I am on a roll with my Xmas/Solstice star quilt

I am on a roll here with a lot of progress happening on my Xmas/Solstice star quilt.  Here are a couple of piles with the units in sets, everything needed to complete the whole block.

In this next picture, I have these units that are also matched up with their block parts.  The difference here though is that I still need to make the four neutral units per block, but I am getting there.

I also took out some parts to assemble another unit that is used in the alternating blocks, to the one above.  This is the first time making this type of unit.  It wasn't all that bad to make.  I have all the red and yellow half square triangles ready and waiting to be assembled into this larger unit.

Lastly, check out the three blocks sewn together on the design wall.  Obviously it is still difficult to make out the quilt design/pattern, so you will just have to trust me on this one.  It will be gorgeous!

When the blocks are all together you get a secondary design, where the two blocks meet, and the affect looks like circles or curves going across the quilt.  It kind of reminds me of a kaleidoscope.

I am happy that a lot of progress is happening on this one.  I started it in Mar/2014, and I want to see this one done.  I also want to see it done so I can have a Christmas quilt on my bed this coming Christmas.  What are the chances?  

Well.....I like a good challenge!  I am game.....stay tuned.

Finished a small Log cabin quilt

A friend started some log cabin blocks.  I think they may have been the remaining pieces from another log cabin quilt she made.  She didn't feel like finishing these ones, so gave me three that were done and some left over fabric to make some more.

Friday morning while waiting for my mom to arrive, I started making the remaining log cabins.  Mom and I had a day filled with shopping for her new bedroom set.  By the time we pulled back into the driveway it was 5:30 pm.  I was exhausted!  My mom had to go out for about an hour, so I decided to relax in my quilting room to finish the log cabin blocks.  When I finished, there were a total of fourteen blocks.

They were put aside until today, as I needed to finish some renovations in the livingroom on Saturday.  I have the whole ceiling perimeter addition plastered, so things will be at a stand still until it all dries.  I'm not complaining though, because now I can take the time to play in my quilt room, without guilt!  I earned it!!!

After lunch I started making this quilt.  I used ten blocks and a piece of yardage to made a simple quilt.  The quilt will be good for a toddler.  It measures approx. 40" X 54".  

Below is how I quilted it.  I used an edge to edge design that came with my Quilt Path.  Now all I have to do is trim it down and bind it.  I am going to bind it with the solid blue fabric that was used for one of the horizontal strips.  I think it turned out cute.

**Progress on my top 12 list for 2017**  

1. Quilting-Lise's Dresden plate quilt (commissioned)....need to baste the quilt

2. Quilting-Sabryna's yellow nine patch quilt (family)....waiting on the longarm 

4. Main work-Mel's romance & roses quilt (family)....

9. Main work-Purple star quilt (my own)....sewing up the blocks 

10. Main work-Grey, black & bright quilt (charity)....

5. Handwork-Reconstructed Dresden plate quilt (my own)....9 full blocks left to appliqué
7. Handwork-Mini pumpkin wall hanging (my own)....started hand stitching

6. Paper pieces-Xmas pineapple blossom quilt (my own)....

8. Leader/ender-Bonnie's mystery quilt (my own)....moving along nicely

Total number of quilts completed - 3
Total number of quilts left to be completed - 9

Completed quilts:

3. Spools quilt (my own)

12. Purple & blue squares quilt from Carol (charity)

11. Log cabin quilt from Sharon (charity)

Quilting ideas for a couple of quilts stirring in my head

I have been stuck in ideas on how to quilt my cousin's Dresden plate quilt.  They can be done in so many ways, that it is hard to choose only one of them.  But I think I have it now.   I have a design that I think is pretty and leaves the centre empty to accommodate the purple cornerstone on the quilt.

This design is a cross of three different designs that I have seen in the past and one design that I've used on another quilt.  The design that I used had more loops than bulbs, but essentially the design has the same kind of form or layout.  The centre square on the page is where the cornerstone and Dresden plate are on the quilt.  Do you like it?

I've also been stuck on ideas for my daughter's quilt.  The quilt is made up of nine patches separated by plain solid blocks.  It resembles a single Irish chain quilt.  I am stuck, or have a block, with the nine patches.  I just cannot come up with any ideas on how to quilt them differently.

Generally, people do an X in the nine patches or straight lines across the quilt, through the nine patches.  But I am tired of that and doing the same thing, over and over.  I have been looking to see what others are doing to quilt nine patches, but from what I have found so far it is all the same.

The latest design idea I have is doing these, kind of half leaf designs, along each edge.  Even the outer edges of the nine patch.  I can afford the design going into the solid space, because I intend to quilt a simple butterfly in them.  I can adjust the size however I want for them.

Anyways, I am not a 100% sold on this idea, so I will just keep it on the back burner for now.  My daughter likes the design and would be fine with it.....but I still want to wait.  Eventually.....something will come to me or this design will grow on me.  We will see.

Maybe I need to do the quilting on a practice piece to see how it will look in person.  Sometimes
designs look completely different in person, than in 3D.  That may be what I will do.

Look what I made

I am tickled that I made something that helps me keep my tools at hand while quilting on my longarm machine.  These are regular household items put together to make a tray, that spans the wide of the bars.

I used 2 curtain rods to hook up to the bars and attached a plastic tray to it.  I took a page from the every mans cure to fixing everything.......I used duct tape..... LOL.  As the tray was clear plastic, I decided to put a piece of wrapping paper in the bottom.  I just used a silver paper, but if you wanted something fancier or more pretty, you could use any kind of decorative paper.  

It works great and was inexpensive to make!  It really helps to keep everything at hand.  I no longer waste time looking for things.  FYI, I did clean it up for a photo. Lol!  By the time I am done a quilt, it is stacked with tools and things.  What do you ink?

On another note, look at these pretty colours.  Aren't they gorgeous? 

With everything that I have to do, I am still itching to start yet another quilt.  Do you remember at Christmas time, when my daughter bought me some floss, for part of my present?  This is the thick #5 Cotton Perles DMC floss.  This is the stuff that I will use to make the fancy stitches that are used to decorate a crazy quilt.

Today while at Michaels, I picked up the last two, the cream and soft yellow.  I can't wait to get into this quilt.   But.... I have to hold myself off just a little bit longer.  I want to get to a certain point before starting this one.  I want to be able to enjoy it....guilt free!  Until that time, I will continue to enjoy looking at the colours and petting the floss.

Canadian Northwind quilt started

I finally started sewing the blocks for my Canadian Northwind quilt.  This is my quilt to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday.  I have been collecting various red on white fabrics and white on red fabrics for a long time.  I have reds that are bright Christmas reds to deep burgundy and my whites are bright sparkling white to creams.  I love the variety.  It makes the blocks interesting.

The patterns on the fabric varies a lot too.  There are polka dots, circles, strips, plaids, flowers, stars, hearts and many, many other motifs. I just love love it!  I am glad I have a legitimate excuse to finally start this red and white quilt.  I am trying to reduce my list of quilts on my list, but.....oh well....

While I am making these Northwind blocks I am working on my leader/ender.  I am really moving along on these.  For each block I get four 4-patches completed.  I now have 150 blocks made. This is great!  I am going to get this quilt done with little effort.

I have to take I break from this for a few days.  I have to get back to some renovations this week, while I have the extra hands to help me.  I am working on my living room now and currently working on the ceiling.  I am adding 2' wide bulk heads with pot lights around the perimeter of the room.  I am sure I will sneak in a few minutes here and there, but mainly it will be renos.

Hoping everyone will take some time this weekend with family, to celebrate family day, this Monday.

Purple star blocks progress

I am making some progress on my purple stars quilt.  I've had a productive couple of days with these and other things.  I like watching each of these stars come together.  These three blocks are blocks number 2, 3, & 4.  I haven't put the black sashing and green corner stone on yet.  For that I need to cut up more fabric and I was more in the mood to sew than cut.

This next star block is part of a memory for me.  The purple fabric, is the border fabric my daughter used, for her very first grown-up quilt, that she made for her own bed.  Every time I look at this block I am reminded of her.

This next block is also a memory block.  This purple fabric comes from a friend of mine, from our Bee group.  She gave me this purple fabric amongst other bits and pieces of fabric and fat quarters.  

There is a story to this quilt and why I started it in Dec/2012, but still have not finished it.  Yes, you read that correctly, 2012.  I started the quilt and was enjoying making it, until I came across the perfect fabric to use as a border.  I loved the border fabric and thought it would be great for this quilt.  It was spunky with its cloudy black background and multi purple daisy type flowers on it.  It was more of a younger fabric, not too serious, and I wanted it for this quilt.

By the time I got home from that particular road trip, I had already designed the entire quilt around this one border fabric.  Well........imagine my shock, when I get home and put it up on the design wall with my blocks that were already made, and find out that the border fabric does not play nicely with the blocks.

I was so set on having this border and was upset that I couldn't use it, that I completely lost interest in this quilt and the blocks.  For a few more months I tried to find another border to go with the blocks, but they were all flat looking.  I wanted animated.

By this time, I had all the corner blocks of neutral and apple green done, but that is where it stayed.  I could not muster up any enthusiasm to go forward with is quilt.......until...... Carol gave me this piece of fabric.  This fabric was the missing link to the border.

I realized at that moment, why I did not like the border with the blocks.  The blocks I had made were more along the blue purple and some of them were so light they were washed out.  This purple is more spunky, like some of the flowers in the border fabric.  This purple is more of a red purple and is more animated.

So, I pulled out all the pieces of the quilt.  I kept the bluish blocks that were made there, but started adding in this fabric and some others heading in the red purple direction and colours in between. What a difference!!!

My enthusiasm for this quilt was renewed!  With this one piece of fabric.  My original design plan is now back up and running.  This quilt will be prim and proper with it's fancy coordinated straight lined stars lining up across the quilt, but it will also have a bit of spunk and animation, with the multi coloured variety of purples.  This fabric is my zinger in the quilt.

Thanks, Carol!

My Mom's Texas Braid quilt

This was under my needle yesturday.  By the time I remembered to take a picture, I was halfway through the last row of quilting.  This is my Mom's quilt.  This is Mom's first longarm quilted quilt.

She borrowed one of my quilt books from Bonnie Hunter to make this quilt called Texas Braid.  Mom is on a mission to use up as many of her scraps as she can.  She is doing a great job of it, as this quilt is one of many she has made.  Unfortunately, even this quilt barely made a dent in her scrap stash.  I swear the scraps bred at night while we're not looking. Lol

In any case I think she is having fun trying to find patterns that will make the most of her scrap stash. Yesturday while she was here she found another pattern.  This new one will use up her larger broadcloth pieces.

This Texas Braid quilt was a good use of darks and lights in equal portions and the strips came from her already cut out 2" strips.  She only had to cut the strips to length according to the pattern.  Everything came from her stash, except for the red fabric used for the squares and the border fabric.

Here I took a picture of the backing as it is easier to see the actual quilting.  The lighting was a bit too over exposed, that the colour of the backing is not true.  The true colour of the backing is in the first picture where the quilt is rolled up on the take up bar.  Even with the over exposure, I think you can see the quilting well enough.

Today I am taking it easy and will be puttering in my quilt room, doing a bit of this and that.  I will be working on whatever hits my fancy at the time.

Enjoy you day everyone.

More of this and that

I have been doing a bit of this and a bit of that.  I feel like I am constantly running, but also feel like l am just running in the one spot.  I really wanted to sit and sew, but didn't have time to get into much.  I was able to get all my twosomes done.  These are the parts for my four patches, for my Christmas Solicits quilt.  Green and red.  I have them sorted to sew them into four patches. 

Between things, during some stolen moments, I have been dwindling my scrap basket.  I try to keep a handle on this basket, but one thing leads to another and before I notice it, I have a heap to deal with.  Yesturday, I saw the bottom of the basket.

I saw the bottom, as I ironed all the pieces.  This is what remains of the contents of the basket.  I have to decide what to trim the pieces down to and get cracking on it.  Shouldn't take me too long...just need to find the spare time. 

Tomorrow is another day...

Finished the Grandpa's Star quilt

I finished quilting the Grandpa's Star quilt last night.  This Grandpa's star block comes from Bonnie Hunter's blocks that she did for Quiltmaker magazine, in her Addicted to Scraps column from March/April '12 issue.  You can find all of her blocks from her column on her Quiltville blog.

I set my blocks on a diagonal and separated them by another sashing with cornerstones.  To tame down the scraps a bit, I used the same sashing colour within each block and I chose another colour for the outer sashings and repeated the colour of the cornerstone.

The borders were quilted with back and forth lines all the way along each border.  Here is a close up of the quilting on the borders.  This is a great way to quilt out and distribute any fullness that may be present in the borders.  This affect also looks really good on modern quilts too and is an easy pattern to execute freehand.  The small border which is only 1" wide, I just did a wavy line.

This quilt was a practice piece for me.  I was practicing my long arm quilting skills.  The skills that I was practicing were placement of block and triangle pattern/designs, specifically with using the Quilt Path, and  going from Quilt Path to manual for the sashings.

At first I left the borders incomplete as I initially didn't know how I wanted to quilt them.  I have to still figure out how one quilts the top border and moves to the sides as you advance the quilt, with intricate designs.  I had about three quarters of the quilt quilted when the idea for the borders came to me.  So when I finished the centre of the quilt, I rolled my quilt back up and went back to quilt the borders (this was done without taking the quilt off the frame).

For those who debate whether they should or shouldn't float your tops on a longarm, well if I was not floating my top, I would not have been able to just reverse the quilt in the middle.  I would not have been able to go back to finish quilting the top section, work my way back down the side borders and continue where I left off.

Just a note for those who want to try it.  There are many YouTube videos out there on how to do this.  When it comes to going backwards, there is no difference with how you roll your quilt up or down, but I just take extra care that my backing is still smooth underneath with every advance (up or down).  I don't want any surprises when I am done, so I take the extra care, as I am doing it this way.

Above is a close up picture of a pattern I use directly from the Quilt Path files.  It worked out really well for my side triangles.  I learned that the trick to good placement, lies in the precision you take when you mark your position.  It also helps if the blocks are square to begin with too! Lol.

I think I have the hang of it.  It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

This next picture is of the backing.  My quilt is bigger than the fabric width of 42", so this is what I did to make the backing bigger.  The strips on the back are from left over pieces of borders that I used.  I kind of like the fact that the backing is not just plain and it coordinates with the front.

Sorry for the long post, but one more note about what I learned.  Not sure If you noted the beige fabric on the bottom end of the quilt backing. The reason that is there, is I initially was going to quilt this quilt on my domestic sewing machine, so I didn't have the 4-5" of extra backing fabrics needed when your quilting on a longarm.  

To solve that problem, I sewed a piece of left over backing, from another quilt, to the top and bottom edges of my already made backing.  This way, at the top, I had the extra inches that you loose in quilting area, the section that gets attached to the leader and goes under the take up bar. Likewise for the bottom, I had the assurance that when I got down to the bottom, I would not loose any quilting area of the backing when I got there.  

It worked out well, even with the shrinkage I had enough backing with 2" to spare.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone, I am off to finish off some renovations at my Mom's place, so no quilting for me today.