Quilt Show Season!

Today, I went to the Oxford Quilt guild show in Ingersol, Ontario. "Pieces of Magic"--lots of beautiful quilts. Several showed different colourways of the same pattern such as Friendship Braid. They had a FB class at the guild. It was interesting to see how different the quilts looked with the fabrics that each quilter picked. I only took a few pictures. They had two places where the quilts were displayed--Trinity United Church and the Ingersol Art Centre. I took pictures of my favourite quilts at each site:

Lots of tiny pieces in this sampler!!!  Maybe I will try one of these one day as a new challenge to myself!

These quilts were made at a workshop led by a guild member who had learned about the Gee's Bend quilts. I picked the one in the bottom picture as my favourite at the Art Centre.

Tonight was the first meeting of the season for the Elgin Piecemaker's Guild. Lots of good show and tell. I had my camera but did not take any pictures.

Tomorrow, I have to be up bright and early for the London Friendship Quilters' guild show. I think I am Over-Dosing on quilt shows this week...

Ready for the Quilt Show

I spent most of the afternoon making labels and sewing them on the last few quilts for the quilt show. Finally, they are all ready to go! 

I have spent time over the last few days working on my nieces' flannel disappearing 9 patch quilts. Here is a sneak peak at one of the quilts, without all the blocks sew together yet:

The other one is still waiting for me to sew  the blocks back together after cutting the 9 patches into 4 pieces.

These are Christmas gifts --I am hoping to have them done early as I have some other gifts that I am working on as well.

I also finished off my Gee's Bend Challenge today as well.  We are getting together later this week to reveal our projects. I will post a picture after the big reveal.

Disappearing 9 Patch

Today, I spent all afternoon making 9 patches for two disappearing 9 patch quilts which I am making for my twin 11 year old nieces for Christmas. The fabrics are almost all flannel leftovers from the pyjamas that I have made for them for their birthdays each year. I have a huge basket overflowing with flannel pieces and it doesn't look like much of a dent has been made in the flannel stash so far...but I have plans to piece the backs of these quilts with the larger chunks of fabric. That should help to contain the pile a bit better!

This block is not sewn yet...I was demonstrating to my husband how I was going to make these blocks.

These quilts will be very cozy and will be full of memories of their warm pj's from Auntie Gail!

I have finally finished all of the sleeves on my quilts for the quilt show next weekend. Just a couple more labels and I am ready!

Yesterday was the last day of the International Plowing Match and my husband and I went to the match for the morning and early afternoon. I wanted to see the Square Dancing Tractors!  The show was put on by a group of male farmers from Teeswater. They have Farmall antique tractors and practice their square dancing moves once a week in the Spring, Summer and Fall. Believe it or not, I actually took square dancing lessons when I was younger so I knew what the caller was talking about as she orchestrated the dance of the tractors.

The "female" and male partners wore the same shirts but the "females" wore lovely skirts, and pantaloons with workboots. And, no, they did not shave their legs before the big show! This one kept "her" makeup in "her" purse and powdered "her" nose during a break in the action.

 

I wonder if any of them are quilters???

If you would like to see the Square Dancing Tractors, Rick Mercer was there on Saturday afternoon to take a spin on a tractor and this will be on one of his upcoming shows on CBC.  You can watch the show online at the link above after it has been on TV.

Sewing with Jacqui

This morning, Jacqui came over and we did a little sewing. Jacqui worked on machine quilting a table topper--she wants to get it done in time for our London Friendship Quilters' Guild show on October 1st and 2nd. She did not get it finished but it is well on its way to being done.

I worked on finishing up the units for the border of my Carolina Christmas quilt. (I really should come up with another name for this quilt--I am not using Christmas fabrics!)  I still have to finish putting my blocks together before I can add the border.

After Jacqui left, I decided to make a selvage thread catcher for myself. I have had the pattern for a while and I had even decided which fabrics to use.  I used some sewing themed fabrics for my project and fussy cut the pincushion fabric so the yellow and green pincushion would show when it was done.

I think I am going to work on some Christmas gifts now--I won't be able to show any pictures as some of the recipients read my blog. Happy sewing!

International Plowing Match and a Parcel in the Mail

Today was the first day of the International Plowing Match in Central Elgin, just west of St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. I volunteered in the quilting tent for the morning where I sold raffle tickets with another local quilter from the Elgin Piecemakers Guild. We had lots of visitors from all over the province and one lady was from Quebec!
This is the sign outside the quilt tent--Elly is the mascot of the IPM this year.
Here is my quilt on display. All of the quilts were covered with plastic in case it rained and the tent leaked! No rain today. Warm and sunny all day!

When I got home, there was a package on my front porch--it was my pumpkin wall hanging for the Quilted Table Yahoo group swap from Joan, a quilter from Denver, Colorado! She sent along a few goodies too.
Thanks Joan for the wonderful parcel!

How I Spent my Morning...

I spent my morning at Christine's house where we were working on piecing the borders of our Carolina Christmas quilts. We each got about 1/2 of the units done and hope to get the rest done before we get together again in a few weeks. Both of us are still working on putting the blocks together for the middle of the quilt as well. I have one row of 5 blocks put together.

We have already decided that we are going to work on another quilt together after we finish this one. We have a couple of ideas about what the next project might be.

My mums are in full bloom in the backyard garden--they are a nice bright spot in the garden at the moment. I had company yesterday and scurried around in the morning to decorate the house for fall before everyone arrived. Here is my table centerpiece:

I also put out my new Fall table runner on the trunk that we use as a coffee table in our living room.

I received a fabric postcard in the mail today from another quilter in the London Friendship Quilters' Guild. I had put one of my postcards into the mailbox at the last meeting. Isn't it pretty?

My Weekend Sewing

That's me in the photo above. I am hemming the drapes in my daughter's apartment in the city where she is going to university. We moved her into her apartment this weekend and I brought my sewing machine along. She groaned when she saw that I had it with me!-- I think she thought I was going to do some quilting!
We purchased the drapes at Ikea -they come with some iron on tape to shorten them but I think the sewing method works better. My husband hung the drapes and then I pinned them and used my sewing machine to hem them. The sewing machine is on her coffee table and I just moved it from panel to panel to sew the hems. My back did not like sewing in this position! She is all settled into her apartment now and even has her University Quilt on her bed to remind her that we love her.

Tonight, I sewed another sleeve on one of my quilts for the quilt show. Only 2 more sleeves and 5 more labels to go...

This week, I am volunteering in the quilt tent at the International Plowing Match just outside St. Thomas, Ontario. There's lots there to see and do so if you want an interesting outing, come on by!

Liberated Wedding Rings from the Edge

I picked up my quilt from the longarmer's on Monday and put the binding on it. Today, I sewed the sleeve onto the back while I was at Jacqui's so it is all ready for the quilt show. Karen C did a great job on the quilting--lots of feathers in the wide border and in the blocks. Here are some close ups of the quilting. You can see the design she quilted in the blue border in this picture as well as the feathers in each block.
This picture shows the feathers in the outer border

The backing material is called "Crazy for Dots and Stripes"--very appropriate for my quilt, I think! I wanted a random polka dot fabric for the back. There are lots of fabrics with rows of dots--it was harder to find random dots. I think the ladies in the quilt stores thought I was nuts!
The red binding is perfect!

And, here is the whole quilt--all done!
If you want to see my quilt in person, it will be on display at the "Harvest of Quilts" quilt show at Rowntree United Church on Oct 1st (10 am to 8 pm) and 2nd (10 to 5pm). There are many talented quilters in our guild and there will be lots of wonderful quilts to see. There is also the toonie table-raffle table with donated items to raise money for our charity quilt projects, a tea room and several vendors. The quiltaholics among you might want to make a quilty weekend of it and also visit the nearby quilt show in Ingersol, hosted by the Oxford Quilt Guild. Their show is Sept 30 to Oct 2nd.

Finally working on the borders!

Christine and I got together today and spent a few hours cutting out the pieces for the borders of our Carolina Christmas quilts. Neither one of us have our blocks sewn to each other yet so that will be our homework this week. I have started to sew some of my blocks together and will post a picture when I get it done.

Here are my pieces:
And here are Christine's:


I made another selvage sewing stool--this time in fall colours. I ran out of staples before finishing off the corners so they will look better when the corners are pulled tight and stapled.
Erin at My Patchwork Life asked for a sneak peak at my Gee's Bend Challenge quilt. I have finished hand piecing the flimsy--it is just a small wall hanging. Now, I am working on the hand quilting. I must tell you that it is very difficult to hand quilt corduroy and denim!
Bye for now!

A Mini Finish

Funny as it may seem, considering the size of this mini quilt, I had this quilted by a long arm quilter. Each block has a different quilted "medallion" on it and there are double loops in the outside border. The quilting was done with orange thread and I added the orange binding this afternoon. It is all ready for the quilt show now! I even have the label on! I love the bright colours and how they contrast against the navy sashing and border. (Thanks to my husband for being my quilt holder. He does a great job and is quite experienced!) This quilt was made from leftover HST units from my Carolina Christmas quilt which is still in the piecing stage...

I took this picture this afternoon of a hibiscus flower in my garden. My MIL gave me this bush a few years ago and it never fails to provide a lovely show of these dinner plate sized pink flowers late in the summer.

First Meeting of the Season!

Our first London Friendship Quilter's guild meeting for this year is tomorrow night. I have been busy gathering up my show and tell items, my items for the toonie raffle table at the guild show, my charity quilt for a foster child and a post card for the quilted postcard exchange. I made two cards today. One will go out to a family member and one will go in the mailbox tomorrow night.
Last night, Karen came over for QNIC (Quilting Night in Canada) and I put the borders on this top which I made last year. It is now ready for quilting. Tonight, I will do some hand sewing--sleeves for the quilts I am putting in the show.

More Homework...

I hope everyone had a good long weekend! My husband and I got our daughter off to university on Friday and then spent the weekend doing odd jobs (gardening, grass cutting, caulking windows, etc) here and at his parents' house (trimming trees and bushes, installing a small decorative fence, installing a small patio for their garden bench, replacing electrical outlets and switches, fixing a leaky faucet, installing a new light fixture (partly, anyway!), etc.) Much was accomplished and my in-laws were pleased to have all those tasks off of their list of things to do.
It's warm and windy here today. I went outside with my camera to check on what's in bloom. I noticed lots of beans, broccoli and peppers ready in the garden. I will have to go back out in a few minutes to do some harvesting! Anyway, our Sedum is out in bloom and this bee is enjoying the pink flowers.

This orange Mum plant is just about in bloom.
Our Rose of Sharon is also looking good!

Today, I worked on some more of my Carolina Christmas homework. I have the Fox and Geese blocks done. Now, I should get back out to the garden to do some harvesting before it starts to rain.

By the way, I did a little work on my Gee's Bend Challenge quilt on the weekend. It is all hand sewn and cut with scissors rather than a rotary cutter. So far, so good! I can't reveal my project until the group gets together to show their projects in October.

Doing my Homework.

This morning, I did some of my Carolina Christmas homework. I put 12 of these 16 inch blocks together and pressed them. This quilt also has 13 of the Fox and Geese X4 blocks in it so they are next in line to be sewn into the 16 inch blocks. That may have to wait a few days as I am helping my daughter to get ready to leave for her 2nd year at university for the next couple of days.

I registered 9 quilts and quilted items for the London Friendship Quilters' Guild "Harvest of Quilts" show yesterday afternoon. This took a while as I had to measure everything to make sure it was in the correct category and then fill out the forms (online) , save them and e-mail them to the person in charge of making the labels for the quilts in the show. Some of the quilts did not have names yet so I had to get the creative part of my brain in gear to come up with those. I noted that I have to do sleeves and labels on some of the quilts. I put one sleeve on a large quilt today while waiting for my daughter at the dentist's office. I didn't take a picture of the sleeve! I am reusing sleeves from other quilts that are now on beds instead of making new sleeves for the big quilts.

I am off to make supper now. We are eating fresh veggies out of the garden everyday now--tonight it is broccoli. Last night, we had green beans. They taste soooo good when they are just picked!