The Hinge Method Workshop

The day before I left for Ottawa I took a class from Jackie Black who has developed a new method of joining squares together.  The completed squares are quilted and then joined together with sashing strips.  She calls it the Hinge Method.

Add sashing to the front and back of the strip.  I used a 1/2 inch seam allowance so that I wouldn't lose my points in my blocks.

After that zig zag the 2 blocks together.

Sew the hinge to the second block.  I sewed the hinge with a straight stitch although it could also be sewn with a fancy stitch.  You have to catch the hinge on the backing side and sometimes this is easier with a fancy stitch or a zig zag stitch.

Two finished quilts from the class.

My finished quilt with hinges joining the squares together and borders added.  This quilt was one of my BOM's that I did last year from "In Color Order"

One really exciting thing that I took away from this class is how to add borders to an already quilted quilt.  

So the next time I finish quilting a quilt and haven't added the binding but decide that I would like to make it larger I know how to add another border.

Peggy

Wednesday and Thursday in Ottawa

Yesterday our main goal was to go to the Supreme Court of Canada and to sit in on one of the hearings.  We arrived around 10:30 am and had just missed a major ruling on the Harkat National Security Certificate.  One of the security guards told us that was alright as there were lots of media there because they new the ruling was coming down and there was also a demonstration going on at the time.  We sat in on a hearing about what the National Art Gallery had to pay an artist when they showed their works in the gallery.  The Judges questioned the lawyer who was presenting the case and he talked forever about this.

We couldn't take pictures in the hearing but this is a picture of the Supreme Court Judges.

From here we took the Tulip Shuttle back to Dow's lake to roam around again and look at the tulips.  The other day when we were there it had started to rain so we only saw half of them.  

There were fireworks at night so we went back for a third time.  For 15 minutes we were thoroughly entertained by a fantastic display of fireworks.

This was the grand finale.

Today we went back to the Parliament Buildings and walked around the outside of the grounds where there are statues of some of the former Prime Ministers of Canada.  There is also collection of statues of women who fought to be called "persons" and be appointed to the Senate.

After lunch we went into the Parliament buildings again and went to Question Period to see Parliament at work.  It is something that I had seen in the news but had never experienced it live.  Everyone should do that at least once in their life time.

Peggy.

Ottawa Trip

Lynda and I planned this trip since we were in Washington D.C. a few years back and we thought that we should visit our nations capital.  It is about 30 years since I was last here.  We are staying at the Business Inn a great hotel located very central to everything.  
Yesterday we took a tour of the Royal Canadian Mint.  They do not make coins for circulation here but only investment coins.  It was a very interesting tour.  We had a small group of about 7 people so it was easy to ask questions and to follow along with the guide.  From there we took the bus to the Governor Generals home at Rideau Hall.  We were lucky to get a tour there of the inside of this wonderful place.  We toured the Great Hall and the Hall where all the service medals were given out.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside either of these buildings.  We did take pictures of the grounds.

Rideau Hall

Then of course we had to go to a quilt shop in Orleans which is a suburb of Ottawa, called Quilty Pleasures.  We bought fabric for a quilt for Lynda's newest granddaughter.

Today we were heading for the Supreme Court of Canada and as we were walking past the Parliament buildings we decided to try our luck for a tour.  There were loads of school children but we managed to get a tour with about 10 other people.  We could take all the pictures we wanted so I have lots.  After the tour we went to the Peace Tower and had a view of the entire city.

The Senate Chamber

When we were finished we went to the gallery in the House of Commons and heard a debate on the new Election Act.  Questions Period wasn't until 2:30 pm so we couldn't wait around because we had had no lunch.  After lunch we went to the Bayward Market and then took the Tulip Shuttle to Dow Lake to see the tulips.  There are over 300,000 tulips with over 60 varieties.  That is not a typo.  They are given to Canada from the Netherlands to show their appreciation for the Canadian soldiers who liberated the Netherlands during the Second World War.

There were tulips as far as the eye could see.

There are 2 varieties here, one a pale pink and one a darker colour.  The pale ones were taller than the darker ones.

On to the Supreme Court tomorrow.

Peggy.

Leaving for Ottawa

I'm off to Ottawa today, Canada's capital city. It is tulip festival time. I will try to post lots of pictures. 

Peggy

Zig Zag and Mug Rugs

Another donation quilt is finished and ready to go.  I get emails from Fab quilts and they send me links to quilt tutorials.  I am using up scraps and I thought this was really an ideal pattern.  So cute, but it is one that has to go on a design wall to put it together.  You can find the pattern here.

Zig Zag Rainbow Quilt

I have been doing yoga for about 12 years now in order to stay limber and to get some stretching into my exercise routine.  I go to our local community center and have been fortunate to have the same yoga instructor.  When I saw this mug rug I knew that I had to make it for her.  I hope she likes it.  

It is hard to see the background fabric but it is 

sky fabric.

I found the pattern at Damsel Quilts and Crafts.

Peggy.

From Scraps to Squares

I have been on a real scrap kick lately and making scrap quilts especially for donation quilts.  I have a wall of medium sized bins with scraps sorted by colour.  

They are all labelled so that I can access them quickly.

I decided that I should go through them and see how big some of my scraps really are.  I found some that were all different sizes so I decided that maybe I should cut them into squares.  I thought that if they were in different size squares then I could plan on using them in some of my scrap quilts.  I found some smaller bins that were 6 x 8 inches so I used them to store the different sizes.  I have been very busy lately.

3 1/2 inch squares

These are a good size for making pinwheels.

2 inch squares are great for 9 patch and 16 patch squares

I decided on 3 inch squares because I didn't want to waste fabric if I cut larger pieces into 2 1/2 squares.

The 2 1/2 inch squares over flowed the small bins so I had to put them into a 6 x 8 inch bin.

I cut my bindings at 2 1/2 inches so I had an over abundance of that size strip.  I have already made a few quilts using this size square.

I also have a small bin with half hexagons.  I like making half hexagon or whole hexagon quilts.  They are a lot of fun to do.

Peggy.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have been very busy quilting my latest quilt tops.  I finished my quilt that I started at the Quilt Bee on April 5th.  It is 36 x 48 just the right size for a wheel chair quilt.

Windmills at Night.

I finished making tops from my Magic Stack N Whack.  I thought that if I made one top it would be too big for me to quilt on my own so I put 4 blocks together and made 2 quilts from the 8 blocks.

Quilt Number One

Quilt Number Two

The borders of both quilts are the same colour although they don't look it.  It is black with a swirl in it, and it turns gray when I take a picture.

A few years ago I made an Easter Egg Tree table topper so I decided this year that I needed some placemats to go with it.  I wanted them bright with some of the fabric from the Easter Tree.  The only fabric I had on hand was from the border and binding, so I used it on the placemats.

The center square is from the same line and I also cut the side borders from that fabric.  I fussy cut the center square and then had to scrounge fabric for the side borders.  I had barely enough to make my four placemats.

I also put together a new purse.  Linda G took the Bag Class and asked about making a bag with a gusset for the zipper.  She found a pattern and I said I would give it a try.  It turns out that it is not a true gusset but fabric added to the zipper so it is a false gusset.

The Bia Bag.

I think if I made it again I would make it wider and not as deep. but I am happy with it and have used it a few times already.  Since mine is all one colour it is a little more dressy than the original.

Peggy

Whirligigs and Pinwheels Quilt

I have had some fabric with bunnies on it for over a year now and couldn't figure out what I was going to do with it.  I tried to design a quilt but never liked what I came up with.  I had used some of the fabric in an Easter wall hanging and the rest tugged at me to do something with it.

Whirligigs and Pinwheels.

One day while I was surfing the internet I came across this small child's quilt and thought that I could put my bunny fabric to good use making a quilt like it. 

 In the original pattern the author cut out squares of fabric for the centers of her blocks and used red and gold fabric for the rest of the blocks.  I fussy cut my bunnies into 6 inch squares.  I used pale blue instead of red to coordinate with the blue sky in the bunny squares.  The only fabric I purchased for this was the backing which belongs to the same fabric line as the bunnies.  It is carrots and vegetables with the same flower pots that are in the squares.

I don't know what I will do with this quilt yet.  It may go to Neebing Needlers as a donation quilt or to the guild for the pediatric unit at the hospital. 

Peggy

Annual Quilt Bee

Today was the annual quilt bee for our Guild.  There were over 40 women there this afternoon.  I found out also that they call it a quilt bee because of all the B's in quilting.  There are borders, binding, backing, batting and that makes a lot of B's.

This was part of one room.

There was a second room where some of the ladies were quilting tops that had been made at a previous bee. 

Shirley quilts all her quilts on a regular machine so she was showing us how it was done.

This was the design she was making.

There were a lot of different quilt tops made today.

These Jelly Roll quilts were all made from strips cut from yardage.

One of the gals did all the cutting and put the colours together for these quilts.

She did a fantastic job.

Wonky Stars were made in Cindys group.

Rail fence was made in Karen's group.

Pat uses fleece as backing with no batting in the sandwich.

Maria also put fleece on the back of her quilt.

These quilts are very soft and pliable.

I was making windmills at night.

There were also lots of other quilts finished today.

It was a fabulous day with lots of quilts made to be donated to the Local Hospital and Homes for the Aged.

Peggy

The Exploding Block

Every day I get an email from Missouri Star Quilt Company with their deal of the day and every now and then they send an email with a new tutorial.  Last week the new one was 'the exploding block'.  When I went to Neebing Needlers last Wednesday Linda G had made a few and was showing the rest of the gals how to make them.  It is a great block and I knew that I just had to try to make one.  

I made mine explode 5 times and then wondered what I was going to do with this block.

I always find that it is easier to make several blocks rather

than just one at a time so I made 4 of them.

I added the green borders and made them into placemats.

These will go to Meals on Wheels.  I hope someone else

enjoys them as much I do.

Peggy

More Quilt Finishes

I have been making quilts for my nephew and his wife.  He wanted me to make a king size Hawaiian quilt but that was too great of an undertaking for me.  I thought I would make them each a lap quilt which they could use on cool days or nights.

Read All About It Quilt

I have made this quilt before.  It is from the book Strip-Smart Quilts by Kathy Brown.  There is one big problem with this quilt and that is that there is a lot of left over squares.  So what do you do with these left over squares?  I made another quilt.

My Version of Read All About It

I used all the left over squares and put the quilt together in almost the same pattern.  I had to take a few squares apart so that the squares in the quilt went together in a pattern.  I call these my twin quilts.

These quilts are not for alcoholics; they are for a couple who live in the Napa Valley in California so I thought the fabric was just the thing.  The light brown fabric is corks and the border and backing are tossed wine bottles and glasses.  I thought it was very fitting for wine country folks.  To top it off I picked these fabrics up when a local shop was going out of business so I go a real good deal on the fabric.  I bought the rest of the bolt of the tossed bottles, so I used it for the backing as well as the border.

Peggy.

The H Quilt and More Twister

I am having fun using up my scraps from my stash.  I have a lot for someone who has been quilting for only 5 and a half years.  I try to keep them sorted by colour but lately I have been sorting them by size also.  I have a small bucket with 2 1/2 inch squares and one with 2 inch squares.  If the piece of fabric won't make at least a 2 inch square then it goes in the pile for the dog beds, which are made by a group from our Guild.

The H Quilt.

This will be a donation quilt.

This quilt was suppose to be a puzzle quilt, but I thought that it would be too complicated adding the pieces for the puzzle.  I would have to lay out each piece individually and then add the extra colour, plus I didn't have enough of all of the colours to add the puzzle pieces.  It was easy to just add white to make an H.  Because the H's are turned there was very little matching to do, just the corners had to be matched.

Twister Illusions

I friend of mine created a monster when she taught me how to do the twister block.  This is a block that looks so complicated but is easy to do and it looks like you spent hours piecing small pieces together.

One of our local quilt shops was going out of business and I found the pattern one day while looking for bargains.  Most of the fabrics were in my stash but I had to purchase the blues and the black.  I have chosen a very special friend to get this quilt.

Twister Illusions

The pattern made a crib, twin or queen size quilt so I made this one a size between the crib and twin, by starting with the crib size and adding borders that were meant for the twin size.  I really like the corner detail.  Only 2 corners were suppose to have coloured squares but I added some to all four corners.  I really love this quilt.

YKW had just finished shovelling the latest snowfall off the deck so it was the perfect place to take the picture.  I prefer to take the pictures outside in the natural light if at all possible.

Peggy

Quilt Therapy last Thursday

Thursdays have been fun days these past few years.  Lots of quilting gets done as well as lots of visiting.  These past few weeks it has only been Joyce and me.  Pierina is still away and Maria has been working. 

 Joyce has been working on a quilt that we found last year when we all went to Duluth for some R and R.  The shop had made the quilt without a pattern so I made a pattern for her and then we were lucky enough to find the same fabric in the shop.

All finished.

She had left over fabric because I always tell her to buy more than what you need.  This beautiful quilt will be in her plant room which has a round table for lunches or snacks so she decided to make placemats to match the quilt.

She able to make 6 placemats and added

the green for some contrast and

also for binding and

backing.  

I have been working on a donation quilt that I call my H quilt.  

This is all made from scraps.

I made H blocks and then turned them so that

I only had the corners to match

and not all the posts and white squares.

It is ready to be quilted.

Peggy.