TWO BEAUTIFUL LOAVES

This morning's baking:

NUMBER SEVEN!

Just now I finished sewing the binding on quilt #7.  That's seven quilts completed since February 10, a real record for me.  Of course, they are all lap quilts, not a bed-sized quilt among them.

This quilt was begun years and years ago, as a way of using of remnants.  I had made a king-sized quilt for our daughter about twelve years ago.  The black background fabric in this quilt was some of the leftovers from that quilt.  Now and then I made a star block out of these fabrics.  In line with trying to finish up old projects I took this out of the cupboard, made two more blocks and put them together.  So this did not take a whole lot of sewing to finish.

I really like how this turned out--and am somewhat tickled by the one block with a pink background.  I think that keeps the whole quilt from becoming boring!

Last post I mentioned that I should someday make a Disappearing Four Patch with some darker colours rather than the brights and white that I commonly use.  It surprised me to discover that I had recently started just such a quilt.  In March I did a "demo" day at quilt club for the Disappearing Four Patch.  I had made up a method whereby all the seams nested and even all the seams that meet when the blocks are sewed together will nest.  For that demo I had cut squares from my stash of odds and ends, and they were all in darker shades and combined them with various beiges.  I have enough squares cut to make 42 blocks, for a six by seven setting, just like the D4P in the last post.  So this will definitely be the next old (just by a month or two) project that I work on next.

AND ANOTHER

I'm living a very quilty life lately!  Mainly because of the quilt show coming up next Tuesday.  That's our year-end gala at the local quilt club, and I want to finish the quilts I've been working on in time to put them on display at the show.  So here's the large lap quilt I've just finished:

I've used this pattern several times and like it a lot.  Next time I should try it in a different colour-way.

I always spray-baste my quilts together with 505 and this time I did things a bit differently, for which I was sorry later.  My usual method is to spread the batting out on the floor in my sewing room, then smooth the backing over it, fold the backing back in half and spray the 505 on the wrong side of the backing.  Then I gradually unroll the folded backing over the batting, smoothing it carefully as I go.  When the backing is finished I turn the piece over and do the same with the quilt top.  

This time I sprayed the 505 on the batting and then smoothed the backing over it, and did the same with the quilt top.  I'm not happy with how that turned out: the layers did not stick together nearly as well as when the spray is applied to the backing and the top, not the batting.  I won't do it that way again.

The other thing I did differently was that when I did the machine quilting I did not outline the squares, but did a serpentine stitch diagonally through the blocks. 

Instead of complementing the quilt design it added a different dimension.  I don't care much for this.  That way of machine quilting, combined with the way I spray-basted resulted in a rather puffy quilt.  

It's still a very nice quilt and will be donated to a nearby old age home that has asked our club for a set of lap quilts for its residents.  I'm sure it will be welcome and hopefully, will provide some cheer to someone in his/her last years.

FIFTH FINISH

I know this quilt has been shown on the blog before now, but now it is completely finished.  It's been a lot of fun and I think it's very cute.

There are two more tops to quilt.  The backs and battings are ready.  I just need to spray baste them together and do the machine quilting.  I want to finish them before next week Tuesday as that is when our local quilt club has a year-end "Show and Tell."  We invite anyone who might be interested to come to the Drop In Center and see the quilts we've made this year that we haven't given away and serve snacks.  So if you're local, please come on Tuesday, April 23, (2 p.m. to 4:30) to the CommUnity Centre and join us in some fun.

ANOTHER NICE SURPRISE

When we picked up the mail this afternoon there was an envelope for me from the Red Deer Quilt Show.  This was in the envelope:

Also in the envelope was a check for $100.  The comment sheet was most welcome, and the check was a very lovely surprise.  Guess what I'll spend it on!  Three guesses and the first two don't count!  (Something we used to say when I was young.)

TWO NICE DAYS AND A SURPRISE

The last two days were devoted to quilting.  Thursday I spent the day at Shirl's Girls, making Disappearing Four Patch Blocks.  I had some, five I think, from a demo day at Pieceful Stitchers, and wanted to continue making some, eventually enough for a large lap quilt.  That was the first time I made it to Shirl's Girls this year.  I want to keep in touch with that group of women.  It was a good day.

Friday I went to the Red Deer Quilt Show with Shirley and Dena Adams.  What an enjoyable day that was!  I've gone with those two women for maybe three years now, and always enjoy their company very much.

The Red Deer Quilt Show is always very good.  There are lots and lots of quilts entered, and around 40 merchants have booths around the edge of the Centrum.  Lots of wonderful quilts on display, lots and lots of tempting merchandise for sale.  I bought a variety of things: a good glue (a drop will hold down a corner of fabric for you), some good machine needles, some rotary cutter blades, a pattern, two groups of fat quarters, five in each to use with a pattern, Bermuda Sunrise, that I bought a few years ago, and some superior gold thread for machine quilting.  That will add some real "pizzazz" to some future quilt!

I do have a quilt started in the Bermuda Sunrise pattern, in blacks and whites with a deep red accent square.  The pattern was actually designed for batiks, so now I have the basic batiks for that quilt.  But I need to finish the black/white/red quilt top first.  It's in the "line up."

And then I was told by friends that the Jacob's Ladder quilt I had submitted won a ribbon! I was so surprised!  I didn't expect that at all.  So here I am with the winning quilt:

Sharon J. kindly took a picture with her cell phone and emailed it to me.  What a pleasant surprise that ribbon was!

TWO FINISHES

I've been working on a few quilts simultaneously and this morning I managed to finish two of them.  One was just waiting for the purchase of a spool of thread in the right colour to sew down the binding on the right side.  This is a "Picket Fence" quilt.  The pattern was in a 1994 issue of "Quiltmaker" magazine.  This is the 3rd or 4th quilt I've made from the very easy pattern.

This quilt was begun by making blocks at a "Demonstration Day" last year.  It was nearly finished when I picked it up again this spring.

The second finish is one of the "3D Pinwheels" that I began this spring.  Pat had taken a quilt to our local club in this pattern, although the pinwheels were just prairie points.  Some time ago I had experimented with a 3D pinwheel and decided to use that for this quilt.

The background and border are fabrics that I bought this spring and the purples were all from my fabric stash.  I wanted the pinwheels to be really 3D, so I sprayed the folded edge with some "Best Press" and stuffed a bit of fabric into the fold:

When the folds dry, they stand up very nicely:

Of course, each time the quilt is washed this will have to be done again.

I really, really like both of these quilts.  I think the 3D Pinwheel baby quilt is one of the cutest I have ever made.  Lots and lots of fun!

I will write out the directions for how to make the 3D pinwheels and put them on the blog in the next few days, maybe next week.  Tomorrow I'm going to our other local quilting group and on Friday some of us are going together to the Red Deer Quilt Show.  That's always a winner--a full day of examining quilts, visiting merchants and attending demonstrations.  See you next week.