Wednesday, April 1, 2009

April guild projects (and a little bit of nostalgia)

Tonight I finished up my guild projects for tomorrow's meeting. Yay!

This month's block lotto had a theme of "spring." The yellow paisley Hoffman floral was provided.

April block lotto block
Creating a block just did not go well for me. I started out with a hairbrained idea to do a little mini Lone Star block. I swear, every time I made a measurement, took a cut, or even did a stitch, I messed it up! After more than seven hours of work, this is the best I could do. Doesn't look very Lone Star-ish, does it? But at least I got something done. And I do kind of like the center of it. It is a Jane Stickle design (block E-1).

One bright note with this block: I used silk thread for applique for the first time! Whoa. It's pretty amazing how well it just sinks into the fabric. The stitches really are nearly invisible (especially impressive since I didn't even use matching thread... it was an off-white). At the same time though, it's a little scary because silk thread is super-duper fine. I really wonder how well it will hold up over time. Does anyone have any experience with silk thread? How durable is it?

After the boy went to bed, I also was able to whip out some pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer.


ConKerr Cancer is one of the charitable organizations that my guild supports. It is a great charity that distributes bright, cheery pillowcases to sick children in hospitals throughout North America.

Last month I picked up three kits to bring home and complete (the ones on the left). I also managed to do three more from my own stash (the ones on the right). The Bugs Bunny print and the gold stars on red are left over from my second quilt:

Brad's quilt
I made the quilt for my friend Brad-- he was a basketball fanatic. We lost track of each other after his graduation. I often wonder whatever happened to him. (And his quilt!) Anyway, I'm not sure how I ended up with an extra two yards of the Bugs Bunny fabric, but it's been languishing in my closet since 1996. It's nice to finally have a chance to put it to good use.

4 comments:

  1. Never mind about the star, this block is still good. I used to do those for our guild to get heaps of practice in.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That block is gorgeous. That was a lot of time to spend on it but it turned out amazing. I don't know the durability of silk thread but I have used it. I really get frustrated with it though. During the winter when my hands are really dry the thread will kind of shred and it comes out of the needle to often. I like the Mettler the best.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love the block! I have a few spools of silk thread and have only used it once, so far. It does melt right into the fabric, but it is so fine you can't feel it in your hands. That I didn't like. They say it is very strong.

    ReplyDelete