A Few Odds and Ends (and a quilt show!)

Just because I have not posted much lately does not mean I have not been sewing. Today was the Shedden Quilt show and I put 5 quilts into the show. I have spent much of my sewing time in the last couple of weeks putting sleeves onto the quilts that were in the show. Hanging sleeves do not make for very interesting pictures or blogposts! Here are the 5 quilts that I had in the show:

This one is my version of Bonnie Hunter's "Blue Ridge Beauty"--I called my quilt "Feeling Blue".

"This Makes Me Dizzy"--my hexagon quilt.

My recently finished "Fractured Squares".

I gave this quilt to my in-laws--"Country Spin".

Me and my "Creamsicles by the Sea" quilt.

This was one of my favourite quilts in the show--it was made from 30's prints and was hand quilted. The colours are fresh and bright on the white background!

This one was made by a fellow member of the Elgin Piecemakers as a memory quilt. The blue fabrics are recycled jeans.

Christine and I got together on Wednesday last week and while I worked on my sleeves and my mystery quilt, Christine made this table topper flimsy from leftovers from a quilt she made for her son--a very nice use of her extra bits!

I picked up a small quilt from the long arm quilters this week and hope to get the binding on it tonight. Pictures to follow.

Happy sewing!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

So, I am staying inside today where it is warm!  We may get up to a foot of snow today.

I finished my in-law's quilt on the weekend--bound and labeled!  This means that all of my big quilty gifts are done and ready to wrap. This quilt is called "Country Spin". I learned how to make the blocks at a workshop in October 2010.

Yesterday afternoon and today, I have been working on some candle mats which will be gifts for people in my life that I want to thank. I don't think any of them read my blog so it is safe to show you a picture of the first one I made.

I used a Moda turnover to make my candle mat gifts. (Sorry, I can't tell you what it is called as I lost the label!)

I have more candle mats in production and will share more pictures when they are done.

Country Spin Flimsy Done!

I sewed all the blocks together and added the borders to this quilt yesterday. Now, I just need to find some flannel for the back and it will be ready to take to the machine quilter's house for quilting!  That's 4 Christmas gifts almost completed--I am not usually this far ahead of the game. I still have some smaller gifts to make so those are next.

Sewing Report

I have made progress on several project in the last few days so this will be a long post with lots of pictures!

1.  This morning, another member of the Elgin Piecemakers and I delivered 7 comfort quilts to the chemo unit at our local hospital. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that this is an ongoing project of our guild. This was our third quilt delivery. Here are a few pictures of our quilts.

Jacqui and I made these two quilts from one jelly roll. Jacqui divided the jelly roll into two colourways and we chose different background fabrics and sashing/borders.

Here are all of the quilts, except for the black, red and white one--it went home with the quilter to have the binding sewn down!

2.  Here is one of my nieces' Christmas gift--it is a disappearing 9 patch quilt made with leftover fabric from pj's I have made for my daughter, and my twin nieces over the years. It is back from the quilters and I put the binding on the other night. The back, as you can see is pieced. The binding is made from this year's pj's leftover fabric.

 3.  Christine and I got together to work on our Carolina Christmas quilts (Mine is now called Creamsicles by the Sea, as suggested by Christine!) I put the 2 1/2 inch borders on my quilt and put the pieced units together when we met at Christine's house this week. She is at the same stage as well. We will be getting together at my house one day next week and think we will be able to finish our quilts off then!  This is so exciting!  We are both looking forward to starting another project when these are done.

4.  I finished sewing the blocks for my in-laws' Christmas gift --a lap quilt called Country Spin.  I purchased fabric for the borders today and hope to find some suitable flannel for the back shortly. I want to take this quilt in to the long arm quilters next week so it will be done in time for me to put the binding on for Christmas.










5. My next big project will be Indian Orange Peel--a Karen Stone pattern. I am organizing a class for a group of quilting friends at the end of November. This quilt will definately be a challenge!

Country Spin

I spent some time this week working on the rest of my Country Spin blocks. I have completed all of the pinwheels now and have about 1/2 of the blocks completed with the sashing.  Here is a look at how the blocks will be sewn together.

I have been having a problem with the fat quarters I am using for this quilt--they are smaller than regular fat quarters!  The cutting for this quilt works out well for full sized FQ's (22X18") but these ones were about 19X16".  I am having to do some piecing for the sashing, which is not fun, but it looks fine. It just takes a little longer.

I will be making this quilt as big as I can with the material I have. I am still aiming for a lap quilt. I would like to have this one done and off to the machine quilters by the end of next week so it is done in time for me to do the binding before Christmas. 

30's Spin Class

This past Saturday, I went to a 30's Spin class organized by the London Friendship Quilt Guild. The quilter who taught the class is from England and comes to visit her friends in Canada every year. Last year, she did a disappearing 9 patch class which I also attended.

This is a strip quilt and goes together quite quickly. I learned the hard way that I need to make sure I sew each unit exactly the same or it does not work out very well!

My first two blocks are the bottom two. Christine and I shared a table and she is using 30's prints for her quilt.

By the end of the day, I had made 22 blocks. I hope to use 42 blocks in this quilt to make it a lap sized quilt. It will be a Christmas gift so I have to get cracking and get it done!

Here are a few more of my blocks part way through the afternoon. This quilt will be called Country Spin.

I had fun at this workshop and pleased with my progress so far. It is always fun to see what fabrics others are using and how the personality of the project changes based on what fabrics are used.

Today's goal is to make my neice's birthday pj's. Their birthday is on Sunday so the deadline is looming!