Lots of pinwheels

 

The ladies of the quilting group at the church have discovered the “Lil’ Twister” template and have been busy making wreath table toppers.  Several are busy making seconds and thirds after we were asked to lend them for table centres for the Christmas banquet coming up soon. 

We found a fantastic set of directions here: 

Twister Wreath directions

Some of us were dismayed at having to cut up the panel of squares which we had so carefully sewn together, but it is great fun to watch the simple arrangement of squares turn into pretty spinning pinwheels.  (The non-Christmas one is mine – a scrappy summer-time wreath.)

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Technorati Tags: twister,Christmas,scrappy

Remembering when

It has been several years since one of the founding members of our quilt guild, Del Reynoldson, passed away. Her daughter is still working through her mother’s stash, sorting things, flinging things, finishing up projects, finding new homes for things. I was offered one of Del’s quilt tops for the Prayer Quilts group at the church. I was very surprised when I saw this – it was a sampler quilt I designed many years ago as a block-of-the-month project at the local quilt shop. I remember how honoured I felt at the time to know that someone who had been quilting and teaching others to quilt for much longer than I had would decide to do my project.

I designed the blocks using Electric Quilt software, probably version 4. The blocks each month were chosen to focus on a variety of quilting techniques, strip piecing, half square triangles, curved piecing, templates, etc. The blocks were in a variety of sizes and we made various simple “fillers” so the quilt could be put together in a “custom set” – this seemed like a very daring idea at the time!

Del certainly made the quilt her own. She added more blocks and her own personal touches to several of the blocks. 

This quilt top has brought back memories of a dear friend, and I know the church group will enjoy finishing it up so that it can bring joy to someone as a prayer quilt.

 

Technorati Tags: sampler,Electric Quilt

UFO completed for September

September was a busy month, but I’m pleased to report that I managed to get another UFO done in spite of the full schedule.  Of course, it helped that this month’s selection was a small project!
The pattern is Java Jazz, one of Marjorie Rhine’s continuous line appliqué patterns.  When I saw this, I knew I had to try it out.  Since we make two appliqués each time the pattern is cut out, I had four coffee cups to work with.  

Three of the cups were used for the long wall-hanging.  The most important thing I learned from this piece was that even if all the fabrics are black and white, one still should not try to select fabrics in poor light!  (All whites are not created equal!).

I think I like the single cup with the scrappy coloured border better,  But I am pleased with both pieces, and I’m especially pleased that they are FINISHED and ready to hang on the wall. 











Technorati Tags: UFO,applique,scrappy

Along Came Quilting

 

I’m home, after spending a few days teaching at the new location of a great quilt store in Calgary.  Take a look at their web site here:   Along Came Quilting.

They have gorgeous fabrics, lots of books, patterns, and threads.  There are wonderful samples on the walls.  There is lots of parking.

And the students were fantastic.  Even though I made them work hard, they hung in there for two days (and many for three days) of learning how to use the Electric Quilt computer program.  They explored libraries, used worktables, colored blocks, designed quilts, added sashings and borders to quilts, imported fabrics and on and on until I’m sure their heads were spinning (I know mine was!) .

Many thanks to Linda and her wonderful staff for inviting me to Calgary.  I’ll be looking forward to visiting you again. 

A new (old) project

I've had a set of star blocks in a box for many years.  I received them in a swap with internet friends and somehow never got around to putting them into a quilt, although when I opened the box recently I discovered that I had added coordinating fabrics to the collection of blocks and had printed out quilt layouts from Electric Quilt.

The latest project for Scrappy Club involves Log Cabin blocks.  I intentionally wrote the plans for the blocks to be the same size as my long-neglected stars.  Here are some of the blocks on my design wall.  I think this will work!

I can see that I need to spend some serious sewing time on building more of those Log Cabin blocks.

Display of Preemie Quilts at the Fall Fair

Those Preemie Puzzle quilts we made earlier this year were put on display at the Fall Fair on the weekend.  Marianne and her fall fair helpers provided us with a great location complete with tables and a display wall.  We filled all three sides with preemie quilts, a few Memory Quilts, some knitted hats, and a framed write-up explaining the project.
Here are some pictures:
Don’t they look great!  (Can you see the one you made in there?)  I understand they attracted a lot of attention and interest.   Now they will be bagged up and taken to the Hospital in Kamloops to be put to use.

It sounds like some people are ready to do it again. Watch this space for a new preemie mystery starting in January 2012.

Meet my quilting fairy godmother!

 

 

This is Thimblena, my own personal quilting fairy godmother.  (Why does she have green skin, you ask?  Because the instructions challenged us to be creative.  And because I needed two values of the same colour, not too textured or printed, and green is what I found.)

Linda at Paper Panache.com regularly posts paper-pieced Mystery Blocks but this time she has outdone herself – every one of the Godmothers is  different!  (I have no idea how she did that!)

 

 

There is a parade of godmothers on the site right now.  Take a look at  http://paperpanache.com/  The results are fantastic – some are young, some are old, some look stern, some are gentle.  And the wonderful variety of fabrics and embellishments will astonish you. 

Until the 10th of September you can vote on your favorites in several categories.  Not only that, the pattern is still available, free of charge, so you can make one of your own.