Blog Followers

A couple of blog followers came for a visit and a show & tell.  What a lovely afternoon we had.

Cathy, (the lady in the plaid shirt) lived here in North Bay for many, many years and when I moved up here, she moved down to Brantford, Ontario.  I got to meet her through guild members.  She was at the October 2014 retreat that I attended and will be at the October 2015 retreat.  We will meet up again, then. Cathy was in town for a visit and was making her rounds to friends. 

Karin (in black shirt) does beautiful quilting, embroidery work, stained glass, needle work and rug hooking.  Karin was acting as tour guide and my studio was on her list of places to visit.  Can you see all the quilts stacked up behind them?  It was a lovely show and tell and I do love showing off my work.  :o)

Below, Claudia is a retired nurse and has recently rejoined our two guilds (one day time and one night time guild).  She has been following my blog for many years and it wasn't until I showed my hexagon quilt at day guild that she finally connected me to my blog.  She was sitting beside me and after showing my hexagon quilt, when I sat down she said to me "you are Rose Marie".  I said yes, that is my name.  She had no idea.  As you can tell, I really don't talk too much about my blog.  She was just so surprised.  Funny, eh!

Claudia does amazing EPP and embroidery and is a fabulous quilter.  She is the one that has inspired me to finish my UFO's.  That is why 12 of them got to the finished stage last year.  Claudia does amazing borders on her quilts and I will be needing a visit to her studio.  Karin, can you arrange it soon? 

All three ladies are urging me to start finishing off my tops.  

At both guilds, I am surrounded by very talented quilters and artists.  

Have a great day!

EPP (English Paper Piecing)

From time-to-time, questions come to me about EPP (English Paper Piecing) and where do I get my patterns from and my templates.

Thank you, dear readers, for sending me your lovely comments and your questions.  The quilting world is abuzz with EPP and if you haven't thought about trying it out, now is your chance.

I got hooked .... plain and simple.

Pinterest is a great source.  When I find a pattern that appeals to me, I go to BlockBase computer software program available from Electric Quilt Company and start searching.  I do believe that BlockBase is a stand alone (please double check yourself) software program that does not need any EQ program on your computer.  You should be able to print out patterns any size that you want.  Since EQ7 is already downloaded on my computer, the BlockBase is a wonderful companion.

Apple Cores

This pattern has always been on my 'to-do' list for eons.  After making a false start, a friend directed me to Sue Daley and her method of doing apple cores.  Go here for a tutorial on how I do my cores and how to make templates and the link to Sue Daley's You tube demo.

Then, on Pinterest, I found this gorgeous split apple core pattern.  Can we say "yummm"?

For both my Apple Core projects, BlockBase came in handy for getting my templates.

While glancing through BlockBase for patterns and ideas, below are a few tops.

This one is known as Colonial Garden or Rose Star One Patch or Tumbling Hexagon (Brackman number 243).  Instead of making hexagons, I chose instead to make triangles and then sew the triangles together.  You can go here for a better explanation.

This one is called Ozard Cobblestone (Brackman Number Y007):

Oh Wonderful, Summer's Here (Brackman Number D046).  So happy that this top finally has a name instead of forever being referred to as D046.  :o)

If you are doing scrappy quilts, go here to read how my quilts have evolved using my method to control the scrappy look.

Spools

After making a small wall hanging using this spool pattern, the urge to make a queen size quilt was gnawing at me.  I was probably grinding my teeth at night just thinking about making this pattern again.  :o)

My Sweet Klosjes .... what a wonderful quilt this turned out to be.  This is a spool pattern that came from BlockBase and is #3571 (The Spool of 1966).

 

Hexagons and Stars

Here is my lovely Holyhocks in a Castle Garden quilt.  This reminds me of my trip to Great Britain and the gorgeous holyhock flowers.  The templates for the hexagons probably came from a magazine.

 The top below is not finished, but the hexagons were leftovers from the above quilt.

The idea for my Diamond Star below came from a blog that is no longer available.  I was inspired to make one too.   The template could either have come from BlockBase or from a magazine.

Granddaughter's Flower Garden

The source for the pattern came from here:  http://sewuniquecreations.blogspot.ca/2010/12/grand-daughters-flower-garden-quilt.html   Sadly, the PDF file is no longer available.  You can print the photo of the templates, clean them up and either reduce or increase to get the size you want.  Please note, the very long elongated hexagon had to be trimmed down a bit to fit.

For my quilt, the center layout of the hexagon block was changed around....of course!  :o)

Templates

I have always made my own templates.  There is a ton of scrap paper in boxes and bins in my studio and they do get used a lot.  Go here for an explanation of how my templates are made.  Scrap paper, stapler and paper scissors and your templates are made.  Simple as that.  In whatever size you want.
  
This has been a wonderful walk through memory lane of all of my EPP projects, tops and quilts.  You can be sure there will be more to come.  :o)

In scrolling through all my EPP projects, you can see how different each one is.  Don't get stuck doing just one type of EPP.  There are so many different types of EPP out there.  Explore and have fun.

In case any of you are wondering, I am not affiliated with BlockBase or Electric Quilt Company .... I just love their software programs.

I got hooked doing EPP by making a hexagon and I have never looked back.  So, go forth and make a hexagon .... I dare you to!

Have a great day!

Under the wire

With just 10 minutes to spare before the ball dropped ending 2014, the last stitches on the binding got done and this quilt was finished:

I didn't make the top ..... I just machine quilted it.  This quilt is going to Victoria's Quilts here in North Bay.  The top was picked up at my night guild quilt meeting in January 2014 and I was darned if it would not be done before the year was out.  Victoria's Quilts are coming back to our night quilt guild tomorrow and it will be handed over to them. 

This quilt has been worked on throughout the year and I'm so glad to have it done.   It was hard to quilt as there is muslin behind each block.  The person who made this quilt used muslin instead of paper to make her pineapple blocks.  That is one reason why it took so long to finish this quilt as I really hated machine quilting it.  The border was easy to do, not the center.  Oh well .... it is done, it is finished. 


That is my goal:  finish

On that note, this tree skirt that has been under my Xmas tree for eon years really needed to be backed with flannelette and sewn together.  Finally, it has happened.

Finished and ready for Xmases to come.  It was done using the birthing method with top stitching all around.  Nothing fancy here ..... I just wanted it to be done.

 

Wildlife have been visiting our backyard lately.   This Pileated Woodpecker got busy tearing apart the suet ball.

We have seeds for feeding deer.  If our winter is going to be harsh, then we will put feed out for them.

Have a great day!