The Art of Quilting Sampler Quilt - Blocks 46 to 47 and 52 to 60

Another 11 blocks finished and ready to be added to the assembled top.

Blocks 46-47 and 53-54

Blocks 52 and 59-60

Blocks 55 to 58 (made a mistake with one block though and only discover it afterwards - will have to unpick the whole block.  Not so nice :-(



5th Simply Chic Carryall finished

The 5th Simply Chic Carry All I wrote about in this post, is finished.  I gave the bag to a dear friend and former colleague (of about 25 years) of mine, Sonia Botes.  She wanted one ever since she saw mine and when she was retrenched last November, I decided to make her one just to say thank you for her friendship, her prayers for me and my family and for just being there all these years.

The front

The back

The inside without the removable insert

and with the insert.

The lucky lady.

Birthday presents for group

This year I decided to embroider a bookmark for each of the the Rotary Cutters quilters.  I can't remember where I downloaded this well digitized and gorgeous free design which doesn't come undone as so may free standing lace designs sometimes does.

I added this inspirational verse as well as a chocolate bar:

The Word is like  bread, every chapter is a slice and every verse a bite.  Prayer is your butter and praise your jam.  You don't have to eat dry bread ever again when you make Gods word your own and invite the Holy Ghost into your heart.

Oranje Quilters Guild last quaterly meeting for 2013

At our last meeting for the year, a few of our group's ladies showcased their Innovative Quilts.

Dalene van der Colf with her beautiful butterflies

Hanlie Hoffmann also opted for the butterflies, equally beautiful.



My friend of 32 years, Rika van der Merwe, started quilting at the end of last year and decided to do this quilt as her Beginners project.  It turned out absolutely beautiful with her quilting attracting a lot of attention and compliments.  Well done!

And the 3rd place Viewer's Choice:

Me!

Simply Chic Carryall

Maresa Pretorius, my embroidery friend of more than 15 years, invited me in 2010 to join her and her sister in law, Annelie Opperman (which have also became a close friend of mine since we started quilting together in August 2010) to make these bags under the guidance of Marie Coetzee, our local Pfaff dealer.  I had no idea what the bag looked like at the time, but trusted Maresa that it would be well worth it.  And was she right!

Closed, the bag looks like this:

The inside pockets:

 

And the removable insert with lots of little compartments (I made 2 for my bag) :

 

This is not a cheap or fast project, but I can really recommend it.  I take my bag everywhere I go and it is always a hit.  Everybody wants one!  So, if you are not in Bloemfontein or close to a Pfaff dealer, you can get the pattern here at Michelle's Designs and make yourself one.  You will be forever grateful as all your quilting stuff (needlework or embroidery etc.) will be neatly stored in one place. 

 

I finished my bag just before starting quilt classes and is busy making the 5th one.  Only very special friends and/or family qualify for such a gift  :-)

 

Herewith photo's of my bag - stuffed to the brim. 

 

The bag opened with both removable inserts on top of each other held in place with Velcro.

The 2nd removable insert.

The inside pockets

 



Packed and ready to go with everything in it's place!

Goody Bags - Quilt festival

I talked about writing a post showing all the wonderful items included in our Festival's Goody Bags, but just haven't get around to it.  But, better late than never, I always say.

The bags was sponsored by Quilt Talk and Pfaff:

 

 

The Rafels group was in charge of the Goody Bags under the leadership of Karen de Villiers.

Karen and Hettie made 1300 quilt ruler bags between the 2 of them, with a little help from other Guild members.

 

 



 

 

Our group, the Rotary Cutters, was responsible for the emergency first aid kits.  All 1300 of them.  One of our group members, Prof. Frances van Schalkwyk is the Dean of the CUT Food and clothing department and she enlisted the help of the students to make and pack the bags.

 

Inspiration by Bernina:

A needle book:

 

A thread catcher, pincushions and snips.

 

 

A beautiful Journal and pencil - note the little windmill on the top of the pencil.

 

 

A kit to make a sewing roll-up.  Every member of the Guild donate 6 sets.

 

 

Charm squares, bookmark, bobbin and beads.

 

 

And last, but not least, a bag with candy.

 

 

 

Innovative Quilt - Final Post

And so this journey came to an end with the completion of this quilt. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot.

I bought the fabric for the border during our quilt festival.  It picks up  the colours used and bind the quilt beautifully together.

 

Baby Driver

With our first grandchild on the way, I can at last embroider all the beautiful baby designs I accumulated over the years. 

First up is some bibs.  All were done in the hoop.  I used 2 versions, but embroidered 6 different bibs.


These are the original designs available from A Stitch A Half.  Both bibs are embroidered in full using variegated thread.



With these 2 I substituted the original embroidery designs with 2 clowns.

These 2 were done with printed fabric.  Only the outside borders are embroidered.



The Art of Quilting Sampler Quilt - Blocks 42 - 45 and 48 - 50

With the long weekend almost over, I managed to catch up with all the blocks I received thus far.   The quilt top is halfway done at this stage.  With all the finished blocks sashed and stitched together, it is turning into a lovely piece.

Blocks 42-44
 

Blocks 45 and 48 to 50

 



The Art of Quilting Sampler Quilt - Blocks 35 to 40

Another 6 blocks over and done with.

Blocks 35 to 37
 

Blocks 38 to 40

 

The Art of Quilting Sampler Quilt - Blocks 5,18 and 29 to 34

After mainly focusing on my Innovative Quilt project for the year, I was looking forward to continue with this quilt.   My previous post for this quilt, was March already!   I can't believe the year has flown by so fast.  I have seriously fallen behind and need to catch up to block 50.  The blocks are sashed and stitched together after every 10 finished, so it is growing all the time.  Quite exciting!

After making a mess of Blocks 5 and 18, I got replacements and was at last able to finish them.  Whilst taking photo's outside, the wind blew them into the pool.  They were still wet when this photo was taken, that's why they look a little rumpled.



Blocks 5 and 18

Blocks 29, 30 and 32

Blocks 33 and 34

Now I'm off to cutting and stitching the following batch.

Block a day Quilt

Griet Lombard, an ex South African now living in New Zealand, agreed to repeat this class after the Quilt Festival for members who could not attend classes during the festival.  After being on holiday the first 2 weeks of July, I manage to get another day's leave to attend this class on the 24th of July.

This quilt is constructed with leftover scraps on calico and embellished with all sorts of beads, threads etc. mainly by hand - the ideal take along project.
 


The Quilt consist of 81 blocks.  Satin Suffolk puffs (Yo-Yo's) on the corners, gave a luxurious look to this beautiful quilt.  It won a first prize at the Queensland 2011 Festival.

 

Some close ups.

 

Sometimes the simplest design and fabric teams up into an absolute gorgeous masterpiece.