Category Archives: Quilting

The Cat Came Back

When we visited Calgary in the fall of 2010 the Burton’s cat Louie had just gone missing. We put up posters and searched the neighbourhood hoping we would be able to find him. In the middle of December that year, long after everyone except Madison had given up hope, a call came that Louie had been found. Where you might ask? In a town about 200 miles from Calgary. How he got there remains a mystery.

One of the first Blocks of the Month for the 2010-2011 Guild season was a pinwheel cat. Because Louie was still missing I decided to make something for Madison using a cat theme. When I finished the pinwheel cat block, it wasn’t quite “cat” enough for me. I found a book of paper-pieced cats (and dogs) in the Guild library and did a couple of samples. They were very hard, but I had a paper-piecing course coming up and knew I’d gain some of the skills I needed. I struggled to complete the eight cats I had chosen from the book, and I think I made each cat at least twice.

But eight cats are hardly big enough for a quilt. I looked online and found the Fashion Cats, also paper pieced but on a larger scale. I had such fun picking out fabrics to dress the cats in.

The quilt was taking shape, but I still didn’t have a design in mind. At the Guild year-end potluck a woman who had seen me working on the cats suggested they would make a nice border. That was all I needed and I could immediately see the design for the quilt.

The Sunflower Cat was another of the Blocks of the Month. This was a machine appliqué block and, since the practice piece worked well, I created three Sunflower Cats for the center. The last pieces I needed were corner cats and I found those online as well.

I realized after I had all the blocks completed that they were a combination of 6” and 12” blocks. In order to tie them all together I added 8” border blocks that were made up of small pieces of the fabrics I used in making all the cats.

The final piece was finding the right background, backing and binding material. I was able to find a star motif printed on both a black and a white background.

 

This was my first full-sized quilt and both Madison and Louie were happy with it.

Cookie Tin Exchange

As part of the Timberlane Quilt Guild I am taking part in a Cookie Tin Exchange. Each member who is participating is assigned to a team. To begin the exchange we each made a block of our choosing, and provided the other members of our team a notebook describing what we were looking for in a finished project.

Royal Star

My challenge to the ladies in my group was to reproduce their first quilting block, or a block from their first quilt. My first blocks were made as potholders for my sisters. There is no question that I did a better job with these than I did my first time around.

 

 

 

Happy Hallowe’en (2011)

I cut out a Hallowe’en pattern in a magazine quite some time ago, and I was surprised I was able to find it when I went looking (not all my “saves” are where I think they should be). I incorporated a few changes of my own into the pieces, and the finished product really isn’t very much like the original pattern (but we all get our inspiration for somewhere).

2011 SpidersThe spider shape is done in embroidery, and the spider’s head is made from links of an old bracelet of Mum’s. The body of the spider has sequins sewn on for a bit of a shine. I added the names myself.

The piece originally was to fit into a photo frame, but since I’ve started quilting I now see everything as a possible quilting project. The pieces gave me another chance to try my hand at free motion quilting.

Victoria Poinsettia

Click to see a larger image

I purchased this pattern when we visited Victoria in the summer of 2011. I had no immediate plans to make it, but when we decided to travel to Saskatoon to spend Christmas with Kathryn and Dave I decided I should make it for them.I enjoyed the appliqué on this project – the big pieces were much easier to work with. I particularly liked the fabric I used for the outside border.

I used invisible thread (I won’t another time) to stitch around the edges of the appliqué and through the petals and leaves to stabilize the piece. I also used invisible thread to stitch in the ditch on both sides of the green inner border. I quilted the center using a meandering loop pattern, and I used a piano key border stitch for the outside.