My Tote Bag

I had a bunch of charm squares that were just sitting in a basket ready for something. Since I’ve been traveling back and forth to my Mom’s a LOT lately, I decided that I needed to travel in style. :o) What better way than to have a quilted tote. Pinwheels, next to nine-patches are some of my favourite blocks.
Have a great day!

Donated Quilts-Starboarding

This is the second quilt that was donated to my niece’s school. It was fun to do and I love the stars. The flannel backing fabric has snow boarding motifs and since the front of the fabric is made entirely out of star fabric, hence the name.

I did simple machine quilting and the stars were appliquéd on after the quilting was done. See, another quilt where the appliqué was done after! :o) You can do it too. Just remember that you will be dealing with a lot of bulk in your hands.
The draw was held recently and two lucky youngsters went home with this quilt and Cotton Candy (from my last post).

My niece’s class made up this gigantic card to thank me for helping them out. It was signed by all the students and the school principal and teachers. Is that not sweet of them? This card now has the place of honour on my bulletin board in my studio.

Have a great day!

Donated Quilts-Cotton Candy

Back in December last year, I made two quilts and gave them to another niece (I have a lot of nieces) to be used in a raffle draw to help raise funds for an upcoming school trip as well as for purchasing school playground equipment.

Trip Around The World is one of my favourite patterns and I’ve made a number of them now. I needed something quick and easy and what other pattern meets these requirements.

This quilt was machine quilted … very simply (SID).

Have a great day!

Buying fabric in an in-ground pool

Ok …. Some of you folks think I’m really pulling your leg about the pool bit. I really wasn’t kidding about that …. it is true!

There was a quilt store out in the middle of nowhere west of Toronto and it was on a huge dairy farm. The store was actually in an enclosed in-ground pool (no water, of course). It was lovingly known as the “pool place” but actually had a proper quilt store name.

The store owner had used their pool for years until their children grew up and moved away and the pool wasn’t getting much use. So, she converted it into a quilt store. It was neat! You entered into the store and then walked down steps into the pool where there were shelves of fabric, a cutting table and quilts hanging above the pool. There were also fabric all around the pool surround on the main level. There was a railing all around the pool so that no one would take a tumble into the pool. Ah .... shoppers would ramble around on the main level but eventually everyone was tempted to take a dip!

Unfortunately (for quilters), her children had children and the store owner decided to close the quilt store and convert the pool back to what it was. Darn! It was such a lovely drive to visit the store out in the country. A nice day’s outing, on a warm summer day. Oh … those were the days!

So, I can say without batting an eye, that I bought fabric in an in-ground pool!

I wonder if any of you have an interesting store where you bought fabric and would you share the story?

Have a great day!

I've been tagged

I’ve been tagged by Linda at http://www.all-stitched-up.blogspot.com/ (haven’t figured out how to link yet and if anyone knows, please share with me) to list 7 things that you didn’t know about me.

1. Since I’m nearly 6ft. tall, I look down at most people. I had better watch out or I’ll start to become all hunched over in my old age.

2. My sister and I are known as the “twisted sisters”. We have a corky sense of humour and we, apparently, cackle when we laugh. The bride-to-be has warned us to behave at her wedding. He he!

3. I’m a middle child but never suffered from “the middle child syndrome” and can’t understand what all the fuss is about.

4. I cut my own hair and every now and then venture to an understanding hair dresser to fix it.

5. I don’t have a quilt anymore made by an ancestor but I do have a Hoya plant that belonged to my great-grandmother.

6. I’ve eaten deep fried grasshoppers.

7. I’ve shopped for, touched and bought fabric in an in-ground pool. Haven’t you?

So there, you now know a bit more about me. I leave it up to you to decide if all I’ve written is true or if I’m pulling your leg.

For tagging 7 others, well … you’re IT!

Have a great day, eh!

Evening Primrose

Here is another quilt that was auctioned off for our Guild’s Mini Auction last year. An elderly member of Guild made two blocks but needed help for the quilting. I volunteered to quilt this block for her.

When you click onto the photo, on the vertical lines, you will see some crystals scattered throughout.

I have had my fill of 3-D flowers and this will probably be it for this style of quilt. They were fun to do, but the time has come to move on to other things.

Have a great day!

Crepe Myrtle

Remember my Mutant Block on my April 23 posting? Well, this is the block that those flowers belong to.

I made this for our Guild’s Mini Auction in May 2006. Proceeds from that sale went to charity. My plan was to buy back this hanging at the auction, but was called away on a family emergency at the last moment and the hanging was bought by a lady who is thrilled with it.

Last year, our Guild had a demo night showing our members how to make 3-D flowers. There were five members doing the demo and this flower block is the one that I did the demo on. It helped that I had a quilt to show the members how the flowers would look finished.

Do you like the green plaid in the stem? That came from an old blouse of mine that I had and which was stored away because it was 100% cotton. Yes, I had a blast cutting that blouse up and the leftover pieces are now among my plaid stash. :o)

There is a lot of hand quilting in this hanging!

Have a great day!

Trilliums

After my niece’s shower last Saturday, I escaped to my brother and SIL’s home near Parry Sound where I enjoyed a lovely visit with them for a couple of days.

We took a walk to drool over the trilliums that grow en masse all around their property on the lake.

The trilliums are mostly white with a few red and pink scattered here and there. As I’m looking at this photo, won’t these lovely flowers make an interesting wall hanging?

Next posting will be about quilting. :o)

Have a great day!

I'm Back

In my last post, I was a tad deceiving in the length of time that I was going to be away but had to be to confuse a niece that is getting married. We had a bridal shower for her on Saturday and she sort of knew there would be one but she was confused as I was coming and going to North Bay for visiting. The shower was a success and she is one lucky young lady to have so many friends and relatives share her day with her.

I arrived home last night to help celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. My Mom, sister, BIL and their family presented us with these birds. Don’t they make a lovely statement in the garden?

There are oodles of blogs and unanswered comments that need to be visited. That is my task over the next few days as well as weeding. My garden has exploded over the last few days. There are no quilting topics this week. :o(

Have a great day!

Autumn leaf jacket & Time Out

This is going to be a jacket made out of flannel. You just knew there was another jacket lurking around somewhere, didn’t you? Aren’t the colours gorgeous?

Now that I have the body pieces put together, I will do machine quilting on it and then sew the seams together and then finish the jacket.

There will be more to come on this one.

So, this is the last of the three UFO’s that I’m currently working on. I like the idea of three as it gives me a chance to work on any one of them when I get bored. That is better than starting another new project. :o)

A while back I was asked about my jacket patterns …. well, I would love to give pattern numbers, but I think they have been discontinued. My patterns are way too old to even try finding. I hang onto my old patterns as they work for me and they are easy to adjust to suit current styles.

I will be away for a couple of weeks and there will be no posts until I return. :o(

So, until then, you have a bunch of great days!

First Pair of Socks

Finally, I decided to join the band wagon and make a pair of socks! They were actually easier that I thought. If I knew how easy, they would have been made long before this. Timing is perfect with the hot weather coming on soon … not. :o) However, when fall comes, I’ll be ready with a toasty pair of socks.

That pink variegated ball of wool is for a special pair of socks. I was asked to make a really tacky pair for an upcoming event. There is a story behind this and more to come later.

Christmas hanging done, a new pair of socks … what is next on the agenda for fall?

Many thanks to all that left comments about my "Snow Blossoms" quilt. You all agreed that the applique certainly makes the quilt now.

Have a great day!

Snow Blossoms Quilt

I have been browsing quilting sites on the web for over a year before I started my own blog. During that time, there have been challenges to use fabric from stash for quilts. So the idea to use my stash was born with this queen size quilt top.

After the top was done, I didn’t like the look (too blah) so decided to add appliqué here and there and it finished the look and I am happy with it now. :o) Remember, I have mentioned before about adding applique to a top after it has been assembled. It can be done, except you are dealing with more bulk and in my case, there was a lot of bulk because the top is queen size ... but I did it!

It’s ready to be sandwiched and it will be hand quilted.

Have a great day!

Back of Niki's Spirit

Here is a peek of the hand quilting done so far, but on the back side. The quilting on the front doesn’t show up too well, but the back sure does.

For this quilt, I wanted something a bit different and that meant making my own quilting design.
I bought a clip art book with different designs and found one that was perfect for my design. From an 8-1/2” x 11” sheet of paper that was printed, the design was cut into strips and each strip was enlarged until the total finished size was 25” high. I just taped all the sections together and glued the unit onto bristol board and then cut the design out with scissors. What you see here is only half of it and it fits nicely onto the triangle side of the pattern.

So there, a different idea for quilting designs.

I had a question about my tea dyeing and how to make the tea dye colourfast. After rinsing the dyed fabric well, I soak the fabric in a solution of vinegar and salt for a few days. Rinse well again and then wash and dry. So far, nothing has faded but guess time will tell if this method worked well or not. I've used this process before on other pieces and the fabric has been washed a couple of times now and so far it's working.

Have a great day!