Quilts

I had been saving some of these reds and blues for a while. I really wanted to do some kind of quilt featuring the chambray blue colour. When i founds this pattern I knew it would fit perfectly with the fabrics I had. I built the blocks, and at the end I was short with the red shooting stars fabric. I knew i had seen it down in Anthem AZ in the Walmart the last time we were down there, so I contacted my friend Wendy, who winters down in Phoenix and asked if she could look around for that print. Turns out the only location who seemed to carry it was the Anthem location. Luckily her sister has a place in the area and was kind enough to pick up a couple of yards for me. When Wendy returned north in the spring I was able to finish this quilt. Its a lap size and looks bright and adorable. 

Here I had purchased a nature panel. Not my usual, but I loved the deer on this one. Its a set of 4, intended to be used for cushions. I guess it doesn't matter - a person could do whatever they wanted with it. I studied it for a while and finally decided on a 4 grid layout with some sort of pattern block surrounding the center. Log Cabin block seemed to make sense, along with a cornerstone block. Brown tones are my favourite so I searched through my stash until I found most of the pieces (I believe I bought 1 or 2 solids) and I was able to calculate the blocks, measurements and amount of fabric. This one was fun to put together and is currently awaiting quilting of some kind.

I decided to run a another class last year. I decided on a Stars of Bowness original design. We used a combination of 9 patch and a Rising Star Base block. The stars were  designed with each center being a different design. Together with the 9 patch created a secondary pattern of "bowties". This was a sampler preview done for the class. I offered it in 3 different sizes, lap, twin and queen. I provided instruction for all the blocks required to create the queen size. The women who made a smaller size were able to choose which blocks they wanted to complete for their quilts. 

This was my quilt along during class. I made the queen size. This one is currently awaiting quilting. I am still looking for just the right backing.

Here is a stack of my most recent projects.

I had been wanting to do a black and white quilt. When Craftsy offered another free Block of the Month, I decided this would be my black and white. I added yellow for my accent colour and began. Turned out, I was not really keen on the patterns or the layout, so I chose not to finish the project as instructed. Because it was such a scrappy layout, most of the blocks were different sizes. I found this very difficult. After sitting in my UFO bucket for a while, I finally pulled out my favourite blocks, added a few of my own design and came up with a layout which worked for me. 

Shopping with Wendy is a bad idea. At Heritage Park's Festival of Quilts, I picked up a Jelly Roll. Wendy has been to many different shops and has done much price comparison and she convinced me this was a fantastic deal for this large jelly roll. So I picked it up... I thought I would like to do a braid pattern. I was very pleased with the outcome, but now needed some coordinating fabric for the borders. During the summer, we road tripped out to some local quilt shops in search of Row by Row patterns (more about that in a separate post). In Caroline I found this perfect shade of pink up in their sale selection. And low and behold, the outer border fabric was identical to one of my strips in the jelly roll! Score! I was able to get enough, at a very reasonable price, to border my braid quilt. Love it. This one is waiting for quilting as well.

I have been collecting the brushed plaids for a bit. One day I began making some small hourglass blocks. They were time consuming. The fabric stretches easily so the blocks become contorted. Trimming them to an even size took a lot of time. I was going to make a quilt out of the hourglass blocks, but it was such slow going I stopped when I had enough to cover the cushion. However, I still had too much of it left over, and I couldn't stand to toss it as I just love the look of the plaids. I searched until I found this Angles n' Squares pattern. I was able to make a very mini version of the pattern and it became the perfect chair companion to my cushion.

Donation Day

Over the past few years, I've been adding to my collection of items for babies. The problem is, I don't know enough babies to give these to. I have blankets, receiving blankets, crochet hats, and outfits. One day last week, it occurred to me, I should sort through my items and in order to reduce my inventory (make room for new), I would package up and donate several items to the Pregnancy Care Center in Calgary. This is the pile I ended up donating. 

When I arrived downtown, I ran into the Care Center - I wanted to be in and out. The receptionist was very welcoming, very excited to receive my items and offered to show me the room where they store their collections. They had quite a few items in store at the moment, but she told me how just a month ago, the shelves were almost bare. She explained the process by which they hand out the items, how they prepare gifts bags for new mom's, and provide even more support through counselling, classes and more items, depending on the level of need and commitment of the new mom's.

What a blessing! I will certainly be bringing more items in the future.