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...

Back from Vacation...

I was here last week with my husband and my daughter. This pic was taken from the 94th floor of the Hancock Building in downtown Chicago.

It was a long way up but the views were amazing!

We did a few architectural tours by bus, by boat and by train on the "L". My favourite building was designed by a woman...it is called Aqua, for obvious reasons!

Tonight, Cathy and Karen came over for some sewing. It was the first time I have even looked at my machine since I got home on the weekend.

Cathy worked on putting her blocks together for her Lazy Sunday mystery quilt.  She got 1/4 of the top put together.

Karen worked on a thimble table runner:

I worked on attaching borders to my 9 patch mystery. Cathy will be quilting it before our September London Friendship Quilters Guild Meeting.

I purchased a wide back before I decided to add the borders so I may have to do some inserts into the back to make it big enough. I have lots of fabric in my stash so I should be able to do this without having to purchase any more fabric...

I will do my next stash report on the weekend...I did some shopping in Chicago at Quiltology... a very dangerous store for someone who is trying to reduce her stash! (Especially when everything was on sale!)

This bricks and mortar shop will be closing soon and going online only.

Lots of fun quilts on display and wonderful bright and happy fabrics!

QNIC at Jacqui's

Jacqui hosted Chris, Karen and I for a Quilting Night in Canada tonight. We have not done this for ages and had a fun evening of sewing and chatting.

I worked on some more Boxy Star Blocks.

I still have 8 more blocks to make. It is fun to root around in my batiks to make these blocks.
Jacqui thinks white sashing would make the boxy stars float--I agree. I am not sure if I will add cornerstones or not...  What do you think?

Jacqui worked on a couple of baby quilts. She satin stitched around the circles tonight.

Karen quilted a table topper. Looking good, Karen!

 Chris is making a wedding shower gift--a table runner and a pot holder. Lucky Bride and Groom!

I hope we can get together for a few more QNIC's this summer!

Sewing and Stash Report

I seem to be on a bit of a roll with the chemo quilt blocks...This orange and blue scrappy trips block does not need to be done until the end of April, but I made it this past week.  I also did May's red and white block...The pattern is called Codex and is from volume 6 of Quiltmaker's 100 blocks magazine.

Christine and I got together earlier this week and we worked on 9 patches for the 9 patch mystery swap for the London Friendship Quilters' Guild. I have now finished 20 brown and 20 black 9 patches. This is the last batch of 9 patches to be handed in for swapping. We will receive our swapped blocks at the May meeting along with the rest of the instructions to assemble the quilt.

On Saturday, Christine, Cathy, Carol and I got together at my house for a sewing day. This is Piper--she belongs to Christine. She came along to supervise our quilting escapades.

Piper was also very helpful when Christine was laying out the backing, batting and top of her new Easter Table runner. Who needs pins when you have a dog to help hold everything in place???

Eventually, Piper moved and Christine managed to get her table runner quilted and bound.

 She also quilted a pillow cover "organically" with a little encouragement from the rest of us. It turned out great!

Here is the back:

Cathy worked on the final borders for a baby quilt top.

She plans on using green binding for this quilt. Cathy also worked on her 9 patches for the swap.

Carol is making a table topper with some shot cottons...

And she worked on this:  (I love the fabrics!)

Cathy brought my quilted Great Granny Square quilt with her. Trimming and binding are on my agenda for this week.

I started a new quilt...

I made 112 4 patches...

And cut out some bricks to make a bricks and stepping stones quilt (designed by Bonnie Hunter)

The bricks and the 4 patches are sewn together but not pressed yet.  This is a very quick quilt to make.

And now, my stash report....

I did not purchase any fabric this week but did receive some batik fat 1/8ths from Erin at My Patchwork Life in the mail. She had a give-away on her block a couple of weeks ago. I will be using these in my Lazy Sunday mystery quilt. (sorry--no picture!)

Fabric used in the last week: 4.35 yards
Total fabric used this year: 75.65 yards
Fabric added to the stash in the last week: .63 yards
Total fabric added this year: 60.88 yards
Net fabric used this year: 14.77 yards.

I think I will press those units I sewed yesterday before I head off to bed....  Have a good week!

Sew-In Day

Today was a great day!  My friends Karen, Christine and Cathy came over for a sew-in day. Our quilt guild had planned a Quilt til you Wilt day for next Saturday and none of us were able to go for various reasons so I decided to have them come here today. We had 4 sewing machines on the dining room table.

It took a while to get them all to look up from their sewing machines and look at me so I could take this picture. Christine insisted on taking a picture of me too.

Christine worked on quilting a baby quilt.

She managed to finish the quilting and trim it so that she can add the binding this week.

Karen worked on a quilt top for the single bed in the spare bedroom at her house.

By the end of the day, she had finished the top. She would like to add a couple of borders to this top but may need to do some shopping, either in her stash, or at a fabric store.

In progress...

 

 

Finished!

 

 

Cathy started a new project and finished two blocks. She had all of her cutting done before she arrived.

 

 



And here are her two finished blocks:

 

 

Only 14 more to go!

 

I worked on the borders of my Great Granny Squares quilt top.

 

 

I love the colours in this quilt...

 

 

I added all three borders today so now this top is finished and ready for the long arm quilter!

 

 

 

We took the top outside to get this picture. It was a bright sunny day today after yesterday's snowstorm.

 

I gave myself permission to start a new project...this is the first block of a scrappy trips quilt. My Go cutter made quick work of cutting the strips for these blocks. I finished three blocks by the end of the evening and have a good start on 12 more blocks.  It should not take too long to finish this quilt.

 

 



Sewing Night with Christine

Christine and I got together tonight to do a bit of sewing. I used the cut-offs from my Swoon blocks to make these pinwheels earlier this week...a good use for the bonus HST's!

Tonight, I trimmed 4 of the black ones to 4.5" and used them as cornerblocks for the white sashing on the Swoon blocks.

The London Friendship Quilters' Guild is having a Quilt 'til You Wilt day on Saturday so I will be adding the final white borders to this quilt top then. I have purchased some backing fabric but it will need to be pieced before I can take this quilt to the long armer's house for quilting. This quilt will be put to use on our guest room bed in the summer months. I have quite a few projects that are nearly done so I hope to have lots of projects done by the end of the day Saturday.

Christine worked on some blocks for an "Apple Crisp" quilt that she had cut out over a year ago and is now putting together.

I love the colours.  My stash has many fabrics in these colours.

Christine also made two blocks to send to Erin at My Patchwork Life for her Hurricane Sandy quilts.

I should have more to share after Saturday!