Child's Charity Quilt

This past Winter, I won a package of charm squares from Kathy. I told her I would make a child's quilt for a foster child in care of the Children's Aid Society--a charity supported by the London Friendship Quilters' Guild. Over the last couple of days, I put this top together. I have more of the orange fabric to use for binding. I will have to dig into my stash of children's fabrics to find a backing for this quilt. I will quilt this one myself sometime this Summer so it is ready to donate at our September meeting.

Row of the Month--March (Yes! I am a little behind...)

For the last couple of years, I have participated in Claudia's mystery block/row of the month mysteries. This year's mystery is a row of the month with a theme row each month. By the end of February, I was caught up on January (snowflake) and February (hearts) ...and then I let it slide. I have printed the patterns each month, but have not kept up on the rows like I should have. This weekend, I did the shamrocks for the March row. I am hoping to get caught up again soon so check back for my progress.

Christine and I got together again this past week to work on our Carolina Christmas quilts. This time, Christine remembered her sewing machine but all we did all night was cut out the pieces for step 3. Neither one of us finished with all of the cutting--there are a lot of pieces to cut out for this step! Our homework for next time--finish cutting out all of the pieces for step 3 so we can spend our time together sewing! Here are the piles of pieces that we cut this past Wednesday evening:I finished my homework this morning, Christine! How about you????

A QNIC and Working on Step 2 of Carolina Christmas

Jacqui, Nancy, Karen and I got together last week and Jacqui and I worked on our braid quilts. We are making these quilts for cancer patients at our local hospital as a service project for our Elgin Piecemakers Quilt Guild. You can see the pictures of our braids at Jacqui's blog--I forgot my camera! Karen put the binding on a Christmas table runner that she started last November--it will be all ready now for this Christmas! Nancy worked on some log cabin blocks.

Christine and I finally got together again last Wednesday to work on Step 2 of our Carolina Christmas quilts from a pattern by Bonnie Hunter. I like the way these look!
Christine and I are getting together tomorrow night to start step 3. This is where my orange fabrics will start to show up...

Carolina Christmas--Step 2

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that Christine and I decided to make Bonnie Hunters Carolina Christmas mystery quilt together. We got together 2 times back in April to work on the first step. We have both been rather busy for the last few weeks so there was no time to get together to sew. Tonight, the stars aligned and we finally had time to get together to sew again. Both of us worked on Step 2--some cutting and some sewing. Neither one of us completed this step but we have given ourselves a bit of homework to do before we get together to sew again next week. Here is some of my chain piecing for Step 2. My quilt is blue, brown and orange with a neutral background. Christine's chain piecing is shown above. Her quilt is green, red, gold with a neutral background. Somehow, she arrived here tonight without her sewing machine so I pulled out my Mom's old machine and she used it. The yellow paper marked the 1/4 inch line for her seams. There is no quarter inch foot on this machine. Christine also cut out her green HST's tonight. I still have to cut out my blue HST's (my homework for next week...).
Here are some of my 1/2 finished step two units...Stay tuned for more progress next week.

LFQG Banquet

In June every year, the London Friendship Quilters' Guild holds their annual banquet before the summer break. Thursday night, we gathered at a local golf club for a delicious meal followed by a truck show and entertainment.
At each place setting, there was a little gift from the guild--a fat quarter, a spool holder made by one member's father and a spool of thread. The spool holder was made from a tree branch that came down in a storm and includes a magnet (the dark circle) to hold the needle after you have finished sewing (or while you get up to answer the doorbell or the phone). A small post keeps the spool of thread from rolling away. What a great gift!

The blue yoyo was made by a member of the executive. This year, for the first time, we had a choice of two entrees for our main course--salmon or chicken. I had the salmon and it was wonderful! The servers were told ahead of time that the people who ordered salmon would have a blue yoyo and the people who ordered chicken would have a gold yoyo.
After supper, we were treated to a trunk show and quilting songs by Cathy Miller, aka "The Singing Quilter", and her husband, John Bunge. All of the songs were written by Cathy and John sang "backup" or played along on his harmonica while Cathy sang and played her guitar. She sang about stashes and shop hops and quilting acronyms and had all of us "in stitches". John even had a solo--"The Quilter's Husband's Lament" which was hilarious! Cathy's quilts were beautiful--she is an artist with her music and her quilting! You can see pictures of the quilts at the London Friendship Quilters' Guild blog.


Cathy has 4 CD's and at the end of the evening, I purchased all 4. The first thing I did when I got home was to play John's song for my husband. Somehow, he could really relate to the sentiments in the song...

If your guild is looking for an interesting and entertaining speaker for one of your meetings, I highly recommend that you contact "The Singing Quilter".

I met a Scottish Quilter!

On my recent trip to Scotland, I met a fellow quilter in Kemnay, a small town near Aberdeen. "D" is a neighbour of my cousin and her spouse. When they found out I was an avid quilter, they checked to see if "D" was home. I was warmly welcomed into her home to talk to her and see her quilts, her sewing room and her stash! "D" buys fabric at a little quilt store in Old Meldrum and my cousin and her spouse even took me took me there. I bought a few fat quarters at the shop. It was much smaller than the quilt stores in Canada but had as much fabric as some of the stores here!

This quilt was a birthday gift from a friend who lives in Canada and includes pictures of "D" and the things and people she loves. It hangs on the wall of her dining room. That is a bead fringe at the bottom. The label was lovely as well and had the following poem on it:

Through these Cathedral Windowsare some scenes that will unfold.A life so full of flowers
from a garden edged with gold.This fabric holds a tapestryof memories old and new
and though there are so many more,
I've opened up a few.

What a beautiful gift! "D" has been to Canada to visit her friend and they have even been to Peducah! I am so jealous!


This castle wall hanging had 3D dragons in the corners and lots of shiny gold stitching.



"D" does beautiful applique! She is currently working on this flower quilt top. Most of the quilts that "D" makes are gifts for her family and friends. She is also working on a quilt for her grandson who is a sports fan.


This is "D's" Underground Railroad Quilt which is on her bed. I have a friend who has made two of these, one full size and one miniature!

It was interesting and inspiring to meet "D" and see her quilts. I am in the midst of making her a fabric postcard and will be mailing it soon.

I am still not doing much sewing. The mulch "mountain" in our driveway is slowly getting smaller. My husband mulches the gardens while I move plants, weed, and thin out the perennials. Soon, we will be done. I will try to get my vegie garden planted this weekend and THEN I will have some time for sewing...