05-19 Meeting Update . . . Seeing the Light at the End of the GIRLtopia Tunnel!

Today was unusual in that we had more sewing machines and more adults than girls!  But that’s a good thing as many of the girls are done with their blocks or have taken the blocks as far as they can.  So . . .with the two girls at hand, and the three moms, we put the finishing touches on just about all of the blocks.  Here is a status report:

1. Peace:  complete!
2. Love:  Fused, needs some applique.  On task for end of week.
3. Relationships / friendship:  done!
4. Respect for all humans:  done!
5. Shelter / homelife:  needs some hand sewing of a few details.  On task for end of week.
6. Safety:  done!
7. Equity / equality / balance / fairness / justice:  needs some applique and some more embroidery chain stitches; on task for end of week.
8. Education:  done!
9. Career / hobbies:  done!
10. Self-assurance / self-respect / courage / strength:  done!
11. Unity / solidarity / togetherness:  done!
12. Freedom:  done!
13. Happiness:  done!
14. Independence:  done!
15. Values:  kindness / forgiveness / honesty:  done!
16. Global conservation:  needs some hand stitching of a few more leaves; on task for end of week.

Proposed Layout:  Can you tell which block is which?

Believe it or not, it was not easy for our little group to decide how to arrange the blocks.  The two hearts looked better apart, as did the two trees.  The browns looked better separated as well.  The colors in certain blocks complemented each other.  Eventually this is what we settled on.  The missing block up top is Education which came together below.

Youkilis’ Education Block

The group overruled Youkilis’ design and added red chimneys.  After all, we did agree as a troop to try to use the red and/or green sashing colors somewhere in the block.  Youkilis’ freedom block was exempted since it was so historically traditional; however, we thought the red chimneys look awesome on this block!

TheSquid, Kamam, and Mrs. S were very focused today and finished Forgiveness, Independence, and Happiness.  Yay!  The group also convinced Kamam to add a cloud to her Safety block.  Doesn’t it look fabulous?

Kamam added a cloud to her Safety block.

TheSquid hard at work finishing her Forgiveness block.

TheSquid and Kamam were the only two girls in attendance today.

A small but focused group.

FSCsoccergirl was home working on her math homework but sent her Love block in for us to admire.

FSCsoccergirl’s LOVE block

Penny525 did not attend the meeting but did work very hard all morning on her blocks.  Here is a timeline of her progress.

Testing different methods for attaching small leaves.

Cutting out lots and lots of tiny pieces!

Attaching the leaves

Penny525’s Global Conservation block with many of the leaves sewn in place

Last-minute design changes to Shelter/Homelife

TheSquid and Linds’ Respect Block all complete

The Respect block center hand-sewn in place so as not to lose the details of the GS emblem face

French knots added to complement this symbol

04-21 Meeting

Today we watched “Intended Consequences” and had a short discussion explaining the video and listening to the girls thoughts and reactions.  Part of our GIRLtopia Journey was looking at the lives of girls and women in other countries.  Although the genocide campaign in Rwanda was 19 years ago, those families are living with the impact every day.

The troop watching “Intended Consequences” as part of our research

On a happier note, the girls got right down to business working on their blocks.  Only one more block was completely finished today, but that makes a total of six out of our sixteen.  The six finished blocks are:

• Career/Hobbies
• Friendship
• Peace
• Freedom
• Unity/Togetherness
• Safety

I missed the photo last week of Unity/Togetherness, so it is shown below followed by Safety and then other photos from the day documenting our progress.

Unity/Togetherness completed by AS1898

Safety completed by Kamam

AS1898 designing Courage

Courage block fused and waiting to be appliqued

Linds and TheSquid05 cutting out the Respect block pieces

Linds appliqueing the Respect block

Respect block partially appliqued

TheSquid05 appliqueing

TheSquid05 begins appliqueing the Forgiveness block

Youkilis2013 and AS1898 at the cutting station

Youkilis2013 cutting strips for her Education block

FSCsoccergirl finalizing the design of her Love block

Mrs. S, Mrs. W, and Mrs. T still friends after all these years!

04-16 Meeting . . . Slow and Steady Progress!

The girls are on spring break from school and everyone is very busy with catching up on dentist appointments, orthodontist appointments, track practice, softball practice, lacrosse practice, shopping for spring clothes, and haircuts to name a few things on our lists.  Us moms agreed that we can only handle looking ahead 24 hours at a time on some days.  However, six of the seven girls made it to yesterday’s four-hour meeting during which they worked on the GIRLtopia quilt about half the time.  The girls are Girl Scout Seniors (HS freshmen) so socializing and catching up is just as important to them.  Plus, we had to stop for a dinner of pizza (yum!) and then some cake compliments of Mrs. S.  I apologize for the quality of these pictures but I am hobbled by an old phone and do not qualify for an upgrade for some time yet.  (We will meet again on Sunday and I will make an effort to bring a real camera.)  Here is what we accomplished:

• Youkilis2013 finished piecing her Freedom block and look how nicely her seams align.  As soon as the last seam was pressed, she began designing her Education block.  She starting with the idea of a pieced school house; changed her mind to a School Zone sign; then went back to the idea of a pieced school house.  Does anyone have a simple 12×12 school house pattern to suggest to Youkilis2013?
  
  

  Finished FREEDOM block

  

  Trimming loose threads

  

  Schoolhouse pattern under consideration

• FSCsoccergirl had already finished her Peace block so she worked on her Love block.  So far she is playing around with the idea of two hearts and two people (extra from AS1898’s Togetherness block).  She had thought of two equal-sized people (adults) with two smaller people (children) representing a family, but now prefers the idea of two people in love.  We can’t wait to see how her ideas blossom between now and Sunday!
  

  The beginning of LOVE . . .

• AS1898 finished her Togetherness block.  That was a lot of applique for someone new to this sewing technique.  Unfortunately, my phone shut down while I took that picture.  I will get one on Sunday!  That makes five finished blocks!  Woohoo!  She jumped right in to making a template for her Courage block which includes the Chinese symbol for courage.  AS1898 has never taken the easy route and her design contains the phrase:  Courage isn’t the absence of fear.  It’s using the possibility of your demise and doing your work anyway.  In the interest of time, we are encouraging her to shorten the writing (translation:  embroidery stitches) to the simple word Courage.  Since we plan on having descriptions of each block on display with the quilt, she could include the entire phrase then.  (We also thought that she had too many people on her Togetherness block yet she persevered and is one of the first three girls with a completed block.  So keep checking back with us.  She may surprise us all.)
  

  COURAGE conceptual sketch

• Penny525 is still cutting out pieces for her Shelter/Homelife block.  She now has many tiny cutouts ready for fusing for both blocks and a lot of applique in her near future (Sunday!).  Her Shelter/Homelife block is looking very sweet!  I like how FSCsoccergirl’s Love block will link to AS1898’s Togetherness and Penny525’s Shelter/Homelife by using people from one and corresponding hearts from the other!  Nice job communicating girls!
  

  Shelter/homelife . . . every girl’s dream fairy-tale home

• Kamam added legs to her girl on the swing on her Safety block and began appliqueing around the dress and the tree.  Kamam’s spirits were not dampened despite having to switch from machine to machine.  I am quite capable with my own machine but useless at making bobbins and threading someone else’s machine!  We briefly thought she was angry when she would not respond to our queries but soon discovered she was wearing headphones and listening to music.
  

  It’s not this machine I’m smiling at . . . it’s my music!

• Linds came late due to another commitment but jumped into designing her Respect block.  Linds first wondered if the block should represent respect for race, ideas, religion, or some other form of respect.  She was then inspired by the Coexist sticker on her dad’s car and is using it as the basis for her design.  I will get a picture of her sketch on Sunday.  If you are unfamiliar with the Coexist sticker, here is one from the Internet.
  

  Inspiration for RESPECT block

• TheSquid was absent but we hope to see her on Sunday as she finalizes her Forgiveness block.
• Mrs. ToeMom had her finished Friendhsip block ready for display and came to help out at the meeting.
• Mrs. S is learning how to applique and even got started on her Happiness block clouds.  While waiting for a machine to become available, she added French knot embroidery stitches to make her sheep 3-dimensional and woolly.  Mrs. W discovered a 1971 embroidery booklet in her sewing supplies if any of you girls want to add some decorative stitches to your blocks.  Aren’t these sheep adorable and cuddly?
  

  French knots on HAPPINESS sheep

• Mrs. W lined up four of the finished blocks with the red and green sashing so the girls could get a sense of the finished product.   Sorry AS1898, but Togetherness wasn’t done when I took this photo.  😦  Since some blocks are brighter than others, we will need to play with the arrangement to achieve some balance. We need 11 more finished blocks girls!
  
  

  Getting a sense of the finished quilt!

• FSCsoccerGirl and Penny525 made lots of faces using scissors as props and did not cooperate while I tried to take their picture . .  so their fate is to be displayed with their goofy faces and blurred images!  Ha ha!
  

  Still cutting . . .

  

  Fun with scissors?

  

  Maybe I should cut my hair?

  

  Silly girls!

• Some group shots during downtime.
  
  

  Yay! Linds arrived in time for pizza!

  

  Still having fun in their tenth year together!