Quilts for Kids

Another Winding Trails top using the pattern by Karen Griska Quilts.  I'm on a roll making kids quilts.  This will be a donation quilt for a women's shelter in a neighbouring town.  Personally, I think it is ugly .... but a child will love it.  I'm anxious to see this quilted up because a quilt changes once quilted.  My LAer has just finished quilting it and it just needs to be picked up.

Now, this top I love.  Berry Smoothie by Villa Rosa Designs and it also will be going to the same place.  This top used up a chunk of fabric for each block and I will be using this pattern again and again.

While making this top, a second set of blocks were made and all that needs to be done is sew those blocks together to make another top ... and that is what will be done to get those blocks into a top and to the LAer and then to the shelter.

Both of these tops were squirrels ...... LOL.  It's a good thing when those squirrels get completed.

Love it when I'm on a roll ....

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

... and another squirrel!

Yes, I did it ..... started another project.  You would think that squirrels hibernate during winter ..... but no, they do not and they stopped by and had a few chats with me!  LOL

It all started with cleaning out some piles of fabrics and papers and that is when I saw this pattern and knew that it just had to be made.

What got me started on this squirrel was a need for a couple more small wall quilts to go with my February red/neutral quilts.  My bins of red fabrics and my neutral/red fabrics were a tad overflowing and viola .... this project got started.  This is my project so far.  If one block a day gets done, then this project should be ready for sashings and borders by the end of this month.  Only nine blocks to go.  So, we shall see ....

In the meantime, this quilt .... which I really love .... has been bugging me.  Why?  I want to make another circle quilt and why not do the same quilt but in red and neutrals?  So, that is what is being done.

This is my progress so far.  Not much to see, but in time there will be more blocks.

There have been two more squirrels that got made into tops this month.  They will be shown on another post.  It has been a productive month so far!

There may be another new squirrel or two, but nothing has been done with those yet!

Oh squirrels .... just go and stay away and leave me alone!  LOL  Can't really complain as it does help with clearing out stash and helps to keep the creative juices flowing!

Our winter has been up and down lately.  Bitter, bitter cold and warm balmy days around 0C.  Our winter has been too warm lately because bears have been coming out of hibernation.  This week, there was a report of a bear around a few schools in the east end of our city and the schools had to go into lockdown.  There is no food for bears right now and a child would be just a tad too tempting to pass up for a meal.

This week, we had freezing rain followed by snow and it left our backyard looking like a wonderland.  For those of you enduring very hot temps ..... here is some ice and snow for you to drool over!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Gingham Swirls

Oh my, how I enjoyed designing and making this quilt.  After doodling around on EQ7, that wavy border just had to be made and something EPP would make this a perfect take-along project.

So, the project got started and slowly but surely, this quilt came to be.

This project was supposed to be for our day guild celebration of Canada's 150th birthday.  The stipulation was that only red and white fabrics could be used.  We could use tone-on-tone reds, red with white and white tone-on-tone and white with red fabrics.  Well, try and find all fabrics with just red and white in them .... no cream, no off-white.  I had lots of red fabrics but very little with red/white prints and I wanted a variety of those fabrics in the blades.  So, the quest to get this quilt done in 2017 got shelved and this quilt was completed years later.  

Here are a few of my blocks with my selection of fabrics:

Quilt Details:

Pattern Source:  This information will only be helpful to those that have EQ and Blockbase software.

#3342 for the blocks (blades).  Make four of this unit to form a block.   

Block size:  6" x 6" finished quarter blocks that resulted in a 12" x 12" finished block.

For the borders, I used "Curved Path Border" and "Curved Path Corner"

Border size:  6" x 8" finished blocks

A tutorial was done to show how the borders were made here.  At the bottom of this post is the label "Gingham Swirl" and you can read all the posts showing my progress.

Started:  September 2016

Top Finished:  November 2021

Finished:  January 2022

Batting:  Hobbs cotton/poly (80/20)

Machine quilted by:  Kathy Wareham using "Maidenhair Fern" quilting design by Urban Elementz.

This quilt is now on display along with my other red/neutral quilts for February.

It has been very cold here lately (-37C with a windchill of -47C) and now it is hovering close to 0C, but I'm keeping warm by the fire!   The snow is starting to pile up and I'm keeping a close watch on our roof in case we need to bring in people to shovel the snow off of it.  

Oh, look ..... a squirrel!  LOL

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

January & February Binding Challenge

Well, no-blog Mary and I got 2023 off to a good start ..... but I had to do a bit of prodding to get Mary working on finishing her binding.  Our weather was dull and dreary last month and Mary was affected by the lack of sunshine ..... but she got there in the end and we can close out the month of January with a finished quilt.  Yeah us!

This is Mary's January quilt:

This is my January quilt and there will be more about this quilt on another post:

For February, Mary is doing a basket quilt:

and this will be my quilt to bind.  

It is very cold here today .... -27C and even colder with the windchill .... a good day to stay inside and sew.  All I can say is thank heavens for heated car seats and a garage to park our car in!  Our gas fireplaces are on and keeping us toasty warm.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Deer and Quilty Stuff

One morning last week, I looked outside the kitchen patio door and saw something dark at the top of our hill.  Did someone throw out a Xmas tree or a garbage bag or was it a person?  What was it?

Upstairs to my bedroom and looking out the window, I got a better look .... but I still couldn't make out what it was.

Zoomed in for a closer look.  Nope, still can't see what it is.  Lordy, it is big .... was it a bear?  No, wrong colour as the bears here are black and this is kind of brownish.

Suddenly, the thing had ears ..... it was a deer and it had been sleeping!  To the left in the bushes, there was a bit of movement and it was another deer but you can't see it in the photos.

Later, the two deer got up and moved off into the bushes.  They came back a few days later and munched on our shrubs and leftover titbits of leaves that were not clipped off in the fall.  We've had a bit more snow since taking the photo and the temps are a bit cooler (-7C).  Still, this is not our normal winter as we should be around -30C now with lots more snow.  

Now, onto quilty stuff.  There were a number of quilts that needed to be stored away.  A few sleeves were made for the foam pool noodles and quilts were rolled up and stored.  A shelf in my studio was cleared off and taken out.  It has now become the perfect place for quilt storage.  This area will be shown later as there is some painting that needs to happen first.

The sleeves on the back of my quilts are made larger and the roller fits perfectly into the sleeve and then the rolling of the quilt starts.  

Here it is ..... all rolled up, tied and ready for vertical storage.

I've been busy ordering more books of my blog.  Depending on the number of posts per year, some books have just one year of posts, while other books have two years of posts.  I use Blog2Print and take advantage of their sales.  The best sale is one that offers 50% off which happens a couple times a year.

I'm happy to see the years in book form.  So is my husband and my family.  These are things that they won't have to worry about when I'm gone or unable to function.  Instructions have been left so that if there are more books to be made, they can replicate the format of what was done in the past.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

School House

Well, this quilt has been long in coming!  It has quite the story behind it too.  So, let's begin.

There are a few posts about this quilt and it is best to start at the beginning and you can click onto them here to read about the start and the progress along the way:

Mar. 2, 2011 .... May 23, 2011 .... June 16, 2011 .... June 25, 2011 .... Jan. 19, 2013 ....  Jan. 30, 2013 .... Mar. 30, 2013

There could be others, but I couldn't find them at the time of writing up this post.

After this top was finished, it sat for many years.  Why?  Hand quilt or machine quilt?  That was my hang up.  In the end, it was sent to my lovely LAer and she did her magic very quickly and then it sat waiting for binding.  Enter no-blog Mary and our monthly binding challenge and ..... viola ..... this quilt is finally done and hanging in our dinning room.  Oh, such joy to finally have this gorgeous quilt finished.

Now, after reading all those posts, there is a titbit that was never written about, but it is time to talk about it.

I've given credit to Andrea Blackhurst as the designer of this quilt pattern.  She may be the designer as per the quilt in the quilt magazine, but I based my quilt on that raffle quilt at the Kingston, Ontario, Canada quilt show and they based their quilt on an antique quilt. So, IMHO, I do think the original designer is the person who made that antique quilt.

When Andrea contacted me and claimed she was the designer .... fine .... I'm happy for her and she designed a gorgeous quilt and I've since amended a few of my posts to give her credit.  She also mentioned to me that if ever I wrote a pattern for sale, she would sue me.  Oh my .... 

If you have been a reader of my blog for many years now ..... never, ever have I offered any of my designs or drafts of quilts for sale.  I think I was tested not too long ago if there was a pattern for this quilt.  Was she a friend of Andrea's?  I was suspicious at the time.  Anyway, there is not a pattern for sale and there will never be from me.  Instead, I did a tutorial and it is on the link for June 25, 2011.

If you are interested in a pattern, Sentimental Stitches has a pattern for the houses and you can purchase it here.  Gay did this quilt as a free BOM and then retired it and then brought it back for purchase.  I knew that Gay would have her pattern for sale at some point and gave her a head's up about potentially being sued by Andrea.  Gay wrote back and said that she had a team of lawyers to work out any copyright issues.  After she looked at my posts, Gay thought that my quilt was different from Andrea's and I could claim it as my design.  Thank you and that was a surprise comment!

So, I will leave it up to you who is the designer .... but .... I think I will just enjoy my efforts and the struggles and simply enjoy my quilt .... as a quilt.

Quilt Details:

Started:  Feb. 2011

Finished:  Dec. 2022

Block size:  12" finished and 6" finished

Quilt size: 81-1/2" x 83-1/4" (top size before quilting, washing and drying: 85" x 86")

Batting:  Hobbs cotton/poly 80/20

Machine quilted by:  Kathy Wareham using Clam shell Feather by Christy Dillon of My Creative Stitches.  

I enjoy designing quilts and also making quilts from a pattern (usually with some kind of twist) and credit is given to the designer of those patterns.   That's it ..... I just love making quilts.  Not selling them, not going into pattern writing, etc.  That is way too much work.  Writing a tutorial takes a lot of time and effort and I no longer write those anymore.

I have seen some of my designs or part of my designs published by others.  Intentional?  Who knows.  I'm not going to send those folks threatening emails.   A few bloggers have approached me and asked permission to make and publish a pattern from one of my designs.  They were given permission and I have received a finished pattern as a 'thank you'.  I was happy for them.   As you probably have guessed, I'm a giving sort of person and not spiteful.  Life is too short.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

First UFO off the list!

I'm so happy that this UFO is done!  It nearly got finished at the begging of the new year ..... but I got sick again with another cold and then ..... gasp ..... I broke a front tooth!  Not a good beginning to the new year at all.  So, nothing was done to finish this UFO off until a few days ago as my comfy chair and TV called to me instead.

Not only do I have this top done, but there is a second one almost done too.  Just need to add borders.  That top is laying on the bench (at bottom of photo) and it is the same block but mostly different fabrics.  No photos yet.  These will be donation quilts.

So, a good and not so good beginning to the new year.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!