Three for three ....

That's right .... 3 quilts got finished for Finn's New Year's Eve challenge this year and I'm thrilled to pieces. Three quilts done!!!


My Flowering Stars was done back in November. That was a good start. Then my SSCS gift was done. The stitchery center piece was bought about 5 years ago at a North Bay thrift store for $.99 cents and it sat in a bin since the day it came home with me on the bus. It now has a lovely home in Australia and is abandoned no more.

My final finish is this sofa quilt that was a Xmas gift to a niece and nephew.

This has been a good year for finishes. At a glance, you can see what I've done this year by looking at the left side of my blog; scoll down until you see a bunch of quilt photos. I'm on a roll and am curious to see how many finishes get accomplished during 2011. The clock is ticking away here ...... and my fingers are just itching to stitch and quilt.

To all my friends and readers out there in blogland ..... have a Happy New Year and happy stitching for 2011!

SSCS gifts all around

First off, I have to thank Chookyblue for hosting another fantastic Secret Santa Christmas exchange. Please visit her blog to see what has been sent around the world. She has posted photos of ornaments that we all received and opened when we got our gifts.

Now that Xmas is over, it is time to reveal what I received from Nicole. Isn't my doll adorable? Her name is Matilda. The last doll I received for Xmas (around age 5), she had beautiful long hair. I mention had because the next day her hair got cut off as I was really curious to see what her hair would look like short. As you can imagine, that was the last doll that was given to me. Nicole, I promise that I won't touch a single strand of Matilda's hair. :o)Matilda is a Christmas doll (her dress has snowflakes) and I wanted to display her properly. Before Xmas, DH and I were browsing at a thrift store and this huge sleigh caught my eye. Would this fit Matilda?

Yes .... perfect! Matilda is holding the ornament that Nicole made for me. Thank you, Nicole for my gifts!!

It is my turn to reveal what was sent to my exchange partner, Peg.
This wall hanging ...

... and this ornament.

There you have it, another year of world gifts.

Have a great day!

A little bit of this and that

So far, on my klosjes quilt .... there are 58 blocks quilted up (182 still to be done). I was on target by completing 5 blocks a day. Then, my arms and hands felt like they were on fire. I was doing too much hand quilting and had to stop for a few days. Nowadays, only 2 or 3 blocks are getting done per day. That means the quilt will not be ready for the deadline entry for next year Quilts Canada in London, Ontario. Boo hoo!! I'm sad, it was going so well for me. Oh well ..... So, what to do instead? Well, I found this embroidery pillowcase to complete and have been working on that. These pillowcases will go nicely with my klosjes quilt.

As well, side triangles have been added to my Just Blessings top and a few rows sewn together. A few more of the little stars need to be made and then appliqued onto the top. Then it will be time to play with the borders.

Once my Just Blessings top is put together, there are other projects waiting in the wings for their turn on my design wall.

Have a great day!

Words and more words

Three years ago, I was inspired to make this quilt. Tonya from Lazy Gal Quilting was having an on-line challenge for quilters to make a winter word quilt and I jumped in head first.

All of my quilts are so prim and proper and this type of quilt was totally outside of my comfort zone. I'm sure a few of my followers were probably wondering what was I thinking. :o)

I followed Tonya's tutorials for making the letters and the snowflakes, the wonky trees and the wonky house. There is a lot of me in this quilt and it is by far one of my favourites. Tonya's new and first book: Word Play Quilts is out and if you want to be brave and try something new, this book is a good place to start. Go over here to Tonya's post to see all the other links for wordy quilts and enjoy.

To read more about my WINTER quilt, go here and scroll down through the posts for the explanations as to why I chose my letters and the scenes.

For me, there are ideas for a SUMMER quilt just dancing around in my head. Perhaps 2011 will see a new wordy quilt coming along.

Thank you, Tonya for inspiring so many of us and best of luck with your new book!!!

Have a great day!

Quilting tools

Thanks ever so much for all your comments and positive vibes for me to get my klosjes quilt done before the deadline for the quilt show entry. So far, I'm still on track .... yeah me!

There were some questions about what I use for batting and markers. To help you, these are what I use:

Batting - both are by Hobbs. Other brands have been used in the past, but these are consistent with the loft (no high and low spots).
Markers - you can go here to read about my workings with these markers. There are a few do's and don'ts. Just scroll down through the posts.

Thread - these are what I use for quilting thread. This thread doesn't break or snap when pulling on the quilt to make the bed. There is one quilt that needs to be fixed because the quilting thread snapped in places (I actually heard the thread snapping). Also, my thread gets waxed and if anyone is interested, a tutorial can be made up for you.

Needles - the head on these needles are bigger so that the heavy thread slips through the eye fairly easy.

There, now you know what I use for hand quilting.

Have a good day!

Klosjes Quilting time

Here is a sneak peek of what my quilting looks like for my klosjes quilt. My goal is to enter this into Quilts Canada 2011 show that will be held in London, Ontario. Deadline for entry is Feb. 11, 2011. I have figured out that 5 blocks a day need to be done in order for me to finish by the end of January 2011 .... thus giving me a bit of a breather if one day that quantity is not met. So far, I'm on schedule. So, only time will tell how this turns out. Wish me luck!

Have a great day!

Klosjes basting

Winter is here and the time has come to do some hand quilting. My queen size klosjes quilt is all marked up and ready to go. Usually, my quilts get basted on the floor; but it is just too hard these days to get down on hands and knees to do that chore. So, I'm trying this new method and so far it is much easier than I thought.

My two trusty assistants are on hand to help me out. Ashes is busy making sure that the basting thread doesn't get tangled up .... .... and Hank is making sure the backing and batting doesn't shift too much.

They were such big help .... that is until they both took off on a tear around the house. The working bit is over .... it is play time!

Have a great day!