The Art of Quilting Sampler Quilt - Blocks 1 and 2

Last week, a very dear friend of mine (31 years and counting), Rika van der Merwe, asked me to teach her to quilt.  I've heard about this new series, The Art of Quilting, and suggested taking this course. 

We bought the first 2 issues and sew the first 2 blocks on Saturday.  They look like this:

Casper admiring the blocks...

We may or may not finish the whole double bed quilt - it all depends on how expensive it gets and the techniques taught.

You can read more about this project here.

Another new project...

Goodbye, Natash!

Sadly, my quilting buddy, Natasha van Zijl moved back to Pretoria after her husband, Ryno was transferred.  They moved to Bloemfontein in 2003 after both her parents were killed in an accident, to raise her 2 sisters who was still in school - Monique was 18 and Bianca 8.  Bianca matriculated last year, so obviously their job is done in Bloemfontein. 

We met in August 2010 when we both started a beginners quilting course at Hettie Pringle's (Stitchingmatters) home and became instant friends. 

I gave her an early birthday present before she left - appliqued cup cakes which Natash now have to convert into a quilt. 

Designs from A Stitch A Half

Although I miss her dearly, I wish her all the best of luck after the horrible 8 months of verbal abuse she was subjected to at her last job.  Your prayers have been answered, Girl!

Now we're waiting for a photo of the completed quilt...

Crazy Quilt blocks for Charity Quilt - Part 2

I have been struggling with these 4 Crazy Quilt Blocks for our group's Charity Quilt project which I wrote about here, for more than a week.  Deciding how to decorate them was clearly not my strong point.  Being back at work doesn't help either as the creative juices just don't flow as good.  But looking at the photo I think they turned out ok.

Birthday Presents - Continue

Handed these presents out over the weekend.

I made this Quilting Organizer for a dear friend, Hettie Pringle.  She is my quilting teacher and mentor and you can read all about her here. 

It is the same pattern that I used for my sister, Christa's, Closet Organizer - I only used the designs for the larger embroidery frame resulting in 3 larger pockets than the 4 pockets you see below.  I also substituted the designs with a quilt related theme.

Design available from A Stitch A Half

My quilting friend, Sonja, received these 4 covered coat hangers.

Designs available from Artistic Designs

And so my two week holiday has sadly come to an end and it's back to work tomorrow.  I really enjoyed the time at home, but all good things must come to an end - eventually.

Birthday Presents

Spend the first week of my holiday mainly making birthday presents for various friends.  I get such a wonderful feeling of accomplishment with every project finished as I get to start a new project!

On Tuesday night at the Rotary Cutter's monthly meeting, I handed out these scissor cases together with a chocolate and an inspirational verse.

The design is available from a Stitch a Half

Charity Quilt - Part 1

Our quilt group, the Rotary Cutters, decided to donate a Sampler quilt for charity this year.  Every member got to choose her favourite technique and prepare 4 12.5 inch blocks.  We are donating the quilt to The Muscular Dystrophy Research Foundation of South Africa and hope that they will be able to raise money for research.  My firstborn died as a result of  Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in 2003 3 weeks before his 20th birthday.

My 4 blocks looks like this and will form the centre of the quilt.

Late Louwrens Geel (17-09-1983 to 22-08-2003) with his baby brother Trevor jr in 2000.

Forest Quilt Wall hanging - Phase 1

Yesterday I attended a course by an awe inspiring teacher, Mari Strydom from Bultfontein who is also the owner of the local quilt shop, Lappiesland.  Her quilting journey started after being diagnosed with a debilitating disease and in spite of being in pain every day of her life, she just excelled.  A big thank you to Mari for sharing her knowledge with us.  I found this article about Mari on the Internet and you can also read about her on our Guild's blog here.

The Forest Quilt is constructed from little fabric pieces cut to about the size of matches as shown on the photo below.  The tree trunks were cut out of the brown fabric.

My inspiration, was this picture:

                                                         And my quilt looks like this:

It is however, far from finished as all the stitching have yet to be done.  The finished product will differ quite from this one, I hope...