New quilt

I have been going through quilt withdrawl and after cutting out strips for our We 3 Quilters quilt (see previous post), I kept on pulling fabrics from my new FQ bundles and kept right on cutting.

Don't you just love this new pattern?

Have a great day!

Row by row ...

.... my quilt top is getting sewn together. I'm at the half way mark and moving along quite nicely. :o) The bottom 4 rows are done, just in case you are wondering.Have a great day!

Slice of Pie, anyone?

Who doesn't love Kim Diehl's patterns? This block is from her Simple Graces book called Pie in the Sky.I was captivated when I first saw this block at Debra's when we (there are 3 of us in this group) met at her place this past September and she had quite a few of these blocks on her design wall. Well, you know what happens when something is just staring at you in the face? Mary (the no blog lady in our group) went out and bought the book and she has been busy collecting some FQ's to make her version. Guess what happened to me ..... yep I'm making one too! Except (you know there is always an exception with me) my background has neutral fabrics. Again, these blocks keep growing ....

.... and growing.

Oh dear me, another project! :o)

Have a great day!

Was stumped?

Lately, my UFO's are being worked on this summer and this one had me stumped for quite some time and has been up on my design since last year. This project was started Nov.15,2010 and it went together quite quickly until the centre of the petal blocks. I just couldn't decide what to do. I like the idea of the white centers .... except some of those centers had been cut away. So, something else had to be done with them.

Some jumbo rick rack was purchased and a test circle was made up. It is not bad, but this idea just wasn't giving me the thumbs up.

Maybe it needed another smaller circle in the centre. OK, this is not bad.

Definitely not a plain yellow centre.

Now, we're talking .... a simple white circle with a nice bright contrasting smaller circle. Yep, this is it.

Now, I can concentrate on bringing this UFO to a top stage .... and that is such a good thing! :o)

Have a great day!

Sew quick ...

Five different fabrics (9 WOF cuts each) and these strips went from this ... .... to this ever so quickly!

The borders are on and this top is ready for some quilting! :o

How hot is it here? Well, tonight after listening to Miss Ashes for half an hour wailing and moaning to go outside .... we put her outside and was going to walk around the back yard with her. She stood at the back door and wanted back inside immediately to the a/c cooled home. That is how hot it is in Toronto today.

Have a great day!

School-house blues

Five years ago, at the Kingston, Ontario quilt show, this school-house quilt captivated my attention. It was a raffle quilt but I didn't win it. Oh darn! Still, it has been on my mind to make my own one day. Debra was also at that quilt show and she bought $40.00 worth of raffle tickets and didn't win either. Double darn! Since we started getting together a few years ago, we have been talking and talking about this quilt and decided to make our own.
March 2, 2013 - Update:  At last, the original designer and copyright holder of this pattern is Andrea Blackhurst and the pattern appeared in 'Quilt' magazine, fall 1996.  Thank you, Andrea for contacting me so that credit can finally be given to you. 

So, last Saturday, Debra and Mary (no blog) came to my house and we sewed. Below is my progress to date. For our meeting, I just had the middle house block done. I'm making the small alternative blocks using EQ7 and am having quite the time (fun) making them. Some of my blocks are paper pieced and others (the more intricate ones) I am doing them the English Paper Piecing method. The school-house block finish size is 12" x 12" and the small alternative block finish size is 6" x 6". My quilt will have 25 blocks (5 x 5) and will finish approx. 84" square. I'm not sure what size Debra's and Mary's will be. Time will reveal all our blocks and quilt sizes.

Now, for my 'show and tell', I had quilts in 3 separate piles around my house. There was no way they could be shown all at once as it would have been quilt overload. Miss Hank had to be coaxed off this pile. Ummm ... can we say princess and the pea ... but she sure does look cozy.

This is the aftermath of one showing. To all those ladies who have given me giveaway quilts and swap quilts .... your ears must have been burning as your quilts were greatly admired. It was fun to show the ladies my quilts and other quilts from around the world. Both Debra and Mary are participating in swap quilts and blocks and they have shown me their recent exchanges.

Oh yes, we had a fun day!

If you want to see another version of a school-house quilt go here and scroll down.
Have a great day!
BTW .... oh yes, one more project to be added to my UFO list for a total of 33 projects and 7 tops to be quilted. What can I say, that is life! :o)

Baskets are tops

I'm very happy with this version .... once all quilted up, it will be a lovely summer quilt. DH wanted me to hang this up in our dining room right away even though it is not finished. Soon it will come down and be marked up for hand quilting. Oh yes, I am thrilled with this one! :o)The size is 96" square. Once all quilted up, washed and dried ... it will not be hanging on the floor any more.

My pattern source: EQ6
My inspiration: all those other basket quilts that have been shown on the web. I believe the original designers are from Blackbird Designs.

Have a great day!

Another one topped up

This has been a very good week for me .... another top done. This top has been teasing you and I for a long time now and it was about time that I just bit the bullet and got this top made. It was the corner setting triangles that stopped me from completing this top a long time ago.

There will be some hand quilting and machine quilting on this one. But not right now .... it is just too hot to think about quilting. In my previous post, I was asked about the pole that is used for showing my quilt tops for photography. I use a 3/4" dia. electrical conduit steel pipe that can be purchased at a hardware store. They come in lengths of 8' and 10'. They are nice and sturdy and don't sag at all. In the photo below, my top is held up by curtain rings (the ones that have clips that you pinch open). I'm standing on a step ladder and holding the pipe against a tree trunk.

So, now you know ....

Enjoy your weekend!

Another finish

I'm back for just a short visit to show you a quilt that was finished this week. I just love this setting in my sister's garden and thought that this would make a lovely photo. Can you see how the striped binding really finishes this quilt? I have become a big fan of stripes for binding my quilts and will use more of them for future quilts. I've been sorting fabrics in my studio and have started to make up 9 patch blocks. My studio is getting re-organized and I wish that photos were taken for a 'before' and 'after'; but I forgot. The main thing is I can actually walk around and not fall over stuff now. There is nothing like a clean work space for motivation. This quilt got put together fairly quickly and everything (except for backing fabrics) were from my stash. How good that feels to just use up stash!

This lap quilt was made for a dear cousin who is battling cancer. She is a lover of flowers and this quilt looks so serene amongst all the hostas. We are all praying that she pulls through and your thoughts and prayers would be most welcome.

I've been visiting family, doing more genealogy researching and there is a pile of books just waiting for me to read .... and quilting and applique will always caputure my attention during our summer months.

So, until next time we meet .... have fun sewing!

Another top

I've been rummaging through my UFO's and found this one. It got shelved a few years ago and has been there long enough. Time to finish it. It is now at this stage and will be quilted soon.

Have a great day!

An oopsie moment ...

Don't these colours just scream spring/summer? I'm making a new lap quilt and noticed a couple of blocks that were turned around (like the one with the bright pink paper on the blue/yellow block) and after they were fixed, the rows are now being sewn together. Then, a major oopsie .... I cut the sashing for one row the wrong size and didn't notice until it got pinned onto the design wall. Oopsie ....

I'm off to repair that and finish making this top.

When you click onto this photo, your eyes are not deceiving you ..... I ran out of sashing material and substituted another fabric for the bottom portion.

Years ago, this would have bothered me to no end and all of the sashing would have been ripped out and a new sashing used that was the same throughout. These days, I'm beyond that and am OK with what has been done. You know, using the stash ....

Have a great day, eh!

It's over .... sob .... but I have a finish!

... the Olympics are over and I don't know about the rest of the world, but darn it ..... we had a blast! Our excitment for the Games to start was immediately stopped when we heard about the tragic death of the Georgian luger (may he rest in peace, dear God!) and then we held our breaths for the jinx to be broken with our first gold medal on Canadian soil to an all time record breaking number of gold medals ... whew .... there was a lot of tearful emotions we went through.

Ashes is glad that things have quieted down a lot and we can once again shower her with attention .... we scared the girls quite a number of times with our cheering and clapping. While watching the last day of the torch relay and during the Opening Ceremonies, I finished putting in the last stitches on my Dresden Plate. You have seen so many images of this quilt and I'm just so glad to finally say that .... it is done! Can I be so bold to claim a gold medal finish?

Here are close-up shots of my hand quilting and machine quilting.

Yes, I do combine both machine and hand quilting in my quilts (not all of them, mind you) and was quite surprised with the outcome of this one. With the close stipple machine quilting and larger meander along with hand quilting, I was expecting the blocks to be quite wonky, but somehow it worked and the quilt came out square all around.

So, enjoy my quilt and have a great day, eh!

Quilt size: queen (97" x 97" --- quilt top was 102-1/2 x 102-1/2 --- a loss of 5-1/2" x 5-1/2")

Quilt source: EQ6 for the Dresden Plates and the border is my original design.

Abandoned no more ....

These are two of my projects that I’m working on these days.

First off ….. I’m making a pie ….. Humble Pie is the name of the quilt and it is from Kim Diehl’s book

The rail fence blocks have all been done …. just need to put them together now and that should go fairly quickly. You will be seeing more of this one again soon.

….. and my Lover’s Knot is back again. I decided to add one more row to one side and bottom. The top was OK when this was last shown but it just wasn’t big enough to fit comfortably on my bed. The borders would have been too large to make up the rest of the sizing and it would have looked awkward. So, once the blocks are done I promise to get borders on asap and not shove it on a shelf again.

I took these photos last night and just cleaned up after Ashes was sick this morning ... just a fraction of an inch away from a block in the bottom row. I could hear her but was not quick enough to move her away from my top. Lesson learned, no more blocks on the floor. I will just have to be patient until one of my design boards become free.

Have a great day!