Slave Lake quilts - additional information

Hi Everyone -  Some of  you responded to my last post asking where to send quilts for the people of Slave Lake.  You can send them to me for the time being.  Just send an email, make sure I can reply to it though, and I'll send along the necessary information.  One of our members will be driving up to Westlock and Athabasca in June to deliver the quilts, that's where many of the displaced families are now being sheltered.   

If you want more information on donations for the residents of Slave Lake, please contact the following:

Red Cross Western Canada -

1-800-418-1111
http://www.redcross.ca/  

Salvation Army Disaster Relief Fund

1-800-725-2769
http://www.salvationarmy.ca/ 


Hope this information helps.

Thanks,
Mary-Frances

Slave Lake quilt initiative

Life has its challenges

we all know this

but what do you do

when a wall of fire

heads your way



destroying everything

in it's path



taking not only your home



but your whole neighbourhood.



If you are a quilter

you pull out those projects

you just aren't sure what to do with




You gather with your friends

 

and you cut

and you sew

and you quilt



everyone pitches in

to make quilts

big and small

for those people in Slave Lake, Alberta

who lost everything.

Mary-Frances

My Charming Stars

Hi Everyone!  I've been spending as much time outdoors as I can, enjoying the sunshine and tidying up the yard.  I usually cut down all my plants in the fall but for some reason I left everything last year and boy, oh, boy am I ever regretting that decision!  I've yet to plant any seeds, but I did check out a few garden centres and came away with a few favourite plants, blue lobelias and some snapdragons.  Spending my days outdoors leaves me too tired to do very much sewing in the evening, but I had a burst of energy tonight and finished up a project I began a few months ago. 

Enjoy!
Mary-Frances




My Charming Stars flimsy is finally done.  No borders to add, so I hope to get the quilt sandwich done this week so I can begin quilting this one by week's end.

 

More projects in the works.  I've put my hallowe'en wallhanging up on the design wall because I'm hoping it will motivate me to actually get this one finished!

 

A few more fabrics I picked up today...who can resist dancing skeletons?? :-)

 

The view from my sewing room this evening.

  

Quilting bee block for May

Hi everyone!  I finally finished my on-line quilting bee block for May.  Sara gave us a bit of a challenge this month and asked that we create "lakes and islands."  Take a look and see.

Enjoy!
Mary-Frances



First part of Sara's instructions asked that we use green or mostly green fabrics.



I sorted through my scraps and made three blocks.


 

Each one is 9.5 x 9.5 inches


 

Create a lake by cutting out a shape from the block, making sure not to get too close to the edge.


 

Take a 9.5 x 9.5 inch square of blue fabric and place under the green block.  Pin in place.




Stitch together, using a zig-zag stitch.  Flip over and trim the blue fabric, 1/4 inch away from the stitching.  You now have a blue block with a big hole in it!



Now for the island.  Take the green fabric piece that was cut out of the large block.  Add fabric to it until it cover the hole in the blue fabric.  Place over the hole, pin in place and stitch together, using a zig-zag stitch once again.



Here are my two island blocks.

  

Here are the two lakes.




I left one block as is...it can be a field next to her lakes! :-)



Red and white quilt - scrappy style

Hello everyone!  I'd like to extend a great big welcome to Sharon for signing up as a follower.  Thank you!  With the weather finally warming up a little it's becoming harder to resist the call of the garden, but I have managed to do a little bit of work in the sewing room and even spent a day out on a shop hop. Now that's always time well-spent.

Enjoy!
Mary-Frances

The last of my April scrap-bee blocks arrived in the mail yesterday!  Thanks Jess.



Here are all the blocks up and ready to be put together.  Need to cut out the setting triangles, but that shouldn't take too long...unless I run out of fabric, which is always a possibility.



Here are a few new fabrics I picked up on my shop hop on Saturday.  Even though we were out most of the day, we only made it to two quilt stores.  Both were in two different towns outside of Calgary.  Nice weather, good company and checking out new quilt stores made for a very enjoyable day.



Design wall mayhem

Hello everyone!  It's been a busy week, trying to get the yard cleaned up after a seemingly interminable winter!  Even though I tried to spend as much time out in the yard as I could, I still managed to spend time in my sanctuary, the quilt room, every night.  However, chaos seemed to rule there as well as I have a few projects on the go, and I had all of them up on the design wall this week.  I finally decided to get working on my scrappy red and white quilt. Take and peek and see what I've been up to.

Enjoy!
Mary-Frances




See what I mean?  Too many projects on one wall.



Received a few more blocks for my red and white quilt, these are from Cindy.



And these are from Sara.



I still need to make one more large block for the upper right, but it's starting to come together.



Here's a closer look at the fabric I'm using for the center squares - it's a subtle red on white print.  I won't have enough for the whole quilt, so will use a different fabric, a small red polka dot to finish it up. 



Cool Blues all done

Hello everyone!  I finally managed to finish the beast..aka my Cool Blues quilt.  I booked some time in the classroom at my local quilt store Saturday night and spent the evening adding the borders to my quilt.  Now it's time to send it off to be longarmed, no way am I going to attempt quilting this one as I am still a beginner in that respect.

Enjoy!
Mary-Frances



I took this photo before I put the three final pieces together.  I knew once I added the borders I would have a tough time trying to take a photo of the whole thing.

 

Here it is, all done.  I asked my daughter and her boyfriend to stand on the couch and hold the quilt up so I could try to get a decent photo.