This Week's Sewing Adventures

It's been a busy week in the sewing room at my house!  The log blocks really did nothing to enhance my Oxford Quilter's Guild VP day challenge quilt so I removed them and made a few more HST's. I rearranged the HST's to my liking and then started sewing the rows together.  Most of the rows are sewn and the top two are sewn to each other.  I will likely finish this top this week. I love the Shweshwe fabrics I have used for this project!

I finished the embroidery on my Lupine quilt label this week and now just have to piece the back and get it off to the long arm quilter's house.  I like to have my label quilted into the quilt--it won't fall off that way!

On Wednesday, I attended a Traditional Variations class with Cheryl Arkison on Zoom.  We made variations of four different traditional blocks.  Cheryl encouraged us to play and have fun trying new things.  I decided ahead of time to use some batik fabrics that were in my stash, picking out some red, orange, green and blue pieces.  I will be using my blocks to make a Quilt for a Residential School survivor--a project that has been taken on by members of the Toronto Modern Guild.  

I made a 6" church dash block in the traditional way and then made a 12" block with "curved triangles" in the corners. 

My 6" pinwheel was made in the traditional way and the bigger block was made with half rectangle triangles.

I also made one liberated wonky star block and a couple of log cabin variations.  I used the leftover curved  bits from the churn dash to make a curved pinwheel block.  I still have lots of ideas and fabric left so more blocks will be put together over the next while until I have enough for a lap sized quilt.  I decided to stick with 6" and 12" blocks so it goes together easily.  

I finished hand stitching the binding on this quilt--the top was made by Maureen H. and she gave it to me to donate to a worthy cause.  Julie from the Elgin Piecemakers quilted it and it will go to the local women's shelter.  

When I showed all of my comfort quilt blocks a couple of weeks ago, someone asked me to show all the blocks that were made by members of the Elgin Piecemakers for each month.  Here are all the red and gray blocks for February.  One of our members will make a quilt top with sashing and cornerstones, and then one of our long armers will quilt it.  Another member will do the binding and then it will be ready to donate. 

Finn took my daughter's mitten outside this week while he did his business and then brought it back inside when he was done.  Silly boy!

I wound a ball of wool earlier today during a zoom meeting.  I am going to make myself a hat!  I have made hats for many others but have never made one for myself.  I hope to start knitting tomorrow for my Slow Sunday Stitching project.  I will link up with Kathy in the morning. 

Until next time, enjoy your stitching!

Libs Elliott Class: Embracing the Chaos

Last Saturday, the London Modern Quilt Guild hosted Libs Elliott to teach an "Embracing the Chaos" workshop.  I signed up for this workshop months ago, but of course waited until the night before the shop in my stash for suitable fabrics and gather my supplies.  I needed to find around 10 co-ordinating fat quarters --I started with the fabric in the middle of this photo and added the other fabrics to the pile.  I ended up using the chartreuse fabric on the upper right but not the yellow on the upper left. 

Some of these fabrics have been in my stash for a while and a couple were recent additions.

Libs told us about how she designs her quilts using a grid and a randomizer on her computer to place pre-chosen blocks into the grid.

She brought along three quilts to show us and we spent quite a bit of time examining them and asking questions about how she chose her fabrics, colours and how she put the blocks together to make her quilts.

She recently was asked by Absolut vodka to design a special label for their Canada 150 bottles.  Several of the quilters brought along their bottles for her to sign.  (All bottles remained sealed during the workshop!)

Some people used pencil crayons to colour their designs before cutting into their fabrics but I jumped into using fabric and picked the fabrics as I went along making the blocks.

By the end of the day, I had all my blocks pieced except one. I pinned my rows together and labeled them so that I would be able to lay them out when I got home.

Earlier this week, I put my last block together and sewed all the blocks into a 30 by 30" flimsy.  I have picked out some thread for quilting and just need to get this top pin basted and quilted.  I will do another post when it is done.  This was a fun workshop and I would recommend taking a class with Libs if you ever get a chance.