Charity Wheel-Chair Quilts

     My guild took on making wheel-chair quilts for one of the local Long Term Care Homes. We are a small guild with approx 30 members and this is a big undertaking for us. We need 136 quilts, they are approximately 30'' x 40''. They will be delivered in December to the home and hopefully depending on how bad Covid cases get, some of the guild members and Santa will be there. 

The idea is to provide something to the residents and hopefully make their Christmas a little brighter and also so they know someone is thinking about them. As some residents have no one to visit them.

Excuse the leaves it was quite windy yesterday and I haven't been out to rake yet today. I was more interested in taking photos for this blog post.

These two were made from scrap bags from my guild.

I made 14, and most were made using fabrics and scraps from our guild stash with a donation from my stash for backgrounds or to supplement the scraps. Some were made using orphan guild blocks.

Some orphan blocks, and more scraps

the purple/pink was a quilt someone had donated. The wonky star was a single orphan block

The purple and pink quilt required a little surgery and seam ripping, the floral was a part of the original quilt. 

Charm squares and sashing

a little bit of irish

The 4 patch units were not square, they were rectangular, but I think in this layout they worked darn good.

sometimes simple is best

these are browner than they appear

Even though I haven't been blogging much, which I need to get back into doing, I have been busy.

Some of the quilts took longer to come up with ideas than to actually make them. 

A Little Christmas Gift Sewing

First up some Barbie doll clothes. One of my granddaughters is not too happy with her dad. She cleaned up her bedroom and put her doll clothes collection in a bag unbeknownst to her dad, who you may have already guessed what happened next. He put the bag in the trash. They were some big tears and angry words. So what's a grandma to do but help replace some of her collection and she could use everything including footwear.

Now let me tell you sewing Barbie clothes is not my idea of fun. They are so small turning those seams hmm..

this is the bodice of a sundress Small darts and tiny seams

This is the collection so far I'm finishing up a few more. I am NOT sewing footwear! A grandma has to draw the line somewhere and after sewing those clothes I'm at the end. That's it ... at least for now. If anyone wants to test their sewing abilities and sanity, just google Barbie clothes. Have fun!

that red and white polka dress has a facing turning those shoulders was more than enough to test the patience of anyone

On to bigger things, Zip and Go bags. The pattern is well written and easy to follow. I have previously made one for myself and one for my daughter. 

these are both Northcott fabrics.

The pattern is for a 7 1/2'' x 9 1/2'' finished bag as the bags were going to an eleven and nine-year-old I decided to adjust the pattern more to a size appropriate to their size. I am sorry but as this is not my pattern I won't be telling you what size I finished them at. 

My guild held our Christmas potluck which is always good. Sorry never even thought about photos. The program for the meeting was about making reusable shopping and produce bags. We also had a $5 gift exchange with the gift to be in keeping with the theme of a reusable gift bag.

what sewing gift is complete without chocolate

I made a petit four basket a free pattern from ByAnnie.com. The little basket sewed up quick. Besides the chocolates, I added a pack of self-threading needles and a candy cane. In all honesty, I was over the $5 limit, but the recipient liked her gift. And that made me happy.


That wraps up my little gifts. I hope you've had time to make a little or big gift this holiday season.

My Guild's Challenge

This year the challenge for my guild's quilt show was 'Home'. It is described as "What home means to you. Whether it is a place: your house, a place you have fond memories of, maybe flowers or family."  I decided to make mine based on family.

After a few ideas tossed around in the middle of the night. I know that I am not alone in the late night designing department. I finally settled on a brilliant idea, all my ideas are brilliant at least I think they are. I wanted a heart and family.

A red heart that said home, maybe some flowers as I love flowers and maybe a picture of my family. Everything spiraled from there. The challenge had a mind of it's own. 

First the red fabric. I couldn't find anything I liked and I wanted something that said home. I could have appliqued it, or stitched it or even used fabric markers all would have been fine. But I choose to go another direction I had fabric printed from Spoonflower, that I designed with 'Home where family is sewn into the fabric of my Life' printed on it.

fabric from Spooflower minus a heart shape

Once the fabric arrived I quickly cut into as you can see in the above photo. Next up the flowers, for which I first applied Steam a Seam 2 Lite to the back of the flower fabrics, before cutting the flowers out. I had and still have a lot of flowers cut out.

flowers, flowers and more flowers and this was after finishing the piece

I printed out pictures of my family, sorry no in-laws. I asked my family if they all wanted to be included and my daughter in-laws said no so I decided my son in-law wasn't going to make the cut either. My hubby doesn't want his picture front and center so I coloured him out of the photos.

first layout

One nice thing about the Steam a Seam it allows you to easily move the pieces around as long as they are not pressed down. I put them on a piece of pattern ease (Pattern Ease is a polyester non woven tracing material that can be used to create pattern pieces or sewn into projects as a light weight interfacing or stabilizer.), as the fabric pieces would be fused down to it. I cut the fused piece from the pattern ease along the outer edges, then appliqued the whole piece onto the background fabric latter. I wasn't happy with the first layout and moved the family around a lot until I settled on the final layout. 

I was right into the piece and forgot to take pictures along the way.

thread work

 I used Superiors monopoly for appliqueing the piece to the background. Then I cut loose using my favourite threads, Aurifil for the thread work, there where a lot of colour changes and burying of thread tails. 

a selection of Aurifil threads where used

I should have done more thread work before I started quilting it, but as I said earlier this project had a mind of it's own and decided I should add more thread work.

the back of the piece showing some of the thread work

And now for the big reveal in amongst my hostas.

my home, my happy place

These are the people who hold my love and will always come first. They are the 'Fabric of my Life'.

If you are in the area come and see what our show has to offer. We have quilts aplenty, a boutique and vendors. Some of the vendors are Sue Patten, K&A Quilts, Caroline Quilts. Even if you're not close by come on down. The show is at the Norwich Historical Museum, 89 Stover St. Norwich Ontario. 

Friday June 7th  12PM to 5PM

Saturday June 8th 10AM to 4PM

 

More Bits of Goings On

It's amazing how fast April seemed to come along this year. The months just continue to roll on, if I'm not careful I may get rolled right over.
April started out busy as the 1st is my anniversary, no sewing got done. We spent the day just doing little fun things that we enjoy, like a walk. Then a nice meal out at one of our favourite restaurants.

Sewing has been happening including more secret sewing this time for the 'Be A Diamond' blog hop hosted by Just Let Me Quilt.

A sneak peak at my project. 

a fun novelty print

This is as far as I am, I need to get moving on this project as my day is April 26th.

Some easy sewing also happened I saw these cute little bunny bags on pinterest. The tutorial is here. They were a quick make. My grandchildren will like these, especially filled with chocolates.

I made six in a couple hours

I have also been slowly working on my challenge project for my guild show. I have been using Steam a Seam 2 Lite on the back of the flowers and cutting them out. I need a whole lot more. 

I need to continue cutting more as this is only a small sample of what I'm going to be using

Now I just hope my idea for the guild challenge works out the way I have in my mind. That's the funny thing about these visions they don't always go the way we think they will. But I'm pushing forward as I'm sure it's going to look like I envision, fingers and toes crossed.

 

If you are looking for a great QAL hop on over to mmm!quilts. She has a lovely design, that makes 42 1/2'' square quilt a very manageable size and time schedule. I am sponsoring one of the prizes.

Now I better get busy and start putting thread to fabric.

A Couple Guild Projects

For my guilds comfort quilt program we have been making monthly block challenges. The members seem to enjoy this. All the blocks we make are 10''. 

I am the keeper of the challenge blocks. They are kept in 'official' block storage containers.

started with one 'official' container and had to up it to two

I'm sure you can tell by the above picture how the blocks are stored. If not look below.

yup that's a pizza box they make ideal block storage containers

Sometimes keeping the lids closed is a bit of a problem. But transporting them to meetings is easy. My guild meets in the morning. After the meeting some of the members stay and sew. We have put together quite a few tops from the various challenge blocks. Some members will take a top home if it isn't finished during sew time and finish them up.

I pulled the black and white blocks that were made in the fall. I found a nice black print with red flowers to use for sashing and borders, the corner stones are black.

a 4 x 5 setting of 10 inch blocks ready for one of our longarmers

The second quilt I worked on was a panel. I added a couple borders. This one I quilted and bound. A few pictures follow. It was a pretty panel.

panels are fun to quilt

A closeup of one of the flowers.

I outlined the flowers and stitched some lines in to separate the petals 

A picture of the back.

all those beautiful flowers look as good from the back

Guild Fun Plus

I am sitting here staring at my screen trying to decide if I have anything to blog about. What have I been up to quilting wise? Well let's see. I went on a mystery shop hop with my guild, always fun. We car pool and in our vehicle we had a blast. All the laughing and sharing with like minded quilters a JOY. This year we were to wear a quilters hat hmmm. I had never heard of a quilters hat, time for a little creativity. First off I am not a hat person not a good way to start coming up with something. After thinking about it for awhile I thought to myself Now really how hard could this be? I decided on a fascinator, easy peasy right! I started with the following items head band, some felt, ribbon (in green of course), 1 1/2" quilting blocks, bobbin, thread, needles. First step cut two felt ovals, glue the headband between them. Add one 6 loop bow and embellish with the assorted items. Want to see? Of course you do.

now doesn't that just take your breathe away 

It is soooo lovely another picture is in order.

I will not be taking orders any time soon

We went to five quilt shops and had a lovely lunch in St. Jacobs at the Stone Crock.  We Started our shopping at  Undercover Quilts and More in Fergus We ended in New Hamburg with two shops, Heart'n Home Creations and Quilting by Design. 

The other ladies outdid themselves with their hats, now I wish I would have taken pictures but that didn't happen. We had one person who made a band box hat topped with a cardboard sewing machine, which she had coloured accordingly. We had one hat with ziplock bags hanging everywhere full of quilting tools, we had fabric wrapped hats. Well done ladies! One shop owner asked if we wore our hats to meetings, NO.

On Monday at my guild meeting we had a couple demos of paper piecing. Heather showed traditional paper piecing. You know the type sew through paper spend hours ripping all those papers out. I showed the freezer paper method, it is the only way I do paper piecing as I am most definitely not a fan of ripping out paper.

This is the block I showed them, hopefully some will show up in November with finished blocks.

a simple freezer paper pieced block

The black and white block is for our monthly block challenge, which was Septembers challenge. One of the requirements is that all blocks must be 10 1/2'' unfinshed, and in this case black and white other than that the sky's the limit. We use the blocks to make charity quilts, this year they will be going to Ronald MacDonald House in London and Victoria Quilts.

For not knowing what to write, I think I had more to share than I thought. Hope you are having fun too!

Where did September go?

I seem to have lost a whole month of blog writing. September came and went and it appears I went right along with it.

It is guild season and that means it's time for our annual BOM. This year I went for a little bit more of a modern look. Most of my guild members are more traditional quilters, but sometimes getting out of our comfort zone is good for our creative spirits.

2018 BOM for my quilt guild the Quaker Quilt Guild in Norwich, On

All that negative space to quilt as little or as much as we want. I may have gone overboard with the feathers, which I love adding to a quilt.

feathers and swirls

As Christina Cameli does in her Craftsy/Bluprint class Wild Quilting: Creative Free-Motion Combinations I added a showboat. A little affiliate ad here: You can enjoy Bluprint Get Started Event: Watch All Classes + Shows For Free (10/5-10/12). It is the center focal point with the crosshatching and is surrounded by feathers, swirls and pebbles. 

Want to see a closeup of a few of the blocks? Of course you do. Who doesn't like some eye candy?

ruler work and a few pebbles

straight lines, crosshatch and curved lines

simple stippling on this one I called it Twister

The background is Kona snow, the yellow is a Micheal Miller solid that I don't remember the name of nor did I bother to write it down when I bought it, silly me. The lighter print is a Northcott and the darker is I believe an Art Gallery, another silly me moment I removed the selvedge for someone who was collecting selvedges. For the backing I used a wideback from Connecting Threads. The batting is a Hobbs Heirloom Bleached Cotton Batting. I do prefer an 80/20 Hobbs but was looking for a white batting so I settled for the 100% cotton. 

a neat photo showing the blocks shadowing through the back 

This is a big part of what kept me busy, that and having my main machine in for repairs for the better part of the summer. It is back in again for repairs for the 5th time in a little over two years. I know totally UNREAL! 

Linking up to 

Needle and Thread Thursday

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

Guild Challenge Block

This year my guild members have been making challenge blocks. Every month is a different colour or theme. Some of the challenges for the year have been primary colours, leaves, red and green, winter blues, hearts.
After our last meeting some of us stayed and started making quilt tops. We had pizza for lunch and got to work.

primary colour blocks

winter blues

hearts

As you see there were a variety of blocks. With rotary cutters, zipping through sashing, sewing machines humming along and irons pressing. We turned those blocks into lovely tops for our charity quilt program.

primary colour blocks with a yellow strip sashing

for the winter blues we used white sashing

hearts are set with a red sashing

A very productive afternoon interspersed with laughter, learning and making. When quilters get together good things happen. 

Linking up with:

Moving it Forward Monday

Linky Tuesday

Let's Bee Social

Needle and Thread Thursday at Kelly

Quaker Quilt Guild Quilt Show 2017 is a wrap

After an exhausting 3 days my small guild (30 members) pulled off an incredible show. A lot of time and work goes into a successful show, once the doors opened to the public it soon became apparent that it was well worth the effort put forth by everyone.
The weather was perfect, we had people from various places in the province including Barrie, Toronto, Etobicoke, Hamilton and our local area.

A glimpse of what we had on display follows, this is a non-judged show. We display our quilts in a church on the museum site.

quilts in the early morning light 

 The quilts are draped over the pews. This is a view from the front of the church.

from the back of the church

All the glorious colour of the quilts greeted people as they entered the church.

right side and the wall hangings 

We hung the wall hangings on a line along both sides of the church.

left side

a couple of my quilts 

We had some vintage quilts included this year.

this is just a few of the vintage quilts

this one was hand pieced by Edna Carroll there are 1200 HST's in this beauty

For Canada's 150th we had a display with all the provinces and territories, from coast to coast to coast. This was the guild challenge and was called 'A Road Runs Through'. 

3 territories and one province

7 more provinces

I did Manitoba. The dimensions of the road on the sides of mine were 2 1/2'' wide on the left and 3 1/4'' wide on the right.

Manitoba

Some of the smaller pieces are displayed on dividers.

the watercolour, swoon mini, bluebird and Spring Whimsy are mine.

the leaves are placemats by Joyce Houghton

a nice collection of wall hangings

This is just a small sampling of the many quilts on display. We may be a small guild but as you can see in the photos above we don't lack in talent.