4/24/16

Spring Tea

On March 19th the duClay Chapter hosted our annual Spring Tea and Stitching at the beautiful and historic Bensel House on the St. Johns River.  Members brought their own tea pots and cups along with a great selection of teas to share. 
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Brenda from Fancy J Catering, who is a great friend to duClay, provided a selection of tea type foods such as finger sandwiches and scones with clotted cream.
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Brenda always has wonderful desserts for our Chapter as well!
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The group enjoyed several hours of stitching and fellowship.   The weather was beautiful and some even sat outside to enjoy the beautiful view of the river.   Cathy from Inspired Needle was able to attend.  It's always wonderful to see and visit with her!
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Thank you to the Lynch Family for their generosity in allowing us to use the beautiful Bensel House for this event.  They have been a fantastic support of our Chapter and we appreciate them!

If you live in the Jacksonville area (or not), we'd love for you to come stitch with us and see what our Chapter is about.  If you don't live in the area, we'd really invite you to visit your local Chapter.  

4/3/16

Taste of English Paper Piecing Workshop

In March our Chapter hosted another Taste of Workshop - this time English Paper Piecing (EPP). Our instructor for the day was Denise Harkins who has previously taught one of our Taste of Workshops.
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EPP most commonly uses hexagons and our workshop did the same.  The class project was a cute little clock with hexagons on three sides.
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The kits Denise put together were so cute!
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Denise brought a couple of examples as to how EPP can be used.  Isn't this pincushion in the silver baby cup just precious?
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EPP is most commonly used in quilting - it's a great way to create intricate blocks that are very precise.
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Members had lots and lots of mini charm square to choose their color palette from.  Both traditional and modern fabric choices were available.
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Our members got busy quickly!
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Most everyone finished their project by the end of the afternoon.  We forgot to take a group photo of the finishes though!  
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A huge thank you to Cinnamons Quilt Shop for accommodating us - we had a last minute venue problem and they were able to help us out!

4/1/16

Taste of Hardanger Workshop

A really popular and well attended event our guild holds is our Taste of workshops.  We've had quite a few and in February we had a Taste of Hardanger.  Member JoyceAnne taught this workshop.  We try to keep the cost of these workshops low and this one was actually free.  
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JoyceAnne put together kits for the members who signed up and designed a small project for the workshop.  Since these are Taste of workshops, we like the projects to be small but enough for someone to learn a new skill and be sure they enjoy it before they invest in a larger project.  
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This is JoyceAnne's sample of the class project.   Very cute and would make a great ornament!
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She also brought a couple of other simple hardanger projects with different finishes.   It's often so helpful to see a completed projects in terms of gaining some inspiration.
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Unfortunately, we didn't get a lot of pictures of the class itself or the members projects.   Thank you JoyceAnne for a great workshop!    
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If you're in our area and not a member of our guild, we'd LOVE to have you come visit.  If you're not in our area, we'd really encourage you to seek out your local Chapter.  EGA is a good thing!