Elgin Piecemakers' Charity Quilts

The Elgin Piecemakers met this past Thursday evening.  In January, we had each been given a bag of fabrics to use to make a charity quilt top.  This one was made by Pat.  It has been quilted and just needs to have the binding done. She used a disappearing nine patch pattern.

Heather fussy cut the centres of these blocks and added some brightly coloured borders on each block. 

Joanne attended an applique workshop and used her applique block as the centre of her charity quilt top.

I made this purple quilt top and Heather's husband quilted it.  Today's slow Sunday stitching project will be hand sewing the binding down!

Here is the top that was made with the black, gray and white  blocks we made.  My block will be on the back of this quilt--somehow, we had 17 blocks for this one.

We made another slab block quilt this year as well.  The blocks are 15 1/2" squares.

This month's blocks are pink, green and white.  A couple of people are still working on their blocks!  We always seem to end up with blocks that look good together!

I am off to get the binding onto the purple quilt now.

The Whole Flock

Christine came over for our weekly sewing night tonight....at least we try to get together to sew every week.  I finished off the last 4 chickens in my flock.

 

My daughter thinks the chickens need eyes.  Maybe I will add button eyes after this project is quilted.

Christine donated the Orange wing fabric for this chicken,

And the green wing as well.  

These chickens were fun to make. 

Here is the whole flock.  I just thought of an idea for setting these blocks....come back next week and there should be more to show.

Bye for now!

Hand-stitching this week

I was the passenger on a couple of car trips in the past week. I often fall asleep in the car when my husband drives so I try to bring along a hand-sewing project to keep myself awake and make good use of the time we are in the car.  Last weekend, I finished off my sashiko stitching which I started on our recent vacation. Some of the stitches are a bit uneven because some of the roads were a bit bumpy! I plan on making this into a small wall hanging. 

I also worked on the curly quilting of the sheep wall hanging I am making for my MIL for her birthday.

I am just about done the sheep but still have to do some quilting in the background. The birthday party is next weekend so this will be this week's project...Nothing like a deadline to hurry a project along!

The flowers on my dogwood bush are coming out today.

The bachelor buttons are out too.

I took this close up of the pollen on the stamens with my phone.

This columbine is called "Blue Jay".

My husband and I filled up the back of the car with annuals today for the pots on our front porch and backyard patio. Tonight, everything was planted and watered. Hopefully, there will not be any more frost! 

Happy Slow Stitching Sunday!

Adding to the Flock

Christine was her for a couple of hours last night to sew.  I decided to make a couple of chicken blocks to add to the one I made last week. 

I am using my small stash of 30's prints for my chickens.  The background is a pale yellow Kona cotton.  I made all of the beak strips and the red parts for the heads of the chickens last week so that makes it easier to make the rest of the block when I have a bit of sewing time.

There is going to be sashing and cornerstones between the chickens.

The flock is growing...three chickens as of last night.

Tonight, I made two more chickens--a blue chicken (if you look closely, you can see little chicks on the blue fabric!)...

And a yellow chicken.

Here is the entire flock so far:

I plan on making 4 more chickens before adding the sashing and cornerstones.

Meeting Erin at the Stitchin' Post

While my husband and I were on vacation, we spent a night at a Bed and Breakfast in Lexington, Virginia. After checking in, we wandered downtown to find a restaurant to eat dinner.  We walked by several interesting looking shops and did some window shopping. All of the shops were closed for the day, but we found a few that looked worth a return visit in the morning.  One of these was the Stitchin' Post.  I thought the name of the shop sounded familiar but could not place where I had heard of it before until I looked in the shop window and saw a sign with the owner's name, "Erin".

We went back to meet Erin the next morning.

When I introduced myself, she knew right away who I was.  We used to comment on each other's blogs quite often.  Erin has not had time to do any blogging in quite a while. Here is the link to her blog, My Patchwork Life.  I told her I missed reading her blog and encouraged her to get blogging again!  I just checked her blog and Erin is blogging again!!!  Hooray, Erin!  She has this same picture of the two of us on her blog!

Her shop is delightful--she teaches knitting and sewing.  She sells knitting, sewing a crafting supplies as well as items made by local crafts-people.  I purchased some threads at her store.

Erin made the seat cover for this chair.

The other window...

There are free quilting magazines in that basket.  (I did not bring any home with me!)

A view in the doorway of the Stitchin' Post.

There were interesting shops all up and down the main street in Lexington.  This sign was outside the shop next door to the Stitchin' Post.  It made me smile!

 

 

When we were walking back to our B and B, I noticed this decoration on the door of a house on the main street.  Very fun!

 

Slow Sashiko Stitching

I have been busy all day so far today with jobs around the house and other obligations. Now, it is time for me to have some slow stitching time out in the gazebo.  It is a beautiful sunny day and mama robin is sitting on her nest. The birds are singing and the flowers are blooming--a perfect day for some hand sewing with my feet up!  My sashiko project is coming along nicely--this will become a small wall hanging.  I may even do some more curly hand quilting on the sheep wall hanging today too.

 

Happy Mother's Day!

Chicken #1 and Stash Enhancement

Christine and I got together to sew on Thursday evening.  She finished assembling a quilt top and I made a chicken!

 

The pattern is from "Farm Girl Vintage".

 

 

 

 

The plan is to make 9 30's print chickens and make a wall hanging.

 

 

I would like to use this fabric for the sashing, but have not been able to find it yet.  If you know of a place where I can get some locally (Southwestern Ontario), please let me know.

 

 

 

 

On our recent vacation, I went to two quilt stores and some, (let's be honest---lots!) of fabric (and some thread) begged to come home with me...

 

Neutrals can always come in handy.

 

I needed these for my future hand stitching projects...







These 30's prints just jumped in so they can play with the others that I had already.

A sale is always hard to resist.  This flannel will become a backing for a charity quilt.

 

 

I see a spinning 4 patch in my future with this fabric.

 

 

My yellow and orange stash drawers were looking depleted.

 

 

Who can resist some eggs and chicken wire?

 

 

I have a friend who loves civil war fabrics so these came home for her.

 

 

I just could not resist these fun fabrics.

 

 

This chambray will get used for something--it was on sale too.

 

 

 

Just to keep me honest, here is my very red stash report.

 

Fabric used since my last stash report: 2.6 yards

Total fabric used this year: 20.6 yards
Fabric added to the stash since my last report: Too much! 23 yards.
Total fabric added this year: 39.25 yards
Net fabric added this year:  18.65 yards

 

I keep learning over and over again that resisting is futile.  I need to go and do some serious sewing now...