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.

It's at the quilter's!

My T-shirt Quilt is Done!

What is black and white and sleeps on quilts?

Conan!

With Gwen's final Beaver Island Quilt Retreat coming up, I thought I should finish up a few projects I started at the retreats. I found my t-shirt quilt, all sandwiched and basted, ready to be quilted. I never got around to quilting it as I just didn't know how to quilt it. For 3 years it was in the cupboard...so just to finish it, I went with some simple "organic line quilting". All of wednesday I spent machine quilting, took a break, came back and there is Conan all curled up snoozin'! so cute! working on the binding hoping to finish it tonight!

Nine-Patch Mystery Quilt

Spoiler Alert if you are participating in the LFQG 9-Patch Mystery Quilt!
 
Step one: buy 2 light and dark fabrics. I bought these last year in Elk Rapids.

Step 2: make lots of these, squares, rail fence, hour glass, half square triangles

Step 3: make 20x 9-patches in the designated colour for the month and trade with the other participants. We did this at our guild meeting each month.

Step 4: Now start putting them together in this formation:

 and more strips according to the diagram:

Step 5: arrange in a pleasing fashion:

Step 6: sew together...ok not quite there yet! still having fun arranging them in a pleasing fashion!

I think I have kept it sufficiently vague as I do not have the right to publish the instructions for this mystery quilt, but if you think your guild might want to try this mystery quilt contact Cathy at Eagles Wings Quilts.  It was a lot of fun, quite a bit of work as completed it will make a full size quilt!