The Dandy Workshop

I have been making bags since I started quilting 6 years ago.  I have made tote bags, grocery bags, travel bags, and purses.  One of the bags that I really like is the Dandy Bag.  I found it on the Internet in 2010 and have made somewhere between 6 and 10 of these bags.  I have re sized them to make them larger and in many different colourways.  This is a fun bag to make.  This is the bag that Lynda and I took when we travelled to Europe a few years ago, and called it our day bag.  We carried our water bottle, hat, umbrella, Kleenex, and anything else that wasn't valuable.

Because I have made so many bags the Guild asked me to put on a workshop and I chose the Dandy Bag from Dandelion Quilts.  I added pockets and a zipper because that is what the participants asked for.  We had a great time and as you can see everyone chose beautiful fabrics for their bag.  Five of the 8 gals finished their bag on Saturday.

I forgot to ask if they minded having

their faces out on the Internet so I cropped

the picture to display the beautiful bags.

Peggy.

  

Pieced but not Quilted

I have been working on a twister quilt.  I bought the pattern and some of the fabric from a local shop that was going out of business.  I really like the Twister pattern.  I have to look for a backing for this quilt that is why I haven't quilted it yet.  Hopefully I will find some soon.

Twister Illusions.

I made the baby or wall hanging size 

but added the borders for

the twin size because

I wanted it to be a size that was

in between them both.

It is 46 x 56 inches.

Peggy.

Not Bearly There

I found a really neat pattern in Fons and Porter's Easy Quilts Spring 2011 magazine called Bearly There.  The pattern used bear fabric therefore the name for the quilt.  I had some neat Snowman fabric that I thought would be great with this pattern.  I fussy cut the snowmen for the center squares of the blocks and used beige and blue for the rest of the squares.  

The fabric is Snow Flurries from Clothworks.

I used the same fabric for the outer border.

This quilt is for a friend who still plays hockey

and he is in his 70's.

Some of the snowmen are skating so I 

thought it was quite appropriate for him.

I also finished another donation quilt.  This is made from scraps from a layer cake twister quilt that I made a few years ago for my grandson.

I got this pattern from Missouri Star Quilt Company.

On the video she doesn't use sashing and cornerstones but I learned a new technique 

from The Gourmet Quilter

about adding sashing strips and now I am loving 

making them.

Peggy

Magic Stack-n-Whack

One of the groups I go to decided before Christmas that it would be fun to try a Magic Stack-n-Whack Quilt.  I have never done one and had to go and buy fabric for the quilt.  There were about 5-6 of us that thought we would try this technique.  Today 3 of the gals and myself bought our completed squares to share with the group.

These are Sharon's squares.  

She chose fabric with

birds and fruit.  I love the way the

squares seem to spin.

Deb's square.  

She thought her fabric was too

busy, but it looks just great.

These are Leila's squares.  

She chose fabric with flowers

and also different background fabrics.

This is my square and you can see what happens when

you buy fabric that isn't busy enough and there

was too much background in the main

fabric.  I think that my 8 squares will

become 2 donation quilts. 

I have to go and buy some black fabric now

to use for sashing and borders.

I will post the quilts when they are finished.

Peggy.

Quilts for Twins

This years marks 50 years since I graduated from Nursing School and I hope to go to my reunion in June.  Our renunions are usually held every 5 years and I have been lucky enough to go to the last few.  This will be a big celebration because the Alumni also gets involved when it is the 50th reunion.  There will be an Alumni dinner on the Friday night and then a dinner with just our classmates on Saturday night and a final Brunch on Sunday morning before we say good-bye for another 5 years.

I usually stay with one of my classemates and this year will be no different.  I am going to visit with Joanne and her husband Tom for a few days at their home and then we will book into the hotel in downtown Toronto to be with the rest of our classmates.

Joanne and Tom have twin grandsons so I thought I would make them something as a thank you.  I bought the fabric a few years ago when I was in Southern Ontario.

I bought the cute Riley Blake fabric with the cars

and some of the fabric from the 4 patches

and thought I would make them placemats

but thought that they might like a quilt instead.

The fabric with the children is also Riley Blake fabric

that I picked up here in town for something

else but decided that it would be

better in this cute quilt.

I made two of these quilts identical but the backing will tell them apart.  One is blue and the other light green. I took the idea for this quilt from Quilts by Jen.  She made hers with leftover layer cake squares but I was using fat quarters so I made my squares 9 inches to get more squares from what I had.

Peggy.

Quilt Therapy Time Again

Our Thursday group was very interesting this week.  We had a visitor.  Pierina was in town for a funeral so she spent the day with us.  

Since her machine was in Toronto she couldn't

quilt, so she did some Swedish embroidery instead.

Maria was working on her trees.  This will be a table runner for one of  her daughters.  It is all paper pieced and taking a lot of time because she wants to make them all different.  It means sorting fabric for each one.

She has a lot of Black and White and White and Black

fabric to choose from.  She is doing a 

really nice job of them,  All her sorting and choosing

is paying off.

Joyce is using up some of her left over "Cabin by the Lake" fabric and making placemats.

Adding binding.

All the fabrics in the quilt and table runner.

I am working on a donation quilt.  I added 2 1/4 inch squares to two corners of 4 1/2 inch squares and then I am sewing them together just hap hazard to make it a scrappy looking quilt.

I may put sashing between the blocks, I haven't quite

decided yet.  I like using my scraps

to make quilts.  Everyone is different.

Peggy.

Possibilities Group

Our guild has a group call "The Possibilities".  A group of us get together once a month and talk about what we are doing in quilting and what we are working on.  It is always a learning experience for me.  This month there were 8 of us and lots of information was shared.

One of the more experienced quilters brought a flower block that she was working on.  It turns out that I have the book that she took the pattern out of.  I bought the book for $5 at the guild library sale.  It is called Fantastic Fabric Folding by Rebecca Wat.  I just had to try my hand at fabric folding.

I also made an orange one.

Isn't it cute.

There are quilts and wall hangings in the book and a lot of different flowers folded from fabric. 

Peggy.

Two More Finishes

I made a small donation quilt over Christmas.  It is called "Our Neighbourhood".  The quilt is made up of squares that look like little houses.  I found it on Moda Bake Shop.

Our Neighbourhood Charm Quilt

The second quilt I finished was "A Charlie Brown Christmas".  My daughter bought me the kit from Nancy's Notions for last Christmas and I hated to cut into it because I had to cut up the panel and make the squares 5 1/2 inches when they started out to be 5 x 7  rectangles.  I struggles on and finished it.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

It is 49 x 57

The backing for this quilt was very special.  Lynda went to Portugal last year and I wasn't able to go because of a medical problem and I couldn't get insurance so I asked her to bring me back some fabric. 

Portuguese fabric.

It was 60 inches wide so I didn't have to piece it.

Peggy

Quilt Therapy Thursday 2014

It's been quite a while since we got together for Quilt Therapy and it was good to get back together again.  We took most of the month of December off and then other things just kept creeping up on us in January so today was the day to start our weekly get-to-gethers.

Joyce has been working on her Cabin by the Lake Quilt and she made pillows and a table runner to match, so now she is ready to make placemats to go with the rest of the ensemble.

We laid out all the colours and came up with this order.

She finished one but no picture yet.

Maria is doing paper piecing and making

trees.  These will be made into a 

table runner.

I was sewing small white squares to 5 inch coloured

squares to make an 

X's and O's quilt.

I still have a lot more to do, see the stack there beside the other mess.

A great therapy day.

Peggy.

A New Baby Quilt for 2014

One of our great nieces is expecting a baby January 14 so I have been working on this quilt for her and her new little one.  They know it is a boy so that was the easy part of picking out the fabric.  I found this pattern out there somewhere on the internet but I forgot to copy the website so I can't give the designer credit.  I am really trying hard to do that when I see a pattern but sometimes I forget.  

I had to hang it on my design wall because there is far too much snow

outside to take a picture on my deck and it is

too cold to stand out there anyway.

This morning it was -35 C with a windchill of -45 C.  

I also made a bag to go with it.

I chose the dark blue for the bag

since the baby is a boy and I thought

it would co-ordinate nicely with

the quilt.

Peggy.

A Homemade Christmas

Christmas is over and the new year will be here soon.  It was a topsy-turvy Christmas this year.  There were some very sad days before Christmas, my sister-in-law passed away very suddenly in Florida where she lives and my niece in Kenora had her house burn down and her 13 year old son was flown to Winnipeg with severe burns.  When these kinds of things happen at Christmas time it is impossible to be with the people who need you most.  So I sent lots of good wishes and prayers their way.

Now that Christmas is over and things are starting to get back to normal (I said starting) I can post all the gifts I made and gave.

An Iron Caddy

Placemat with wine leaves and wine sayings.

A bag for Christine.

A table runner and placemats for both my

children.  I made 8 placemats and 2

table runners.

Mug Rugs, Oven Mitts, and a Hot Pad for 

Lynda who loves anything rooster.

A couple of Mug Rugs for 2 young

ladies who came for Christmas dinner.

I also made lots of Kleenex holders.

All in all it turned out to be a very nice Christmas.  I had 11 people for dinner and was lucky this year that I was prepared and had made 12 new placemats.

Peggy.

Baby It's Cold Outside

I had to take the words from an old song because when I woke up today it was -27 C and the windchill was -37 C and for all you Fahrenheit people that is -15 F and the windchill is -35 F.  No matter what system you use it is just plain cold.

I was able to get some of my quilted items finished for Christmas.  These are for me so I can post them now since I don't want to give away any presents that I am making.

I made 12 placemats so that I wouldn't be caught

short like I was last Christmas when there

were 12 people at our Christmas dinner

table and I only had 11 placemats.

I also made a table runner to match.  This pattern

was in the December/January 2014 

McCall's Quick Quilts.

It is still a few weeks till Christmas and I didn't want to put my best Table topper on our table to I quickly sewed binding on a piece of quilted fabric that I purchased a few years ago.  It does the job and I will put a better one on when I have cleaned the house and decorated it for Christmas.

I picked this piece of fabric up in Newfoundland

when we visited there a few years ago.

Jinny Beyer has lots of free pattern on her website and this placemat is one of them made from border fabric.  

This will be given to Meals on Wheels.  

I made 2 of them and have cut out 2 more.

If this cold weather keeps up they will be made

very soon.

Peggy.

Christmas Cheer Teddy Bears

Each year our quilt guild makes quilts for Teddy Bears and gives them to the Christmas Cheer Fund.  Many of the ladies buy the bears and make quilts and then we also receive bears from the Teddy Bear Toss when the local University Hockey Team have a fund raiser by having the fans throw bears onto the ice between periods.  

This year there were 109 bears and dolls turned in to the guild.  I was fortunate to be with the group that delivered them to the Christmas Cheer fund today.  

They were all piled onto three long tables.

Carole, me and Judy with some of the bears.

Thank you ladies for all your hard work.  I am hoping that next year we can make even more.

Peggy.

A Neat Placemat

I get a newsletter from Jinny Beyer and she always has something interesting to show and talk about.  This month she was showing how to make a placemat from border fabric.  I have some fabric that isn't border fabric but all stripes that could be used as border fabric.  When I see a new pattern sometimes I just have to try it.  So I did.

It is made with templates but I think next time

I will use freezer paper to cut the sections.

You can find the pattern HERE.

I have made a few new purses lately so I decided that I needed new matching tissue holders.

Three new Kleenex holders.

These are called Ahhtishoo!! Travel Tissue Cover.

You can find the pattern HERE

They only require 2 fabrics and no bias binding.

One fabric is longer than the other and that

makes the trimming after you

sew them together.

Peggy.

Some New Toys

On my last trip to Southern Ontario and visits to quilt shops I picked up a pattern called "Caddy Pad" it is from Sisters' Common Thread. It is an iron tote and ironing pad all in one.  It opens out into an ironing surface.  The Heat-Resistant Lining comes with the pattern.  I had a lot of fun making it and now have a neat way of carrying my iron when I go the a quilt bee or sewing meeting.

It is true quilters fabric with thread and needles on it,

and it says "A Passion for Patchwork".

I also tried my hand at making some new mug rugs.  The pattern is from the Winter Issue of Quilter's World.  They are called Cuppa Coasters.

I think they are nicer than the usual rectangular ones that are quite popular.

Peggy

Home again

I have been to Southern Ontario visiting my sisters and 2 of my grandchildren.  On the way to visit my oldest sister Carole, Lynda and I stopped at 3 quilt shops.  We went to Norwich to Seven Sisters Quilting, I bought some fabric and another bag pattern.  We  then we travelled to Kitchener to Creative Sisters Quilt Shop.

Creative Sisters Quilt Studio.

It was pouring rain so I didn't get a good photo. 

I bought another pattern and some really cute blue fabric

with alphabet letters for my baby quilt that is

kitted and will be started soon.

 We then drove to Guelph to Greenwood Quilts to a large shop where Lynda purchased fabric for me to make a Christmas gift for a friend.

Christmas is coming so I won't be able to post a lot of what I am working on now and will have to take photos and post them after Christmas.

Peggy

Some Visitors and Another New Bag

I have had a few visitors this past week.  YKW and our son have gone moose hunting (no luck yet) so I thought it was easier to bring his cats to my house instead of me travelling across town twice a day to feed them and make sure everything was okay at his house.

Buckley sitting on my sewing table.

Banshee is getting ready to sit on my knee while I sew.

She is on my knee right now and it is taking me longer

to write this than usual, with lots of correcting to do

as I go.

The Everything Goes Bag

I bought the pattern from Brenda at the London International Quilt Show

last June when I went down for my grandson's graduation.

You can see more of Brenda's pattern here.

She has a website and a blog with lots of patterns and info.

I found this pattern very labour intensive but there were a lot

of good detailed instructions.

I will only make one change and that is to put a small piece

of Velcro or a snap on the inside pocket that holds

my netbook.  I found that the pocket gaped open when my

 netbook was in the pocket.

I will add that now by hand.

Anyone that sees this bag really loves it, and so do I.

I think I will get a lot of use out of it.

Peggy.