block of the month group

Many of the women I quilt with at our quilt weekends live in the same neighbourhood that I do. We had enjoyed getting together more often when we made the mystery quilt so we decided to each make a block of the month sampler quilt. In the fall of 2006 we got together at someone's home and they showed us how to make a block of their choice. We didn't sew that evening, but had some great refreshments. All of the quilting women happen to be great cooks and bakers! The next month we'd go to someone else's house, bring the square we had completed to show everyone and learn the next square. There were twelve of us so in a year we had enough squares for a wall hanging, or by adding borders, making a lap quilt. Everyone chose a completely different colour scheme.

This one is done by paper piecing.

I added a lace doilly to the "shelf" on this one.

The finished wall hanging! I entered it in the St. Vital Agricultural Fair last year and won first prize in the small quilt category! The square shown below was the hardest one, each petal of the hydrangea was folded and stitched on.

The following year we decided that each month the hostess would teach the group a square and then give instructions, and sometimes the fabric so that each person would make them a square or two. The wall hanging below is a version of the New York Beauty. Each quilter made me two of the inside squares and one border square. It is made from all batik fabrics and is one of my favourite quilts. It would have never gotten made without all the help! 

The following year I got them to hand applique this one, first I had to teach myself, though many of the group already knew how to. I bought the background fabric and each person used their own fabric for the flowers. I love this wall hanging, too and of course I would have never done all of these myself!

I machine quilted this wall hanging, using free motion around the flowers and leaves on the border.

 The next year we had about 16 quilters so it took us a year and a half to get everyone's squares done. I haven't finished sewing this one together yet. I found a photo of this quilt in a quilting magazine but couldn't find the pattern, so I make my own paper pieced pattern, bought the fabrics and some of the group made more than one of these for squares for me.

After we finished this year many of the group decided it was time to do something else, but we haven't decided what yet. Several of the women have moved out of the city and some have gotten too busy to get together once a month. Each month several women brought completed quilts to show us, which was very inspiring. These are photos of our windup brunch.