Author Archives: Norma Hanson

Quilt Retreat – Friendship Blocks

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Only two more days until I leave for the FAB retreat!

We had decided some time ago to do a friendship block exchange. Every participant explained to the group what they would like for their friendship block and each person in the group was to make a block following those guidelines.

The first block I made was a Wonky Star for Pat. Pat requested a blue star on a yellow background. I picked a turquoise blue – my favorite blue right now because it reminds me of Arizona. Hopefully, the link to Arizona will help Pat remember which block is mine. This was my first ever attempt at wonky anything so I am not so sure I got it right, but IIWII! Since I was already in a wonky frame of mind, I decided to push on to the second block which was also to be wonky. This wonky house is for Cher. Cher said it didn’t have to look like our house; we were just to have fun with it. There are some things in this block that are taken from my house – the cat in the window, the red door, and the red maple in the yard. This was only my second attempt at anything wonky. I am not so sure I got it right, but once again, IIWII.

The next block was not really a block at all. We were to make block parts using Pam’s favorite fabric: ME. I went through my small stash of ME fabric to find the piece that had the most green in it. Green is my favorite colour so of course, I had to have green in my block. I believe Pam is going to assemble the parts we give her into a piece to frame for her kitchen wall. Cute idea!

The last block is for Linda. Linda had shown us her block which had pink, purple, and green in it so we could get some hints of the colours she was looking for. Of course, I had to make my block green! If you double click on the picture, you might be able to see the words and the drawings of the cats on the fabric. Green and cats–yup that is me!


I still have a few more strips to cut for the Strip Twist project we are going to be working on at retreat so I had better get back at it. Thursday will be here before we know it!

Quilt Retreat – Strip Twist Quilt

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Thursday morning I leave for Oregon to attend the first FAB Quilting Retreat. The quilt that we are going to work on is Strip Twist from G.E. Designs. This is the pattern jacket.
I started out with two fat quarter packs of soft pastel blues, greens, and pinks. I have since changed my mind on what fabric I want to make my version of Strip Twist from. While organizing my fabric cupboard, I became re-acquainted with a fabulous chicken/rooster print that was in my stash. This is a picture of that print with my rotary cutter in the picture to show the scale of the birds.

I have now decided to use this print as the border on my Strip Twist quilt. The blocks are all going to be made from the many colours taken from the birds in the print. All of the strips that I have cut for my blocks so far have come from my stash.

These are the strips that I have cut so far. As you can see from the picture, there are more green strips than any other colour. I guess that is no surprise since my favorite colour is green and I have more green fabrics in my stash than any other colour. LOL The wild rust and green print on the bottom of the picture was part of a basket of fabric and notions that I won at our guild’s quilt show last year. it is a little out there, but the colours work so in it goes. I am trying to follow some of the guidelines that Alex Anderson uses when making her quilts.
I needed to test the pattern to figure out how many blocks I could get out of a strip of fabric. The pattern says you should get 4 blocks from a strip of fabric. I tried a couple of different strips of fabric and find that I can get only 3 blocks from some strips (just a tad short) and I can get 4 blocks from others. I may run out of the chicken wire fabric (that I am using for my light) before anything else. I want to make my quilt bed size – preferably queen. Although this project is a little “planned”, it will also be somewhat driven by the number of blocks I can get out of that chicken wire print. I may pull a backup light from my stash if I need to squeeze in a few more blocks.
This is a very cute pattern and the construction is simple. The pattern is solely made from 2.5 inch strips. That narrow light strip is cleverly constructed after sewing 2.5 inch strips together into stratas of 3 strips and then making a secondary cut. The blocks also make use of the partial seam method which avoids set in seams. It will be fun to see this same pattern in the fabric choices of the other FABs.

Dryer Sheet String Flimsy

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This was yesterday’s finish. The dryer sheet string top is now a completed flimsy. This is another big one – 92″ wide x 104″ long. I have used up every last little scrap of the blue batik star fabric on the sashing and outer border. I was originally going to put a 6″ outer border on this one, but the remaining fabric after cutting sashing only allowed for a 4″ border. I have lots of the red fabric left so this one will likely be bound in red once it is quilted.

We are in for another bright sunny day and you can see the sun already shining through the top of this quilt top as it hangs from the clothes line.

Daffodil BQ2

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I finished piecing my Daffodil BQ2 on Friday night. The pattern does not suggest borders. However, I just can’t leave a quilt without borders. To me a quilt without borders seems unfinished. I guess I am just not a borderless kind of gal.

My border dilemma was complicated by the fact that I only had about a 6″ wide strip of the yellow fabric left and absolutely nothing left of the green fabric. In fact, I had pieced together strips of green in order to be able to finish the last couple of blocks. I knew I couldn’t buy any more of the green as I had purchased everything that was left on the bolt. The quilt shop might have some of the yellow left though as it was a fairly recent purchase. Friday was super hot here and I just didn’t feel like heading into town to go to the fabric shop. I turned to my stash. I picked out a blue that picked up the background colour of the blocks and an orange that picked up the colour in the center of the flowers.

I felt like the orange or option #2 was the best. However, when in doubt, turn to your friends. Linda was available to view my two options and lend her assistance.

Here is option #1 with the blue:

Here is option #2 with the orange:


Linda confirmed that orange was the right choice.

Saturday morning we had garage sale #3 of 3. These garage sales are all part of this family’s dedication to a “less is more” attitude that we have adopted. At noon, we decided that we had probably sold all we could sell and we boxed up the few leftovers and delivered them to the grateful ladies at our local thrift shop. Proceeds from sales of items donated to our local thrift shop go directly back into our little town through Community Services. It was important to me that we also respect the “green” approach to disposal and not just fill the landfill. DH and I managed to sort through all totes in the garage and label the outsides with the contents. The floor is now swept and the car is back in its cozy home inside the garage. What a great feeling of accomplishment!
In the afternoon, I tackled that BQ2 again. I was ready to add the borders to that quilt. Borders are usually the stalling point for me on quilt construction and I was determined not to loose the wonderful feeling of achievement from the morning’s activities. I pushed on during the afternoon and finished piecing the borders by evening.
This quilt is now very large–105″ wide x 123″ long. Remember, this was a completed queen size quilt according to the pattern before I added the borders. This is such a cheerful quilt. The flowers are daffodils. April is Daffodil Month for the Canadian Cancer Society. http://www.cancer.ca/ontario.aspx?sc_lang=en Daffodil Days started back in the 1950’s. The daffodil is considered a bright, cheerful flower that creates an atmosphere that radiates hope and faith that cancer can be beaten. Just a side note, the orange fabric I chose, was from the “Quest for a Cure” fabric line. I didn’t know that detail when I was picking the fabric. It seems appropriate that a Quest for a Cure fabric would be used to compliment the daffodils in this quilt. Also, did you notice that the orange fabric was also a dot fabric–I am sure Alex Anderson would be pleased!

This is a picture of the pattern jacket:

Check out Maple Island Quilts website for this and some other great patterns. http://www.mapleislandquilts.com/quiltpatterns.asp

Just a parting shot of the finished flimsy hanging in my yard.

The Perfect Fabric and Shopping With Alex

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This striped fabric is one I purchased last week to go with these wonderful cactus prints. I have been on the hunt for the perfect stripe to go with this panel fabric for some time. I walked into a local fabric shop last week, and there it was, and on sale! What really amazed me was that I purchased this stripe entirely from memory–I did not have the cactus print with me at the time. I was so excited when I got home and discovered that it matched perfectly!

This weekend, the 2 to 3 minute clips from Alex Anderson’s classroom on The Quilt Show are free. http://www.thequiltshow.com/os/alex.php/alex_id/91 In particular, I have enjoyed listening to Alex’s fabric purchasing tips. Alex never buys yards and yards of the same fabric unless it is a particularly extraordinary piece that you are not likely to see again, or if it is a focus fabric and you will need some for the border. Alex says she wants to be able to go to the quilt shop when she starts a new project to buy some new pieces to incorporate into her support stash. By only buying 1/3 to 1/2 yard pieces of fabric for her stash she is able to constantly add to her existing stash as she starts new projects and she doesn’t end up with yards and yards of stuff that she will likely tire of before she uses it all. Alex also mentioned that she never buys less than 1/3 yard of a particular fabric. She does this because pieces narrower than 1/3 yard seem to turn to shoestrings when you pre-wash them in the washer.

Alex talks about buying “sparkle” fabrics and “bridge” fabrics. Sparkle fabrics have a bit of light sprinkled across them. Alex buys 1/3 of a yard of these fabrics. Bridge fabrics have a bunch of different shades of the same colour sprinkled across them. Alex claims that green bridge fabrics are easy to come by, but bridge fabrics in other colours are harder to find. When you find a great bridge fabric, buy 1/2 to 1 yard of it.

Alex talked about circles, dots, and stripes. These fabrics she purchases in 1/2 yard increments. Alex talked about using the stripes as inner borders.

I enjoyed Alex’s discussion of what makes a monochromatic (one colour family) quilt work. She maintains that you must include white in a monochromatic quilt to keep it from going flat. You also need to make sure that you include a sizable mix of size and scale of print. You need to include a full range of light to dark fabrics. Alex also mentioned that it would take a couple of years to accumulate a serious collection of one colour fabrics that will work in a successful monochromatic quilt. This is because some of those fabrics required to make that collection work successfully in a monochromatic quilt will be harder to come by.

I haven’t been a big purchaser of sparkle, bridge, dot, and stripe fabric in the past. However, after purchasing just the right stripe last week, I think I am a convert to Alex’s fabric methodology. I guess I need to go shopping because my collection definitely needs some enhancing with sparkle, bridging, dots, circles, and stripes! LOL