Chemo Quilts by the Elgin Piecemakers

The Elgin Piecemakers had their monthly meeting last night and, as usual, there was lots of eye candy!

Here are the teal and brown blocks that everyone made for this month's chemo quilt.  There are still two more blocks to be handed in before they are sashed and made into a quilt top.

This is the chemo quilt that Pat and I made at our last quilting day. Pat did the binding this past week. It will be delivered to the hospital soon. The fabric was donated by Pam at Mad About Patchwork.  Thanks, Pam!

Pat made this label for our quilt.

This quilt top is ready to be quilted.  I made the great granny square block.

Joanne and Beth just need to finish hand sewing the binding on this bento box quilt and it will be ready for a chemo patient.

Jacqui and her partner made this quilt--there is a second one just like it!  It needs some hand sewing on the binding done too.

One of our members had a wonderful call from a VON nurse with the story of one of her patients who received one of our quilts. It is so nice to know that our quilts are appreciated and used!

I finished my aunt's quilt and it was delivered to her this week. You can see the quilting quite well in this picture.

Here is a peek at my progress on my next project--a bricks and stepping stones quilt for another family member.

 

This chubby squirrel was looking at me while having a snack the other day.

 

I am off to do some more sewing this evening. I am making a project from some leftovers.  Come back later this weekend for pictures.

Odds and Ends and a Stash Report

I managed to eek out a bit of time this week to work on a few different projects.

I finished off step one of the Lazy Sunday morning mystery by Bonnie Hunter in Quiltmaker Magazine--All bagged up and ready for step 2!

I finished the binding on the Baseball Scrappy Trips quilt

and machine stitched the binding to my aunt's quilt...I have started the hand sewing part and hope to finish it off tonight while my husband and I watch Downton Abbey.

The quilting was done by Cathy at Eagles Wings Quilts with a swirly daisy pattern.

I started my brown and light 9 patches for the mystery quilt that I am doing with the London Friendship guild.  Here are all the patches I have received in the swap so far:

I still have to add the pink, brown and black 9 patches to this pile. We will get our final set of patches at our May meeting along with the final instructions on how to assemble the quilt.

I started assembling some of the units --we were given these instructions last month.

This afternoon, I made a 12 1/2" block for the Elgin Piecemaker's charity quilt for this month. We were told to use teal and brown. I adapted Bonnie Hunter's pattern for a 9" Betty's Choice block in the March April '13 edition of Quiltmaker for my block. 

I also managed to make two pillowcases... these are gifts.

So, on to the stash report....No purchases this week!

Fabric used in the last week: 9.25 yards
Total fabric used this year: 71.3 yards
Fabric added to the stash in the last week: ZERO!!!
Total fabric added this year: 60.25 yards
Net fabric used this year: 11.05 yards. 

I have the backing to do for Swoon this week so that should help next week's report.  I donated 5 yards to our Guild rummage sale this week so that is included in the numbers.

What I have been up to this week...

I have been working away this past week on several projects including my aunt's quilt--I added the border and pieced the back and shipped it off to the quilter's house. It will be ready for me to pick up on Monday after work!  

In my last post, I said I was not that excited about how this quilt was looking, but now that the borders are on, I like it a lot better.

I also made 20 pink 9-patches this week for the mystery quilt at the London Friendship Quilters' Guild. I am accumulating quite a variety of 9 patches from the swap and they will be incorporated into the mystery quilt when I sew all of the units together. Stay tuned for more progress on this quilt.

Christine, Cathy and I have decided to do the Lazy Sunday mystery designed by Bonnie Hunter for Quiltmaker Magazine. We started on step one this week.

I have made all of the 4 patch units and most of the green HST's.

 

 

We will be getting together to work on the rest of the first step shortly so we will be ready for the next set of instructions in the May/June issue of the magazine.

The long arm quilter finished off my scrappy trips quilt this week so I added the binding. I still have to do the hand sewing part.

Cathy used an appropriate pantograph for this quilt which included gloves,

bats and stars,

baseball hats and baseballs.

 

 

I started to piece the back of my swoon quilt and soon discovered that I had not bought enough fabric so I made a quick call to Pam at Mad About Patchwork, and I soon had the extra fabric I needed to finish the back and binding. I will put the back together this week after the fabric is washed. I am happy to be finishing off all of these projects!

Here is my weekly stash report:

Fabric used in the last week: 8 yards
Total fabric used this year: 62.05 yards
Fabric added to the stash in the last week: 5 yards
Total fabric added this year: 60.25 yards
Net fabric used this year: 1.8 yards.  WooHoo!  I am in the black again!

Online Quilt Show

I read about an online quilt show on the Quilt Rat's blog (see link in sidebar) and decided to enter one of my quilts in the show. Over 350 people have signed up to enter their quilts in the show at http://parkcitygirl.blogspot.com/2009/04/quilt-festival-spring-2009.html!!!

This quilt is called "Off My Beaten Path". It is made from 30 different batik fat quarters that I collected over the course of a year. I purchased the first fat quarter for this quilt at a local quilt store when it called out to me "Buy Me!!!" I do not usually use purple fabrics in my projects so this quilt was out of my usual colour comfort zone. The pattern is called "Yellow Brick Road". This quilt was quilted by a long arm quilter in Strathroy, Ontario and was on display at our last London Friendship Quilters Guild show in October 2008. This quilt finds its home on the bed in our guest bedroom. I like it so much that I may venture "Off My Beaten Path" again someday!

Yellow Brick Road is done!

Tonight, I finished sewing the binding on my yellow brick road quilt. I named it "Off my Beaten Path" because I don't usually make anything purple. The machine quilting lady in Strathroy, Ontario did a wonderful job on the quilting. I'm glad to have one more project off my UFO list. I may have to start a few new projects now!

Here are a few more close up pictures of the quilt. Enjoy!
The picture above shows some of the 30 different fabrics in this quilt. It all started when the fabric with the circles called my name. I spent a year looking for 29 more fat quarters that went with the circle fabric to make this quilt.

Stars in My Garden

My daughter picked out this kit for me to make while we were on vacation in Maryland during the March Break this year. I finally finished it off this week. You may not be able to see them very well in the picture, but each "flower" has a star button sewn onto it. I will be putting this wall hanging in our quild quilt show this fall.

I still have several more projects to finish before the show. I picked up my "Off my Beaten Path" quilt (Yellow Brick Road) from the machine quilter's last week and hope put the binding on this weekend. I will post a picture of it when it is done. The quilting looks great.

A Little Bit of Quilting...

I have not blogged for ages...My father is moving to my town and I have spent a lot of time lately helping him to get ready to move. He has lived in his house for almost 50 years and has a lot of stuff to sort through. Hence, little time for sewing.

I did manage to eek out a few hours to sew a couple of evenings last week. I ironed the fabric and made a label for my purple Yellow Brick Road quilt which I pieced quite a while ago. I realize now that I promised to post a picture of it and then promptly forgot to do that! Here is a picture of the front, the backing fabric and the label. There is a border on the front now as well but no picture. This quilt has now been taken to the machine quilting lady to be quilted. It should be done and ready for binding in a couple of weeks.

Charity Quilt Top

Today, my quilting friend and I put together a quilt top for the Children's Aid Society-- a project of my quilt guild. She laid out the blocks, ironed and cut dog ears. I sewed and sewed... We were both very pleased with how the quilt top turned out. I just have to add the border and it will be ready for someone else in the quilt guild to quilt it. I will be bringing it to Thursday's guild meeting.

I have quite a few items for show and tell for this meeting. I have been unemployed for the last couple of months and have been taking advantage of the extra time to do lots of quilting projects. Here are a few of my recent projects.


This quilt will be getting borders shortly and will be going in our guest room once it is quilted and bound. The pattern is called "Yellow Brick Road" and it has 30 different fabrics in it. I spent over a year collecting the fabrics from several different quilting stores. I carried a zip lock bag in my purse for ages with one fabric in it that I wanted to co-ordinate with all the others. I am thrilled with this quilt. It is really out on a limb for me as I do not usually sew anything that is purple.

I also had a chance to take a paper piecing class--something that I had always wanted to do. Here is the sampler that I made at the class and a birdhouse banner that I made as well.



I purchased a kit to make a flannel lap quilt in the summer of 2006 and finally finished it as well. It has been used many times when my daughter and I are watching TV together.



I have made a couple of table runners from charm packs. I purchased patterns for charm pack table runners last fall at a shop hop in the Niagara Falls area. I keep some for myself and some I give away as gifts. I quilt these on my sewing machine. I usually hire a quilter with a large quilting machine to do my bed sized quilts. Here is one table runner and I will post the picture of the other one I made recently after I put the binding on it.