Colour makes a difference

This topper is the same pattern as the finished quilt I showed in the previous post. It is a Scrap Bag top and hopefully will soon be quilted and ready to donate as needed.

I need some sunshine

The price we are paying for the milder than usual winter is a lack of cold crisp sunny days. I don't know which is worse. I finished this quilt this week so it had to fill in for some sunshine. The pattern is called Stashbuster and one of the Scrapbag Quilters found it. I started with some wild rainbow sheep and then pulled colours to go with the sheep. I made this for my sister because she collects sheep but I don't know if she will like it because it is quite bright. I will ask. The grandsons are coming for a visit this weekend so no sewing for me. Joanne

A new string quilt

This little string quilt used up many little left overs I had hanging around. There are 36 square blocks each at 6 1/2". Each block was constructed in exactly the same manner with a medium blue centre then on one side a blue and pink striped fabric and on the other a green and pink striped fabric. Then a stripe of the pink and then in each corner a piece of green. When trimmed and assembled this is what you get. Joanne

A budding block designer???

This is my simple block in answer to Sarah's challenge. Details of the challenge can be found http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2012/01/whats-cookin-at-sweatshop-week-18-lots.html Sarah received the book Cut the Scraps for a gift and challenged readers to create a block using Joan Ford's Scrap Busting System. In her system she cuts her scraps into 2, 3 1/2, and 5 inch squares. The block I designed has two four patches made using 2" squares, then a larger four patch using the smaller four patches with 3 1/2" squares and then finally on the outside edge I took two 5" squares cut them on the diagonal and sewed them in place. Everything matched up well. the block is 9" and will finish at 8 1/2". Thank you Sarah for the challenge. This is the first time I have tried to actually design something myself. Joanne

A small doll quilt made with strings

This little doll quilt was made from green strings that were 1 1/2" wide. I joined the lot of them end to end to make a very long string. Then folded it back on itself three different times and sewed the long side each time to end up with a strata that was 8 1/2" wide. This was then cut into three equal pieces which were then resewn to make the rectangle shape. A very relaxing way to put a small top together.

Check out the String Thing Along for more string quilt ideas. Joanne

Double the laughs with Double Slice

No pictures today to protect the identities of the "guilty" parties. What a day we had at Scrapbag Quilters yesterday! We got a good start right at 9:00. I had two sample quilts to show the pattern. I posted pictures of these a couple of weeks ago. I explained how to do the block, showed it with a sample and handed out written and pictorial instructions. All I can say is then let the fun begin. By the end of the afternoon we were giggling something fierce and suggesting that "mistake" was variation 10. We doubled the salary of our presser when we doubled her responsibilities and added quality control to her title.
All in good fun and we finished the day with 5 good size quilt tops either assembled or almost assembled. Mine is to the blocks stage but I had other things to do so did not get as much sewing in as I had thought I might.
Next month we are having a finish up day where we will work on kits that have been made for other times and not yet completed. Joanne

Beginning to see a little red

I have spent a lot of time with red fabric this month. These are the sample blocks for the Community Outreach afternoon we had earlier this week. I cut up miles of red fabric and more miles of white fabric. The fabric was then subcut into 5" squares and 2 1/2" strips. On outreach afternoon. A couple of sewers made HST with red and white. Another person made red and white four patches. We had a couple of people pressing, then some others squaring blocks. As the afternoon wore on we were able to assemble 10 blocks and have the makings ready for another 18. If I make a few more 4 Patches we probably could make at least 8 more blocks. I will take these to Scrap Bag quilters on Wednesday so the rest of the group can see what we accomplished in a short afternoon of work. Joanne