Another One Off the Frames

Taking the Double Wedding Ring quilt off the frames reminded me that I haven't shared another quilt that our small group quilted last fall. It's this gorgeous Zig Zag that Jane hand pieced which she has called Water's Edge.

She had made it for a Christmas gift and was keen to have it hand quilted; we were very happy to oblige.

It's amazing the impact that a simple HST and a fabulous colour palette can make. The quilting is very straight forward, with simple 1/4" lines bordering the dark teal and dark grey zig zags. 

All of the quilters were quite fond of this one and because it was lap-sized we were able to get it quilted up in short order. We love seeing what quilters outside of our circle are working on.

Where we struggled a little bit was in trying to decide if they should just run right across the quilt or do something else in the dark border. We considered a cross hatch, but because of the hatched pattern in the print, opted for two parallel lines so as not to complete with the print, and it was a good decision.

It was ready in good time to be bound for Christmas, and by all accounts is being enjoyed by it's new owner....M

It's Ready To Wrap!

The beautiful Double Wedding Ring quilt that our church group has been quilting is now a fait accompli and it couldn't be prettier.

Since I had the binding, I drew the short straw on being the binder, which meant attempting to figure out dealing with a scalloped border. I looked at several videos but could not find the one that I had come across a few weeks ago so I had to wing it a bit.

It was a little nerve wracking making that first cut to trim the edges but once I got started it went as smoothly as I could have wanted.

Attaching the binding to the quilt went quite well too given that we had hand basted the entire edge before we started quilting. It was just wrestling with a quilt this large that took a bit of time.

When it came to hand stitching the binding down it was the interior points that proved to be time consuming - it took me about eight hours to bind it, if not more. In the end, I created a very narrow pleat at the corner (approximately 7/8"!) to make everything work. Then I put in a few small stitches front and back to hold it all in place, keeping the very edge open to allow for a little movement.

A little midnight oil was burned to finish it this week as Jan, who is moving on Wednesday, had volunteered to connect with its owner en route to her new home to drop it off. I have to say, that's probably the last thing I would have entertained if it was me, but she is game.

I shared it with the quilters this morning and everyone agreed that the soft green binding was a perfect choice. And, as much as I like the front of it, the quilting shows up so beautifully on the white backing. We put in about 165 hours of work to finish it up so I can only imagine the total number of hours put in by the maker.

So, now it can be wrapped and gifted. We're hoping that the mother-of-the-bride is able to share a photo or two with us later this spring. It was such a gift to all of us who were able to work on this quilt to see it completed and ready for its new home....M

The Double Wedding Ring is Off the Frames

Our quilters are doing a little bit of a happy dance because on Friday, the Double Wedding Ring quilt came off the frames. It is beautiful. 

So many quilts are machine quilted these days for speed and convenience but there's still nothing like the look and feel of a traditional hand-quilted quilt. 

When we started working on this one at the end of last year we thought that it could take us until March/April, but we thrilled to have surprised ourselves. It's ready to bind!

I made the binding when I marked the quilting pattern so it's all ready to go, but first I have to trim the edges, which are all large scallops. Then I need to figure out how to attach the binding so that things don't bunch up at the corners, but I've found a good instructional video to follow. Having relatively large and shallow arcs will help.

We've noticed a couple of small stains on the front of the quilt that will need to be looked at and today I found another small one when I was examining the back. I don't think that it will be the end of the world if they don't come out, given the sentimentality of this project.

With so many different quilters working on it sometimes we wondered what the quilting would look like when it was all finished but it has turned out beautifully. It's such a treat to look at....M

Template Time

It's been forever since I've made a quilting template but we needed one to mark the quilting pattern for the Double Wedding Ring. I'm thinking that a purchased stencil may have been used for the portion that is already quilted but there was no sign of one when the quilt was dropped off for us, so I brought it home to try and figure out a way to do it.

As a reminder, my mission was to create a template for this pattern. After a little pondering I decided to just make an oval for each quadrant rather than attempting a stencil for the entire pattern, so I rescued a cereal box from the recycling bin and proceeded to draft one. It went quicker that I had imagined.

I just measured one of the ovals from the existing pattern from end and then determined it's overall width at the mid point. Once I had that cut I made it 1/4" wide and cut the centre out.

The maker had pressed the centre panel of each block so as to mark it's centre, so I just positioned one end of the petal point at the centre of the block and the other end pointing towards a corner. For the circle that encased the petals I was lucky enough to find a plastic container the same size as the outer ring and then marked an echo line 1/4" inside of that. Easy peasy.

It took several hours to mark the remaining 32 blocks that need quilting but I was determined to do it all in one day. For whatever reason, it was tricky getting a light pencil line to show up well on the fabric but I eventually got to the point that things moved along. I don't like a heavy quilting line but also wanted to ensure that the quilters could see the pattern.

It's been up on the frame at the church since early January and we are seeing good progress. Because the edges of the quilt are scalloped, we first hand basted all of those outer circles so that everything was stabilized, which took a fair bit of time. Eventually we were able to begin quilting and this past Friday we finished the first column of eight blocks and were thrilled to roll it for the first time. Woohoo! Only 24 more to go!....M

A Special Double Wedding Ring Surprise

Back in November, just as we were prepping for the bazaar, Jan sent through a note about a gal named Carrie who had contacted her guild in Kingston enquiring as to anyone who might be interested in finishing a Double Wedding Ring quilt.

It was made by Carrie's mother who had passed away in 2010. After her death, Carrie's dad had bundled it up and tucked it into a drawer, not quite sure what to do with it. They recently discovered it safe and sound. She is keen to have the hand quilting finished up and getting it bound so that she can gift it to her daughter for her upcoming wedding this spring. It's to be a surprise.

It is beautiful. About 2/3 of it is quilted and her work is lovely. It proved to be a challenge that we couldn't refuse. I mean, to be able to work on a sentimental surprise like that? Really? 

So we've put our heads together to develop a line of attack, not the least of which is drafting and marking this motif for the centre of the rings.

So far, it's been quilted in a hoop and it is very well basted with pins, so there's been little or no shifting of the quilt sandwich....M

Slowing Things Down

I'm relishing the fact that I'm off deadline now that the Holly Bazaar is behind me and have picked up my needle in the hoop again.

It does the soul good to just work through that meditative process. A few stitches here and a few stitches there and before you know it, another Candied Hexagon is quilted.

I am resisting the temptation to do a count to see how many more hexies are yet to be stitched....M

Comforts

Its a miserable day today - rainy, breezy, damp and chilly - making it one of those days to sit inside, happily distracted by creature comforts, including needle and thread. There will be lots of time to sit and quilt on Candied Hexagons and watch a little football.

I'm happy to report that I've been able to stick with my quilting since I got back to it and feel that ever so slowly the finish line is appearing on the horizon.

Sometimes I've had the company of the Official Cookie Tester sitting next to me in his chair and other times we've had a little guest who quite likes that seat as well. Both are great company.

This is one of the first blocks that I made for this quilt and I quite like the way the print created a secondary pattern. There was only a small bit of fabric so some piecing was required to make it work - can you see it?

There's something about this purple print that I just love.

Every now and then I get a glimpse of the backing as I stitch and its fun to see the quilting coming through on it too.

This will be a perfect day to enjoy comfort foods as well, including fresh apple crisp. I have to say though that I was mightily distracted at one point when it was coming together because once it was in the oven I discovered that there was an apple still sitting on the counter that should have been included in the mix. Ah well, that just means that there's lots of crumble on this one (my favourite part!)....M

A Return to the Hoop

Candied Hexagons has been in my hoop for - wait for it - going on three years now (yikes!). Work in the hoop tends to be done in the cooler months so that I'm not boiling under it in the heat, but I don't think that I picked the needle up even once this past winter. This week seemed like a good time to change that.

It was such a treat. There really is something wonderful about the rhythmic feel of running needle and thread through layers of fabric and batting. Getting to revisit all of these lovely fabrics was a bonus.

I thought at one point that maybe this one would never be finished, but over the last several days I've quilted three hexie blocks and am well on my way to finishing off a fourth, so there is hope that it will see the top of a bed some day.

I didn't lay it out on the floor but it looks like I have at least half of it finished and with the pace that I kept this week it feels very doable. Things will be busy now with Holly Bazaar prep but I'm determined to keep at it.

Speaking of which, yesterday we started our annual apple pie making at the church (we made 110 of them), the proceeds of which go to the bazaar. In chatting with another quilter about how long I have let this one languish in the hoop I was advised not to fret - she had one in the hoop in her living room for 20 years. I have to say, I felt much better after that!....M

Call Me A Little Old Fashioned

It's unseasonaly chilly here today which is frustrating because I'm wanting to get out into the gardens. The up side is that it makes for great quilting weather.

Candied Hexagons has been sitting in the study all winter, and, with the exception of one or two brief acquaintances, not seeing much quilting action. So much so that I often wonder if I should start calling my hobby 'piecing' rather than 'quilting' because lately that's where the bulk of my energies go.

Picking up my needle was like greeting an old friend and I spent a couple of wonderfully relaxing hours watching stitches change the texture of this flimsie.

I love the old fashioned look of this quilt with its muted and warm colours. It's not modern or bright but more reminiscent of something that my grandmothers would have made.

As is the Oatmeal Cake that I made earlier this week. Yummy as it was fresh out of the oven, a day or two later it became even moister and denser. I haven't made an Oatmeal Cake in ages and this one didn't disappoint. Comfort food and again, a dessert reminiscent of an earlier time. Guess this week I was channeling days gone by.

There was a break in the quilting action to prepare dinner but seeing my progress from this afternoon has me anxious to get back to my stitches this evening....M

Pretty in Pink

Quilts can hold so many mysteries. Betty and Steve were visiting with Steve's cousin Anne and her husband recently and the conversation came around to a quilt that mom had quilted for Anne's mom.

Anne is not a quilter but she has a beautiful, delicate pink cross stitched quilt that her mother left her.

We know that mom did the quilting but there's no one left to tell us who did all of that beautiful cross stitch. Anne feels that her mom paid someone to do it, but who?

All of the quilting is also done with pink thread...

and the backing is pink too, which nicely shows off the quilted pattern.

This quilt is reminiscent of one that I started years ago in blue but I have no idea what happened to it. That was another lifetime ago. It came from the Mary Maxim catalog (Betty recalls many fond hours flipping through those catalogs, as do I) and I suspect that this one did too.

Isn't it great that Betty and Anne's friendship is made that much richer with these shared stitches, even if there are a few pieces of the story missing? The ties that bind....M