Can’t believe it, but the 2011 Raffle Quilt for the Thumbstall Quilt Guild is completely finished. It’s been a long year of planning and putting it together – but the final result is more than worth it.  Now all that’s left to do is show it at various venues and sell the tickets!  One of our members, Marion, who is a master long arm quilter just finished the quilting.  She used a leaf pattern in the center of the quilt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and meandered the applique borders, outlining the applique itself.  Just beautiful!

The border is an original design by another guild member, Sandi.

 

 

 

 

I just received the finished quilt today and couldn’t help but spread it out on the bed.

 

My husband liked it so much that he insisted on buying the first tickets!

There's always time to quilt!

Well sort of – but only a day trip.  Since our camper was totaled last December, cancelling our winter trip, we haven’t done much traveling.  But now that the warmer weather is just around the corner, we’re planning on taking more day trips in Central New York.

Today was a perfect excuse for the first one this year.  We picked up my new car, a Ford Fusion, and just had to take it on a road trip.

We decided on a drive to the Finger Lakes, specifically Seneca Lake wine country.  We’ll be hosting a nature photo tour of Finger Lakes Wineries this summer and needed to line up some of the photo shoots.

So of course I packed up my current applique project to take along. Any hand work, especially needle turn applique is so portable and easy to bring along on any kind of car trip.  I like to work on projects while riding or whenever my photographer husband ‘finds’ the perfect picture and just has to stop.

Everything neatly fits into a small satchel that can easily fit in my purse.

The weather could have been a little warmer.  The temperature seems to be stuck in the 20′s lately(should be in the 40′s this time of year).  It was a mostly sunny day with only had a few snow flurries to accompany us; not the multiple ‘inches’ of snow that we’ve had to contend with lately.

Yes I did drive the car off the lot but turned over the driving to my husband after our stop for lunch.  I needed to make sure that I could comfortably quilt in the car.  I was pleased that the passenger door has two decent receptacles to hold my quilting notions.  What luck!

I thought when I took this car for a test drive that  it was perfect for me as a driver and now I’ve found that is also fits my needs as a passenger whose passion is ‘quilting’!

There's always time to quilt!

It’s the first week of Spring and this is what it looks like outside my living room window.  The begonia is impatiently waiting to be planted outside, but Mother Nature has decided that we need one more snow storm before she will bring winter to an end in 2011.

I’m not sure which plant I was supposed to feature in this picture.  According to the calendar it should be the begonia, but the weather outside makes me think it should be the poinsettia.  This 2009 poinsettia re-bloomed for the Christmas 2010 season.  (I’ve never been able to get more than one season out of a poinsettia before this.)

Living  in Central New York, we don’t normally get bored with the weather.  As the saying goes, ‘Just wait 15 minutes and it will change.’  Just another way for Mother Nature to show us that she, not us, is really in charge.

However, the weather gave me the opportunity to get started on a new quilt.  A friend of mine asked me to make a two-color quilt for her son with red and white fabrics.  Not sure exactly how to start I went to one of my favorite quilt shops, Patchwork Plus, and as always they put me on the right track, suggesting a pattern and helping pick out just the right fabric.   I really like walking into the store and having them call me by name.  They ‘always’ are able to answer my  questions as well as share useful quilting tips.   What an invaluable resource for us quilters!

There's always time to quilt!

Saturday was National Quilting Day.  As we do every year on the third Saturday in March, a few members of the  Thumbstall Quilt Guild got together to share our favorite pastimes: quilting, camaraderie and good food .   This year 10 of us spent the day making  Memory Bags for local Central New York hospitals.  We were able to finish, or nearly finish 15 bags.   If someone dies in the hospital, their personal belongings are given to family members in these bags.  Certainly better than the see-thru plastic bags that the hospitals normally use.   To date the guild has distributed 34 bags to three area hospitals,  With the 15 we completed Saturday, we’ll be able to give them 35 additional bags by the end of the month.

 

Looking for a quick, easy charity project?  The directions follow here.

Sew and Flip Memory Bag (Adapted from Plank Road Guild pattern) rev. 11/2010

Materials: 19” muslin or lining material [subdued print] (must be at least 43” wide) 21 fabric strips 2 ½” wide, 19” to 20” long (muted fabrics; no brights or child prints) Strips may be pieced and pressed (Or substitute yardage19” x WOF for strips). 1 strip 8” by WOF (width of fabric) for handles, ties and binding.

Construction of Handles, Ties and Binding: From 8” by WOF cut: 1 – 2-¼ ” by WOF for binding 2 – 4” by 18” for handles 2 – 1” by 18” for ties Handles: Press each 4” by 18” piece in half lengthwise. Open out. Press each side to center, press in half again. Top stitch both sides of handle. Make two.

Ties. Press each 1” x 18” piece into thirds lengthwise. Top stitch close to raw edge on side and one end. Make 2.

Binding: Press in half.

Bag Unit Construction: Press lining and strips. Fold lining in half, salvage to salvage. Press crease to find center. Open lining and place right side down. Place strip one, right side up centered over crease in lining. Pin in place. (This is the only strip that will need to be pinned). Place strip two, right sides together over strip one and sew with ¼” seam from top to bottom. Keep lining smooth underneath as you sew through all layers. Open strip two and press away from strip one. Continue in this manner adding 10 strips to the right and 10 strips the left for a total of 21 strips, sewn and flipped, pressing as you go. Do not trim. From right side, secure last strip on each end to the lining with 1/8” basting seam. Stay close to end of strip so stitches won’t show in final seam. From right side, trim away extra lining material from top and bottom of bag. Turn the bag over to the lining side. Trim away the extra strip material from each side of the bag. Size should be 18” x 40” at this point. Make French fold seams on sides of bag (like pillowcase seams): With the wrong sides of bag together, join bag sides with a scant 1/4” seam, making sure that strips on the outside of the bag line up. Turn bag so new seam is on the inside; (right sides of fabric will be together). Sew. Push seam to outside and iron, so you have a nice sharp edge. Enclose the first seam with a ½” seam. Turn right side out. Iron side seams so they are flat.

Handles, Ties and Binding: Ties: Pin the ties at the center of the inside of the bag, making sure they are hanging into the bag and don’t get caught up when you sew on the binding.

Handles: On outside of bag, measure 4-½” from right and left bag edges. Pin the handle at the 4-½” marks. Do not twist the handle. Make sure the handles are not up and away from the bag – they should be lying on top of the sewn strips and will be flipped up later.

Binding: With both handles and ties hanging down, attach the binding strip with a ¼ ” seam allowance to wrong side of bag. Flip binding up and press seam up and away from bag. Bring binding to front, handles and ties down. Top stitch binding to front of bag. Flip handles up; ties remain down. Top stitch close to top edge through all layers including handle area to secure the handles a second time.

Memory Bag is complete. Finished bag size is 17-¼” x 21-¾”. \

There's always time to quilt!