Sunday, 24 December 2017

A Couple Finishes and Season's Greetings

The presents are all wrapped and under the tree, waiting for the little ones to arrive. One more sleep than my family will all be here, I sound as anxious as a kid waiting for Santa to arrive. Today will be a day of prep for tomorrows big meal. I can smell it already.

My oldest son wanted a 150 quilt, and being the great mom I am I got to work and made him one. Of course no advance notice and only two weeks to make it before Christmas.

150 Canadian quilt

I started with the panel of the Mountie and parliament buildings from Northcott fabrics. The flag panel on the bottom and the cream and black fabrics are also from Northcott. I decided to border the Mountie panel in black and build from there. As my DIL is tall I needed the length. I bordered the flag panel in red and added it to the bottom. Made a few flying geese, well maybe more than a few actually 52. They are 3'' x 6''. A couple more borders and it was a good size 52'' x 74''.

One thing I did learn panels are not square and require careful cutting to make them appear straight and square, but that top except for the geese flew together.

I outline quilted the Mountie, parliament buildings and flag and did loop de loops in the background. Quick and easy quilting. I did more back and forth lines around the geese and ghosted in geese in the geese border. Ribbon candy in the red borders and the final cream border I did figure eights.

ghosted geese that don't show in the picture so well
I should have taken more pictures before wrapping the quilt up. Red and black are the worst colours for picture taking.

Next up was a Christmas stocking for his daughter, she is 9 months old. I have made all my grandchildren a stocking the year they were born. Here is hers. 

Christmas stocking complete with bling.
Now to get down to making desserts. 

Wishing you and yours a Happy Holiday Season and a very Merry Christmas!!!

Saturday, 23 December 2017

Medallion Month 12

This months block is an Irish Chain Block. The Irish Chain quilt pattern is one of the oldest and most popular quilt patterns. Barbara Brackman believes the Irish Chain quilt pattern was developed in America in the early 1800s. She states that 1814 is the earliest known date for this pattern.
The Irish Chain is a great quilt for beginners, it's all strips and squares. However I have added HST's to the corners.

Irish Chain Block
Cutting:
Dark fabric:       A  2-  4'' x 4''  
                   B   1- 4 3/4'' x 4 3/4''
Medium Fabric:     C   1- strip 2'' x33'' 
Background Fabric: D  2- 4'' x 4''  
                   E  1- strip 2'' x33'' 
                   F  2- 4'' x 4''

Step 1:
1. On the back of both piece D draw a diagonal line from corner to corner. As per diagram 1a.
2. Place the square on top of piece A. Sew a 1/4'' seam on both sides of the line. As per diagram 1b.
3. Cut on drawn line. As per diagram 1c.
4. Press HST's to dark side.
5. Trim the HST's to 3 1/2'' x 3 1/2''
6. Make 4.


diagram 1

Step 2:

1.Sew strip C and E right sides together. As per diagram 2.
2. Press seam to dark side.
3. With rotary cutter and ruler straighten up one end. 
4. Cut 16 2'' x 3 1/2'' pieces. As per diagram 2.

diagram 2
5. Using the pieces you just cut, lay face up with darker square at top. Place another piece on top right sides together and darker square at bottom. As per diagram 3a.
6.Nestle seams and sew a 1/4'' seam. As per diagram 3b.
7. Swirl center seam and press.
8. Trim to 3 1/2'' x 3 1/2''.
9. Make 8.
10.  Sew two 4 patch units together, matching dark squares at top using a 1/4'' seam.
11. Make 4.

diagram 3

Step 3

1. Cut F in half diagonally. You should have 4 pieces.
2. Finger press a vertical and horizontal fold in piece B.
3. Place piece F right sides together on piece B matching point of F to crease line on B. See diagram 4.
4. Sew using a 1/4'' seam.
5. Open the seam and finger press. Do not use your iron or you will loose the crease lines.
6. Repeat with the other 3 sides of B.
7. Press and trim to 6 1/2'' x 6 1/2''.

diagram 4

Step 4

1. Sew units together to make rows. Sew rows together to make Irish Chain Block. See diagram 5.

diagram 5

I hope everyone is having fun making their blocks. I would love to see any of the blocks you have made, you can post to Instagram using #stitchinathomemedallion2017 

There are two blocks left to make for the Medallion Quilt.