FINISHED!

I FINALLY finished my Disappearing 9-Patch variation quilt! Just before my mother passed away, she blessed each of us with a cheque - we were to use it for something that would remind us of her. My first thought was of mom's giving - she graciously and generously gave of her time and talents. I have a few quilts that will be going to new homes sometime soon, but I needed to quilt them before I could give them away. I'm having more and more trouble trying to quilt anything larger than a table runner on my Janome, so I checked out "the competition" - and I found a great offer from Pfaff. Pfaff is celebrating their 150th anniversary this year, and have brought out 2 special models. I bought the Expression 150, and initiated it on this quilt. I had seen pictures of a spiky quilt pattern that alternates from "up and down" to "side to side" as you progress from one block to the next, and I used it for my first quilting project. I'm pretty happy with the results! (I even made and applied a quilt label!) The quilt was completed in time to present to the new owners of the quilt - the family that our son is living with. They have been over-the-top with their generosity - giving our son a place to live while he did his internship; he's still living with them 7 months later! Also, they sent all sorts of edible goodies after mom's death - and Rachel knows how to prepare food! Our son had been asked to preach in his "home" church today; he invited us to share the experience with him, so we did! It also gave us the perfect opportunity to hand over the quilt to the Guthrie family! Have a quick peek at the completed project:(a general pic of the quilt, and then a closer look at the quilting)

Another start!

Yes, I do have finishes too - it's just that there seem to be so many more starts.... and I sometimes forget to post the completed quilt. I'll try to change that. A while back, as I was reading the blog of another quilter*, I realized that some of the things she was chatting about sounded VERY familiar. I contacted her, and sure enough - Cathy lives in the city nearest me, and we have a LOT in common! Trying to make a long story short, we agreed to meet one day; we did, and hit it off almost immediately. Four hours passed VERY quickly; at the end of the afternoon, Cathy proposed we get together for a sewing day - so, this past Tuesday, I ventured into the city, and spent a very enjoyable few hours sewing with her! I thought that it would probably be easier to take a new quilting project with me; so, I gathered up my my new Schnibbles pattern; the 2 Vintage Modern layer cakes called for in the pattern; I cut them, and my B/G fabric as directed, and headed off. I managed to get most of the 9-patch blocks put together, pressed, and ready to add the triangles. Needless to say, Cathy and I spent a fair bit of time chatting too, but we each managed to achieve a fair bit of our projects.

Yesterday, I started adding the top and bottom triangles, and am now working on adding the side triangles. A bit of a trim will be needed, and then the fun of laying these big blocks out will begin!

Check back here soon - I just might have some surprises to show you! *I'd include the link to Cathy's blog, but I still can't figure out how to do it. Where are my kids when I need them? LOL

...and it's finished!

I was hoping to get the quilt top done today, and I managed to accomplish that goal! Thanks to my hubby, who cooked dinner for us so that I could stay at the machine... I'm not sure where I'm going to go with it from here - I have a lot of the cream blocks yet, so I may cut them in half and sew them together to make a frame around the quilt. If there are enough of them, I may just leave them whole. Of course, I'll have to find them back first! At any rate, I'm sure you're anxiously awaiting the pic, and here it is:

How can it be July 14th already??

Boy, time flies when you're having fun, doesn't it?! It even seems to fly when you aren't having fun - ask me how I know... Yesterday was Friday Night Sew-In night - and I was ready for it! I haven't had a chance to do any sewing this week, and I had a quilt project that I was excited about working on. I found a tutorial online for a disappearing 9-patch variation: http://mypatchwork.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/disappearing-9-patch-variation-block-with-charm-squares/ and I had 3 charm packs of Reunion by Sweetwater to use for the blocks, along with a cream-coloured Kona fabric. I got a fair bit accomplished; the blocks are all assembled and pressed, and I laid them out on the floor to figure out the placement. The problem that you run into when doing scrappy blocks is the final layout - you "can't" have two similar blocks beside each other, and, when there is a definite "up" and "down" to some of the blocks, you can't just turn them 180°...

I thought I finally had the blocks ready to sew - I picked up 2 at a time, sewed them together, picked up the next two - you get the picture. I had 4 of the 5 rows assembled - and then I found 2 blocks sewn together that should NOT be beside each other. How did I not see that when I laid them out? The fact that it was after midnight might have something to do with it... So, that was the end of that! I don't know if I have to re-do just that row, or if a bigger tear-out is the answer - but I have all afternoon to sort that out. Hope everyone else that signed up for the sew-in had a better evening than mine ended up being!