Pas de Deux stitch along

 Last year, Rachel Hausser of Stitched in Colour, hosted a stitch along for a quilt she designed called "Pas de Deux".  I totally loved the colours she used and used similar colours from my stash for each section.  This quilt was a challenge and used many different techniques, from paper piecing, to piecing, to applique, y seams and inset seams.  It was amazing how the quilt came together at the end!  It was totally made from my scraps.  Here is the finished quilt with some closeup photos of the various sections. It was quilted by Chris Bogart.  Click on the photos to enlarge for a better view.

The finished quilt

I had a piece of an Anna Maria Horner print leftover from another quilt and pieced it for the backing.

 

Another Senior's quilt

Awhile ago, I found this wonderful panel at a quilt shop which had old hymns printed on it.  I started with this Amazing Grace panel and added colours around it from the panel.  The flying geese were from a pattern called Panel Pizzazz by Patti Carey and worked well for adding a fairly wide border.  This quilt is going to another senior from my Church.  I was happy to find all the fabrics I needed in my stash ☺.

The finished quilt.  The colours are a little off, but it was too snowy and cold to take pictures outside!

I loosely mimicked the pattern in the panel for quilting in the blank space.

I found a batik piece in my stash that matched the colour in the panel perfectly.

 

One Block Wonder Tulips

 I picked up this tulip fabric at a quilt shop quite a few years ago.  I really didn't need any fabric, but I walked by it a few times, then picked it up and carried it around and the rest is history.  I bought enough repeats to make a one block wonder.

 The shop also had beautiful fabrics to go with it and I picked up a lot of fat quarters just in case I might 'need' to make cubes to go into the quilt.

The cubes are definitely going into the quilt!

I tried various layouts, but nothing was really speaking to me.

I liked the clusters of cubes in it, but it wasn't large enough yet for a nice lap quilt.

After much rearranging, I was happy with the layout.

A closeup of the lovely quilting that my friend across the street, Chris Bogart does for me on her long arm machine.  It is bound with the original fabric and a piece is also incorporated into the backing.

 

Bonnie Hunter mystery top finished

 A friend of mine, Deb and I did the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, "Chilhowie" this year.  It really helped doing it together as we kept each other motivated.  Deb suggested that we get the tops done for our small guild meeting in February!  A lot of sewing, but great to have a deadline.  It was another great mystery and we both loved the way it turned out.

Here is Deb with her quilt top

My quilt top all finished!

The two tops together.  Now to get mine quilted.  I found backing which I need to piece yet and it will go to my long arm quilter.

 

I did most of the sewing on my trusty 15-88 Singer treadle from 1951

These little baskets which are available at dollarma are great for keeping the units organized.  Bonnie suggests clipping them together in sets of 10.

I also needed to test a FW so the 9 patches were sewn on that machine.

My baskets of fabric possibilities.

Jamie and Deniece's baby quilt

 My nephew and his wife came to visit us awhile ago and I had leftovers from another quilt from these jelly roll strips so I finished this baby quilt for them.

The print is like a Little Red Riding Hood theme

I quilted it with simple loops

I had enough yardage left to put together a backing and a binding

Disappearing 9 patch

 In October, my friend Els,  came for a two week visit from Holland.  We had a lot of fun in the sewing room and gallivanting to quilt shops in the area.  One day, Rachel of Stitched in Colour, posted the Disappearing 9 patch! I've done a lot of disappearing 9 patches cut straight, but had not seen the diagonally sliced method.  I showed it to Els and we decided to give it a try.  You know you have too much fabric when we had no trouble finding a huge stack of floral FQ's to easily make a lap quilt.  The quilt was very quick to cut and sew together and in no time, we had the top together.  A very fun project to do with the two of us.  

My neighbour across the street, Chris Bogart, quilted it for me on her long arm machine using a lovely butterfly motif and I used a stripe for the binding that went with the line of florals we used for the blocks.  The quilt turned out lovely and is heading for our local chemo unit through the Hearts and Hands Quilt guild I belong to.  Each person going through treatments for cancer in our local hospital gets to choose a quilt from the stack we make all year.

This really did make a happy quilt!

The lovely butterfly quilting.

 

CHRISTMAS PILLOWS

Some new Christmas pillows got finished here last month.  The first one was on a panel I received from a friend a few years ago.  I did not know what to do with it - make a quilt?  I got it out this year and found a lovely dark green batik that matched it perfectly.  When I measured the wreath, it was 24" and that gave me the idea of doing a pillow.  I had purchased a 26" pillow form at a yard sale at our guild meeting in October.  The grand kids love to grab a large pillow for back support while sitting on the floor ☺. 

There were also 6 hexagon shaped motifs on the panel so I made them into coasters for the coffee table.

I did quite a bit of free motion quilting around the motifs which was good practice again.  There were subtle stripes in the background, so I just echoed those a bit.

My daughter in law just refinished my coffee table for me, so these will be great to protect the new table!

 

I used the covered zipper tutorial from s.o.t.a.k. which can be found here to add the zipper on the back. 

The newly refinished coffee table

 

In October, Jaybird Quilts hosted a free stitch along for her letter blocks.  There will be a sew along in January for her book on letters.  My friend was over from Holland in October so we sewed up the JOY blocks together.  She made them into little hangings to decorate her livingroom at home and I turned mine into 16" pillows.  It was a lot of fun rooting around in the Christmas scraps and doing this project together.

JOY pillows

I used leftover winter fox fabric that I had used on the back of a Christmas lap quilt I made a few years ago and also inserted the covered zippers.