Small quilts at the auction

I'm back and thank you to everyone for the lovely emails I received. All is well but with the upheaval of renovations I kind of lost my blogging mojo. The renovations are for the most part complete. There are a few small jobs left but they won't require rearranging or packing up. The big job now is removing all the dust from the renovations. I clean it up and the next day it reappears! Oh well, I have a lovely new kitchen and bathroom.

My Guild has does a fundraiser every two or three years. Members make small quilts which are then auctioned off and the proceeds are donated to a local organization. This time we chose 416 Community Support for Women.  416 is a warm and welcoming place located in downtown Toronto. The staff provide a wide variety of programs and services to women who are dealing with mental health issues, addictions and social isolation. Several years ago I visited the centre; the place radiated warmth, caring and respect for all who entered through the doors. This organization gets no government funding and so relies on events such as our Silent Quilt Auction and donations from the general public to fund activities and services.

My Mom (Anne H) made three pieces for the auction. The first she called "Spring 2016". She dug into her stash of hexagons to make the small quilt. She tells me that the tall stalks are hollyhocks and you can see that she added a variety of embroidery stitches to "jazz them up". I don't know what the hexagon rosettes on the fence are supposed to be other than pretty! The centre of each is embellished with French knots. I machine quilted it for her and then she bound it with a facing.

The second piece was an orphan block made by a guild member in 2005. It was hand appliqued and machine pieced.  It was machine quilted and bound with a facing. Mom called this one "My Little Chickadees".

The third piece is an African themed quilt. Mom called this one "I hope I'm not late!". I love the little baby in the sling. This small quilt is machine quilted and once again finished with a facing. She really likes the effect of a facing because it she thinks it makes the quilt look like a page torn from a magazine.

There are lots of tutorials on finishing quilts with a facing but a really good one is available at Terry Aske Art Quilt Studio. If you are interested you will find it here. It included an updated method of reducing the bulk of the quilt at the corners.

I know you are all itching to see more of The Empire Quilt which will be my next Quilt Along design so I am sharing the middle section with the sides attached. I sure hope you like where I'm going with this quilt! I repeated the green fabrics from the centre panel in the outer borders of the quilt. My plan is to attach an narrow solid green border to the quilt once the other two sides are attached. Although it is a scrap quilt with lots of different colours it reads as a green quilt because I've repeated the fabrics in the centre and the borders.

I'll get back to work on the pattern shortly so that you can start sewing up your own Empire Quilt! Until I post again, happy sewing!

Karen H