Plenty of Fish in the Sea

On Monday I took a drive out to the lake to help Jane finish up a couple of flimsies for Quilts for Survivors. It was a beautiful fall day and turned out to also be a terrific excuse to enjoy the colours. She's had two flimsies in need of borders and was looking for some help in deciding what exactly that might entail so that they could get to the finish line.

The first one we are calling The Fish Quilt 😁. Creative, isn't it? I think that Plenty of Fish in the Sea would work, too. 

It's a tumbler quilt... 

but a little strategic colour placement and turning the tumblers vertically created a sea of goldfish, happily swimming along.

The background of teal and periwinkle sets those orange fish off beautifully and really evokes the colour of water.

She had a piece of fabric that's been in her stash for a couple of decades that she was keen to see if we could figure out how to make it work. It came from a shop in St. Jacobs years ago while visiting there with my sister Frances and it is as though it was made just exactly for this quilt.

The brush stroke dots really resemble fish scales and the palette is perfect. Having that occasional line or two of periwinkle sprinkled in was just the icing on the cake. All that remained was a piece approximately 6" x 24" - we made every inch count.

The second quilt didn't require as much math because after several attempts she landed on a large piece in her vintage fabrics stash, pretty blue roses on soft pink. A little more math and we were off to the races.

This flimsy is Alice in Wonderland inspired, from a charm pack, I believe. 

Lots of sweets, and tea cups...

and lovely teapots anchoring two of its corners.

This teapot is my favourite.

She is thrilled to have both of them finished now and we are delighted that they are completed in time to be able to add them to our coming QFS shipment. Thanks so much Jane!....M

Lovin' My Bordered Nine-Patch

Incredibly, my Bordered Nine-Patch is all together! I started this hand stitching project thinking that it would take me well into the fall/winter but I've been able to surprise myself with an early finish, and I just love it.

After a fairly uninspiring start I was questioning if I just hadn't figured out the secret to making this pattern sing but eventually, as more and more variety in colour and print came into play it came into its own. 

A huge shout out to Linda at KokaQuilts for her inspiration. Her blocks and finished quilt were just a tad larger than mine but so lovely.

I have to say that the idea of that three-inch-block border is brilliant - it takes the humble Nine-Patch and adds just that little bit of interest to take everything to the next level.

My August post about this flimsy showed a map of how I laid out the blocks in strips to sew them together. That was all done by hand but then I moved to the machine to sew all of the strips together, which saved me a lot of time.

This quilt was an attempt to make a bit of a dent in my 2.5" squares and strips, and it's done that. But fear not, there's plenty more where these came from so I anticipate making more of these in the future. And I suspect that each will take on it's own colour story given that the scraps on hand will vary each time it's made, which will be fun to see. This one is delightfully autumnal....M

Maggie Makes a Quilt, Part 2

Today I've got more show and tell as to what we accomplished at Maggie Makes a Quilt.

It turns out that Maggie did have a little sewing experience, having made a jumper years ago in Home Ec, so she easily sewed all of the strips for her quilt together before lunch. Matthew (our rector) was our second rookie, using a machine for the first time and he too proved to be an excellent study. 

Because it's easy to either flip a row or sew them out of order, especially in a room full of chatter and distractions, I numbered each row using a piece of painter's tape, which really helped keep our novices on track. No point ripping when you don't have to!

Between the two of them, and with a little help from me, they had a completed quilt top to their credit by day's end. Love this colour combo.

We completed five quilt tops, four in the Bricks pattern, and each was a pretty as the next. The strips for a sixth Bricks are all together and have been taken home by one of our worker bees for final assembly.

Jean's fabrics were very sophisticated, several of which were brought back from South Africa by her daughter a few years ago. This one would have been nice using a coffee coloured solid as well.

Here is one of the two Crossroads quilts that was cut. The richness of the prints isn't coming through very well on this photo, but the flimsy is lovely.

There were several times as I was cutting these squares and inserting those strips that I questioned the combination of prints that I had, but it turned out beautifully.

The blocks for the second Crossroads flimsy was also farmed out to be completed by someone at home, which will bring our total to eight. YAY! And all without having to break into Maggie’s band aid supply!

There were suggestions that we do this again and I believe that Maggie Makes a Quilt Day 2.0 will happen some time next spring, which we'll look forward to. There was also a suggestion that our next workshop include wine; not sure what that would do for productivity….M

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

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 

My Nine-Patches Take a Getaway

Wanting some hand stitching to do during a short getaway, I got busy and threw the scrappy Nine-Patches that I've been working on lately for another QFS quilt up on the design wall. I wanted to lay everything out and then pin the rows/columns so that I could easily stitch in the car or as we sat and gabbed. 

Not sure just how many I had made, I discovered that I needed a few more. I also decided that I wanted it one row longer (you know my aversion to square quilts!) so I whipped up a few on the machine in order to meet my deadline. The blocks weren't in any particular order and I made very few tweaks to the final layout, which I really like. Those 3 1/2" border blocks make me happy. I snapped a photo for insurance so that I had a reference in case I got myself messed up.

I made a rough sketch of how everything would go together, numbered and pinned each row/column, and everything was tucked into a bin with thread and scissors. Time to hit the road!...M