Christmas In July Is Completed

Formerly known as "Quilt Top #23", "Christmas in July" is now completed. I started assembling the blocks in July, so the name stuck. I quilted it with Glide thread in the "Sand" colour, it almost looks like shiny gold thread. The blocks are a 20 year old conglomeration of a set of blocks that I won in the guild and others from a block exchange. I used up some odds and ends of Christmas fabric for the back.

Quilt Top #23 "Christmas In July"

I've been going through stacks of old quilt blocks, trying to figure out what to do with them. I unearthed a batch of blocks that I won at the guild about 20 years ago. We each made a block, then my name was drawn and I got all of them. There was a second pile of blocks, I can't remember if they were from an exchange or whether I won those as well. I decided to sew all the blocks together without sashing. That was a challenge, I had to use the "stretch and sew" method to join them together. They were supposed to be 12 1/2" unfinished, but there were great variations in size. Hopefully, it'll all flatten out once it's quilted. :)

Throwback Thursday; When Pigs Fly

This was a challenge hosted in 2002 by the local fabric store, the theme was "World Unity". We had to use a common fabric, which was the one with the flags. My quilt was "World Unity Will be Achieved When Pigs Fly". I figured that world unity is a nice idea, but will not likely happen. There are lots of embellishments, hand applique and embroidery. The bottom row is made up from leftover blocks from an ugly fabric/block exchange with Susan Getchell. The top row are leftover nine patch blocks from an internet swap.

Throwback Thursday; Loud Mouth Tattletale

One day in 2001, I was annoyed with somebody at work. When I went home, I took out my frustration by making this wall quilt. I took great pleasure in designing, appliquéing and embroidering the monster. The border was made from tiny nine patch blocks that I received in an online block swap. I posted a picture of this before, but the top part was cut off in the photo, so here is a better view of it.

Throwback Thursday; Joy-Getch Sampler l

I don't know if this one was ever posted before, I made it in 2002. These are more of the ugly fabric blocks that Susan Getchell and I exchanged. It's hand quilted, with a bit of machine quilting, probably some of the last hand quilting I ever did. I do all quilting by machine now because I don't have very much time and there are too many projects to finish.

Throwback Thursday; Joy-Getch Sampler II

I posted a picture of this quilt a long time ago on here, but the photo wasn't very good, so here is a better shot. I completed the quilt in 2002, it was an ugly fabric block swap between Susan Getchell and myself. I hand quilted most of it, but then thought I'd never finish, so I machine quilted the rest. The quilt was dirty because I hand quilted it while we were camping, it needed to be washed after it was completed. Much to my dismay, the red colour ran out of one of the fabrics onto the light coloured background. I tried everything to get the colour out but nothing worked. I ended up doing some appliqué, embroidery and embellishments to disguise some of it. I guess it doesn't look too bad now. I'm trying to take better pictures of some of the quilts that I still have. I never used to have a photo backdrop frame to hang them up on, so they were draped over things or laid out on the floor. Also, I used to have a terrible Minolta film camera that had a wonky viewfinder. It was impossible to centre the image with that thing. I take pictures of my quilts so there is documentation- after I'm dead and gone, people will know what I did with my life. :)

Throwback Thursday; Purple Block Swap

In July 1998, I was involved in a six inch purple block swap with the Quilters Funtalk internet group. I assembled the blocks, using a different fabric to sash each block. I hand quilted most of it, then it sat in a closet for a few years. I eventually dug it back out and finished the quilting by machine. I haven't hand quilted for years, I don't think I would have the patience to do it anymore. There are quite a few things I would do differently if I worked on this quilt now, I don't really like the dark border on it. Also, there are a few blocks that are upside-down, I didn't realize it until the quilt was completed. This square quilt is a little hard to find a use for- too short to use on a bed, too big to hang on a wall. Nothing I can do about it now, oh well. The blocks are all really nice, thanks to the friends in the group.

Quilters' Funtalk 1999 Birthday Block Exchange Quilt

When I was in the Quilters's Funtalk internet group, we exchanged these birthday blocks in 1999. I had this quilt just about finished a few years ago, but my sewing machine was skipping stitches and I became frustrated. I put the quilt away until today, when I heard that one of the members of the group had passed away. I dug the quilt out and finished up the areas where the quilting needed to be repaired. Oddly enough, the one block that wasn't quilted yet was Janet Mitchell, the lady who had passed away! So I finished it up, it didn't take very long, I don't know why I hadn't done it sooner. There are other names on this quilt of members who have left us, I am very thankful to have known such a wonderful group of people. I will always treasure this quilt and the memories that go with it. When I was on that list, I used the name "Loorna", which started out as a typo, but the name stuck. I've lost contact with some of the people, but others are on Facebook and we still have "fun talk" together. This quilt will count as "finished project #3" in my "finish 14 in 2014" challenge.

Birthday Block Exchange

I was in a birthday block exchange with the Quilters Funtalk internet group in 1998.
I made this quilt with all the signature blocks that I received.
A few of the people in the group have passed away since then, this quilt is a very special keepsake.

Blue and Yellow

My sister and I were exchanging blue and yellow blocks over the period of several months. We noticed that we kept using bright yellows and dark blues, not the usual paler blue and yellow colour scheme. Then we started adding bits of red here and there to try to balance things out. We quit making the blocks when it seemed the colours were too bold and they would knock the eyeballs out of one's head.
I looked at my stack of blocks one day and put them together into a quilt that was smaller than the bed size one originally planned. Linda used her blocks to make placemats.