Quilt top COMPLETE!!

Just have to share a few photos of the completed quilt top. Lorraine did a brilliant job on the sashing and borders. I really like the small, white border she added between the warm brown fabric.


It's a very bright day here today. This is the best shot I could get with natural lighting. At least this picture gives you some idea of the size of the quilt.

Here is a picture taken inside. The colours and lighting are just right.

Tomorrow I'll be calling Gerene to make plans to drop it off for her to quilt. In just a week or so this quilt will be ready for binding and shipping.

So there you have it! The culmination of all the love and support offered by amazing women to comfort a man they'll likely never meet. This is real power, I think, the power of compassion.

Often I get mildly frustrated when I'm not pleased with a block I'm working on. Perhaps I have to take my time to understand the pattern , or I cut the fabric to the wrong size. My least favourite task is to rip out seams so they can be redone.

All of those small things are nothing; things that will be overcome with time and practice. The aches and pains, perhaps, of the newbie quilter. Whenever I feel at all frustrated I have only to think of this project and the thousands of comfort quilt projects in the world. Then, my perspective is set right again and I'm ready to keep going.

A very special thank you again, and again and again, to all the women who made this work of art, this quilt, this HUG possible.

Thanks a hundred times,
Dawne

Danny's Quilt, almost done!

I just have to share the progress being made on Danny's quilt. Lorraine has done such a good job of adding the sashing. She has 3 of the 5 rows completed already.


These are the top 3 rows. The last row you see on the bottom in this picture is actually the center row of the quilt.

I love how warm, yet subtle the sashing fabric is. It's such a nice shade of brown.

When the sashing is finished borders will be added. At that point the quilt will be off to the longarm quilter to be quilted. When Gerene is finished quilting it we'll add a binding and it'll be complete and ready to be shipped.

Finger Pincushions

Another quilter once sent me this finger pincushion:

I thought it was quite clever. It's especially useful for making flying geese which requires only a few pins.

I realized that this is not only a handy little notion for quilters but also a recycled craft that is pretty AND functional. I thought it would be fun to see if the kids and I could make a few.

Here you can see most of our supplies. Not pictured are the caps to cola/water bottles, a drill and a hot glue gun.

For each pincushion you'll need:
bottle cap
@ 4.5 inches of elastic
@4 inches of decorative ric rac to go around the outside of cap
scrap piece of fabric @ 4 inches square with the corners cut off
enough pillow stuffing or batting to make the cushion as firm as you want

We had great success with a 5 inch square piece of polyester batting.

To assemble:

• 
  drill 2 holes in the top, center of the cap, about 1/4" apart



• thread elastic through holes so that you have a loop under the flat part of the cap



• tie a square knot and leave the loose bits in the cap



• roll the batting/stuffing into a tight ball and place inside the fabric



• bring the edges of fabric up around the stuffing into the old fashioned money bag shape



• working with a partner [adult or teen] squeeze hot glue into cap and stuff fabric ball quickly into the cap -- ** be careful or you may get a small burn



• glue decorative fabric or ribbon around the outside edge of the bottle cap, add a few pins and you're finished!

This is certainly a 2 person job and may not be suitable for younger kids. Obviously, only adults should use the drill. I found that my three kids, ages 10, 11 and 14 were able to help me make several pincushions. My husband taught me how to drill the holes. My teen daughter and I did the work with the hot glue gun. This project doesn't take long at all. It took us longer to find the glue sticks!


Here you can see the 3 we made, that are trimmed in black, and the pincushion I received as a gift. I think we did a pretty good job of reverse engineering the concept. :)

Enjoy!

Patience and the Flying Geese Frenzy

Today I had an opportunity to practice patience. I can't say that I enjoyed it but perhaps I needed the reminder! I was piecing together 5" charms to make a lap quilt. No sooner than I realized I could probably do the entire top today I discovered that I needed fabric for the sashing.

I confess I found this quite annoying. I was really in the mood to get this done and, even better, my kids were happily amusing themselves so I had the free time.

I ended up making lemonade from lemons. I used the time to play with a special quilting ruler I bought a few weeks ago. It's a Quilt in A Day Flying Geese ruler.

I've never made a flying geese unit before. I have to tell you this little ruler makes things a snap. Of course, I watched the flying geese tutorial here and that helped a lot.

I'm proud of myself and very pleased with my practice units.

Here you can see the unit before and after. Not too shabby, eh?

Danny's quilt in the planning stages

Well, good news today all around. I was able to drive over to Lorraine's AND I remembered to bring my camera! I'll be sharing photos of the process finally. The end product is likely to be slightly different.


Here you can see the center row. We decided on the center row and then worked outward. The pieces of brown fabric on the right edge of each block is the sashing.

We've tried for symmetry when possible and even looked at colour and fabric details when placing blocks. Part of the fun, though, is seeing what we can make out of so many varied blocks. I think it's the real charm of the quilt, the contributions from so many caring women coming together.

In this picture here we're saving space for two blocks that are on the way. Monday should bring my favourite mail carrier - the one who delivers packages!







This picture gives you an idea of the quilt's size. We added a few blocks as place holders.

There will be horizontal pieces of sashing fabric between each row. The top, bottom, left and right edges will be surrounded by the same fabric as the sashing. Then, Lorraine will add one or two borders as she sees fit.

At that point the quilt top will be ready to be layered with the batting and the backing fabric and handed off to Gerene to be quilted.

Things are really coming together. I love it!

Well, I finally did it

I finally made my block for the project. It took me some time to even choose the fabrics and colours. Thankfully I had the benefit of opinions from 2 other quilters.

This is my second attempt. The first try was good enough for me to keep but I didn't feel it was my best work. I wanted the middle square to be, well square. Having a square block is pretty important in quilting. It's part of the whole 'patience is a virtue' thing. I think my block is humanly, perfectly square ;)

I have to thank my daugther for really nudging me to get out of my comfort zone. The block that I made is called TWIST. I got it from my favourite pattern site.

http://www.quilterscache.com/T/TwistBlock.html

What I love about Marcia's site is how organized it is. Twist is a block rated 2 push pins. 1 push pin would be a beginner block. My daughter really encouraged me to give this one a try because I really liked it. Lo and behold it worked.

We are capable of success when we are encouraged, aren't we?

A present for lil ole me!

Just have to share a photo of a lovely wall hanging Lorraine gave me last night.

She said that I had inspired her and showed me this mini-quilt. I loved it immediately, of course, and UNICEF popped into my mind. She reminded me of the UNICEF card I had given her for Christmas. That's when I realized she had worked from the front of the card and made the image with fabric.

I was suitably impressed. I didn't reach for it. I just looked at it. That's when she told me she made it for me. I was a bit surprised. I couldn't imagine what I would have done to deserve such a beautiful gift. Turns out she was thanking me for getting her back into quilting last summer.

How lucky am I? I call a friend and ask her to help me learn to quilt. She helps me get started, I learn a lot and we join a guild together. Then, I get such a lovely gift for basically asking for a favor! LOL

If only all of life was so easy, and so beautiful.

Here are the photos together so you can see how nicely she reproduced the design. Notice how the card has various shades of blue and so does the wall hanging. The dove itself is quite impressive. I love how intricate it is, with feathers that look like the dove is in flight.













They say quilters are great piecemakers. I think we can also be great peacemakers.

Thank you again and again Lorraine.

It's a new year

A lot of things have happened since I last posted. I've been traveling for the holidays and upon returning home promptly injured my left rotar cuff. I'm fortunate that I didn't tear it. I merely strained the tendons in the area of my left shoulder.

Now, 11 days later I'm clearly on the mend. Getting dressed is no longer as painful, I can type pretty quickly and I've begun cooking again. I have to be honest and say that being cared for, and pampered, by my husband and kids has been wonderful. Still, I'm ready to start driving again. I'm hopeful that may happen this week.

My biggest concern was not the pain. I fell and it hurt. That's no big surprise. What really concerned me was getting Danny's quilt top pieced together. In the early days of the injury I had limited range of motion and anything that required the shoulder to rotate was out of the question. Sewing was definately out of the question.

Thank Heaven for friends. Where would any of us be without them? Lorraine will likely do the lion's share of the work piecing together this quilt top. She's happily offered to do it and that is quite a relief. I am going to try to help, at least sitting at the machine, for as long as I can.

Today is an exciting day! We're meeting to begin arranging the blocks. In the next few days we'll be making the creative decisions necessary before we can begin to assemble the quilt top.

This is the part I've most looked forward to. This is the stage in the project when all the individual, lovely blocks sent to me will become a beautiful work of art. The joining together of these blocks is a lot like working with other women. Each strenthens and enhances the other.

And yes, I will be able to take photos because I'm right handed and my camera can be used one handed ;)

Until then I want to share pictures of blocks sent to me by Kathleen. Her blocks are in the mail and should arrive any day.



Here's the other:



Aren't they gorgeous? Very manly and wonderful Earth tone colours. Thank you Kathleen for sending me pictures. I can't wait to receive the blocks and see them up close. Thank you also for your very generous offer of the quilt batting. That's a rather crucial element in quilt making. :)