QNIC with Christine

Last night, Christine and I got together for a little QNIC. We have tried a few times this winter to get together to sew, but the weather has not been very co-operative!  Of course, we had some tea and a treat--Cranberry Trail Mix frozen yogurt topped with bananas, strawberries and sugar free chocolate syrup...quite yummy!

I worked on cutting out some HST's for my Blue Ridge Beauty quilt. I am using the easy angle ruler, a la Bonnie Hunter. I started to sew them together last night and finished sewing tonight. I will cut them apart as I watch TV tonight and maybe iron them tomorrow night.

Christine worked on a little Maverick Star block and a pieced backing for a baby quilt.

It was fun to just sit and chat and catch up on all the news.

We hope to get together to sew again soon.

Spring... and a little sewing.

The crocuses in my garden are starting to bloom and, even though it snowed (again!) this week, they are doing their best to look cheery in the cold...

These daffodils had a thin veil of ice over them after the snow/freezing rain we had this week.

This chipmunk lives in my backyard and he came out for a while before it snowed to take a look at the garden. I have not seen him since it snowed on Wednesday.

This witch-hazel bush was just planted last year and it is in bloom too, although it does not look as happy since it snowed. 

The Elgin Piecemakers met at my house this past week. Our next charity quilt will be made from Asterisk blocks from the Selvage Blog. We are each to make 4 6" blocks--two with warm backgrounds and cool asterisks, and two with cool backgrounds and warm asterisks. Heather Stewart will be so proud of us when she finds out we are using the colour theory we learned in our Indian Orange Peel class in our next charity project!  I made my blocks today. See this link to the Selvage Blog to see how we are going to set them in a charity quilt or two.

I also finished off two more fabric leaf bowls for the CQA Quilt Ontario Show in May 2011 in London, Ontario. 

I may do some more sewing tonight... I will keep you posted.

Indian Orange Peel Class: Part 2

Today was the big day--we had our second and final Indian Orange Peel class all day.(Here is the post on the first class back in November.) Heather Stewart, our teacher, used one student's 4 patches and arcs to show an example of how to lay the blocks out.

Then, we paired off to help each other with our layouts and distribution of our arcs.

Heather made the rounds and gave everyone advice after looking through her peek hole to make sure we had the colours arranged to encourage the eye to move around each quilt.

It took all morning for each pair to figure out where to put the pieces and then label them all and pin them down to a sheet so we would not forget where they were supposed to be.The first picture below is my quilt.

Each quilt was different from all the rest and really reflected each quilter's personality and preferences.

There was so much eye candy, it was hard to stay focused on my own quilt--I kept wandering around the room to see everyone's progress.

Barb is a real keener and decided to make her quilt 5X7 blocks--she even had her layout figured out before she arrived today!!!

After lunch, Heather taught us how to do curved piecing so we could attach the arcs to each 4 patch.

This proved to be quite challenging and I think everyone had a chance to use their stitch ripper at some point!

Here is my finished block.

We also started making the "kites" and "u's" for the outer border. I finished one kite.

There was lots of sewing going on all afternoon.

Come on back again to check on our progress!

Charity Quilt Top Together

Chris and I got together tonight to put the red, black and white blocks together for our charity quilt. We had 15 blocks so we laid them out on my "design floor" in a 3X5 layout. Chris brought over some white fabric with small black dots on it which we used for sashing. I found some red in my stash for cornerstones. We decided on a plain black border (more fabric from my stash) and we will use some more of my red fabric for the binding.

Chris was recently in Florida for a month and purchased some dark gray flannel for the back of our quilt. Chris will take the quilt to the quilting man tomorrow so it should be ready for binding soon. Chris will take it over to the hospital chemo unit once I have the binding sewn on. We hope someone finds this quilt a comfort while they take their chemo treatments.

We are both happy to have the top together. We quite like it!

8 more done, 12 to go

I finished off these 8 arcs tonight and have 12 more started. I will finish the last 12 before Saturday. There is a lot more paper piecing to do before this Indian Orange Peel quilt will be done. We will have to organize some more Arc Support Group Sewing Sessions in the near future!

Red, Black and White

This block is for the red, black and white charity quilt that Chris and I are making for our local hospital's chemo unit to give to an adult cancer patient. We need 15 blocks for the quilt and 13 blocks were made by guild members. We are each making one extra so we can make our quilt 3X5 blocks. This block is from the Quilter's Cache and is called "Antique Tile".  Chris and I are getting together later this week to assemble the top so it can be taken to the quilting man.

I also worked on my last 20 arcs tonight but they are not done yet. I have to finish them by this Saturday when we are having our 2nd Indian Orange Peel workshop. I will post pictures when I have the arcs done.

It Snowed Anyway!

I thought putting the sign away would make the snow stop...but I was wrong. This is a tree in our neighbourhood yesterday morning.

The snow was very heavy on the branches of this tree. Today, it snowed a bit this morning before changing to rain so everything is melting once again.

Today, I made a cloth book for a friend who recently had a baby.

The family speaks more than one language so this book is perfect to read in both languages!

I am working on my last 20 arcs for my Indian Orange Peel...Stay tuned this week for pictures of these last 20 arcs.

I Won!!!

I got home from the London Friendship Quilters' Guild meeting tonight to find an envelope hand addressed to me at the front door. I had never heard of the person on the return address label!  I opened it up and found a cheque for $50.00 and a note inside.  The note read:  Please find enclosed the money you won as the 2nd prize in the quilt block challenge. Thank you for participating. It was quite a nice display. We are now making 4 quilts, of those, 2 are finished and 2 are being put together. They look terrific.  Louise M., Chair of the Quilt Committee. Prescott and Russell 2011 International Plowing Match and Rural Expo.

I purchased the material to make this block at last September's plowing match in St. Thomas/Central Elgin and made this block to enter into the contest.

Now, I guess I will have to try to go to the plowing match to see the quilts that have been made from all of the blocks entered in the contest! Here is the link to pictures of the three winning blocks. Go to "Country Living" and then "Quilting" and then "Quilt Block Challenge Winners".

Leaf Bowls and a Fabric Postcard

The London Friendship Quilters' Guild meets this week and I decided to make a postcard for the monthly postcard exchange. Do you need a quilting bee???  I love to get together with my quilting friends to chat and sew. We have not done this lately...we need to get together again soon!

The Canadian Quilters' Asscociation is holding their annual show "Quilt Ontario" in London in May this year. The call has gone out for volunteers to make these leaf bowls, designed by the Quilt Rat, for the banquet. Each person at the banquet will receive a leaf bowl with some quilting goodies in it. I made two bowls this week and hope to make a few more to donate to the cause.

By the way, since I put my "Let it Snow" sign away, we have had lots of rain and only a few flakes of snow!  I think it is working!!! 

I am so sorry...it is all my fault!

Back in early December, I decorated my house with all my snowmen and Christmas stuff. I put this sign up on my mantle, quite innocently, but it worked. The day after I put it up, the snow started and we just keep getting more and more snow. Even though we have had a couple of thaws, it snowed again and again, and now the ground is still white.

I just want everyone to know that I have put my sign and all my snowmen away in a bin in the basement. I am sorry I left them out so long...

I need to get a "Welcome Spring" sign to put up on my mantle...

I hope to see some of these soon:

I saw some green shoots in the spot where these grow during the last thaw.