That star again!

Remember this plain and simple top?  Well, it was just begging me to do something with it to jazz it up a tad. 

Enter, my favourite star.  Yep .... you knew I would be using that star again in another quilt, didn't you?  What a difference it makes with the addition of red circles and stars!  I liked the top before, but just love it more now.

A number of you had asked how I do my stars.  I have become quite fond of the English Paper Piecing (EPP) method for my applique.  After trying needle turn, freezer paper, etc., this is my method of choice these days.  It is more time consuming, but for me, there is no rush.  There is a lot of scrap paper hanging around our home and this is a good way to use it up. 

This is the back.  Do you see that arrow that is at the top?  The spokes of the stars are different sizes and the arrow is there to tell me which way to align all my stars onto the top so that they are all consistent.

This is the front.  If you look closely, you can just barely see the circle outline where the navy blue circle will be sewn.

Have a great day!

April OPAM

The month of April was better for me as far as getting a few projects done.  I don't know how they did get done considering that we are still in the middle of renovations.  Oh well, a few stolen moments here and there and success.

First, my niece asked me to do a few items for her.  One, is a sun stroller cover that they used when they went south for a week's vacation.  It worked great.  Miss C was able to have her naps without being disturbed by passersby and it worked for keeping the sun off of her while they were walking around in the hot sunshine, but still allowing Miss C to see what was going on around her.  I made the cover using two packages of cheesecloth (there are 4 layers sewn together and the length is about 2-1/2 metres).  There are two lines of stitching to keep all the layers together.

Second, my niece purchased two hats but asked me to sew on straps so that Miss C will keep her hats on top of her head while on vacation.  Why are children's hats not coming with straps? 

To get Miss C used to the idea of wearing a hat, Mom and Dad wore a hat for supper one night.  After 5 mins. of screaming, all was well.  Mom is wearing the other hat that I fixed.

Last, a pair of curtains were made for my armoire that holds my quilts and quilt tops.  Since my studio has so much light coming in, I didn't want my quilts fading from the bright light.  Before, I just had a piece of fabric hanging down from the top shelf.  This looks so much better.

So, that was my effort for April.

Have a great day!

Granddaughter's Garden progress and a quilt show

It is coming together!  My Granddaughter's Garden is  slowly but surely getting done.  The bottom third of the centre remains to be done.

This photo shows a better idea of what needs to be done.  The black line shows the section that needs to be joined to the other part and a couple half blocks (see the X's at the bottom) need green templates and then sewn together. 

The bright pink squares that you see need to have a green template removed and replaced with a different green print. I wasn't paying particular attention and there are too many of the same green print that was used (and used in the same location) and they stick out like a sore thumb. Well, to me anyway and if I can see them, they will bug me until they are replaced.  The green print that was used way too often comes from a dress that I made for my Mom and I do love to use it in every quilt that I can.  It is a lovely memory for me.

 

In the first close-up shot, marking lines for hand quilting have already been added. 

 

So, the next time you see this top, the borders will be on and another top can be added to the battered old trunk waiting it's turn for hand quilting.

 

Two quilting guilds in our city are having a quilt show and you can go here for more information.  April 27-28, 2013 in North Bay, Ontario, Canada.  It will be a pleasure to see you all there.

 

Have a great day!

Renovation time

Not much in the quilting department has been happening .... we are in the midst of renovations.   We will be having hardwood flooring installed and all the carpeting has been ripped up and a ton of screws were screwed into the plywood.  No more squeaks!  Wallpaper has been removed from the walls and they are now ready for painting.  My quilts have once again been folded and stored in bins.  The house sure looks bare without them on the walls and displayed on the quilt ladder. 

It has been a bit stressful for the girls and they are probably thinking that we will be moving again.  Nope, this is their forever home.

Doesn't Miss Hank look lonely?  She recently gave us a bit of a scare but has rallied around again!  We're giving the girls extra attention and playtime to help them get over this upheaval.

Miss Ashes tries to hide in our newspaper box that was just emptied for recycling ....

 

....  and she takes her turn on the small piece of carpeting that we cut off for the girls to lay down on.

In the evenings, I have been working on my Granddaughter's Garden.  Yep, another UFO.  I'm too tired to do much of anything else and this is a good project to just pick-up and work on.  Slowly, but surely, this top is coming together and will be ready for borders in another couple of weeks.  For my borders, this was the layout that appealed to me.  A navy blue for the inner border and then white for the outer border.  

Then, I found and bought a gorgeous piece of striped green fabric for the outer borders. So, the white is out and the green stripe is in.

My studio has also become a painting studio.  DH replaced all the closet and room doors and I'm painting them .... slowly but surely.

My DH snapped a photo of me surrounded by piles of fabric scraps as I was working on my templates for the above quilt.

This is what it looked like from my chair.  I was just pulling fabrics at random that were within my reach.

Perhaps, it would be a good idea to get myself organized a bit so that I don't trip over the piles of fabric at my feet.  Ah, so much better!  :o)

Early one morning this week, I awoke to find DH opening the window blinds.  What a delightful sight to wake up to.  Four deer in our backyard!  :o)

Have a great day!

Schoolhouse is a top ... haunted no more

I have had quite the journey with my schoolhouse quilt and at last it is a top.  Come along and I will show how my borders came to be.

Once my centre blocks were all assembled and sewn together with the sashings, the time had come to decide on the borders. 

Numerous red fabrics were pulled and auditioned along with different versions of stars. This is the final selection for the borders.  I definitely love the two different star sizes.

Once the borders were sewn on, it helped to define the look and to help me decide if I was going in the right directions with those stars.

The more stars were made and pinned onto the border, the more I was falling in love.

 Then, I thought about putting small circles inside the larger stars.  Yes, that will do quite nicely!  :o)

After sewing a few stars on each night, I would pin my top onto my design wall and sit back in my chair and drool and pinch myself if this was real.  Seeing my progress each night kept me motivated to finish the border and this top!

Here is a close-up of the stars:

At last, my top is finished and I am haunted no more.  Haunted?  Read on.

My love affair with this top all started with this quilt below.  DH and I stopped in at the quilt show (May 2005) in Kingston, Ontario on our way from Toronto to Quebec City to visit family there.  We only had a few hours to do the show and DH snapped photos of the quilts while I browsed the vendors and the guild booth.  This quilt haunted me.  Was there a pattern?  Debra was also at this show (before we became friends) and every so often we would talk about this quilt and again asked: "was there a pattern"?  Finally Debra and no-blog Mary asked if I could draft up the block.  Well, yes, I think I can?  It wasn't easy drafting that pattern, but finally it came to be.   You can go here for a tutorial on how to make your own block.

It turns out that the Kingston guild had a blurb about this quilt at the time of the 2005 show.  The quilt that inspired the guild ladies to make this quilt came from Donna Thomas.  You can go here to read more about it.

Then, a few days after I finished sewing the last star onto my top and exactly 2 years after I first posted about this quilt here, an email was received from the designer and copyright holder of this pattern.   Andrea Blackhurst is her name and her pattern appeared in Quilt magazine, fall 1996.  The photo below is how this quilt appeared in the magazine (thanks Andrea for giving me permission to use your photo). 

My version of THE quilt is made and I'm haunted no more!

Now, it is time to get on with another UFO!

Have a great day!

Star love

I'm in love with this star:

 It came from this pattern:

It was used in this top:

Both the above tops were used on my quilt ladder this past Xmas.  Yumm .... together, they make a nice statement.

The same star in two different sizes on my Just Blessings top (that is still in progress and patiently sitting on a shelf):

Then, it was used again as a border treatment for my school house top:

What do you think?  Will I be using this star again in another project?  I think you know the answer already!  :o)

 

Have a great day!

A quilting tale

You know, my nieces and nephews have quite the sense of humour.  I received this email yesterday from my niece, Nicole:

Once upon a time, a beautiful favourite niece princess spent her spring break with 

her uncle and aunt (the Quilting Queen) in their ice castle in Toronto.  The 

Quilting Queen figured that the princess should learn how to quilt, and so they 

started a quilt project. 

 
Years and years went by (8, actually), and although the princess diligently added

a few lines every now and then, things kept getting in the way (an honours thesis,

teacher's college, a wedding, new house, and a baby).  

 
Finally, one day, the princess finished sewing all fifty billion bleeping lines 

into the quilt, so she emailed her aunt and said "Dearest Quilting Queen- I think 

it's time for binding!"

Hmmmmm ..... I wonder what her reaction will be when I tell her that she needs

to cut all those fifty gazillion lines first before binding gets sewn on 

(it will be a chenille quilt)?  :o)

Have a great day!