I have been quilting – just not for myself. I finished the quilting on this customer quilt last night. I really enjoyed working on this one because it is made with blocks from my quilt guild’s BOM last year. The blocks were all variations of baskets. The sunflower in the center is from a demonstration we had one night at guild on the Dresden Plate. I thought the quilter was very clever in putting the sunflower into the same quilt as the baskets.
This is the back of the same quilt. Very creative piecing for a quilt back, isn’t it?

I didn’t crop the picture so you can see the top of my husband’s head and his hands. He reluctantly agreed to hold this quilt for a photo. (He was standing on a stool. He isn’t really that tall.) The picture was taken before 7:00 this morning. I have found that the best pictures of quilts – to show off the quilting – need to be taken outside, either early in the morning or in the evening. Of course when I asked him to hold the quilt, I mentioned that if I could do it myself–hold the quilt and operate the camera at the same time–I wouldn’t bother him to help. He quickly replied, “You have a timer on that camera don’t you?” I bet you can visualize the look I gave him at that point–no words were spoken. A reluctant helper is better than no helper at all!

Usually my son helps me by holding my quilts for pictures – he is tall – 6’7″ so he rarely needs to stand on anything. His arm span fits a quilt better than his dad too! However, if I want to wait for him, I will wait a few more hours until he gets out of bed, and then the lighting won’t be as friendly to the quilts.

I guess if I made this a paid position I might get more willing “helpers”!

I have received several comments about my scrap quilts. For me, scrap quilts are by far the most interesting and the most fun to make. I feel they most closely resemble the quilts that the early prairie pioneers made–which is where my roots are. Quilts were made for a purpose – to stay warm – made from scraps of material used to make clothing and made from recycled clothing – there was no waste. The idea that you would begin making a quilt by going to the store to buy half a dozen coordinating fabrics from a designer’s line was non existent.

I collect patterns that I think are suited to scrap quilts. Sources of inspiration are the internet, quilt shows, show and tell at guild night, etc. As I finish a project, I “catalogue” the pieces that are left over. Large pieces are stored in covered Rubbermaid bins, organized by colour. Smaller pieces are cut into useful pieces–strips of various widths, squares, or recently rectangles. Scraps that don’t fit into one of these categories go into a drawer by colour for later use in crumb or crazy quilts.

I think of these pre-cut pieces as quilt “seeds”. The part I like the least in the quilting process is the cutting out of the pieces. If I keep my fabric cut as I go along, the worst part of the process is over. My bins are already full of quilt pieces ready to be assembled. (This could be why I have so many UFOs–they sit on the shelves and tempt me to try something new!)

Recently, I went through my stash and culled some of the larger pieces that I didn’t seem to have used for a very long time. These pieces brought new life to my scrap stash.

I spent Friday night cleaning, vacuuming, and dusting my studio. Everything has been put back into its place.

These are photos of my studio. I spent a few hours on Saturday quilting. I finished two more rows on my Bricks and Stepping Stones quilt. It feels good to be quilting again!

We had our last quit guild meeting of the year last night. Following tradition, we have a pot luck dinner for the last meeting of the year. The pot luck hosted by the Quilt Guild is always the best pot luck I attend all year. Quilters know how to cook! Food and quilting just seem to go naturally together!

Another lady sitting at my table, Sharon, and I were commenting that we never seem to win anything. When they drew membership numbers for the door prize, we both won! We each won a piece of Christmas fabric. My piece was a fat quarter featuring Jim Shore’s Santas.

Our guild usually sponsors a summer challenge. The challenge this year was to start by picking a paint chip from a paper bag (so that you couldn’t see which one you were getting) to determine the colour scheme of your project.

Using the pinwheel variations block shown below and the paint colour chip selected you have to make a quilt or wall hanging no larger than 18″ square. You can make just one block or as many as you want as long as the quilt is no larger than 18″. You must use at least one of the colours from the paint chip and you can introduce other colours but the paint chip colour must be the predominant one.

At first I thought I had drawn a “dud” when I picked my paint chip. I picked a neutral beige coloured chip. I watched others at my table pick pretty pinks, greens, blues, and reds and I tried desperately to trade with someone. No luck.

Then, the winner of the UFO challenge was announced. We had an ongoing challenge since Sept. to see who could finish the most UFOs. I won the prize for the most UFOs finished in the large quilt category (having the long arm definitely helped here). My prize was 15 fat quarters from the Teresa Kogut’s Williamsburg collection.

The fat quarter on the top of the pile was a perfect match for my paint chip. I was no longer interested in trading!

Oh, and remember my saying that Sharon and I “never win anything”. Well, Sharon won the prize in the UFO category for the most small quilts finished. Sharon and I decided that we should probably be buying lottery tickets. For two people who never win anything, we each won our share last night!

Bring on the heat, bring on the sun! We bought a central air conditioning unit over a year ago but never had it installed at that time. All last summer, on the hottest days, I would drive into the garage and look at that air conditioner, sitting all cozy inside its cardboard box. We would be melting in the house while that air conditioner was safe and secure in the garage. Not this year. My husband arranged to have the unit installed today. Bring on summer! We are ready!

The only downside to this installation is that everything in my studio had to be moved to the centre of the room in order to give the workmen access to the electrical box and ceiling to install the unit. Of course, there is now dust, sawdust, etc. that has to be cleaned up before I can go back to quilting.

Once I have cleaned up and put everything back in its place, I will be quilting in comfort!