Another handpiecing project!

Last year at BIQR someone made this lovely top out of antique blocks she had collected. She had hoped she would use them all up, but nope, she had some leftover, which she generously gave to me!

they languished in my drawer for a year and I brought them out to bring to the retreat. I sorted them and decided I was only going to use the 6 large blocks. I then passed on the rest to friends.

I went for a simple pattern and decided I was going to hand piece them since all these blocks were originally hand pieced. In between other projects I worked on it.

I trimmed the blocks so that they were all 12.5inches square and pre cut my sashing from fatquarters and shirts and scraps 3.5 inches.

here are some photos of the underside:

here you can see more clearly how she pieced the square, surprisngly, using triangles blocks in the corners.

in these 2 photos you can see how when she ran out of fabric she just pieced in some more!

BIQR 2013 week 4 - I am going to miss you!

I am going to miss.....White Birch Lodge,

Elk Lake,

the internet picnic table,

going out to Pearl's,

Gwen's trunk shows,

the room of inspiration, creativity, and sewing,

Gwen's demos,

Show and tell and the wonderful stories,

Pizza night in the wicker room,

Gwenisms,

New friends from across the continent,

but most of all, I am going to miss Gwen!

Thank you Gwen for 30 years of inspirational retreats!

Handsewing at the Cottage

This year I took some hand sewing to the cottage to work on....If I was out on the dock I would read, but if I was up on the porch I would hand sew....it is a peaceful (piecefull) thing to do. I made 11 blocks, each block is 5 inch square finished, and then started putting some sashing in... 4 blocks....then 6 blocks...

then 9 blocks...the others ask me what is it that you are working on...

I do not know, but I will let you know when it is done.....

Nine Patch Mystery Solved!

Do you think it needs borders? I am thinking in the black fabric, if I can find it again.

The card, the couple, the quilt...

Inside the card, I added a hard copy of the label, should the one on the quilt wear out after washing.

Amanda and Dan very happy with their new quilt!

I could not find the room at my own place for such a big quilt so took these photos on the bed at my parents' place. King size quilt on queen size bed. The intended bed has a foot board so I did not make this quilt hang a lot on the bottom.

Hawaiian Punch Label attached!

Yep! it is all bound and label attached, ready for presentation on Sunday! For the label I used Avery's Printable Fabric sheets, that I bought at Staples. They printed up real nice but they did not stick fully when I tried ironing it on....I must remember to make the label before quilting next time.! and it is pretty thick to hand stitch the sides on for extra protection....so I came up with the idea to frame it in fabric and iron it on in the middle and applique the "frame" on. I really like the results! I also created a QR code that will bring you back to all my posts on my blog about the quilt, a sort of unique copyright protection. I am going to design a card with a hardcopy of the QR code in case the label becomes worn after washings.

I would like to thank Cathy Shepherd from Eagles Wings Quilts for the lovely job of machine quilting! Click on the above link and you can read about the machine quilting on her blog.

4 more strips!

Nine Patch Mystery Progress Report

I have finished nine of these blocks! and managed to sew one strip of three :

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Hand sewing progress report

Summer hand piecing

My sewing room is too hot in the summer, so I like to have some hand work to do. I received a whole bag of pre-cut plaid strips at a retreat, but have not done anything with them. 

I chose Bonnie Hunter's Nifty Thrifty from Scraps & Shirttails. I've adjusted the size to what I have on hand. I pre-cut my squares and away I go. One block takes an hour or so, just the time between supper and movie....there is no hurry for this project it takes as long as it takes, I will get it done whenever, and eventually it will be a gift or charity quilt.