Quilt 'Til You Wilt and a Spring Topper

 

 

Last Saturday was Quilt 'til You Wilt day, organized by the program committee of the London Friendship Quilters' Guild. There were about 20 people in attendance and the sewing machines were humming.  I worked on completing the borders of my Lazy Sunday mystery (pattern by Bonnie Hunter). First, I assembled and added the green and white HST border...

 

 

and then the purple and white border:

 

I am thinking of adding another 2" border around the entire quilt so that the points of the purple wedges do not get cut off when I add the binding.  I am just not sure of the colour yet...perhaps white.  I will think about this a bit before completing this quilt.

Next, I started a new project. I, like many others, am getting a bit winter weary, so I decided to make a Spring table topper. I had a charm pack in my stash so I pulled it out and found some co-ordinating fabrics and brought it along to QTYW. I finished the flimsy and took it home at the end of the day to find some backing to quilt it.

 

 

Last night, Jacqui hosted a QNIC (Quilting Night in Canada) and I brought my table topper along with me to quilt and add the binding.

 





I did an organic cross-hatch quilting design.  Here is a picture of the backing which I found in my stash.

Tonight, I did the hand sewing on the binding.

Tomorrow night, I am hosting the Elgin Piecemakers meeting at my house so I will be able to show this table topper at Show and Tell.  I hope that Spring is not too far off so I can put it out on my table!

Until next time...

Just Playing

 

I have been working away at cleaning up my sewing room. I have not been making much progress and this is an example of why this is happening:

I bought the squirrel fabric and the co-ordinating solids at Mad About Patchwork a couple of years ago. While I was cleaning up the sewing room, I found the bundle of fabrics and got all inspired to play with it and make this block.  I was going to stop here but then, inspiration hit another evening and I decided to add some 4-patches.

I put it on the floor in the living room, just to look at it for a while. Christine came over one evening this week to sew and we decided it needed a solid border so I added some light brown with a little navy thrown in for good measure...

By this point, I had decided it was going to be a baby quilt for a yet to be announced baby. It will be a baby quilt in waiting...

Christine suggested the spiky border and I got one border done while she was here. The London Friendship Quilters' Guild is having a sewing day tomorrow so this project will likely come with me. I wonder what it will tell me to do next???

Last weekend, we visited my daughter for Family Day weekend and I had a chance to do a little basement shopping at Mad About Patchwork.  This is the first time I have purchased fabric this year and I really went to town! 

 I could not resist these two oranges and those little daisies!

Pam has lots of fun fabrics in her basement!

A few black and whites will never go wrong...

I had pre-ordered this squirrel and bird fabric and bought a solid and gray ovals to go with it.

I think this is upside-down...

I also replenished my solids supply.

Now, I just have to wash all of this and get it ironed so I can start another project...

Here is my slightly overdue stash report:

Fabric used since my last stash report:  .5 yards
Total fabric used this year: 11.85 yards
Fabric added to the stash since my last report: 20.5 yards(birthday gift!)
Total fabric added this year: 22.65 yards
Net fabric added this year: 10.8 yards

I will be doing the backing for my Lazy Sunday quilt very soon so these numbers will soon be looking much better.

Here is a picture I took last weekend when we went snowshoeing at Gatineau Park:

 

We had a wonderful time--it was bright and sunny and not too cold.

 

 

I am off to go and get ready for quilting day tomorrow. Have a quilty weekend!

Quilt for a Baby Girl

This quilt is for a very special baby girl who was born a couple of months ago.  The pattern is "The Stacks" by Karen Griska.  I quilted it myself using "organic quilting". 

There are lots of things to look at in this quilt.  Many have meaning for our family.  There are some sewing fabrics as well as bicycles representing some of our hobbies and past-times.

Spot the dog and Dr Seuss books were  favourites at our house when our daughter was little.

(Sorry this picture is upside-down!) The baby's family lives near the ocean so there are some lighthouses in one of the fabrics.

My husband's family had a scottie dog when he was little.  Oven mitts represent family meals together. Who doesn't love a sock monkey???

Some favourite foods are included as well.

A family member was a beekeeper and my husband is a model railroader...

The backing and binding are nice and bright!  One of the white fabrics has French words on it--my daughter is bilingual.

My husband and I and baby C holding the quilt up for her daddy to take a picture. Baby C has a good hold on the quilt too!  I did not get a close up of the upper right corner but there is some fabric with red maple leaves in that part--C's parents are Canadian but they live in the US.

I hope C and her family enjoy playing on and with this quilt for years to come!

I spent the afternoon yesterday with some friends sewing in my dining room. I worked on some charity quilts for the London Friendship Quilters' guild as well as the borders on my Lazy Sunday mystery.  Pictures to follow in a future post.

Here is my stash report for this week:

Fabric used since my last stash report:  4.2 yards
Total fabric used this year: 11.35 yards
Fabric added to the stash since my last report: 1.4 yards(birthday gift!)
Total fabric added this year: 2.15 yards
Net fabric used this year: 9.2 yards

Until next time...

A Package in the Mail

Back in December, I signed up for Craft It Forward at Jane's Sew Create It blog.  I received an email from Jane (in England!) on Tuesday saying that she had put my package in the mail. It arrived (in Canada!) on Thursday!  No complaints about the mail service here! Jane made me a lovely zippered pouch with a clear front for my sewing supplies and some chocolate.  Thanks, Jane!  Did you know that Jane is originally from Montreal, Canada?

I love her labels...(Maybe I need to get some of these made for me to use on my projects!)

Now that I have received my parcel, it is time for me to Craft it Forward.  Here are the rules:

Here are the rules:

1. I will make a crafty gift for the first five people to comment on this post and say that they would like to be a part of Craft it Forward! This little gift is a surprise, and will arrive to you anytime within the next 9 months.

2. To sign up to Craft it Forward, you need to commit to the project yourself. Once you receive the item from me, just post this (or something similar) on your blog so others can get involved. You then make them something and Craft it Forward continues on and on!

3. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favourite colour and that you want to participate in Craft it Forward. Also, please be sure that I have a way to contact you so I can get your snail mail address (do not leave your postal address in the comment!) so I can get your crafty gift in the mail.

It is another snowy/rainy day here so I have been inside hand stitching the binding on my stacks quilt. You can see that I am down to a much smaller bandage on my injured finger now. The stitches come out on Tuesday.

Here is my stash report.

Fabric used since my last stash report:  .7 yards
Total fabric used this year: 7.15 yards
Fabric added to the stash since my last report: None
Total fabric added this year:  .75 yards
Net fabric used this year: 6.4 yards

I will show more pictures of the completed Stacks quilt later this week.