Maggie Makes a Quilt

Most Wednesday mornings find me around the quilt frame at the church but last week our small circle did something just a little different. 

Maggie, our brave and fearless ACW President, frequently drops by to check our progress and cheer us on. When encouraged to pull up a chair she has always maintained that she could never do what we do. Fair enough. But lots happens before a flimsy gets put up on the frame so we convinced her to join us in a day of sewing to help create a few more quilt tops to include with this year’s Quilts for Survivors (QFS) shipment. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to invite other quilters, past and present, to join in the fun, including our rectors. And, just like that, Maggie Makes a Quilt Day was born.

I was hoping for some great progress on our sew day so I drafted a pattern for a simple Bricks quilt in advance and circulated it, so several people came with quilts precut and ready to go.

These are the fabrics for the first one that I cut and which Maggie set to work on.

And I also cut this combo for a second one - very similar, but a little lighter.

These gorgeous pinks and golds were cut by another quilter - so soft and delicate.

I also cut 6.5" squares for two Crossroads quilts using burgundies mostly from Jean's stash and randomly inserted the 1" strips before our workshop so that it would be quicker to assemble. 

Jean had donated most of the fabrics. Intent on using all of it up, I cut out two tops but not before I did several deep dives into my stash to squeak out enough fabrics that would work. I don't tend to buy burgundy so I really had to dig deep.

This print has been around for ages and I still love it; it makes a terrific binding too.

About a dozen of us arrived at the hall bright and early, sewing machines and irons in hand (Maggie, for some reason, brought a healthy supply of band aids; not quite sure what she thought that we were going to put her through!). The room was humming in no time.

We were also very fortunate to have a couple of folks volunteer to press seams for us, which moved things along beautifully.

It turned out to be a very fun and productive day; next time I'll show you our progress....M

Variations on a Theme

With all of the blocks for my last Bordered Nine-Patch together and in the process of being assembled into a flimsy, I still have tons of 2.5" squares to play with and am in need of a new hand piecing project, so more Nine-Patches it is!

This time I'm using 8 squares all in the same colour family and then a neutral - not necessarily plain white - for the centre of the block.

It's fun, but fairly quickly I was back to cutting down either some of the 2.5" strips in my box or strips from yardage to get the 8 squares of one colour that I need. And so the pile grows!

I only have 7 blocks together so it's early days in terms of layout, but I'm thinking of maybe putting the blocks on point with a narrow sashing and bright cornerstone(s) and then maybe adding a border or two. That would mean fewer blocks to make. Time will tell....M

Lots of Ooohs and Ahhhhs

When I visited with Sandy recently she gave me a lovely bundle of goodies to include in our Quilts for Survivors shipment this fall, the main one being this fantastic Postage Stamp quilt.

It's made from tiny 3" Nine Patches made with 1.5" squares. 

If you do the math, she's got 9 Nine-Patches per block (81 tiny squares) and there are 20 blocks - all hand pieced - so that makes for 1,620 squares!

Apparently she was channeling me and trying to use up as many of her tiny scraps as she could in this one. I'd say mission accomplished! It sounds like there were several times when there was a fair bit of blue smoke as she worked her way through this, but finish it she did, and it's just gorgeous.

And she didn't stop there. It's machine quilted and bound and, after they add a label, ready to be shipped to a survivor.

Yesterday I shared it with our circle of quilters at the church and they were completely gob smacked, not only that she put all of that work into this beauty, but that she was prepared to give it away. That butter yellow border was a huge hit. Several doubted that they could be quite this generous.

Thank you so much Sandy; someone will receive and enjoy a real treasure to help them along on their healing journey....M

No Longer Sewing in Circles

My effort at completing Jan's Double Wedding Ring flimsy has worked, and no one is more surprised than I.

Thanks to some very rainy weather over the August long weekend I was able to hide in the sewing room and slowly work my way to a finish, and I'm tickled. More than once I was convinced that this just wasn't going to happen, but happen it did!

Remember that corner that I ripped off the existing panel? Well, I decided to try and use it to help minimize the yellow on the 'new' side of the quilt, and it worked. I ripped the vertical seam between the rings so that I could add the circle segments to the columns that I was creating to help complete that big 'S' curve that I needed to.

When it came time to sew that S seam I matched up the seams at the corners and then found the middle of the cream centres of each block, finger pressed them and then attached them to the relevant arc. It meant that half of the time the cream curve was facing me and the other half it was the pieced arc. Surprisingly, both systems worked well as long as that centre point was accurately marked and pinned.

I don't think I've seen a Double Wedding Ring lap quilt but it's very sweet at this size. And the strong colours are lovely, a very different look from the one that our quilting circle finished off earlier in the year.

This one is scrappy with a capital 's', so lots of treasures to unearth as you work your way through it. These vintage cherries are a favourite that show up several times...

as is this sweet almost checked green, which is modern day.

I found a piece of the cream fabric in the project box large enough for a backing so I will send that along to the folks at Quilts for Survivors as well.

Interesting that in all of the years that I have been quilting, this pattern has never been on my list and yet this year I've worked on two of them! Can't wait to let Jan know that her project will now find its forever home....M