Sew Happy BOM

A member of our quilting group told us some time ago about this free block of the month hosted by Jaquelynne Stevens.  It is a small runner or wall hanging consisting of 4 blocks done over 4 months.  After selecting fabrics from my stash, I started cutting and finished the first block yesterday.

If you are interested, just click here.

Key fobs

At our Rotary Cutters quilt group meeting held the 4th of April 2023, we made key fobs for the General Meeting of the Oranje Quilters Guild this coming Saturday, the 13th of May which we will host together with another group, the Gouedrade.

Elsa de Wet, the vice chairperson of the Guild and one of our group members proposed this idea as a welcoming gift to be handed out at the meeting.

We all brought along felt, batting, buttons, beads etc. and started cutting and stitching.  Marietjie van Rensburg and I did all the machine stitching whilst the other members did all the hand stitching. 

We worked together as a team creating a seamless unit each with her own task.  Even when I stitched one of them horribly crooked, Rika van der Merwe didn't complain or ask me to unpick it.  She merely cut it straight.

We started at 14h00 and slaved away until 18h30 at which time we had 33 finished.

Frances van Schalkwyk finished another 7 at home and Angeline du Plessis made another 10 bringing the total amount to 50.  I tasked my husband with the job of adding the key rings.  He used a staple remover to open the rings and slide the fobs through. Easy! They turned out absolutely beautiful each with it's own personality.

Thank you girls!  We made a mean team.

For more info of the Oranje Quilters Guild, visit the blog here or the Facebook page here.

Homestead Quilt finished

I finished this quilt which I started in 2020.  Although I originally wanted to free motion the whole quilt, when I started the quilting process, I once again couldn't decide what to free motion where and settled once again with straight stitching on all of the blocks.  Now that the whole quilt is done, I am considering adding free motion fillers to the solid color fabrics.

I bought a complimentary fabric for the back but discovered too late that I bought too little and had to add a plain blue for the sasching at the back as well as two of the corner blocks as the original fabric was sold out by the time I discovered my mistake.  The quilt blocks was finished using the quilt as you go method.  It was the first quilt I did where the blocks was set on point.  

I seldom finish quilt bindings by hand anymore and prefer to machine stitch the front as well as the back.  I accomplish this by first stitching the binding to the back of the quilt and then finish it at the front.  For this quilt I use an overcasting stitch to create a decorative finish.

And with the label stitched to the back, this project is done.  I might just be able to finish all the UFO's this year with only two bed quilts and one wall hanging left to finish.  That being said, I just realize that one third of 2023 is already behind us.

Aprons

Another happy customer.  This lady and her husband are going camping for a month at Kruger National Park and made them each an apron for this memorable occasion.  She wanted their names embroidered on the pockets and I was happy to assist.  

She didn't want anything too fancy and choose this font which I embroidered 7.5cm high in grey to match the stripes in the aprons.

Courthouse Step Runner

During one of our quilting group's meetings last year, we decided to take part in some of teacher Annie du Toit's classes to broaden our skills and to bring more variety to our group meetings.  Luckily Annie was doing a class about an hour's drive from Bloemfontein and decided to sleep over and do the class in person rather than via the internet.  

So, on the 2nd of March our group convened at Marietjie's house and started cutting and stitching.  It was such a wonderful and instructive morning.  When we left at midday, everybody had most of their blocks done and ready to stitch into a runner.

I added a fifth round of steps and a wider border as our tv cabinet is a bit wider.

As with the Strata Star table runner I stitched in February, I again used machine embroidery, the walking foot as well as free motion to do the quilting.  I used four different designs in each of 4 of the blocks with all 4 designs in the center and 5th block giving a different look to every block.

On the border, I decided to stitch a free motion feather, the first time ever I tackled a feather.  Since I started quilting in 2010, I so wanted to stitch feathers, but was totally intimidated and scared to even try.  I stitched the stem with the walking foot and failed miserably on the first two attempts.  Whilst drawing it out on a piece of paper to show my husband what I was trying to accomplish, I realized what I was doing wrong.  On the third attempt I succeeded and stitched a feather all around the border.

Although I didn't stop far enough from the edge as to not catch the feather in the binding, I am extremely proud of myself that I have finally overcome my feathered fear. 

The embroidery designs I used is this set from Embroidery Library.  On the maroon I stitched with a matching variegated thread and on the cream with a mother of pearl metallic thread.

Below are some of the other members runners.

Frances van Schalkwyk

Marietjie van Rensburg

Rika van der Merwe

                                2023 is going extremely well with two finished quilts thus far.  

Puffed bubble quilt Nr. 6

Had an extremely happy customer this morning when she picked up her baby's quilt she ordered in turquoise, brown and beige.  The quilt top as well as the back was done in 100% cotton.  I usually use a mix of different fabrics as it is more cost effective but getting different prints and/or shades in any one color is just an uphill battle.  So, off to our local Elna dealer I went after a fruitless stop at Jacksons whose variety of quilting fabric has sadly diminished alarmingly.

Whilst surfing the internet, I stumbled onto yet another technique to construct a bubble quilt and decided to combine it with Tracy's method which I used to stitch this quilt.  What I like about Narelle's method is creating the pleats before sewing all the blocks together as you can then alternate the directions of the pleats creating less bulkier seams.  It was also a lot faster than Tracy's method where all the pleats have to be created and stitched one by one which felt like it took an eternity.  So with puff quilt number 6 done and dusted, I finally have a less time-consuming method with a backside that fits snuggly. 

Baby Statistics Bears

First two orders received for these adorable bears.  The first one for a little girl called Lara Kate

and the other one for a little boy called Luke.

Design available from Ofnah