I'm a winner!

I just received an email from Michele over at the Quilting Gallery to let me know that I won a give away from the Fat Quarter Shop.  I left a comment on the Learning Centre's post about fabric styles, and was randomly selected to win a FQ bundle of my choice.  Ooooooo.  so many bundles to pick from.  I'll post a picture of the bundle I chose, when it arrives here.  In the meantime, you gotta go check out both websites.  There's so much information at the Learning Centre on the Quilting Gallery, and so many FQ bundles to choose from at the Fat Quarter Shop.

Trunk Show Tuesday #4

This quilted wall hanging is the result of another block exchange with members of the Compuserve Quilt Group.  The criteria was a 12 inch finished block with a heart in it and pure white backround.  The exchange began in December 1993 and completed by February 1994. 

My block is the one on the left in the second row.  It was my first attempt at appliqué and was done by machine with invisible thread.  I have since discovered needle turn applique, which I prefer.  The pattern for the block was taken from a pattern in Quilt World magazine.   

I finally completed the quilt in time to enter it into my Guild's quilt show in 2008.  Yup! Another slow finish, but I was still into piecing back then and not a lot of finishing.

This is the last one

that I have to work on for my Guild's round robin. 

If you remember I worked on several others and posted about mine here, Louise's here and Janet's here. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of Gladys's.   I also worked on Mary's block which I posted about here.  On this one, Bonnie's, I added the last round and will present it at our Guild meeting.   I'd show you what I did on this one, but the reveal for these RRs is this Friday.   If I get permission from my group, I'll post the finished quilt tops on March 31 so that you can see how they all turned out, including mine.  I'm excited to see the results of my group's work on these.

Trunk Show Tuesday #3

Delving further into quilting I discovered an online service called Compuserve that had a quilting chat group.  I was able learn what other quilters were doing.  I leapt in and participated in my first block exchange; a 12-inch finished quilt block with a cat in it.  In a magazine called Traditional Quiltworks (issue 26) I found a block that was 6 inches finished.  The piecing looked easy so I chose to enlarge it.  This was my first attempt at redrafting a pattern.

August 1993 Cat Block Exchange

After exchanging, I received blocks from California, Missouri, Michigan, Maryland, and Maine.  One of the participants sent a picture of her completed quilt to Quiltmaker magazine.  As luck would have it, the picture was published.  Just imagine... my quilt block and name published in a quilting magazine.  How exciting that was!

A year later a second Cat block Exchange was hosted. I wanted to add to the blocks I already had in order to make a larger quilt but chose to do a different block this time.  It’s the one in the third row on the left and was a pattern from Piecemakers.  The block in the lower right corner was the one I had made for the first exchange.

Talk about UFOs ... I finally finished this in September 2004.  It was hand quilted and given to my stepmother. 

Revealing a balance!

Today is reveal day over at Tangeled Textiles fibre art group.  I've been working feverishly trying to finish my piece and I finally made it.  Here are some pictures of the details.

You can see the whole piece here.

Trunk Show Tuesday #2

My fourth attempt at producing a quilted item resulted in what you see here. 

I got tired of seeing my sister use leftover Christmas wrapping paper for a tree skirt, so I made this one for her and presented it to her for Christmas 1993.  Four blocks were a pattern called “Dutchman’s Puzzle” but the remaining two were of my own design so that I could use up the rest of the fabric.  The pattern for the tree skirt came from a magazine, Quilting Today, issue 33 (Dec. 92).  I got "daring"; all those points for the first time.  I had taken a class and practiced my hand quilting stitch.  No more tying for me.  Mind you I did not make a good choice for thread.   It was a gold metallic DMC thread; not the easiest to quilt with.  Here is a detail picture.

I must apologize for the quality of the pictures.  They were taken long before digital cameras were available.

Opening my trunk

I've been invited to do a trunk show by the program director of our Guild.  At first I thought why me?  Next I felt honoured to be asked; now I can't stop thinking about how and what I should present.
I suppose a good place to start is with your first quilt, but I no longer have that one.  I posted about it here.  Doing a virtual trunk show might not be a bad idea either.  So I've decided to post about quilts out of my trunk each Tuesday.  Ya....that's it Trunk Show Tuesday!  Besides it will motivate me to post more frequently too.  So here is my first trunk show post.

  My Second Quilt

This quilt was made for my niece for Christmas 1992.  Unfortunately it did not get finished in time.    I started it in August 1992 and got caught up in another quilt for our company United Way fund drive.  She received the quilt for her birthday, April 1993.

It was my first attempt at hand quilting.  My previous quilt had been tied.  If I recall, the block’s name is Milky Way but I can’t be certain.  The colours chosen were to match the decor of my niece's bedroom.

November 1993    My third quilt

This quilt, made for a corporate United Way fund drive as a door prize, measured 4 feet by 4 feet.  The winner was Kathy Chelew.  The fabric used was from scraps found in my family’s sewing basket.  The central brown cross was a purchased fabric from my first visit to Wineberry’s, a fabric store located in Surrey, British Columbia.  I had yet to learn the intricacies of colour selection, but I have learned this comes with practice and time.  It was tied with yellow embroidery cotton.

Weaving

is not my strong suit.  However I wanted to experiment.  My first try involved stitching a base of embroidery floss onto netting then weaving wool to form the sides of what hoepfully will end up being a basket.

It looks okay, but not what I had in mind.  In my next attempt, I used small binding strips to form the base and used the same wool for the weaving.

This one is a bit better, but still not what I'm looking for.  I think the spines of the base should be wider than on the first one and narrower than on the second one.  Any suggestions?

A small neighbourhood

I’ve been working on a piece for a lady who likes houses.   When selecting the pattern that she wanted she found Row Houses on Flavin Glover’s website.  Ms. Glover has a free pattern on her site inspired by Row Houses called Around the Corner. So this is what I am working on now. 

This is one of the houses and it was all done with log cabin blocks. I have completed 4 of the six or eight that I need to make an appropriate sized wall hanging. The logs are all 1" wide except for the windows, which are 1.5 inches wide.  Very small.  I have learned one thing....logs are better cut from the lengthwise grain of the fabric...less stretch....easier to keep square and accuracy is easier to maintain on these small pieces.

Till the next time...Happy quilting.