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Creative Isolation

Social isolation doesn’t mean we are isolated from our sewing machines. 🙂

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.

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 🙂

IMG_5040 j quilt — 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. 🙂

Bright scraps of nine patches give the octagons a festive feel. Pieced by Moreen.

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

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.

Joan’s stained glass pieced and quilted by hand.

Joan’s Cactus Rose.

February Show and Tell

Members had been busy since the Christmas Show and Tell and there was lots of work to ooh and aah over. A couple of the quilts were put together by teams of quilters.