Irish Chain Blues - we're getting there

The centre is finished. This is my last trip to the ironing board before putting on the borders.



It's set five by seven - 13 1/2 inch blocks. It's been a lot of sewing straight lines, getting up early very morning to get it done. My deadline is this weekend, because it's got to get into the mail to get to Erica on time.

So.... this is where I spent my morning - at the wonderful Kickass Country Store in Plumas, Manitoba. I have a great stash, but it's mostly fat quarters. My idea of a big cut of fabric is .4 of a metre - never enough for a border.



So off I went - in the frigid cold of a Manitoba January. I've always wondered about living in a country where the "hot spot" has a temperature of minus 28.




Beautiful downtown Plumas. It's cold.

We're making progress

My Irish Chain Blues quilt - we're making progress. This is one of my 2010 must finish projects, because I've promised it to my daughter. All the main blocks are done and now I'm finishing up the "connector" blocks.



There are a total of 18 - this for a quilt set 5 by 7.

The connector blocks are in the making -



What you see on the chair are the finished main blocks, some of the connector blocks and the strip sets for the connector blocks. Lots of sewing straight lines and then cutting things apart. The good news so far is that no half-square triangles to square up.

My friends won't recognize me without half-square triangles.

the PhD Challenge

I found the PhD challenge a day too late (that's what happens when I travel to Ottawa to visit my daughter for Christmas, but don't take my laptop), but I'm going to read along and do it anyway.

No photos - but I will get them up and onto the blog.

I hope an almost new project fits within the spirit. Just before I went to Ottawa, Erica asked me for a quilt for her friend who is getting married. I've cut the strips, which means it's started before 2011!!

Photos tomorrow. Today - January 1 - we clean the house.

Edited to add a photo today. This is the first of the strata for the Irish Chain.

A quilting weekend

A quilting day on Saturday with the Undercover Strippers. (Where did we get that name?)

I got the machine set up all set to go on my Newspaper Pinwheels:



One portable sewing machine, one Ott light, one big board laid across a table, the project and assorted tools of the trade - everything necessary for a Saturday with the girls.

The morning was spent working on Newspaper Pinwheels:



.... but the rest of the day was spent finishing the quilting on Tres Triangles. This is such a simple quilt, made out of leftovers and swaps and a few lights thrown in because, after all, no-one swaps neutrals:



This one will be for the house - just a couch quilt, probably for naps ..... and getting up in the middle of the night and deciding it's better to sleep on the couch.

Christening Quilt Finished

Another one bites the dust! Another one bites the dust!

Is that what we're supposed to be saying about quilting?

Well, maybe not, but it is what I think when I snip off the last thread from binding, and then go back to trim any stray threads and pull out the basting thread from the binding.

Another one bites the dust! Another one bites the dust!!

This is the most recent christening quilt.



I should have done close-ups. I really liked the fairies.

Table runners

This is the season for table runners. I'm making them for Christmas, both for myself and to give as gifts. This one is a template for a pattern I'm writing - as simple as they get - Nine Patch and Rails.



There are two place mats to go with this one. Don and I will use them for ourselves.

There is something about the simple nine-patch that I find alluring. It's easy to sew, easy to cut and fits together in so many different ways.

Another baptism quilt

I've written that before - and that's good news. Another baptism quilt means there's another baby being baptized.

I have a week to turn this mess:



into a simple quilt for a baby. It wouldn't be so bad if my brother weren't coming midway through the week for his father-in-law's funeral. We'll take the time to say a proper farewell to Bill Bulat and then it will be back to the machine.