Sunday, July 18, 2010

More Quilt Blocks

This week I completed another 5 more quilt blocks from the Moose on the Porch Quilts website.

Block 5: Ohio Star Block

Block 6: Rocky Mountain Puzzle Block

Block 7: Wild Goose Chase Block

Block 8: Eight Pointed Star Block

Block 9: Star Flower Block

Here are all 9 blocks. Three more blocks to go!!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

A "Block" Week

This past week has been a Quilt Block kind-of-week (in the midst of getting our kitchen & living room floors done, and caring for a very cute & cuddly 10-month-old son.)

This is the July version of the "Two Toonies Thursday" block which is purchased at Freckles here in Calgary; proceeds go to school lunch programs.

The June & July "Two Toonies" blocks.

I picked up the instructions for the 2nd step for my Mystery Quilt. I made a lot of Flying Geese pieces. I still have to wait until the end of August until the quilt will be finished. So far, I like the quilt pieces.

Today is Week 2 of the Summer Star Sampler Quilt Along. Here is Block 3:

Block 4. (I kinda wish I had placed the blue/yellow floral in the middle and the dark blue as part of the stars, but I'm not pulling it apart or changing anything.)

Blocks 3,4:

Blocks 1234:

I found some free patterns for 12 BOM for a Queen Size quilt on "Moose on the Porch Quilts" website, so I decided to give it a try. I bought some fabric at Fabricland, but it's shredding at the edges a lot so I won't trim the block edges until I'm all done with all 12 BOM.

Block 1: Rail Fence Block

Block 2: Jewel Box

Block 3: Tennessee Block

Block 4: Jacob's Ladder Block

Blocks 1234. All 4 fabrics for these BOM have white in them; the blue/green/yellow are the same fabric design. At this point, I'm thinking of white sashing & border for the quilt top. Any other suggestions for colours????

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Tote Bag & Summer Star Sampler Quilt Along

First of all, here is a tote bag that I started a while ago & just finished yesterday. This was my first tote bag. The fabric on the outside of the bag I purchased a few years ago in Africa. The interior fabric was purchased locally.

The instructions that I found on the internet for this bag were a bit confusing. I realized after I cut the fabric that I did not have "sides" to the bag, so I had to cut them separately then sew them in. However, I added batting between the 2 fabrics, and that made it more difficult to sew corners. In fact, I brought the bag to a local shoe maker yesterday so that the bottom corners of the bag could be sew together (I wasn't able to fit the corners on my sewing machine).

It is a rag-edge style bag, and I simply did some zigzag stitching over the quilting tape along the edges. Bag measures 16" x 12" x 5." No inside pockets.. It isn't a fancy bag, but it's mine, I made it, and best of all, I was able to use my African fabrics!

The fabric inside the bag:

This summer I'll be taggin' along on the ride for "Summer Star Sampler Quilt-Along" by A Quilty Kind of Girl Designs' quilt blog. I'm very excited about this as this will be my first quilt-along, and I will be able to try new blocks & styles. Oh, I have SOOOOO much to learn!

The colours that were featured in the Summer Star Sample Quilt-Along were not my style, so I'll be using some of my own stash, including fabrics that I purchased at a local moving sale. Thus, my colours will be blue hues (including some purple), greens (pale green & very dark greens) and yellows (mustards and creams).

Here is my Block 1 (12" x 12"):

Block 2 (also 12x12). I struggled with the HST (half-square triangles) & flying geese on this one. It's not perfect, but after ripping out seams & re-sewing (& repeating a few more times), this version will do for now.

The first 2 blocks for the Summer Star Sample Quilt Along:

Monday, July 5, 2010

July Long-Weekend Quilting Project

This Canada Day July long weekend, in between packing up the living room & kitchen and stripping all the baseboards off in preparation for the new flooring that will be installed this week, I managed to piece a small table runner together. It measures 18 1/2 x 30 1/2 inches. The pattern, called "Bubbles" is from Freckles Quilt Shop here in Calgary, but I made the table runner with blue/green colours instead of the cheerier pinks/yellows/browns that was the original sample.



The quilt top was 8 fat-eighths fabric pieces.
For the backing, I used a blue/black checker fabric that I had in my sewing stash. The binding is some more fabric that I had sitting in a box at home.