Enjoy the photos below, or click one of the following links for a bit of fun!!

Artful Needles of Idaho Year in Review

View Central Region's Fabulous Flowers Contest

Visit our Chapter page to see more of our members work!

2005 show photos need to convert over

Click HERE to enjoy the Sister Chapter Challenge Quilts ! :~)

Finished a project lately and want to see it on this page?
 e-mail us to find out how!!

 Betty Binder shared these two beautiful photos of her project!

 I completed my first applique project in years. I had so much fun and learned a lot stretching my comfort zone. I quilted it on my home sewing machine. I don't have stitch regulation so learned to guage my stitches when I used the free motion in the borders. I think I am hooked as I have started another applique project already. "A bed without a quilt is like the sky without stars."

 The final installment of the mystery quilt project.

Calla Lilly                             Nasturtiums

Another installment of the mystery quilt project.

Iris                                                              Pansies

TAS starts the New Year out right with a new mystery quilt from Bunny
Leighton www.bunnypublications.com  It will include 8 different flower
designs. When we are finished we will have a 40" wall hanging by this summer, if
we all follow along with the newsletter publishing schedule. Photos of the
completed blocks can be seen below.

Gardenia                                     Bleeding Heart

         Emperor Tulips                    Crocus

Teri Henderson Tope shares this photo of a quilt she donated to the Kids N
Kamp quilt auctions called
"We Get By With a little help from our friends" which is how the
organization is able to send kids and families dealing with childhood
cancer to camp.
www.kidsinkamp.org
42"x50"
It is Fused and Machine quilted 

TAS members Shirley Hammar of North Bend, Oregon writes "I was looking for a
simple/quick idea for Roses to put on an U of O Duck
sweatshirt and remembered your roses.  I fused the roses to some yellow
fabric and appliquéd the yellow fabric to the sweatshirt...I think they
look pretty good." Shirley adapted the roses from a pattern designed by
Jaydee Price called "Roses in Winter" which appeared in our Nov/Dec 2009
newsletter.

Connie Sue Haidle of Apple Blossom Quilts   is a great supporter of TAS.
She has donated a special project that will appear in our September/October 2009 newsletter.
It is called "Love Blooms". The blocks are easy and fun to do. Connie especially recommends
them for those wanting to do some machine appliqué or for our stitchers out there who still want to
work on some hand appliqué but find arthritic hands won't let them work on smaller pieces.
Below you will find three suggested color ways for the "Love Blooms" project, including one for Christmas.
If you are a member of TAS the patterns and complete instructions will be included in your
September/October 2009 newsletter. If you are not a member of TAS join today
and you will be able to receive this project along with your first newsletter.

Sharon K. Baker is the author of two very popular book, "Fabulous Flowers --
Mini-Quilts in Dimensional Appliqué" and "More Fabulous Flowers --
Mini-Quilts in Dimensional Appliqué".
Sharon will be our cover interview for the upcoming January/February 2009
newsletter. She has also developed a special project just for our TAS
members and part one will start in the January/February 2009 newsletter. The
project is called "April Showers bring Fabulous Flowers!". All that will be
required for this workshop will be the instructions in our newsletter and
one or both of Sharon's books. This project will be a great way to shake
those winter blues and get ready for Spring.

Hello quilters,
I wanted to show you my wall hanging made from one of the patterns in the
TAS (Nov/Dec I think?) newsletter. I used it as a "sampler" to try out
different hand appliqué techniques. I did all except one piece by hand...
but then quilted by machine! From Seri Mylchreest

Kathy McNeil sends us this photo of her latest work and says... “This is my
new quilt. All hand appliqué. Called “Pass it On”. I tried to include all of
the different fiber arts. Our greatest gift is our passion, pass it on. Best
wishes for 2009 all my passionate appliqué friends.” Kathy

We just received a note from TAS member Bernadine Heller-Greenman sharing her latest piece. Bernadine uses appliqué to create her base then lavishly encrusts her work with beads. This is the first part of a three part series. The reverse of this has two verses from an Emily Dickinson poem. Please enjoy Bernadine's photos and her beautiful work.

Allison Anne Aller share her technique to create this beautiful
interpretation of the Golden Chain Tree flower (also called Laburnam).
Part one, the hanging flowers, appeared in our November/December 2008
newsletter.
Part two, creating the leaves, will be in our January/February 2009
newsletter.
Allison is a very talented appliquér and Crazy quilter. To learn more about
Allison, please visit her blog.

Chapter leader Alice Palmer of The Nassau Appliquérs chapter of Long Island,
New York sends this note and photograph.
The group demonstrated appliqué techniques at the Folk Art Museum in New
York City October 6th 2007. Front Row: Betty Ann Calangelo, Linda Hershfield
and Olga Botwinick, 2nd row Dot Seelig, Helen O’Dwyer and Helen Beall.

Ann Cahoy from Kingman, Arizona sends in these photos of her completed
mystery appliqué...which se has named “Floral Mystery”. Anne writes “I
challenged myself to do this from my stash and scraps. I almost made
it...but ended up purchasing three fat quarters, to get the colors I
wanted!!! This project was a challenge and I had a great time doing it."

In this photo you see TAS member Patty Goodsell and her "Magical Medallions"
quilt. The pattern for this quilt was designed by Karen Kay Buckley. Patty
says of Karen, "she was my teacher and so supportive as I was making it, we
should all be so fortunate to have a teacher like her." The quilt will be
published in the Quilt Art 2010 Calendar.  Patty submitted an article to our
newsletter on her "Tweezer-turn Appliqué Technique". She was having problems
stitching perfect points until she had one of those "Ah-ha!" moments and
came up with a method that helped her to sew points so much easier. She
wonders why no one ever thought of it before.  Patty's "Tweezer-turn
Appliqué" article appeared in our September/October 2008 newsletter.

Peggy Brewer is the co-leader of the Sierra Needlers chapter in Auburn,
California and she has sent word about their latest quilt project. The group
makes a quilt for the breast cancer auction at Sutter General Hospital in
Sacramento. The auction is held every two years. Their quilts have always
been the top money makers for the hospital and it looks like they have
another winner this year and judging from the photos I agree. This year’s
quilt took every first place ribbon at the Auburn Quilt Show for a total of
five blue ribbons!

The Turning Point Chapter of Grass Valley/Nevada City, California sent us
this note.
Enclosed is a picture of Pam Ralli-Hodson (L) and Bev Morgan (R) presenting
the quilt we made to the Nevada Union High School band booster club. We
named it “For the Love of Music”. The appliqué blocks were made by our
members and then we had two machine quilters, Githa Navo and Carole Hribal,
finish it. The high school is selling tickets for the quilt to raise money
for all the band programs. Drawing to be held the 1st week in October 2009.

Sophie Keidel from Jackson, NJ sends this photo of her completed mystery
quilt. She writes "Thought I'd drop a picture to you of my mystery quilt. It
was the first time I ever saw an appliqué mystery. Loved doing it and happy with the results. Thanks for making it available."

These finished Mystery Quilts were done by members of the First Friday Fabric Stitchers in Glenns Ferry, Idaho and displayed at the Kuna Piecemakers Quilt Show August 2-3 at Kuna, Idaho.

 

TAS member, Judy Gentile of Lake Havasu City, Arizona shares her recent projects. "Mom’s Quilt" started out to be an exercise to improve my appliqué skills. I decreased the size of the designs to 7 inches. After 1 ½ years I finally finished the last block, my skills had definitely improved!

I also finished a block for the "Northcott Challenge 2008" which you can see here.

 

Joan Shay has written three books featuring her new "Appli-bond" technique. "Petal by Petal", "Petal Play the Traditional Way" and "3 Quilters Celebrate the 4 Seasons" all published by The American Quilters Society. Joan decided it would be fun to make a Baltimore quilt with Petal Play. In one week, she had designed the quilt and had completed the top. This 3-D Baltimore style quilt was created using her Appli-bond technique. Isn't it lovely? You can really see the dimensional flowers. Joan will have an article describing her "Appli-bond" technique in our upcoming November/December newsletter. She has also very graciously given us her "Grape Wreath" pattern that will also be featured in the same issue of our newsletter. You can see the grape wreath block bottom row center. The quilt measures 40"x40" and consists of nine 10" blocks and the border.

 

This quilt was designed and stitched by TAS member Seri Mylchreest. The TAS newsletter article about Ricky Tims’ Rhapsody quilts inspired Seri. It is about 45" square and done with broderie perse appliqué which was machine quilted. Ricky's book goes into detail about how to piece intricate curves-- I said "not in this lifetime" and decided to do the whole thing as one big appliqué. The pieces were all appliquéd onto the dark blue background and the broderie perse is sewn on top of that-- there's no piecing except in the border

 

A special thanks to Phyllis D. Miller for her mystery appliqué pattern of 2007. My sister, Diane Bennett, challenged me to start this project with her. Mine was finished in time for our guild quilt show in May 2008; hers I haven't seen yet. Come on Sis, I still want to see you finish yours. The picture was taken in a fellow 'Naughty Needlers' (Karen Wheeler's) rose garden, at our first annual anniversary luncheon of the Naughty Needlers. Thanks again, and I hope we will see another mystery project in the future. Naughty Needler Kathie Murtha

 

TAS member Bernadine Heller-Greenman shares her story on how she came to using luscious beadwork and raw edge applique in her work in our July/August 2008 newsletter.

We thought you would like to see examples of Bernadine's work in color. We are sure you will find her pieces absolutely gorgeous.

Carol Mesimer has donated all the patterns from her beautiful Baby Baltimore quilt project to TAS. The first series of patterns can be found in the March/April 2008 TAS newsletter. It is a stunning quilt and promises to be a fun project.
	TAS member Kathy McNeil from Tulalip, Washington has won the hand appliqué Best of Show award at Pacific International Quilt Festival for her quilt "Gone Fishin".  Kathy says "Lucky the puppy is quite pleased and so am I". Congratulations, Kathy!!

The East Texas Appliqué Society of Tyler, Texas made a donation quilt for the Azalea Quilt show of East Texas on 3-30/31-06. The pattern came from the book: “Pick-a-Pattern Appliqué & Variations” by Joan Waldman. The appliqué blocks were completed by needle turn and the sashing and alternate blocks were machine pieced. Machine quilting was completed by Kay Costner. A $4,800 profit from ticket sales was shared by Camp Tyler and the ARC of Tyler.

The Turning Points recently submitted a picture of a quilt featuring “Cats” for a local animal adoption/foster program. We, as a group had made double that amount of blocks. The other blocks were won (in a drawing) by a member, Bev Morgan. Bev is one of the founding members of “The Turning Points” TAS Chapter. This is a picture of Bev Morgan and her quilt that she completed with the extra blocks. The paws around the outside border are all pieced and she added quite a bit of embroidery.

The "As The Needle Turns" Chapter of TAS began a challenge in November 2006 for the appliqué mystery published in the TAS newsletter. Participants donated $5.00 to the "pot", and were given points each month for meeting certain benchmarks, e.g. stems completed, leaves completed, flowers completed, if they did any stitching that month, and if they brought it to the meeting for show and tell. A total of 28 participants (at the time about 80% of our members) started the challenge bringing the "pot" to $140.00. Several members dropped out, and these five pictured below finished the challenge and brought their piece to our December Christmas Party where the winner was announced. Nancy Brown, second from right, was the grand prize winner. Several other mystery challenge participants are close to finishing. Members used a variety of techniques to complete their appliqué including machine appliqué, hand appliqué, broiderie perse, bead and thread embellishments, and embroidery. Members enjoyed seeing the project develop, especially after the flowers were added. We must admit, the beginning months of stems and leaves were pretty boring! But, the flowers and embellishments added life and interest to the project. The As The Needle Turns chapter is located in The Woodlands, Texas.

Anne Peck, RCC writes...while I was visiting the new Sugar Land TX TAS chapter on October 27th, one of their senior appliquérs, Esther Mohr, had made the 10th anniversary TAS pattern into a large wall hanging to help publicize TAS at the quilt store where they meet. Denise Tipton has supplied us with photos of the Sugar Land group and the two ladies that made the quilt. On the left is Karen Shively, who did the machine embroidery and quilting. On the right is Esther Mohr who did the appliqué top. Denise says, “We are very proud of their work; I don't think there could be a better advertisement for our group.”

Three members of The White River Appliquers, along with a few others from our church, completed this quilt to hang in our sunday school area. The members of our group are Annie Wagar, Linda Shute and Jan Dawes. The quilt was completed in time for the 2007 Hill N Hollow quilt guild show and won an Honorable Mention in the group category. The group photo is of the Sew Many Blessings Quilt Group at the First Christian Church in Mt. Home, Arkansas. Three of us spun off from this group and are founding members of the new TAS group, White River Appliquers. The photo is L to R: Donna Bohaty, Barbara Koenig, Susan Svatek, Annie Wagar**, Ann Mann, Dorothy Patterson, Jan Dawes** and Linda Shute**. TAS WRA members are designated with [**]

Elsie Tolley writes: Enclosed please find two photos of "Little Brown Bird" by Margaret Docherty. This quilt was hand-appliqued and hand-quilted by the little lady in one of the pictures. Her name is Alice Fellers, and she is a member of the Busy Needle Turners of Stephenville, Tx. Alice is one of the very first members to join our group, when we first started. She does such beautiful work and has done so many pretty things that we wanted to share some of her work with others. Sorry that the Newsletter does not print in color but thought that it might be put on the website as well as the Newsletter. We are all so proud of Alice and would like to share her talent.

TAS member Val Ursulak made this quilt in 2007 from Aie Rossman's pattern called Affairs of the Heart. Val says " I named mine "Heart Parade". I met Aie, who is a Calgary, Alberta designer, at an Elly Sienkiewicz appliqué class in Calgary in 2005. Aie brought her original quilt to show and I was entranced by her wonderful choice of vibrant color and the lovely embroidery she used to enhance the blocks. Aie is originally from Burma and I thought the embroidery and some of the blocks were beautiful reflections of that culture. I entered this quilt in our Nanaimo Quilters Guild show last May and won first for large wallhanging and was awarded the CQA ribbon for Viewers Choice. When I sent in a photo to the Canadian Quilter magazine, the editor asked permission to feature it on the cover of the winter issue. It was also juried into the World Quilt Competition last summer and after traveling to 4 different venues in the States, it was returned safely to me just before Christmas. Every block was a joy to make as I fussy cut most of the hearts to take advantage of pattern or texture. I also used a lot of batiks for shading purposes. The border was done in reverse appliqué using a Caryl Bryer Fallert fabric called "Splash" for the bottom layer. I used black batting and a black floral backing and did the quilting free motion with black silk thread. Working on black was hard on the eyes but very rewarding for the dramatic contrast of the colour against the black. The size of the quilt is 61" X 61". That's the history - I hope you will find what you need here - but don't hesitate to contact me again if there is something else I can tell you. Val is the chapter leader of The Dimensional Divas who meet in Nanaimo, BC (on Vancouver Island)

For the past year and a half we have had the privilege of featuring an appliqué mystery quilt project in our newsletter. The "Mystery Quilt" was designed by TAS member and teacher Phyllis D. Miller of Murray, KY. We are starting to get photos from some of our members who have worked on the project. Their work is spectacular and everyone enjoyed Phyllis D. Miller's design.
Clara Gibson of the Cozy Quilt Appliquérs chapter from San Diego created this beautiful quilt and added a hummingbird to the center. Clara says "I couldn't wait for the border edition in the Nov/Dec newsletter! The hummingbird is from a pattern by Jane Townswick that I saved from a February 2007 "Quilter's Newsletter Magazine" ... I have been looking for an excuse to use it."
Sally Coble's shows her work in progress. Sally is from the "As The Needle Turns" chapter. Their chapter used the mystery quilt project as their challenge for the year. Sally is using embroidery to accent several places on her quilt.
Sandy Mitchell shows her finished mystery quilt. Sandy is a member of two Arizona TAS Chapters, "Spooling Around" and "Scattered Threads". Sandy and her fellow chapter members got a jump on the mystery quilt when they had designer Phyllis D. Miller come to Arizona and teach an appliqué workshop. This is Sandy's first attempt at hand appliqué and we can't wait to see what she does next.
#1 Fused Fabric Appliqué #2  Block with Paint #3 Block with inked details  #4 Finished block with background	Zoe's Painted Posie© 2007 La Veda Longfellow Myers has a wonderful article and lesson on coloring appliqué blocks using paint and ink in our November/December newsletter. These color photos show the four different steps involved
We have invited our members to write an article for our newsletter. This column is called "Creativity, Originality & Ingenuity...Members Share Their Experiences" The subject is of the members choosing and the subject should be something that inspires them or a favorite technique or even an experience. The author of the article chosen to run in the newsletter will win a FREE one year membership renewal. Our first column has been submitted by Denise in Massachusetts. While we did not have enough room to run all of Denise's photos in the newsletter we are posting them here for all to enjoy.	New York Beauty in Purple, Yellow, and Green; Pattern from a book by Valori Wells There's No Place Like Home; Pattern from Quakertown Quilts, entitled:  "All Around the Town" Truly Trapunto; Pattern by Keryn Emmerson of Australia
	New TAS member Bernadine Heller-Greenman has submitted photos of two mixed media wall hangings. The pieced and quilted fabrics also include glass beads with some larger Kazuri beads from Kenya and sequins. The beadwork is so intricate we are also including two photos showing some of the detailed bead work The quilt to the left is called Africa and is approximately 24" high and 16" wide.
The beading Quilt to the right is "The Writer" and is approximately 19" high by 18" wide.
	Joylene Bouma shares a photo of her quilt "Botanika". Here is what she says about the quilt: "I love Robyn Pandolph fabric so about 75% of this quilt was from her fabric and the rest batiks. Robyn designed this pattern "Botanika" and Amidon Quiltworks taught it as a block of the month class. The quilt is hand appliquéd and hand quilted and was finished in 2006. I used the freezer paper-spray starch method of appliqué taught by P3DESIGNS.COM. My daughter also likes this "turn of the century look" so the quilt now is in her new home".
TAS member Bunny Leighton has created this beautiful design to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of TAS. The design is called "10 Years of TAS" and was one of the featured patterns in our Sept/Oct 2007 Newsletter.
	Kathy McNeil of Tulalip, Washington. shares her beautiful quilt "Walk With Me". Kathy will be teaching at the 2007 Seabeck Retreat and is working on designing a special pattern for the class. Kathy’s website is www.kathymcneilquilts.com take a moment and visit her gallery to see some of the other magnificent hand appliqued quilts she has created.
"Bougainvilleas on Vines" created by Ruth Peskett, Centreville N.S. (formerly of Chilliwack B.C.) Ruth writes …When our quilting group went to Quilt Festival, Houston, followed by a Gulf of Mexico cruise in Nov. 2004. The quilt was designed and taught by Maureen Goldsmith, Chilliwack, B.C. I particularly enjoyed doing the bead embellishing. What a wonderful souvenir of our quilting trip!
	This quilt was made by the TAS maniacs in Plymouth, WI submitted by Chapter Leader Elayne West as a charity quilt for the Wisconsin Soldiers Home and is to be raffled off.  It is a pattern designed by Piece O' Cake.
TAS member, Bunny Leighton, designed "Christmas Morning" especially for our Nov/Dec 2005 newsletter. This charming wall hanging make a perfect Christmas project.
	We are running a series of butterfly patterns in the newsletter called "Butterfly Fantasies". These patterns were designed by Geri Waechter. Luella Kephart is a member of Geri's TAS chapter and created this quilt from Geri's patterns. Thank you very much for sharing your photo with us, Luella
These two wall hangings were created from the pattern "Stained Glass Star" donated to the TAS newsletter by Joan Bouwmeester and Debbie Bouwmeester-Fasek of Three Swan Studios. The patterns appeared in our Nov/Dec 2005 newsletter.
	TAS member, Lois Watkins, has donated several "delightful" patterns to the newsletter. This pattern, "Daisy Delight" appeared in our Nov/Dec 2005 newsletter.
	Detail of "Daisy Delight"
Linda Yantis, of Chandler, Arizona created this beautiful quilt. It is called "Springtime in the Rockies" and was one of our featured patterns in our Nov/Dec newsletter. Linda designed the pattern and very kindly shared it with our TAS members. To see more of Linda's work visit her website at: http://www.lindayantis.com
	I am a new member to TAS, although not new to hand applique. My upcoming exhibit of ten quilts will be on display at The Museum of American Quilter's Society Paducah, KY, this October-January. I would like to submit a JP EG for the newsletter of my little quilt, "Gifts of Love." MAQS named my exhibition after this quilt, which raised $16,000.00 for a 20 year old Leukemia patient that needed a Bone Marrow Transplant. I am thrilled that she has done very well and is getting her hair back. The story is on my website www.kathymcneilquilts.com  Thank you for the newsletter. I am so glad someone told me about this organization. Kathy www.kathymcneilquilts.com
This quilt, "Norway in Appliqué" was designed and stitched by TAS member Linda Yantis. Linda designed this as a block of the month series. She has been designing patterns for three years. We all look forward to seeing more of Linda's work.
"I Come to the Garden" is another block of the month pattern series designed by Linda Yantis. Note her clever use of appliqué detail in the border.

Please be courteous and respectful of others' original work. They have shared so you can enjoy and be inspired. Don't copy without their express permission!