April 10, 2022

I am really trying to wrap my brain around the fact that Madison is 21 this year!

Again, I was looking for something a little different to present Madison’s gift in. I picked up this wallet pattern from another Guild member. I’ve never made a wallet before and I was quite intimidated but as the time was closing in on getting it done I dived in.

Surprisingly the whole thing went together quite well. I’m not sure I’d make it again, but I’ve kept the pattern just in case.

The closure on the front called for a rivet but I didn’t have any so I used velcro to close it. I added a bit of bling to the front with an old brooch of Mum’s.

There is lots of room inside for cash, coins and cards.

April 7, 2022

Gift cards are about the best I can do for gifts for my grandkids and I wanted something a bit different to present this year’s card in. Emma is quite an artist and I thought this zippered pouch would hold some of her different pens and pencils.

Yes, I said “zipper”. The zipper went in quite well but I misunderstood the directions on the pattern and had to do a bit of adjusting when I closed up the sides. The lighter fabric is what I used for the lining. A Chapters gift card will fit nicely into the pouch.

April 4, 2022

This was a Guild project from 2021. I’ve never made a log cabin before and I was glad to give it a try. Of the eight extra blocks surrounding the centre seven were patterns given to us and the eighth one we were to choose our own. I picked the card trick block; Stacia had made a quilt using the card trick block a long time ago at one of our first sewing sessions and I really liked it.

Quilting was a challenge because I was limited to something I could do with my walking foot. I used my go-to star pattern in the blocks.

I was a bit worried that for three of the blocks the star pattern might look odd because the block really didn’t suit the quilting pattern. A conference with Stacia and Deloise set me straight and when it was done I made the right decision; those three blocks don’t look at all strange.

For a lot of the quilting I used the mattress stitch that Deloise introduced me to and I’ve used often. I wanted something with curves for the wide outer border so I dug out one of my quilting rulers and marked the curves. I was pleased that by using my appliqué foot I was able to sew through the layers (and follow the curves) without much trouble.

This was a large quilt so it took some energy to move it around through all the quilting. I thought it was 30 blocks by 36 blocks but it turned out I had miscounted and was dealing with 36 blocks by 36 blocks so a lot of quilting.

It wasn’t until I had the last few stitches in the binding that I realized I hadn’t put a label on the quilt so I added one by hand.