Block of the Month for September

Mayflower Quilters Guild started up again last night and my friend Marilyn and I are responsible for Program this year.  We decided to do a Block of the Month each month with the blocks due at the next meeting to be used in Comfort Quilts.  I couldn't find a tutorial on line for this block so have made one up here:

Step One:  Fabric requirements

• three 2 1/2" x 6 1/2" strips of medium to dark fabrics in fall colours (yellow, gold, orange, rust, red or brown) (WOF  (width of fabric) strips will give you 5 or 6 blocks)
• two 4" squares of light fabric in off white/unbleached cotton colour for each block

Step Two:

• Sew three strips together.  I put the lightest one in the middle but that was just my preference.
• Press the seams to the dark.

Step Three:

• Press the squares in half on the diagonal (the pressed line will be your sew line and your corners will already be pressed open after you sew them, so you accomplish two things with one step)

Step four:

• It is important that your block is laid out with the strips running vertically up and down and not horizontally across.
• Lay an opened square on the upper left and the lower right of your block with the pressed lines being parallel to each other.
• Sew on the two pressed lines but do not trim off the corners.
• Sew another seam 1/2" away closer to the corner and flip back the corner.  (If you don't want to sew the second seam, we can do it.)
• When you hand in your blocks at the October meeting, we will trim the extra fabric off and use the bonus half square triangles to make another Comfort Quilt.  (Of course you are welcome to use this pattern for yourself as well in which case you can do whatever you want with your corners.)

Here is a sample of what the final quilt will look like:

Marilyn and I are looking forward to seeing all the blocks you donate at the October meeting!

Canada 150 Quilt & More Canada Flag Cushions

As previously mentioned, I am a member of the Mayflower Quilters' Guild.  This year I volunteered to be co-chair of Program. Last spring our guild requested members to make blocks related to Canada 150 for a quilt to donate to Camp Hill Veterans Hospital in Halifax.  The blocks were put together by the person who I replaced so it was then my turn to quilt and bind the quilt.  Here it is:

I quilted it with a pantograph from Apricot Moon Designs called Maple Sugar and bound it with a red and white striped fabric.  Here is a close up which shows some of the maple leaf pantograph and the binding:

As mentioned in my previous blog, I am trying to clear up some odds and ends of projects to make way for Christmas sewing.  I had previously blogged about a cushion I made for Canada Day.  I had actually started a few more of them but just hadn't gotten the backs put on or the pillow forms made.  I got them finished this past weekend. The original one (http://allikatquilts.blogspot.ca/2017/07/150th-anniversary-canada-day-pillow.html) went to my husband's cousin's family because they hosted a family reunion which we attended on the July 1st long weekend.  I gave one to my father and will keep another one.  Here's several of them together:

And here is the quilt with a couple of the pillows, just because:

I really like that red plaid flannel - it is just so cosy!

Pictou Lodge Retreat September 2017

The Mayflower's Quilters' Guild has a three day quilt retreat at Pictou Lodge every second year.  I believe this year was the 30th year, although it was only the 3rd time I have attended.  I decided I wanted to work on a Double Hour Glass Quilt based on a tutorial by Cluck Cluck Sew.  She used 2.25" strips she cut herself, but I used 2.5" strips from a Jelly Roll as well as background strips I cut myself.  I was able to get nine triangles from each strip set so was able to make two "matching" blocks and one block with four different sections.

Here is the tutorial:  http://cluckclucksew.com/2009/09/tutorial-double-hourglass-blocks-easy.html

The Jelly Roll I used was Bright Sun by Sherri & Chelsi by moda. This is my first time using a Jelly Roll.

I tried using up almost every block I had sewn and came up with the following layout:

I didn't really like it so tried rearranging the yellow center blocks but still wasn't satisfied:

Several other people gave me some advice and I was convinced by one person  to try it with the blocks on point and by another to not try and use every block and I came up with this much improved layout:

I was able to get it fully pieced into a top including the triangular background edge pieces before the retreat was over.  It is now in the to be quilted pile and I also have twenty-six leftover Double Hourglass blocks I did not use which are available for another project.  Funny how one project breeds another one!