Magic Squares By Linda H.

Linda designed and made "Magic Squares" last year and I quilted it on Matilda the longarm. It took a long time before the pictures made their way to me so I could post them. :D Linda did a wonderful job on this quilt top, it's a great design.

Team Effort

A few months ago, a generous woman donated her stash and this quilt top to our guild. I quilted it and Coralee, the president of our guild is going to put on the binding. The completed quilt will be donated locally.

North And South By Linda H.

Linda just finished a UFO that's been in storage for many years. This is what she said about it: "The North and South quilt was one of the first quilts I made with a design from a McCall's magazine from about 1999 or 2000 possibly. I remember that the designer was Kelly Corbridge I think. It would take a very big search to locate that magazine. It is a pretty basic block consisting of a nine patch divided diagonally into light and dark. That's all I can tell you at the moment. I think this quilt is fantastic! Even though it's quite a few years old, the design and colours are timeless."

Donation Quilt

I've got this quilt ready in case our guild is going to do a batch of donation quilts in the future. If something comes up in the meantime, it'll be given to somebody who needs it. Each year I make a few quilts to donate. I don't have money to give to charity, so this is a way of giving back. The enormous fabric stash comes in handy. The pattern came from this YouTube tutorial called "Stacked Charms" by Lea Louise. It's quilted with wavy lines, using Glide thread.

Triple Treat Is Completed

This quilt was finished in April, except for a bit of hand-stitching on the binding. I did the rest of it a few days ago. The pattern is "Triple Treat", a free pattern on Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog. I used a blue variegated thread for the quilting, but wasn't sure if I was happy with the result. It looks ok from a distance, but I don't like how it creates light and dark stitching. I've got numerous spools of that kind of thread, I was trying to use some of it up. For the back, I sewed together three different blue fabrics. It's a good way to "get rid of" some odds and ends. This quilt is the right size for the bed in the spare bedroom, so I will keep it. That bed has had the same quilt on it for years, it's time for a change.

Sewing Marathon

I watched a tutorial on YouTube about the Chip N' Dip quilt. Of course, I had to try it. Two days later, the quilt top was made. I have a large Rubbermaid bin of 2 1/2" strips and a 5 gallon bucket of 2 1/2" squares. I've been cutting fabric into various sizes and shapes for more than twenty years, so there is an abundant supply. After I made this quilt top, it didn't look like the fabric diminished at all, the bins were just as full as when I started. Fabric must breed and multiply when no one is looking. I threw the quilt top on the fence to take the picture but the wind caught an edge and turned it. Professional photographer, I am not. :) There is some backing fabric due to arrive in the mail for this project.

Repairing A Quilt

I made this hand-quilted Log Cabin quilt in 1990. Over the years, it has received several repairs in the form of zig-zagging. We have the quilt at the cabin and use it underneath a top quilt on the bed. It's got to the point where the fabric is fragile and is splitting in many places. I brought the quilt home and put it on the longarm machine. Machine quilting over top of hand quilting would probably be considered blasphemy. It was either that or retire it completely. I quilted all-over loops to strengthen the seams and fabric. The machine was in a bad mood and the thread broke countless times, but I persevered. Now the quilt is in the washing machine, ready for next summer at the cabin.

I used the glide foot on the machine so it wouldn't catch the openings in the fabric. It worked like a charm.

Above: what the quilt looked like before I started working on it.

Most people would just send a quilt like this to the landfill. I didn't want to do that because it was the first Log Cabin quilt that I made and it took 9 months to hand-quilt. Sentimental value.