I Spy a Baby Quilt!

Last weekend, I found out the the Refugee family sponsored by several local Presbyterian churches is expecting a baby in December!  You may remember that several members of the London Frienship Quilter's Guild made quilts for this family when they arrived in Canada earlier this year.  I decided that the new baby needed a quilt too.

I dug into my extensive collection of I Spy fabrics and found 48 different ones to use in my quilt.  I also found the green fabric and the backing in my stash as well.  

I did not know if the baby was a boy or a girl. I picked a few Canadian fabrics since this baby will be born a Canadian.

There are also some canoes and inukshuks, but I did not get pictures of them.  

I sewed a green strip to each I spy fabric piece and then arranged them on my design wall.

After tweaking the layout a bit, I sewed the blocks together, batted it up and quilted it with one of those fancy stitches on my sewing machine.  

I have a very experienced quilt holder who assisted with the photo shoot...

Here are a few more close ups of some of the fabrics I used.

Birds and some fish

A pig wearing a quilt...you can see my quilting in this picture.

And some rain boots.  One of the ladies explained how to play I Spy with the quilt.  This quilt will help the whole family to learn new vocabulary!

The mom to be was very happy with the gifts that she received today. It was the first baby shower that she had ever been to and she enjoyed the food, the games and the support from her Canadian friends.

  The cake was cut before I took this picture!  It's a girl!

I am linking to Kathy's blog for slow Sunday Stitching.  My slow stitching this week was the binding on this quilt.  

Fancy Forest Top Done!

Today was sewing day at Christine's.  We both had all of our blocks done for our Fancy Forest quilts so it was time to put these tops together! Here are all my blocks on my design wall:

First, I put the left section together...

And then the right section...

Next up, the outer border:

We hung our tops on the line outside and took a few pictures before it started to rain.

As you can see, our supervisor, Daisy, kept a close eye on things!

Christine's son took a picture of us with our quilts. We are both very happy to have our quilt tops done and ready for quilting!

A New Wool Project

Several years ago, I bought a kit to make a small wall hanging.  I've pulled it out with good intentions to start it several times, but it always ended up getting put away again. 

This week, I found the kit again, and decided that it was time to get going on this project.  I have seen lots of wool projects on some of the blogs I read and was inspired to stitch along with them.  I put the background together and hope to cut out the wool pieces today in preparation for hand stitching.  

I am linking up to Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching.  

Fireflies

We are well past firefly season in my backyard but there are two colourful fireflies on my design wall today!  I made this turquoise one last night...

 

 

and the purple one was completed today.

 

 



There sure are a lot of pieces in these little block!  Once again, some unsewing was required in the assembly of these blocks.

I now have all my blocks finished for a baby sized quilt!  There is sashing between all the blocks so that will be next on the agenda.  The animal blocks were fun to make.

This is one colourful quilt!  I will be quilting this one myself. It will get put into line behind three others that are ahead of it. 

Weekend in Haliburton

My husband and I spent the weekend in Haliburton ...this is cottage country but the friends we were visiting have built their home beside the lake and it was a lovely spot! 

The sunset on Saturday night was beautiful!  

We went for a walk on Sunday morning.  It was chilly, but the sun was shining and Jenny the dog was happy to join us.

Lots of quilty inspiration in the pictures I took...I love the colours in this picture. 

I made the hosts a table runner and it fit their table and their decor perfectly.

I did the hand sewing on the binding in the car on the way there.  I used bias binding on this one to get around those curved sections at the ends of the runner.  This runner was started 5 years ago and sat in a bag on the UFO shelf for a long time before I finished it last week.  I'm not sure why I waited so long to finish it. 

I have more sewing on my agenda for this week.  Thanks for stopping by!

Progress on some projects

What glorious fall weather we have been having!  I have been going for a walk for an hour most days and the colours are gorgeous!

I am soaking in as much of this as I can because we all know that cold weather and snow are coming!  

I love how the sun was shining on these trees as we walked through the woods. 

This one was taken on yesterday's walk. 

Meanwhile, in the sewing room, I have been working on some more snowman pillows...

I tried to make each one unique.

This one needed a bow tie, instead of a scarf.

Someone asked if I was using a pattern for my pillows.  I am making them up as I go along...I made a whole bunch of string snowball blocks in different sizes and I am building the snowmen and adding embellishments to personalize them.

These blocks are for comfort quilts.

I needed a hostess gift and found this 5 year old UFO in my sewing room, just waiting to be finished and gifted.  

Everything was cut out...

The background fabric is Essex linen.

I fused the pumpkins and leaves to the background...

And then used matching thread to button hole stitch them to the background fabric.  

I will be quilting this today and doing the binding. 

I am going out for lunch with a friend and then I will be delivering these to the venue for the London Friendship Quilters' Guild show in London.

Here are the details in case you want to come to the show!  I will be volunteering in the tea room at some point.

I hope to have a finished runner to show you soon!  

Pillows...Fall and Winter

I made these pumpkins and made them into a pillow top a couple of weeks ago.  This week, I finally had time to finish the pillow off.  

I quilted it organically with orange thread.

I think Orange is my favourite colour!!!

I put the finished pillow on my new live edge bench in our front hall.  

Last night and today, I made a snowman pillow.  I used my neutral scraps to make the snowballs.  This pillow is quilted organically with light gray thread.

The scarf is a piece of grosgrain ribbon that I had in my ribbon stash.  I added the fringe using the blanket stitch on my sewing machine.  The nose is a piece of wool, machine appliquéd with a blanket stitch.  

The eyes are two little beads and I found some red star buttons for the body. 

I embroidered little x's for the mouth.  He is a happy snowman!

Here are both of my pillows.  I don't think I will display both at the same time!