What I am Working On

I found this pattern on the internet as a quilt along and saved it since I wasn't ready to make it yet.  I picked it up a few weeks ago and have been having some fun with it.  It is made in 9 patch squares.  There are 25 nine patch squares times four.  I ran into a small problem after I had done three rows of the 9 patch squares and decided to read about sewing the rows together.  One of the instructions said to make sure the seams nestled together.  Well..... I neglected to do that.  I just put the 9 patches together and went on my merry way sewing them all, 4 blocks at a time.

I only had to half rip out the second row of 9 patches and pressed the seams in the opposite direction so that they would all snuggle (nestle) together when I sewed the rows together. That was 20 squares that I ripped out.  I have the 4th row made but not added to the first three and now I am on to making my fifth row of 9 patches.  I am on the down side now and looking forward to seeing it as a quilt.

Christmas Cactus.

You will have to wait a little longer to see

the completed top.

If you are interested in making this quilt you now have to pay for the pattern.  

You can find the pattern here.

Peggy

More Roosters

I have mentioned before that my sister Lynda loves roosters.  I found some beautiful rooster fabric so I decided to make her a few things for her birthday this month.  She has been visiting with us for the past week so I gave her the things I have made so now I can post them.

Casserole Carrier

This is the fourth one I have made from this pattern.  It will take a 9 x 13 pan so it is very versatile.

Small Casserole Carrier

This is a pattern that I picked up in Newfoundland a few years ago.

This carrier is just right for a small dish or 

package of cookies or squares.

I have made Lynda a plethora of bags over the years

but never made her a purse so I

decided that it was time for a purse.

I adjusted the size of the Tahoe bag pattern I have and made this purse a little smaller than the original pattern.

This one has 6 inside pockets and is a nice size to carry.

Peggy 

Teddy Bear Quilts

Every Christmas our Guild makes Teddy Bear Quilts for Christmas Cheer Fund.  The bears are donated or you can buy one and make a quilt for it.  Two of my bears were donated and the black puppy I purchased at Kohl's.  This is a task that has to be done so I like to get it started and finished in good time.  

I used fabric with paw prints on it and the backing 

and borders is cute dogs to match

the little black puppy.

This is another half hexagon quilt.

These quilts are so fast to put together and I had

quite a bit of children's fabric scraps

so I thought it was a good chance to use them up.

The binding and the backing is care bears.

This was a pattern for a doll quilt that I got off the Internet.

It was done in reds but I found some light and dark

mauve to match the little purple bear.

The background is purple penguins.

Peggy

My New Toy

I've seen this iron on the Internet and just knew that I had to have one.  Jenny from "The Missouri Star Quilt Company" uses one in her tutorials.  Here is a link to them. 

I just love this iron.

It is an Oliso Pro and I bought it from Amazon.com.

You do not stand this iron up, as soon as you take your hand

off of it, it rises off the ironing board;

then when you go to pick it up, the iron becomes flat.

I finished two more small quilts this past week,also.  The tops were made a long time ago but they needed to be quilted and the binding put on them.

This little quilt was made from a charm pack

that I won from Morning Glory Designs.

 I couldn't decide if I wanted to make it bigger or not so I finally decided to leave it the size it was and to use it as a table topper.  It is very fresh looking for the summer on the table.

I used a Hexagon Ruler from Fons and Porter to make this small quilt.  When you use this ruler to make a braid quilt there is no waste because there is no trimming after the strips are made.

I got the pattern also from Fons and Porter but I only made 4 strips instead of 5 that the pattern called for.  This will be a donation comfort quilt for the local Quilters Guild.

Peggy

Quilt Therapy Retreat

This past week the Quilt Therapy Group went on retreat to Hawkeye Lake.  It is a quiet setting with the nearest place behind a bank of trees and we only saw 2 boats on the lake.  

A view from the main house down to the Lake and sauna.

We had one day of rain but otherwise we had time for walks and some exercise as well as lots of quilting.  It is great to get away with no husbands, children or grandchildren around and just sit and quilt and get caught up on what has been going on in our lives. We didn't let anything interfere with the task at hand.

We had a large piece of plywood placed on the table which gave us a lot of space to spread out.

Maria quilted the Star Wars Quilt for her grandson.

Joyce finished the quilt top for "Cabin by the Lake"

and started to quilt it.

Pierina finished the ABC quilt for her granddaughter

and started the quilting on it.

Maria and I were making small quilts for teddy bears

for Christmas Cheer Fund.

The group

We are all looking forward to next year when we will do it all again.  

Peggy.

This and That

I have been trying to make some placemats for the cabin, but after I made them I decided that they were too nice to use there so I think I will keep them at home for a while and maybe they will see there way into someone's home when I need an extra gift.

I just love these blueberries.

This pattern is Fine Dining.

Peppers

This is such an easy quick pattern to make, called Seeing Squares.

I decided that this one was a good one for the cabin.

It is very country.

This is the same pattern as the pepper placemats but with only 2 different fabrics it takes on a whole different look.

I am taking a class in September by a very talented quilter and teacher called Jackie Black.  She had invented a way of quilting a quilt one block at a time and then sewing the squares together to make a quilt.  I know that there are a lot of ways of doing this and I am really interested in seeing what her method is and how she does it.  She calls it the hinge method.  Because I have to take quilted squares with me I have been busy doing just that.  

I have 9 completed.

These are my squares from the Block of the Month from the website "In Color Order" that I made last year, and have been sitting there waiting for me do something with them.  I thought this was a perfect opportunity to final finish up this quilt.

Peggy

O Canada

Canada Day is July 1st and I finally finished my July BOM from Country Junktion.  I had the top made but had not quilted it yet.  I thought it was fitting that I should put it up for the month of July.

This was a free Block of the Month last year but as you can see I did not make it to symbolize an American Flag but instead made it with the colours of the Canadian Flag.

Peggy

I Won, I Won

It has been a long time between posting mostly because life gets in the way.  There have been some busy times here.  My youngest grandson had his Confirmation, my oldest grandson graduated from high school and we went to see the graduation.  As soon as I got home from that I was off to Duluth, MN for some R&R with my Quilt Therapy Group.  We bought lots of fabric and then went clothes and shoe shopping.

With all my busy schedule I haven't stopped quilting, just stopped blogging for a while.  I made 30 placemats, finished 2 quilts, made 4 quilt tops that I have to quilt yet, and a few birthday gifts.

The two patterns I used.

Some of the placemats were for Meals-on-Wheels and some for me to use at the cabin.

The two quilts I finished were from the Craftsy BOM for 2012.  Amy Gibson made 20 squares and since I thought that those would make too large of a quilt I added 4 squares and made 2 quilts with 12 blocks each.

Quilt Number 1

Quilt Number 2

I learned so much from doing these 2 quilts, I couldn't believe it.  There were hexagons, curved seams, string blocks, off center log cabin blocks, and a new way to paper-piece.  I really like the way she does paper-piecing.  I learned to paper-piece a few years ago but her method was so much simpler and had great results. 

Our Guild has a Quilt show every 2 years and this year I won a ribbon.  I made a miniature twister heart and won third place for it.  It was a great feeling since I have only been quilting for 6 years.

My miniature twisted heart.

It measures 12.5 x 12.5.

Peggy

Dreaming of Summer

I am dreaming of summer but first we have to get some Spring here.  On May the second we had about 20 cm of heavy, wet snow.  It is all gone now since the temperature reached 10 C today with some sun.  I am trying to get in the mood by making a few quilted items.

A nice wall hanging that I hung on my door

to help bring Spring to my home.

It was a free BOM from Country Junktion. 

It is still available here.but now you have to

pay for it,

I also made a larger wall hanging for my front foyer.  It is from Fons and Porter.

It helps me think of Summer,

when we will have flowers blooming in our garden.

This is called Cabin By The Lake.

It is a panel from Henry Glass.

The pattern can be found here.

I made it smaller than the original pattern and changed a few of the fabrics since I wasn't able to get all of them that were used

 in the pattern.

Peggy.

Visiting old Friends

I am in Ingersoll being nurse, maid and cook while Lynda has her surgery and I saw a few old friends. These aren't your usual old friends. Only a few people have these kinds of old friends.

I made the beige and brown quilt in 2008; it is the size of a lap quilt. I spent last night sewing the binding onto the red and blue rooster quilt while I relaxed in front of the television.

Peggy

The Placemat Fiasco

We are in the middle of a severe snow storm which is not natural for April in the area of the country that I live in.  We were unable to open either of the doors in our home because there was so much snow.  We have had at least 25 cm, if not more with winds gusting to 50 km per hour which also left huge drifts in the driveway This was our third major snowstorm in April this year.

You can see how deep the snow is and that it was one third up over the bottom of the side door.

This meant that we had a quiet day at home so I spent it in my sewing room sewing up a storm.

The placemat fiasco all began at Christmas when for some reason I counted incorrectly how many people I was having for Christmas dinner.  I had decided not to use Christmas designs or fabric this year so I set about to make placemats and a table runner for my dinner table.  I thought I was having 10 people for dinner and made 10 placemats but because I can't seem to count I was one short.  There were 11 at the table.  Right then and there I decided to make 2 more placemats so that I would have an even dozen and hopefully that would be enough placemats. 

I now have a dozen of these.  This pattern is called Fine Dining.

I also made another purse using a pattern that I used before from my new magazine.  This pattern is called Sweet Pleat.

I made this with upholstery fabric.  The strips in the middle are assorted pieces of upholstery fabric sewn together to make the pleat.

Peggy.

Donations

Meals on Wheels needs more placemats so I decided to use up some of my stash.  I took a 12 1/2 inch lantern block and added 3 inch strips to the sides and and an inch strip to the top and bottom.  I was lucky to have some oriental fabric for these.  This makes a great placemat.  I think just about any 12 1/2 inch block could be used.

I hope they give these to a husband and wife.

I finished my quilts from the quilt bee.  I did just a light quilting on them using a serpentine stitch.

A Baby Quilt

A Wheelchair Quilt.

Peggy.

This is a test

I am writing this post to see if I can blog from my iPad. I will try to post a picture. I hope this works.

 

 

Well it worked, posting from my iPad, but the picture was very big so I made it smaller.  I took the picture with my iPad.  It is just a test to see if I can do it while I am away on a trip or visiting family.

 

Peggy. 

Placemat Work In Progress

Meals on Wheels needs placemats so I thought I would use up some of my stash and cut up a few kits so that I can work on them in between other things.

I made myself 4 placemats out of this fabric.

It is so pretty and looks like spring.

Some placemats for fall.

This fabric is really different, 

blue and green together.

I will post pictures when they are finished and ready for delivery.

Peggy

Purse Number Three

Spring is in the air, well at least it was a week or so ago, and I seem to be making purses these days.  I had finished this one a week or so ago but I put the zipper in backwards.  I carry my purse on my left shoulder so I like the zipper to open at the front when I have it on my shoulder.  I used the purse once and just couldn't make it work for me so I ripped the zipper out and finally put it back in tonight.  

I designed this purse myself using some of the bags that I had made in the past for inspiration, adding a little bit here and a little bit there.  It has lots of pockets and since I got a new iPhone I made one of the pockets at the front of the bag the right size to drop it into.

You can see there is still a little bit of snow on the ground.

It is starting to melt and when it does I won't miss it.

The fabric is from Henry Glass called Bee Happy.

I thought it was great for a new summer bag.

Peggy

In Duluth

We took a short trip to Duluth MN for a bit of R & R.  YKW and I are just relaxing before going out for dinner.  I bought a few pieces of fabric but didn't break the bank this time.  Heading home tomorrow. 
Peggy

Two New Bags

It is over a year ago now that my youngest sister was married in Lake Tahoe and I purchased the pattern and fabric for the latest bag I made.  It is called Carmel from A Quilter's Dream.  It is made from 6 fat quarters with very little left over.  I added more pockets then the pattern called for; that is the usual thing I do.  I always need lots of pockets.

Carmel from A Quilter's Dream

I also made another bag from a pattern that I found in a new book called Bags, Pillows and Pincushions Volume Two.  It is called Sweet Pleat and can also be found here.

Sweet Pleat

The fabric is "Bee Happy" from Henry Glass.

Peggy

Two More Finishes

I have been trying to get my last year's Block of the Months sewn together and quilted and have succeeded in getting one more finished.

This is from Cranton Village Quilt Works.

The camera doesn't do the colours justice because the   quilt is brighter than this picture.

It finished at 60 x 60 inches, a little bigger than I like to quilt but I am quite happy with it.

Jackie Kunkle from Cranton Village had different quilters design each block.

This BOM is still available on the website if you are interested in making it.

Click on the button on the right hand side that says

"Blogger Block of the Month" 

I also finished a table runner for my daughter and forgot to give it to her last week when the whole family was over for a visit.

This pattern is called "Cotton Reels" and is a 

Pieced Tree pattern.

We picked up the pattern and kit at a small quilt shop

in Beaver Bay Minnesota.

They always have great kits put together and it makes quilting so much fun

because you don't have to pick out the fabric

it is all done for you.

Peggy

Quilt Bee

Our local Quilt Bee was a great success.  It was on a smaller scale then last year but we still had a great turn out and lots of quilts were put together.  The committee had made quilt kits so it was easy to pick one up and then sit and sew it together.

I tried to show the group without faces.

Two of the finished quilts.

Work in progress.

Just a few of the quilts that were put together that day.

We are going to have some beautiful quilts to donate when everything is finished.

Peggy.