I Gotta GO!

I celebrated yet another birthday earlier this week. My daughter is home for a week from university later this month so we will do the big family dinner/celebration when she is home but my husband did give me my birthday gift on the actual day of my birthday (and he took me out for supper too!). He bought me a GO!

I have been looking at the Accuquilt GO in stores and on the internet for quite a while and decided that I would like one. He has also seen the GO in the quilt stores when we were doing a shop hop together. Last night, my friend Karen and I tried it out and I made this little block.

I also made a post card for our guild postcard exchange this month. I have not made a postcard in quite a while!

The heart blocks that I made for the Quilted Table Yahoo group swap arrived safely to the swap queen's house and have been sorted out and mailed out to all the participants in the swap. I wonder where my new heart blocks will come from???  I will post a picture when they arrive.

This weekend, I plan on working on more arcs... 

I may dream a bit about what dies I would like to have for my GO as well...

If you have a GO and you have some favourite dies, let me know!

Four Hearts

I finished my last two heart blocks for the Quilted Table Yahoo group swap tonight--another pink one and another red one...

I will tear the paper off the paper pieced hearts tonight while I watch TV with my husband--we are going to watch the RMR--Rick Mercer Report--one of our favourite shows. Tomorrow, I will mail these blocks off to the swap queen and she will do her magic, and then I will get 4 new heart blocks in the mail from 4 different people. I will be sure to show you the blocks I receive in the mail. I hope to make a little wall hanging or table topper from my blocks. I may even get it done for Valentine's Day!

Tomorrow, I am back at working on Indian Orange Peel Arcs!

Comfort Quilt and Swap Blocks

I promised you that I would show you the blocks I made on the weekend for the Elgin Piecemakers Guild comfort quilts for chemo patients at our local hospital. In December, we were each to make a blue and white 12 1/2 inch block and I did not get mine done.  (I wasn't the only one!) For our January meeting, the colours were red, black and white. I sat down at my sewing machine on Friday night and made my two blocks:

(They are both 12 1/2 inch square blocks--they just look a bit distorted in the pictures!)

I signed up for a Heart block swap with the quilted table yahoo group a while back. I made two of the blocks tonight. I have to make two more and put them into the mail this week for the swap.  Here are my first two blocks. The hearts are paper-pieced.

I will make the other two heart blocks tomorrow night. I did a little shopping at a quilt store on the weekend and purchased a couple more warm fat quarters for my Indian Orange Peel quilt. I am finding it a bit more challenging to find the warm colours in batiks--especially reds! I will keep looking.

I have a date with the treadmill now...

Liberated Wedding Ring and Pumpkin Wall Hanging Swap

Four blocks done and my selvage bin still looks full to overflowing! These blocks are 14 inches square. I am not sure how many I will make --I will work away at them over the next few weeks and see how it looks. I had originally thought about sashing the blocks but I am not sure now. I like the secondary pattern I am getting from the red and yellow corners. If anyone has any opinions on the matter, please feel free to share your ideas.
I recently participated in a Pumpkin Wall Hanging Swap at the Quilted Table Yahoo group. I made 4 wall hangings --one for the swap, one for my recent give-away and 2 as gifts. I already posted a picture of the wall hanging for the give-away. Here are the other 3 wall hangings that I made:These were fun and easy to make from a pattern by Rachel Griffith at PS I Quilt. We were all asked to use the same pattern to come up with our version of the wall hanging.

St. Patrick's Day Swap

This is the candle mat that I made for a quilter in New York state for the Quilted Table St. Pat's candle mat swap. I mailed it to her a couple of weeks ago and found out last night that she had received it in the mail. I'm so glad she likes it --it is always a bit risky to make something for someone you do not know! I also sent her a couple of little gifts--a charm pack--Moda "Dandelion Girl" and a London Friendship Quilters' Guild pin. I have not received my candle mat yet, but will post a picture when it arrives.

Sunday Sewing

I have been sewing since early this morning, all in an effort to complete the July Challenge for the Quilted Table Yahoo group. This is the first time I have done one of the monthly challenges, even though I have printed the patterns for most of them. It is not quilted yet, but I have a few flimsies in my collection now and will be taking them to the long arm quilter shortly to get them all done at once. At 55"x55", this one is too big for me to do on my home sewing machine! It is a little bigger than the average table topper!At first, I was not sure of the yellow fabric, so I consulted with a quilting friend. She liked the yellow, especially when I showed her the sashing and borders.

There is an outer piano key border...

And red sashing...

As well as a wider border using the focus fabric...



When I put everything together, I took my husband and my new quilt outside to the backyard where I took a picture of my gardening quilt in my garden! I think I am going to call it "In My Garden".

Post #100

This is my 100 th post on my blog! I can't believe I have done that many. See the bottom of this post for a give-away to celebrate this momentous occasion!

I have been working on my Gardening quilt over the last couple of days. Last night, I added these green pieces to the red ones to make some triangles.







Next, I added these triangles to the units I showed you in my last post.








Remember the 4-patches? They got sewn to the red sides of the above sections.



The centre of the blocks is a "snowball" block, made with my Debbie Mumm focus fabric.

The next pictures show how the blocks were put together. There are 8 blocks like this in the quilt. Now, you can see how all of the fabrics go together. There is still one more fabric that you have not seen yet. Keep watching my blog for the next stage of this quilt's assembly.

Now, the give-away... All you have to do is comment on this 100th blog by Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 6pm (Eastern Standard Time) and I will pick one name to receive a quilted postcard and a loyalty card wallet made from the fabrics I am using to make this quilt. Make sure I can access your e-mail address so that I can get your mailing address to send the parcel to the winner.

Patriotic Table Runner Swap

I recently participated in a Quilted table Yahoo group Patriotic/Friendship Table Runner swap. I just realized I never did post a picture of the runner and gifts that I sent to Lynn in Minnesota! I made her a loyalty card wallet from leftover fabric from the table runner --you can see it open and closed above. I also bought her a London Friendship Quilter's Guild Pin and a fat quarter, which I forgot to put into the pictures! The runner and wallet were made from a charm pack by Moda--I think it was called Prairie Paisley.

The next swap is a Fall Themed runner. I have not decided if I will participate this time around. I have a lot going on in my life over the next little while and may take a brief hiatus from swaps.

Quilted Table Swap and University Quilt Progress

Yesterday, my Quilted Table Yahoo group swap table runner arrived in the mail. It was made by a quilter from Eclectic, Alabama. Chris made me a beautiful Italian Pasta themed runner and matching tea towel (the tea towel is way too nice to use!). Here is a picture of the runner and the tea towel. Chris has an embroidery machine and the chef blocks and the herb blocks were done on it. What a lovely gift!!!

I have been working on my daughter's university quilt and have made some progress on some more pieced blocks. I had a couple of friends over for a very small Quilter's (and Knitters!) Night in Canada on Wednesday and I worked on the university quilt while Karen sewed binding on a table runner that she made and Pat started to knit a pair of socks for herself. (I did not take any pictures that night--I will try to remember to do that at the next QNIC.) Here are a few of the blocks completed and some of the blocks that are just about done.

Wedding Shower Gift

My cousin and her husband have 3 daughters. Two recently had baby girls--in previous posts you will see the "I spy" quilts I made for each of the babies. Their 3rd daughter is getting married this summer and there is a family wedding shower this weekend. I decided to make a table runner for the bride-to-be's kitchen table. I checked with her mother for the appropriate colours and this is the runner that I put together for her gift. I still have to quilt it and put the binding on but I think I am in a good position to finish it in lots of time for the shower.

I also recently made a patriotic table runner for the Quilted Table Yahoo Group Swap and it also needs to be quilted and bound. I will finish it this weekend too and get it off in the mail to its recipient in the USA. I will post a picture of it when I have heard that she has received it--I don't want to spoil the surprise!!!

A Package in the Mail

Today, I received a package in the mail! Packages are few and far between here so I was excited to get this one! My Spring table runner had arrived from Columbus, GA. Linda must have checked my blog to see what colours I like because it goes perfectly with the colours in my kitchen. It arrived just in time for Easter. I look forward to participating in another swap sometime soon.

Back from vacation...

Our family went away for the March break to Georgia and South Carolina. We drove down and stopped at several quilting stores along the way. Most of my "souvenirs" from the trip are from quilt stores. I have lots of new projects to do now.

We stopped in Columbus, GA to deliver the table runner I made for a Spring/Easter table runner swap for the Quilted Table Yahoo group. I called the recipient (I had never met her before) when we were about 30 minutes from Columbus and she agreed to meet us at the quilt store "Sew Much Fun" where she works. She liked the runner and let me know by e-mail that it goes well with the colours in her house. Here is a picture of the completed runner:
After giving us a tour of the store where I did a little shopping, of course, Linda gave us a fabric basket of Easter chocolates for the rest of the car trip. It was fun to hand deliver the table runner and meet the person I made it for! I will add a picture of the basket later.

Working on my projects...

I signed up for a Spring Table topper/table runner exchange at the Quilted Table Yahoo group that I belong to. This is the charm pack I have chosen to use for my recipient. I have her name and address. She is from the southern US. I will have the table runner/topper to her by the end of March. I have not decided what pattern to use yet.
I was out every night this past week so I did not get any sewing done until this afternoon. I worked on my "Island Star" quilt and finished putting the blocks together as shown below. I actually sewed the centre section of the quilt together but have not taken a picture of this yet so I will have to post it later. I have a dark blue narrow border and a wider yellow border planned. I hope to finish off this top this week in time for show and tell at my quilt guild meeting on Thursday night.
I hope to finish my Cobblestones top before Thursday night as well. I have started to make 4 Valentines fabric post cards too. Lots to do this week!!!