Projects From the De-Stash Table

At our guild’s January meeting every year we have our De-Stash. Members bring any quilting related or other craft items that they want to get rid of. The items are put out on tables and the members get to pick through them and take home anything that they want. Any unclaimed items at the end of the night are donated to a local thrift shop that benefits a Women’s shelter.

About three years ago during De-Stash, I picked up a large ziplock bag of pieced triangles and some 2.5 inch strips from a jelly roll. I pulled out the triangles and tried to piece them into hexagons. The piecing wasn’t the best by the original quilter so piecing together into hexagons was a frustrating exercise. I finally gave up on that idea and just started to randomly piece them together in an improv fashion. Once I had a large unit pieced together, I trimmed it square into a block. This is the resulting quilt top. The blue sashing strips were in my stash. The Moda fabric on the border was something I picked up at last year’s De-Stash night.

This quilt top was made from the 2.5 inch jelly roll strips that were in that ziplock bag. I pieced string blocks and then put them together with the beige tone on tone fabric from my stash to make string pieced half square triangle blocks. I played with the placement of the blocks until I got a layout that I liked given the number of blocks that I had.

The COVID-19 pandemic has prevented us from attending in-person guild sew-ins since March. For the last two Friday nights I have hosted Zoom sew-ins for members of our guild from 6 pm to 10 pm. These on-line sew-ins have been well attended which confirms that our membership is craving social interaction. These sew-ins have proved productive for me and have jump started my quilting again. I finished putting these two tops together to the flimsy stage during these sew-ins.

Quilt Show Weekend

This weekend was our local guild’s quilt show.  Set up was Friday.  We opened Friday night from 5 pm to 9 pm.  This was the first year that we opened our show up to the public on Friday night.  Saturday we were open from 9 am to 4 pm.

This was the view as you came in the door of the church.

This was our raffle quilt.  This was the first year that we sold all of the tickets that we had printed.

This is our guild banner.

We had a small merchants’ mall as well.

And now….on with the show!

I spent all day Saturday demoing crumb and string quilting.  This was my table – set up in front of one of my quilts, Got Stripes that was entered in the show.

1.)  I entered a total of 14 quilts in this show.  Got Stripes is 99.5″ x 115.5″.  The Pattern is by Terry Atkinson  from Terry’s Time Out Quilts book.  This quilt is part of a collection of quilts gifted to my daughter and her husband on the occasion of their wedding on September 1, 2012.

This was the display that I looked at as I demoed on Saturday.

This display was also in my field of vision as I worked away at my demo table.

2.)  This is where my quilt, Love Is was hanging.

A closeup of Love Is.  This quilt is 37.5″ x 49.5″.  This pattern is by Paula Stoddard and was on her blog, Quilt Happy, Quilt Often, at one time. This quilt was presented to my daughter at her bridal shower in August.

3.)  This is another one of my quilts–Minnesota Hot Dish.  This quilt is 86″ x 101″.  The pattern is by Terry Atkinson and is also part of a collection of quilts presented to my daughter and her husband at their wedding on September 1, 2012.

4.)  This is another of my quilts, Butterfly Trails.  This quilt is 64″ x 77″.  The pattern is by Atkinson Designs and is from Terry’s book, Time Out Quilts.  This quilt is part of the collection of quilts that was presented to my daughter and her husband on their Wedding Day.

5.)  This is where Bento Box hung at the show.

Bento Box was the fifth quilt that I entered in this show and is 61″ x 75″.  This pattern is by Tracy Brooksheir.  This quilt also forms part of the collection of quilts that were presented to my daughter at her bridal shower.

This picture shows the long row of quilts that hung on the far wall of the hall.  Two of my quilts are visible in this picture – Pansies and Fire Escape.

6.)  Pansies is 51.5″ x 68″.  The pattern is by Kari Nichols.  This quilt forms part of the collection of quilts that were gifted to my daughter at her bridal shower.

7.)  This is Fire Escape.  This quilt is 59.5″ x 71″.  This quilt was presented to my daughter at her bridal shower.

8.)  This is where my Jelly Roll 1600 quilt hung at the show.

This is a closeup of JR1600.  This quilt is 47.5″ x 62″.  This quilt still belongs to me!  The pattern for this quilt can be found on You Tube.  The online quilting group that I belong to–the FABs–celebrated each quilter’s birthday in 2011 with an online birthday party.  This quilt was assembled during Pam’s birthday party.  After the presents were opened, we were on to the rest of the party.  Pam and Cher used commercial Jelly Rolls and Linda, Pat, and I used strips cut from our own stash.  After joining 40 – 2.5″ strips end to end you have 1,600 inches of fabric.  Take the end of your strip and match it with the beginning of your strip and put the pedal to the metal and sew!  You will be working on one long seam–800 inches long.  You repeat this 5 times and you end up with a lap sized quilt.  There is to be no pressing of seams until the top is done.  The women on the video claimed to be making their tops in 35 minutes.  It took longer than 35 minutes for me to complete my first seam!  After sewing my top together I thought my top needed something more.  All the green fabrics looked like a lawn to me so I thought about adding some bugs.  After the quilting was finished, I appliqued the 5 ladybugs to the top–one ladybug for each FAB.

9.)  This is a wall hanging that I made from a panel.  I called this one, Love.  (Not very original, eh?)  The pattern that I used was Sidelights by Kari Nichols.  This one finished 46″ x 53″.

10.)  This is where my quilt, Halloween Scrappy Log Cabin hung at the show.

Halloween Scrappy Log Cabin is from a pattern by Two Kwik Quilters and finished 47.5″ x 66.5″.  This was a pattern that many of us from our Monday night quilt group have made.

11.)  This is the quilt that I finished recently–Fall Rail Fence.  This quilt finished at 68″ x 86″ and was inspired by a quilt on the cover of the January 1999 issue of Traditional Quilter.  The quilt in the magazine was called, Christmas Village and had a border of foundation pieced houses and trees on it.  I started this quilt in 1999 and by the time I got around to finishing it recently, I decided that I no longer liked the border that was on the quilt in the pattern so I replace the pieced border with this green/sunflower print.

12.)  This quilt literally came right off our bed before it was hung in the show.  This quilt is 95.5″ x 103.5″ and is called, Rooster Twist.  The name of the quilt pattern is Strip Twist and is by G.E. Designs.  I belong to a group of on-line quilters called the FABs.  One member is from Wisconsin, two members are from Oregon, another member is from Alabama, and then there is myself.  Although we had quilted together on line since 2006, only a few of us had met in person before we got together for a retreat in 2009.  We had a great time–each of us piecing together our own version of this quilt.  Friendships were bonded together forever that weekend and we continue to quilt together most weekends thanks to MSN and e-mails.

13.)  This is a small version–61.5″ x 72.5″–of a larger bed size quilt that I made, All About Halloween.  This is another Terry Atkinson pattern–All About Me.  This quilt was gifted to my son and his wife after the quilt show.   This quilt was a healthy alternative to trick or treat candy this year.

14.)  This is the last quilt that I entered in our quilt show this year.  This quilt is Halloween contemporized Country Squares and measures 73″ x 85″.  This pattern is by The Stitchery in Olds, Alberta.  While attending a family reunion near Olds, Alberta in August 2010, I had an opportunity to visit a local quilt shop called The Stichery.  I fell in love with the samples of this quilt that they had hanging in the shop and purchased my own copy of the pattern from the mother/daughter team that designed the pattern.  This pattern was perfect for my Halloween scrap collection.  This quilt was gifted to my daughter and her husband after the quilt show and was a healthyy alternative to trick or treat candy.

This is a picture of one of the fresh flower arrangements that decorated the tea room tables.

By the end of the show, I was exhausted.  It is always a lot of work to put on a show like this.  However, it is all worth it when you receive the positive comments from the public like we did.  See you all in another two years!

Challenges

I love a quilting challenge. When the opportunity to participate in a challenge comes my way, I am right there, ready to sign up.

Last summer when the FABs were together for our first retreat, two members, Linda and Pam were ready with a challenge for the group and the, “Baby it’s cold outside!!!” challenge was launched.

We were each provided 1 yard of soft lilac fabric – not blue and not purple, but somewhere in between the two colours. (Finding some fabric to go with the challenge fabric proved to be a challenge in itself. During my quest for just the right “go withs”, I found several fabrics that I loved but were either too blue or too purple to go with the challenge yardage.)

The rules were wonderful and included a comment that “rules were meant to be slightly torqued”.
* Have fun
* Procrastinate (up to one day prior to mailing is quite acceptable.)
* Let your imagination soar–BE CREATIVE
* TRY to keep it a secret

Well, I definitely followed the rules. The challenge was a blast. I definitely procrastinated. Even though we had months to finish our challenge project, I took the last stitches on my project on January 31, 2010. The mailing deadline was February 1st and my project was mailed on that date. I changed my mind so many times during the months leading up to the deadline that I feel like I was really exploring my creative side. Each idea that I came up with seemed better than the last until finally time dictated exactly what I was going to work on as there was no time left to change my mind again. I was able to keep my project a secret from Linda although it was really hard. Linda and I are used to collaborating on our projects and not being able to share photos and comments about what I was working on with her was a challenge in itself!

Finally, this is what I came up with for my challenge partner, Linda. I know that Linda has space limitations in her house so I wanted to make sure I was going to be giving Linda something that she could use, not something that she would be stuck trying to find room for in her house. I know that Linda does use placemats so that was the first project I made. The mauve portion of the placemats was the challenge fabric. When the weather is cold outside, my thoughts go to Spring and warmer weather so I included pieces of floral fabrics. My fabrics were not just any florals though–they were scraps from the last project that Linda and I worked on together. This was a subtle part of the project that was not lost on Linda. When Linda opened her package, she immediately recognized those florals as being part of my Daisy Chain project which we recently worked on in January. I quilted the placemats with narrow parallel stitch lines – 1/2″ apart. I love dense quilting and I wanted to include that element in my project. I finished off my project by washing the placemats to give them that antique crinkled look that I love. But, I was not done. One of the things I like to do in a challenge where I am provided with a fabric is to use as much of it up as possible. So, I made a second project. Remember I said I had a tough time coming up with the “go with” fabrics? After I had the placemat tops pieced, I found the perfect piece of fabric in the fabric shop that went with the challenge fabric. It was a gorgeous butterfly fabric. Using what I had left of the challenge fabric I made Linda a tote. This tote pattern is one I have made several times before. It uses denim for the base and web handles that completely envelop the bag. It is a very sturdy tote, perfect for filling with books. You can’t see the challenge fabric in this picture as it is actually the lining for the tote.


This is the gift that I received from Pat in the exchange. Pat used the challenge fabric on the fish and in the pieced border. Pat made sure she included fish in my project as she knows only too well about my husband’s love of fish. Pat was very thoughtful in making sure she considered my husband in my project. Pat included the perfect finishing touches, quilting that looks like water and beads for the fish “bubbles”. I love my quilt. This quilt reminds me of the water around a tropical island which is where I would definitely like to head, “When baby it’s cold outside!”

We have already launched the next FAB challenge, which will be the fourth challenge our group has done. The theme of this one, is “Fall”. We have until September 15, 2010 to mail our project to our partner. …..and the best part, that is it for the rules! We don’t have any challenge fabric that we have to work with. And we are only limited by our own creativity. Fall can be Halloween, schoolhouses, leaves, thanksgiving, and fabric prints that encompass fall coloured fabrics and images. I am going to have fun with this one. I love fall and I have a ton of fabrics in my stash that are screaming to be used in this challenge!
The last challenge that I am working on is for our Quilt Guild’s fall show. We were given a piece of batik fabric, 6″ x 21″ (picture below). The theme is, “Circles in the Valley”. The quilt can be no smaller than 14″ square and no larger than 48″ square. We must use at least half of the challenge fabric and it must be very visible and large enough to be identifiable. Each quilt must include a minimum of one circle and it cannot be any smaller than 1.5″ in diameter. We are allowed to make this one of our own designs or use a commercial pattern as long as we identify our source on the label. I am so grateful that this is not a challenge that Linda is participating in as I have been using her talents big time on this one–she is my main resource. This morning Linda and I have been busy sharing ideas back and forth. Sorry, I can’t share more details than that as I know several of my fellow guild members follow my blog.

There is nothing better than a challenge to get the creative juices flowing.

Wednesday evening was our regular Quilt Guild meeting. The Workshop Committee encouraged members to bring along their hand work to this meeting so that we could stitch and visit the evening away. As you can see, these ladies are very busy stitching.

Busy hands…..

Wonderful handwork on these crazy quilt blocks.


We also had a short presentation from Grace. Grace talked about her years of quilting–she has been quilting since 1976–33 years!
Other members are being encouraged to share their “quilting journey” in the coming months. What a great way to get to know one another a little more.

Grace led us through how she started quilting through to the present time with wonderful humour and some great samples of her work.

Show and share is always a popular part of the evening.
These blocks were won by one of our members in a monthly block draw last year. The blocks made up into two wonderful lap sized quilts.

Dorothy has been chosen by our quilt committee to be our featured quilter at our upcoming quilt show in October 2010. Dorothy has been quilting since she was 5 years old. Many of Dorothy’s family members have benefited by her wonderful talent and generosity as she shares her finished projects with many of them.

This giraffe project was perfectly timed for our show and share as there had been an announcement on that night’s news that there were two baby giraffes born in the Fraser Valley this week–one in Aldergrove and one in Langley. Janet told us her project was a 39 year old UFO! Congratulations on getting this one off the UFO pile and onto the wall, Janet!

These small quilts have Velcro on the back so that they can be rearranged on the wall of the library. Enid was responsible for getting this project off the ground and sharing it with the local library. Each block was designed by Enid and represents a different children’s story.

And of course the grand finale that is always a great hit – the revealing of We Care quilts that have been turned in that month.

Quilt Guild Show and Tell

Last Wednesday night was the first meeting of our Quilt Guild for the 2009-2010 year. We were treated to two small quilt shows that night. The first, presentation was “A” is for Applique by Judith. Judith has been nominated for CQA (Canadian Quilters’ Association) Teacher of the Year. Judith’s presentation was part slide show and part trunk show with the actual quilts.
The second treat for the evening was a show and tell of projects made by some of the members through the summer. Someone commented that we had enough quilts in our show and tell portion of the evening to hold a quilt show. I was sitting in the second row of the audience so some of my pictures are partially obstructed. Sit back and enjoy the show, just as I did on Wednesday night.

And of course, the best part of show and tell is the “train” of donaiton We Care quilts that forms around the room at the end of the presentation.