PCC 6 of 6

Date:  January 2014

Reason:  My goal is to make 6 baby quilts for the Pregnancy Care Centre in January.

Fabrics:  Grandma has given me a lot of blocks and HSTs.  Hundreds in fact.  Here are 4 of those blocks and 4 of the HSTs.  Fleece that I don't remember the origins of and a strip of yellow flannel binding that was already ironed were probably also donated to me years ago.

Thoughts:  Once again because I am participating in the Building Blocks Quilt Along with Leah Day, I figured I should suck it up and so these straight lines are entirely done FREE MOTION.  I wonder If I have improved at all.  I've now done three baby blankets doing straight lines this way. 

PCC 5 of 6

Date:  January 2014

Reason:  My goal is to make 6 baby quilts for the Pregnancy Care Centre in January.

Fabrics:  Grandma has given me a lot of blocks.  More than 200.  Here are six of them.

Thoughts:  This is my favourite of the six.

PCC 4 of 6

Date:  January 2014

Reason:  My goal is to make 6 baby quilts for the Pregnancy Care Centre in January.

Fabrics:  A friend gave me finished and unfinished blocks as well as random pieces of the same fabric.  I used the previously made units to make blocks and made additional blocks from the fabric.

The bindings were end scraps from various bindings that various people have given me - four pieces in all.  (I am a magnet for other people's unfinished projects and scraps and for the most part, I LOVE it).

Thoughts:  Usually I would get out the walking foot to quilt something like this but because I'm doing the Building Blocks Quilt Along with Leah Day, I figured I should suck it up and so these straight lines are entirely done FREE MOTION.  Obviously I need more practice, but still - pretty excited that it worked at all.  I found that rather than doing straight lines left to right or right to left, I preferred to move the quilt back as if I'm sewing a seam.

There is a heart stitched onto the back because I accidentally ripped the fabric after I had quilted most of it.  Yeah.  Winner.

The small prints were so dizzyingly busy together, a white sash was necessary just for a little separation and relief.

PCC 3 of 6

Date:  January 2014

Reason:  I want to make 6 quilts for the Pregnancy Care Centre in January

Fabric:  7 blocks Grandma gave me, 2 blocks Anne gave me.

Thoughts:  My daughter begged me to let her quilt so there she is carefully quilting with a walking foot.  She did not too bad :)

I latticed the different sized blocks on two sides each so I could cut them all to the same size for easy piecing.

PCC 2 of 6

Date:  January 2014

Reason:  The goal is 6 baby quilts for the Pregnancy Care Centre in January.

Fabrics:  This was a long narrow panel that I got in a bag or a box from someone or another.  I cut it apart and stitched it back together in a better shape.

A repurposed baby blanket was used as the back

Thoughts:  I have hundreds of orphan blocks that have been given to me.  I could make baby quilts for months.

PCC 1 of 6

Date:  January 2014

Reason:  6 baby quilts in January for the Pregnancy Care Centre

Fabrics:  A pillow case my grandmother made for me was picked apart and repurposed.  My sister gave the me fleece which I used on the back.  The binding was from two binding scraps that friends gave to me.

Thoughts:  This was both quilted in free motion and with a walking foot.  I tried to use different patterns of free motion quilting for each piece of the centre panel.

Fleece causes great amounts of excess fluff when cut.  Yay for a lint roller.

Schmittens

Date:  2007 - January 2014

Reason:  A friend had a similar wall hanging called "Smittens".  It was just so cute :)

Fabrics:  Nope.  Way too long ago to remember.

Lessons:  If you make a block and it doesn't work, don't put it in.  It's okay to start again.  The unused block(s) can go in an "orphan quilt" at a later time.

Thoughts:  Another UFO bites the dust.  A friend on Facebook claimed this as her own.

Machine quilted in free motion and a with a walking foot.

God's Blessing

Date:  2009 - Jan 2014

Reason:  The Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial

Fabric:  RJR's Count Your Blessings charm pack - My grandma gave it to me for Christmas.

Lessons:  Don't tighten you fabric in a hoop so tightly that flannel seams fray out.  Yeah.

Thoughts:    This was started in 2007 when I first saw the tutorial.  Naturally a charm pack was perfect for trying the new technique.

I was a hand-quilter at this time - I think I must have tightened the quilt too much because some of the fabric frayed apart from the seam.  This annoyed me and into the closet it went.

This is the year of finishing stuff so out it came - I finished quilting it by machine and appliqued hearts over the frayed pieces.  A UFO bites the dust.

Fall For Autumn

Pattern Location:  Australian Patchwork and Quilting Annual 2004 and Vol 12 No 6

Size:  70 x 70

Date:  November 2007 - December 2013

Inspiration:   As a new quilter, I saw this pattern and fell in love.

Special Fabrics:  Grandma gave me a box of scraps.  Many of these made it into this quilt.  I collected fall colours for a long time.  Aunt Sandie found the perfect backing.

Lessons Learned:  

*  Buy quality fabric.  Loose weave is the pits

*  Cut carefully

*  Use heat 'in bond for applique

*  Cut away extra layers when sewing triangles into corners.  The extra layers are really hard to quilt through.

*  Watch beginnings and ends of seams - I have a tendencey to flare out.

Thoughts:  

This turned into a Christmas gift for my parents-in-law.

The original medallion was out by over half an inch - I unsewed it and made it into a wall hanging.

This quilt was machine quilted.  Some was with a walking foot, the rest was using Leah Day's techniques.