CROSS HATCHED 9-PATCH

Yesterday, I attended a workshop with the Halton Hills Quilters' Guild and Jackie Syer, our teacher.   What a great time we had.  Jackie had three, yes three, patterns from which we could chose.  I chose the Cross Hatched 9-patch.  The pattern uses jelly-roll fabric or 2.5" squares.  I have TONS of fabric so I chose to go the scrappy-look route.  Of course I took with me way more 2.5" squares than needed.  I think that I could probably make four or five quilts with all the scraps that I have.

2.5" squares

                      

The 9-patch blocks were chain-pieced.

This is the first block, partially stitched - only 82 more to go.

After a long day, 83 9-patch blocks were produced. Yeah!

SQUARES AND CIRCLES, OH MY!

I'm off to my workshop and I think that I've changed my mind.  I don't want to use diagonals and triangles.  I'm going to work on squares and circles.  I've even changed the background fabric from black to white.  After HOURS of cutting, here's what I have - a stack of 2.5" strips for the workshop and a stack of 1.5" strips for another project.  Wish me luck.

TAKE A BITE

I know why I don't have enough time to quilt.  I spend too much time on other activities.

These were made for a work function.

Beware!

I drew a tree on the pumpkins with permanent marker, drilled holes randomly, then stuck mini lights through each hole.  I thought that it would an easy-to-do decoration, but it took hours - all for 26 kids that stopped by during a rainy and windy Halloween night.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

I haven't caught up with the season.  It's Halloween already and I haven't even carved the pumpkin.

I did manage to create a couple postcards in keeping with the day.

THOSE POSTCARDS KEEP COMIN'

So many postcards have arrived lately and I have had no time to show you.

July's theme was trees:

August's theme was Landscapes:

September's theme was Succulents:

One member of the group is way ahead of schedule and sent these:

October's theme is Cats:

November's theme is Love:

December's theme is Circles:

QUILTS

I started making large bed quilts when I was in my teens and have slowly progressed towards making art quilts.  I appreciate the importance of traditional patchwork and sometimes want to make a larger bed quilt.  

I recently completed these two quilts.    The blocks had spent way too long in storage.

PATIO LANTERNS

This was made up from Block of the Month winnings.  As I was stitching the blocks together, I kept singing a Kim Mitchell song called Patio Lanterns, hence the title.

COUNTRY HEARTS

I began this quilt in 1990 something - you can tell from the lovely country plaids.   My intention was to machine piece the quilt top, and then to hand quilt.  I chose a flannel backing so that the quilt would feel as warm as it looked.  I'm not the best hand quilter at any time, but quilting through cotton, batting and flannel was not my best plan.  It was tough going and I struggled through most of it (breaking lots of needles), but ended up finishing with lots of machine quilting.

I've had my fix of patchwork for a while!

DIAGONAL TRIANGLES

I've signed up for a quilting workshop next weekend.  I knew that there was some prep work involved, but I didn't realize how much prep work.  I needed to either purchase a couple jellyrolls or cut 80 x 2.5" strips.  I need to make a dint in some of my scraps so I decided to start cutting from my stash.  OMG where to I start?  This pile is almost as tall as me.  Yikes!

I don't even try to keep it under control.  Maybe it's time to start?????

At least these are colour coded.

The plan is to press and cut and organize all day long.  Wish me luck.