WQC BOM finished

I finished quilting my Sampler quilt and sewed the binding on so I could take it to WQC meeting last night.

I can tick this off my list of UFO's and move on to another one.  I will have to start a couple of new things first as they are required as presents.

"Memories of Holidays Past"

My landscape quilt finished. I can't believe I made this. From a distance it looks like the sun is coming through the clouds.

 I did some more quilting today on my WQC, block of the month quilt.  There are definitley some wonky bits which of course the husband noticed straight away but not a bad attempt.  It definitely takes practice and experience helps. 

I am starting to learn which way is most comfortable for me and keeping the weight from pulling the quilt away from where I am sewing helps.

My Janome MC6600 sews beautifully and was well worth saving for.

Free motion quilting

I have started free motion quilting my WQC block of the month quilt and I am thrilled that I have managed to do a reasonable job of the sashings.  Stuart said he was waiting for the swearing and there wasn't any but was still afraid to come inside.  Will stop now while I am winning and take the dogs for a walk.  Hopefully it is going to rain as the tank is getting very low.

Landscape Workshop

I was going to wait until this was finished before loading it on to my blog but I am so pleased with it that I want to show it off. 

On Saturday I went to the WQC workshop to learn a simple grid system for creating a landscape quilt.  I have machine appliqued mine but the class covered hand applique as well. 

There were a great group of ladies present and a lot of sharing of fabrics to get the right look.  The photo I took this from is of a sunset over Lake Taupo from a holiday we had there in 2006.  When I showed Stuart what I had done he asked me where Ken the Cormorant was so I was delighted when I found a cormorant on a NZ fabric in my stash and inserted it in the foreground.

I think my free motion quilting is getting better.

Artist Trading Cards

A friend of mine has a large collection of ATC cards and likes to swap 2 at a time.  I had a go at making some last year so decided to accept the challenge.

When my nieces came to do some sewing we all made some new fabric so I cut mine up and made ATC cards out of it. 

The border collie is cut out of some fabric and placed on a card.

Round Robin Quilt

I did a Round Robin quilt through Grandmother's Garden in 2007/08.  I thought it would be an exciting challenge and as I didn't belong to a quilting group, it would be a good way to meet other quilters. 
We chose a colour range and a level of quilting and was matched up with others.  I chose the blue/yellow combination that I love and my fabrics and list of names and addresses duly arrived.  I made my 12" centre and made my bag, bought extra fabric and a notebook which I wrote a bit about me in and posted it off to the first person on my list by the due date.

I received an email from the recipient to say it hadn't arrived.  My first effort went missing in the post.  That had never happened before according to Grandmother's Garden.  They sent me another pack and I started again.  I really enjoyed the challenge of the work coming to me and when it was time to get my quilt back, it was delayed due to the person it was coming from having illness in the family.  I patiently waited and it eventually turned up.  I was disappointed in that it was smaller than the others I had worked on and seemed to have fairly simple borders.  At first I thought I would add more borders but decided against that.  I did take the outer borders off and replace them but in the end put it back how I received it.

Last week I decided it would be the perfect project to practice my quilting on, so I bought some blue/yellow variegated thread and had a go.  I wanted to try out the 12" stencil I bought for my block of the month quilt and to try my loopity loops.  The quilt wasn't perfectly flat so part of the middle has some bumps but otherwise looks pretty good to me. 

I have donated this quilt to my kittens, Chloe and Jake.  Jake tried to help me with the charity quilt by ripping bits of batting off and eating them when it was sitting on my ironing board.

Here is Jake trying the completed quilt out.

Purple Challenge Quilt

"Purple Bow Ties"
My purple challenge quilt finished.  We were given twelve 6" purple blocks and had to use them all.  I made bow tie blocks with mine.  The bow tie block is a great one to play with.  I have emailed through to the other participants so can now put it on my blog. 
Hope to do some sewing over the weekend but have agility on Saturday and Sunday.