What a collection!

This is the quilt top that is hanging up in our dining room right now.  It goes nicely with my other red/white/blue quilts that have been made over the years.

 

Lately, I have found myself making quilts that belong to a theme or colour collection.  It was never my intention to start a collection.  However, once I started hanging up and displaying my quilts, they looked better when the quilts had colour harmony.  Thus a collection started.   Here are more of my red/white/blue quilts and tops:

My new kaleidoscope project will be a nice addition to that collection/theme.  

Except for one ancestor that we discovered was born in the U.S.A., my roots go back to France (blue/white/red) and our old Canadian flag and I honour my ancestors by choosing those colours. 

Nowadays, I'm starting to add more red/white quilts to my collection to honour my ancestors from Austria and Poland.

So, the next time you see a new project on my blog in a certain colour .... you will know that there is a reason behind the decision.

Have a great day!

A New Creation

Back in the summer of last year, We 3 Quilters decided to do another fabric exchange to make Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Mountain Majesties pattern.   Throughout the summer and fall, the blocks were worked on here and there and eventually they were all done.  They just sat in a box until yesterday and viola ..... up on my design wall they went and talk about instant gratification!

What colours did we choose?  Reds and neutrals.  Below is the layout that I decided to go with. 

Now, I promised my friends that my version would have a twist.  So, my twist is adding my trademark stars!  Are any of you surprised?  :o)

My Promise of Spring is a top .... I just need to take a photo of it and will be doing a post sometime soon about it.

Oh, my, my ..... good progress being done here!

Have a great day!

Progress, progress, progress

Well, here is an updated photo of my Promise of Spring that I have been trying to upload:

If you go to my previous post, you can see a huge difference.  I've been diligently working on this project since the beginning of the new year ..... am so determined to get this to a completed top stage soon.


Do you see the bottom right block?  On all the photos before this one, all the pieces were pinned in place and it always looked like it was done.  Nope, but now those pieces are finally getting sewn.

So, there is just that block plus the bottom right border to do and then the outer borders squares to do and this top will be done.  I will be needing hand work while the Sochi Olympics are on and this will be perfect.


Now, my problems with Blogger and Internet Explorer still continue.  DH came to my rescue and loaded Firefox onto my computer and now I am finally able to load photos.  If anyone else is experiencing issues and revert to Firefox, you will still see that rotating ball but you should be able to load your photos.

Thank you for the emails asking if all was well with me.  It was just this uploading issue that was holding me back.


I'm so happy, happy, happy!


Have a great day!

Update on Promise of Spring

Here we are again ..... working on another UFO.  While I have the energy and enthusiasm, I will forge ahead and seriously work on older projects.  The lure of new projects is very strong and I must resist! 

The new year saw me working again on Kim Diehl's Promise of Spring.  After doing some prep work of more circles, leaves, etc., and a bit of hand sewing, this is the progression of this project since the beginning of January.
This is what it looked like the first week of January:

Lots more has been appliqued on and I have been waiting for Blogger to fix the photo loading problem for the last couple of weeks ... but alas, it is still not working, so I will go with what I had loaded onto this post before the problem.
I did take photos of what this top looked like the 2nd and 3rd weeks of January.  I'm very pleased with my progress and how I'm sticking to finishing it.  Those photos will be shown .... hopefully soon.

As I was working on cutting up some of the squares to add to the bottom corner sections, I only found enough of this striped fabric to make the remaining squares that are needed.  Four of those squares have been pieced together .... that is how short of fabric that is left!  Can I purchase more of this fabric?  Nope, it came from a shirt at a thrift store.  So, do you see that little pile of scraps.  That is it!

It will work out, after all, because those pieced squares will be used where you see the arrows.  The stem and leaves will hide the fact that they have been pieced.  Whew .... that was just a tad too close for comfort!

Have a great day!

Hand Quilting

Once again, I am back to hand quilting on my hexagon quilt.  There is only the bottom section and borders to do and this quilt will be done.  With all the cold weather we have had this winter, this quilt was most welcome to have on my lap and wrapped around my legs.

Now that Miss Hank is no longer with us, I can hand quilt for hours on end with no interruptions.  Miss Ashes doesn't seem to be interested and stays away ... for now. 

Whenever Miss Hank came to visit and have a snooze on top of my quilt frame, I didn't have the heart to move her away because after experiencing health problems over the last 2 years, we knew her time with us was going to be short .... so I let my little girl interrupt my plans.  There was always other hand work within easy reach for me to work on while she snoozed.  Life is too short and I have learned to savour the moment.

Now, I will just quilt for an extra hour or two each time this quilts gets my attention.

Have a great day!
 

Summer Sweet

With the awful cold temperatures we have been having, a little bit of summer would be most welcome right now.  Nope, that won't be for a while yet.  So, after looking over my recap post, the time has come once again to concentrate on bringing a few projects to a flimsy stage.  For each new project that gets started, one UFO must be brought to a flimsy stage.  Must.

Once again, here is my Summer Sweet top that I have been switching the white sashing strips over to blue.  It really does look so much better.  It is a pain, though, I won't lie and while ripping out the strips, I constantly ask myself what the heck was I thinking. 

Only 10 more strips and they will be done.  The more I look at this photo, the more I realize that the blue sashing strips really are striking and it was a good decision after all.  With all the busyness in the border and in the blocks, that medium blue helps to calm the look and give it focus.  This top will look gorgeous on a wall along with all my other blue/gold quilts and tops this summer.  I'm being realistic when I say the top will be hanging because it will be a few years (or more) before this beauty gets hand quilted.   I will forge ahead and gets those strips done .... before I, once again, get bored with the ripping out process!

Have a great day!

Oh, Sweet William

Oh yes,  I have my own pattern now!  I have been drooling over the different blogs around the world that have been showing their progress as they work on their blocks and I just had to have the pattern too.   A few clicks of the button and a few weeks later, my pattern was in my hands.

You, too, can order the pattern from here and you will have it within a week or two depending on where you live.

Then, I found the perfect yellow gingham from Sew Sisters in Toronto.  I checked and they do ship out of Canada.  Here is the link for that fabric.

Sweet William is my first new project for 2014.  There will be a few more!

Then, my friend, no-blog Mary,  of We 3 Quilters sent me a gift.  Mary and I decided to exchange Xmas gifts this year.  I just love the x-stitch that she did in my hanging.  In the lower left corner, she made a zippered bag and included an ornament kit for me to work on.  Thank you, Mary.  Unfortunately, my gift to her is still in progress and it will get done and will be sent off to her before this month is over.

 

Have a great day!