Album of Memories – Variation

Here it is all together! This is my Christmas quilt and hangs in our dining room during the holidays. It is so nice, bright and cheery and I think, quite elegant.

This quilt (or the original) was designed by Robert Callahan for McCall’s Quilting. I didn’t use all his original blocks … it is not too often that I copy a pattern exactly as designed ….and in this case, some of his blocks were not to my liking. So, this is my variation of his Album of Memories. The finished size of this quilt is: 89-1/2" x 89-1/2"

Plans for 2009

I stopped making New Year’s resolutions a very long time ago. Why? I don't know, just decided one year not to. Instead, I just try to be a better person in every way and hopefully my little contribution makes the world a nicer place to live in.

For 2009, there will be less of my participating in swaps. I have enjoyed being in the midst of creating something to send to the other side of the world, but this year will see me spending more of my time concentrating on finishing my projects and designing and making quilts for me.

It was a great boost for me to sign up for Finn’s and Peg’s UFO finish challenges. I didn’t get as much done as hoped; but am very happy with what got finished.

This past year, I have been thinking seriously of entering a quilt in one of the major quilt shows and could this be the year that I finally just ‘do it’? We’ll see …..

So …. for 2009 ….. what will I show you on this blog? There will be quilts, for sure! :o)

Have a great day and a Happy New Year and all the best in 2009!

SSCS gift exchange

Now that Christmas is over, the time has come to reveal what I made for my partner, Liz, from down under.

I really enjoyed working on this tote bag and have plans to make one for me. That is just what I need …. ANOTHER bag to add to my collection! :o)

Now, I do have a confession to make. The floral fabric on the sides of the bag are from a sheet (a wedding gift that is over 31 yrs. old) that was worn down in the center. The outer sides were fine and the pattern is one that I just love. There was no way the leftovers were going in the garbage. So, they got recycled into this bag. I had a Loulee moment and quite enjoyed the outcome. :o)

Have a great day!

Last set of blocks and a medallion

The center part of my Baltimore style quilt is this medallion which came from McCall’s Quilting, April 2001 magazine. I love the whole design of the medallion .... so did not change a thing! :o) Lots and lots of applique and hand quilting.

This is the last grouping of blocks from my Baltimore style quilt. My source for these blocks came from: Top – Circle of Grapes – Conway Album (I’m Not From Baltimore) book Middle – Night and Noon – Quilter’s Cache.com (the center of the block was changed by adding an appliqué motif Celestial from Quiltmaker.com)

Bottom – Tulip Scroll – Appliqué Quilts, magazine #32

We had a good Christmas and are glad to be home, though. This year, our family was scattered and we didn't have the usual visits. Nonetheless, we talked by telephone and touched base with all.

Our snow is almost gone with all the rainfall that we have had the last few days. Today, it is very windy and a limb on one of our cedar trees broke off leaving quite a nasty gash. The tree will probably have to come down. 

Round Two

This is the block I received for round 2 of the Spring Fling Round Robin. What to do, what to do???

A bit of appliqué was added by me and then on it went to the next person who added the flying geese border and then to another person for quilting and finishing.  It is now owned by my friend Judith.

Great job, ladies!  Go here to see more quilts from this exchange.

To all of you that celebrate at this time of year .... 

Happy Holidays and Stay Safe!

More blocks and some charms

More blocks from my Baltimore style quilt. There are lots of appliqué and hand quilting to look at in these blocks. 

My source for these blocks came from: 

Top – Belle Fleur – Quiltmaker.com (quilting motif) 

Middle – original block that I designed (no name given to it) 

Bottom – Feather Dash – McCall’s Quilting magazine, October 2001 issue (variation of the original block) 

Have a great day!

Couldn’t wait and can you see me now?

Well …. I am a bit tardy in showing a photo of my SSCS gifts that came from Robyn last week. I’ve been wearing my scarf and it is tucked into my coat so I have forgotten to take a photo and post about it. You know what they say about ‘out of sight, out of mind’.

When my parcel arrived, my DH and I were just getting ready to head out for a Dr.’s appt. and it was one of those moments and the fact that my gift came from Australia …. WELL …. there was just no way that parcel was going to just sit there. My gorgeous, warm scarf went with me to the doctors and when we came home, I was able to sit down with a nice hot cup of coffee and had a wonderful time browsing through the magazines. Yep, three for three (scarf, good news at the doctors and magazines). A person could not ask for more!

Nope, I couldn’t wait and I am glad that I opened my gift. My scarf is keeping me snug and warm. Don’t you just love the pattern! :o) How in the world did Robyn know that the colours are perfect to go along with my new coat?

Robyn is now sourcing out more of that yarn for me (so far, she has 1-1/2 balls of yarn). My plan is to make a hat and possibly some mitts. In exchange, Robyn will be getting a wall hanging from me. So, thank you Robyn for my lovely gifts and Donna for once again organizing this swap!! :o)

Lately, my fabric buying has been a bunch of backing fabrics coming into my studio. After being washed and dried, they are sitting in a pile just waiting to be put away or in the case of Ashes, the perfect hideyhole. Can you see me now??

Have a great day!

My lst round robin block

Waaaay back in August, my first block in the Spring Fling Round Robin 2 was mailed to the next person on my list and the above block is what I did.

…. and this is the finished quilt. What a delightful quilt! :o) It truly is amazing to see the difference from my first stitches to the last and the ladies after me brought my part to life. In fact, when I checked out the final version, at first I could not see my block as there was so much going on.

Go here to this post to read more about the quilt. Be sure to check back to the main blog as there are more quilts to be revealed over the next few weeks and they will be awesome.

Have a great day!

Edit: Unfortuntely, I am not the person to own this lovely quilt. It is Margaret (hostess of our swap and the Four Seasons Quilt Swap 4 and 5). For this quilt, I started the block; then another person added the 1st border; then another person added the 2nd border; then another person quilted it,added the binding and label and then mailed the finished quilt to Margaret. When you consider the number of people working on this quilt, it is so amazing that it turned out like this.

Prints in the snow …

Envelopes have been arriving with siggies from around the world. What fun it is to open the letters and see what someone has sent me. :o) Quite often, I don't know that a siggie is coming to me until I receive the envelope. To me, each time I go to the mail box I'm curious to see what is there besides bills and junk mail. These are what came in recently. 

#1 – Cuny from The Netherlands 

#2 – Vera from Belgium (Vera is 72 and still quilting ….. well done) 

#3 – Anita from Belgium (Vera is the mother, and Anita is her daughter) 

#4 – Bonnie from North Carolina,U.S.A. 

#5 – Renee from The Netherlands 

#6 – Kieny from Taiwan #7 – Puck from The Netherlands 

#8 – Tini from The Netherlands (Tini is 71 yrs. old and still quilting ..... bravo).

#9 - Freda from California, U.S.A.

....... and here are my siggies that have been sent out. 

 

Prints in the snow. That is what happens when we get the first dusting of snow. Prints. What animal made them? It is always fun for me to take a peek and try to figure out who made them. When we were young, my Dad taught us how to recognize paw prints whenever we went with him into the bush. It was fascinating to try and figure out if some of the tracks were being stalked and how fresh the prints were. I love the fabric that was used to make the triangles. It was perfect to frame my center block. I say ‘was’ because there isn’t anymore of it left. Making these siggies is a good way to use up scraps and good to get them out of my stash. 

Another set of blocks

These are from my Baltimore style quilt which I will eventually show you the whole quilt. I actually prefer to see little bits at a time to appreciate the whole quilt and this way you can see a bit more of the detail that was so painstakingly done. 

My source for these blocks came from: 

Top – Hearts All Around – McCall’s Quilting magazine, June 2001 issue 

Middle – Oak Laurel – McCall’s Quilting magazine, August 2001 issue 

Bottom – Apple Glory – McCall’s Quilting magazine, August 2001 issue 

There is a lot of appliqué and hand quilting in these blocks. Enjoy!

My helpers are waiting ….

Since we inherited our kitties this past year, they have snooped out every corner of our home. But, the best place they love to check out is my studio and when I’m working on a project …… well, they are just waiting for me to start my work and then they are watching my every move

So, you think they are getting ready for a long snooze?

Nope, just waiting for me to open up a cabinet or drawer and they are in there in a flash. Oh, happy days! :o)

I wonder what will happen once the Christmas boxes comes out of storage?

Have a great weekend!

In a teasing mood .....

There is not much to show for quilting around my house right now ….. so will be pulling from my archives. 

To start, these blocks are just a section of a Baltimore style quilt which we use to hang in our dining room for Christmas. You will just have to come back to see the other sections.

My sources for these blocks are: (I rarely follow a pattern and substitute my own version)

left - Evening Dew (quilting motif from Quiltmaker.com)

middle - Shattered Star (McCall's Quilting, Dec.2001 magazine - the center portion of the block was changed by adding an applique motif)

right - Pink Thistle (Conway Album-I'm Not From Baltimore-book) and of course, I just had to change the colour to blue! :o)

Have a great day!

Blocks done

Well …… I’m really pleased with the way these blocks turned out. Now, I just have to add some borders and decide how to hand quilt it.

This is the back of my Spring Fling Round Robin that has just been finished and is on its’ way to someone! Visit SSFRR to see the completed quilts that are going around right now. There will be more to see in the next few weeks.

Quilter’s Blog
This is a new site to check out. This site shows the quilting blogs that have recent posts each day and you can click onto ‘read more’ to read the rest of the post and see what else that blogger has to say.

To my American friends and neighbours .... Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a great day!

A Treasure

....... and another block.

For the past number of weeks, not much has been happening in blogland for me. I haven’t been visiting or commenting too much on other blogs.

What have I been doing? Genealogy research. Quite some time ago, I left a message on one of the genealogy sites and a distant relative recently responded. We have been going back and forth with information, but the best so far is this photo of my great, great grandmother.

Malvina Sikorski Mueller (from Posen, Prussia).

She immigrated to Canada around the mid 1870’s and settled in the township of Mayo (or Blanche) Quebec which is not far from Ottawa. In subsequent years, her married name has been changed to Miller. Anyone wanting to start the genealogy process should understand that names that we think are spelled one way are actually spelled a different dozen of ways on documents and you cannot imagine the frustration in dealing with that. So be prepared. The joy of finding an ancestor is worth it. Looking at her and her home, I can only imagine the hardship encountered in leaving hard times in Prussia only to encounter harder times in Canada.

What a treasure I now have to share with my family members.

Have a great day!

Warm Company

Ashes and I have been busy working on something new. :o)

This piece is for a swap and this is all that you will see for now.

Have a great day!

Done Jacket

Well ….. with about 6 weeks to New Year’s Eve and Finn’s challenge will end on that day, I am slowly working on my UFO’s.

See here …… my flannel jacket is done, done, done! This jacket was started in 2003 .... oh well ....... I've done machine quilting using a walking foot for the curves. It was a bit tricky, but love the effect.

That is me modeling my jacket in our backyard. I blend in very well with the foliage ... We still have some leaves on our trees, but not for long.

So, only 3 left to go!!!!

Have a great day!

Siggies and ....

…. another block. I’ve started to fill in some of the leaves, flowers, etc. with embroidery thread and the look is more intense; whereas before, the blocks were OK but they really didn’t stand out much.

Below are my siggies that have been received so far. They have come from far and wide. What fun it has been receiving letters and opening them to reveal really unique blocks. I will have a gorgeous quilt one fine day! :o)

#1 – Rianne from The Netherlands
#2 – Elfriede from Austria
#3 – Beate from Germany
#4 – Enrica from Italy
#5 – Ria from The Netherlands
#6 – Puck from The Netherlands
#7 – Annelies from The Netherlands

When I saw Elfriede’s name on the list for siggie swapping, I just had to have one from her. She lives in my Dorschner ancestral city of Linz, Austria. Lately, I have been busy doing genealogical research and when her letter arrived, I was on the computer looking at that family tree research. Who knows, we may be related ….. it is a small world after all.

Annelies is the hostess for the siggie swap and if you are interested in participating, visit her blog.

Have a great day!

Supervised Siggies

... and another block.

Hank (the resident critic) had to oversee the process of siggie making. If there are any boo-boos, blame it on Hank. She was ‘in my face’.

These are my siggies that went out in the mail recently. Some of them have been received already and I have heard from the other folks and their siggies are on their way to me.

I will show my siggies that have been sent to me in another post. I don’t know how many to collect or what the layout will be ….. I’m just collecting them for now. What fun, mail coming in from all over the world. I wonder what my postman thinks when he delivers at our home.

Have a great day!

Quilt ladder, mail goodies and painting

With all the quilts that I’ve made and more to come, storage is starting to become an issue.

Painting our home is still on-going and our living room is getting re-arranged. Bonus - there will be room for a quilt ladder.

Now, I didn’t want something fancy …. actually, more cottage looking. DH came to the rescue and made this ladder for me. As we speak, it is being painted white and soon will be put to use.

Last week, goodies in the mail came from Jane. Jane was having a giveaway and I was the bonus winner. Jane actually had only two items for her draw, but her DD2 was determined that the last name in the basket would have chocolate. My name was last, and I got chocolate and fabric. Thank you, Jane and DD2! :o)

Painting with kitties has been an interesting venture. Hank has already gotten a tail full of paint from brushing up against some door frames. This is what we have to do to keep the kitties away from fresh paint. We finally got the paint off her tail, but it took two of us to do the job. Luckily, she stayed away from furniture, etc. while we were trying to quietly catch her.

Have a great day!

My Quilting Time Line

In my last post, some of you might be wondering how long I have been quilting. Not forever, as it seems. My first quilt was made in 1979 …. yikes… but I haven’t done a lot of quilts during those early years. Here is what I’ve done over the years: 

Included in this count of what I consider to be quilts is anything from bed size, to wall quilts to table runners. Tote bags and jackets are not included in these numbers. 

Since my retirement, the quilt numbers have increased. More time on my hands and better to keep them busy quilting rather than eating. 

How do I know what has been accomplished over the years? I started a quilting journal a few years ago but had photos of the quilts that were made. The notations on the back of the photos made it easy to complete the journal page for each quilt. 

The in-between periods, I sewed clothes for myself, did crochet and knitting. Now that the quilting bug has bit me, all those other crafts have taken a back seat. 

What is a post without some eye candy? Here is another block. Thank you, Miss Ashes for holding down my quilt. BTW, these blocks are hand embroidered with beading here and there. Have a great day!

Baby Quilts – way back when

Here are a smattering of my first baby quilts that I made eons ago. I have to smile when I look at these photos …. lots of memories there. The furnishings, the hair, the wallpaper, etc. Yes, way back in the 70’s.

Well, how did I do these? Colouring books were used for the various images and all these were done using needle turn applique (which I really hate doing now). The eyes, etc. were embroidered on. All these are hand quilted. Back then (over 30 yrs. ago) there wasn’t much in the way of patterns and cottons were hard to come by; so there is a lot of poly-cotton used in these quilts.

Yes, those were the days! :o)

Trying to Quilt

It is going to be a long haul ….. everytime I sit down to quilt, one of the kitties has to visit me. Hank has to make sure that the tension in my hoop is just right as well as giving my hands a lick down.
Once she goes away, Ashes comes around to make sure that what I’ve quilted is snuggle quality. Yep …. it is going to be a long haul trying to get this UFO finished before New Year’s Eve.
On the other hand, here is another block done. At least something got accomplished.

Have a great day!

Another block

Still painting our home .... so not much quilting going on. The older I get, the less energy I have for getting things done. The house is a mess with everything all over the place. As one area gets finished, the next area things are moved into there and the mess starts all over again.

So, for the next few weeks, there will not be much to look at on my blog. During my breaks, I will be plugging along with these blocks as well as doing some hand quilting on my huge UFO.

Have a great day!

Thanks giving

Here is another block .... done. Since the weather has been nice lately, we are taking advantage of it and doing some painting around our home. Hence, there will not be a lot of quilting getting done over the next week or so.

Today, it is our Thanksgiving holiday here in Canada and we all have so much to be 'thankful' for. So, Canada ..... Happy Thanksgiving .... eh!

Top assembled & Sun Kissed

For the longest time, I have been thinking of doing something with embroidered flowers and wondered ‘what if’ with this block. Well …. here is what my new project looks like. Not blue work, but that would have been a good option to do. There will be different colours of embroidery and bead work here and there. I’m embroidering with the batting behind my top. I don’t know how it will turn out and if there will be a problem with the piece being out of square. We will see in time. Some people are using stabilizers and Weaveline, but I don’t have any, so this will have to do for now. An outer border has yet to be added and I will need to add some more batting to one side as my piece just wasn’t big enough. That will not be a problem to do later on as it is very easy to piece batting. So, KDL …. have I put a smile on your face? 

On another topic, Julieta from Romania left a comment on my Sun Kissed post: I love sun flowers. May-I have a pattern for it?All your works are beautiful. Thank you Julieta (your email address is no-reply, so I’m replying to your question here) for your comments. Back in July of this year, I had a giveaway for the pattern for Sun Kissed and it was won by another blogger. Sorry. 

Have a great day!

Siggies and quilt shows

I have started on the adventure of collecting siggies. My first block arrived last week from The Netherlands and my first block in return is being mailed today. As well, I am making an extra block and will be doing something with them a long way down the road from now.

It is ironic, but when I first saw the siggies going around, I had decided there was no interest there for me …. and here I am today participating in these exchanges. I find my tastes changing all the time and that pleases me.

Now, for photos of 3 quilt shows (Barrie, Scarborough and Ingersoll), please stop by Debra’s blog to see photos. I made it to 2 of the shows and the quilts were wonderful. Debra is so organized with her photos and there are a lot of them.

While at the quilt show in Barrie, we ran across this couple. It was their jackets that caught our attention and when we commented about the jackets, the gentleman heard us and he opened his jacket and said that the lining was by Jenny Beyer. Now, how about that ….. he is definitely into his wife’s quilting. They were so kind to pose for us. It turns out that the lady is from my hometown of North Bay and she won an award in Houston for her husband’s jacket. It is made out of recycled ties and she used leather in the yolks, cuffs collar and hem. Her jacket is an African theme with applique pieces on top of the background diamonds/triangles. Talk about walking art .... both jackets are wonderful!

Have a great day!