Be my Neighbour!

 In May, the London Friendship Quilter's Guild offered its members a sew along to keep us connected during the lockdown.  Each week we were sent instructions to make a house block.  Once a week a zoom meeting was organized and we were able to show one another our blocks (or the lack of one ☺) and chat with one another.  It was a great way to keep in touch and get to know members better.

Kona solids was my choice for this sampler quilt since I have a wonderful collection of them.  I had an awesome piece of house fabric that I bought awhile ago at The Quilt Kitchen in Exeter and used that to choose colours for the quilt.  

 

I had a darker grey Kona solid and used it for background.  I never looked at the size of the quilt and happily started on my first block when I realized it was 18" by 12" or 14"!!  That is huge.  A panic email out to the Quilt Kitchen for more grey Kona.  Yes, she had it in stock and tossed it in the mail that same afternoon and it was in my community mailbox at 9:30 the next day! When does that ever happen? It was quilted by Chris Bogart.

(Click on the photo for a larger view.)

The finished quilt

I saved all the cut offs from the angles pieces of the quilt and used them as leaders/enders and made pinwheels and houses out of them and used them for the back of the quilt since I didn't have enough of the house fabric for the whole backing.  A multi coloured Kaffe Fasset fabric was perfect for the binding.

Chris quilted it with a bird/flower overall pantograph ☺.

 

This summer I got a Bernina 1230 and it has a blanket stitch!  I tried it out on these cute bird appliques on this quilt and it worked very well.

Paper pieced birds

 Many years ago, I was asked to do a demo on paper piecing at our quilt guild.  I did a few of these bright birds with my solid scraps.  I finally got that project out this summer and fnished the birds and quilted it.  It's hanging in my husband's office with his ceramic bird collection that we've picked up over the years at yard sales.  Lesson learned from this quilt - I should have used a bit lighter background or darker or brighter legs for the birds.  They get lost a bit.  But, they are very cheery and brighten up the office.

Birds on a telephone wire

the legs can be seen on a closeup

The finished quilt with the bird collection in the windowsill

 

Round robin UFO finished

 Way back in 2014, I participated in a round robin with a few friends from the London Friendship Quilt Guild.  You can read about the reveal here.  This top was delayed in the finishing of it and then was put on the back burner for a bit and then I had a hard time thinking of how to quilt it.  Eventually I decided the easiest way to quilt it would be by hand.  I found some Kaffe backing in my stash and had fun quilting it by hand, adding more and more to the stitching.  It was finally finished in April of 2020, but I realized I'd forgotten to blog about this quilt as well. I really enjoyed this round robin and would do it again, but hopefully get it finished a little sooner. 

The finished quilt

After quilting in the ditch around all the piecing and applique, I quilted straight lines through the background fabric.

Closeup of the quilting and embroidery

Christine made this cute little label especially for my quilt!

The backing

The quote embroidered around the outside border of the quilt is from Eleanor Roosevelt:  "Women are like tea bags - they don't know how strong they are until they get into hot water".

 

Roman coin Kaffe Fasset quilt

 This quilt top has been sitting around for a long time.  In 2013, my friend Alice and I visited Hyggeligt Quilt shop which is one of our favourite shops when we need a colour fix.  This shop specializes in Kaffe Fasset fabrics.  I believe they were still in London then.  We fell in love with a package of fat eighths that were meant to do a jelly roll race quilt top with 1 1/2" strips using shot cottons plus one Kaffe fabric.  We both made a quilt and they were displayed in the Shedden Quilt show one year.  I looked back to tag the post about this quilt and there wasn't one!  I never did blog this quilt so I added a few pictures below.

The quilt turned out to be an odd size; very long and narrow, so we just cut it to a pleasing length.  I had this strip left over and years ago I cut them into different width strips and used a wine red shot cotton I found in my stash to sash it all around.  I had purchased some lotus leaf fabric for the backing of the first quilt and had just enough to add borders to it.  There it sat in the pile of quilts to be quilted until I got inspired.  

In September I found it again and decided to give it to an older lady from our Church who lost her husband in 2020 and with covid was pretty lonely.  She's quite artistic and I thought she'd like the colours.  I quilted it with funky flowers all over and miraculously found the same fabric yet in the stash for binding!  When does that ever happen?  I had a lovely visit with her when I brought the quilt and she loved it.  It matches her room perfectly.  So happy to have this quilt go to a good home. (Click on the photos to enlarge for a better view.)

The finished quilt

The funky flower quilting

 

This was the original quilt.  I have it hanging over my computer chair to brighten up room ☺

We challenged ourselves to do circular quilting on our original quilts.  I love the texture this gives!  This was a learning experience as I started and stopped each circle (using the edge of my walking foot as a guide).  If I do this again, I will be starting on a seam and sneaking down the seam for the next circle. You learn something with everything you do lol.  Alice embroidered on her quilt.  I'll add a picture if I can find one on my computer!

 

Frosty Table runner Sew Along

 Some of my friends talked me into joining Border Creek Station's sew along for a table runner called Frosty.  But, I'm happy to report that it's all finished and not in the UFO pile.  I guess with that kind of record, I can do a few new projects in between ☺!  A couple times a week a new clue was posted and it was manageable to keep up.  The units are small so precision was required!  It was a fun project. 

The finished runner on my kitchen table

Lots of little units in those small stars!

I chose blue and white so it looks frosty.

This star finishes at 4 1/2"

The backing wasn't the best, but it was in my stash so used it up.  I quilted it with straight lines approx. 1/2" apart which gives it a modern look.

 

Hotpad finishes

 A few weeks ago, I finished off some hot pads that have been lurking in my 'to quilt' basket for many years!  They are leftover blocks from other projects and make great hostess gifts (for when we are allowed to go out again ☺).  The larger mat was an attempt to use up some stitch and flip squares that were left over from a workshop I took in 2014 with Jacqui Gering.  I have finished a top using these units which I have to blog yet (it's being hand quilted).  I made this into a candle mat or table centerpiece, but I have lots of the units left and may make more of them into round potholders eventually.  These little projects were great practice for free motion and straight line quilting.

 

This table runner was also finally finished.  It was a class sample for a technique of sewing hexagon shapes with strips and I have made a number of samples and had lots of leftovers for hot pads.  I used a magnifico gold thread to free motion quilt this one for some sparkle.
 

 

 

Two Jelly roll race quilt finishes

Finished quilt top

A few years ago, I used up a lot of batik strips to try a larger jelly roll race quilt.  It made a large top so I cut it in half and had two nice lap size tops.  I quilted it a few weeks ago and gifted it to a friend who lost her husband in September.  

 

I used up a lot of batik strips from my 2 1/2" drawer

I quilted it with a variegated King Tut thread and a funky flower pattern

My friend, Chris across the street, who has a long arm quilt business, was all caught up on her Christmas quilts so managed to squeeze this jelly roll race quilt top in before Christmas!  I sewed this one last Christmas using a stack of turqouise, red and green fat quarters I picked up at Cherished Pieces a few years ago.  I love the modern look of this one.  This will be my own Christmas lap quilt.

I've had this fun fabric for a few years waiting for a special quilt to make with these cute foxes. 

Beautiful snowflake quilting by Chris Bogart

Comfort Quilts

 Last February, my friend Mary Lou came over and we spent a whole day rooting around in my leaders/enders collection.  I've been sewing cut offs together for many years and it was time to get them all organized and sorted.  We had a fun day thinking of projects to make with these.  I found a bunch of sample blocks from classes that I taught way back in the early 2000's!  And these fabrics have been in my stash since the 80's and 90's!  With some small hst's (half square triangles) I managed to make up a few more blocks to finish off one of the rows and we used up lots of larger hst's to make pinwheel blocks.  This row quilt was the result.  I just quilted it with simple straight lines.   Satisfying to use it up!  It will go to our local hospital's chemo unit for a comfort quilt.

The finished quilt - the binding still needed to be sewn down by hand

one of the tiny hst blocks

The second tiny hst block

We also found a whole bunch of black and white HST blocks in our quilt group's stash.  The black part had little tiny paw prints on it.  I had a stack of four patches which I've made as leaders/enders over the years and they fit beautifully with the black and white squares to create this layout.  I found the dog print for the border.  Someone will love this one for a comfort quilt at the chemo unit.  Now I need to start sewing up four patches again!

Finished quilt

Close up of the dog print and paws.  I quilted this one with simple straight lines too.

Pincushion fun

 About a year and a half ago, I went to the Quilt Kitchen in Exeter and succumbed to a book on making pin cushions.  You can read about that here.  It is very addictive and such fun to use up leaders/enders, selvages and bits and pieces of leftover fabrics from other projects.  Many years ago I went to a few miniature quilt classes with Kathy Wagner who blogs here. She suggested that when you finish off a quilt to file small leftovers into a basket or drawer together so that when you wish to make a mini quilt, you have a nice set of fabrics that go together nicely.  This works for pin cushions too ☺.  Every once in awhile, I grab my book and some of these fabrics and cut out a bunch of pin cushions.  Then when I need to test a sewing machine for Jake, I have something fun to make!  

In October, one of my small guilds held a 20th anniversary get together (which was way scaled down due to covid).  I had enough pin cushions in my jar to give everyone in the group a pin cushion and another friend in the group made a lovely hooked coaster for everyone. 

This photo shows the 19 pin cushions needed for everyone.
 

 

 

The jar was full!

 

 

Last night I finished five more pincushions to place into the empty jar

 

The jar is filling up again :-).

 

 

Antique embroidered quilt and pillow sham

 I was going through pictures and realized I'd taken these pictures in September and forgot to upload them to my blog!  This quilt has been finished for quite awhile.  I actually bought the top in a box lot at an auction.  We had just arrived at the auction and sat down and I wasn't paying much attention yet and all of a sudden I hear the auctioneer holler, "No one wants four boxes of fabric for $2.00"??? Of course that woke me up and my hand shot up.  And a guy bids $3!!!  Of course then I really had to have it, but had no idea what was in those boxes.  I got the boxes for $4.00.  There were two boxes of brown 60's type calicos which I end up using in 2007 to make quilts for my Mom, Dad and mother in law. Another box had a bunch of large pieces of terry cloth fabric which I used to make towels.  And, the last box had some beautiful hand embroidered blocks with birds (I'm still intending to make a quilt with those someday!) and also a complete top all embroidered in greens and reds.  I can't remember when I actually got this out to finish it, but I just added a simple red border around it and gave it to Julie Cassidy to quilt for me.  She did some custom quilting on it and it turned out gorgeous.  There was also a pillow sham or dresser scarf with it.  I decided to make a custom pillow insert and make it into a pillow.  Here is the finished quilt (click on the photo for a larger view).

Julie's beautiful quilting

The embroidery was very well done!

On my antique bed

The pillow sham

The colour is off on this backing...it's a darker green with a shiny polka dot, but here you can see the lovely custom quilting.