Disappearing Nine Patch

This is my Disappearing Nine Patch Quilt. I used the scraps from my quilt for Haiti, plus some coordinating fabric. I just finished the top today and thought you might like to see it. Now I just have one more top for a very special occasion, and then my quilting time in Cranbrook will be complete. In two weeks from today, we will be on our way out of the mountains and back to the prairies. Sigh!

Completed and almost completed!

This is Wendy and the cute little quilt she made for MCC.

This is the quilt I completed for MCC.

This is my first big quilt that I measured incorrectly so the back was smaller than the front, so my solution was to add a big border, and voila, that fixed it.

This is the top of my quilt for Haiti. It needs a backing, a batting and it needs to be tied.

I've already cut out a new quilt with a disappearing nine patch pattern and I would love to show it to you, but we had a camera incident and the screen on it broke, so we are looking into having it fixed. Watch for our blog on the pictures we took with a broken screen, it might be the new wave of photography!!!

Quilt for Haiti!

This is my latest project, a "Streak of Sunshine" quilt to be given to Mennonite Central Committee for Haiti. They need 10000 quilts, so I thought maybe they would be happy to have my beginner attempt. I chose these fabrics for their brilliant colours and high quality fabric. I had so much fun putting this layout together on Monday that I forgot to eat lunch. By 2:30 I was pretty hungry. I'm going to try to make a similar one for us, but I don't have enough fabric, so off to Fabricland again! Life is so hard sometimes. Isn't it cool how the actual streak of sunshine followed the pattern of the quilt?

What I did today!

Our quilting class was cancelled last night, but Wendy, being so dedicated and organized, called me Monday night and said there was a package of squares for me to pick up and work on this week. I arrived Tuesday at 6pm, and there was a Ziploc bag with my name on it, full of colourful squares in 3 different patterns and coordinating colours. The bag also contained about 10 pages of quilting tips and patterns to put in my binder that Wendy started for me. I was to look at the quilt she did for Keltie (her daughter) and then lay out my squares in whatever pattern I liked and sew the strips together. So last night I laid it all out (picture 1), and then this morning I changed it around a bit, and then started sewing the strips together, and now I have 9 strips hanging in my "closet" and I am done my homework for the week! Isn't is beautiful? I get to keep it too! Stay tuned for how it turns out! I'll be on the edge of my seat...

First Quilt Complete!

After 3 group sessions and 4 hours of hand stitching, my first quilting project is complete! Flannel is apparently very hard to quilt with as it stretches and slides. Well I can attest to that as I think there is only one side that looks like all of the squares are actually square. However, it fold up completely evenly, so that is a first for me and blankets. It is my first project and I'm really pleased with it. We decided to tie it as opposed to quilting it so we could move on to our next project which involves 90% quilting. Stay tuned for more adventures in quilting...

Quilting Steps 6-9

At the first weekly Tuesday night Quilting with Wendy, 3 of us continued our lessons.

Step 6: Get right to work cutting out strips to frame the middle block, always cut in 1/2 inch lengths and widths.

Step 7: Always sew 1/4 inch seams and keep the seams straight, but a good ironing job covers a multitude of mistakes.

Step 8: Lots of chatting, laughing and compliments makes time go by quickly, oh, and snacking.

Step 9: When it's 9:50pm, hustle it and get your top finished so you have something to show the folks at home.

(picture one, Andrea with her elephant top, picture 2 Keltie's peas in a pod top, picture 3 Verena's argyle top, picture 4 my first strip of sewn squares and my centre with the trim around it, picture 5 our super hero Wendy hugging her daughter Keltie while Verena works on her layout)

Quilting Step 1-5

Step 1: You should have lots of fun... (New Kids on the Block) ha, ha!

Step 2: Enjoy some lovely fruit salad and a chocolate covered Oreo cookie, and tea, always tea.

Step 3: Acquaint yourself with the equipment and terminology of Quilting, for instance everything is a straight edged, with few exceptions, so it's important to have a self-healing matt, a long transparent ruler and a rotary cutter.

Step 4: Follow the pattern and do as instructed, but if you are using store bought receiving blankets, they are not square once they are washed, so they need to be squared.

Step 5: Cut out your squares carefully...

That's what I know so far. Stay tuned for the further adventures in Quilting starring our super hero Wendy and the hero in training Me! Oh, next time I'll bring Moofut, he's so good at holding rulers.