Quilts and books

First, here are a few of the books I borrowed from the library.

Just a few border ideas.

I've borrowed the two on the left before while I was browsing the catalogue, I came across some other books that I wanted to check out.

 

 Remember I showed you this pile of green squares? Well, I did have another fabric chosen to go with them.

It's this gray crackled fabric. Don't ask me how old it is or what the name of it is because I don't know. I must really have liked it when it first came out because I found 2 pieces of yardage and one fat quarter of it in my stash. I was going to use it in another project but that was just a wall hanging and I never did get around to it and now I'm glad.

I just laid out some of the green blocks on my kitchen table on top of some of the gray fabric to see how it looked. I must say, I am impressed. I really like it. I thought that the gray fabric might have too much of a directional print to it but no, it really doesn't. On the table is actually two folded pieces put together and you can't tell.

So, that's it so far. I still have to cut all the gray fabric up and sew it onto each square but that will have to wait awhile. I have other things on the go at the moment.

This week

Well, it's Wednesday once again and time to link up to the Needle and Thread Network and also to Esther's blog. Go see what other creative people are up to this week.

What am I up to? Well, several things.

I am slowly continuing on with my green quilt, Garden Path.

I've chosen a few more fabrics to finish off the last row for my 16-patch quilt. The colours are not good in this photo but when I went with better lighting, the red wasn't true. In this photo the red is true but the light blue is actually a green and on the left is a green, not the beige that I can see.

And this is what's on the frame. I haven't started quilting it yet and it won't be totally revealed until it's finished. Not to fear, it's not that big and I am stocked up with books on tape so I'm all set.

What are you up to this week?

 

On a personal family note, my eldest son Mark and his wife Kate are in Europe doing a tour of Scandinavia. They have decided to visit Amsterdam (Netherlands,) Tallinn (Estonia,) Helsinki (Finland,) Stockholm (Sweden) and then to Copenhagen (Denmark) where Mark is presenting a poster at a conference. They were nice enough to take the time to visit with my long-time pen pal in Helsinki and I am very happy.

 

My middle daughter Maili and her boyfriend Casey are on their way to Seattle from Portland and then on to the outskirts of Vancouver to take part in the Fat Dog run.

 http://www.mountainmadness.ca/fatdog.php

It's apparently very scenic but I do hope they don't run into any cougars or bears. Maili and her friend are doing the 50 mile run while Casey is doing the 70 mile. Good luck to them. After the run they will be heading north to visit little Luc and his brother Patric - oh yes, mom Laila and papa Gilles too.

Outdoor Quilt Show

Warning: this post is very heavy in photos.
Well, now that it's over, I can show you some of the great quilts that were hung at Pioneer Village in Toronto this past weekend - Quilts at the Creek. The weather was great for both days. There was a trunk show each day by two different quilters and there was also a vendors area. Included in this year's viewing was a quilt set up on a frame with a few ladies demonstrating hand quilting. As I walked around, the comments were quite favourable. Hopefully, it generated enough interest in some people to begin quilting.

If you wish, please click on any of the photos once, or twice, and it will enlarge itself.

This was one of the quilts that was hung inside the main building.

A close-up of the big stitch quilting.

A first glance, this looks like it's just like any other lone star quilt.

But look again. It's cross stitched.

And now, we'll go outside to view the majority of the wonderful quilts.

Now, this was another one that was really distinctive.

The ladies are crocheted.

It is hand embroidered and hand quilted.

It was for sale too. Sorry for the blurry photo but the wind would blow every once in a while.

Oh look, sheep. There was one noisy one in the bunch but he/she took off behind this group.

This one deserved to be studied.

And look what I finally found after making a whole circle around the buildings. My Juniper Hollow. I love this location. It is exactly the same place that they hung a 16-patch quilt last year that inspired me to make mine. Serendipity.

I do hope you enjoyed the show.

Christmas Quilt-a-long - August

I have now started sewing the little table runner together. Since the challenge was to have an overall perimeter of 96 inches, I had to leave out a couple of the presents. For those of you just tuning in, the pattern is this one.

Here's the first present. I don't know exactly where I will place it but I suppose I can audition placement once the other presents are made. There's a bit of applique that I need to do before this is really complete.

So, I'm linking up with Joanne this month. Pop on over to see what the other participants of this Christmas sew along are making.

New quilt beginnings

So, this is what I am working with at the moment. Red and green but NOT together.

I seriously didn't think I had this many red fabrics since it is not a colour that I favour. There are others that I haven't included in this photo. This is the beginning of a Canadian flag quilt. The squares will all be cut 2.5" and so it will have a scrappy sort of look to it. It's a lot of fun but since I don't mass cut things, it tends to be slow going. I don't want any of the same fabrics touching one another in the strips. I also want to iron the rows so that the row above butts up with the row below.

 This is a freebie pattern from McCall's Quilting. Their directions are only for one block but it's easy enough to figure out how many you need. I need 42 blocks and each centre will be a different green, as shown in the photo. I didn't know I had that many different greens. There are no repeats.

So, there you have it, a little update. There is also one other project that I am working on but since it is a surprise, I will show it to you when it has been delivered. It has not yet been quilted.

I'm linking up with The Needle and Thread Network and Esther's blog.

On another note, if you are in Toronto at all next weekend, drop in to Pioneer Village to view the outdoor quilt show called Quilts at the Creek. It's on Saturday and Sunday, from 11:00 a.m. until  5:00 p.m. August 10-11, 2013.