Guild Sewing Day

Today was our annual summer sewing day for the London Friendship Quilters' Guild. I brought along too many projects to do in the time available, as usual...  I did, however, make a list of three things I really wanted to get done before I went home.

First up...a comfort quilt top that Cathy and I worked on together.  These friendship star blocks were made by several members of the guild.  We managed to put the 35 blocks together and add the borders. Cathy will quilt this one and someone else will add the binding.

Next up, lunch!  I bought all of the ingredients (except for the milk) for my lunch at the local farmer's market this morning.

My second project was a baby quilt--I had made 14 of the blocks before I arrived at the sewing day--I completed the last 5 blocks and set them 4x5.  This quilt top was made from a jelly roll that had been in my stash for too long and needed to be used!  The solids were scraps leftover from other projects.  I have already picked out the backing and the batting is cut and ready to go.

This will be a gift in waiting for a baby someday. It is always good to have a gift ready in case a baby shower invitation comes in the mail.

I also brought along two quilt tops, one of which I hoped to baste before the end of the day.  This was my third goal for the day.  It counts as my slow stitching project for this week.

I will be working on this quilt this week when Christine comes over for sewing night this week. The other quilt will be basted and quilted once this one is done.

Another Baby Quilt Underway

I have had this jelly roll in my stash for a few years now.  I love the bright colours and decided to use it to make a baby quilt in waiting...a gift to have on hand.  

When Christine and Jacqui were here on Monday night for an evening of sewing, I made 10 of the 20 blocks I will need for this quilt.  Each "S" block is 10.5 x 10.5".  The quilt will be 40" by 50" so I can use one of my 2 yard pieces of flannel for the back without doing any piecing!  I will do the quilting myself.  

I am using up some solid scraps from my stash...there are lots of colours in the jelly roll fabrics to choose from!  

My purple cone flowers are in bloom this week!  

This week's sewing report

I have been working on a few projects this past week.  These friendship star blocks are for comfort quilts for the London Friendship Quilter's Guild.  They are not entirely sewn together here today but they are done now.  I just did not take a picture of the completed blocks!!!

This is 20x20" and is for the Elgin Piecemaker's Charity project--chemo quilts for adult chemo patients at our local hospital.  We are each making one block and will hand them in at our September meeting.  They will be cut in half both ways to make 10x10" squares which will be reassembled to make a quilt.  We were told to use red, white, yellow and blue strips of fabric.  I took mine out of my scrap bins.

Last night, I make the backing for my daughter's graduation quilt and this morning, I made the label using the selvages from the fabrics in her quilt.

This one says "The big bad wolf only has eyes for L'il Red".  It is called Grandmother's Wallpaper.

Hugs and Kisses for my daughter.  She graduated from university over a year ago from university but took a while picking a pattern and fabrics for her quilt.

Her fabric choices took me a bit outside my box...

Here is the label sewn by hand to the backing which is a brushed cotton...nice and soft.  I have to take this to the long arm quilter this week.   I just need to get the batting cut off my roll of batting.

I am linking to Kathy's slow Sunday stitching link up.

I hope to quilt another quilt this week. 

I'm Back with a Finish

I started making this wall-hanging months ago. I never imagined it would take so long to finish it!  There has not been much sewing time recently.  We are in the midst of some renovations at our house and much of my time was spent getting ready for the work to begin as well as getting the yard and gardens into shape for the summer.

 

I quilted the circles around the arcs using my walking foot--each line of quilting is the width of the foot apart from the next line of quilting.  I left the quilt laid out on my sewing table and went into the room to stare at it a few times a week to try to figure out what to do next.  How would I quilt the arcs?  the middle of the circles?  

 

After a lot of thinking, I finally decided to do a diagonal cross hatch in the circles...the quilting needed to be as dense as the rest of the quilt.

Here is the first circle being quilted.

I spent much of the day on Canada Day in my sewing room. It was a great way to spend my day off!

After finishing the cross hatching, I stitched in the ditch between the coloured pieces in the arcs.

I love the texture of the quilting. 

I took these pictures outside as the sun was going down. The sun coming in on an angle really highlights the quilting.

 

Here is the entire quilt, held by my most capable quilt holder!

 



Today, I added the binding and did the hand stitching in the car when we went to visit my MIL. I will be linking up with Kathy tomorrow with the rest of the Slow Sunday Stitchers. 

I used my safety pin fabric on the back of the quilt.

All done and ready to hang once the renovations are done!