6 blocks down, many more to go...

The sewing machine called to me after supper tonight. I tried to resist (well, not really, but it sounds good!) but gave in and put together 6 blocks for my Blue Ridge Beauty quilt after making some HST units. There are lots of different fabrics in this quilt including batiks, homespuns, heart fabric that was leftover from my daughter's friendship star quilt, inukshuk fabric made for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, some fabric purchased recently and some that has been in my stash for a long time. It is very scrappy!

My gift quilts should be back from the quilter's house next week so I will have to put this project aside to do the bindings. I still have some smaller gifts to make too. Christmas will be here before you know it!

Blue Ridge Beauty progress

I have been working away on the 4 patches for my Blue Ridge Beauty Quilt. I miscalculated the number of 4 patches I will need for this quilt--Bonnie used 2 inch strips and I am using 2.5 inch strips so I will not need 448 4 patches to make my quilt. I have about 250 made now so I think that may be enough since my blocks will be slightly larger than the 6 inch blocks in the pattern.

Now, on to cutting 4.5 inch strips for the HST's... I am using the Easy Angle ruler to make my HST units. I will keep you posted on my progress.

A Gift from the Elgin Piecemakers for a Friend.

I belong to a small guild called the Elgin Piecemakers. We meet once a month in each other's homes and enjoy sharing our projects, conversation and tea/coffee and treats. One of our members has had a rough patch with her health lately, so we decided to make her a quilt! (This is what quilters do best!)

Several of us got together one evening at C's house and put the top together in a couple of hours. Some cut, others ironed, some sewed and another put the finished blocks on the design wall.I took the top home and put the borders on. H's husband quilted the quilt on their longarm machine and C and D did the binding and label.

D and I delivered the quilt to our friend yesterday afternoon. She was thrilled with her gift. I think she knew there was love in every stitch <3 .  She told us that she has made lots of quilts, but never one for herself. Now she has her own quilt to keep her warm!

Creating a New UFO

I have had Bonnie Hunter's books, "Scraps and Shirttails" and "Leaders and Enders" for a few months now. I have been admiring the quilts in these books and trying to choose which ones I would like to make someday since the books arrived in my library. After much contemplation, "Blue Ridge Beauty" in the "Leaders and Enders" book won out!  I spent some time in the summer reorganizing my stash so I pulled some 2.5" strips from the drawer--blues and neutrals, put them into a plastic bin along with the book and started to sew. I decided to sew the strips together and then cut them into 2.5" twosies instead of piecing 2.5" squares together (more work to cut up all the strips into the squares).

I spent some time this weekend ironing and cutting these strip pairs into the twosie units. I am not quite done yet. I need to make about 250   448 (Yikes!) four patches so this will take a while. I will just putter away at this project when I have a little bit of time. (There are lots of HST units (448!) in this quilt too.)

You can see from the first picture that I am in need of a new ironing board cover as well--this is on my list of things to do. I have the padding to go underneath but have not got the fabric for the top yet. This picture shows the "good" end of the board--the other end is in shreads--not pretty.

One More Gift Completed

This is a new twist on an I Spy quilt--it is based on a trip around the world quilt that I made for my daughter when she was two and graduated from a crib to a "big bed". The teddy bear fabric in the middle square is the same fabric that was in my daughter's quilt!  This quilt is a gift for my cousin's baby that will be born shortly. I think it will be appropriate for a boy or a girl. I like making I Spy quilts--fun to look at and lots of colours--and so many possibilities of how to put them together. If you know who this is for, please don't spill the beans!

QNIC at Jacqui's

A group of 4 of us had a QNIC (Quilting Night in Canada) at Jacqui's house last night. Chris working on putting binding on a quilt. She is going to visit her grandchildren this weekend by plane and hopes to work on the hand sewing part while in transit.







Jacqui, Deb and I worked on our blocks for the 2011 International Plowing Match block competition. We purchased the kits at this year's plowing match in St. Thomas/Central Elgin in September and the deadline for submitting the blocks is next week. Here are the fabrics we received in our kits:






I had decided on my pattern, "Patchwork Fantasy", before I arrived at Jacqui's house. Here is my finished block: (You can see some of the pieces that Deb had cut out for block on the left side of the picture.)

Jacqui and Deb spent some time looking through magazines and books at potential blocks before cutting out the pieces for their blocks. They were not finished sewing their blocks when I left to go home but I am sure Jacqui will post pictures of the finished blocks on her blog. Jacqui's block is on the top left and Deb's is on the bottom left. You can also see the selvage 3-D blocks that Jacqui has on her design wall in the picture as well as a sneak peak at a very small portion of her stash on the far left of the picture. ;-)

Onward and upward.... I am off to clean out my linen closet and then work on some gifts.

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

At our last Elgin Piecemakers Guild meeting, we decided that we would each make a 12" block with red and white fabrics which would be made into a comfort quilt for the chemo unit at the hospital. There are 16 members in our group so that should make a nice sized quilt with the sashing and border. I picked out my fabrics this morning and made this block this afternoon. I got the pattern out of "Quilts from the Quiltmaker's Gift" book which my husband gave me for my birthday a few years ago. It is called "Robbing Peter to Pay Paul".

I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else's blocks will look like!