*Asterisk* Charity Quilt

A few months ago, I challenged the members of the Elgin Piecemakers to make 4 asterisk blocks each for a charity quilt. The pattern/instructions for these blocks can be found on the Selvage Blog. There was a big pile of blocks made which I divided into two piles.  This quilt top was made with the bright pile...

I put the blocks together and added the borders last night.

Now, on to the next project... We received the next clue for the "Stars for My Friends" mystery quilt at our guild meeting on Thursday. I am going to go and dig into the flannel pile and get cutting!

Charity Quilt Blocks and a Birthday Surprise!

My husband and I went out in the snow this morning to do some errands and then came home for lunch. He belongs to a model train club and they are meeting this afternoon and evening so that means I have the house to myself...to do some sewing!

I decided to finish off the rest of the charity quilt blocks for the sampler quilts that the Elgin Piecemakers Guild makes for adult chemo patients at our local hospital. The colours are decided ahead of time and each month, we each make a block for that month's quilt. Here are the blocks I made for March, April and May:

March's colours are "sherbert and white".

Brown, rust and cream for April:

For May's block, I made "Anita's Arrowhead" with lime green and dark blue:

Here are the postcards I made earlier this week for the Fabric Postcard exchange at the London Friendship Quilters' Guild. I put one in the mailbox at the meeting and one is winging its way to a secret recipient.

My birthday was on Wednesday. I had a very busy day at work that day. Half way through the afternoon, a delivery truck arrived with these:

They were sent to me by my daughter who is away at university!  She is in the middle of midterms and a pile of assignments right now. These flowers really brightened my day! 

We have not had much snow this winter but today we woke up to this scene in our backyard...

It is a great day to stay inside and sew!

I have already knocked a couple of projects off my to do list today--those sampler blocks shown above and I pieced the back of the quilt I showed you in my last post and it is now at the quilter's, in line to be quilted. I have one more goal for today... check back later and see if I get it done.

I am all caught up!

I finished the 3rd clue for the "Stars for My Friends" mystery quilt a few minutes ago. I am really liking how this quilt is coming along and can hardly wait for the next clue which I will be picking up at the London Friendship Quilters' Guild meeting later this week. As you know, I cannot show my quilt to you, but I have been taking pictures of it as I complete each step so I can post them at the big reveal!  Here is another sneak peek...

This is going to be a very cozy flannel quilt. I have often put a flannel back on a quilt but this is the first time I have made a pieced flannel top. This quilt will definately have a flannel back too!

I also made a block for the next Elgin Piecemakers charity quilt for adult chemo patients at the local hospital. This month's colours are pink, green and white.  Here is my block:

Next month's colours are "sherbert colours"...I will have to dig deep into my stash to find something for this block!

I have another UFO pulled out to finish off this week. I made this quilt top over a year ago and never had it quilted. I just have to sew one seam on the backing, cut the batting and take it to the long arm quilter's house.  I am not sure why I have procrastinated for so long...


I just checked back and it was actually over 2 years since I pieced this top....



Here it is with the borders. This week, it is off to the quilter's to get this project off my UFO list!

Merry Christmas! and Welcome Spring!

You read it right!  This morning, I finally got around to making a thread and snippet catcher for my friend, Pat. This is her Christmas gift which I just did not get done until now.  Pat is an avid knitter and has recently started to do a little quilting as well. 

I will have to dig out a Christmas gift bag to put it in!

My garden is very confused!  Today is February 4th and usually, we are in the midst of a cold snap and have snow on the ground at this time of year.  This year, no snow and it has actually been above freezing most days. I was out wandering around the yard today and found these:

My primroses were starting to flower!

The daffodils are up too.

Yikes!  Go back to bed!  It is not time to grow yet!

I am almost caught up on the "Stars for my Friends" mystery. Here are my trimmings from the 3rd step which is just about done.

Happy Sewing!

What do you think?

I rearranged my hexagons on the living room floor today. I took the bright pink block on the lower left out of the quilt. It just did not fit in. What do you think of this arrangement?

It snowed all afternoon here. I ran out and took a few pictures.

I finished the 2nd clue on the "Stars for My Friends" mystery quilt today. Only one more clue to do before I am caught up.

Hexagon Progress

I just spent the last hour or so finishing my hexagons for this quilt. I have not finalized the layout of this quilt yet. Any ideas???  I love the colours--very Spring-like!

Last Saturday, the Elgin Piecemakers had a sewing day at a local church. I worked on my mystery quilt all day long. I finished off the first clue--the centre of this medalion quilt--this clue was given out in October 2011.  I started the 2nd clue, handed out in November and finished 11/20 units for this border. I am not allowed to show pictures of my progress so a picture of my chain piecing will have to do.

10 days ago, Christine and I got together to sew and she has now finished her Roll Roll Cotton Boll flimsy. I have to get going and get mine done too!  I am too easily distracted by other projects :-(

Looks great!

This past Thursday evening, the Elgin Piecemakers met at my house for our monthly meeting. I aksed everyone to bring a 7" by WOF strip of fabric in one of three colours (pink, orange or yellow). I used my GO machine to cut the strips into tumbler blocks and started sewing them into pairs today. Here is my progress so far and a picture of all the tumblers on my "design floor".

These will be made into a quilt top for an adult chemo patient at our local hospital.

I also asked everyone to bring in their oldest UFO and to tell the story of when/why they started it and never finished it.  The oldest UFO owner won a prize! (A Patchwork Quilt candle--sorry--I forgot to take a picture of the prize!)  Shirley won with her 61 year old UFO--an embroidered table cloth that she started before she got married and never finished!

She just has a few yellow flower centres and some stems to embroider!

It was a fun meeting with lots of wonderful show and tell as usual. We also had some charity quilts displayed in various stages of completion: 

I will have to start working on next month's block--the colours are pink, green and white.

Happy Sewing!



I must be CRAZY!

I have a confession to make...I started another new project yesterday...

I was blog surfing the other day, quite innocently of course, when I found this hexagon quilt-along pattern at Jaybird Quilts.  I had a couple of BaliPops in my stash and I had been keeping an eye out for a project for one of them.  These hexagons are the perfect project for these batik strips!  I have had this ruler forever and have never used it.

It took no time at all to pair up the strips and sew them together.

I cut out enough triangles to make two hexagons with each pair of strips.

Then I had to decide how to put them together...

How about this one?

Or this one? 

I decided on the windmills and cut a few more triangles out tonight and sewed three triangles together to make the two halves of each hexagon.

There will be more colour variety as I cut into more of the strips but I am liking it so far. I will decide on the final layout once I have all the half hexagons sewn together.

The BaliPop set I am using is called "Sherbert".

I will have to see what I can find to make with my other BaliPop...  Do you have any suggestions???