Middlesex County Barn Quilts

My husband and I took a drive this afternoon to look at a few barn quilts in Middlesex county. This one is a "Broken Heart" block.

It was a bit overcast but bright enough to take lots of pictures. "Old Indian Trail"

I loved the look of the weathered barns with the bright quilt blocks on them.  "Tall Pine Tree"

"Butterfly"

This "Spools" block was one of my favourites.

Those soldiers were made from straw bales.

"Old Rail Fence"

"Fireside Visitor"

"Basket Weave"

 

"Geese in Flight" remind us that winter will soon be here.

 

My Grandmother made a "Grandmother's Flower Garden" quilt for my cousin when she got married.

 

"Elm's Strength"

 

We had a booklet with us entitled "Southwest Ontario Barn Quilt Trails: History Made Local". We read the story behind each quilt block as we stopped to take the pictures.

 

 

The fall colours were a bit spotty--we have had some wind and rain over the last few days and that tends to bring the leaves down.

"Peace and Plenty"

 

 

It was hard to get a good picture of this quilt block "Baby Blocks".

"Drunkard's Path"

 

"Broken Dishes"

 

"Dogwood" was another favourite of mine today.

 

The barn quilts were mostly installed this past Spring and we had hoped to get around to see most of them this summer, but alas, life got in the way and it didn't happen. 

Today's tour was a good excuse to get out of the house and go for a drive in the country.

I hope you enjoyed the tour as much as we did!

A Flannel Finish!

Last year, many members of the London Friendship Quilters' Guild signed up to make a mystery quilt designed by Glenda Spencer at Stone Cottage Quilts. We received a set of instructions each month for most of the guild year and I managed to keep up with each step. This past Thursday night, several quilters brought in their finished quilt tops and quilts for show and tell. It was fun to see how different they looked with each quilters' choice of colours and fabrics.

So, here is my quilt as it grew from the centre medallion to a finished quilt.

My fabric came from a fat quarter bundle I purchased while on a family vacation a few years ago. I had been waiting for just the perfect project to use this bundle.

There were a few steps in the centre block...

I only had one fat quarter that was purple and tried to use a little bit of it in each stage of this project.

My completed center block. I purchased several yards of the light coloured flannel to use as my background fabric.

The next border was friendship stars. I worked on these stars at an Elgin Piecemakers sewing day.

Friendship stars done.

Next up... a snowball border.

The next month, I made lots of these hour glass units.

They were used to make Ohio stars.

Some solid borders were sewn on next.

Then, I made some majestic mountain blocks for the next border...--sorry--I must have forgotten to take a picture of the quilt top with that border added. At this point, the mystery was complete. I put the quilt top on my queen sized bed and decided to add a flying geese border to all sides to make the quilt just a bit bigger. I like my quilts to hang down the sides of the bed quite a bit.

These sets of two were sewn into long chains of flying geese.

I was very happy to get the last borders onto this quilt. The flannel feels very cozy but it is heavy and it was hard to keep the quilt on the table while I sewed the borders on!

Here is the completed top on my guest room bed--it is a double bed.

You can see my majestic mountains border in this picture.

I used up all of my leftovers to piece the back.

The quilt has now been quilted and the binding and label are done.  I don't have anyone here today to hold it up so I can take a picture outside so you will have to wait for the finished quilt pictures. 

Today, I will be making PJ's and pillowcases for my nieces for their birthday next week. They are twins and will be 13 years old.

Time to sew!

My Liberated Medallion Quilt is Done!

I just finished sewing the last border on my "Sewing Baskets" quilt--Gwen Marston came up with the idea for the title.

Did anyone guess that I was making selvage spools for my last border?  (Yes, that is a sock monkey on one of the selvages!)

I got two of the borders on at BIQR and then found out I did not have enough spools for the last two borders.

 I had to make more spools this week before I could assemble an attach the last two borders.

Here I am talking about my quilt at Show and Tell at the end of the BIQR retreat.

Please ignore the white thread on the blue border!

My husband held the quilt up for me to take pictures.

This quilt top is full of memories of the things I have made from the fabrics in it (literally hundreds of different selvages!) and my fun week at BIQR 2012!

Here are a few more pictures that I took while I was away...

The dock...

I love the way the clouds are reflected in the still water.

The sun is going down...

And, some fluff, just waiting for a breeze to carry it away.

More pictures of BIQR to follow in future posts.

My Liberated Medallion Part 2

In the previous post, I showed you the beginnings of my liberated medallion quilt that I made at BIQR 2012 last week. I had a good night's sleep and then came up with this idea as I was getting ready in the morning...

I decided to put my daisy on point! I set to work cutting out the green triangles...

The green parts needed something so I added some selvage petals.

At last year's retreat, I made several of these cute little baskets. (You can see the post here) I decided to use them as a border in my quilt but was not sure about adding them right next to the selvage border...

 

I added a narrow fushia border first and then the baskets.

 

It was Gwen's idea to add movement to the quilt by placing the baskets this way instead of putting them on point.

 

I liked this blue fabric as the next border but was not sure about using it in this way--again, I slept on it and in the morning, decided to use a narrow blue border instead.

 

 

At this point, I was not sure what to do next so I made another couple of large pieces of selvage fabric while pondering my options.

 

Then, I the light bulb went on and I set about working on my idea for the final border...

 

 

 

Cutting and sewing and cutting and sewing....

 

 

Can you guess what I made for the final border?

 

 

 

This little monkey, cut from one of my selvages provided encouragement to keep going!



Here is another view of the dock at White Birch Lodge on a misty morning: