Sunday, August 26, 2012

Getting Caught Up

I was so far behind on my BOM's that I spent the last 2 days doing nothing but blocks.  YKW was up at the cabin and I was alone at home with outside temperatures too hot to enjoy.  So what does one do under these circumstances?   Well you sew, if you are me.  The temperatures the past few days were in the 30C range with humidex around 37C.  Far too hot to be out and about.

Block #15 Yellow Roses
Block #16 Three Tulips in a Vase
 
 
Block #15 Ohio Star
 
Block #16 Double Star
 
August Block
This block took me a long time to do because
of the small pieces all around
the outside edge.
 
The Letter P and Pretty Pinwheels
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Friday, August 24, 2012

Baby Gifts

Theresa had her baby the other day so Grandma Pierina will be leaving town soon to be with her.  My little gifts will be tucked inside her suitcase. 

A receiving blanket
and 2 bibs.
This little blanket has 2 pieces of flannelette
of different sizes, sewn together.
The pattern is found HERE.
 
I also made a little bag for babies
toys and things.
 
Right now the bag contains the blanket
and bibs.
Congratulations to the new parents Theresa and Brad.
 
 

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Lynda's Birthday

Now that Lynda's birthday has past and she has received her gift I can post some pictures.  She really likes roosters so I finished using up the fabic she purchased when we were in Lake Tahoe last November for Christine's wedding.  I had already made her placemats out of the this fabric so I thought a table runner would be the next logical thing.

 
There was one rooster block left
and I didn't have too hard
of a time deciding what
to do with it.
 
Everyone who gets a gift from me
also receives a bag so
a new bag it was.
 
I found this grey/black fabric
and thought it
complimented the bag really well.
I put a zipper in the bag also and pockets
so now it has lots of uses.
I am happy that she was really pleased with both.
 

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Retreat Time And Some More Blocks

The Quilt Therapy Group needed a little bit of therapy so we decided to have a 3 day retreat.  It was held in Joyce's beautiful sun room this year and we all accomplished a lot of work and even went shopping one morning for more fabric.

Pierina was working on making pumpkins.


Four delightful Pumpkins

Three more and a little bit of decoration on 2 
of them.
She also made placemats to match but
I didn't get a picture.  I will
on our next therapy day, next week.

Joyce is making a purse.  The fabric could be summer or fall so it isn't too late to get started on it.  She picked up this beautiful fabric in Duluth when we were there in late May.

Lovely fabric

Joyce is quilting the inside of the
black flowers with black thread,
and then filling in some of 
the lines around the white and black
areas.

Maria has made 6.5 inch squares that she will
add to a wall hanging.  They will
become pockets on the wall hanging for 
baby essentials.

She appliqued a heart on the top.
This wall hanging is for a niece who is
expecting her first child.

I was working on some doll quilts.
They came out a little larger then
I thought but they will be great.

Doll Quilt number 2


The borders are different and that will also
be the backing and binding.
These little doll quilts are for Toys for Tots
 and are given to less
fortunate little ones for Christmas with a
Teddy Bear wrapped in them.

I have also made up more blocks from my BOM quilts.  I'm a little behind but catching up slowly.  Summer is such a busy time that it is hard to keep up, but with summer winding down I will be up to date in no time.


Morning Glory Designs


Letter O and Old Oak on Point

In Colour Order August Block.



Monday, August 6, 2012

Some Things I am Working On

I am a saver and save scraps and large pieces of leftover fabric after a project is done. I really hate throwing scraps away.  After I finished the Shades of Autumn quilt there was a lot of leftover fabric and half square triangles so I got to work and found a small quilt that I could make with them. I am calling it Autumn Harvest because I harvested it from leftovers.

Autumn Harvest.
It measures 38 x 46 and made from scraps.
The only thing I purchased was the backing.


This is a small quilt made from a Charm Pack
that I won from Morning Glory Designs.
I added the white which was in my stash.
I have to purchase some fabric for the borders
and I will do that this week when I
am in Southern Ontario.
I have been working away on it so that I can take it with me when I am choosing fabric.
Right now it measures about 30 x 30.


These 2 fabrics are being used in 2 gifts that I am
working on for this weekend.  I can't
post them yet but will post later 
after they have found new homes.


Saturday, August 4, 2012

Small Design Board

This is something that I thought a lot about making but just never did it until now.  I seem to be always jumping up and down from my sewing machine, (not that it is a bad thing to do) so when I saw this on another blog I decided to make one for myself.  I used her idea but made mine a little different.  You can see hers HERE.

I cut a piece of Styrofoam
13 x 13 since a lot of blocks
are finished at 12 inches.

Then I cut a piece of white flannelette
larger than my square.

Then I ran hot glue along around the edge
of the flannelette to stick it to the
Styrofoam.

Make sure you have something to rest your
glue gun on like a piece of paper
so that the glue doesn't go on your
cutting mat.

Nicely secured all around with
glue.

The right side.  It looks a little askew
but it could be just my picture
taking.

It didn't take me long to put it to use.
The idea is to lay out the block
on the design block and carry
it to the sewing machine so that it can
sewn together with very little
interruption.

Block of the Month.

I didn't like doing this block.  The instructions were very poor.  Everything was cut on the bias and sewn together and that meant no sizing up of the square.  There were no final sizes for any of the blocks, you had to rely on your own judgement to decide what size each block should be.  This was the worst block from this series.  You had to be sure to sew the scantest quarter inch seam ever and then the final rows were sewn together with a regular quarter inch seam.


Wednesday, August 1, 2012

July 2012

We have had lots of company this month, my 4 grandchildren, SIL's, cousins, and nieces, so I thought I would post a few pictures of all the activity.  My grandchildren don't want their pictures on facebook so I think this is the best place for them.


Rowing Event, not quite the Olympics

The Best Grand Children ever.

The Gals

The Guys minus a few that had to leave early.

Up on Mount McKay, you can see the 
Sleeping Giant in the background.

Oldest grandson going home.

Playing Badminton at camp

Smoke from the campfire was lingering
in the trees and YKW was walking
down the road.  It makes an eerie picture.

I took a lot more pictures but if I posted them all, or more of them, it would be picture overload.