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Challenge 2017-#8

Well, It is the middle of week 7 of 2017 and I've just completed 3 more quilts. I'll post about this one (#8) this week, and share the story of #9 and #10 next week. As I mentioned when I wrote about Quilt #5, I wrote a rail fence pattern for a Craft and Chat group and made a quilt while I was sewing with the ladies. This quilt is the same pattern, with a slightly different arrangement. As you can see the pink quilt was a random set of 5 strips in each block. The Teal quilt was planned with white strips framing the dark and medium value prints. This creates a nice basket weave pattern. This latest quilt uses 5 different fabrics in the strips with a light value fabric in the centre and 2 m

Challenge 2017-#6 & #7

I've been a super busy girl! Actually, I've been sorting projects for my 2017 Challenge and seeing what I can get finished really quickly. I've been able to finish a few quilts simply by stitching the bindings on the finished tops! Some would probably say "that's cheating", but I'm taking every finish I can. I know I'll get a bit slower as the year proceeds and I am really enjoying the sense of accomplishment. Quilts #6 & #7 are two wholecloth quilts I quilted in April. I even had the binding stitched to the back of the quilt. It took me less than an hour to bring the binding to the front of the quilt and machine stitch it in place. The green quilt was quilted with bounce back feathers a

Challenge 2017-#5

Loving my finishes for 2017! I seem to be starting with some simple finishes to get me going. On December 29, 2016 I loaded my new Handi Quilter Pro-Stitcher and promptly loaded and quilted this lovely baby quilt. I used the Dragonflies design by Sweet Dreams Quilt Studio, a free design from Handi Quilter. In the fall I was invited to do some teaching at a Craft and Sew group at a local church. We decided that a simple rail fence with border and binding would be a good place to start. We looked for ideas on Pinterest and chose a 5 strip rail fence pattern. I worked out the math and wrote basic instructions for the group members. We learned how to cut accurate strips, sew 1/4" seams and

Challenge 2017-#4

The next few quilt finishes could be considered cheating, but a finish is a finish and I'm taking every finish I can. This is a baby sized quilt. I started this top many years ago when I was writing the Crossroads Quilt pattern. I didn't like the small size of the blocks, so left this quilt alone in the project box. Last spring I taught a Panto Basics class. I loaded some extra quilt tops on the longarms in the WonderFil Threaducation Studio. I loaded 3 different pantographs and after some instruction, let the students "go to town". All I needed to do for a finish was to put the binding on. As I was auditioning fabrics for the binding, I opened the quilt to measure the amount needed and