Deimi's Photos of Michi

I think Michi was trying to hide behind her new quilt.

Leng's Christmas Tree Skirts

This was Leng's original tree skirt.  Note the silver piping and embroidery on the inner section.  Click on the photo for a close up.

This is Leng's second attempt.  She worked out the math herself and was not satisfied that her wedges didn't form a complete circle, so...

She made Christmas Tree Skirt #3 which forms a complete circle.  I think we all would have hated to do that math.  They are all so cheerful and will look great under the tree.

Betty's Latest Projects

Betty turned Sue's donated purple velvet into a lush background for her Christmas snowman.  

All finished and ready for Christmas.  PJ's just off the production line.  Click on the photo to get a closer look at the prints Betty used.

 

Photos from Get Together with Michi

 These photos are from our get together with Michi on November 19 at her residence.  We also celebrated Nancy's birthday.  We presented Michi with a quilt that was started by Arlene and finished off with quilting by Nancy.

Meeting Update for November 5th and 12th

 November 5th get together:

We met at Joyce's on November 5th.  There were lots of completed projects for Show and Tell.  Colleen had little stitched bags with Halloween treats for everyone.  We discussed upcoming events such as our get together with Michi on November 19th and also Sharon's choir performance on December 17th.  There will be a separate post with details and follow up information for your calendars for these two events.

We celebrated Betty's birthday (Nov.7) and Joyce's (Sep 29).  Here is their cake:

Betty and Joyce looking very serious about their cake cutting responsibility.

Nancy made this paper pieced spider at the Harrison Retreat of the FVQG

Here is Betty showing us some finished onesies which she is making for her entire family for Christmas.  Love those dinosaurs!


Here is the Spiderman version and there are still more to come.  Betty also has plans to make some little velvet dresses for the girls.

Nancy and Leng defluffing the back of the first finished heart quilt.  Leng also finished sewing 20 of the heart squares for the second quilt which will probably be finished in January.  

Here is the first finished heart quilt for our 2024-25 donations.  Still lots of strings to trim and a label to be added.

This is Nancy's second quilt quilt top made with this pattern.  We immediately made plans to add some of these to our donation inventory since we all wanted to learn this method.  It's made with some dark and light jelly roll strips which are divided up--light and dark which are then sewn together in strip sets of three with two darks with a light in the middle and two lights with a dark in the middle.  Then the strip sets are layered, right sides together and sewn along the long edges, pressed and the rows are cut with a triangular ruler which results in all your completed blocks.  

Joyce and Sue showing off their joint project.  This is an I Spy made from Split Nine Patch blocks.  Joyce did the piecing and quilting and Sue hand stitched the binding.  

Here is a baby quilt for donation that I made.  I wanted to use up a small jelly roll that I had around for awhile which turned out to be not very suitable for the pattern I chose.  I was warned in the tutorial to make sure the pinwheels were made from a highly contrasting fabric.  When all the fabrics were together the green did appear to have good contrast but when sewn the pinwheels completely disappear.  Oh well...  One of my oft repeated expressions during my quilting journey.  I did manage to quilt my first spiral which I enjoyed doing.  The following photo is the back of the above quilt.  I can recommend this walking foot design for small quilts.

This shows the spiral quilting better.  Also the soft, brushed cotton that I used on the back.  I got it at Fabricana.  I bought it in three different colours.  I think it was 54" wide and on the sale table. 

These two little tools were indispensable for my quilted spirals.  It is probably best to use a walking foot with an arm gauge but my generic walking foot causes my needle to loosen and fall out which is pretty scary so I just go slowly and don't have a problem with my layers feeding unevenly.  That also allows me to use this foot with built in gauges which measure one inch from the outside edges which is perfect for a spiral.  I made the little cardboard template to mark the start of the spiral.

Here is a Carl's big quilt getting quilted with spirals.  A real pain on a big quilt on a domestic machine and I would not recommend it.👎  I am getting to the outside of the spiral here but if you imagine how much of that quilt I was trying to squeeze under the arm when I started (about another 12") you will see why this is not so easy on a big quilt. 

Nancy let me borrow her Super Slider toboggan to help with my machine quilting setup.  I can give that tip a two thumbs up.👍👍

I am still working on Carl's quilt.  I need to get it done asap because he says he wants to put it on his bed for at least a little while before he heads back to Prague on Dec. 2nd.  

November 12th get together:

Yesterday, November 12th we met at Marybeth's.  DeeDee was back from her trip and had a little Teddy Bear panel that she wanted to make into a quilting project to practice some new quilting techniques.  Fall and winter are travelling seasons for Dee Dee and she is looking for some little hand projects for her travels.  We can check up on her progress between trips.

Betty had her little girl's dress pattern along to study for more hand made Christmas gifts.  She is making the view in the upper left.  We will definitely want to see pictures of the girls in their dresses.

Betty is still making onesies as well.  We just have photos of the leftover scraps.  I will remind Betty to post her photo of the plaid ones which she worked hard on to get all the lines of the plaid to match up.

Here is a jelly roll and a piece of pale blue batik yardage that I brought as a suggestion for fabric to make a couple of quilts from Nancy's jelly roll pattern that she showed us last week.  We thought this would make a really good group project, also for January.  We have volunteered Nancy to guide us through the steps.

That is all that I can remember.  I will be doing a separate post for the following meetings before our break for the holidays.  There will be a lot of things to add to your calendar and don't forget to RSVP ASAP if required.

Fraser Valley Quilters at Harrison Hot Springs

Here’s the video that was taken at the FVQG retreat a couple of weeks ago. 

Will Robinson costume

Another fantastic Halloween costume (Will Robinson from Lost in Space) made by Betty and modeled by her grandson, Michael.

Will Robinson helmet also made by Betty out of a number of interesting items including a paint tray.

Halloween costumes by Betty

Waluigi Halloween costume modelled by Betty's grandson, David.

Michael disguised as Will Robinson

Short of Backing Fabric?

 

Quilt backs take a lot of fabric if you are using regular 115cm/45" quilting cotton.  It's pretty annoying when your top turns out to be just inches wider than that magic number because it generally means, inserting a strip into your backing or buying another length of fabric.  

Here is an interesting tutorial on widening your backing by cutting it on the diagonal.  I've never tried it because I usually opt for a wide backing.  I will do almost anything to avoid piecing a quilt back.  Once I am finished my top I am done with piecing.  However, I had a really nice backing fabric that I could have used for the heart quilt but we opted to use the extra blocks to lengthen and widen the top which made it too wide for the backing without piecing it.  I'm not happy with the wider navy fabric I used because it really picks up a lot of lint from the batting, I am worried about the colour running and also I could not adjust the tension sufficiently so that the top lighter thread does not show through on the back.  Had I come across this tutorial before I sandwiched the heart quilt I might have tried this backing trick.

Article: Let's Talk About Bleeding Fabrics

 

If you are concerned about fabrics running after your quilt is washed this is an interesting article.  When I washed all the quilts which were donated to Project Linus, two of them ran, right through to the back of the quilt.  This happened despite using two Colour Catchers per quilt in the wash.  I corrected this by rewashing a second time with laundry detergent.  The article mentions using Dawn "soap".  Soap and detergent are two different things.  While Dawn is a detergent, you will have more chance of success with a laundry detergent.  They are formulated to prevent colours from migrating.  Although Dawn or any other dishwashing detergent is an excellent stain remover it shouldn't be used in large quantities in your washer.  

October 29th Meeting Update

 There was a small group at Marybeth's on the 29th which included Nancy, Sue, Penny, Marybeth, me and our special four footed guest, Willow.

None of us were doing any hand work and there was no show and tell but I did bring the dog bed I recently finished for Willow to try out.  No complaints from her so I guess I can pass it on to Max.

Here is a photo of Willow on the bed playing with Sue .

I just made the cover like a pillow case with an end that tucks in.  I'll let my sister put a zipper in it or a velcro closure if she decides that's needed.

Right now I am finishing off the blue/red/brown heart quilt.  I just need to finish off the quilting in the border and put on the binding.  Then it will need to be washed a few times so I might get that underway tonight so that I can bring it tomorrow.  Just as with the last two heart quilts I am nervous about that final stage in case washing will destroy all the work that went before.  It has a navy blue backing on it which I prewashed but I am still nervous about that running.  I read an interesting blog post about fabrics that run and how to make sure they don't which I will post later.  I've always been good about prewashing my fabrics and after having a couple of our donation quilts ran during the washing it has made me think more about this important step.  I managed to fix those quilts but I definitely don't want that to happen with a donation quilt or one that I have given as a gift.

I also have another donation baby quilt that I am finishing off.  That will be a guild donation.  It's not particularly a cute quilt because the jelly roll I used was just too busy.  I should have added in some plain fabrics to calm it down a little.  Also, despite being warned about using a really high contrasting fabric for the little pinwheels that are created in the layout, my pinwheels all disappear in the busy-ness.  However, the one thing I really can say I like about this quilt is the spiral quilting I did on it.  That was my first attempt at the spiral.  Nancy showed it to us on one of her quilts during the summer.  I got some helpful hints from Youtube and I'm glad I did or I would have run into problems.  That was just a practice run because I finished piecing and sandwiching Carl's quilt and he has opted for the spiral for the quilting.  I'm not exactly looking forward to doing it on a big quilt but I don't think he will mind if there are some flaws in the quilting.