Melinda Quilts etc
I have been working on quilting the guild raffle quilt. It is a beautiful quilt, using Kaffe fabrics and a Kim McLean pattern. She graciously gave us permission to use Stars and Sprigs for our raffle quilt.
Here is a brief preview of the quilting.
There is still a lot of little pebbles to quilt before I start on the stars.
Melinda
Today on my design wall is a quilt that I did NOT make. It is the raffle quilt for the ECQG guild and I am going to quilt it. I did make two blocks but can’t remember which ones. The pattern is by Kim McLean and she graciously gave us permission to use it for our quilt. I like our colors even better than the original.
We have a quilt show every two years (odd numbered years) and this is one of the highlights of the show. I hope to get it on the machine later this week. I am thinking that is needs a small tight fill in the white, and no quilting in the applique. Of course the stars will get some quilting – still trying to decide what to do in them and what color to use.
We picked out the backing yesterday and it is another Kaffe print. I am loving this quilt.
For more design walls, go to Patchwork Times.
Melinda
After getting home last night around 9, I had a lot of trouble sleeping. At least I got some fabric folded in my sewing room in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep.
This morning was our monthly quilt show meeting. We had a good meeting and I went out to lunch with my good friends. We were able to get caught up on all the happenings from the time I was out West.
For a photo today, I thought I would show the raffle quilt that we are giving away at our Quilt Show in September. Tickets are only a dollar each and you can contact me if you want to purchase some.
This quilt is made by the members of the guild and quilted by the talented Bella Bamert. It is based on Dear Hannah by Brenda Papadakis. Brenda kindly gave us permission to use her patterns as the basis of our raffle quilt.
Melinda
We finished putting the center of the raffle quilt yesterday. It is beyond beautiful.
After it was put together, there were a few minor repairs that needed to be made. Here is some of it in progress.
Now to make a final decision about the borders.
Melinda
Brenda Papadakis of Dear Jane fame graciously gave her permission for us to use her Dear Hannah quilt patterns for our 2011 Raffle Quilt. We will hold the drawing for the quilt at our quilt show in 2011. We bought the Electric Quilt DVD of the patterns, as well as the book. I used the DVD to blow up the pattern from the original 4 1/2 inch to 6 inch blocks. I printed a color copy of each block, along with a line drawing and set up a notebook to turn over to the raffle quilt chair.
Carol then selected the fabric to use in the quilt. The background is Kona black and there is an assortment of bright colors for the piecing and applique. There are 143 blocks and she passed them out a couple of months ago. We received all but one back. Thankfully Carol had made a couple of extra blocks and brought them to the sew-in yesterday.
Since there are so many blocks, we worked on the top eight rows of the quilt and got that much put together yesterday. This first photo is of the blocks on the design wall in the order of the original quilt. We moved them quite a bit to get the colors spread throughout the quilt.
We then added a bottom and left side sashing to each block except the first block in each row. We cut the sashing at 2 inches instead of 1 1/2. After pressing the blocks, we cut each to 7 1/2, including sashing. This allowed us to accommodate the slightly different sized blocks you always get from a group project.
By the end of the day, here is the top of the quilt.
Don’t the blocks look much better with the sashing?
Tomorrow is another sew-in and hopefully we will finish the top enough to sew on borders.
Melinda
I forgot to mention that these blocks from Dear Hannah are 6 inch blocks. We bought the Dear Hannah program from EQ and I enlarged all the blocks from 4 1/2 inches to 6 inches. I then turned everything over to the Raffle Quilt chair and she is doing a great job with fabric selection and organization. It will be interesting to see how many blocks get turned in on Friday.
Melinda
We are doing a block of the month at my Tuesday guild. We actually started last month but as usual, I am behind. This is block #2 which I finished today because I am responsible for leading the class tomorrow and had to have it finished! It is called Bird Housing.
The photo on the left is from the pattern and the one on the right is mine. As you can probably tell from my other projects, I am not a county color fan so I went with brighter colors, using batiks, hand-dyes and other bright fabrics.
This block of the month is from Country Threads and is called Garden Club. The book is out of print but most of the members were able to find it used or on eBay. I was lucky enough to find a folder in the sale bin at the quilt shop that had the pattern before there was a book. So I have 12 flyer type patterns that include a printed photograph of each block and the pattern for that month.
The quilt is designed as a combination pieced and appliqued quilt. I decided that I was going to do fusible applique with a buttonhole stitch. I am using various DMC machine embroidery threads (I have every color) that contrast with the actual fabrics. I think it is going to be beautiful and fun.
I am teaching two or three of the months so I guess I better get caught up and do #1 Summer Glory so I don't get too far behind.
We had a Quilt Show meeting today and the raffle quilt was there. It is really beautiful and I can appreciate it much more now that it has a sleeve and a stand to hang from. We are going to show it to the guild members on Friday and give out raffle tickets for them to sell. I hope we can make a lot of money on it.
It should be photographed in the next couple of days and I should get a copy of the full quilt and will post it as soon as I can. I think I will also take my camera on Friday in hopes of getting better pictures on my own.
