Last summer we issued a challenge to our Prayers and Squares group members to make a block for a sampler. We gave each member a piece of the same material and then challenged them to choose a block that started with the initial of their first name from the Quilters Cache website. Any size was acceptable. We’ve had the blocks for quite a while now, but the challenge was in putting it together. Marg has been working on that off and on for a few months now. She finally finished the quilting on it yesterday. It is fun and bright and happy and unique. It is getting a dark blue binding. Janet has been working on the quilting on this panel quilt. Here at home I found a bag of triangles that were originally cut using my Go cutter for a quilt I did years ago called Northern Tree Line. There were enough of the triangles left to do a small version of that quilt. It is now finished and layered and waiting for quilting. I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday.

 My Bear for the Year in the Woods is almost finished. Depending on the amount of time I spend in the evenings over the next week, it might just get finished. Then I can start gridding the next section and start on the Chipmunk. It is so much fun seeing these animals come to life stitch by slow stitch. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

 Our prayers and stares group met yesterday, as usual and we got lots done, but most of it was not stages that lent themselves to pictures. However, Pat finished off 2 beautiful quilts that are now in the needing backings and layering stage. This one was made from a kit that we cut and assembled lat spring. We sometimes get together and choose patterns and fabrics and then cut them up into kits that our members can pull from the cupboard and work on. I suspect we need to schedule another cutting day soon. And this one was from fabrics that Pat herself had at home and put together for us. She wishes it to be used for our fundraising this summer. The colours in it are gorgeous!

I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday

 We finished this quilt yesterday, the day before the finish parade. It got its binding on yesterday and its final picture yesterday as well. The sixth and last prompt for this was “quilters choice” which was a great choice. I had hoped that the final prompt would allow me to add a couple of plain borders for the finish, so that is what I did. It pulled it all together very nicely. I did a simple cross hatch quilting design up to the centre block. But because the centre was a bit off sized compared to the rest, I couldn’t continue the cross hatching without risking a lot of pleats and puckers. So I did a very simple large free motion stipple in the centre. It got finished with a diagonal striped binding. This is such a fun way to spend the long winter days. I’ll link up to the finish parade here

 My slow stitching focus continues to be the Bear for the Year in the Woods. I think I’m probably in the range of 60 percent finished with it. I started in on doing more of the bull rushes on the left hand side just to get a bit of a break from all the brown fur. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

 We had lots of finishes yesterday. Marg was the binding queen and managed to get 4 quilts bound. Obviously, we do them entirely by machine. Janet also bound one yesterday, for a total of 5 finishes in one afternoon. Yay us!!! I think I’ve posted pictures of these quilts before, but this is them in their finished glory. I also remembered to get a picture of the garden themed quilt that Tammy has been working on. It is so pretty that we are seriously considering adding this to our fundraising this summer. And here at home I was working on going through our stash of green fabrics and sewed up a bunch of exclamation mark blocks. I laid them out yesterday and started sewing the first batch of them together. There are enough to make 2 quilts. They are going to get white one inch finished sashing in between the rows and a white narrow border and a wider green border to finish them.

I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday

 About a year ago I joined a bi-monthly fabric club that gave a selection of Kona solids. I can’t remember exactly how many were in each bundle, at least 12 perhaps even 15. Anyhow, I decided then that I wanted to do a Judy Martin pattern out of her book Stellar Quilts called Card Shuffle. It’s a variation of the Card Trick block using star points in the blocks. I started this quilt a year ago, after receiving the first fat quarter bundle. I picked up the last bundle a week or so ago. I’d had to put the quilt on hold until I was able to get this bundle, and pick up a few additional colours to give a greater variety. Here’s where it was the last time I worked on it, back in November. Since then, I’ve gotten all the star sections made and have started adding more rows. After I finish that bottom corner there are still some borders to add. Then I can think about getting a backing for it and what I am going to do for quilting. I’ll likely do some very simple straight lines following the piecing. I want the stars and the colours to stand out rather than the quilting.

I’ll link up to Wednesday Wait Loss