Mystery Quilt Day

Yesterday was the quilt guild's annual Mystery Quilt Day.  This is something I look forward to all year.  It's a chance to visit with different members of the guild, see what they're working on, and hopefully get some sewing done myself.  I spent Friday night after work planning the projects I would be working on. I dug through several unfinished items and decided on sewing the binding on one quilt and fusing some eggs on my Chicken wall hanging.  Pictures to follow.....

I was up early on Saturday and picked up friends Carol and Sue and together we headed to the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield.  It was a bit of a hike but we made it there in plenty of time to set up our work space and get some breakfast.

I started by sewing the binding onto my small quilt.  It's about 45" square and is made up of blocks I was given by fellow guild member Becky, who will be doing a trunk show this week at the guild's regular meeting.  I really want to have it done so I can show it at Show N Tell.

 

Here's a close up using foot # 57, the quarter inch foot -- my savior ~~

 

I started to stitch the back side of the binding down but have a long way to go before Thursday.  I polled my stitch friends and all but one use a single strand of thread to sew their bindings down so that's what I'm doing this time.  Normally I use two strands -- not sure why I started that way.

 

We took a break for lunch ~~

 

 which was delicious and received a little goodie bag ~~

 

We then went back to work and I added some eggs to my Chicken wall hanging ~~

 

Now it's ready to be layered and quilted.  Less than two years for this one -- woohoo!

Everyone got a new handmade pincushion ~~

 

which they no doubt used while they were working ~~

 

As I wandered around to see what everyone was working on one project caught my eye in particular.  Ann was working on this wall hanging for her granddaughter ~~

 

  

It was so darn cute!  There were separate clothing pieces that needed to be fused to fusible fleece so that they would 'stick' to the 'paper dolls' in the wall hanging.  Ann looked far and wide for the fabric and wound up having to order the various fabrics from 3 separate websites.  What grandmas won't do for their grandchildren!

Here are some shots of my small quilt.  The eleven pieced block came from Becky -- they were leftovers from a quilt she made for her daughter.  I had to make two applique blocks for the corners and added the striped fabric between them all.

 

  

You can see on the left side of the picture above, the area where I have already sewn the binding down.

I received these blocks 10 1/2 years ago, made the appliqued blocks about 8 years ago and sewed them all together and quilted it about 6 years ago, I'd say it's about time the thing was FINISHED.  One more thing off my to-do list.  That's a great feeling.