Pillowcases done! Now on to a New Project...

I have been on somewhat of a pillowcase binge lately...I am sure you have all noticed!  Today, I finished off all of the pillowcases that I had on my list of pillowcases to make. Most are gifts for others but today, I also made one for myself!  It is the light coloured one on the far right in the picture above. The fabric has a subtle sewing theme which you will be able to see if you click on the picture below.

The music pillowcase, far left in the photo below, was given to my Dad for Father's Day. He has been playing the fiddle since he was very young--5 years old--and he is now 81!

The funnest part of making these pillowcases is picking out fabric that is appropriate for the recipient.

I made a knitting themed pillowcase for my friend who did some knitting for me this past winter.

Next week, Christine and I are going to get together to start working on Bonnie Hunter's Roll Roll Cotton Boll mystery quilt. Since we already have seen the completed quilts that others have made, it is no longer a mystery to us. We are going to start with Step 2--I did part of the cutting out this morning. We had decided to go this far before we get together next week to start sewing.

The Elgin Piecemakers had their annual June dinner at one of our members' homes. Her husband took the afternoon off and spent hours preparing a gourmet meal for us. He is an excellent cook. I forgot to take pictures of the food before we ate!--sorry!  You can be assured that it looked, smelled and tasted wonderful!  Thanks for your hospitality D and S!  After supper, we had some show and tell.

Debbie made this purple quilt for her MIL and just has to finish the binding.

Joanne made this quilt for her sister. The red birds look like they are ready to fly!

This spinning 4 patch has an interesting layout--the large scale print the quilter used made some very interesting blocks.

Six of us brought our filmstrip blocks in for our next charity quilt. Here they are:

There are more of these blocks to be made. The one blue block will make a nice accent in this quilt.

I will try to do another post after Christine and I get together this week.

Pillowcases and a Twister Runner

I am on a pillowcase binge at the moment--Many of them are gifts and cannot be revealed yet but I can show you two of them that were gifted today.

I made this baseball pillowcase for my BIL for his birthday which we celebrated today along with Father's Day with a BBQ at our house. He loves to play baseball and hopefully, he will dream of his "Field of Dreams" while this pillowcase is on his pillow.

The border fabric has baseball bats and balls on it.

My husband's hobby is N scale model trains so I made him this pillowcase for Father's day. It is already on his pillow.

I also made another Twister Table Runner for a friend this past week. Last winter, she knitted a scarf, mitts and a hat for me.  I am also going to make her a pillow case but it is not finished yet.

Today, we met the newest member of the family. Let me introduce you to "Skye"--a border collie puppy that lives at my BIL and SIL's house.  He is 8 weeks old and very lively. It was fun to have him here today.
He was all worn out and had a nap under a chair late in the afternoon.

Stay tuned for more sewing projects soon.  My friend, Christine, and I have decided to tackle Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll by Bonnie Hunter and we will be getting started a week from Monday. I should also try to do some more paper piecing for my Indian Orange Peel...

Barn Quit Tour--Wardsville, Ontario

On Sunday afternoon, my husband, my father and I went on a Barn Quilt tour in and around Wardsville, Ontario.

All of the quilt blocks depicted an aspect of the lives of Margaret and George Ward, the founders of the community of Wardsville, population around 400 people.  George fought in the war of 1812 so this soldier block is near the site of the Battle at Longwoods.

Some of the quilt blocks were on barnsand others were on local buildings such as the one below. It is called "Carpenters Square"--George had carpentry skills which he used to build a home for his family and an inn.

Wardsville celebrated their 200th anniversary in 2010 and this Barn Quilt project was their special project to commemorate this occasion.

The Wards were not buried in this cemetery but several of their descendants are and there is a marker with many of the family names on it near this quilt block.

My father and my husband liked reading about the history of Wardsville as we did the tour. They were not as excited about the quilt blocks as I was :-).

One of the Quilt blocks was in Newbury, just north of Wardsville. Newbury's claim to fame is "Skunks Misery", a swampy area with Carolinian forest and many plant, animal and bird species.

Newbury has some very interesting park benches outside their town hall.

We will have to go back and do more exploring in the area again.  We did not see any live skunks on our Barn Quilt tour on the weekend!

As part of their bicentennial project, some women in the Wardsville area made a quilt out of the same blocks as on the Barn Quilt trail.  Here is a picture of the quilt, taken from their blog. I saw this quilt at the International Plowing Match in St. Thomas/Central Elgin in September of 2010.

If you would like to go on this barn quilt trail, you can get a map and more information at the blog.

Sewing on a Saturday

I spent much of yesterday sewing at my dining room table. I worked on my spinning 4 patch quilt, adding sashing to each spinning 4 patch. The blocks are not sewn together yet--this is a project for later in the week.

The "red" borders are actually a coral colour. When the quilt is done, I will take a picture of it outside and the colours should be better. I have a piece of the fabric used for the 4 patches for the outer border.

Here is my "Spinning Squirrels and Maggots" quilt made from some very interesting Australian fabric. I still have to add a label, but this one is basically done--ready to give to someone for Christmas!  Yes! It is only June, and I have one of my Christmas gifts made!

Thanks again to my handy quilt holder--my husband.

Yesterday, this chipmunk was scampering around our yard. He must have found something good to eat because his mouth was bulging!

I have a table runner just about done as well. I will post a picture after I get the binding on.

Memories of Quilt Ontario--the CQA show in London, Ontario

Quilt Ontario was held at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario at the end of May. My friend, Karen, and I attended the show and closing banquet. We were not allowed to take pictures at the National Juried show, but I did take this picture of Chistine's Carolina Christmas quilt at the Invitational show--all members of the organizing committee were invited to submit a quilt to this show. Christine and I spent 6 months last year working on our Carolina Christmas quilts together. Mine is not quilted yet, but will be soon.

Christine's quilt is spectacular! 

Karen and I volunteered at the banquet so we were able to hear and see "Dala" doing their sound check before dinner. "Dala" is a Canadian folk singing duo from Toronto who have been nominated for a Juno award and they were simply wonderful!

You can see the Leaf Bowls decorating the curtain at the back of the stage (The leaf bowls were designed by a member of the London Friendship Quilters Guild, Jill, aka the Quilt Rat)...There were also leaf bowls with candles in them on the tables...

And, in goodie bags at each place setting filled with thread, fabric, needles, pins, sewing gadgets, and little handmade items from quilters across the country.

Our napkins were even decorated with more gifts!

The meal was wonderful and then, after some presentations, Dala performed for over an hour. They received a well deserved standing ovation. I think I will try to go to one of their concerts sometime. I purchased one of their CD's at the end of the night to listen to in my car.

It was a wonderful day!  Many thanks to the CQA and the Local Organizing committee for such a terrific show and entertaining evening.

Spinning 4 Patch Blocks done...finally!

As you can probably tell, I have not had much time for sewing lately. The gardens and lawn have needed attention and family committments and work have taken up the rest of my time. But, this morning, I decided that tonight I was going to sew my spinning 4 patch blocks together before I went to bed.

I have been sewing off and on most of the evening and here are the fruits of my labour---33 spinning blocks.

I have purchased the sashing for these blocks and it is washed and ready to cut. That is the next job.

Here are a couple of close-ups of a couple of the blocks. I really like them!

I still have some pictures from the CQA Quilt Ontario show in London, Ontario a couple of weeks ago, but blogger is not co-operating to upload any more pictures tonight. I will be back again soon.