LFQG Sewing Day

Today was the annual summer sewing day for the London Friendship Quilter's Guild. I took along this charity quilt top all sandwiched and ready to quilt. I decided to quilt it organically with some orange thread. I added three lines of turquoise thread, just for fun as well.

The backing is black and white. I used white thread in the bobbin so the quilting does not show up on the back very well.

Tonight, I added red and yellow binding from scraps leftover from making this quilt.  Tomorrow, I will be doing the hand stitching on the binding for my Slow Sunday Stitching. 

I took these pictures in my back yard tonight. I like the texture of the quilting!  This quilt will be donated to my local hospital for an adult chemo patient. I hope it will brighten someone's day!

My husband and I went to the local farmer's market this morning and loaded up on fresh vegies and fruit. Tonight's dessert was delicious!

Getting ready...

This Saturday is a London Friendship Quilters Guild sewing day!  I have decided to work on quilting a chemo quilt for the Elgin Piecemaker's guild charity project. I made this quilt top a few months ago with some fabric that was donated to the Elgin Piecemakers by Pam at Mad About Patchwork.

Tonight, Karen and I pin basted it so I am ready for the sewing day!  I will be using some orange and turquoise thread to do some organic quilting.  I will be sure to show pictures again when it is quilted.

I have not done a stash report since the end of April...

Fabric used since my last stash report: 19.8 yards
Total fabric used this year: 73.65 yards
Fabric added to the stash since my last report: 11.75 yards
Total fabric added this year: 66.4 yards
Net fabric used this year: 7.25 yards

I am in the black and plan to stay there! 

Round Robin Results Party!

Back when it was cold and snowy, I spoke to a few quilting friends about doing a round robin. We would each make our own centre block and gather some fabrics that we would like in our quilt. Each month, we would receive someone else's bag of goodies and add a border to their block.  Cathy, Christine and Jacqui and I participated in this fun, and at times, challenging, project. We had a month to add a border to each quilt before passing it on to the next person. Each month, I would put the quilt on my design wall and try to listen to what it told me it wanted next.  Sometimes, that took a little longer than I wanted it to!

This past Thursday evening, we all got together in my backyard gazebo to exchange the finished quilt tops. It was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed tea and rhubarb kuchen after the exchange. It was fun to see how each quilt evolved. Everyone was very pleased with the results of our round robin! We decided that we would each share our own project on our own blog and then link to everyone else's blogs so you can go to see the other round robin quilts. 

I have always wanted to make a red and white quilt so I gathered up a variety of fabrics from my stash.

 

I had some lights, mediums and darks.

 

I found the pattern for this 16" block online (I can't find the pattern now so I can't tell you the source--if anyone knows, please tell me!--found it!  http://www.displacementactivity.com/2013/11/migration-bee-block.html)

 

 

Cathy was the first one to add a border to my block. The block told her it wanted to be set on point. She used EQ to help design her border.

 

 

 

Cathy passed it on to Christine, who added a red solid border and some cute little scrappy baskets.

 



Jacqui was next and she found the little bag of cut offs from my flying geese in the bag of fabrics. She used them to make some more flying geese...

She had a lot of cutting to do to make enough flying geese to go all the way around my quilt.

 

 

Jacqui also wondered if my centre block needed a frame of rick rack to make it stand out...

 

 

My completed quilt top!  (I love the rick rack!)

 

 

 

I am thrilled with the final result of the round robin!  I did not know what to expect when Jacqui opened the bag and took my quilt top out.  Thank you Cathy, Christine and Jacqui for participating and for the work you did on my quilt!  Now, how should I have it quilted...???

 

 

 

 

 

Jacqui blogs at  Treadle Quilts.

 

Cathy's blog is Eagle's Wings Quilts.

 

Christine can be found at Quilting at Balmoral Cottage.

 

I will link to their round robin posts later.

 

 

 







The Wonky House is Done!

I just could not put this project down last weekend!  I tell you, this hobby is addictive, but in a good way!  I took my little quilt outside when the sun was lower in the sky on Monday night...perfect lighting to see all of my hand quilting.

I started the house block at a workshop in September 2013 with Becky Goldsmith at Piece O' Cake. She was the guest speaker at our meeting and then 20 of us attended an applique workshop with her the next day.  I finished the applique within a couple of weeks of the workshop but did not get back to working on it until about a month ago when I started adding embroidery and buttons and then hand quilted it. The finished size is about 15.5" square. I plan on adding a hanging sleeve and displaying it somewhere in my house.

I even had Becky sign the label for me...

 This was a fun little project! 

My next handwork project will be a wool applique block started at a workshop earlier this year taught by Jill Buckley aka, The Quilt Rat.  (more embroidery and some beads this time instead of buttons!)



Wonky House Project continued...

This week, I finished off the embellishments on my wonky house applique project.  I added a few more flowers and some more grass.

The purple buttons are actually upside-down. I thought the back of the button looked more like a flower!

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I do not do hand quilting. I learned a long time ago how to hand quilt, but since I work full time, I have always chosen to pay someone else to quilt my bigger projects and machine quilt my smaller projects on my DSM. Since this project has been almost all done by hand, except the borders, I decided it needed hand quilting.

I used 1" green painters tape to do a 1" cross hatch on the house block. I also quilted in the ditch around the house and the tree.  Don't look too closely at the stitches... :-)

I have some more thread colours picked out and a design in mind for the orange and triangle borders.  With any luck, I might be able to finish this project this week.

Come back next week and maybe there will be a finished project to share!

Pink and Brown Charity Block

Each month, all 16 members of the Elgin Piecemakers make blocks in predetermined colours. Some members are known to make their blocks at the last minute before the meeting, but I like to get my blocks done ahead of time.

September's colours are pink and brown so I dug through my stash and found some pink and brown civil war fabrics.  I have been making mostly liberated blocks this year, inspired by Gwen Marston's  Beaver Island quilt retreats that I have attended the last three years. 

This month's block is made from four Kathy's Blocks.  Kathy is a long time BIQR quilter and she invented this block by accident one year and it became an inspiration for many quilts made by several of the people who have attended Gwen's classes and who have read Gwen's Liberated Quiltmaking II book.





Here is my block...

 

 

I have also been working on my wonky house block but you will have to wait to see my progress until Sunday when I will post pictures and link to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Slow Sunday Embroidery, Part 2

I have made a bit of progress on my wonky house block that I showed you in last week's post.  I have added a few flowers...

and some muntins in the windows...

a door knob...

and some grass...

and a flagstone walkway.

Perhaps I will have some time to work on this project again this week.

BTW: The new picture I have posted as my header was taken in Iceland at Pingvellir National Park.