Quilting and other Things

The first of two house blocks for this years $10 quilt is done.  I'm pleased with how it turned out.  There's two more little pieces to add once the paper is removed.  For the moment I'm pinning them to the block for storage since one of them is only about 1 inch square.  The Friends on Chelsea Lane spent a lot of time in my purse this week -- or pocket over the weekend.  I took three blocks to the Ladies Retreat over the weekend and during breaks and social times, stitched away.  Others were busy knitting scarves. Harvest moon.  The last star is pinned in place because I want to change the words and need to figure out what it will be so I can position the star appropriately. Friends just needs its word and some zig-zag chain stitch Bloom I've started the embroidery.  This will be this week purse project Last night, I finally quilted the little thread painting wall hanging that I started in a guild workshop in May 2009. ...

We had the first of the $10 classes a week early in January so part of last week was cutting out house number 3 (its getting done first, then #1).  It all got cut out and ready to paper piece but I didn't get to stitching Hard to believe that those will eventually make a house.  I've really been enjoying working on the Friends on Chelsea Lane quilt so decided to stop and prepare several of the blocks.  During the week I traced applique shapes and stitched the layered sections together where I could.  Friday night Karen and I went to a sit and sew evening at Cockadoodle quilts.  I spent the evening preparing background blocks and by the end had most of them basted as well.  Saturday I stitched the Joy block and between Sunday and Monday stitched the Bee Happy Block.  Friends is underway as a purse project.  Those houses for the $10 class need attention in the evening. Joy Bee Happy Friends Harvest Moon Bloom Gour...

I found a border fabric I like for the Little House quilt and it now has mitred borders and the bias binding is prepared (since the fabric has strips, I decided mitring and bias were in order).  I had another reminder about how often I don't put mitred borders on quilts -- it took almost 2 hours to put borders on a 32 X 37 quilt.  Then was the fun of calculating the length of binding, how big a square does it take.  Pulled out my Quiltmaking Tips and Techniques  book and the formula is A = Calculate the perimeter of the quilt 2*(length + width) plus 24 - 36 inches B = Multiple that number by the width of strips to cut C = Take the square root A*B Round that to a nice easy number to cut.  I cut the square a little bit bigger.  I'd rather have too much than not enough.  If I'm not making bias binding, the its just A and cut strips of the required width until you have enough to add up to that length.  For smaller quilt...

During the trip to the UK last year, I made a very brief visit to the British Museum to see a six of the History of World in 100 Objects.  All of these are very creative objects -- the details in the reindeer using stone tools, the ornamentation and similarity in patterns across the backgrounds.  I see lots of quilting patterns in those details. The first on my list was a pair of swimming reindeer carved from mammoth tusks during the last ice age. The next was to see the Benin Plaques .  The museum has a wonderful collection of these.  The one in the History of the world shows the King of Benin in Nigeria with some Europeans in the background. TVO showed a series last year about the Lost Kingdoms of Africa and one of them was about the Benin Plaques. The third was the Lewis Chessmen  carved from Walrus Ivory and Whale bones.  The fourth was the Chinese Bronze Bells  called a Bo Bell.  The fifth was ...

I finished appliquéing the two blocks Mom had begun and then spent most of Saturday adding the embroidery. The pattern calls for small black Rick rack for the balloon and stems as well as other elements in other blocks. I used a zig zag chain stitch instead.  Its a chain stitch but each chain is done at an angle to the previous one so that it forms the zigzag.  Next to do is prepare the March Block. The guild Block of the Month for 2010/11 was a pattern by Linda Halpin called Quilting with Laura. I took for of my scrap boxes (red, orange, purple, pink and beige/white) and worked on the blocks. Somehow, it doesn't look like anything has been removed from the boxes even though the quilt centre is finished. Almost everything in the centre came from one of the boxes. A few of the larger pieces had to come from the shelves. Next challenge is picking a border fabric. I pulled a few but so far none of them seemed right.  

This morning was all about errands -- drop off the bag to the thrift store that's been in the cupboard for months, get groceries, get my calendar. On my way out to the car, this little guy was sitting in the tree having his morning snack. I don't think he really wanted to be my model. He was in a better location before I got the camera out. He and his apple disappeared further up the tree a few moments later. After errands, I watched the Tournament of Roses Parade and put the decorations away. This is near the beginning of the Parade (I missed the first few minutes) This is near the end. I had my lunch while watching the tail end of the parade. Then downstairs to work on laundry and the guild BOM from last year (2009 / 10). Its Quilting with Laura by Linda Halpin. I got stuck on the second last block --- Doves in the window and printed it out for paper piecing. Last night I sewed the last of the little pieces and tried to trim them for sewing the sections to...