Aurora Quilters Gathering

Well I think this was the smallest turnout for our monthly gatherings that we've had - sure hope it picks up for next year!  If anyone in Winnipeg MB is looking for a centrally located quilting group that meets regularly (10:00 am to about 3:00 pm) and in a fair sized Church basement, please contact me by email for more information.  We do have a nominal annual membership fee (to help defer rent), a monthly drop in fee along with a potluck dish for our luncheon.  There are banquet tables for block layouts, quilt sandwiching and smaller tables for gathering around and stitching/gabbing along with iron, ironing/cutting board and a members' library of sorts!

So yesterday was a shown n tell of Jeanette's lovely hearts quilt for her darling Caraleigh and you can just see her Mom Raquel peaking from behind.  They are our newest members.

And here is a charity quilt donated by Margo who is currently enjoying the Arizona weather in her "snowbirds" home.  This one is very cheery with a fleece backing so will be very nice for someone to receive who needs the warming comfort during an illness.  Thank you Margo.

Now I'm hoping that we can get together as a group and make up more of these larger sized quilts for donation/charity.  They don't have to be fancy, look at the scrappy that I did for MPQ ABC Nickel Challenge group - yes I took my time to PLAN it out but it can also be a pull out of the bag type of scrappy.  Would be just as lovely and eventually will deplete your stash.  Honest I thought all those HSTs I made was going to make a huge dent in my stash - HUH I swear those blocks multiplied when I was out of the room!!!  Yes I have enough for a second quilt for that group but won't be done for this year, maybe next summer if my sister will quilt it for me?

I SPY Quilt No. 2

YEAH I finished off the borders for the second I Spy quilt top I stitched up while at the Pinewood Retreat November 8th-11th this year!  Now I have to decide how I'll sandwich it and then quilt it up.

Disappearing Nine-Patch pattern.

So now I'll have a baby gift ready for whenever - that is a FIRST for Rose Anne!!!  Now that I've made this one I'll probably do up more with this pattern and a muted lighter colour for the centre of the nine-patch and hopefully enough for the inner border.  I like this pattern with the darker fabrics to showcase the novelty fabrics.  Yes I might even make some for donation - I've a paper box FULL of novelty fabrics and sure there is still more in the scrap bins too as I try not to repeat the images - maybe the fabrics if it's assorted images within!  LOL!

Blog Catch Up

Well last week the maintenance man came in and replaced my broken hallway light fixtures and removed the GROSS kitchen ceiling fan for me too.  He asked if I'd wash it now so he could put it back up but I had to return to work - lunch time was over.  Oh well he'll put it back up next week.  WELL when I got home after work the fan was 95% washed of all that grimy mess, apparently the caretaker had come up and she washed it as best as she could!  That was awesome as I was leary of tackling that job, so I finished it off and now it's ready to go back into place tomorrow.

So I proceeded to tackle the dust/cobweb covered chandelier and in the process BURNT my inner arm.  You know those old Christmas like bulbs, well I have that very defined shape burned into my mid inner arm and it HURTS even a week later yet.  It had blistered about 3/4s of the inner shape which I then stupidly in my sleep scraped off waking to excruciating pain the one night I didn't cover it and days of oozing!!!  BUT the chandelier is crystal clean!!!  I was using polysporin a few days and nights, then some aloe vera gel later on during the day and today my niece gave me pieces of her aloe vera plant and I'm using that.  It's itchy as !@#$ and the angry red is shrinking in size so it's healing!!!  YEAH!!!

Thursday I had packed up my sewing machine etc and escaped for a much needed quilting retreat once again.  This time to Pinewood Lodge in the Whiteshell just outside of Otter Falls.  I must say the Lodge is beautiful, food served for our retreat excellent and the weekend escape wonderful.  We even had a new quilt shop owner come out, Karen's Market & Quilt Shop, Pinawa MB, for a few hours as a treat - well it's just not the same if a vendor is not there for us to shop!!!

Lower Level - left side

Lower Level - right side

Upper Hall - middle section only

Then on Saturday I moved to the large windows and worked on three crazy patch blocks all afternoon.  I got to put my feet up and enjoy some quiet time away from the machine, but had in the morning cut out the squares for second quilt top (a disappearing nine patch) that I'd sew up once the natural light faded away.

It was an awesome weekend and I got two kids quilt tops stitched - sort of an I Spy theory but in squares and rectangles instead of the usual pattern.  I had taken out my printer paper box full of novelty fabrics and barely made a dent in the stash, but have two very lovely quilts for some toddlers to play on.

Finished on Monday @ Pat's

Sunday came too soon and so did WINTER!!!  You could barely see the road but the grader/sander had gone by so I knew it would be passable with care, at least I hoped it would be.  See it poured Saturday evening on top of the inch or two of snow - bad!!!  In the end the trip back to the city wasn't as bad as first thought, but Hwy 44 was the worst and naturally some jerk with a 4WD decided he'd pass us who were doing 90-95 klicks already, but could not manage that slushy lane and had to fall back in line!  The radio stations told everyone to SLOW DOWN!  Also the closer I got to Winnipeg the MORE snow on the ground and still falling - hmmmm talk about slushy messy city streets!  I don't care now, I'm home and can relax!

AND Monday was another sewing day, but this time with my niece Pat - YAHOOIE!!!  Well I added on the striped borders for the one I Spy quilt but forgot to bring the navy fabric to add the inner borders on the second top and then add the striped borders.  Another day!  So then I switched to my mini that we had started Sept/Oct 2009 - kinda got set aside while Pat/Randy did major house renovations a few years etc - then picked up again this year to finish off.  Yes now both of us have our "Improved Nine Patch" by Toby Lischko (using John Flynn templates) minis finished but both agreed this was a pain to stitch and I wondered what the previous version was like if this was an "improved" one!!!  YEAH one of my UFOs is now finished!!!

So now we can search for a new 1930s fabrics mini project for the next sewing day together!

ABC Quilt Challenge

October 2011 Sue had a brain wave for a Nickel Challenge for twin sized quilts for adults to be donated to our Manitoba Prairie Quilters group's ABC charity project.  See the group receives MANY smaller sized quilts but not enough larger sized ones.  I thought it was a great idea so signed up, found my pattern and started to sew up my ZILLION HSTs from the 5" squares that were swapped between ten ladies.  

It didn't take long before I realized I picked the WRONG pattern for fast preparation prior to working on the "planning" of the quilt top layout!  Well finally in August after months of stitching I thought I was ready for the planning - BUT I did not have enough "lights" to make the transition in the pattern.  So back to the drawing board and pulled out my lights and went back to work.  In the process I decided to move apartments and had to square off the HSTs whenever I could.  This past weekend after finalizing the move and during a relaxing quilt retreat, I took my styro planning board and with my sister's assistance got this quilt top underway.

The inner section was completed and I added the 1" mottled brown inner border before laying out the leftover HSTs for a scrappy border.  It was very late so I left it for the morning and was greeted by fellow quilters who didn't like that border - said it detracted from the lovely pattern - maybe a lighter outer border the width of the inner stripes.  Shoot, I didn't bring any other fabrics with me so had to leave the quilt as is until I was back home and could pull out various fabrics till I found this batik.  It looks great.

So Saturday I'll drop it off for Sue to quilt it for me and then I'll add on another brown/sand striped fabric for the binding.  It sounds weird but it truly did look great all together.  You'll see next month when I get it back to add on the binding.  Hopefully I'll get it finished for the mid-December MPQ meeting where we unveil these charity quilts.