Some Old Patterns, Some New Patterns

I'm still doing donation quilts but just haven't posted any for a while.  

Two more quilts made with fruits and vegetables.

I mentioned before that fat quarters multiply in the cupboard because I still have more of these fabrics and will probably make more food quilts in the future.

I was looking for something in one of my storage towers and came across these flying geese blocks.  I don't know what I was saving them for so I sorted them because there were two different sizes and added a few more and made two quilts.

The binding is stripped fabric and since I didn't have enough for both, one of the quilts has pieced binding.  Click on the picture to see the different colours.

Amsterdam Quilt

I found the pattern here.  I thought it was very bright and springy.  

Shoo Fly Block and 16 patch block using 2 inch squares.

I save 2 inch squares and put them together to make a 6 1/2 inch square.  This way you can pair them up with any 6 1/2 inch block and make a quilt.

Amber Fields.

I used the same idea as above but used 6 1/2 inch squares of map fabric and then put the same fabric as the border.  

I find a lot of ideas on the internet especially the website: www.allpeoplequilt.com

Square Deal Quilt

This is from http://www.americanquilter.com/.  If you join their newsletter you get lots of free patterns.  I added borders to make it 36 x 48 inches which is a wheelchair size quilt.

Jewel Toss

I made this pattern before but never with just three colours.  The last time I made it scrappy.

Large heart

This pattern is on Craftsy website and it is also a Project Linus Pattern.

Peggy

HAND QUILTING WORKSHOP

I took a workshop on Saturday where I learned about Hand Quilting.  The gal that taught the workshop has been hand quilting for years and does most of her quilts by hand.  We learned about needles, thimbles and thread that is used, how to mark your quilt for hand quilting and how to hand quilt.

I was surprised at the method of hand quilting.  I thought that you put the needle down into the quilt and then up again but that is not the way at all.  You insert the needle and do a rocking stitch to pick up more stitches on your needle and use the thimble to push the needle through the fabric.  I hope that makes sense.  It is not an easy process.  In fact it was very strange to me and hard to get my fingers working the right way.  Some of the participants caught on right away and I did take pictures. 

Jeannette stressed that the main thing is that the stitches are consistent and that was very hard to do.  Some were large and some small.  Also it was hard to make the needle go thru so that there was a stitch on the other side of the work. 

One of Jeannette's quilts that was hand quilted.

We were a small group

Straight lines

A nice grid

Triangles

Here is my attempt at hand quilting.  This is just some of what I did in the 4 hours but I thought I would show my straight lines.  My stitches aren't very uniform but my lines are straight. 

This is the back of my quilt and as you can see there are stitches missing on the backing.  It was not easy doing the hand quilting but it was fun and I learned a lot. 

Practice makes perfect as Jeannette said.



This is the frame that Jeannette uses for her hand quilting.

Peggy