To-day is Thursday it must mean Quilting Group

To-day we got together at Joyce's house as usual but it sure took a long time to get down to doing some quilting.  Last week it was just Joyce and I so the 4 of us had a lot of catching up to do and showing our show and tell. 

Joyce is working on 6 placemats and a tablerunner for Christmas.  She used reverse binding and quilted with gold thread. 

Pink Poinsettias

Pierina is working on her tree pattern.  These are wonky trees and the pieces have to be kept together or the whole concept is lost.

She rolls them up on a newspaper to keep them in their

right places.

These are her red trees with beige background

She finished 2 green trees today.

Maria was working on her Schnibbles.  She quilted it and is now ready to apply the binding.

The fabric is Sunkissed, by Moda.

Maria, was also working on her Fabulous Fracture Quilt. 

Sewing rows together.

I quilted my Schnibbles quilt.

I really didn't know how I was going to do this,

but group consultations helped and

I used white thread in a blocking

pattern.

I also worked on my Hunter Star Quilt and made 18 squares to make three more rows.

One large stack

Some still have to be trimmed.

We got a lot accomplished after all.

Peggy.



 

Possibilities Club

Our local Quilter's Guild has a club that meets the last Tuesday of every month except December and June where quilter's bring ideas or projects to share with the group.  This week Wendy and Sharon were the presenters and they brought specialty rulers to show the group.  Wendy brought the Deb Tucker Square 2 ruler used for making a square within a square block.

Sharon brought the Creative Grids 90 degree Double Strip ruler.

She also brought along a book that used this

ruler to make quilts.

This ruler makes quilt making go very fast

and is very efficient.

I fell in love with the ruler and book

so I went out to-day and

purchased them both.

While I was at Luci's shop I also purchased a pattern to make a cushion from my Paris fabric

"Romance de Paris from Le Rouvray shop".

This gorgeous fabric costs me a lot of Euros so I want

to be very careful about using it.

This is the cushion that was in the shop.

And this is the pattern that I purchased to make

this cushion.

There is also a table runner with this cushion

so I got 2 for 1.

I had a great shopping day and came home with a lot of loot.

Peggy.







Working on Christmas projects

I have been working on Christmas quilting.  Can't show too much because some of my relatives and friends read my blog.  I took a few pictures and will post more after Christmas.

I just fell in love with this fabric.

For a Montreal Canadien's Fan.

I found this great fabric in St John's Newfoundland

this past summer when we were there.

Another project.

Peggy

Guild Night

Monday was demo night at out local Quilter's Guild.  Linda, the Program Chair, asked me to do a demo.  I had never done one before but thought I would give it a try.  She wanted it to be fairly simple and short, so I chose to do a Quilted Book Cover. 

Wendy remembered to bring her camera.

My Demo.

Quilted Book Cover

Measure the book you want to cover, mine is 4.25” with a spine of 1.25”, and 7” tall.
Take 2 pieces of fabric and place wrong sides together with batting in between. Quilt these fabrics together.
Trim to 8” x 16” - 10 inches for the book (4.25x2= 8.5 + 1.25 = 9.75) plus 6 inches for the fold over part.
Put bias binding on the two short sides (the 8” sides). I start on the lining side of the piece so that the part you see is neat after it is sewn down on the right side.
You can use store bought bias binding or make your own to match your fabric.
Fold the sides in 3” and pin in place.
Take a piece of ribbon and pin it or baste it to the middle of the top of the cover.
Sew bias binding to the top and bottom of the cover.

Insert the book.


Peggy

I have a new sewing room

Over the past week my son has moved out of our spare room and since it now seemed sew empty I thought that maybe I could put it to better use.  After a short discussion with YKW I was able to move upstairs and now have a beautiful new sewing room.

There was room on the shelves for some of my bins with scraps and enough room for my sewing machine table and cutting table. 

I left some of the family pictures up but added a small clock radio to keep me company some days.

Lots of room for my cabinets that are full of fabric

and my thread on the wall.

This is the biggest reason for moving into this room.

The view from the room.

It will also be very bright in here during the day,

and I have added some spot-lights to help

out in the evening.

Peggy.



A Bag for Alicia's Quilt

One of my Niece's is in town with her daughter for a hockey tournament, so I am sending Alicia's baby quilt back with her to Kenora.  I quickly made a bag for it to go in so that I could take it out to the hockey game and give it to her.  It was a rush job but it will save a great deal on postage so it was something that had to be done.

I love Care Bears.

Instead of a zipper I put a button and small flap to close it.

Peggy.

Home from Lake Tahoe and Genoa Nevada

We left Reno at noon on the 15th of November and arrived home around 11am on the 16th.  It took three plane rides and an overnight in Toronto but I finally made it.


We visited 2 quilt shops and would have gone to the third one in Truckee, CA but it had closed. 


The first place we went to was to Fabrics Unlimited in South Lake Tahoe.  This was a very large shop which was overloaded with fabric.  I had a ball looking around here.  I did buy some batik fabric and I thought I might make a Hunter Star quilt with it.

Three colours of blue,

Lynda likes to wander through quilt shops to find Rooster fabric.  Every shop has different fabric and Lynda found some new ones that we hadn't seen before.

After she found these panel squares,

we started to look for something

that would go with it

to make placemats.

This is what she chose.

The black polka dots for borders and

the stripped for backing.

I also bought a pattern for a bag.  I couldn't resist it.  It is called "Tahoe Tote" by Pink Sand Beach Designs. 

When we got to Gardnerville we found "The Quilt House" and I purchased some fabric to make the tote.  I wanted to purchase fabric in or around Lake Tahoe to truly make it A Tahoe Tote.

I chose 2 blues and a pale green.

I also bought a second tote pattern and fabric

to make it.

This is Carmel

by "A Quilter's Dream"

Their website says that this pattern

is one of their best sellers.

Peggy

Genoa, Nevada

We are in a little town in Nevada at Walley's hot spring and Resort. It is mineral hot spring with 7 hot tubs all set to different temperatures. We came here after the wedding in Lake Tahoe. We had a wonderful time visiting with my nephew and his family. It has been too long since we last saw them.


As a true Quilter I have already visited one quilt shop and hope to visit one tomorrow in Gardnerville, it was closed today when we stopped by.


Peggy

I'm leaving on a jet plane

I am leaving on a jet plane for San Fransisco. My youngest sister is getting married on Friday so I am going to be there. We are flying to San Fransisco and then driving to Lake Tahoe for the ceremony. I hope that I can do some blogging while we are there.


Peggy

Hunter Star Quilt Pattern

I took a class today that was through the Circle of Friends Quilt Shoppe.  It was the Hunter Star class using the Deb Tucker Rapid Fire Hunter Star Ruler.  When you use this ruler it makes the Hunter Star block so much easier to use.  Many patterns for the hunter star use templates, but with the Deb Tucker ruler you don't make any templates and you use only this ruler to make the star pattern.


Norma was our instructor and she had all the parts and pieces up on the design wall.  She used 3 colours as so did many of the gals in the class use 3 colours.  She made the 10 inch square and it was easy to see from anywhere in the room.

I used 3 colours.  I decided to make the 6 inch block.  I think I will make it into a lap size and it will go to yoga with me to use for shavasana, when you lay down at the end of your yoga practice and go into a state of relaxation and cover up to keep warm.

My strips being put together

One row put together.  We followed the instructions

for the ruler.  You can see them

under my strip.

I was able to complete 2 rows at class,

I had pre-cut my strips

so I was a little further ahead then some of

the others.

I am a little disappointed that

the star doesn't show up on the

screen, but it does

in real life.

Here are some photos of the other Hunter Star Patterns

that were put together at the class.

Beautiful Red and Green

Beautiful Mauve's (on the ironing board)

There were a few different fall shaded batiks.

Another Red and Green combo.

This one was a mistake.  She didn't plan on the star

to be the beige colour

but

doesn't it just pop out on you.

This lovely blue one took a little deciding to do.

She couldn't decide which combination she liked best.

I think she finally decided on the first one.

Hopefully it won't take me too long to finish this lap quilt but with Christmas coming and lots of extra things to do I will probably get it finished in the new year.

Peggy

Another Christmas Tree

I finished another Table topper with the Christmas Trees.  It is the Christmas mystery 2001.  It is a fun topper to make.  There a lot of small pieces but it goes together quite quickly.

This one isn't as formal as the other one but

the fabric makes it very cheery.

I think the background fabric is really nice since it is tree ornaments

and it looks like they have fallen off the trees.

Peggy

It's Thursday Again

Well it is Thursday again, time for our weekly get-to-gether.  Joyce and I were the only ones for a few hours so we had lots of time to work on her cushions to match her bed scarf.  We did a practice square at first and then used one of the squares that she liked and it worked.

I forgot my camera but this picture will show the outcome.

We had to cut the beige part of the square down and then add the green borders back on and then add the squares that matched the bed skirt.

It was such a feeling of accomplishment when it was finished and it all went together.

This is the bed scarf that she started back in July.  It isn't finished because she was waiting for the green fabric to add as a border.

Peggy

Christmas Tree and Bags

I finished one of the Christmas Tree Table Toppers that I had been working on for a while.  It is 27 inches in diameter, just big enough to go on a round kitchen table.

The pattern said that you should mix the

green fabrics up for the trees

but I decided to make each tree

 the same colour.

I think my nickname should be "The Bag Lady".  I have made another one.  This is called a Quilter's Carry-All from Thimbleberries.  I changed the pattern a little and made the bag a little smaller and also inserted the handles in the top of the bag instead of along the front like the picture shows.

This is what it should have looked like,

I just used the idea.

Peggy

Thursday Group

This Thursday we started the day early so that we could have more time but it never seems to end that way.  We had a lot of catching up to do but we still accomplished a lot today.

Pierina is still quilting her table topper.

Aren't the colour beautiful??

Maria's Schnibbles Plan C

The fabric is Sunkissed by Moda.

She is sorting the pieces for the piano key border.

It is hard to pull them out randomly,

I also picked my colours out for the border

so that it was very organized.

Joyce is still sewing squares together for cushions.

Here she is cutting squares to make cushions to match

her Bed Scarf.

I am making a table topper with Christmas Trees.

This is one 1/4 of the topper.

I need to quilt it before I show it.

Peggy

Knit One, Purl One.

My Rhematologist had a large poster on his wall with a picture of knitting needles and wool and the title was

"Knit one, Purl One.

Last Thursday Maria brought knitting to our group and the scarf that she made with the wool.  I started thinking that maybe I would try my hand at making this scarf. I have done some knitting in my time.  It couldn't be that hard.

So I went to the wool store today and purchased the wool and started it tonight.

The wool (if you can call it that because it is acrylic) is made by Red Heart.  It is called Red Heart Boutique Sashay.

 

Red Heart Boutique Sashay

I have it started.

It is suppose to take 2 hours to make,

but I think it will take me a little longer.

Peggy

Schnibbles is finished

I finished the top of the Schnibbles quilt.  The piano key border has been added.  I have to wait to quilt it since I have a lot of sewing to do for Christmas.  I like to make a lot of gifts so it will be put aside for awhile.

I used Ready, Set, Snow

from Me and My Sister Designs

for Moda Fabrics.

Peggy