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Creative Isolation
Linda’s daughter returned for a visit and busily used up more of her mother’s stash. Gail put her thinking cap on to figure out what to do with some donated fabric. Three quilts later with two of Moreen’s now all the beds at Elmbridge have a cheery bed topper. We thought it would take at least two years but we did it in 18 months!
Lovely fall colours pieced by Linda and Quilted by Gail.
Always fun to see what can be made of donated fabric. Pieced and quilted by Gail.
Perfect as the fall turns cool. Pieced by Linda and Quilted by Gail.
Armed with a mound of batting Moreen went to work quilting several tops she had worked up while organizing her stash over the isolation months. The first seven quilts are ready to brighten new homes. 🙂
Moreen made interesting motifs with the artful positioning of half-square triangles and square blocks
Moreen using up stash with a colourful scrappy four patch
Take one with black and white fabrics Moreen found buried in her stash.
Take two with black and white fabrics Moreen found buried in her stash.
Tan nine patch pieced and quilted by Moreen
Cheerful Red and white nine patch pieced and quilted by Moreen
Blue nine patch pieced and quilted by Moreen.
Social isolation doesn’t mean we are isolated from our sewing machines. Over the summer we worked on quilts for Lion’s Manor, the intensive Care Nursery, Elmbridge Supportive housing, Turning Point for Women and Family Place.
In a cool trick, Eileen made strips of orange and blue into diamonds of colour.
Eileen’s take on railroad tracks.
It’s a girl! A lovely preemie quilt by Eileen complete with sheep for counting.
Jennie took some donated hexagons and turned them into a wonderful lap quilt.
Colourful squares made by Eileen, Jennie and Pat were quilted by Jennie into a fun play quilt.
A prolific quilter, here are some of the dozens of preemie quilts made by Joan.
Joan stitched a delightful array of colour into these play quilts.
A bunch of colourful play quilts by Joan.
Gail decided it was time to use up as many of her 1.5″ and 2.5″ squares as she could.
Gail’s neighbour gave her some colourful, lightly used kimonos to give new life to.
Linda pieced this delightful zig zag and Gail quilted it.
Creative juices have been flowing!
Pam was approached by a woman who had found lots of lace handkerchiefs among her mothers things. A few photos and lace turned them into a wonderful keepsake wall hanging.
The patience of Joan to make and stitch together hundreds of 1/2″ hexagons. But what a beauty!
Joan’s Jacobean Applique panel
Joan’s Jacobean Applique panel
Joan’s Jacobean Applique panel
Elly likes making Preemie and play quilts. She has been sewing steadily over the last few months.
Elly took assorted fabrics and turned them into colourful Preemie quilts.
Elly had some fun fabric for a couple more Preemie quilts and lots of blues and greys to make into play quilts.
Our members are creative thinking beyond quilts and blankets to other items our partner organizations would find useful.
Sherry made these wonderful tote bags from ‘fish’ motif donated fabric.
Some donated brocade fabric too heavy for quilts was skillfully turned into tote bags by Sherry.
There is no end to imaginative use of scraps. Sherry used donated zippers and leftover scraps of fabric and batting to make these awesome cosmetic bags.
When you can’t sew any more you can take up knitting!
For something different Freda started knitting and made dish cloths in a variety of patterns. She was surprised and delighted at how easy the round one was.
On a roll with knitting Freda made these face cloths to go in the bags Sherry quilted.
Vickie knitted this cute blanket from a pattern called Bunches of Bobbles.
Time is flying by and quilters are looking ahead to Christmas.
Suzanne’s festive Christmas Star Table Runners and log cabin ornaments.
Moreen found too many pieces of black and white fabric in her stash so she got busy 🙂
Blocks on the diagonal add interest to this one.
What you can do with black and white squares and rectangles1
With a wedding in the family and a son and daughter in law moving to new digs Gail has made a couple of quilts to celebrate.
Adapted from George Boe’s Swirling Star Quilt pattern. Sewn and quilted by Gail for a housewarming present for her son and daughter-in-law.
Gail’s nephew and his fiance met in the scouting movement. He loves cats and she loves golden labs. Hence cats and labs enjoying the camping experience!
Ruth has been experimenting with techniques new to her. The first is 4 strip blocks becoming half square triangles. The second is “bias petals” from “Improv Handbook”.
Ruth experimented with four strip blocks split diagonally with plain and other strip blocks to make an interesting modern quilt.
Bias Petal technique from Sherri Lynn Wood’s book “Improve Handbook” Ruth has pieced and is hand quilting with Sashiko stitching.
Brenda and Sherry have been sewing and knitting.
Brenda’s cute baby quilt
Sherry’s elegant disappearing pinwheel.
Fun and pretty fidget muffs by Sherry.
Linda’s fabric stash needed some reduction so her daughter Linda Mae worked on a few quilts while visiting her mom.
Lavender and yellow. Cheerful Easter colours.
Hints of circles make this an attractive pattern.
When Gail’s grandson moved into his new room he had a built in bed that was a different size than the old one. So out came quilt patterns and this one seemed to look good for the new teen who enjoys red as his favourite colour. Pillowcase of red with starry trim 🙂
Free -form Stars pattern by Lynda M.H. Faires QNM March 2001. Pieced and quilted by Gail Newell.
Moreen’s grandson sent her a picture. She liked it so much she was inspired to make a pillow covering. Having a stash has been good while stores are closed. 🙂
Moreen’s Grandson’s picture
Moreen’s pillowcase
During this time of isolation many of us felt like we were running around in circles both modern and traditional.
Gail started this lap quilt in Lorna Shapiro’s free form curved piecing workshop. It was fun working with curved pieces and quilting more circles through the layers.
One set of circles led to another. Gail had never made log cabin circles and with lots of scraps at home this was a good top to try.
It is good to exercise not only our fingers but our brains. Ricky Tim’s convergence quilting book has interesting techniques for making beautiful quilts with fabrics of the same dimensions. But what if your fabric is different sizes and you want a rectangular lap quilt? Time to experiment!
Gail’s first experiment was with two pairs of fabric, one set longer than the other because donations from Irene and others are of course not cut to order. 🙂 Otherwise the techniques from Ricky Tim’s Convergence quilting book were the same.
For the second experiment Gail adapted Ricky Tim’s convergence techniques to use six pieces of fabric converging to the center (vertically) and out again.
When shopping for fabric becomes a challenge we dig into the scrap pile of leftovers from other quilts we’d always been meaning to do something with.
Moreen made this ‘COVID-19’ heart quilt top. To be quilted when supplies can be obtained after isolation is over. 🙂
Sherry’s scrappy log cabin
Moreen’s scrappy triangles
Sherry’s scrappy zippered pouches
Bright scraps of nine patches give the octagons a festive feel. Pieced by Moreen.
Moreen’s scrappy patches
A donation of many pieces of fabric around 20″x9″ presented a challenge for Gail. Most of the pieces had a mustard colour that wasn’t her favourite but there was blue, rose and burgundy in these fabrics and some fabrics that were mostly these accent colours. What to do? The fabric sizes lent themselves to cutting into 2.5″ strips so the first two quilts were made with these. Then there was still lots of fabric left over and turned out to be enough to make half square triangles with a little supplementing of the beige. Three quilt tops are now ready for quilting. The third is her favourite.
Bargello blocks: 2.5 inch strips were cut and sewn to make a tube. The tubes were separated at different places to stagger the blocks and then sewn together again.
With lots of 2.5 strips left from the Bargello blocks Gail made simple blocks and stitched them together without sashing. A quick, easy top.
Half Square triangles of the lighter and darker pieces were sewn together. There was enough blue tinged fabric left to make a blue band.
Members have continued to quilt and knit for family, friends and outreach while we’ve been self isolating at home.
Exploding square lap quilt in fun colours by Sherry
Alternating four patch by Gail
Brenda put together this delightful ‘Winding Path’ design from Quick Quilts #22.
Joan pieced this delightful quilt top with a nine patch magic design.
Sherry made this awesome ‘Crazy Eight’ quilt for her sister.
Sherry knit these intriguing and adorable fidget muffs
Joan is enjoying being surrounded by the warmth of her beautiful quilts at home.
