The Guild held this class in 2019. Most of the participants made an oval rug but I thought a rectangular one would be easier. Most of the participants used lovely fabric already pre-cut into a jelly roll but I cut my own strips from some novelty fabric that wasn’t getting used up very fast.

I worked the entire class and I thought I had made good progress but when I opened the bin this week I sadly had only a few tubes made. Fortunately I had all the fabric strips and batting already cut so I could start sewing right away.

I was very surprised at how quickly it went together. Now that it’s done I’m wondering why it took me so long to get back to it.

I don’t think it has ever taken me so long to really finish a quilt after the quilting is done. I wasn’t very diligent about stitching down the binding and it took me a couple of days. I found a problem spot in the binding and needed to do some repairs and while I was knotting and burying ends I found a seam that didn’t quite catch. It’s all done now though and I can safely say that my UFO for June is finished before the deadline.

I have wanted to make a Log Cabin quilt since I started quilting – I’m drawn to those traditional blocks. At a quilt show on the Island a few years ago I saw a log cabin that I really wanted to make. I found the out-of-print pattern but didn’t take it any further. At some point I realized that I didn’t need to make a huge quilt to test out the technique. I could make a smaller quilt and know whether I wanted to make another larger one. I still haven’t made up my mind on that larger quilt.

My records show that I started this in 2019. I know I finished all the blocks at our Thursday retreat that year. I had the layout planned but it lingered in a bin until it came up on my UFO list.

I purchased the purple and green swirl fabric much before then. The quilt shop was supposed to have some matching fabric to go with it but it took a long time to come in. In the meantime I had found quite a few other greens and purples and I didn’t end up using the matching fabric. I really like the fabric but I’ll use it for something else.

A new quilting book arrived just in time for me to use their suggestions for the quilting. I didn’t follow the book exactly but it gave me a good starting point.

I have no idea where this one will end up – but that isn’t really the purpose of my quilting.

It isn’t often that I get enthused about the Guild Challenge. Most years I do it but it is usually a last minute creation and often only a block or a placemat. But this year I got really “into” it after finding a pattern at the Saskatoon Quilt Show that would be just perfect.

Create a quilt that has a circus/fair theme. Use the enclosed fabric as part of the front of the quilt. The quilt should not be huge. A small one is good. The challenge should be finished and ready to show by the June meeting 2020. Your quilt should feature an animal.

We were given a fat quarter of the striped fabric. I wasn’t sure I would have enough for all the boxes (cages in my circus theme) but I actually had a little left over.

The quilting didn’t go as well as I had hoped. My free-motion quilting didn’t work at all and my appliqué work is sketchy at the best. For most of the quilt it was just straight lines but I did try to get a bit of texture (wrinkled skin) in the elephant. I ended up using embroidery floss to attach the patches. In spite of all my cursing when I was working on it, I love the end result.