Batik Coffee Filter Fan quilt workshop....

Saturday I took a workshop to make coffee filter fan blocks for a quilt or runner or whatever. What fun! I enjoy these and what a great idea to use a coffee filter for doing round paper piecing. These are my blocks.....I love batik fabrics and always lean towards nature inspired patterns and colors. The fans are just laying on the background squares at this point to see how they look.
This is how the back of the fan looks with the paper attached.

At home, I added the triangle to the point of the fan and tried laying them out in a row. The pins are there because I haven't sewn down the curve yet. That can be done on your machine with an applique or zigzag stitch, or by hand. I will probably do mine by hand.

This is an example of the completed quilt top done by our teacher.

I love seeing what fabrics others choose, so below are other choices for this quilt from the class.

Obviously you don't have to use batiks and I love these fabrics!

Seasonal fabric .......Halloween!

Purples

Very scrappy

Bright fans on black background....should turn out very dramatic!

Blues.....feels like Hawaii :-)

Multi-color. She has a finished square at the right.....black dotted background, black/white triangle on the fan. I can't wait for everyone to bring their finished work to the guild for show-and-tell. Guess I had better get busy and finish mine!

Most of the class used large coffee filters.....9-10". I used 8" because that is what I had at home and my square will be smaller. I realize looking at these that I didn't change the size of my triangle at the bottom of the fan to suit my smaller size square....oops! Will have to decide whether to change it. Another reason to turn mine into a runner rather than a quilt!

Merry Christmas....

I was trying to drag my new Christmas lap quilt under the tree to take photos..... .....but I was getting way too much help from the cats.
Any new quilt has to be inspected to see if it gets their stamp of approval.

"I'm not sure I like this one......put it on your lap and we'll test it there for an hour or two."

Linda B did a great job of quilting it with bows on the main part of the quilt and Christmas trees in the border.

Both cats seem to prefer the old Christmas quilt....softer because it is tied, not quilted...and it's on my lap. I can't read a book without a covering of cats, which is pretty nice in the winter time!

Merry Christmas to all you quilters out there!

Pillowcases and other Christmas gifts.....

I'm getting my Christmas presents done little by little. A wall hanging for someone....even though my family doesn't usually look at this blog, I won't say who gets this.
I've made 6 pillowcases so far and have one more to go!

I love picking out fabric for each person, but some are harder than others.

Not much....but at least I got a few things done.

Guild Christmas party gift exchange.....

I belong to the Raintree Quilter's Guild in Indiana. Every year at our December meeting we have a gift exchange. Around September everyone is given a fat quarter of the same fabric. Each person who chooses to, makes a gift using that fat quarter and whatever other fabrics they want and then brings it to the December meeting where we exchange them! I'm always amazed a the creativeness of each person and the variety of gift items! I wish I could show them all individually, but there were too many. Here is a selection of the runners and small hangings that were brought in.
Three more runners.

Another one

A beautiful redwork square.

Holly with a bow

Two placemats!

I believe the Santa hanging is for holding cards and a nice table topper.

One of our art quilters made this....very interesting!

I made this little runner.

A wreath and a mug with pockets inside and out for pencils!

Snowman pillow

Snowmen wall hanging.

Several small items: A small bag (which I won!), a snowman door hanger, a flower for on a chair back, a paperback book carrier, and another zip purse,

More small items: another type of purse, pillowcase, the chair back thing again, a notebook cover, a purse and Kleenex holder.

This was one of my favorites.....a beautifully done crazy quilt heart on a hanging.

Another art quilter offering....a framed window with a collage.

Four coasters

Another shot of the mug pencil holder, a small table mat with candle, and a kitchen set!

This was the most unique gift and so clever! A "Quilter's Sampler".........

.....and inside little quilt fabric "bonbons" (stacks of small fabric squares). Is that clever, or what?

A fancy zip bag with decoration

Some of the small items again.

The pillowcase.

We also have a pitch-in meal and draw the winning ticket for the raffle quilt for the year. A very nice way to spend an evening with clever, quilting friends!

Christmas quilt tops finished....finally!

I finally got my two Christmas lap quilt tops finished! I sewed the borders on last night. This one is the Lover's Knot pattern. I didn't set it on-point like Eleanor Burns does. Too much trouble and I like it like this.
A close-up of the middle

A corner shot to crop for a banner.

The other Christmas lap quilt top is that same 9-patch/rail fence combination I used on my big bed quilt. I know it is a bit "gaudy", but I like it :-) I thought the candy stripe red and green prints were a fun touch. It looks better when you see it for real. I have enough of those 9-patch blocks to make another one! I may try a different setting for the next one.

A shot of the middle.

A corner shot.

Now for the hard part....the quilting. I'm going to try to machine quilt the 9-patch myself across the diagonals of the 9-patch squares. I'm not very good at this, but on a small quilt, I think I can handle it. The Lover's Knot, I may have someone else quilt for me on a long-arm machine.

Des Moines, Iowa Quilt show link.....

This is a link to the photos I took at the Iowa Quilt Show. here
It was a great show, with lots of added exhibits: Game Board Quilts, Men and the Art of Quiltmaking, and the Des Moines, Iowa guild quilt show. We also saw an exhibit of old crazy quilts: here.

Quilts from Wabash Prison....

(Click on any photo to make it larger)

In an earlier post, I mentioned the wonderful magazine article done about the inmates at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility (Carlisle, Indiana) in the PLUS unit who are quilters. These men create quilts.....as many as 30 a month....to be given to homeless people, service families, and other service type projects. They also made a quilt that won a 3rd place ribbon at the Indiana State Fair this year.....with 3-D pigs on it for the theme "Year of the Pigs". I tried to find a photo on-line but was unable to find one.These quilts are ones that were brought to Evansville to show to the Kairos team, who will be going into Wabash for a Kairos weekend in a few weeks. My husband brought them home and stretched them out on our living room floor....best I could do! They are stunning. Especially considering the lack of tools and materials that most of us quilters take for granted!
These guys have a great feel for color and pattern in my opinion! They are mostly self-taught and have only a few sewing machines to use and have to use children's safety scissors to cut the fabric. All of their quilts are tied.
I just love this cat quilt! The black squares are a satiny fabric....wonderful feeling quilt.

Some of our local quilters were able to put them in touch with a southern Indiana company that has lots of home decorator fabrics that are thrown away.....so now they are providing them to the prisoners to make sturdy quilts for homeless people. Most of us quilters only want 100% cotton fabrics, but these guys make do with whatever they are given and make beautiful and functional quilts. I imagine they feel pretty good when you are sleeping under a bridge somewhere! Isn't the color and pattern of this one wonderful?

A close up.....it reminded me a lot of men's neckties or suits.

How about this pattern? Lots of folded 3-d triangles!

A close up to give a better idea.

This would be a typical quilt for a homeless person.

Another...love the big cat fabric in the corners.

An interesting pattern....simple but effective.

I thought this one was pretty amazing considering their lack of training! The stars are of a red satiny fabric....sort of like neck ties again...and really looked nice!

They need lots of supplies....mostly batting, sewing machine needles, pins, and of course fabric! If you have anything you wanted to donate or know of any supplier that would donate anything, I'd love to hear from you!

For any of you reading this who are local to Evansville, IN, the Kairos Prison ministry is always looking for Chocolate Chip cookie bakers. Each Kairos weekend....there are 2 a year in every Indiana prison....requires about 50,000 HOMEMADE cookies! That's a lot of cookies!

The coming Kairos weekend is Oct. 21-24. If you have any interest in making cookies, contact me for the recipe and instructions. mvfreeman2@gmail.com