Background

Not for blocks or quilts .... for video conference calls.

While watching T.V. news networks, I've been looking at the backgrounds that commentators use during their presentations.  Some show very interesting artwork, lots shows bookcases, one person showed a gorgeous stone carved fireplace somewhere in France but none have shown any quilts.

My sister was telling me the other night that she uses this quilt as her background during her calls and she gets interesting comments and they wonder if she made the quilt.  No, she says her extremely (I put that word in her mouth) creative sister made it!  LOL  It's my blog, I can do what I want! LOL

No wonder my ears have been buzzing lately!

This quilt was gifted to my sister in exchange for a needlework that our Mom did years ago.  She was very quick to jump at the suggested exchange.

She has asked me if I would make another one for myself.  Who knows, maybe one day.

If you want to read more about the making of this quilt, look for all the posts under "My Fantasy Garden".

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

It is starting ....

... to feel like home ..... in a few places ...... but not in my studio.  It hasn't changed much since the time we moved in.

 Boxes and bins galore!

 DH has been busy getting shelving and cabinets set up so that I can start to unload boxes.

Our backyard is gorgeous.  Look at these flowers and the smell is wonderful.  Each day is a total surprise to see what new flower has bloomed.  Our backyard goes up, up, up a hill.  We do have a lovely view and I will show more of that at a later date.  We have met a few of our neighbours and they have warned us about bears, wolves and foxes.  We will have to be careful with the girls on a leash outside on the back patio.

Most of my quilts have been found and I'm starting to display them around our home.  I just love this huge basket for these quilts.  

Here is my origami (My Fantasy Garden) quilt in our living room hanging above a dresser that Debra gifted to us.  What a lovely statement this makes in our home.  Thank you so much, Debra .... we love it!

Finally, a wee hanging that Debra gave to me just before we moved.  This is my Xmas gift exchange for We 3 Quilters.  I love it!!!!  It was not the original piece that she showed me as she encountered a problem so gave this to me instead. Can you see her big stitch quilting?  Debra took a class just the day before and had it all quilted and bound and washed before giving it to me.  I think this big stitch quilting is something that I'm going to have to try for sure.   This quilt is now hanging in our upstairs landing.  Just awesome!

A member of the Near North Quilting Guild sent me a welcome email and has invited me to attend their upcoming meeting as well as a meeting for the Embroidery Guild.  What a lovely welcome .... thank you, Wendy.  I'm not able to go this time but come September, I will try the guild experience one more time.

There are boxes calling my name and I must go tackle them.

Have a great day, eh!

Wheeping Cherry and My Fantasy Garden Quilt

This was by far the toughest block to do. I made a couple different sets of flowers with different colours and finally decided on these and I guess you could say that I "wept" over this one. It is important to remind myself to always look at the whole picture and not just zoom in on one block.

So here it is …. ALL the blocks together at last! Finally, I am pleased with my quilt. Hope you like it, too! This quilt was a lot of fun to do and the technique was so totally different for me. Mind you, by the time I finished this quilt yesterday, it did take me until this morning to love it again! Guess I had been putting way too much time on it trying to finish.

I started working on this quilt in Jan. 2005 and it was entered in my Guild’s UFO Challenge. So glad to be able to cross one more UFO off that list. :o)

I added emblishments to my Fuschia Block. Two ladies gave me tips and I thank them for helping me out. Had a bit of brain freeze when it came to finishing this block off. Atet at http://quiltincorn.blogspot.com/ and Paula, The Quilter at http://thequilter.blogspot.com/ came to my aid.

Have a great day!

Mutant Block

This is the point where I am stepping away from the original pattern. The flowers just didn’t work for me for this set-up. So … since this is my quilt, I can do what I want! :o)

One more block to go and it's going to get finished today so that I can post it tomorrow. It's about time, as I'm tired of handling it. Do you feel that way about some of your quilts once they are in the home stretch?

I noticed lately that there are some of my photos that you cannot click onto to enlarge. I don't know why or what I'm doing that doesn't allow you to.

The comments about my flower blocks have been lovely. If you haven't had an e-mail response back from me it's because your e-mail address is set-up as 'no reply'. I try very hard to acknowledge your comments in some way.

Have a great day!

Zinnia Block

Tiny yellow and gold beads have been added to hide the hole in the top yo-yo’s. These were fun to make.



I'm still dragging my feet on the last block. Time to get off the sofa and do something about it, otherwise you all will be left hanging about waiting. :o(

Have a great day!

Six blocks done

Thursday morning, we received a load of stones .... so guess what we'll be doing! :o)

Here are my six blocks so far! There is still one more block that I have to finish making the flowers, emblish them and sew them onto the block. So, please bear with me while I'm just posting one photo a day. I don't want to post the rest of the photos and then have nothing to share until the last block is done. I'm really dragging my feet on this last block. Not really happy with it, so far, and I've made two different sets of flowers but they just don't stand out. Grrr!

This afternoon, I'm meeting my SIL from Parry Sound at the Creative Sewing Festival here in Toronto. My brother is dropping her off at the Festival and then travelling to our home to meet up with my husband. They are going shopping for house stuff while SIL and I are shopping for fabric. :o)

I'm going to have a great day, and you too!

Fuchsia

I haven’t decided about embellishments for these flowers. Beads can always be added at any time later if I decide to. Have any of you ideas you can give me?

Have a great day!

Petunia

Blue and burgundy beads have been added to most of these flowers, but not all.

Have a great day!

4 Blocks Done

Here's a photo of 4 blocks done so far!

Have a great day!

Snapdragon

Blue beads peek out from the blue flowers and they are the only embellishments added to these flowers.
Many, many thanks for your lovely comments! :o) There have been questions about a photo of the whole quilt. It's not finished yet. I'm on the last 2 blocks and am making the flowers for those. So, here's hoping by the time I finish posting more blocks, those last 2 will be done. I apologize for stretching these photos out but there was a reason for doing so.

Have a great day!

Apple Tree

Tiny crystal beads were added to the tips of some of the blossoms. My initial thought was to add these beads to all of the tips, but in the end decided to do just a few. This way, it makes the viewer look twice at the flowers instead of just looking at one block and then skipping to the next one.

Have a great day!

Daffodil

Yellow beads have been added around the outside edge of the yellow that is peeking out from the centre of each flower.

By now, many of you may have noticed that there are two flowers that are floating without a stem? Kumiko Sudo does this quite often in her book (Fantasies & Flowers) and since I like the look of it, I decided to go along with her creative thoughts. You will see more floating flowers on some of my other blocks.

Have a great day!

Foxglove

OK … the time has come to start revealing the flowers and the blocks in my blue & green flower wall quilt. Have I teased you all enough? :o) Sorry if you have been kept hanging!



It’s taking me longer than I thought to sew these flowers onto the hanging. I’m dealing with layers of bulk and it’s hard to maneuver the material around to needle. Since this block is in the middle, I figured it will be the hardest one, so might as well get that out of the way first.

For this block, there are no embellishments. I can always add them in after the quilt is finished if needed.

Of all the flowers in this hanging, this is my favourite. There is just something about the way those petals hang and the way they are put together.

As you can see the flowers in this hanging are 3-D and that is the reason why I waited until all the quilting had been completed before sewing the flowers on. It would just have been too hard to put the quilt with the flowers attached into my quilting lap hoop.

Have a great day!

Blue & Green Flower Quilt

Oh, many thanks for your lovely comments on this quilt and it isn’t even finished yet! :o)

This is definitely not my design … I’m not that clever! LOL The blocks are from “Fantasies & Flowers” by Kumiko Sudo. Now, she is definitely clever and so creative.

Doing appliqué after the quilt is finished? It’s not the first time I’ve done that. Once you start to see the flowers, you will better understand why they are being applied after the quilt has been quilted.

This method is not the right way to do appliqué, but I always do what is best for me. I’ll listen to all opinions, but in the end my decisions will be based on the better way for me to work on a quilt.

So, you all have a great day!

Blue & green flower quilt

Vicki at http://catinthebatt.blogspot.com/ has requested to see more of my blue and green flower quilt. I didn’t want to show too much of it as I thought browsers would be tired of seeing it … but really, I don’t need much encouragement to show it off! :o) So here it is! Seven blocks have been quilted so far. By the end of this week, if all goes well, the quilt should be all quilted. Then, once the binding is on and it is blocked, I will show you the flowers and the embellishments that are being added. So stay tuned for this one!

Have a great day!