Why make just one?

I enjoyed making my first small comfort quilt so much that when asked to join the ladies on Fridays, I jumped at the idea.  We meet every other Friday at Grove United Church in Barrie, Ontario, Canada to make comfort quilts to cover the isolettes in the neonatal unit in Royal Victoria Hospital.  We sew/quilt from 10am to 3:30pm and accomplish lots.  I am meeting more quilt guild members and have learned new tips, techniques and ideas. 

1   Some of them have been how to make half triangle squares by overlapping two fabric strips together, right sides facing, sew down both sides, center your ruler's 45 angle on the seam and rotary cut the two sides, flip open and press.  Then cut the next triangle form the opposite seam and alternate along the strip.

2  How to quilt as you go to make up the quilts even faster.  Joan showed me how to do the backing in squares, with one inch seams which you fold over in the front and top stitch down to look like sashing in the front.

3.  When sewing on bias when you come to a corner instead of stopping a quarter inch from the edge, turn the quilt and sew the seam along the 45 degree angle to the corner.  Then turn the corner fabrics as usual and continue along the next seam.

4.  During one of their meetings last year each person was asked to bring in 1m of fabric.  They cut that piece of fabric in half, put one half in their bag under the table and passed the other half to the left.  Then everyone took that half of fabric, cut it in half  again, kept one piece and passed the other to the left again.... and so on until everyone  had some of each fabric, but in different proportions.  The challenge was to make a quilt using all of those fabrics.  They were allowed to supplement with other fabrics two, but must use all the fabrics from the exchange.  Sounds like fun!

So far I have been to two sewing days and have made up the following two quilt kits.  This farm scene print quilt used a diagonal 4 patch pattern which was easy to do... a little more time consuming than the teddy bear one I made after it.  These were both made in January.

I loved the bight border print and simplicity of  this Teddy Bear quilt kit.  The wording on the border reads... "Everything in !"  How true.  I hope some child will come to love it as much as I had fun making it.