Block of the Month

The block of the month club I have been attending, Yours, Mine and Ours, is now finished.  The August block was called Sarah's Choice.  It was a simple pinwheel star and it was nice to end with something easy.  Although, I will admit, it was not the true final block.  The final block is from the September session and it looks more complicated.  However, I've decided not to complete it. It is not a traditional block and contains, of all things, an octagon. I don't want octagons in my quilt!

My final blocks from the club:

My donation block

My block

After 9 months of the Yours, Mine and Ours club, I have 6 star blocks to use in my quilt.  I am making a king size quilt and am anticipating that I will need 10 more blocks to complete it.  I am not sure if all blocks will be stars, but they will all be traditional blocks made of squares and triangles.  I would really like to finish the topper by Christmas, but I have another project that needs to take priority so I think that Christmas 2012 might be more realistic!

Let the block hunt begin!  

Block of the Month

My "Yours, Mine and Ours" monthly quilt-block-club continues!  The block of the month for July was the Triple Star.  I was worried about this block because it appears quite complicated, but it ended up being pretty strait-forward and fairly forgiving (I seem to have cutting issues). 

My donation block

My block

I have been debating on what to do with all of "my blocks" when they are done.  They are intended to complete a larger project that I started many years ago, and they will, but I no longer want this quilt for my own bed and I don't want to pay to have it quilted, if it is just going to sit in the closet.  I was thinking about splitting it into two or three smaller baby quilts but, on a whim, asked my mom if she would like it.  And yes!  She wants it and will pay for the quilting.  Phew, my quilt has a home.

Just two more quilt club blocks left!  I will still need to track down patterns for another 6-8 blocks in order to complete the quilt for my mom, but I am pleased to have finally made some progress on this project after a 10 year standstill.

Block of the Month

I almost didn't complete the June block for my monthly "Yours, Mine and Ours" quilting class. My shoulders and neck were feeling pinchy and sewing did not appeal at all. But, at the last minute, the night before the class, I decided to make the donation block. And, it ended up going so smoothly, I made a block for myself too!

The June block was called the British Columbia Dream.

My Block

My Donation Block

I am running out of blue fabric and didn't have enough to do all of the points for my donation block in one colour, but I really like how the alternating colours turned out. It gives the block a bit of pinwheel effect.

Some of the ladies from my quilting class have started to piece together the blocks we have made so far. The toppers will be donated to Victoria Quilts Canada, who will put the finishing touches on the quilts. Victoria Quilts Canada gives finished quilts to individuals with cancer. What a great organization!

You can see the toppers that have been completed here. Can you spot my blocks?

Block of the Month

I just have a few more months left in the "Yours, Mine and Ours" quilting workshop that I have been taking. Some of the ladies (not me!) have started to meet to sew together the donated blocks into lap quilts and I am excited to see how they will all look. I had wished they would wait until the end of the workshop to sew the toppers so that all of my blue and white blocks could be together, but it was not to be. Oh well, the June block was very different from what we have made thus far and it is unlikely that all of my blocks would have been together in any case.

For June, we made a "Twinkling Star" block, a contemporary paper pieced pattern, rather than a traditional block. I love the casual look of paper piecing so I was excited to try this star out.

Because I cannot use the Twinkling Star block in the larger quilt that I am currently working on for myself (which is a very traditional sampler), I decided to do something completely different and start a flannel baby quilt (this means I now have 4 quilts in the works, whoops!). I don't know any new baby girls at the moment, but I was feeling the pink. I am sure one will come along soon enough!

My donation block also turned out well. I think that I am the only one in my quilting class that likes the Twinkling Star pattern (this fact may be explained by the fact that I am at least 25 years younger than everyone else in my class), but I think it is super cute and flexible. I will definitely be using it again!

Block of the Month

I missed my April "Mine, Yours and Ours" quilting class because I was sick (very, very, sick). But, I did pop in to pick up the pattern for the April block, The Centennial Star. I am sure that I missed out on a few pointers and tips, but fortunately for me, The Centennial Star was much easier to make than the previous two blocks. Phew!

My block:

My donation block:

I fussy cut the centre square of this block, but didn't take into account that it would be on an angle. Whoops! Good thing is is a donation block.

I really like the Centennial Star pattern. It looks more like a flower than a star to me and I think that a bunch of them in monochromatic tones (i.e. a pink star, a green star) would look great in a baby quilt or a lap quilt. That might just be my next project!

Block of the Month

The March block for the "Yours, Mine and Ours" monthly quilting class that I am taking was the LeMoyne Star. This star wasn't as hard to make as I expected, but it was hard to make well. I had no idea how to correct my errors. So, I didn't.

Don't look too closely!

My donation block.

My own block.

Kitty-cat inspected and approved.

Block of the Month

At my Block of the Month quilting club, "Yours, Mine and Ours", the February block was the Rising Star.

I have to say that I had sort of looked down on star blocks prior to joining this club. With all their strait lines and squares, I thought they looked pretty easy. I was wrong. And I have I pile of point-less flying geese to prove it. *Sigh.*

In the end, things turned out OK. For the club, we each make a block for ourselves and a block for a charity quilt.

My block:

My charity block:

I am still loving my charity block fabrics, but I am liking my own fabrics more this month as well. I think that the addition of the dark grey tone really helps to balance the colour values.

Next month: The LeMoyne Star. I am afraid. Very afraid.

Quilting

I don't believed that I've ever mentioned, on this blog, that I am a quilter.

Or that I was.

And am trying to be, again.

I started quilting when living in northern Canada in 2000. It was cold! I needed an indoor craft activity!

I became a quilting enthusiast pretty quickly and carried on until 2004 or so, when I went to graduate school. I had a variety of grand plans to pick up this hobby again when I graduated in 2007, but it has taken me almost 4 years to get to that point. Graduate school recovery is intense!

The last quilt I made was in the summer of 2004 and now, six and a half years later (!) I am getting started again. With a vengeance. I currently have 4 projects on the go. Yikes!

Two of the projects are fairly small and well underway. I may blog about them when they are done. The two other projects are the result of a monthly block club I have joined. The group is called "Yours, Mine and Ours", and we will each be making 2 star blocks a month, one for ourselves and one for a charity quilt. We started January off with the Ohio Star.

I will be using my stars to complete a quilt that I started way back in *gulp* 2001. I have a large broken star that is surrounded by sashing and a pinwheel border that will be the centre block of a queen sized quilt.

Can you believe that this has been sitting in my closet for 10 years?

I had always intended to do a sampler border, but did not wants stars (how boring, I'd thought) and couldn't figure out what else to do. But now, having started the block of the month club (where we will only sew stars), I see that they will be perfect.

I am not sure if the fabric will be perfect though. I like it, but I think my taste has matured a bit since 2001. Oh well.

My Ohio Star

For the charity quilt, we could pick whatever materials we wanted - all new and perfectly coordinated or just a scrappy mishmash. I decided to take the middle road and shopped from my own fabric supply to find a stack of blues and whites.

I love how this colour combination turned out. There is nothing more classic than blue and white. I really want to keep this block for myself. But, I won't.

My charity Ohio Star

I am looking forward to finding out what we will be making for February and, in the meantime, I have my other two projects to keep me busy. It's good to be back!