On to part two

There were a lot of large quilts at the show and lots of fairly good lighting to take photos.

These nine patches were one and a half inches square. Each piece was a half inch.

See? Those little nine patches were really small.

 This quilt is a case where the quilter let the fabric do the work.

Thought you'd like to see the middle.

The fabric did all the work.

Great colours.

The blurb for this made me smile.

I know flannel and would never have attempted this.

Does anyone have scraps?

I love patterns by Barbara Lavalee. They are colourful and fun.

Another fun quilt by Harebrained Happenings.

Gorgeous, muted fabrics.

Kind of looks complicated.

But it's  not. It's just strips of fabric.

The fabric did all the work.

Fabric working again.

I leave you with this beauty.

I love looking at quilts that have little surprises.

Fun.

Not a bad effort for her first applique.

I have a few more photos.
Hopefully, I'll get some time to post them tomorrow.

A quilter's treat - Part one

This past weekend there were four quilt shows all within a two hour drive. As much as I would have loved to attend all of them, I really needed to work on baby things since the little one is due soon. My list has to have things crossed off it and it does - however, a few things have been added. I decided to go to the closest quilt show - the Halton Quilt Show - so here are the photos. (just click on any photo to make it bigger)

A bright quilt where the colours were inspired by the border fabric.

This was such a nice simplistic, fresh quilt.

The quilting close-up.

A bright bargello.

For those of you who collect selvedges.

I find green quilts refreshing.

Just in case you wanted to see the block.

I love the way the quilter changed the colour placement. The nine patches are all pieced exactly the same way but turned according to the solid patches.

See? The nine-patch blocks have five coloured patches and then two of the light and two of the dark. Just wonderful.

There was a wonderful, special display of Rosemary Makhan's quilts. For those of you who don't know, Rosemary, a quilt designer (mainly applique) who passed away last year.

This quilt is one of her more popular designs.

 I can't believe I didn't take a photo of the blurb. I suppose I was just too busy looking for all the little creatures in the quilt.
There is another photo later, by a different quilter so the title of the patter would on that blurb.

 Another Rosemary original.

More little creatures in this quilt too.

Rosemary was very prolific.

There is a sad but lovely story to this quilt.

I had to take a photo of this. It was such a fun quilt.

There were several beautifully made applique quilts.

The corner blocks were all embroidered first.

Here's the same quilt but different quilter.

 A much brighter hummingbird and butterfly.

I shall leave you with this stunner since a new princess has been born.

This quilt was made in honour of Lady Diana.

Princess Charlotte's father's and uncle's birthdates have been added.

Stunning 3D flowers.

None of Rosemary's quilts indicated the year they were made.

More photos tomorrow (hopefully.)

Hand quilting progress

Once again, the Champagne Quilters met to work on the baby quilts.

Here's Ann and Marg working on the pre-printed quilt top. With so many lines, Ann was having trouble just working on the diagonal so Marg thought it would help if she worked alongside her. 

We found that we were low on our supply of white quilting thread so we're hoping Fabricland will have a sale soon.

 This is the one I worked on last night. We were a bit late getting to Marg's so it was a slow start.

Nevertheless, I did manage to get several turns on the frame. I'm hoping on finishing the quilting next week so I can begin one of the other ones. This one worked up surprisingly fast. We thought we'd bind it with either the orange or the yellow.

Marg managed to make four more baby hats using the leftover yarns I have been giving her. This brings a total of 21 hats that she has made. Once all the baby quilts have been finished, I'll deliver them, along with all the hats and flannel blankets that I have at home.

Helpful aids to design your own quilt

There are so many different ways of doing something. There are so many quilts that one can make. There are so many kits to purchase if one is so inclined BUT, have you ever thought about designing one that would be your very own and therefore unique? It's not hard and you could use your own stash. You wouldn't even have to own any electronic software - just use your imagination and some paper and a pencil (or two.) You could make it any size you wanted - from a mini quilt to a king-sized bed quilt. 

Here are a few online aids that could help you get the brain cells firing up. Don't say you can't draw. Buy some graph paper and use a calculator if you have to but just try it.


Making Octagons

So, I was thinking of making a quilt using octagons. The easiest way, of course, is to cut squares and sew the corners diagonally, using smaller squares. But what size? What if I want to use a 6 inch square? That would be 6.5 inches unfinished. What size should I cut the squares for the corner? Well, being a researcher, I posed the question online and here is what I found: a calculator. Yes, a calculator for carpenters but it could very well be used by us quilters.

http://www.pagetutor.com/octagon_layout/

So, I used the drop-down menus that were provided. For a 6.5 inch square, I would need a square almost 3 inches - to be more accurate, it would have to be cut 2  11/16 inches.

So, go ahead, design your own quilts. Use the calculator and be free to make whatever kind of quilt you want.

Colour Theory

Want to have some fun while learning about colour theory? My daughter gave me this link.

https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/

Just choose from the "Color Rule" drop down menu and then move the 'dial' around. Loads of fun.

Division or multiplication

Did you ever want to know how many charm squares you can get from a fat quarter? Or how many 2 inch squares you can get from a fat quarter?

http://quiltville.blogspot.ca/2005/06/how-many-squares-in-fat-quarter.html

I do hope these sites have given you some fun playing and perhaps your mind is working on a new quilt, an original quilt - one that is your very own.

And now, for the requisite photo.

This is the last big quilt that the Champagne Quilters finished. It is being raffled off between now and November, when the winning ticket will be announced at the annual church bazaar. There was a tea yesterday at Marg's church (I was invited) for the unveiling of the quilt and also the beginning of ticket sales. I asked if I could have a couple of books of tickets and so far I have sold 9 tickets - all to my family so far. It doesn't have a label and so that is one of the projects on my 'to do' list.

By the way, this was our own design. Made on the fly and not even on paper. It's actually the second one we made. The first one had thinner sashing and therefore, more stars.

 

Zig Zag Quilt has its Border

Tonight the Champagne quilters met to see if we could get the border on that zig zag quilt.

Before cutting those triangles off, I decided to sew the borders on and then cut. That way, I didn't have to worry about bias edges and ripples.

I sewed the opposite ends first and then the sides.

I didn't want to guess at where to sew. I lined up a ruler and drew a line in pencil. This was where I lined up the edge of the border fabric and sewed a quarter of an inch away.

I sewed while Marg ironed.

This is the final product. Since we wanted 4 quilt tops done before we started quilting, Marg came across some pre-printed fabric in pink. I just had to trim the edges and so next week, we will be quilting on two frames and so, two baby quilts will be worked on at one time.

Marg didn't want the off cuts to go to waste so she started playing with them. New blocks for a future quilt? Perhaps.

I'm linking up with The Needle and Thread Network. Pop on over to see what other Canadians are up to this week.