Ready for Show and Tell!

I just finished the last stitch on the binding of the 4th quilt that I have bound this week, just in time for show and tell at my guild meeting tomorrow night. I got caught up on a lot of old TV shows that we had recorded over the past few nights as I sewed. I will put pictures of the last two quilts on my blog after tomorrow night.

Now, I must get going on the inchie ornament swap and get it in the mail by the end of the month. As well, I need to work on some Christmas gifts. I am also hoping to do the next Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt "Carolina Christmas", although I think I am going to pick a different colour scheme than red, green and gold. I will have to go digging into my stash to see what I can come up with.

Quilt "til You Wilt Report

What a glorious day of sewing! Karen and I were among the first to arrive in the ballroom at a local hotel at 7:52 am. We had our sewing stuff and machines up and running by 8am. 26 quilters spent all day quilting--finishing UFO's, starting new projects, chatting and sharing inspiration and encouragement for each other. We cheered when people held up finished projects! The food was fabulous--pastries, bagels, fresh fruit and yogurt for breakfast, sandwiches, salad, crudites, homemade soup, fruit and squares for lunch and salad, garlic bread, lasagna, pasta primavera and strawberry shortcake for dessert. Pop, water, juice, coffee and tea were available all day. AND, no dishes and cleaning up to do!!! You can check the London Friendship Quilters Guild blog for pictures of everyone's projects.

One of the quilters had this pencil case with her and it says it all:
I brought several projects with me in hopes of finishing them off. First, I machine sewed the binding on three quilts that I recently got back from the long arm quilter:


"The Plan" is to finish hand sewing the binding down by Thursday night so I can bring them to the guild meeting for show and tell. Time will tell...

Next, I finished sewing all the blocks of my Fractured Squares quilt. This has been an ongoing project for several months. It kept getting put aside every time there was another project with an urgent deadline.
I laid out all of the blocks on the floor and then sewed them all together. I did not bring the border fabric with me so I will do that later. I am just glad to have all of the blocks pieced and put together!
I also got a good start on my MIL's Christmas gift--she hinted that she wanted a Fall table runner for her dining room table at Thanksgiving. I did not have all of the fabric with me that I needed to finish it off.
Last, but not least, I worked on the last 12 blocks for my disappearing 9 patch. I did not take any pictures of them but will post a picture when I get the top together.

It was a great day... Karen and I left to go home at 8:15pm. There were still a few others there when we left. We had the room at the hotel until 9pm. By 9:30 pm, I was asleep on the couch at home.

Stay posted for more pictures later in the week as I finish the binding on those 3 quilts.

Back from the Longarmers...

Earlier this week, I received the phone call I had been waiting for!!!! My quilts that had been at the long arm quilters were done and I could go and pick them up!!! Here are a few sneak peaks at the quilting on some of them. All are custom quilted with designs that the quilting lady and I came up with.

The first one has a beautiful big feather in the middle,

and lovely designs in the borders too. This yellow and blue quilt has an overall pattern in the center section and neat little swirls in the narrow blue border.
This little table topper was made from the leftover triangles from the star quilt above. It too has feathers on it.
The last one has large flowers and leaves, as well as baskets of smaller flowers.
Binding these quilts and getting labels on them is my next sewing goal, after the birthday pj's are made. Speaking of which, I need to go and sew so the pj's are ready for the birthday party this weekend.

Bye for now!

Online Quilt Festival with Park City Girl

In the Spring, I entered a quilt in Amy's Online Quilt Festival. It was fun and inspiring to visit the other sites to see the quilts that everyone had made. I have been thinking about which quilt I would like to enter in the festival and decided on "In My Garden". I made this quilt from a pattern I found online. It had been done in Christmas fabrics. I had recently purchased some summer/garden themed fabrics at "Sitting Pretty" in Ridgetown, Ontario and decided to use them to make this quilt.



I took this picture, appropriately, in my garden! We had lots of rain this summer so the grass was green and lush all summer long.

This quilt top is currently at the long arm quilters and I have been told that it is next in line to be quilted. I can hardly wait to get it back and add the binding and label to finish it off! There are some quilt shows coming up locally and I hope to put it on display for others to enjoy.

Thanks for visiting!

Sunday Sewing

I have been sewing since early this morning, all in an effort to complete the July Challenge for the Quilted Table Yahoo group. This is the first time I have done one of the monthly challenges, even though I have printed the patterns for most of them. It is not quilted yet, but I have a few flimsies in my collection now and will be taking them to the long arm quilter shortly to get them all done at once. At 55"x55", this one is too big for me to do on my home sewing machine! It is a little bigger than the average table topper!At first, I was not sure of the yellow fabric, so I consulted with a quilting friend. She liked the yellow, especially when I showed her the sashing and borders.

There is an outer piano key border...

And red sashing...

As well as a wider border using the focus fabric...



When I put everything together, I took my husband and my new quilt outside to the backyard where I took a picture of my gardening quilt in my garden! I think I am going to call it "In My Garden".