What does the Fox say????

Christine and I get together for an evening of sewing most weeks.  A while ago, we decided to each make a small Fancy Forest quilt (pattern by Elizabeth Hartman).  We each had to purchase background fabric and we are using stash fabrics for the animals.  Goodness knows we both have an abundance of stash fabric!  This week, we each made four foxes. I am using bright colours for my animals and light gray Architextures fabric for the background.

 

 

Christine found some fat quarters in her stash that she will be using for her animals.  She bought some gray-beige fabric for her background. 

 

 

Next time we get together, we are going to make the thistle blocks...there are two in this quilt.  I have mine cut out all ready to sew together.  We are starting out with the easy blocks and building up to the more complicated ones.

 

This will be a fun project to work on together!

 

 

 

I bought a new plant for my perennial garden last week.  This is a pink threadleaf coreopsis.  





Sewing with Cathy

This past Saturday afternoon, Cathy and I got together to sew some blocks together to make a comfort quilt for the London Friendship Quilter's Guild.  Several guild members made friendship star blocks in red and blue for this quilt.  The blocks above were made by me!

It did not take too long to sew 35 blocks together and add the border.  I think this quilt really sparkles! Cathy will be quilting this quilt and another volunteer will be adding the binding.  We hope that more blocks will be donated at our September meeting so that more quilts can be made.

On the weekend, I cleaned up this corner of my sewing room and my husband and I put up the floating shelf above my cutting table.  The bins to the right of the table each have projects that need to be quilted in them.  My rulers are all organized in the ruler holder on the right side of the table.  Other corners of the sewing room do not look like this yet...  LOL!  The cutting table is custom made to my (short) height so that I don't hurt my back when cutting fabric.  (made by Eddycrest)

I spent some time on Sunday afternoon quilting.  This is the back of the quilt.  I will show the front when it is finished.  I hope to work on this quilt again tonight. 

Linking up to Let's Bee Social.

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!

Stormy Afternoon

It is pouring rain outside this afternoon so I am inside working on a sewing project.  I don't mind the rain at all...my garden and grass were thirsty and I needed some "me" time! I am going to link up to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching--something I have not done in a while.  I hope hand basting a wall hanging before machine quilting it counts for slow stitching!

 I worked on this project at the Modern Quilt Guild retreat back in April and now that I have figured out how to use the walking foot on my new sewing machine, I am ready to quilt it!  I am using the pin fabric for the backing.

The new machine is working well!  I have a plan for quilting this wall hanging with circles and curves, echoing the edges of the paper pieced arcs.

I am using the edge of the walking foot as my guide.  I took a class on quilting with my walking foot with Jacquie Gering in April too so I am putting my new skills to work on this quilt.

I did 5 rows of stitching around the centre circle and now I am working on the outside 3/4 circles. I will show a picture of the completed project later this week.  It should not take too long to finish quilting it.  I will have to decide on binding too--Do I use a bright colour or just more of the background fabric??? Time will tell.

I have not done a stash report in ages...

Fabric used since my last stash report: 22.6yards
Total fabric used this year: 61.1 yards
Fabric added to the stash since my last report: 21.5 yards.
Total fabric added this year: 67.75 yards
Net fabric added this year:  6.65 yards
Slow improvement in the numbers...

I have more quilt backs to make so this should continue to get closer to being in the black soon.

This peony is blooming in my garden.  This plant once belonged to my husband's grandmother. 

Have a good week.