First Dog Bed Finished

 After looking at my huge garbage bag filled with fabric trimmings and waste every time I do anything in my sewing room I finally decided that if I just took an hour out of my projects I could probably get a dog bed stitched and stuffed with the smaller pieces that didn't need cutting down.  I had a good tutorial that I had watched enough times so I knew how I was going to proceed but I just needed an hour to do it.  Yesterday I finally found that hour and I was quite pleased with the result.  These dog or cat beds are two parts and I've only made the inner part so far and here it is:

Not a thing of beauty but I don't think Max will care.

I just grabbed a big piece of cotton broadcloth and chalked on the lines to form the channels which I partially stitched, leaving an opening at the top for stuffing. Stitching and stuffing were quick and then I stitched the openings closed and threw it in the drier to defluff it because it was covered with lint from my scraps and then I tidied up the mess in my sewing room which is an essential step.  It used about half the bag of trimmings but the rest need to be cut down to smaller pieces.

There is an outer, nicer cover that has to be made and Marybeth gave me a whole roll of blue velveteen which will be perfect.  I will just make a pillowcase style cover with an end that tucks in.  That will be washed more often than the inner bag.  This one is going to Bowser to be tested by my sister's dog, Max who is an aficionado of pillows and dog beds so I hope it passes muster.

October 22 Meeting Update

 Penny was probably the busiest person at our meeting yesterday with her hand sewing.  She was shortening the sleeves on one of Paul's hockey jerseys which she has probably finished by now.

Colleen just had a few finishing touches to do on this Halloween wall hanging for the twins who are coming for a visit over Halloween next week.  The front is done and it just needs a little sleeve or hanger on the back.

Colleen and I both had a guild class last weekend at Century House.  I didn't make it due to the flooding but Colleen did and produced this cute little work of "slow stitching".  It will be finished off with a little more embroidery and some raw edge, hand stitched binding.  The center piece was a log cabin made wonky by stitching it to the background with curved seams.  These little projects don't take much time or materials and really get your creative juices flowing.  If you're not in love with the finished project you haven't made much of an investment in it but you've probably learned something new and spent some relaxing time with a needle and thread.

I'll wait to receive photos of the work we did laying out another heart quilt but it is already pieced except for the borders so those pictures will follow.

Half an hour to chain piece the rows.  The weight is to keep the top from tugging under the presser foot as it grows in size and heaviness.

Here is the finished top without the borders.  Piecing the horizontal rows took more time--an hour and a half because this is where all the pressing and seam matching takes place.  But not bad to finish piecing this part of the top in just two hours.  The borders should take an hour to cut and piece.  We'll see...

Besides the above heart quilt, we all went home with some more backgrounds and heart units to stitch into finished blocks for another donation heart quilt.  That one will be on a variety of shades of lilac backgrounds with little floral prints for the hearts.  No rush to finish those, if you have taken some.

We finished the day by going down to Marybeth's quilting room to see her latest project which is a scrappy nine patch with sashings and cornerstones.  Lots of soft and pretty pastel colours going into this one.

Nancy is away this weekend at the FVQG retreat at Harrison Hotsprings.  We might get some photos for the blog if Nancy has an idle moment.  But I'm not sure if Nancy ever has an idle moment judging by her output.

15th of October Meeting Update

I am finally doing this update on Sunday night.  It's been a busy week and even though the rain kept me in for the last two days I've hardly had any time for quilting or blogging.  So this will be a fast recap with apologies to all those who brought their work to show and contributed in other ways.

Colleen spent some time going through her stash of quilts and chose some to get us started building up the TAQ donation stash for 2024-25.  We had five baby quilts left from our donations this year after filling the last of our orders with Project Linus and the Heron's Nest.

We are off to a good start with these beautiful quilts.  Colleen's multi-coloured scrappy Orange Peel quilt looks very cheerful.  Makes me want to make some more of those.

This Zipper quilt in greens and aquas is really lovely.  I recognize some Tula Pink fabrics there so maybe a co-ordinating fat quarter bundle or layer cake was used for this one.  

This started off as a table runner kit from The Cloth Shop but Colleen decided she wouldn't use a table runner in those colours so added some borders and circles and turned it into a sweet baby quilt.  The little squares in the border are perfect with the circles.

This is a top recently finished by Nancy.  It was designed for a jelly roll using lights and darks.  The fabrics are divided into lights and darks and strip sets are made with a light strip between two darks and a dark strip between two lights. Then a tube is formed by laying them out, right sides together and sewing together along the long sides.  You can get an idea in the photo below.  Then, using a right angled triangle you cut out your squares by alternating up and down across the strip.  You can get the idea here with this quilt tutorial from the Missouri Star Quilt Co.

Here are the leftovers of Nancy's strip sets.  She thought that she could have got an extra block out of each set if she had staggered the bottom two rows by indenting each strip just enough to accommodate the ruler.  A good tip!

Another stunning modern quilt from Nancy.  We loved the modern look of this quilt with it's simple design but the quilting in the background really made this one Wow!  Nancy's sister, Katie made the same quilt and when Nancy saw the quilting she did on it on her longarm she asked Katie to do hers as well.  With fingers crossed she mailed it off to Katie in Arizona and this is the result.  I guess you owe your sister a big favour now, Nancy.

Detail of Katie's amazing quilting.

After 12 years in the works, Leng has finally put the last stitch in her incredible appliqued quilt.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of her whole quilt but I will make sure one gets posted here soon.  It is a large quilt, about 93" square with thousands of leaves appliqued around the border and encircling the floral motifs.    

Each floral medallion is unique and Leng chose her own designs.   

Each medallion also has it's own quilting design.

The Gingko leaves were so delicate.  That little touch of red on one of the leaves and the shading make them look so real.

So much detail in every motif.

Really a museum worthy quilt.

Watch for this quilt to go on display at Fabricana in the coming months.

Other news:  we will be starting on two new heart quilts which are well on their way.  There is one where the blocks are all completed and ready to be laid out and the other we will be asking for volunteers to do some more heart stitching in order to get those blocks ready for laying out.  I hope to get the cutting for these two quilts done on Monday before our meeting this week.

Joyce is working on the arrangements for our get together with Michi and there are plans afoot for all the birthday celebrations that will be taking place in November and December.

We should also decide on a date for our little Alpine Village wall hanging workshop in November.  We will have all the supplies but will have a list if you want to use your own scraps.  Here is a photo of the project.  All fusible applique with a minimum of stitching and quilting.

Donations!

 After months of trying to find recipients for our 27 quilts nearly all of them will be leaving our stash this week.

One Orange Peel quilt is being reserved for a later donation for a fundraiser prize and we will be getting a couple of the baby quilts back that are designated for the Heron's Nest project but, otherwise they will all be gone by the next time we meet.

We were very fortunate to be able to donate two of our quilts directly to two very worthy recipients, the two children whose family lost their home to a house fire in Strathcona this week.  You can read the Sun Newspaper article here.  Our last heart quilt went to a little girl, aged 7 and the blue scrappy brick quilt went to her 9 year old brother.  Marybeth is kindly organizing the delivery with Mark, her gardener who knows the family the the two Stinton children are staying with.

On Saturday I will be delivering thirteen quilts to Project Linus in Burnaby and on Tuesday the baby and toddler quilts will be going to the Heron's Nest office where the moms can choose one that they like and the rest we will keep on hand for new moms coming into the program during the year.  Project Linus serves children who are going through a stressful period in their lives as well as BabyGoRound.  The Heron's Nest is a support program of the VSB whose goal is to keep young parents in school so that they can complete their high school educations.

October 8 Meeting Update

First of all, we have a new member, DeeDee Soychuke who was introduced to our group by Penny.  Deedee is a newly retired teacher so is having a busy time travelling and getting back to her hobbies so she is eager to develop her quilting skills.  You have come to the right place for that, DeeDee and a big welcome to our group.

This is a group selfie of those who made it down the stairs to inspect Marybeth's new sewing room, as seen in the following two photos.

I recall Betty and I looking around during the summer at this room when it was still Ted's office and saying, We could have a quilting retreat here.  I definitely have quilt room envy with all that wall space.  Lots of blank space for displaying quilts.

Marybeth looks like she means business here.  She even has a bed for those times she is just too exhausted from quilting to walk back up the stairs.  All kidding aside, Marybeth we wish you many happy hours of quilting in your new space.

This is Colleen's comfort quilt Soup Challenge from the PSQG.  We were each given a mystery package of charm or layer cake squares of mixed patterns and colours--all unused leftovers from packages.  And just like making a soup with all the leftover veggies in the fridge, that is what we were to do with our squares.  Colleen discarded the ones she didn't find "tasty" and added some of her own to give it some zip and created this lovely quilt which is a donation to the Comfort Quilts at the PSQG. 

It was really hard to donate the last of our two heart quilts but it is going to a very worthy recipient--a 7 year old girl whose family home was lost to a house fire this week.  That was our first group quilt and got us started on making Community Quilts.  Thinking of making a couple more, I remembered the box of heart blocks I had already started and popped the lid to see what was in there and at what stage.  I was happy to find 80 completed blocks made from some charm packs of Civil War type prints--not the prettiest but I think they will look fine when stitched together into a quilt.  I have lots of fabric for the borders and binding.  I have absolutely no recollection of making these and it was a complete surprise to find them in the box.  A little scary...

This is what I was looking for:  my tiny floral print hearts which I was in the process of cutting when something else more important intervened.  I wanted to use these varying shades of lilac and mauves for the background and there is enough fabric for the borders as well.  So if anyone wants to join me in working on these two quilts I will bring the box on Tuesdays and we can work away till we have enough for a top.  I probably have the notes from our original heart quilts so I will know the dimensions and number of blocks, etc. on Tuesday.

Betty has been at work in her sewing room as well, getting control of her "stash mountain".  Well done Betty but we were sorry to hear you tweaked your back doing it.  

Note the snazzy jump suit pattern in the upper left.  We've missed Betty and Leng from the last two meetings and I think Betty's tweaked back is probably the reason why.  If so, Betty we wish you a speedy recovery.  Or maybe Betty is busy working on her new jump suit. 

Joyce we miss you, too and look forward to finally celebrating your birthday with Michi when you are back with us again.  We'll keep your seat warm for you.

Marybeth had some good news--her knee surgery is scheduled for December but no firm date yet.  

And finally an important request.  A couple of weeks ago, thinking of saving Marybeth the job of hosting only Nancy and me, I suggested we cancel the meeting and just stay home to quilt.  Unfortunately that had the opposite effect of what I had intended.  Marybeth was already set up with the coffee made so the whole pot was wasted.  If that weren't bad enough, it was one of the few weeks that we could have got together with Adrienne and because she wasn't informed spent a good part of the afternoon in the car.  I apologize for that.  Marybeth suggested that we all RSVP to the host for the week so that (usually Marybeth or Joyce) know how much coffee to make and how many will be attending.  The decision of whether there are too few for a meeting should lie with the host.  

No Prescription Required

 

Colleen sent me these today to help get me back in action after my dental surgery on Sunday.  Caution:  they are addictive.

Remembering Mr. Kaminishi

 It was sad to read Joyce's email this week that her Dad, Kaye Kaminishi had passed away.  Fortunately Joyce and Ray and Ed, Joyce's brother were there with their Dad at the time. It was her father's wish to die in his own home and his family was with him.  He died quickly as a result of a stroke or heart attack.

I'm sure most of us have a favourite story about him and mine was not so much a story but the amazing fact that, until the last few years, he used to shovel his own walk when it snowed.  That thought got me out shovelling on occasion when I was feeling sorry for myself on a snowy morning and I don't think I ever shovelled my walk without thinking of Joyce's Dad.

Mr. Kaminishi truly was a local legend and has been honoured on numerous occasions in Canada and in Japan.  Next time we have Joyce back on Tuesday she can tell us about some of these honours.  In the meantime if you want to read more here are some links:

Vancouver Sun Obituary by John Mackie.

Vancouver Sun article about Mr. Kaminishi's 102nd birthday and City of Vancouver honour.

Vancouver Sun article about Mr. Kaminishi's Heritage Minute

Wikipedia entry for the Asahi Baseball Team

And here are a two films as well.

Historica Canada's Heritage Minute about the Vancouver Asahi, narrated by Kaye Kaminishi

National Film Board movie, Sleeping Tigers, The Asahi Baseball Story