Old Red Coolers and Family Trees

My "Family Reunion"applique club was on Tuesday of this week. This is the one that I teach at Quilts Etc. in Sandy. We are into the club four months and everyone is having a great quilty time and all are coming along very well.This is a center tree block almost complete, just the leaves are left to applique. Each leaf has the name of a family member on it.
This months kit is an old red cooler and the word "generations" along with a small stitchery;
"we are who we are, because they were who they were".

Here are appliques for the cooler traced onto freezer paper and then onto fabric, marked around the edges of the paper and cut out ready to baste onto the background for applique.
She's working on the letters now.
Someone else has traced their layout for the generation block. The layout is see-thru and allows her to baste her letters in the correct position onto the background fabric before she appliques them on. Now she's tracing the letters onto the freezer paper.
She has cut the freezer paper letters out and is pressing them onto the right side of the fabric.
Next she will mark her turning line and cut out the letters leaving about 1/4" seam allowance past the freezer paper. She will remove the paper after the letters are glue-basted onto the background ready for applique.

There are about 40 students in this club. Some members come every month and some live too far away to come so the shop sends their kits monthly. Some members just come and pick up the kit and do it on their own.

Everyone stays busy preparing the blocks so that they can try to applique them throughout the month before the next months meeting.

Even though everyone stays busy, we get alot of visiting and catching up in!
We talk alot about the names that we have put on our trees and about family history. Some have shared memories of past family reunions or even reunions they are planning.

We enjoy each others company and also enjoy getting to know those who are new to the club.

The shop has a very nice large classroom with very friendly and helpful staff. I love teaching there and they always have lots of quilts hanging to inspire another project or two.

Well- back to work on block #5!