Little Bits of Comfort Quilters

Monday, February 07, 2011

February

A note from Kath:

Just an update as we go into the February month.

First, we will cancel our getting together on Thurs. nights for the 10th,17th and maybe the 24th. If you are around on the 24th talk to Dora and see how things are shaping up.

Dora will be away as will (Elsie and Susan are in the States, Katherine’s plans are still a little undecided) I will be home on the 21st but I have 2 sets of company then and will not be able to get out.

Just to keep everyone in the loop, I will itemize a few points.

-I hear from Dora that Shirley is doing quite well and manages to drive after her surgery. We are still praying for your full recovery Shirley.
-Tina and I were talking together last week and she goes in for day surgery again with her bladder problem on March 1st. Please remember her. I think we have plans to meet the next day so we will see how she feels.

- Lisa is to be congratulated. She received some quilt squares and partial quilts from her aunt from the MCC store. She brought her show and tell this past week along with her little ones. With them being so active and working full time I do not know how she gets it all done. I guess when I was that age I feel as though I accomplished much more. She did take it back after finding a backing fabric, so she could add on 1 more row making it the required 60X80 minimum size for MCC acceptance. I think it will be the next one we put on the frame to tie. It has approx. 4 inch squares of mostly ‘male’ fabrics. Always nice to see a variety.

- I have been at the church several times plus the Thurs. night reorganizing the shelves. I have made up kits for the solids, batiks, and florals for at least 6 quilts. Norma Birky has taken home one called Amish triangles and I also have enough for one of those. Secondly, I have cut out one called checkers using solids again.A dark/light 16 patch sashed together with navy. I think Dora said there was a navy piece at the store for me.Then I have a pattern for Batiks but I also have a set of mini rose florals set for it as well. It requires 25-10 inch blocks. The blocks are then cut in quarters both square and on the diagonal. They are randomly put together giving finished hourglass and 4-patch block. Sashing them together to make the finished product. It can be either tied or done on Dora’s machine. I purchased a piece of ‘colors on black’ from Hopscotch for another called’ On parade’. Using solid colored flying geese. A Christmas panel from Dora that is cut and ready to go.I found adequate pieces for the borders to bring it up to finished single size. Should only take a couple of hours but I think it may be good to put that one on the frame to quilt by hand. I found a piece of fake suede for the back making it very cuddly. Pinwheels should be big enough for a tied single as well.

I have a collection of velvets that I got from MCC and our stash that will be enough to mount the doilies we collected over the years. We have 2 patterns to choose from.

One more is called spools or axe head and requires a lot of scraps. As I repacked each shelf I took each piece that was small or junk and put it together for that one. I have about 300 of the pieces cut as well as ones cut for tumblers. There is no waste on these little pieces but they were just getting in the way there, making it look untidy. In the process of restoring the shelves we sent some of the pieces that we would not do back to MCC with Dora, and found some great pieces for new ideas. I hope this is acceptable with everyone and am excited to see what you think of the finished products come the end of March.It will take me that month to sew it all up and for everyone to return home.

-Dora has been in contact with the man who cuts foam out for the puzzle blocks that were found as a project in Taber. She needs to get in touch with Laura when that happens so she can pick them up. Dora brought the quilt , finished on her machine, that Laura sewed together and it was great. She is keeping it for Laura to put the binding on.

Dora brought a yellow and blue quilt for show and tell Thurs. and it was adorable. She has the pattern available to anyone who wishes to use it. It is a quick but colourful idea.

-I cannot recall all the other things I saw, I need to get my own work done. Right now I am in the middle of making chickens and eggs for a chick-tac-toe game for Sierra’s birthday this month.(the big 5) Along with strawberry shortcake pj’s and leggings. An apron for Curt since he cooks the bacon and splatters his good shirts and I need to use up my John Deere fabric. He can use it for BBQ as well in summer.

-Dorothy Hubert’s Mom passed away and I am not sure of the details but if anyone needs more info I think Shirley is more up to date on that as I was not in the loop at the time. I had not been well and had stayed close to home for a couple of weeks.

-I bumped into Judy Maldonner (no longer Walter, if I remember correctly) at church Sunday morning and she spoke with about blogs and getting a cooking blog set up for herself to sell her books and talk recipes. I am not sure when this will happen but it would be of interest for some of you.

Ana continues to be in school and we should remember her in her busy schedule of assignments and exams.

I am sure I have forgotten a few things. Please forgive me if you have not been mentioned, Maybe you could keep me updated that you got this email and will pass it on to others who do not have email if you speak with them.

Right now we are on the last 2 rows of the purple quilt and have some of the sunflower quilt tied. We are using the blue yarn that we used on the blue quilt at the MCC store this past year and it really makes the quilt pop. I will use some of the yellow that we will cut off the one side for a Grad quilt I forgot to mention in the top paragraph. It uses 9 patches and the center square is an hourglass. Making it a nice twist.

Actually that makes a total of 12 quilts I have started or collected the fabric for.

-There are 2 small quilts on the right bottom corner that put together with knits. They would be able to be put on the frame when we are finished the purple and sunflower. They are small and would only take an evening to put up, tie and take off. I just added that so you would remind me of what’s next when I get home. After those I hope to have some of the others on my list ready to go. If any one wants in on any of these let me know and you are welcome to work on them.

May the Lord bless you and keep you as we are away from each other and traveling

Note from Lisa:

I actually only work part time. I'm home usually shortly after one o'clock. If you saw the state of chaos in my house, you'd have no trouble wondering how I have time to quilt. Housework goes to the back burner!

My sister Jeanette passed along a bag of 5.5" squares to me - enough to make another 60 x 80 quilt. I'll try to bring that top along to the next meeting. It can be tied and sent to MCC or Streets Alive or wherever.

I still have a bunch of flannel from MCC that Dora gave me years ago. I am making into both masculine and femanine ragged edge denim quilts with it. Also on my to-do list for MCC is a very BRIGHT pinwheel quilt.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

First Meet of the Fall

We had our first meeting of the fall at Dora's. The only people who couldn't be present were Shirley and Laura. There were many show and tells.

This is Kath's quilt for one of her granddaughters. Her daughter, Kristy, did the cross stitching.

The quilt on the left was made from squares culled from MCC. Kathy S put it together. It will be sold at MCC.

Another quilt that will be for sale at the MCC store made from pieces donated to the thrift store.

Same for the one on the back of this couch.

This is a quilt Lisa made using the "Quilt as you Go" method. It took her approximately 8 hours to complete.

This is a quilt made from donated flannel that will go down to Mexico.

This is #3 in the Weekender sample fabric series. It will be tied and sent down to Mexico as well. Lisa will be really happy when all of that stretchy knit fabric is gone.

Thursday, July 01, 2010

Easy Pinwheel

Did you see this crazy stuff that Dora challenged me with? Someone decided to make a shirt, pieced interesting designes for the front, back and sleeves, then didn't finish. Dora gave it to me to do whatever with. I immediately thought of an easy technique for pinwheels that I recently learned and am now in the thick of cutting and sewing and cutting and sewing.

Here's my attempt to show you how to do pinwheels the easy way. You can also watch the video of where I found this technique here.

Usually pinwheels consist of light and dark triangles to make up the block. Once you've chosen those colours, cut squares out of everything. I'm using a 6" square because my large pieces of fabric were 24". I like no waste. 6" squares give you a finished block of roughly 7"

Next, match up a dark and a light square, good sides together and sew all the way around. Trust me.

Cut the square apart into triangles like you would a sandwich.

Iron your new squares out, light side down so your seams are always pressed to the dark side.

It's easy to sew these squares together incorrectly, but if you always line them up the exact same way as I've show below, you will never sew the wrong edge.

After you've done this a bunch of times. This is what happens. I haven't used half of the fabric yet. My problem is I'm running out of my heavy weight white stash. Does anyone have any they want to donate to this MCC quilt?

Here's a much more sedate use of this pinwheel technique that I made using a 5" charm pack from RJR called "Count My Blessings".

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Quilts for the MCC Auction 2010

June 21, 2010: I've added the amount the quilt was auctioned for

Woodland Clover $1700

Antique Star: $250

Baby Tulip Beauty: $100

Blue Heart: $150

Bow Ties: $550

Bright Butterfly $200

Brights in a Box in a Box: $90

Cabbage Roses $400

Clown: $150

Easter Mystery: $50

Elissa's Plaid $225

I Spy: $130

It's Raining Cats: $120

Purple Butterfly $575

Purple Rail Fence: $95

Persuasion: $375

Zig Zag $180

Saturday, May 22, 2010

2010 MCC Auction

The MCC Auction in Coaldale is just around the corner! Click here to visit the auction portion of this year's event. So far the only quilt on the site is Elsie's tie quilt, but as soon as yours truly is able to enter LBCQ's 16 submissions, I hope more will pop up. Stay tuned - those quilts will also hit this blog. I hope.