the Show and tell qults

We had the show and tell for last years blocks, and although not that many people brought their quilts to Show, they were beautiful!

Cheryl had a finished quilt!  Hooray!  We all love getting a big quilt like this completed and ready to use

The arrangement of blocks was really nice, and I liked the outer borders she chose, 

Karen's quilt was gorgeous too.  I love the borders she made for the medallion area.

It sort of looked like stained glass with the sun from the windows shining through the fabric.

Linda ( I hope I have your name right) had done a variety of projects with the blocks from the Sticks and Stones blocks from the previous year.

First, a lovely single bed quilt.  The light colored zig-zag setting really created a quilt that will be lovely to use, and the straight line quilting she did was so effective!

 

A few more blocks became a dresser runner, again with some lovely quilting,  --- look at that border pattern!

and there were still enough blocks for some throw pillows for on the bed or in a sidechair,

Betty's sample with the Jo morton fabrics was also a finished quilt.  She emphasized the golds and greens,

and she also brought her sampler using moda fabrics, mostly from the Little Black Dress groupings,

absolutely stunning,  and ready to use too.
It was so nice to see the quilts.  And incidentally, there were lots of us in the audience to appreciate them.   
I look forward to seeing what else people do with their blocks, even if it's not a "finished" project.  A sampler quilt is a big undertaking, and I know that we all work at different rates,    I have a few samplers from the past few years that I have yet to sew the borders on, and yes, I still have a couple of stacks of blocks waiting to decide what to become...

(a rare selfie, Michelle)

Enjoy your day, and happy stitching!

Sampler Quilts and Show and Tell

do these look familiar? They are Jo Morton colorway blocks from last years Saturday surprise sampler.

it's that time of year when I'm looking forward to the show and tell to see what people have done with their blocks from last time!   It is on Saturday at the store at 10 AM, if you are in town and want to pop in and get some inspiration.

I had quite a few blocks from sewing up the prototypes. I have one large quilt sewn together, but I also had a lot of six-inch segments leftover after it was sewn.

Each of the blocks were designed so that you could use it as one 12 inch block or as four 6-inch blocks.

today I'm working on a smaller sampler that uses the 6 inch blocks.

(sorry if the photos are a little blurry, I'm taking them on my iPad and noticed that I'm a little wobbly today.)

I used 35 blocks and sewed 1 inch frame around each of them. Then I sewed them into a horizontal grid of five columns and seven rows.

I have a lot of scraps left over from when I was making up the patterns so I decided to add a pieced border around the edges.

I recently designed a row pattern that had a braid segment, so a braid border was on the top of my mind.

I started with 4 1/2 in. square that will finish at 4 inches when sewn into the quilt.  

then, The side rectangles are cut  at 1.5" x 5"... each braid needs two of these...

then you add two more rectangles, cut at 1.5" x 6" long.

i'll just keep adding sections to the braid sections until they are long enough for the top and side borders. I think I'll have to also add a plain border in between the center and the borders.

(of course, the edges of the borders are trimmed straight before sewing them onto the quilt)

i'm not sure if I'll have this top together before Saturday, since something exciting should be happening in my life tomorrow, but I'll take what I have to the show and tell on Saturday.

I hope to see you at the show and tell at Periwinkle in Saskatoon at 912 Broadway Avenue at 10 AM whether you have blocks to show, or a quilt top,  to show from last year or not. We will also have refreshments!

The show And tell  will be on the main level of the store, so you don't need to navigate the staircase. Also remember there is a parking lot at the back of the store. See you then!

new saturday surprise sampler, block one

last Saturday was the first block for the Saturday Surprise Sampler, 

It is using Jo Morton fabrics from Andover combined with quilter's chambrays, and I am calling it Mosaic,

This is a photo of the first block, called World's Fair, in progress

It has 16 main units, which you can play around with to get different patterns.

These two photos show the units re-arranged a little bit,

And of course there are other possibilities too....
I have been working on my Last years' blocks, sewing them into the setting below,

I am hoping to have it mostly sewn together by Saturday, the 20th, because that's the Show and Tell day at the shop!!!

I really hope you can come to this event, it's at 10 a.m. sharp and it is always such an inspiring time, whether or not you bring something to show.  It is fascinating to see how the same group of pieced blocks are used in so many different ways.   It will be on the main floor of the store, but refreshments will be downstairs in the classroom in case you want to stay afterwards and do some socializing.....

Saturday Surprise Sampler starts soon!

We have a new round of our Saturday surprise sampler program starting in a week from today.

We had a lot of people wondering what the colors are going to be this year,

The fabrics we will be using are all from Andover. They include chambrays and fabrics designed by Jo Morton.   You can find out more about Jo Morton here. She often uses inspiration and patterns of prints from the 1800s.
this is the Charleston group,( photo from her website)

So this is a sneak peek at some of the upcoming combinations.

These aren't all of the fabrics but will add the others into the hoop display as they arrive in the store, most likely in September.

This is my chart of the fabrics.

To give the blocks a bit of a twist this year, I've decided to make them all repeating patterns reminiscent of the sort you might see on intricate tiled floors, 

photo from victorian tile restoration

each kit can be sewn into one twelve inch finished block, or left as four smaller blocks that finish at six inches.  This will give you lots more options for how you set the blocks!  I can't even imagine all the possibilities that people will come up with!


Hope you have fun sewing this year!