Sticks and Stones, Block three, Irish chain

 

this is a pretty block, and it's got a nice mix of straight and diagonal sewing lines.  

If you haven't already done so, be sure to check out the previous post which shows some finished quilts from last years' blocks, the black white and bright ones--- there are some beautiful quilts!

Black white and bright quilts show and

As promised, these are the photos of the quilts of the black white and bright blocks that were from last years Saturday surprise sampler program.  

For this program we just provide the block kits and each person decides how they are going to sew them together into a quilt. This is exciting because it has lots of room for individuals to customize their quilt. 

Because I was away Jen took all the photos and she did a great job. A Big thank you to everybody who brought in their quilt to share with the rest of us. It is so inspiring to see what you did!

First up was John:

I love the fabric that he used for the simple Sashing between all the blocks.  That little strip of black between the inner and outer borders sure is effective.

Second, we have Margretta's

Like many others, Margretta decided to use one consistent accent color throughout all the blocks. She used it in the setting as well and wow does it ever look good.

This is Diane's:

She used a beautiful turquoise for her accent color and made a smaller quilt, using only nine blocks.

Fourth up we have Margaret.  

She also chose to use one accent color, with this yellow green fabric. I love all that open white space, it should be a real showpiece for some nice quilting stitches.

Next, we have Andrena's quilt. She has done nearly every sampler so far if not all of them. I think she makes her family pretty happy with them.

Jean has also done almost all the samplers, if not all of them, but this one she outdid herself. She ended up getting 10 extra blocks so that this qulit uses 30 blocks in all! 

Very cool setting as well.

Ruth's quilt!  First, some of the blocks:

Now a shot where you can see the border that she made which uses some cheery bright fabrcs combined with black to set off the blocks.  Really lovely,

Cheryl brought two quilts in this time. First up was the finished quilt from the year before:

Definitely worth waiting to see this one. I love those little stars in the outer border. Plus what an effective use of red in the borders and binding.

Her next quilt is a big one too.

Also another great border. I don't know exactly how she did that outer border pattern but I really like it.

Janet is a relatively new quilter, although you would never know it from the beautiful sewing she does.  

Another intricate border, which really is a huge part of the quilt. What a difference a border like this makes:

Faye is a good sport, she brought in what she has done so far, which is a lovely pile of sampler blocks waiting for the right moment to be sewn together into a full quilt:

I have a carrying case exactly like that which holds my black white and bright blocks!

Pearl Created a beautiful quilt with pieced sashings and borders:

And finally Melissa Shows us that it really pays off to be daring in your color choices.

What an amazing color combination using that pink and orange together with the black and white

I feel very inspired after seeing these beautiful creations.

Now I have many more ideas floating around in my brain as I ponder what to do with my stack of blocks.

Thank you again to the 12 of you who  brought in your quilts to share with us. 

new stuff

I got back to Saskatoon a couple days ago, and was excited to get back to the shop and look around at all that product that arrived during my absence.

First of all, a brand new sample on the wall!

 The Pattern for this is called Picture Perfect and It is by Mountainpeek creations. Patty and Val selected the fabrics which are a really cute winter theme.  Patty sewed the sample and it  looks amazing! Lots of kits available, it is a lap size:

Some of the new fabrics that came home with me today are:

some nice neutrals to use for our Saturday surprise sampler program:

The bottom three are from the "grunge" line by moda,  and we have them in lots of pretty colors as well as neutrals.

And of course I'm such a sucker for any fabric with text on it that I had to immediately snag some of these two new ones from Wyndham.  

We also got a huge order of stencils!  Really a lot of them.  Also, some of those wire quilt hanger things.

I was away when we had the big show and tell of quilts from last year's blocks, which were the black white and bright ones. Val laid out all the coffee and snacks, and Jen did the hostessing duties for the show and tell itself.  she also took some great photos of the quilts and she even recorded who made them!  I'll post those tomorrow!

Block2

This zig zag block is brand new today,

A big thank you to all of you who came out to the show and tell this morning, and especially to those of you who brought your quilts from last year to share with others.

The color way from last year to this year is very different.

Although I wasn't able to be there at the show and tell, Jen did a great job and took photos of what people brought. I look forward to posting them later date.

Thread organization

I made some little dog shapes out of clay to use as thread holders for some of my stitching threads. Yesterday I spent some time organizing my threads and using the little dogs for their purpose.

These are some of my beautiful 50% silk 50% wool threads from Caron. I've been using them to stitch on another picture. This one is done on wool and its about 11 inches square.

iStitching on wool is lovely.  i backed it with a layer of quilt batting so the needle just glides through and I don't need to use a hoop because it's got enough hand that it won't pucker.  I still have some stitching to do on this piece. But I am enjoying it quite a lot