Quilting and other Things

Its has been a very successful month for quilting.  The Moondance top is finished :) and I'll get the binding made this weekend.  I'm starting to think about how to quilt it and which top to work on next.  I have a few smaller items on this years UFO list so will probably choose one of those. I made such good progress on this in January because I went with four friends to a quilt retreat for a week.  Our lockdown rules limit indoor gatherings to five.  It was such a wonderful time to get a way and be with friends and do something I love.  I also got a lesson on how to make a journal with reclaimed paper which was fun. Late last year I ordered 7 fat quarters from Spoonflower to make a panel One Block Wonder.  I used a digital art piece I created last year called Tempest in a Teacup.   I had used the design helper to choose which piece might work well as a One Block Wonder.   I was amazed at how fast the order came.  From the gui...

My goal this month was to finish appliqueing the other 16 triangles required for my Common Bride quilt.  When the first 8 were finished, I added them to the 4 from last month and put them up on the design wall.   When the last eight were finished, I added the corners to the design wall. Last week Elaine had a sit and sew day at her house so I took the quilt with me to add the triangles to the centre.   My star blocks turned out slightly small so I knew I'd need to add a small strip to make the triangles fit.  So first I pieced the three triangles for each side border.  They all turned out to be 51 1/4 inches -- I was thrilled with the consistency.  I spent some time making sure I cut the strips correctly and then added the triangles.  They all fit beautifully.  The corner triangle pairs also turned out consistent and fit very nicely. I'm thrilled with how this top is progressing.  One last border t...

Last weekend, I went to a guild retreat.  There were 26 of us spending the weekend away enjoying stitching away and chatting.  It was a wonderful weekend and I'm so pleased in everything I accomplished. About five years ago I purchased some fabric to make a one block wonder quilt.  About four years ago one of the guild workshops was a One Block Wonder class with Maggie Butterfield Dickenson.  Two years ago, I finished making all the hexagons for the quilt.  Last year I did very little quilting.  This year I decided the top needed to be finished.  I finally put it up on the design wall several months ago and start to move the blocks around.  I didn't have enough of the original fabric to do a border so decided to include the original fabric in the center of the quilt.  I spent last week sewing columns together then packed everything up to take to the retreat.  I stopped at Len's Mills on the way to look for a fabric to look for a borde...

For a long time Karen and I have been talking about making t-shirt quilts. Last month we decided it was time and I took my box of t-shirts to her house and we spent the weekend working on preparing our t-shirts. We were going to use my house but the forecast was for very warm weather that weekend and she has central air :) Over the course of the weekend we rough cut all the t-shirts and got at least half the fusing done. Today I finished trimming all my t-shirts. Now I need to figure out what size to bring them all up to so I can fit them together. They are all carefully cut out on the same multiple so I should be able to built things up and then assemble the quilt. First I need to get the one block wonder to a point were it can come off the design wall. This morning I worked on the 365 quilt and the last of the one block wonder blocks. As I was trimming the quarter square triangles, I realized that I check more than the centre marking as described in th...

In December, I wrote about some goals for this year in this post . I wrote about some progress in February here . Yvonne at Quilting JetGirl, who organized the 2016 Planning Party, has a mid year check-in which was a reminder to write a new post. Quilting: 1. Finishing Quilts. In March, I quilted Mom's Patchwork Sampler quilt then went back in April and quilted the black, white, red and grey quilt and a photo transfer quilt. The Patchwork sampler quilt is the from the same class with Elaine that mine quilted in January was from. The Black, White, Red and Grey was a mystery quilt Chip of the old block. I'm still stitching the binding down on this one. The photo transfer quilt was a top I'd done years ago at the old Streetsville store about 1996. This was a small quilt but I wanted to play with some free motion quilting on the long arm. I've now completed finished 3 of my quilts, almost finished a fourth one and finished two of Mom's. The second one o...

One of my favorite quilts is a one block wonder.  I look for the at quilt shows and love to see the original fabric and what it came become when chopped into matching 60 degree triangles. I bought the first book a few years ago and some flower headed pins the book recommends.  Last spring I bought a fabric to make myself a one block wonder quilt.  Its was a shinny fish fabric Its been sitting on the corner of my cutting table or in a box on the shelf ever since waiting for me to get a round to it.  Earlier this year, the guild announced a One Block Wonder workshop in May with Maggie Butterfield Dickinson  So I signed up.  Yesterday was the day.  In the morning we cut our six matching sections and got everything pinned and lined up nicely.  Then trimmed edges and cut strips.  I took a 60 degree triangle I bought for a workshop with Jackie Black many years ago.  I was thinking this was the first time I've used it since that worksho...