A short while ago, a friend asked me how I put the rows of the Canadian 150 quilt together.  The quilt had 12 rows of 12 blocks.  It was hand quilted.  Every week, we received a pattern and a story about an amazing Canadian woman.  When I had received the patterns for 24 blocks, I put them together in two rows.  Then I hand quilted the rows as I received and pieced the next blocks.  Row 3 and row 4 were sewn together and quilted. Every section of  two rows was pieced and quilted as a separate quilt.  Following is the procedure that I used to add each section to the next one.

I’m using a Linus quilt for the demo.  It is made with nine patch blocks set three by four.  I made two sections of two rows.  The nine patches are quilted.  I omitted quilting the sashing because I needed it to float.  I also didn’t quilt the border because The quilting might not match up where it was seamed.  I wanted to quilt it all at once. Most tutorials tell you to trim both edges even.  This will work, but you sometimes have to pull it and the seam won’t lay flat.  I find it better to make one edge 1/4″ wider to give a little wiggle room.  It is less stressful.  On this quilt, the side with the sashing will be the side that is longer.  It was not quilted. That will give you more room to manipulate.  It is the bottom piece in the picture.

Trim the top piece even with the edge.

 

 

Turn the bottom piece with the sashing over.  Pin the backing down and away from the edge. This will keep it out of the way of trimming. Turn back over and trim even with the edge. 

 

Trim the batting an extra 1/4″.  This will eliminate bulk.

 

Unpin the back, smooth out, and trim back 1/4″ away from trimmed top.

 

 

 

Pin backing down again to get it out of the way.  Pin the two pieces together, right sides together.  I use a lot of pins.  Line up the sashing lines while pinning. Peek to see if they line up.

This needs to be adjusted.  The right seam does not line up.

 

 

 

  Then sew seam with a 1/4″ seam.

Take it to an ironing board.  Laying it with top against the board, press seam up.  Press 1/4″ on backing.

Lay backing over pressed up seam.  It should cover sewing line.  Press.

 

 

When it is even, pin and then hand tack seam.

 

 

 

Done.  You will not know that the quilt was quilted in small pieces.  Using this technique, you can machine a king size quilt without a lot of tugging.  You could even quilt single blocks and put them together this way. A patterned backing will hide the seams on the back.  Or you could use different fabrics on the back and have a two sided quilt.  There are so many options.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

It’s November already.  I finally changed the small monthly wall hanging. I hadn’t changed it since July.  Sue didn’t go out trick or treating.  She can today.

When I was getting the wall hanging out of the drawer, I found another one.  This was made for a Guild challenge many years ago.  I’m not sure what the criteria was for the challenge, but I remember that we were given beads to use in the piece. It was hand quilted.   The fabric was obtained at a Guild quilt show.  Keepsake Quilting was a vendor at the show. They had a large bin of fabric.  We could stuff a plastic shopping bag for a very small price.  I knew that I would use the fabric some day when I bought it. It seems as if I have a lot of fabric that I bought that way.  Some day, I will have a use for it.

  

Have a great day and happy quilting.

Have you ever had one of those days when everything seems to go wrong.  I had one of those days yesterday.  I did more un-sewing than I did sewing. I accomplished nothing.  About 4:30 I shut the sewing machine off, cooked supper and watched TV.  Today was much better.

I visited with friends  this morning.  When I got home, my sewing machine hummed.  I have a project 3/4 finished.  It should be ready for viewing in a few days.  Tonight, I’ll check out the bag of UFOs that I found in the library.  I think that I have found all of them. Some of the big baggies have kits that I put together to work on while in Maine.  I’ll put them aside for next year and work on the ones that are already started.  If I really don’t want to finish them, I can cut them up and put them in the mile a minute bin.  That bin is getting full.  I should sew some blocks and use up some of the leftover fabric.

October is almost done.  It will be November tomorrow.  The Temperature Quilt is complete up to the end of October.  Just two more months to go and it will go to the long arm quilter.  The colors are beginning to look like the ones that I used in the Spring months.  When the winter colors are added, it should be very pleasing to the eye.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

 

I thought that I would have a full day of sewing today, but started the day by giving Miss Molly a bath.  She doesn’t mind the bath too much.  It’s when she gets out of the wash tub that the fun begins.  She shakes the water all over the place and the floor is flooded until I can dry her legs.  Every time that Miss Molly has a bath, I have to clean the bathroom from top to bottom.  It probably needed it anyway.  Then I have to change all my clothes.  After that I did some other needed house work.  By the time that I got to the sewing machine, it was almost lunchtime.

I did finish two Moda Blockhead 2 blocks and two Splendid Sampler blocks.  There is just one block left to finish and I will be caught up until Wednesday and Thursday when new blocks show up in my e -mail.

Moda block # 27 is called Mountain Climbing.  It was designed by Lynne Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles.  The block is 18″ x 18″. It consists of 64 half square triangles and 17 squares.  It was easy to piece, except that there were so many pieces.  I oversize half square triangles and trim them to size with a Tucker Trimmer.  It was time consuming.

 

Moda block #28 is called Lincolns Platform.  It was designed by Barbara and Mary from Me and My Sister Designs.  The block is 12″ x 12″.  It was easier to make than block #27.  There were only four half square triangles with squares and rectangles.

 

The Splendid Sampler blocks are Radio Waves by Pat Sloan and Cathedral Windows by Jenny Doan.  The Splendid Sampler blocks are 6 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ unfinished.  They work up quickly and are made with different techniques.  I have only one Splendid Sampler block to finish.  It is an applique.  Somehow, even though I like to applique, I put that type of block aside until I have to make it.

  

Maybe I can finish the applique block by the time that the new ones show up.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

 

It was another productive day at the sewing machine.  I finished twelve nine patches.  They are all different and I still have to decide on sashing and borders.  I can’t decide if I want a print or a solid fabric.  I’ll just jump in tomorrow and do it. We are expecting a few days of rain.  As long as the power doesn’t go out, I can sew.   The Linus quilt should be finished by early next week.  I kept with my plan to cut all the scraps into precuts.  All the scraps from that project have been cut into 2 1/2″ squares. They are in a box with other precuts from earlier projects.  When the box is full, I’ll make a quilt with what is in the box.  It should be a colorful quilt.  It’s only half full now so it will be a while before I have to deal with it.

The sewing room was cleaned today.  It looks much better, but I found lots of quilts that need finishing.  The ironing board is in the kitchen so that I can get up and walk instead of just sitting.  Miss Molly rests between the two rooms.  That way, she can keep her eye on me wherever I go.  She does have a mat to rest on in the sewing room, but doesn’t use it.

I like to make striped table runners that have the ends cut so they come to a point,  There are triangles left over from the cutting and they make little hexagon table mats.  Four sets of triangles were in the UFO bin and I finished them today.  I don’t have the runners so I must have given them away.  The triangles sometimes are different but as long as they are color coordinated, they are pretty. These will go in the give away bin.

     

I need to finish some of my bigger projects so that the UFO basket will look more empty.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

It was a wonderful day.  I had no meetings or medical appointments so I sewed all day.  I haven’t done that in a long while.  It is still too cold to work outside.  The weather looks better at the end of next week. If I don’t finish what I need to do, the snow will cover it until Spring.

This morning, I sewed together the twelve blue blocks that were made from the 5″ squares that I cut from the Canadian 150 leftover fabric.  After lunch, I added a white border and a blue piano key border. It is ready to go to the long arm quilter.  It turned out very nice.  There is still a lot of precut blue fabric in the drawer.  I am done with blue for a while.  When I make the next quilt, I will add other colors to the precut drawer.  When there are multiple colors in the drawer, I’ll find another pattern that uses pre cuts.

While I was pressing the blue and white quilt, I also pressed the strips for the nine patches that I intend to use for Linus quilts.  They are on the cutting table so that I can cut and sew them tomorrow.  I probably will add sashing and make the whole quilt.  Looking through my UFO bin, I found three pieces that will be big enough for charity quilts with one or two borders.  They can be quilted quickly with the walking foot.  Tomorrow will be charity quilt and UFO day.

I finished a blue, green and white UFO table runner this afternoon.  I free motion quilted it with a circle ruler.  I’m not sure that I like how it looks, but the circles are round. I did like it a bit better with practice.  This runner will go into the give away bin.  I’m glad for UFOs as they provide practice for free motion quilting.

 

 

I’m behind on the Moda Blockhead and Simple Sampler blocks.  I’ll pick a day next week to catch up.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I have done very little sewing or quilting since I arrived back in New Hampshire.  My days are filled with yard work, organizing what I brought back from Maine, meetings, and medical appointments.  I have worked on the blue and white quilt in short sessions.  Eventually it will be finished if I work on it a little at a time.  My nine patches for the Linus quilts are still sitting where I left them.  The Temperature quilt flying geese are cut and sitting ready to sew.  Maybe by next week, I can find a day when I can sew all day.

It has been so cold.  I don’t enjoy working outdoors when the temperature is in the 40s.  The lawn has been mowed for the last time this season.  Most of the leaves are raked up and bagged.  I still have a small area to rake.  If it doesn’t warm up, I’m going to leave the gardens until the spring.  When I put the bags of leaves out for pick up, I pulled out three small bags that I partially filled last Spring and found that the leaves had composted.  What a treasure !!!  It is stockpiled to use in a spot where the grass didn’t grow this past summer.  Maybe pure compost will help grass grow in that bare spot. The Hydrangea bushes have been hit by a deep frost. They need to be cut back.  I’m not too excited about not doing more this fall.  It will be covered with snow soon and I won’t have to look at it until Spring.

Most everything is back in its spot.  I am still missing a few things and know that I will find them sometime when I’m not looking for them.  In the meantime, I’ll concentrate on enjoying quilting.

The meetings have gone well.  It’s good to be back with friends and catching up. I also enjoyed the class with Jo Diggs.  I did finish the pieces but still have to find frames for them.  I should do that soon so the pictures don’t end up in the UFO pile.

When in Maine, I quilted a table runner.  It was quilted with ruler work.  Still the straight lines, not curves or circles.  I sewed the binding on and tacked it down so it’s a finished UFO.  I think that I will keep this one.  It looks nice on the dining room table.  I’ll keep practicing  more ruler work on UFO’s waiting to be quilted.

 

Six more Dear Jane blocks are finished.  They are fun to make.  They are so small that the hand quilting is fast.  After they are quilted, they are trimmed to five inches and the binding sewed on.  It doesn’t take long to tack down the binding.  I have made some out of order because I started them in Maine.  I am trying to use similar fabric as the original. I used what fabric I had there.  Now that I am back in New Hampshire, I have a lot more fabric to choose from.  The location on the quilt is written on a piece of paper which is pinned to the back of the finished blocks.   I will place the out of sequence blocks in the main quilt when I get to the row where they belong.

Hopefully, I will get back to sewing and quilting soon.  Maybe, even catch up on the Moda Blockhead and Simple Sampler blocks of the week.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

In the past, one of my daughters used to go up to Maine to be with me for a week.  We had what we called “quilt camp”.  We went to yard sales, flea markets, and consignment stores.  One or the other cooked or we went out for a meal.  Most of all, we had fun and quilted.

One year, we sun dyed fabric.  My neighbor saw us having fun in the back yard and came over to watch. I eventually made a quilt out of the sun dyed fabric for my daughter.

Another year, I decided to make a gift for the guild Christmas in July Yankee swap.  I found pictures of the wall hanging this week while looking for something else.

I had found a pattern for a small wall hanging and gathered the fabric for it.   The pattern is called “Quilt Show”. Some of the fabric was unusual and just made the trees.  Making the small quilts on the clothes  line was hard.  Probably, now that I can do small pieces, it would be easier.   The quilt is now owned by a good friend in Maine.

 

It is so much fun to have someone else to share my quilting passion.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

This morning I cut the white 5″ squares for the blue and white quilt. I cut enough for twelve nine patches.  The center blue fabric was the same on all the nine patches, but the corners were all different blues.  I had a lot of blue fabric left over from the Canadian 150 quilt. There is still a tall stack of 5″ blue squares.  I’ll use them in the border.

The nine patches were cut in half vertically and horizontally.  That made 48 pieces.

 

 

More fabric was cut to add a white border and a blue corner square to one side of all 48 pieces. The borders are 2″ wide.  I used two different colored fabrics for the corner squares.

 

 

Four of the pieces were sewn into a larger piece.  When I did this, I used two of each of the fabrics for the corner squares. Two of the pieces were turned so that the center had two small squares and two large squares.  I will have the corner square colors in the same position in each block.

 

When all the blocks are sewn, they need to be squared up to the size of the smallest block and then sewn together.  Then a small white border and probably a 5″ outer border.

To be continued.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I accomplished a lot today, although I didn’t do what I had planned to do.  The recyclables are at the transfer station.  Unused clothes are at the Salvation Army.  My car is washed.  It looks like a new car.  Miss Molly’s nose prints are gone from the window.  Banking is done and groceries are in the house and put away.

I had intended to cut the white 5″ squares for the blue and white quilt and start sewing it, but noticed the 3 1/2″ strips for the Linus quilt sitting beside the machine.  The strips are sewn and waiting to be pressed.  The white fabric is still sitting on the cutting table.  Maybe tomorrow.

I usually don’t like black backgrounds on quilts.  Amish solid fabric quilts are fine.  The solid colors seem to sparkle.  I did make two quilts with black backgrounds.

The first was made in a class at the Vermont Quilt Festival.  I didn’t like it at all. It was a step out of my color range. It was dull and boring.  Shortly after I made the quilt, I won a $25 certificate for machine quilting.  I didn’t know the quilter and didn’t want to put a lot of money into a quilt if I didn’t know the results.  The certificate only covered part of the quilting.  The black quilt was small.  It would be the one that I sent.  When I received the quilt back, I was amazed at how beautiful it was.  The quilter did a beautiful job and brought the quilt to life.  Quilting does make the quilt. 

 

 

 

The second quilt was made with some bright fabric that I usually bypass when picking fabric for a quilt.  Every once in a while, I pull fabric that I don’t like and make a quilt.  I wonder, sometimes, why that fabric is in my drawers.  Was it a gift?  Was it on sale?  Did it show up on my doorstep in the morning?  In case you are wondering about the last question, that did happen.  I woke up and found four trash bags full of fabric on my doorstep.  A friend had cleaned out her sewing room and left the fabric that she didn’t want on my doorstep.  Maybe, she wondered why she bought them.  I’ve made many beautiful quilts with her fabric.  One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

Tomorrow is another day.  It’s supposed to be a warm day with no wind, so I think I should spend some time in the yard.  Then a decision.  Do I finish the Linus quilt squares or work on the blue quilt?  Do I sew the new Moda or Simple Sampler or finish a UFO?  Decisions – decisions.

Have a great day and happy quilting.