Stay at Home Round Robin, prompt #5

 Last Wednesday’s prompt was “two colours to make anything you like”. That one didn’t take much thinking at all. I wanted something simple and also something in scale with what I’ve already done. That led me to the Simple Blocks library in Electric Quilt 8 where I chose Diagonal Strips to be done in 4 inch finished blocks, the same as the previous borders. I am running low on the colours I picked for this project. Ideally the blocks would have been aqua and orange, but I’m out of the orange, so I did aqua and yellow instead, alternating with aqua and white. It now measures 44 x 60 which is very close to the size I’m aiming for. Depending on what the next prompt is on Wednesday, I may declare this done by adding a couple of plain borders to it. I’ll link up with the rest of the round robin participants here.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 My goal from last week was to finish the stitching on the Ferret from The Year in the Woods and to start o the next set of three critters. I am happy to say that I met that goal. The ferret is finished. And the first section for the next set of three is gridded off and the Bear started. I haven’t much else to share at the moment, so I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and return to my stitching.

What We’re Working On

 One of our Prayers and Squares members knows of 3 children who lost their mother to a drug overdose and who would benefit from prayer quilts. She picked up fabric for them and between us we have been working on very personalized quilts for them. One of the children stated that his favourite animal is a winter fox. So Sharon drew up a fox and appliqued it to a lovely background. Another of the children said that she loves plants and her favourite colour is a light green. So we’ve done a light green with leaves for her. This one is now almost finished. It will get top and bottom borders next week to bring it up to a better length. The last one is greys and blues, also a specific request from the third of the children. All three will get layered next week. Tammy finished another block for the garden themed sampler. Marg is working on a medallion style sampler. And Barbara finished the charm quilt she’s been working on. I’ve been working on a couple of projects here at home, but none have pictures. Perhaps by next week. I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday

Stay at Home Round Robin, prompt 4

 The fourth prompt for this year’s round robin came out last Wednesday, to add curves of some sort to our quilts. They could be in any form we chose, curved piecing, applique, vines, circles, anything that we chose. As usual, I had great and grand ideas of what I wanted to do, but none of them quite worked. I played around with adding Dresden Fans, colourful wheels, drunkard path blocks and they all just sat there saying “meh”, totally underwhelming in the way they looked. But then inspiration hit, facilitated through a video call with my friend Gail, who had a split Drunkard’s Path block up on her design wall in the background of our video call.  Back to Electric Quilt 8 I went and drew up a version of that split block. I really liked it. But then I had to figure out how to do it. I only have one set of templates for a Drunkard’s Path block, and it finishes to 7 inches, much too big. I settled on cutting background squares at 10 inches and circles the size of a sandwich plate which were then appliquéd down using a zig zag stitch on my sewing machine. I then cut them into eight sections and sewed them together, resulting in a 4 inch finished block. A perfect fit for the rest of the quilt.. The original thought was to have These blocks going all the way across. But I quickly changes my mind when I realized that I’d have to make more of them and then have leftovers. So I pulled the previously used quarter square triangle idea out into this border to finish it off. I really like it. The quilt now measures 44x52 inches. I’m looking forward to this Wednesday and the next prompt. I’ll link up to this week’s party here.

 

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’m continuing to make great progress on the Ferret from The Year in the Woods. I’m thinking maybe this week will finish it. I hope so because my supplies for the next set arrived on Friday and I’m itching to get started on it. But I am trying very hard not to leave another cross stitch project as a UFO. I have 3 or 4 of those and don’t want to add any more to that list. I really need to dig out my framing tools and get the first set of these into their frame. It is here, along with the foam core board. All I need to do is find my 3/8 inch pins that I use along the edge of the foam core before lacing it. It’s been sitting waiting in my cupboard since about this time last year. I will be watching the pairs figure skating later this afternoon, so I will put more stitches into this in between the skating. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

What We Are Working On

 We’ve had a couple of really busy weeks at our Prayers and Squares group. I didn’t do a post about it last week though because there wasn’t anything to show that was new. We spent almost the entire afternoon making backs and layering 5 quilts and making the back for a 6th that didn’t get layered due to running out of time. Yesterday, however was much better for doing stuff that needed pictures. Also, I’ve been busy here at home. Janet finished this beautiful top. She picked all the fabrics based on the colours found in the beautiful large scale floral. I’m sure someone will be very glad to receive this one. Tammy is continuing to work on the garden themed sampler. She is doing such a great job for a “beginning” quilter. Here at home I finished the Boston commons quilt I started about 6 weeks ago. It is  one that was layered last week and is now back here waiting its turn to be quilted. And then, after that one was finished I started a very fast one using 2 1/2 inch sets of four that were done leader/ender style and adding solid colours to them. Susan put the binding on it and it is already going to someone in need of comfort and prayer.

I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday

Stay at Home Round Robin Prompt 3

 This week’s prompt asks us to use a block or blocks inspired by the animal kingdom. It could be applique or pieced. 

• A block or unit named after an animal: Bear Paw, Monkey Wrench, Snail's Trail, Birds in the Air, Shoo Fly, Puss in the Corner...there are so many!  Looking for something simple?  There's always that classic quilt unit, Flying Geese.
• Applique of an animal
• Pieced block that looks like an animal
• Fabric that contains animals

There are so many blocks named after animals that it is hard to choose. So, I went searching through my EQ8 libraries for some ideas. I finally narrowed it down to a choice between two, the choices being determined by the size. I didn’t want a large block or blocks, since I don’t want this quilt to end up larger than a lap quilt. I was wavering between a design called Migrating Geese which I planned on putting at the bottom and top to turn the quilt into a rectangle, or a block that I found in EQ called flying goose. I finally decided on the flying goose, using a 4 inch finished block. It looks like a variant of the Birds in the Air. My quilt is now 44 inches square. I was able to bring the black fabric from the centre of the quilt out into the edges and used a large scale blue and orange floral The orange in the middle now feels like it fits with the rest of it. I’ll link up to this weeks party here