Gift cards are about the best I can do for gifts for my grandkids and I wanted something a bit different to present this year’s card in. Emma is quite an artist and I thought this zippered pouch would hold some of her different pens and pencils.
Yes, I said “zipper”. The zipper went in quite well but I misunderstood the directions on the pattern and had to do a bit of adjusting when I closed up the sides. The lighter fabric is what I used for the lining. A Chapters gift card will fit nicely into the pouch.
This was a Guild project from 2021. I’ve never made a log cabin before and I was glad to give it a try. Of the eight extra blocks surrounding the centre seven were patterns given to us and the eighth one we were to choose our own. I picked the card trick block; Stacia had made a quilt using the card trick block a long time ago at one of our first sewing sessions and I really liked it.
Quilting was a challenge because I was limited to something I could do with my walking foot. I used my go-to star pattern in the blocks.
I was a bit worried that for three of the blocks the star pattern might look odd because the block really didn’t suit the quilting pattern. A conference with Stacia and Deloise set me straight and when it was done I made the right decision; those three blocks don’t look at all strange.
This was a large quilt so it took some energy to move it around through all the quilting. I thought it was 30 blocks by 36 blocks but it turned out I had miscounted and was dealing with 36 blocks by 36 blocks so a lot of quilting.
It wasn’t until I had the last few stitches in the binding that I realized I hadn’t put a label on the quilt so I added one by hand.
Gavin’s card is Adventure Abounds from The Splendid Sampler 2 series
Kathryn picked the fabric and it is no surprise that when she saw these pigs she couldn’t find anything else she liked better. She picked the orange/yellow fabric because it reminded her of a plastic tablecloth you might spread over your picnic table.
I had trouble getting the Fall/Winter tablecloth sandwiched and quilted so that it ended up to be the right size. I changed my sandwiching technique on this one and ended up with extra length. I gave Kathryn her choice of placemats or a runner and she picked a runner; she said she can put it on the table when the tablecloth is in the laundry.
The quilting was done with a mattress stitch following the lines on the summer-side of the cloth. I used a two-colour binding for the tablecloth but a regular binding for the runner.
I hope it will soon be Spring in Saskatoon but I know that as soon as Kathryn sees those pigs they will be on her table.
Do April showers bring May flowers? I guess Kathryn have to tell us. She’ll need to be careful though because if she positions that umbrella the wrong way it will be raining sideways and, trust me, you don’t want that!
I knew when I saw the pattern that I wanted to use florals for the umbrella. I remembered that when I was sorting my pre-cuts I had some small floral squares that I had purchased from the estate of a Guild member. I thought they were 2.5″ squares and what I needed were 2″ squares but I was willing to cut them down. When I pulled them out there were three packages of 2″ squares. I have no idea why I bought so many but I was glad to not have to do any cutting. The remainder of the package I used, as well as the other two packages, have been added to my 2″ scrap bin.
I used a corner to corner line on the umbrella but I wanted something different for the background. I used straight lines that, in my mind, depict rain coming down.
I pieced the backing using more of that veggie fabric but I forgot to take a photo of it.
