Finally, a quilting post!

I was hoping to post this on Wednesday, but I got flattened by a nasty case of food poisoning that I am still recovering from. Recovering from food poisoning, however, finally gave me some time to catch up on my quilting, because I couldn’t be out digging the garden.

These blocks are for two block-exchanges that I take part in. My local quilt guild does a “block of the month,” and so the blocks on the left of the photo are “Card Trick” blocks, which was this month’s pattern. I’ll take the one with the magenta fabric in it to my guild meeting on Monday evening, and it will go into the stack with everyone else’s, then all the names go into a draw and one guild member goes home with a stack of blocks. 

The blocks on the right are a pattern called “Churn Dash.” The other block exchange I do is run in one of the forums on the Homesteading Today message board. In that exchange, whoever wins the draw chooses a fabric for the next exchange, and sends it out to all the participants. We get to do whatever type of block we want with the fabric we receive and any other fabric. Last time I participated, I chose a very pretty, but much too complicated pattern for my skill level. So this time I a) chose a simpler block, and b) did a practice run. The bottom right block (with the floral fabric) is the one I’m sending back in to the block exchange, and the top right was my practice run.

Then it occurred to me that if I did a practice run (which is a good plan generally) for the blocks I’m doing for the exchanges, with some co-ordinated fabrics that I already have in my stash, that I will end up with enough blocks for a nice sampler quilt, even if I never win the draws for the exchanges that I’m participating in. 

(Oh, and if you recognise the pretty bright blue batik fabric, Ailbhe, it was my bathroom curtains for a while in Reading.)

The next on-going project I’m working on, and was great for doing on the couch in front of the TV while I was recuperating yesterday, was a “just for fun” mini-quilt. My quilt guild has challenged all the members to make a mini-quilt to enter in the Maxville Fair homecraft division. I don’t know if I’ll actually enter this in the fair (assuming I finish it in time – the fair is in about a month!) but it’s a good way to teach myself to hand-quilt. I’m doing it freehand, with no pattern at all, just having fun with it (so yes,he spiral is ‘meant’ to be lopsided). So far I’ve learned that my stitches are way too small, and though my stitch evenness is improving, I need to figure out how to make them a little larger. I had the same problem with my knitting being way too tight when I learned to knit as a child 🙂

And there is one more quilting project on the go, but no photos because the result (again, assuming I get it done in time) will be a gift. I discovered to my dismay this morning that the walking foot I bought for my sewing machine doesn’t actually fit. Either that or I’m attaching it wrong, but I don’t think so. So now I have to try to quilt this thing without a walking foot. The test piece I did (with a spare block and the same batting and backing as will be in the quilt) went well, so I’m hoping for the best.

Oh, and t! and I went to see the Quilt of Belonging on exhibit in Cornwall last weekend, and it was (literally) awesome!