Rail Fence Comfort Quilt Finished

Yesterday I made some scrappy binding and bound the guild's rail fence comfort quilt I had finally quilted the day before.  Oops, I see I missed trimming a thread.

It is very wet and windy here today so an indoor shot will have to do for this quilt as I will hand it in at my guild meeting tonight.

It is made out of 90 6" finished rail fence blocks set 9 across and 10 down so mathematically it measures 54.5" x 60.5"  After "crinkage" (crinkling due to quilting + shrinkage due to washing) it is 52" x 58", a nice lap or child sized quilt.  I used a piece of really soft donated fabric printed with rope swirls for the backing and just had to add a small piece of checkered flannel fabric in one corner.

I kind of like that word, "crinkage".  I googled it but could not find that it had been used anywhere.  Have I invented a new quilting term?

Sewing for Thursday Night's Quilt Guild Meeting

I started off this morning by finishing the two pillow cases I had almost finished for last meeting.  I would make one more but I don't really have any more suitable fabric right now.  These two aren't as nice and colourful as the first seven I made but maybe someone who plays an instrument or enjoys music will appreciate them.  These will go to Ryan's Case for Smiles and be given to children and youth who have extended stays at the IWK Children's Hospital.

I have had this quilt on the frame for a couple of months now but had not put a single stitch in it.  I knew what quilting design I wanted to do so I got out my manual and oiled my machine and got to it and around 4:30 this afternoon I had the quilting done and the quilt trimmed and ready for binding.  These rail fence blocks were made by members of my quilting guild and sewn together at a charity quilting day at one of our local quilt shops.

Here's a close up of the quilting called filigree.  I tried to keep my loops consistent.....

So now I have two days to get the binding made and sewn on and the quilt washed and ready to donate.  Should be easily doable.

HRT's (Half-Rectangle Triangles) and Comfort Quilts

At my last Guild meeting, my buddy Marilyn and I gave a demo on how to make Half-Rectangle Triangles based on an HRT tutorial found on the blog "Buttons & Butterflies" by Heide Grohs.  Here is the process using construction paper instead of fabric.  You can make any size rectangle by starting with two rectangles cut 1/2" wider and 1/4" longer than the unfinished size of rectangle you want to end up with.

It was decided we would make light yellow and blue HRT's for our next meeting starting with 5" by 10" rectangles.  Here are the ones I made:

The previous month we were collecting striped 12.5 " unfinished star blocks made in any manner and we were one short, so I decided to make one using HRTs paired as the star legs.  I cut out four pairs of rectangles measuring 4.75" x 3" in order to end of with 4.5" x 2.5" star legs which paired together to make 4.5" squares.

And here is the finished star made with 4.5" squares of fabric.

I had a comfort quilt top which had been put together the last time our guild had a comfort quilt sew day and on Monday, I pieced a backing and got it loaded on my frame and finished quilting loops on it by lunch time.  After lunch, I got the binding on and put it in the washer.  It went together way more quickly than I imagined.  Here's a picture of it all finished.  The blocks are 6.5" unfinished so the quilt is approximately 42" x 60".  I didn't measure it after shrinkage.

And here's a close up to see the backing, binding and the loopy quilting.

Since I had some backing fabric left over, I decided to make another star block.  Plaid fabric is just fabric with stripes going in two directions right?  Double stripes.

Now, to get some more finished tops onto the frame and get them quilted as well!

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!

Finished Nautical Baby Quilt with Gift Bag

I put the binding on the quilt a few days ago.  Here's a picture before washing.

I was waiting to hear back from Glorianna what she wanted written on the label so I could finish off the gift bag.  Here' a close up of the binding and the texture on the quilt all nice and crinkly from being washed and dried.

Here's a picture of the quilt and the gift bag which I made out of left over pieces.

And here's the quilt in it's gift bag ready for gifting.

I have also made pillow cases to match quilts and gifted the quilt inside the cases.

Nautical Rail Fence Baby Quilt Plus a Few Older Ones.

A co-worker I haven't seen for approximately six years contacted me to see if I was still making baby quilts.  I had made two for her a dozen or so years ago.  She wanted a nautical baby quilt made the same way I had made the others.   I said yes of course and after buying fabric started making strip sets.

It only took me three hours from cutting the strips until I had the top made.  The next day I quilted it with a paper pantograph using a laser light on my quilt frame.

Here's a close up so you can see the anchors.

You can see them better on the flannel back.

So now all that's left is the binding and a little drawstring bag made with the left over fabric to gift the quilt in.  I won't get to that until the weekend as I am attending an all day sewing class on Friday.

I went looking and found a picture of some of the other quilts.  Glorianna is holding up one of the gift bags and the quilt to go in it is on the desk in front of her.  You can also see a little bit of the gift bag for the other quilt peeking out from under the quilt.  I don't appear to have taken a picture of the second quilt but it was made with a blue gingham and Noah's ark fabric in both blue and yellow.  I made the labels on the bags by printing on specially treated fabric with a coloured ink jet printer.

 Here are several more rail fence baby quilts which were made for other co-workers who all seemed to be having babies around the same time.  It was awhile ago, but I think Marilyn and I pieced them and I quilted them and she bound them.

This one isn't quite in focus.

I really like the sheep flannel on the back of this one.

They are good sized crib quilts, 36" x 48" before washing.  I'll post again when I get the latest one bound and the bag and label made.  This label will just be hand written though.

Comfort Quilt for Quilts of Valour - Canada Society

As mentioned in this previous post, I quilted and bound a quilt for Quilts of Valour - Canada Society which was made from strip sets and backing donated by Mayflower Quilters' Guild members and sewn together into a top at a fun charity day of sewing at a local quilt shop.  This quilt will be given to an injured Canadian Forces Member in the Halifax Regional Municipality.  The quilt was shown at Show and Share at our Guild meeting last night so now I can show it here.

The quilt is scrappy, but I wanted to do some sort of Canadian themed free motion quilting on it.  After several pages of doodling, I finally came up with a design.  Since each rail fence block is made up of three strips and each is then joined to the next block turned 90 degrees, each side of the blocks are in effect marked in thirds. I used these "thirds" as guiding points for free motion quilting the design.  I figured out how to quilt a maple leaf on each rail fence block and how to end in order to keep going onto the next block and continue across the whole row without breaking thread.

I started in the upper left hand corner and sewed the outline of the leaf around the outside of the block until I was back at the same corner and then sewed a gently curving stem diagonally across the block and then I was ready to start a new maple leaf in the next block.  Here is an individual block showing the maple leaf quilting.

I was very pleased with how the quilting turned out!  Now I need to quilt another Quilt of Valour so I can use the design again!

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday

I Have a New Quilting Friend!

You may be wondering why the blog has been silent for a little over a week.  It's because I have a new retirement quilting friend and I have been getting to know them before introducing them.  I have graduated from using my domestic sewing machine which has a ten inch throat space on my quilting frame to now using a Q'nique 15R mid-arm which has fifteen inches of throat space.  After you subtract the space taken up by rolling up the quilt, I could quilt a five inch pattern on my domestic sewing machine.  Now I will be able to quilt a ten inch pattern.  Double the space!  Here is a picture of my new mid-arm.

My first project is a Quilt of Valour that the Guild I belong to put together during a recent charity sew day.  I am quilting it with free motion maple leaves by using the three strips of rail fence piecing to guide me.  Here is what one looks like on a rail fence block.

And here is the back.

I can't show the whole quilt until after it gets revealed at the next Mayflower Quilters' Guild meeting on Thursday.  I'm looking forward to lots of time using my new mid-arm!  I didn't have to put in a second bobbin until I was on the last row of the quilt.  Thank you Bryan for coming over last week on your day off to level my frame and help me get my mid-arm set up.  Opie was lots of help too!

Two Pillow Cases to coordinate with the Irish Plaid Quilt

I was cleaning out the project box from the Irish Plaid Quilt I finished for a Christmas present and decided there were enough bits and pieces of the green fabrics to make the bands for two pillow cases.  There was plenty of the off white fabric for the cases themselves.  There were one and a half WoF strip pieced sections left over, so I only had to piece a half strip more.  I had little bits and pieces cut off the ends of other strips and luckily enough were long enough I could use them to "rail fence" the rest of the second band. The inside of the bands were made with dark green fabric.  The other side of the rail fenced pillow case looks the same as the striped band so if you want matching sides to show you can.

 

And here is the quilt

they coordinate with.

Here is a link to the Enclosed Seam Pillow Case Tutorial I use.

So, now that I have any empty project bin......

Throwback Thursday - The first quilt I ever made

I have been thinking for awhile now that I should make blog posts on all the quilts I've made, prior to starting my blog, that I still have or have a picture of so my blog will contain as many as possible of my projects in one spot.

The first quilt I ever made was when I was 13 years old.  It is a Rail Fence quilt and was made with worn out or outgrown denim jeans as well as red and blue/green scraps from my mother's scrap bin. I remember using a cardboard template, tracing it and then cutting out rectangles of fabric with scissors. Most of the red and blue fabrics are corduroy, but some of the reds are also flannel. Some fabrics were new and left over from my mother making clothing and some were from clothing that had been worn and grown out of and the good pieces cut up to use again. The red plaid flannel in the center of the picture below was from a shirt I had grown out of.

Since it was a scrap quilt, it seemed reasonable to me at the time to use up all the odds and ends of spools of thread my mother had in the bottom drawer of her sewing cabinet; no matter the colour or weight of the thread or whether it was cotton or polyester or whatever; so it is also a scrap thread quilt.  My mother didn't realize I was doing this until she went to mend something and was a little dismayed to find that all the partial spools of thread in every imaginable colour she had accumulated over years of sewing were now gone and she would have to buy new thread to match in order to mend or make anything for the next while to build up her thread stash again! I sewed this on my mother's green Necchi, which did not have a foot pedal, but had a knee operated lever instead. Here is a picture from pinterest of a similar machine but not in very good condition.



The backing is an old sheet and since it was exactly the right size without trimming any edges off or unpicking the top or bottom hem of the sheet, that was exactly how I used it! (I refuse to show a picture of the backing.) It has a very thin polyester batting inside it. I tied the quilt at the corner of each block with variegated red, white and blue crochet cotton.

I had this quilt on my twin sized bed for quite awhile. The dark blue central section laid on the top of the bed and the lighter sections hung over the sides of the bed. It has been used outside as a picnic / tanning / beach blanket and has been used by both my children who are now both grown ups, as well as by five cats and two dogs over the years during its life on the couch in our rec room.  It is a very heavy quilt, especially wet, as you can see below from all the clothespins I had to use to hang it on the line to dry. I promise not to talk this much about each quilt I show, but if you are still with me, here finally is a picture of my first quilt.

There are a few raveled seams that I will mend before it goes back into use again in the rec room which is now my sewing room.  (Some of the thread was old when I sewed it 43 years ago.)

Confession Time:  Even though I pieced and tied this quilt when I was 13, it waited 30 years to have red and blue/green plaid binding sewn on it, but that didn't stop it being used in the meantime!

Mystery Quilt, Part Two

The second clue was sent out for the Mayflower Quilter's Guild Mystery Quilt and it was to make 24 Rail Fence blocks to go along with the Nine Patches from clue one.

There were also instructions to make triangles in order to set the blocks on point.  And here is the finished center of the quilt, borders are next.

I had to piece the background fabric in order to make some of the triangles, but still have enough blue fabric for the borders.