Quilt 'Til You Wilt and a Spring Topper

 

 

Last Saturday was Quilt 'til You Wilt day, organized by the program committee of the London Friendship Quilters' Guild. There were about 20 people in attendance and the sewing machines were humming.  I worked on completing the borders of my Lazy Sunday mystery (pattern by Bonnie Hunter). First, I assembled and added the green and white HST border...

 

 

and then the purple and white border:

 

I am thinking of adding another 2" border around the entire quilt so that the points of the purple wedges do not get cut off when I add the binding.  I am just not sure of the colour yet...perhaps white.  I will think about this a bit before completing this quilt.

Next, I started a new project. I, like many others, am getting a bit winter weary, so I decided to make a Spring table topper. I had a charm pack in my stash so I pulled it out and found some co-ordinating fabrics and brought it along to QTYW. I finished the flimsy and took it home at the end of the day to find some backing to quilt it.

 

 

Last night, Jacqui hosted a QNIC (Quilting Night in Canada) and I brought my table topper along with me to quilt and add the binding.

 





I did an organic cross-hatch quilting design.  Here is a picture of the backing which I found in my stash.

Tonight, I did the hand sewing on the binding.

Tomorrow night, I am hosting the Elgin Piecemakers meeting at my house so I will be able to show this table topper at Show and Tell.  I hope that Spring is not too far off so I can put it out on my table!

Until next time...

Just Playing

 

I have been working away at cleaning up my sewing room. I have not been making much progress and this is an example of why this is happening:

I bought the squirrel fabric and the co-ordinating solids at Mad About Patchwork a couple of years ago. While I was cleaning up the sewing room, I found the bundle of fabrics and got all inspired to play with it and make this block.  I was going to stop here but then, inspiration hit another evening and I decided to add some 4-patches.

I put it on the floor in the living room, just to look at it for a while. Christine came over one evening this week to sew and we decided it needed a solid border so I added some light brown with a little navy thrown in for good measure...

By this point, I had decided it was going to be a baby quilt for a yet to be announced baby. It will be a baby quilt in waiting...

Christine suggested the spiky border and I got one border done while she was here. The London Friendship Quilters' Guild is having a sewing day tomorrow so this project will likely come with me. I wonder what it will tell me to do next???

Last weekend, we visited my daughter for Family Day weekend and I had a chance to do a little basement shopping at Mad About Patchwork.  This is the first time I have purchased fabric this year and I really went to town! 

 I could not resist these two oranges and those little daisies!

Pam has lots of fun fabrics in her basement!

A few black and whites will never go wrong...

I had pre-ordered this squirrel and bird fabric and bought a solid and gray ovals to go with it.

I think this is upside-down...

I also replenished my solids supply.

Now, I just have to wash all of this and get it ironed so I can start another project...

Here is my slightly overdue stash report:

Fabric used since my last stash report:  .5 yards
Total fabric used this year: 11.85 yards
Fabric added to the stash since my last report: 20.5 yards(birthday gift!)
Total fabric added this year: 22.65 yards
Net fabric added this year: 10.8 yards

I will be doing the backing for my Lazy Sunday quilt very soon so these numbers will soon be looking much better.

Here is a picture I took last weekend when we went snowshoeing at Gatineau Park:

 

We had a wonderful time--it was bright and sunny and not too cold.

 

 

I am off to go and get ready for quilting day tomorrow. Have a quilty weekend!

Quilt for a Baby Girl

This quilt is for a very special baby girl who was born a couple of months ago.  The pattern is "The Stacks" by Karen Griska.  I quilted it myself using "organic quilting". 

There are lots of things to look at in this quilt.  Many have meaning for our family.  There are some sewing fabrics as well as bicycles representing some of our hobbies and past-times.

Spot the dog and Dr Seuss books were  favourites at our house when our daughter was little.

(Sorry this picture is upside-down!) The baby's family lives near the ocean so there are some lighthouses in one of the fabrics.

My husband's family had a scottie dog when he was little.  Oven mitts represent family meals together. Who doesn't love a sock monkey???

Some favourite foods are included as well.

A family member was a beekeeper and my husband is a model railroader...

The backing and binding are nice and bright!  One of the white fabrics has French words on it--my daughter is bilingual.

My husband and I and baby C holding the quilt up for her daddy to take a picture. Baby C has a good hold on the quilt too!  I did not get a close up of the upper right corner but there is some fabric with red maple leaves in that part--C's parents are Canadian but they live in the US.

I hope C and her family enjoy playing on and with this quilt for years to come!

I spent the afternoon yesterday with some friends sewing in my dining room. I worked on some charity quilts for the London Friendship Quilters' guild as well as the borders on my Lazy Sunday mystery.  Pictures to follow in a future post.

Here is my stash report for this week:

Fabric used since my last stash report:  4.2 yards
Total fabric used this year: 11.35 yards
Fabric added to the stash since my last report: 1.4 yards(birthday gift!)
Total fabric added this year: 2.15 yards
Net fabric used this year: 9.2 yards

Until next time...

A Package in the Mail

Back in December, I signed up for Craft It Forward at Jane's Sew Create It blog.  I received an email from Jane (in England!) on Tuesday saying that she had put my package in the mail. It arrived (in Canada!) on Thursday!  No complaints about the mail service here! Jane made me a lovely zippered pouch with a clear front for my sewing supplies and some chocolate.  Thanks, Jane!  Did you know that Jane is originally from Montreal, Canada?

I love her labels...(Maybe I need to get some of these made for me to use on my projects!)

Now that I have received my parcel, it is time for me to Craft it Forward.  Here are the rules:

Here are the rules:

1. I will make a crafty gift for the first five people to comment on this post and say that they would like to be a part of Craft it Forward! This little gift is a surprise, and will arrive to you anytime within the next 9 months.

2. To sign up to Craft it Forward, you need to commit to the project yourself. Once you receive the item from me, just post this (or something similar) on your blog so others can get involved. You then make them something and Craft it Forward continues on and on!

3. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favourite colour and that you want to participate in Craft it Forward. Also, please be sure that I have a way to contact you so I can get your snail mail address (do not leave your postal address in the comment!) so I can get your crafty gift in the mail.

It is another snowy/rainy day here so I have been inside hand stitching the binding on my stacks quilt. You can see that I am down to a much smaller bandage on my injured finger now. The stitches come out on Tuesday.

Here is my stash report.

Fabric used since my last stash report:  .7 yards
Total fabric used this year: 7.15 yards
Fabric added to the stash since my last report: None
Total fabric added this year:  .75 yards
Net fabric used this year: 6.4 yards

I will show more pictures of the completed Stacks quilt later this week.

A Finish to Share

Tonight, I finished off the hand sewing on the binding of this little wall hanging I made from 2.5" squares cut from my FIL's shirts. This quilt is a gift for my MIL's minister. He has been a wonderful friend and support to all of us.

I used parallel line quilting in the cross and cross hatching on the rest of the wall hanging.

There are three wavy lines on each side border.  I still need to add a hanging sleeve.  That should not take too long.

Now, on to the next project...

By the way, my finger is healing nicely. I can do most things that I usually do (except the dishes!--my husband is taking care of them for the next week or two.) Thanks for all your comments on my last post about the evil rotary cutter. It is still in time out!

Quilting Sent Me to the ER

Yesterday was supposed to be the annual Elgin Piecemakers sewing day at a local church.  Being January in Canada, we ended up having a bit of a blizzard Friday night and into Saturday so the police were recommending that people stay home and off the icy, snow covered roads.  This is the view out my back door.

 

The snow was plastered to the wall of my house:

 

Sewing day was cancelled.  My husband had plans to spend the day working on his model train room so I had a sewing day on my own in our dining room. 

I made great progress on the shirt wallhanging in the morning and finished quilting it and got the binding sewn on ready to hand stitch later.

Next, I trimmed a chemo quilt and started to cut strips for the binding for it. I thought I was really  on a roll and I would have lots of hand stitching to do today so I could link up to Kathy's slow stitching Sunday.   I was on the last strip that I needed to cut, when suddenly my rotary cutter jumped onto the ruler and took aim for my index finger on my left hand.  Let's just say my finger lost the battle. BAD ROTARY CUTTER!!!  (Isn't it ironic that Kathy is talking about looking after our hands today at her blog???)

I grabbed a tissue or two and wrapped up my finger and called my husband up from downstairs. I am happy to report that I did not get any blood on my fabric, the cutting mat, the floor, the table or myself!  A quick peek at the cut and I knew we would be heading to the local ER for stitches.   The ER was very quiet since most people had heeded the police's advice and were staying home. In less than an hour, I was stitched up with 4 stitches and we were on our way home.

The doctor was very nice and took the ribbing of the nurse very well. She told him to do a neat job since a professional quilter would be inspecting his stitches!  I told him that this was not the type of sewing I was expecting to do today!!!  Fortunately, I did not cut the tendon that allows me to extend my finger, and in 10 days, I will be getting the stitches out and be back to my normal activities.

My birthday is in a couple of weeks. I have a feeling that I will be getting a Klutz glove from my husband...
 
 


In the meantime, my rotary cutter is in time out...

It is snowing again today. I did a bit of sewing on the machine but the hand stitching will have to wait.

Have a good week!

Another Shirt Quilt and a Baby Quilt

 

 

 

This wall hanging is going to be a gift for my MIL's minister at her church. He spent many hours visiting with my FIL when he was sick and I wanted to thank him for all of the support he gave to all of us with a little quilt made from my FIL's shirt fabric.  I have had this idea in my head for a few months now but have not had any time to make it until now. The top and the back are both done and I will be doing the quilting this weekend at the Quilting Day that one of my guilds has planned. I think he will be surprised. I hope he has a space on the wall in his office to hang it.

 

 

This is a baby gift that I am quilting myself. It is fairly large to be doing this on my DSM but I am managing. I don't suppose that the baby will notice when the spacing between some of the quilting lines is a bit scrunchy in places...  I will show a picture of the completed quilt when it is done. So far, I have quilted about half of the quilt. The back of the quilt is orange with dots.

 

I think I have some turquoise fabric somewhere around here for the binding...

 

Here is my overdue stash report...

 

Fabric used since my last stash report:  5.75 yards
Total fabric used this year: 6.45 yards
Fabric added to the stash since my last report: .75 yards (a Christmas gift!)
Total fabric added this year:  .75 yards
Net fabric used this year: 5.7 yards


 

Happy Sewing!