
Update on the 31 Churn Dash blocks: I have them on the design wall (the guest room bed) and am sashing them in a dark teal. It is going to be a quilt after all. Thank you, everyone whose block was not quite 9½ inches; I have learned a great deal about easing.

Helen K. — Sept. 9, 1999
Finished the feathered border on the wholecloth this week, just in time. My thimble finger has a groove in it. Bringing the extra lemon bars to the show; you have been warned.

Nancy D. — Aug. 30, 1999
Hubby found the fabric under the guest bed. Then he found the fabric in the trunk. The show quilt title is now official. The quilting is done and it is a lot funnier at arm's length.

Peg W. — Aug. 22, 1999
Basted the Amish Bars on the church hall floor Saturday morning with Carol Ann and Linda holding the corners. My knees would like to remind everyone that we voted for those long tables and never bought them.

Send us your Show & Tell!