Quilting and other Things

The assignment for this months $10 quilt was to make the beige log cabin squares, add or at least prepare the poinsettia applique and assemble the middle 25 blocks. I'm using a print for the applique and actually have 2 added to each corner. The third one will overlap a seam that isn't sewn yet so its still waiting Earlier this year, the guild had Martha Schellingherhoud as the speaker and workshop teacher. She ended up teach a quilt as you go workshop a couple of times -- I took the encore session in June. I liked the methods she taught and thought this would be a good quilt to practice on. So I'm busy quilting the centre of the quilt. The middle 15 blocks are all assembled and ready to have the 4 inch section over the join quilted. The top and bottom borders of 5 blocks each are ready to be quilted. The blue painters tape is to remind me where not to stitch at this point. The beige end squares aren't getting quilted yet as I want to add the third app...

Today I went out to Ajax to see the Twisted Sisters quilt show.  WOW!  What talented ladies.  Looks like this is their second show.  I'll watch for the next one.  The Green Men.  Spirits of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter by Rosemary Oliver Fishing Village by Rosemary Oliver Children of the World by Trisha Della Vella and Mary Eeg Autumn Splendor by Gaile Statkus Pattern by Kathleen Star  Goose Tracks by Ester Mihkleson design by HoopSisters Daisy May by Carlene Helmle quilted by Ruth Foley from a class at Ultimate Sewing Centre Circular Bargello by Joyce O'Connell quilted by Tracey Russell.  Pattern by Cheryl Phillips  In mid-October I went to the Halton Hills guild anniversary dinner where the ladies from The Quilt Patch in Saskatchewan were the guest speakers.  They showed lots of wonderful quilts which I had no intention of buying until Flakey Friends was shown and walked through the au...

Elaine posted a list of all the $10 quilts she's taught over the last 10 years.  I've done an inventory of the ones I've done.   It looks like only two are fully quilted, some are ready to be quilted and some still need final borders.    The 2003 quilt was a row quilt with a piano key  border.  I didn't like the border and replaced it with an applique border.  I don't have a photo of the finished top.  The quilt has turned out HUGE and its the one I'm thinking about taking apart and using the quilt as you go techniques I learned at a guild workshop in June.  I don't have a space big enough to get the full photo so took two pictures: During the year we made this quilt we visited St John's Newfoundland.  My houses are all brightly coloured in honour of the visit except for one which would be my house.  I loved the brightly colour houses. In 2004 we did two season quilts -- Fall and Spring....

One of the lists asked the question this week -- What was your first quilt and do you still have it?  My first quilt top, in 1993, was Eleanor Burn's Christmas Tradition Quilt. I had the book and had recorded her program from TV and between the two moved from sewing clothes to making quilts. Having made the top, I needed to learn to quilt it so took a hand quilting class and a sampler class. The sampler class had us using templates, hand piecing and I think quilt as you go -- need to go look at the back of the lap quilt.  Both quilts are still upstairs and get used. Afterwards I went back to hand quilt the Christmas quilt. The final stitches went into the binding on May 23, 1994 as the the credits rolled for the final episode of Star Trek Next Generation -- the episode was called All Good Things which seemed quite fitting for a Christmas Quilt.

This seems to have been an applique month.  I finished the geisha block from the previous post --- her hands were in the bag with the pattern. The water brush worked really well.  So now that brush will live with my applique.  Several years ago, I started a Christmas A to Z  quilt by Old Farmhouse Quilts.  A - D were done and E was waiting.  For some reason all the little pieces were bothering me.  So when I saw the geisha block, I decided to do a similar prepare method -- the Elf was prepared with glue and starch and just freezer paper on top depending on the piece.  It spent a bit of time in my purse and pocket and is now complete.  For some reason I hadn't taken photos of the other blocks.  Most of them need embellishments yet (faces, lettering, strings of lights).  Some will get done before quilting, some will wait until afterwards.  So here are all five blocks (on top of this years $10 quilt) Finally t...

I was looking for some applique I could take to the guild meeting the other day but the only thing I could find that was prepared was a Geisha block designed by Laurissa Werhun which has lots of glue in it. The applique is prepared by gluing under the edges then align all the pieces together and gluing the overlaps.  The prepared piece is then glued to the background When stitching this I usually have a little container of water beside the chair.  If I come across a spot that needs to be smoothed or the glue is too hard to get the needle through, I put a bit of water on a finger, hold it on the spot to soften the glue and make the necessary adjustments.  A little container of water wasn't going to work well going off to guild then I remember my waterbrush from my watercolours The handle gets filled with water and it flows out the brush as you need it.  I stopped on the way home to buy a new one as both the ones I have are stained from the watercolour pai...

I went to Elaine's Pampered Sit 'n Sew yesterday as part of this weeks vacation activity.  It was a productive day and led to a productive Thursday and Saturday. Thursday I cut out the house for the $10 quilt assignment this month and did some of the assembly -- ended up with all the little sections done and ready to start building the house Friday at Elaine's.  By lunch on Friday, the house was done and the next $10 quilt class isn't until October 20th.  Something wrong with that but atleast I won't have to be up late on the 19th. Next I took the half square triangles I needed to make from this 2007 $10 quilt. 124 are needed for one of 2.5 the borders on this quilt.  (The third border only goes on two sides -- I still may change that). This week I got busy and cut the rest of the squares then marked them and paired them up one evening.  They got sewn, cut and Elaine pressed them.  THANKS!  Watched three episodes of History of Scotland las...