Mexican Stars Class--Part 2

Tonight, I went to my second and last Mexican Stars class at Pat's house. It was fun to see everyone's blocks coming together.

The fabric and colour choices made each block really sing, and each one sang a different song!

Seeing the colours that everyone used makes me want to make a second Mexican Stars wall hanging...

This is one of my corner blocks with the curves completed.

At the end of the evening, I had all my blocks together and took it home to add the stitching to make the curves.

Here are some of Christine's blocks:

And Karen's...

And last, but not least, here are Beth's:

I hope I have a chance to see each wall hanging when they are done!

Elgin Piecemakers Dinner

Tonight, the Elgin Piecemakers Guild enjoyed a wonderful gourmet dinner prepared for us the husband of one of our members. He has done this for us for the last few years and we all look forward to this meal!

It was a beautiful day today so we ate outside and did our show and tell outside until the mosquitoes came out and wanted to have us for their dinner!

Debbie made a delicious raspberry cake and I am hoping to get this recipe from her. She also made strawberry shortcake and brownies for the chocolate lovers...

There were not many leftovers at the end of the meal!

We were all asked to bring an ugly fat quarter to the meeting. Each of us picked one of the uglies out of a bag to take home. We are each supposed to make something out of it before our next meeting.

Here is my ugly:

I took a picture of all of us before show and tell.

I have a timer on my camera and ran to get into the picture after pushing the button.

Three chemo quilt tops appeared at show and tell.

Pat finished the brown, cream and rust one off completely! 

The blue and lime green one looks great too!

We ended our evening by sharing quilt blogs that we like to visit and a new pattern or book. I have such fun with this group!

I received some fabric in the mail this week from Mad about Patchwork (see the shops listed in my sidebar for the link)...isn't this rainboot fabric fun--take a look at those selvages--I can't wait to use them in an upcoming selvage project!

I have a couple of quilt tops nearing completion so there should be pictures soon.

Happy sewing!

Mexican Stars and some Rubber Chickens

I made this rubber chicken pillowcase for my husband for Father's Day. He has a rubber chicken that Santa gave him in his Christmas stocking one year. The rubber chicken has been on vacation with us a few times and has had his picture taken in many exotic locales...  These pictures were taken at Bouctouche Beach in New Brunswick. The rubber chicken had a travelling companion...Nutty the Squirrel, a beanie baby.

On Thursday night, Karen, Christine and I took a class to make a Mexican Stars wall hanging from my friend Pat. I finished off my homework yesterday and I am ready for the 2nd and last class this week. I am using batiks for my project.

I also made a bit of progress on my orange and yellow tumbler quilt. All the pieces are arranged and ready to sew together. It might rain this afternoon so I will try to get these put together.

My husband and I spent a few hours mulching all of our gardens yesterday--what a job!  Mulch mountain (4 cubic yards!) is no longer in our driveway! The gardens look great and now there will be less weeding to do. Here are a few pictures of what's blooming this week.

Echinacea

Orange Echinacea

Karl Forrester Reed Grass

Echinacea

While we ate supper, this robin worked on finishing off this nest on our light fixture at the back of the house. She kept making trips out to get more mud and then came back to add it to the nest. She did this funny vibrating dance in the nest to pat it down. We have had lots of nests before but this is the first time we have had one on this light fixture.

Guild Banquet, a gift, and a new project...

Last Thursday night, the London Friendship Quilters Guild celebrated the close of our guild year with a banquet at the restored CASO train station in St. Thomas, Ontario. Each table had a mini rose centrepiece.

We had a wonderful supper. The dessert disappeared so fast, I could not get a picture!

 Each attendee received a fat quarter and a booklet about the Southwestern Ontario Barn Quilt trail that has been organized over the last couple of years. Several members were talking about taking a road trip this summer...

Our speaker was Pauline Grondin who was dressed in period costume and spoke about Canadian Pioneers and Quilting. She must have been very warm in all her layers!

The man in the above picture spoke to us about the restored train station.

Pauline showed us some samples of quilts the pioneers made. Above, a yoyo quilt and below, grandmother's flower garden.

On Saturday, we celebrated my MIL and FIL's birthdays as well as Father's day with a bbq at our house.

My MIL loved her new Swoon table topper. Here is a close up of the quilting, done by Cathy S. in London, Ontario.

I took my cousin's wedding gift to Cathy to be quilted next. It is another Swoon table topper in fall colours.

I started a new project this week...another gift. This is all I have to show so far. I cut all the pieces out with my Go machine and will sew them together over the next week or so. Sorry the picture is upsidedown. I was trying to pick out colours for the borders.  I settled on Olive and Tangerine in Kona solids.  My living room has two quilts laid out on the floor right now, waiting to be sewn. I should get to the machine and get going on these projects!

The Big Reveal: RRCB is done!

I finally finished hand sewing the binding last night before I went to bed.  I LOVE THIS QUILT!  I love the colours!

 I love the fabrics!  I love how I can play "I Spy" with the neutral strings! (Can you find a violin?)

I love the pieced border too.

And, I love the quilting!  Karen C in Dorchester, Ontario did a beautiful job!  Her quilting really compliments the piecing. She used Antique Red thread and it really pops!

Did I tell you I love this quilt???? 

I can't wait to start another scrappy quilt with lots of pieces...but I have a few other projects to finish first.

Thanks, Bonnie Hunter, for a great pattern!

Swooning again...

Christine and I sewed together tonight. I worked on another Swoon block table topper and she played with some colourful squares for a new quilt project...

I am looking forward to seeing her progress on this colourful quilt!










I finished sewing the table topper flimsey together tonight and hope to get the backing and batting cut out shortly so I can take it to the quilter's house for quilting. This project will be a wedding gift for my cousin and her husband to be. I think these colours should look good on their dining room table. I consulted with the bride's sister and mother before picking out the fabric.

What's blooming this week, you may ask???

Black Lace Elderberry

Coral Bells

More Clematis

Until next time...

(My RRCB is just about done...pictures soon!)

Swooning on a Sunday Afternoon

It rained most of the afternoon today so I decided to work on my MIL's birthday gift. I have had the "Swoon" pattern by Camille Roskelley for several months and thought that it would make a nice table topper. The block is 24" square so I just added a white border and now it is ready for quilting.

What looks like red in the pictures is actually a dark pink. My cousin is getting married in July so maybe I will make a Swoon table topper for her and her groom. I will have to do some investigating into the colours they like before I pick out the fabric.

Tonight, I will be working on the binding of RRCB.