Just a little sewing

 These are quilt blocks that I put together for one of the guilds I belong to. I requested 4 kits thinking I had time during the summer to get them done. The first one was a challenge. Those triangles (the sky) on either side of the roof had to be sewn in one way only. If they were switched, the sides were not straight. I think I unsewed them twice at least if not 3 times. As you can see, the top piece (the sky) is a tad longer. 

The block is supposed to measure 5" by 8.5" and the instructions said to use a scant 1/4" seam for all seams except the roof part which could be sewn with a full 1/4 inch. Well, try as I might, it was not to be. The 5 inches was fine but even with scant seam allowances, it only measures 8.25". I have to say that I did not cut the pieces out. The kits were pre-cut and you just had to sew them together.

The templates were all in the kit too and as you can see, the template for the roof does not match the piece of fabric that was cut for the roof. However, the piece that was cut was the correct size.

After sewing all four kits/blocks together, I finally figured out why they were not finishing to 8.5". As you can see, the sky fabric is 1/4" too long.

The 1/4" extra should have been added to the height of the piece, not the length. That is why all of my 4 blocks finish at 8.25" instead of 8.5". Apparently, no one has mentioned a problem with their kits. I don't know how many of these small house blocks were taken by the guild members because there were log cabin blocks and bigger house blocks to put together too.

While I was in England, my daughter requested a new cover for the nursing pillow that I had made her a few years before. It was made with that rainbow coloured flannel. She wanted a plain cotton on top because she felt that the flannel would be too warm for the summer. Well, I didn't buy any fabric but my son-in-law was getting rid of some brand new shirts that had logos on them. They seemed to be wide enough.

I put the nursing pillow on top of the shirt and used a pencil to draw around the pillow making sure to add seam allowances. It was all sewn by hand (back stitch for strength) since my daughter had sold the little sewing machine that I had used previously. Here, you can see that I left an opening in the outer edge so that I could slip the pillow in. I made sure to clip the curves.

All done. Not perfect but where there's a will, there's a way.

Short update

Marg and I are still quilting away. Now we're making a couple of wheelchair lap quilts. Quick to sew tops is what we're after. Since Marg has a 6 inch square ruler, we try to use it whenever we can.

Here's the first quilt we put together. We adapted Katie Blakesley's free pattern called "Star Bright." At first we were going to add a dark border but Marg came across this lime green fabric and we thought it was perfect. The next quilt we are putting together is in pink and purple.

One done, two on the go and baby names

Marg and I have been diligently working away on the charity baby quilts.

While two frames are in the basement, Marg has one frame upstairs and finished this quilt. I love the colours - they remind me of ice cream.

This is the one with the white ducks.

And this is where we came up with the ice cream colours - the floral fabric.

On to baby news:

It's almost like having another set of twin granddaughters but these two are exactly two weeks apart. The little girl on the left was born on May 3rd and her name is Esme Ina (after her great grandmother.) The one on the right was born on May 17th and her name is Darcy May River. Another Canadian name - for D'Arcy McGee (Thomas D'Arcy McGee was a writer, poet and one of the Fathers of Confederation), she was born in the month of May and River was to keep her connection to her twin big sisters Mackenzie and Severn (names of Canadian rivers.)

Sewing news:

This is what my kitchen table looks like. The polka dot fabric and the floral under it are two remnants I picked out this morning. Under it is some Heat and Bond lite because I am in the process of fusing a few appliques and one of the fabrics I am fusing is the brown log or 'wood' fabric.

These are two surprise polka dot fat quarters. They were found in a box that held a pattern for a summer top and lots of photos in frames. Surprise, surprise.

Well, I'm off to a quilt show tomorrow with my friend Judy. I'll try to remember to bring my camera.  ;-)

Charity quilting update

Although I didn't get together with Marg in January, I did manage to get a baby quilt top done.

I had a fat quarter just sitting around and it looked like it might be nice used up in a baby quilt so I figured out how I could get the most number of squares out of it. I was short one square so I added an odd one. It's not all that noticeable and I think it adds an interesting little surprise. I made the border a bit bigger.

Marg finished quilting this one and I sewed the binding on. Marg will do the hand sewing.

We had fun going through a bunch of gingham - even though we had thought that our next quilt will be green and white. After looking at all the different sizes and colours of the gingham, we decided to make two quilts. This one was the paler of the two and had a feminine look about it. The border will be the mauve at the top left.

We sort of figured that this version had a more boyish feel to it. So, these are the quilts we will be working on for the next couple of weeks.

I'm linking up with The Needle and Thread Network.