Making Blocks

I have been sick for a few days this week with what my friends are calling "the crud".  Today was the first time I was able to do some sewing as I am finally feeling a bit better, thankfully! 

First up...the poinsettia block for Lorna's "Have a Jolly Little Christmas" quilt along.  I purchased the red fabric with the dots last week at Mad About Patchwork.  (I actually came home with several yards of fabric, but we don't need to discuss that now, do we?)

Here are all four blocks that I have made so far.  The next pattern will come out two weeks from now. 

There will be gray sashing between the blocks (same fabric as the background--I had to buy more at MAP!)

Next up, I made my next comfort quilt block for the Elgin Piecemakers Guild.  The colours for March are gray, white and yellow.  I saw this block online at www.abrightcorner.com.  It is called Scrap Bin Geese and is under her tutorials tab. 

The one I saw online had scrappy grays and whites with all the grays on one side and all the whites on the other side of the yellow geese.  I decided to try something a little different with my block. 

I am slowly working on the 2016 Bonnie Hunter mystery as well and did some cutting today for the half square triangle units.  Nothing to show yet...

I want to do some more sewing this week.  Hopefully, "the crud" has left the building!  

Sewing in the car

We took road trip to visit our daughter this past weekend so before we left, I prepped some hand sewing projects to work on in the car.  I had offered to do the binding on a comfort quilt for the

London Friendship guild so one evening last week, I made the binding and machine sewed it to the quilt.  I did the hand stitching in the car on the way to our daughter's place.  

The sun was shining, providing great lighting for my stitching.  

By the time we got there, I had finished the binding!  

Members of the guild made the blocks and the quilt was assembled by a member of the comfort quilt committee.  Cathy quilted it and I did the binding. It will be given to a member of our guild who needs some comfort and support during a rough time in her life. The friendship stars are appropriate.  

On the way home, I worked on some EPP plus signs...until it go dark and I could not see to sew.  

I had all the things I needed in my hand stitching bag that Cathy made for me for Christmas. I had material cut for 9 plus signs. 

I finished 4 plus signs and started two others.  I somehow lost the fourth piece of material for one of the plus signs in the car...I will just have to cut another piece so I can finish that one off. 

Although we have not had very much snow this winter, there had been no shortage of snow where my daughter lives.  On Saturday morning, we went skating on a 3km trail though the woods.  The owner of the trail has a seasonal business and decided to make a skating rink through the woods on his property so people could come and enjoy the scenery.  He bought a used fire truck to flood the ice and a Zamboni to smooth the surface each night.  As you can see, it was a beautiful place to go skating! 

The temperatures rose above freezing later in the day and the ice trail was closed so we are all glad we got to skate through the woods.  We hope to go again next year! 

I will be linking up to Kathy's slow Sunday stitching.  

Christmas Bow block

I have been making blocks for Lorna's "Have a Jolly Little Christmas" quilt along.  Every two weeks, another pattern comes out.  By Christmas, I hope to have a completed sampler quilt ready to snuggle up under on the couch in my living room.

Tonight, I made the bow block.  It had far more pieces than the first two blocks!  

Here is the completed block.  It took quite a while to make this block! 

I will be putting sashing between the blocks in the finished quilt.  Here are the three blocks I have made so far. 

I have another pincushion to add to my collection...this one was a birthday gift from my friend, Pat.

Isn't it cute???  I have a shelf in my sewing room where my pincushions are displayed and this one has joined the others on that shelf.  Someday, I will do a post about my collection! 

Bye for now.

Slow Sunday Stitching

This week, I finally got around to quilting the I Spy quilt that Christine and I put together for a Syrian refugee child who should be arriving in Canada shortly with his family.  I pin basted it on my kitchen floor.

We both have lots of I Spy fabrics in our stashes! 

I quilted it with a wavy line cross hatch with green thread.

I only had one oops in the quilting process when the edge of the backing got caught up in the quilting.

This was easily fixed.  Christine will be doing the binding on this quilt. 

I have decided to make two EPP plus signs each week ...it will take a while to get enough to make something, but slow and steady wins the race!  Here are last week's plus signs.

I love the bicycle fabric!  I have some more fabrics picked out for today's slow stitching.  

I brought home a comfort quilt from the London Friendship Quilter's guild meeting this week ...it just needs the binding added.  I like to do binding in the car or when I am watching tv.  I will post a picture when the binding is done.  

I will be linking up to Kathy's blog with the other Slow Stitchers. 

Happy stitching!  

Sewing Day with Friends

My birthday was this past week so I decided to invite a few friends over today to sew.  I have not hosted a sewing day at my house in many months so this was a great way to celebrate.  We had a great time drinking tea and coffee, chatting and working on our projects.

Christine discovered that her cat had sent a little gift to keep us entertained...

Christine worked on some elephant blocks for her Elephants on Parade quilt.

She only has two more to make!

Christine also made and machine sewed the binging on a quilt that we made together for a refugee child. 

Jacqui worked on her grand-daughter's flower garden quilt.

This quilt was designed at Jacqui's request by Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts. 

Pat was given a kit to make a snowman wall hanging by her sister so she brought it along and spent her time tracing the shapes onto freezer paper.  

Carol brought a suitcase full of UFO's and managed to finish off a few projects that had been lingering in her sewing room.  

She made a slab for the Canadian Quilt bee first to get warmed up.  

Next, she quilted a pillow cover and put the backing on it.  The fabrics in the pillow are leftovers from a quilt she made for a friend from his Hawaiian shirt collection. I did a demo for her and Christine about how to put a zipper in the backing of a pillow.  Carol also brought along a quilt top she made at the Beaver Island Quilt retreat a few years ago and we all came up with some ideas for quilting it.  She left inspired to get it quilted and bound! 

I worked on the purple four patches for Bonnie Hunter's En Provence mystery quilt.  I have done the neutral four patches and now, about  half of the purple ones.  

I don't have a lot of variety in my purple stash...

I made turkey vegetable soup and rhubarb crisp for lunch.  

At the end of the day, I made another pincushion with leftovers from a yellow one I made earlier this week. 

These pincushions are a great way to try out new quilting designs,  I used matchstick quilting on this one.

The yellow one was from one of the patterns I won from Crazy Mom Quilts. 

Jacqui gave me this nifty organizer for my small rulers.  She bought it at the office supply store.  Isn't it cute???

I need to organize another sewing day sometime soon!  

Elgin Piecemakers Sewing Day

Several members of the guild got together today at a local church to sew for the day.  A couple of weeks ago, I left a comment at Crazy Mom Quilts to enter a giveaway for some pincushion patterns.  To my surprise, my name was picked and she sent me the patterns by e-mail!  I decided to spend my day playing with my solid scraps and make some pincushions!  

I started with the paper pieced pineapple block.  It is 4 1/2" square--25 pieces.  

The block looks red and blue here but the red is actually orange. 

I quilted it using a grid with turquoise thread. 

Here is the finished pincushion, in use already! 

Next, I made some paper pieced flying geese.

I chose the colours from some camera fabric. 

My pincushions are filled with walnut shells, which are supposed to help keep my pins sharp. I quilted this one with straight lines. 

Next, I made a pincushion with some free pieced triangles. 

I had to dig through my scrap bag to find 16 different colours for the triangles. 

I quilted his one with organic wavy lines.  

Here is my collection of pincushions that I made today:

These are addictive so you will likely see more of them in future posts.  Thanks, Crazy Mom, for the patterns!  

For slow Sunday Stitching this week, I will be making more plus signs.  Here are the ones I have made so far...

I have picked out some more black and white fabrics for tomorrow's stitching.  I will be linking up to Kathy's  blog in the morning.  

More slabs...

This morning, I saw a video on the CBC website about the Great Canadian Quilting Bee.  I thought you might like to see it

http://www.cbc.ca/2017/these-quilters-are-making-1-000-canada-150-quilts-for-families-of-sick-children-1.3953624

I made four more slab blocks this week for this project.

I will be donating four through the London Modern quilt guild and four through the London Friendship Quilter's guild.

Each block has a bit of Canada 150 fabric in it.

Here are all eight of my slab blocks...

Tomorrow, I am going to a sewing day with the Elgin Piecemakers guild.  I need to gather up my supplies so I will be ready to sew all day!