Yet Another Finish

Can you tell that our London Friendship Quilters Guild Show is coming up in less than a month?  I am working hard to finish off the quilts that I will be entering in the show--bindings, labels and hanging sleeves--only one more sleeve and a couple of labels to go!

The Lazy Sunday Mystery is a Bonnie Hunter Pattern that was in 4 consecutive issues of Quiltmaker Magazine a while back. I finally had it quilted by Cathy recently and finished off the binding a couple of weeks ago. I was too busy to blog about it until now!

 That's me peeking out from behind the quilt on the left side of the picture.   The picture was taken a couple of weeks ago when Kathy, Cathy, Barb and Christine were here for a sewing day.  The colours are a bit washed out in this picture.

It looked like this from the back of the quilt!

Cathy used an angel pantograph for the quilting.

My husband and I took a drive in the country today and we stopped so I could take a few pictures.

 

 

 

 

It was a beautiful day for a jaunt along some country roads!

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...

Catching up

This quilt came home with me from our last London Friendship Quilters' guild meeting. It needed to have the binding sewn on...which I have now finished. This quilt will be donated to Quilts of Valour--quilts for injured soldiers. Our guild has made several quilts for QOV over the last couple of years. We each signed the lighter blocks to show our appreciation to the soldier who will receive this quilt.

 

The Elgin Piecemakers continue to work on quilts for adult chemo patients at our local hospital. The colours for October were brown, beige and green. Here are our blocks:

 



Two more quilts were on display too:

The binding is not quite finished on this one!

I am working away on the borders for Bonnie Hunter's Lazy Sunday Mystery.  There is some progress on Christmas gifts too.

On Thanksgiving weekend, our extended family had a chance to go for a hike in the woods on a beautiful sunny day.

It was a perfect day for pictures!

I spent a few days in St. John's, Newfoundland in mid October for a conference for work. I had an afternoon to walk around and take a few pictures on the day I arrived. ---Another glorious sunny day!

I walked around old St. John's and admired the colourful Jelly Bean houses.

I see some quilt inspiration in these houses...

Multitasking...

 

Cathy and I had a sewing day on Saturday and we both worked on our Lazy Sunday mystery quilts. We both did some sewing and unsewing in the process, but both of us are on the right track now! I have my first row completely sewn and the sashings and cornerstones added to most of the rest of the blocks. I love the bright colours and all the little surprises in the fabrics of this quilt when you look at it closely. Christine is coming over tonight and we will both be working on our mystery quilts. 

 

 

Carol, Christine and I got together last week to work on our collaborative project. The top is completed and Christine is piecing the back so it can be brought to the long arm quilter's house this week.

 



We are all in love with this quilt!

I made my next charity quilt block for the Elgin Piecemakers on Saturday. This block will be handed in at our October meeting. I decided to make a slab with my brown, green and tan scraps.

Now, it is time for the stash report...

I purchased a half yard of blue and white ticking to do the binding on the antique quilt that I showed in this post.

Fabric used in the last week: 2.05 yards
Total fabric used this year: 132.16  yards
Fabric added to the stash in the last week: .5 yards

Total fabric added this year: 120.91 yards
Net fabric used this year: 11.25 yards

Have a wonderful day!

Sew Many Projects, Sew Little Time!

 

 

Christine came over to my house on Thursday night this week to work on our Lazy Sunday mystery quilts. We are putting together these blocks for step 3 of this mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter. After I put the blocks out on the floor and took this picture, I noticed a little unsewing job that needs to be done...can you find it?  I have already done the unsewing but still need to sew the block back together again! Only 8 more of these blocks to put together and then on to the purple and white border units.  This is the only sewing I have done since my last blog post.

 

I have stared longingly at my sewing machine a few times as I am heading out the door to work in the garden...  My husband and I are expanding our front flower beds, adding stone edging and planting some bushes, moving and thinning out the perennials, etc. What a big job!  We have finished off one garden--I added the mulch the other night. The second garden has the stone edging and the bushes are in but we still need to thin out and replant the perennials. We hope to get this job done by the end of next week. It takes a long time when we only have evenings and limited time on the weekends to be outside. In the backyard, my Dad (83 years young) and I have put in the vegetable garden--pole beans, zucchini, peppers, cherry tomatoes (in a pot on the patio), broccoli, kohlrabi and leeks.  My Dad always had a big garden at our house when I was growing up and after I left home but he is not allowed to have a vegetable garden where he lives now so he and I do the veggie garden here. The garden is fenced so that these visitors do not eat everything before we get a chance to do our harvesting!

 

 

 

This cardinal visited the yard the other morning and perched on the top of our gazebo to survey the backyard.

 

 



Here is my stash report.

 

Fabric used in the last 2 weeks: 2.4 yards
Total fabric used this year: 96.5  yards
Fabric added to the stash in the last 2 weeks: 0 yards
Total fabric added this year: 81.08 yards
Net fabric used this year: 15.42 yards

 

If you read my last blog post, you would know that I started making a boxy stars quilt for a family member last week.

 

 

I worked on this quilt at Jacqui's last Thursday night and have 4/12 blocks completed. Friday night, we had a phone call from my husband's cousin to let us know that her Mom had died early that morning unexpectedly. I had hoped to give this quilt to Aunt M in July. Now, it will be completed and given to her daughter in memory of her Mom.

Finally back to a bit of sewing...

I have not been blogging much lately. We have been busy with yard work and last weekend, I took my husband away on a surprise birthday trip for the weekend to Buffalo, New York. We stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast called the "Parkside House" and toured two homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright:  The Darwin Martin House and Graycliff. We had a wonderful dinner at Tempo--a modern Italian restaurant which we would highly recommend. After all the stress of the last few months, this was a relaxing and enjoyable weekend. My husband did not have a clue about where we were going!  It was a significant birthday and he did not want a party so I decided to take him away for the weekend.

 

I have been working on Step 2 of Bonnie Hunter's Lazy Sunday Mystery in Quiltmaker magazine over the last little while. Here are the 96 hour glass units... (I still need to trim the dog ears.)

Today, I got together with Cathy and Chris and we had an afternoon of sewing. I worked on these units for the LS mystery. I managed to get them all done.

The next step of this mystery is not out until the next issue of Quiltmaker comes out at the end of June. Now, I will be able to work on my 9 patch mystery and other projects until then.

I have not done a stash report in a couple of weeks. I bought a bit of fabric at the Quilting Bee on our way to Buffalo last weekend--just some fat quarters for the LS mystery and a couple of yards of fabric from the 50% off shelf for my stash.  All of the little pieces for the LS mystery take a long time to sew together but they do not make much of a dent in the stash!

Fabric used in the last 2 weeks: 1.45 yards
Total fabric used this year: 93.6  yards
Fabric added to the stash in the last 2 weeks: 5.5 yards
Total fabric added this year: 78.83 yards
Net fabric used this year: 14.77 yards
Whew!  I am still in the black!

Happy sewing!

Bricks and Stepping Stones Ready for Quilting

I added borders to this top early last week. There is some green in many of the bricks in this quilt, so the green border picks that up. 



Tonight, I pieced the backing for this quilt, using some extra blocks from the front, as well as some other fabrics.

I will be taking everything to the quilter's house this weekend and it should be done by early next week so I can give it to the recipient by the end of the week.

Christine and I got together last night and worked on our blocks for the Lazy Sunday Mystery. I finished 12 of the 24 blocks that I will be making. 

There are lots of sub units to make for this 2nd step so we will be busy over the next few weeks getting everything done.

Here is my stash report, a few days late...

Fabric used in the last week: 5.95 yards
Total fabric used this year: 90.15  yards
Fabric added to the stash in the last week: None!
Total fabric added this year: 73.33 yards
Net fabric used this year: 16.82 yards

Until next time...

Odds and Ends and a Stash Report

I managed to eek out a bit of time this week to work on a few different projects.

I finished off step one of the Lazy Sunday morning mystery by Bonnie Hunter in Quiltmaker Magazine--All bagged up and ready for step 2!

I finished the binding on the Baseball Scrappy Trips quilt

and machine stitched the binding to my aunt's quilt...I have started the hand sewing part and hope to finish it off tonight while my husband and I watch Downton Abbey.

The quilting was done by Cathy at Eagles Wings Quilts with a swirly daisy pattern.

I started my brown and light 9 patches for the mystery quilt that I am doing with the London Friendship guild.  Here are all the patches I have received in the swap so far:

I still have to add the pink, brown and black 9 patches to this pile. We will get our final set of patches at our May meeting along with the final instructions on how to assemble the quilt.

I started assembling some of the units --we were given these instructions last month.

This afternoon, I made a 12 1/2" block for the Elgin Piecemaker's charity quilt for this month. We were told to use teal and brown. I adapted Bonnie Hunter's pattern for a 9" Betty's Choice block in the March April '13 edition of Quiltmaker for my block. 

I also managed to make two pillowcases... these are gifts.

So, on to the stash report....No purchases this week!

Fabric used in the last week: 9.25 yards
Total fabric used this year: 71.3 yards
Fabric added to the stash in the last week: ZERO!!!
Total fabric added this year: 60.25 yards
Net fabric used this year: 11.05 yards. 

I have the backing to do for Swoon this week so that should help next week's report.  I donated 5 yards to our Guild rummage sale this week so that is included in the numbers.

What I have been up to this week...

I have been working away this past week on several projects including my aunt's quilt--I added the border and pieced the back and shipped it off to the quilter's house. It will be ready for me to pick up on Monday after work!  

In my last post, I said I was not that excited about how this quilt was looking, but now that the borders are on, I like it a lot better.

I also made 20 pink 9-patches this week for the mystery quilt at the London Friendship Quilters' Guild. I am accumulating quite a variety of 9 patches from the swap and they will be incorporated into the mystery quilt when I sew all of the units together. Stay tuned for more progress on this quilt.

Christine, Cathy and I have decided to do the Lazy Sunday mystery designed by Bonnie Hunter for Quiltmaker Magazine. We started on step one this week.

I have made all of the 4 patch units and most of the green HST's.

 

 

We will be getting together to work on the rest of the first step shortly so we will be ready for the next set of instructions in the May/June issue of the magazine.

The long arm quilter finished off my scrappy trips quilt this week so I added the binding. I still have to do the hand sewing part.

Cathy used an appropriate pantograph for this quilt which included gloves,

bats and stars,

baseball hats and baseballs.

 

 

I started to piece the back of my swoon quilt and soon discovered that I had not bought enough fabric so I made a quick call to Pam at Mad About Patchwork, and I soon had the extra fabric I needed to finish the back and binding. I will put the back together this week after the fabric is washed. I am happy to be finishing off all of these projects!

Here is my weekly stash report:

Fabric used in the last week: 8 yards
Total fabric used this year: 62.05 yards
Fabric added to the stash in the last week: 5 yards
Total fabric added this year: 60.25 yards
Net fabric used this year: 1.8 yards.  WooHoo!  I am in the black again!