Friday, January 15, 2010

I sewed - really, I did

It's been a long time since I've played with my sewing machine - since before christmas actually. I have done hand stitching since then, but no machine work. Would you like to see what I made? Would you? Huh? Really? Ok then - here it is.

One of my online groups is doing a monthly challenge block - and I was two months behind. Someone picks a block for each month and posts it on the first. Then we all sew the block in our own colors - no swapping - no mailing - we just make the blocks for ourselves. I am doing my blocks in greens. At the end of the year we can set the blocks together any way we want - and then we will have an online quilt show to share all the great quilts we've made.

December's block

January

Our group also makes comfort quilts for members - for surgeries, baby births, bereavement or any other incident that seems to need some comfort or rejoicing. We use the Jake's Heart block and each member makes some blocks and sends them to a volunteer who puts them together into a top. This top is then sent to another member who volunteered to machine quilt it, then on to another for binding. Then it is presented to the recipient. It is a great deal of fun to participate in these projects, knowing that you are a part of something wonderful.

This is the latest comfort quilt - I put it together after receiving the wonderful blocks. It has been sent on to another member for quilting. I like the way the corners look a little like butterflies.

My monthly sew-in group is doing a signature swap - and we are using a paper pieced heart for the block. It has a white space in the middle for the signature and we can pick any two colors, dark/light or med/light for the heart and background. We will be swapping these in late April. I am in charge of this swap so I made some samples of fabrics that might be used for the hearts.

Purple with Lavender


Dusty rose with light pink

It will be such fun to receive all the signature blocks, I might make a few extra and have other friends sign them - to have enough blocks to make a bed quilt. The hearts are only 6" so I'll need a lot of them.

So that is my machine sewing for this week/month. Now back to working on the christmas carol challenge, which is needle turn applique, and a GFG, which is English paper piecing. What are you working on?

9 comments:

Darlene said...

Absolutely lovely - glad you had a little machine time. :-) Enjoy your handwork, as well.

Crispy said...

I love the green blocks, it's going to be such a pretty quilt.

It is cool how the hearts make butterflys in the corners.

Crispy

Lili said...

Indeed you did get some sewing in! I love how the colors complement each other in that latest comfort quilt. My eye immediately focused in on how the lower left center green color set off the rose color in the upper left center block. It looks like so much fun to work with all this color! I also love the white on white tones of the background fabrics. --Lili

Sharyn Mallow Woerz said...

there is a much easier way to make GFG's, have you tried inklingo?

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

I've tried it and haven't found it easier - different strokes for different folks I guess :-) In the first place, my printer is not happy running fabric through it - and I don't like the piecing on the line - but other than that I guess it would work out. LOL I love English paper piecing - it is about my favorite way to make quilts - that soothing monotony of the little stiches - stacking up the pieces, hand stitching them together.

Thanks for the suggestion though - you just never know what clever idea might be out there that you might use. So many clever quilters!!!

Browndirtcottage said...

Woo Hoo....Woo Hoo....I really really LOVE everything you are working on! You have been being soooo productive behind the scenes....and there all this time I thought you were just hand sewing away on your little GFG hexies!
This is the first time I think I have seen heart shaped siggie blocks before!!
Did you come up with the 'comfort' quilt block placement on your own....if you did...I love how the corners came out too!!!
Wow...you have been so busy I hope you have been taking some 'tea' breaks!!!!

Elenka said...

I'm working on making sure my husbands 'stitches' don't fall out. He's my own special comfort quilt, hand made by someone else.

Sunny said...

Your quilt blocks are such an inspiration! Thanks for posting. Please tell me how I could get involved with the online quilt group doing the green blocks. I have so many ?? ... such as how do you know what size to make the blocks, or do you decide that on your own, as you are keeping your own blocks? Sounds fun! I would like to take part, and I'd get caught up real quick :)

Dena said...

Nice job on our BOM Challenge blocks and on Judi's comfort quilt. I know she'll be overwhelmed when she receives it.

I can't wait to get all of my signature blocks completed and exchanged. I'm going to try to find my fabric for them this weekend.

I think you're going to beat me on this round robin challenge. I'm still fiddling around with my applique pieces to get them positioned just right before I can stitch them down. I think I'm being too picky. LOL