Presents Given and Received

Today's Blog post is dedicated to Gifted Quilts

Quilt # 1 - Mom's Creation  

 1st up is my Mom's quilt. This quilt has been a labour of love for her. More labour than love ha-ha. I say more labour as it took her over a year to complete as a result of her hand surgery. This Scrappy half square triangle quilt is for my moms best friend the retired judge. This year she is celebrating her 70th Birthday☺A big driver for my mom to have this quilt completed.

Lucky for my Mom she had the top ready to go before her surgery. All that was left to do was the machine quilting and binding. I shouldn't say "all that was left" because the end sometimes is the hardest and most tedious part. She is more adventurous than me and usually machine quilts the top herself however in lieu of her hand not doing so well I dropped it off to be quilted for her.

Once she got it back from being machine quilted it took her over a week to do the binding, little bits at a time. Usually she can have the binding done in no time .... I know this because I used to always pawn off my quilts on her to bind (still not my favorite part). The funniest part is that even with my mom basically using one hand to do the binding it still looks professional and with invisible stitches. HA mine look more like a kids 1st sewing project.

HOPEFULLY next up for Mom is a Wedding Quilt for her FAVORITE DAUGHTER

(PS. I can write favorite daughter cause I am writing this blog post =P )

Below is my moms Scrappy Half Triangle Quilt Enjoy!  

 

 What a great pattern, has such dimension. Almost looks 3D.

This back brings a modern twist, very versatile. Would look great on a bed with the back being displayed.

A hot new trend is the word print fabric ... I am jumping on the train for that trend. I can not get enough of the word/script/newsprint fabric. I am always drawn to it in the fabric stores.

The first look when she opened her gift

She looks thrilled! 

Mom says sorry it's so blurry!

Mom's best friend and then Mom - they both look pretty happy!

 I think she likes it!

****

Quilt # 2- The Youngests Creation 

2nd is my latest quilt. This quilt started out as a kit my Mom bought me about 5-6 years ago. I have been slowly picking away at it. I started putting it together 2 years ago at one of the quilting retreats.

With this quilt I had to use You Tube a little as the instructions that came with the quilt were basically in another language. This was the first time I have ever attempted a Y seam. My mom "seams" (ha-ha sewing joke) to think that me doing Y seams is impressive. Honestly I did not find them very difficult, I had a couple seam ripper moments but that is normal in any project. You Tube really was a big help.

This pattern made small windmills however I decided not to match up the fabric to form noticeable windmills. The reasoning was that I did not like the look of the defined windmills. When it was all laid out the windmills ended up very asymmetrical and not evenly distributed. I just felt that it would look better more evenly distributed. If you look close you can still make out Red and Black windmills. They are still there just less defined. All in all I like how this quilt turned out.

Since this blog post is all about "gifted" quilts I should probably tell you where this quilts new home is. I decided since my Mom was so impressed with my Y seams that I would finish this quilt and give it to her for Christmas.

I played a little trick on my Mom to throw her off. I am a big supporter and volunteer for the United Way and my original plan was to complete this quilt for our 2015 campaign and have it  raffled off. HOWEVER ... time managed to get away from me and I was no where close to having it completed in time for the end of the campaign. So I decided to complete it for Christmas and present it to my Mom. (I knew she would love and cherish it)

The funny part is I never let mom in on the little fact that I was no longer doing the quilt for United Way. She would ask me how the quilts coming along and when can she buy raffle tickets. I may have even told her at one point I got her raffle tickets and not to worry. (a little white lie, but I think it was necessary).

Check out the great quilted swirls. Really adds depth - and possibly a little bit of the twilight zone. ☺

 So I am told this quilt will be living on the living room wall in Mom and Chef's house. That makes me a tad bit nervous, reasoning being now people will REALLY be looking at it. Hopefully no quilt police come around! They might just get kindly kicked out of the house ha-ha Just Joking.

And so concludes our lil' gifted quilt post.

Please leave a comment we love hearing from our readers.

Until next time

 - The Youngest -

Scrap quilting for beginners!

 Grab those scrap strips! Doesn't matter how big, or how wide -- you will use it all!

Grab some newsprint. It can be old phone book pages like Bonnie Hunter uses, or you can buy foundation paper - like I did at $16.00 a package! This paper is as thin as phone book paper. You can even go to the dollar stores and buy some kids drawing paper that's thin. You need to be able to tear the paper off the back! 

I wanted to be a bit consistent with one piece on my blocks. You can see that its the center white strip. Start with that. I put a glue stick down the center of the paper and patted the white strip down. Cut the end. Doesn't have to be exact, At the end of all your sewing, you will flip it over and trim the overhanging fabric to the size of the paper. For ease, I just cut the paper in 1/2 from the original letter size. This will give me nice diamonds for the final product. 

There are loads of photo's on the internet for "scrap quilts". Check it out!

You can see I've sewn a few strips already. Very simple, line up right side to right side and sew 1/4" down the side. Press it over and open and lay your next strip. Flip it over and then sew your strips onto the left side of the white strip. Voila! you have your squares! In this case, rectangles!

It goes quick! You don't need to really measure anything other than your beginning paper. You can use any colors. No rules!  Even if you wanted to make a whole load of scrappy squares in different sizes -- go for it! You can even use triangles and put them all together. If you want to use consistent widths of scraps -- do it! If you want to use the same colors --yep you can do that too!

My goal is to use Gertie for all of my scraps on this quilt. It will be a work in progress and I'll be able to use all those scraps that have been sitting around! I think it's a great way to do something that's not really "planned". This will be my first "scrappy" quilt, so I'm happy to put Gertie to use! 

Happy Quilting Everyone!

Margo

Even a "little" progress can make a big impact!

This is the start to my very first scrappy quilt out of 5" charms.

Happy quilting everyone!
Margo

My blocks are done! United Way here we come!

I spent last night sewing strips together and tonight after work made up the blocks. They measure approx 16 1/2 " each. Six blocks will make a nice size quilt. One of my co-workers, also a quilter, will be trimming up the squares and putting the strips on and assembling the quilt top. The left-over fabric strips will be cut into the piano border. It was frustrating as I discovered the strips of fabric (that came in a package) were different weights. Normally I would deliver the blocks perfectly squared, but think I have to let her have the option of cutting them down even more if she needs to. *sigh* This is the second go at the same pattern and I found the finished squares do not measure what the pattern says it should. I was a very good girl and made sure my 1/4" was dead on by sewing up a sample piece and measuring! (ha! I even surprised myself as I normally just wing it!) I'm not dissapointed. The outcome is beautiful don't you think?

The colours are quite different than my Arizona quilt, but just as effective. I'm curious as to what the color choice will be for the strips and how it's put together. My co-worker is working on it this weekend and we hope to have it to the longarmer by next weekend. It will be ready for binding well before the auction for the United Way fundraising we have planned! (Just in case you wanted to see a closer view, here is a closeup!)

I was looking for some patterns for another baby quilt. I searched through the magazines that I have and the books.... sigh...still nothing that I really loved. So, I headed over to the library and for $10 I renewed my library card and picked up some books. While I was signing them out, I spied a table with books for sale! Of course, books and fabric are two of my favorite things! Wonders never cease! I found some quilting books they were selling for $1 each! WHAT?????????

So as I was taking out my wallet, the librarian tells me there is a mistake. WHAT? I'm thinking, ok, a little more won't be so bad -- it's a deal already! She says, "They are 2 for $1.00, so 50 cents each!" YIPEE!!!!!!!!!!!! So today, one of the books that I "borrowed" I fell in love with and had to take a trip to Chapters after work to pick up a copy!

I'm looking at my scraps now and know there was a reason I was keeping them! I can see some scrap quilts in my future!

and of course.... I couldn't resist another photo of the Little Man! Happy quilting everyone! I'll be at my sewing machine this weekend!