Guild Night Demo ...

I went to my Guild night yesterday, first time back since the summer break.  One of the members, Paula Doyle, gave a short demo on making colourwash quilts, then we swapped 2.5" squares of fabrics and had a go at arranging something ourselves.  It is a lot harder than it looks and there was a lot of standing back and squinting going on!!

We were given a couple of ideas to start us off and I took a (poor) photo of the demo wreath quilt, and another graduated idea created on a small design board by Paula.

Now here's my strippy version, partly worked on at the meeting and partly this morning as I 'fiddled' with it!  It still leaves a lot to be desired, but it was a fun exercise and I'm sure it will make a great little incubator quilt once stitched together.

I have also made progress on my SBChallenge quilt ... all sashings are now pieced and I have started to work on a layout, although I still have some pieces to trim.  When I do 'flippy' corners, I always have to trim :)

SBChallenge - Flimsey 7 some progress ...

I have done some sewing this week, but DH had some time off work, so progress was slow!  Here are the sashing pieces so far ... more progress should be visible by the end of the weekend :)

SBChallenge - Flimsey 7 begins ...

I was just thinking that is has been a while since I started a new project and, checking back on my blog, I see it was 10th August when I started the Friendship Star baby quilt.  I've had several finishes during that time, but no starts!  So it was lovely today to be organising myself to start a Morning Star (Nickel Quilts by Pat Speth/Charlene Thode) quilt using the Civil War nickels I swapped several years ago with an online group. The nickels and the darker fabric on the left were part of my stashbusting challenge pile and the neutral was pulled from other stash!

Let the new quilt begin ...

Quilts Donated.

I took 3 quilts to be donated to residents of a local nursing home this week.  The Disappearing 4 Patch, Bricks & Stepping Stones and Convergence quilts are now all with their new owners.  They seemed really pleased with them and the staff love seeing all the different patterns and fabrics used too :)

I'm showing a picture of the Convergence quilt here, because I haven't shown it on this blog before.  It started in April 2009 when I borrowed a copy of Ricky Timms' book from the library.  I used Thimbleberries fabrics and was aiming for a quilt suitable for an older man.  I did the vertical cutting/piecing as per the instructions, then started the horizontal ones ... but decided I really liked the graphic nature of the pattern and stopped after one stripe!  Borders were added and voila!  It stayed as a UFO for several months due to my health issues, but was finished late in 2009 with simple diagonal line quilting.  Happily, it has now found it's new owner :)

SBChallenge - Flimsey 6 Finished.

Flimsey 6 is now finished with another new quilting design demonstrated!  I tried the Floral Echo from the Pajama Quilter DVD first on the whiteboard, then on my practice piece and finally on the quilt itself.  This was a tricky one for me to get my head around and it only really came together about half way through the actual quilt. You can see how it has some problem areas on the whiteboard ...

... but looks much nicer on the quilt.  The fact that I used white thread on a mainly white/light quilt helps to hide any irregularities too!!

 This finishes at 42" square and will be going to Project Linus.  It has the great clown fabric on the back of this one, so perfect for a baby :)