Using up the left overs

As I mentioned in my last post, I was going to show you what my quilting bee friend Carol did with her left over fabric, from making the lap size log cabin.  She made two table toppers or you could also consider them to be wheelchair quilts.

Here is the first one.  This is a very simple quilt that looks a bit complicated and a nice use of small leftover pieces.  If you look very closely you will notice that this quilt is basically made up of a set of two strips.  One in the coloured fabric and one in the white.  It is laid out like a rail fence pattern.  The only difference here is that she would have laid the quilt on the design wall/floor to put her colours in groups of four. Or you could make the large block using the four sets of strips in the same colour and lay them out as blocks, distributing the colours across the quilt.

This next one is very nice too!  I could really see this in a queen sized quilt made up in masculine colours for a modern looking quilt for the guy in your life.  This is also a very easy quilt to assemble. Carol would have used her leftover strips from making the log cabin quilt, but you can use up some of your fat quarters or those strips you are saving from the Bonnie's scrap users system.  The layout is again the same as a rail fence pattern.  Just make your blocks what ever size you want and twist every second block to the left.

If you do like Carol did and place your darkest colour (or that wow fabric) on the edge, you will create a zig zag step effect all across the quilt.  Again Carol used white between the colours, which is very pretty and soft looking, but you could use any colour.

And here I thought to add in the original log cabin quilt, so that you can compare colours and see just how different a quilt can look, even when using the same fabrics.  Three different quilts and all of them have a completely different feel to them.  Just beautiful.  Nice job Carol!

I am a fan of Bonnie Hunter as most of you have probably noticed by now.  I truly love her methods of using what you have, scrap quilts and her scrap user system.  Especially her scrap users system.  After I finish a project and trim it up, I will cut up the left overs to add them to my scrap users system, but......next time I do finish a quilt, I think I will see if I might want to make another quilt using the left overs instead.

Carol's Log Cabin quilt

Today is Friday, the last day of the week before my holidays.  I will be off with the kids next week doing various day trips here and there.  Looking forward to the time off. As usual I am also hoping to get lots done.

At the last quilt bee meeting I took pictures of some work that my friend Carol had done or is working on.  She has an ambitious goal of completing all her projects.  She has many tubs full of various things an different stages of completion, from when she owned a store front, quilt store.

This beautiful lap size quilt uses eight log cabin blocks.  There is quite a distinction between the darks and the lights that the design really pops out.  I like the main grey colour that she used with the subtle orange.  I've noticed lately that grey is coming back in, in a big way.  Since I've started quilting twelve years ago, I rarely noticed grey on the shelves in the quilt stores.  Now I am seeing whole shelves filled with grey.

Very nice Carol.  Your quilt is beautiful!

Pay attention to the fabric on this quilt, because tomorrow I will show you a couple of other quilts Carol has made with the left over fabric.  Same fabric, but completely different quilts.  

Slow but steady

I am back.  My Dad is back home and things are starting to settle back down around here.  Things are well again.  While my Dad was in the hospital, the family was taking shifts twenty-four hours a day.  The infection made him quite disoriented, sleepy and reverting back to his native tongue (French).

So, while he slept I did some hand work.  In this case mostly dismantling hexagons.  In general it would take an hour or so to do one diamond, depending on whether Dad was sleeping or awake.  Slow process, but I needed something to do to pass the hours at the hospital. I would work on this while there was light and during the nights when lights were out, I would take out my tablet to read.

I started with twenty-two diamonds and now have only eleven more to go.  This is also something you can do while watching tv.  It would take a bit longer, but it is not a rush.  I find the tasks for quilting to be more of a pastime.  I will work at reconstructing a quilt at my leisure.  It is kind it therapeutic, peaceful and helps to take your mind off of worries by giving your hands something to do and your mind something to concentrate on.

On the one day when I came home from a night spent at the hospital, I went out back, where my hubby sits and reads his paper in the mornings.  I am just recalling the night and thinking of going to sleep, when I look down and see this beautiful splash of colour.  The colours are so cheerful and uplifting.

Later that day after a much needed sleep I roamed the garden to check out what else has been going on.  That is when I came across these two rose bushes.  These roses were here when we move in, but because of moving them to a better sunnier location the one year, they didn't bloom the last year, so I am seeing them for the first time now.

I thought the orange one to be quite unique and the red one had numerous blooms on it.  I cut the bushes last year right down to give them a new start, but in time they will be beautiful.  They are climbers and will climb the fence eventually.

Now that I have had a couple of days to get back to normal, I will start sharing with you what I am up to.  Tomorrow though I will share with you what one of my Quilting Bee friends has been working on.  Until that time, stop and take some time to smell the roses (pun intended).

Just letting you know

Just letting you know that there will not be any posts for a bit.  My father is back in the hospital.  Once I deal with what is happening I can get back into posting.

A day for getting things done

Today so far has been a day for getting things done.  A great big hurray!!!  I finished quilting my big queen sized log cabin quilt!!!  Pictures will follow once I finish the binding.  I made the binding and sewed it on by machine.  Now I need to tack it down by hand.  I am really so excited about this finish. I haven't finished a quilt of my own for a very long time.  My daughter is excited too, because now I can start quilting her quilt.

As I had the walking foot on the machine from sewing the binding on, I decided to finally finish the remaining pot holders that I started a little while ago.  They turned out good.

Later after I make lunch, I am thinking of sitting down and tacking down the binding of the 3D pinwheels quilt.  The baby shower is coming up shortly.  Can't show up with an unfinished present.

Happy thoughts to everyone on this cloudy day.

Working on quilting my Log Cabin quilt

Today I am working on quilting my Log Cabin quilt.  It's going great so far.  I have all the dark halves done and I have just over half of the light halves done.  I'm liking it so far.

For the dark side, I've decided to go simple with straight lines following each log.  I also decided to do the light side simple, but this time with all curvy lines.  I am quilting daisies and a vine to connect them to each other.

The daisy design is called Tropical Vine Bdr. by Laura Estes in 3 1/2" size.  I like it.  As I did the dark with lines, it is making the light side stand out so much.  I used a light taupe coloured thread so that it would blend with both the dark and light side, as well as the backing which is beige.

I am taking a short tea break, and I'll be back to it.  I am trying very hard to get this one completely done today.  What are the chances?  Don't know but I will give it a good shot.

I have my daughter's grey backing fabric in the washer now for her 16 patch pinwheel quilt.  I need to pin it and start sewing in the ditch to secure it.  She is still trying to finalize her choice for the quilting designs.

Stars lap quilt

I found another quilt I made.  I had forgotten about this one.  It sits on the back of my chair in my guest room/sitting room.  I sit in this chair often while I do my handwork.  The reason I forgot about it is that I my Sewing Machine Appliqué wall hanging that I am working on, is draped over top of this quilt.  I haven't worked on the wall hanging since....well I don't know how long, but a very long time. I think it hasn't been since before last summer when I received a couple of boxes to sort out and make or quilt some quilts.

This quilt was started back in Jan/05 and was finished in Dec/10.  This quilt was something that got started from the sample squares mail out.

There used to be a store in St. Jacobs, Ontario that you could sign up to receive a 2 1/2" square from each of the fabrics they got in during the month. Some of them came to me by mail each month.  Maybe about a year into it, the store announced that they were closing.  They had a big going out of business sale.

That's when I picked up some more packages of these muddied greens, browns, blacks, reds and some blues.  I rounded out the squares with some fat quarters that I picked up at Quilter's Fancy and started making the quilt.  The start date is from the time I started collecting the fabric, until I finished quilting the quilt.

I like how the blocks go right into the border and the middle of the quilt seems to float on the border. I used a autumn themed flannel black fabric for the backing.  Below is a picture of a close up.  On the right is the black border fabric. 

This was an easy quilt to make.  I figure I may make it again, this time with brighter colours.  The lap size quilt is a great size for give away quilts.

I will have to do some more thinking.  Maybe I have a couple of other quilts hiding around that I forgot about, though I doubt it.