Colour Catcher Strings II – Flimsy

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You can sure tell that summer is on its way out! These pictures were taken on the morning of September 1st. That is fog you are looking at. The pictures are taken from our deck looking over the sports fields behind our house. The day brightened up OK, but at the time of these pictures, you would never have known it!



This was today’s fun. This flimsy is made from colour catcher strings measuring 4″ x 9″ – finished size: 3.5″ x 8.5″. I still have 28 colour catcher string pieces left in the box so I may go back and add another row to this one. I have not decided what to do about borders. I am leaning towards a black border and multicoloured binding (thanks, LJ). The size right now is 52″ x 64″. it is definitely large enough for an average lap size quilt. However, since most of my family members are over 6′ tall, I may add another row and lengthen it a bit.


I plan on showcasing another of my Circle Lord templates in the plain black squares perhaps using a variegated thread. This one will have to sit for a while before it gets quilted….customer quilts are waiting!

Laurie and Jamie’s Wedding Quilts Finished

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Did you notice the title of this post? Yes, it says “quilts” –as in more than one.

If you remember back on July 22 I showed you the fabrics that were part of what I was calling the South American Challenge. “Plan A” was to make a Trip Around the World Quilt reflecting Laurie’s (my niece) many trips to far away countries over the years, inspired by the colours in the fabrics that Laurie brought back home to Canada from South America. This plan was proceeding along just fine until I reached the point where I was going to apply the borders to the quilt. The fabrics from South America were not quilting fabrics. These fabrics were of a different weight than the quilting fabrics used in the Trip Around the World quilt and were loosely woven and required stabilizer before I could cut them. I just could not continue with this plan. It was clear that a quilt combining the quilting fabrics and the woven fabrics was not going to happen.

On to “Plan B”. I decided to finish the Trip Around the World quilt with quilting fabrics, adding a narrow border (actually a flap of fabric) and a wider border made from quilting fabrics in the main body of the quilt. In order to still make a quilt from the South American fabrics, I decided to showcase those fabrics in their own quilt. My husband started to refer to this quilt as the “Bonus Quilt”. A simple nine patch made from these fabrics was backed with the same navy blue flannel fabric used to back the Trip Around the World quilt, and quilted in the same manner as the Trip Around the World quilt using the Circle Lord Baptist Fan.

The following three pictures are of the queen size Trip Around the World Quilt.



The following two pictures are of the Nine Patch throw made from the South American fabrics.


The next picture is the happy couple on their wedding day in Hastings, England taken on May 26, 2007. The couple on the left are my BIL and SIL–parents of the bride. Laurie and Jamie were married in England but because many of the Canadian friends and family could not make the trip to England for the special day, a second celebration was held yesterday, August 25, 2007 here in Canada. The quilts were presented to the happy couple at yesterday’s celebration.

Congratulations Laurie and Jamie!

A Quilt sewn together,

With utmost care,

quilted with love,

is a treasure to share.

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down!

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This post is about quilting in that it is about quilting distractions. I had started quilting early Saturday morning and I was making great progress on a customer quilt when my DH interrupted to suggest that we head uptown to watch the demolition of one of our small town’s landmarks. Now remember, this is a small town and we have very little local entertainment. This truly was an opportunity not to be missed.

So we jumped on our bikes and pedaled the few blocks it takes to get uptown from our house. When we arrived, there were already some local residents who had positioned themselves across the street from the demolition.

This is a picture of the side of the local feed mill and farm store . A mural was painted on the side of this building many years ago. Fortunately I had the foresight to take a picture of the mural the week before the building was demolished. The old feed mill was starting to become a real eye sore but it is a shame that we had to loose this mural.

The following are pictures of the demolition as it was taking place Saturday morning.

The equipment operator was truly skilled and it was a pleasure to watch him operate that huge piece of machinery with such finesse. He could use that bucket to remove just one cinder block at a time or he could use the weight of the machine to knock down large sections of the walls at a time.


Given that the highway passes directly next to this demolition, it was a credit to the machine operator that the wall fell inward and not out onto the highway where someone could be seriously hurt.

Rumor has it that this location will soon be the new home of a grocery store.

By the way, I did finish that customer quilt later in the afternoon!

Frogs Warm Wishes – Finished

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This is the Frogs Warm Wishes quilt again–shown in a previous post (scroll down). The binding is finally finished. I had hoped to have this quilt finished sooner, but other commitments were competing for my attention lately.

I have mentioned before that this is one of my favorite quilt patterns. I just love the “recipe“–a focus fabric or novelty print and 3 contrasting fabrics drawn from the colours in the print. A dash of a fourth fabric drawn from the colours in the novelty print can be added as an inner border to add punch if desired.

Simple piecing………just straight lines………..no stretchy bias to deal with…………..just let the fabrics do all the work
!



This is a picture of the quilt back. I was determined to bust stash with this one so I used all of the leftover fabrics from the front of the quilt and added two pieces of green from my stash to make the piece large enough to use as backing for this quilt.
While surfing the Internet, I discovered a site with interesting facts about frogs. This site mentioned that frogs are a protection symbol for children and promote pleasant dreams. I didn’t know this about frogs when I made the quilt, but in hindsight, this information confirms that this will be a great quilt for a young child some day!