Swoon #4 out of 9

I made my 4th swoon block tonight. I am not sure  if the yellow is a bit too subtle when I put this block with the others. I may find myself re-doing this one. I will have to look again in the daylight and also when I have more blocks finished. What do you think???

Off on a Tangent

 Christine has been away at her cottage for the last couple of weeks so she came over tonight to sew with me. We decided to make some Great Granny Square blocks. I decided to put red solid squares in the centre of my blocks. I got my first one done and put it on my design floor with my 3 completed Swoon blocks. Then, I started pulling fabrics for the 2nd one. Here is the second one:

After taking this picture, I put it beside the first one and ...OOPS!  They are fairly similar in colour scheme in the outer two rows of squares!  Yikes!  I guess I will have to make at least 20 blocks for this quilt so these two will not have to be near each other! I will have to pay more attention the next time I work on these blocks.

Christine made one block and then finished off some other blocks for a quilt she started before her holiday.

Like Swoon, these Great Granny Squares are addictive!

I have another Swoon block cut out and ready to sew. I will try to do that tomorrow night.

Here are some more quilts from the Fabric Party Show and Tell last Thursday.

Cathy made this beauty:

And Chris made this applique quilt:

It is very inspiring to have such talented quilty friends!

Until next time...

Still Swooning...

I sewed most of the day today and made two more Swoon blocks. On the right is the block I made last night and the red, black and white one is the one I made this morning. 

This afternoon, I made a third block from black and periwinkle polka dots. The black fabric has sewing notions on it. :)

It rained here a bit this week so the grass is looking very green and lush--it needs to be cut. I will have to do that tomorrow night. The gardens are also looking great!

Pole Beans are in bloom.

Purple Cone Flowers

I may work on my flannel mystery quilt tonight, or maybe I should try making a great granny block...

Decisions, decisions...

Happy Sewing!

Swooning, again

I have decided to make a Swoon quilt. Here is my first block. The colours for the other 8 blocks will be taken from the black print in the middle star. I have the fabric picked for my next block and hope to make it tomorrow. This is a 24" block with lots of pieces. I will try to make a few blocks this week--no evening plans so far for this week.

Now, off to bed!  Good night!

Fabric Feeding Frenzy or Enhancing Our Fat Quarters...

Tonight, I hosted a FABRIC PARTY!  I had spoken to Pam from Mad About Patchwork a month or two ago and found out she was going to be nearby visiting her Mom and that she was going to have her fabric with her...   On a whim, I asked if she would be interested in doing a fabric party at my house for me and some of my quilty friends. She said "YES"!

I invited the members of the Elgin Piecemakers and some other friends and most said they would love to come!  A few could not come because they were on vacation.

My husband helped to bring all the fabric into the house. We set it up in the dining room and we were all ready when everyone got here.

The party started just as a huge rainstorm started. I had to provide towels at the door for people to dry off! It poured!!! We really needed the rain, but it would have been nice if it had waited another 15 minutes before starting!

We started with some show and tell and introductions. Here are some quilts that were displayed on my "design floor" this evening...

Jacqui's purple quilt--a wedding gift.

Roxene made this for a wedding gift--lucky bride and groom!

Amalia's "Quartered Squares"--taught by Pam last October.

Shirley's "Fire Escape"

Heather made this quilt for a baby boy.

This one is called "Frank". Joanne made this Frank Lloyd Wright quilt for her brother's king sized bed.

Pat P's paper piecing project

Pam taught this class at London Friendship Quilters' Guild last October.

"Through the Trees"

Charlene's solids

Pam made this quilt between Christmas and New Year's this past year.

Once show and tell was over, it was time for the fabric feeding frenzy!

Look at all those Yummy Solids!

Lots of eye candy!

After shopping, we all indulged in "enhancing our Fat Quarters"... Thanks to Karen and Joanne for providing our feast!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Fresh Fruit

And Peach and Strawberry Semifreddo

Delicious!

At the end of the night, everyone left happy, with their bags a bit heavier, and their wallets a bit lighter!  Here is my stash enhancement:

I need to do some sewing...

Thanks everyone for making this such a fun evening!  Some of the proceeds of the evening will be going towards backing fabric for the Elgin Piecemakers' Charity quilts!

Trip to the Bell Homestead

My husband and I had some major Aunt and Uncle time this past weekend when our twin nieces came for the weekend. On Saturday, we went on a field trip to Brantford, Ontario where we went on a tour of the Bell Homestead, home of the family of Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone and many other items.

We had a very interesting tour of the house where I spotted and photographed several quilts and household items.

The laundry was done out on the back porch, right beside the resting place festooned with a quilt...

Can you see the double wedding ring quilt under the dress on the bed???

I had not seen this block before--does anyone know what it is called?

Here is a close up--take a look at that paisley border!

My grandmother used to make doilies--I have a few of them that she made for me. This pretty one was hanging from a shelf in one of the rooms.

The stove in the kitchen was called the "Happy Thought" range!

Any one want to hazzard a guess about what this is?

(Clue: I work with the modern versions of this at my job)

We also saw a few Barn Quilts on our field trip day--this one was at the Bell Homestead and depicts the first telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell.

This Jacob's Ladder block was on the garage at the Red Red Bobbin Quilt Shop where there was an outdoor quilt show on that day with several quilts hung out on the clotheslines between the trees around the store.

Here are a few more of the Barn Quilts we saw on our way home after our fun day!

Musket Balls

Our Mount Pleasant Home

Patriot's Star

McAlister Thistle

Crossroads

I am looking forward to another road trip to see some more barn quilts soon!

Chasing Butterflies in the Backyard

I put the hamburgers on the BBQ tonight and ran inside to get this quilt so I could take a picture of it in the sunshine...this is the one I was working on earlier in the week--hand sewing the binding. This quilt will be donated to Quilts of Valour-Canada for a wounded soldier. I did not make the quilt, I just did the binding.

Here is another view, with my shadow in the corner of the picture. :)

I also worked on putting my flying geese in to small flocks...

While I was out taking pictures of the quilt, I saw a butterfly in the garden.

And another one...

And this blue one with orange spots...

I am not sure what type of butterflies these are, so if anyone knows, let me know.