Sharing our quilting …
From Anne R … Made for a friend who is to spend Christmas with her first grandchild. Made from some of the remains of my Christmas fabric, down from 3 large drawers full to 1/2 a drawer now.
I made the first Mariner’s Compass at a class in Ucshi Greiner’s shop (Bear Paw Quilting, West Vancouver) around 2005.
The second Mariner’s Compass is a pillow for David’s boat made circa 2007.
In October, I made the third one for my daughter’s coffee table.
The first two Mariner’s Quilts were easy. The last one was a panic. Found the pattern but no instructions. After a frustrating week trying to sort it out, my friend said she had her notes! What a rescuer she was.
Looks like I may be persuaded to make a much larger one into a quilt for a ‘sailing’ grandson. Maybe try a different pattern.
From Diane … Second attempt at thread painting but this time using scraps for larger areas and then threading like crazy over them.
From Linda D …
Harrison Hot Springs is the home to a stitching retreat I go to every year. Last year’s didn’t happen. It was postponed three times and finally cancelled.
We decided to do it anyway, even though the pandemic negated us getting together.
We ZOOMED for three days and included a pub night! It was great!
My close friend and I had planned to do this giant (approximately 42″ x 30″) foundation paper pieced poppy at the 2019 retreat. It was going to be ready for Remembrance Day, which it was, a year later!
I thoroughly enjoyed the process and doing something with a partner (the other 18 attendees did their own thing), and the laughter, stories, frustrations (“unsewing” was a new term learned!), and sisterhood was fun. We had a “speaker” and “door prizes,” too.
Our retreat was a step outside the isolation and negativity of today’s world. For the three days, I didn’t turn on the TV about Trump, the virus, or death reports (as my daughter used to call the news broadcasts when she was 6!). Some things never change.
Here is the finished front to my wall hanging. The backing will be a print in turquoise with green leaves and magenta, pink and purple large flowers. My sewing buddy put two borders on hers, while I have decided just to use a black binding, which will enhance the black writings on the background.
Hopefully, we will be together next year, this time, and it will be presented for “show and tell.”
Stay masked and apart, safe and well.
From Chris … Still using up some of my stash
… some of the Christmas masks I’ve made for my family.
From Maureen … Dresden Plate? I think that is the name of this pattern.
This queen size quilt was in my husband’s things when we got together. He thinks it was his mother’s. In those days I probably ignored it.
I found it in a blanket box this summer, had it dry cleaned, and here we are. It is mainly hand quilted. How did they do that? The accuracy is astounding.
The plate parts are both machine zig zagged and hand stitched. They are appliquéd.
The fabrics are cottons, dresses, curtains, and while colorful individually, they are awful.
Definitely an early 60’s would be my guess. Anyone else want to take a stab at the year?
I have it in use now and it is toasty warm.
From Linda S … The first quilt is a Peeping Fox. It was a UFO … no pattern … just the blocks done some time ago … and I got it finished in time for the arrival of a baby.
I like the label on the back … the large fox tail.
Another quilt was the Babushka Babies. I tried to use as many garish fabrics that I could find for the babies’ blankets. The hair and other embellishments had to be baby proof. Fun to make each little face a different character.
I like the backing fabric and the label for this one. The designer of the pattern is a quilter in Seattle.
This is the quilt that I made for my new grandson Scott.
My daughter picked out a quilt from Pinterest. Only problem was that it had no pattern for it. It did have the source of the quilt (3rd Story Workshop) and I could buy the PP pattern for the sleeping fox portion of the quilt online. The rest was strictly guesswork and using what I had in my stash as we were in the thick of COVID 19 and shopping was not in the picture.
I put the blue background sky fabric and green background fabric together, inserted the PP sleeping fox and quilted the entire backing. I was not courageous enough to use a darker contrasting thread for the free motion quilting of ferns nestling around the baby fox, and now I wish that I had.
Then I started piecing the birch tree trunks in strips… again using what I had on hand. THAT is when I realized that the original quilter had slashed the background and inserted the tree trunks!! I was NOT going to do that! Instead I basted each one in place by hand and then used Black thread…. yes black thread… to set them in place and added lines to mimic bark markings.
Challenging, it felt so good to have it done and it was finished just in time for the baby’s arrival.
From Ilse … This is my “Homage to the Forest” – to celebrate the many long walks I have enjoyed over the last few months.
From Linda R … two more finishes
Many thanks to Anne R, Diane, Linda D, Chris, Maureen, Linda S, Ilse and Linda R for contributing to this post.
“Winter” Pansies – A Cheery Sight
“I smile to myself when asked if the pansies being sold in late summer and fall are true “winter” pansies. All pansies are the same, regardless of the time of year they are sold, and they are members of the viola family.”
Brian Minter, local gardening icon
Seymour Quilters Guild 