Canadian Northwind quilt

I've been working on some more blocks, for my Canadian Northwind quilt.  I sew them, a few here and there.  I am working my way through the sets that I made.

Now I have over 1/3 of the blocks done.  I think I calculated it at 36% complete.  I can get almost two blocks done during my fifteen minute break.  I get blocks done and relieve stress at the same time.  It's a win win situation.

I am liking the variety of reds & whites and how the different shades of red add texture.  It keeps it from being boring.

Aunt Bea's Parlor, Flower basket #3

This will be a short post today.  I am still working on the sleeves and labels for the quilts going into the show.  I won't bore you with pictures of that.  I now have only one quilt to bind and four more quilts to add the sleeves and make the labels.  

Instead, I will share with you a picture, of another block my daughter completed from the pattern Aunt Bea's Parlor.  They are so sweet.  With these blocks, my daughter is learning new embroidery stitches.
  

  

Converting a placemat pattern

After my post yesturday, speaking about using up orphaned blocks to make a NICU quilt, I realized that I was given this cardboard kit.  The kit is for a pretty placemat.  There is only the one, and I don't have these fabrics if I wanted to make more.  So it sat around for a bit.  Once I realized a purpose I pulled it out and started making it.  

I am going to make another NICU quilt.  This is a placemat, so it would be wider than it would be high, however once I add in some extra borders to the top and bottom, it will be square.  The aim is for it to finish at 25" X 25" square.

I don't have any details about this kit, other than it is called Heaven's Above.  The packaging did not share the source or the designer.  I wouldn't even know where to get another one, or even if they are still available.

Friday night I assembled half of the placemat.  All day Saturday, I was practicing on the longarm and trying to finish a queen size quilt, so did not work on this placemat.  I am thinking today, there may be some time, after I finish the queen size quilt (if I haven't under estimated the time required to finish it), to work on the second half of this placemat.  Later, I can figure out what to do about borders.

I am hoping for a productive day, as I still need to work on the quilts going into the show.

Have a great day everyone!

Crazy rainbow blocks quilt

After the night of the orange crazy block, I was hooked.  These little blocks are fun to make.  The next day during my break, I made a purple one and after grocery shopping and making dinner, I had time to make a blue one, green one and a red one.

The weather here is dreary with the overcast, so the colours in the picture are not true.  They are actually brighter than the picture shows.

The next evening I had time to make another blue and green block to finish the block units.  I cut some sashing and sewed two rows together.  The next day I finished the assembly.

This week has been busy with only little bits of time here and there, but it was still enough to get in my sewing fix and to complete this little NICU quilt.  

NICU quilts are used for the baby's incubators in the hospitals to shade the preemies from the harsh bright hospital lights.  They only measure 25" X 25".  This is a great way to use up scraps or any left over orphan blocks that might be lying around.  This would also be a great way to try out a pattern that you're not sure you want to commit to making a queen size quilt.  Any pillow patterns or placemat patterns work too, just add a few extra borders.

There is a need right now, so get those scraps and blocks out!  Let's fill that need.  It will make you feel good to help the cause.

What do you do when you're bored?

What do you do when you're bored?  Me?  I putter in my quilting room.  

When it is too late to do much productively and my eyes won't let me do handwork, I am usually on my tablet looking at others' quilts and quilting designs.  But today, I didn't want to waste time on my tablet.  I wanted to do something.

I really didn't want to read, didn't want to watch a movie, didn't want to do much of anything.  So what did I do at 9:00 pm today.......... I took out this large basket of scraps.  These are the really small scraps that are not long enough to be strings, chunks that are not big enough to cut squares out of, or pieces that are odd miscellaneous shapes from cutting out other stuff like appliqué. 

I have been wanting to take this out for a while now.  Ever since my Mom came to raid it, for the pastel colours, for her wedding ring quilt she is making.  I didn't know what I was doing really, just let myself pet the fabric with my mind blank.  Before I realized it, I was sorting out colours.  My brain knew what it wanted to do.  I just needed to let it take over and do it.

I started with orange, and moved on to blue, pink and purple, plus ended up with green and red too.  I had pretty little piles of colours on my sewing table and I was just getting started.  I could have gotten distracted the whole night with sorting, but I really only had an hour before turning in, so I pulled out my foundation of choice and tackled the orange pile.

My foundations are a little over 6" square.  I started in the middle with an odd shaped piece of fabric and kept adding pieces to it, until the whole square was full.  If the pieces where not long enough, I pieced another scrap to the end of it.  This way, that way, however they fit.  For this you have to go quickly, NO thinking allowed.  Otherwise you start trying to match and design.

My orange pile is not large, so I decided to use anything in the rust, orange, gold all the way to yellow.  Once I was done I trimmed the block down to 6" square.  I sub cut it into half, and half again, to end up with four 3" small squares.  When I twisted them around, I couldn't even tell that they all came from one larger block.  They look cute.  That is it for tonight.  All the time I have.

I am thinking of making them, whenever I get bored, or cannot decide what to do.  I will start off with my piles of rainbow colours and see where they take me.  Maybe I will use a neutral 1 1/2" finished sashing between them all.......not sure yet, but sewing them up in blocks gets me closer to using the scraps in an actual quilt.  No harm in that, and it keeps me out of trouble.

Oh......wait......that is trouble.  Look at that.....I just started yet another quilt.  Oh, my!  Don't tell my daughter!!! Lol

Working on my Canadian Northwind quilt

It has been a busy weekend with family, but in the morning I got to work on the Northwind blocks and between them making the sub units for the Xmas Solstice quilt.  Still too many blocks to start getting excited.  Bit by bit it will get done.

Non-quilting related.   I took a picture of a rose from a cutting, my mother and I took, last year just before she moved, from her old home garden.  I was surprised to see a bloom on it this year already.  This is an old fashion tea rose and unlike some of the newer variety, this one has a scent.

I also took a picture of some bee balm in my garden.  I like this plant, as the flowers are unusual comparison to other plants.  This one is a purple almost turning magenta.  There are many other colours available too.  I think I will move a clump of these, to another part of the garden and spread them around.  My garden is still a work in progress.  The hardest part right now is keeping the dog out of it.

Happy quilting everyone.

What is under my needle today

This is what is under my needle today.  It's my Mom's Rick Rack Nines, a pattern from Bonnie Hunter's Adventures with Leaders and Enders book.

Actually, it has been under my needle now for the past week, as I haven't had a chance to touch it all week.  I have two passes done and one quarter of the third pass started, with five more passes to do after that.  So I am not really that close to being done on it, but when I was working on it, it was going well.

I am practicing this simple curve variation for all the small blocks, which makes a secondary design of a pinwheel type star.  At this point I am getting very consistent with my curves and hitting my points.  In the larger white blocks I am practicing ruler work with these echoing diamond shapes.

It takes some time to get everything down pat, but at this point I have also learnt how to start on the left side and make my way, all the way, across the quilt and back in one pass.  It only took me two full passes to learn it, but hay, I did learn it.

Learning to quilt on the longarm is practice, practice and more practice, to learn how to move fluently and efficiently with the least amount of stops and starts.  I can honestly tell you that, this has been a very big learning curve for me, from quilting on my domestic machine.

I have to do some work at my Mom's place tomorrow and a kid's birthday party on Sunday, but still hoping to get a bit more done on this quilt between.  My daughter gave me a suggestion for the final border that I am getting excited to try.

Most of my customers, family and friends are thus far more the traditional quilt makers, who prefer traditional quilting designs to go with their quilts.  Well, last month some time, I ordered a specialty ruler that is supposed to help make the Baptist fan quilting design, easier and quicker, the traditional way and without the spaces you usually get when using a pantograph.

I can't wait to try it!

Monkeying around again in miniature

Monkeying around again in miniature.  I tell you, I should have been jumping all over the furniture, dangling my arms and making noises like a monkey.  I think this beats the cakes.  I think I have gone around the bend.  Do you see that block below?  It measures 3" square!  And will finish in a quilt at 2 1/2"!!  To help you put the picture in perspective, that means the middle row and column are squares that finish at 1/2" square (approx. the size of my thumb nail).  I've gone rangy I tell you......but it was so much fun!!!

I like to challenge myself sometimes.  I took this one slow, so that all the points would meet spot on.  I enjoyed it so much, I had to make a few more.  These are so sweet!  The picture does not do them justice.  

Maybe this picture will help, with helping people realize just how small these miniature monkey wrench blocks are.  Here they are beneath the original monkey wrench blocks.  The original blocks will finish at 5" square.

I made the mini blocks because I have an idea...... Per my daughter, it's not a good thing, but I think differently......and I'm not telling.....  It may be a long time before I share my idea, but I think it will be great!  

Stay tuned.....

Finished the borders on the Purple Stars quilt

Last week, I had some time to finish my borders on the purple stars quilt.  This one is now waiting to be quilted.  This quilt is also going to be in the show this coming October.  Nothing like leaving it to the last minute.  This quilt is going to display my custom quilting, so it really needs to be quilting to show.

  

Last week, I posted about my pineapple blossom block using Christmas material.  Do you remember?  The grey was too dark and blended in with the Christmas fabric, so I tried the white instead.  The white was good for contrast.  So, why did I do another one with gold?  Well, I liked the white, but I was looking for a warmer feel.  I wanted contrast but with a softer look.  I thing the gold will do it.

Now I can move forward with this quilt.  These two quilts are on my top 12 priority list.  I am not sure if I will be able to finish the Christmas quilt, but it will advance further from now until the end of the year when I see how successful I was with the list.

Wish me luck!

Finished the claw units for Brown Bear Paws quilt

Today has been a very good quilty day.  I started this morning by completing the binding for the green spiderweb quilt, which is going into the show.  After lunch, I worked on these half square triangles. These are the claw parts for the bear paw blocks.

I started sewing them a while back as leader/enders.  Now I tired of seeing them on my ironing board, beside my machine, so I decided they needed to be done.

I had them grouped in sets of four with the solid corner block cut out ready to be used, when these were sewn into pairs.  In the basket below, are all the completed units, or as far as I can take them for now.

Once I finish the scrappy strip blocks, I just need to grab a bundle and attach them to finish the block. This is not on my list of priority, so I put it away.  I am glad though that they are completed this far.

Next post I will show you what else I have been working on today.  As I said earlier, it has been a very good quilty day today.  I am thinking of taking a break now.  It will be my turn at doggy duty soon and I need to clean up the mess the kids have created.

Enjoy the remainder of the day!

Finished quilting a quilt made by my daughter

Here is my daughter's quilt.  She plans to give this quilt away.  Her request for the quilting was "whatever".  She is usually picky about this sort of thing, but this time she gave me free license to do what I wanted.  Because of it I was stumped as to how to quilt it, so it sat around for a while.  

From time to time, I would make suggestions to see what she preferred, but she gave me no clues, and each time I would get the same response "whatever".  I was kind of afraid I would mess it up on her.  In the end, I figured I would try different quilting methods.  She liked what I did........what a relief!

I practiced some ruler work while I stitched in the ditch everywhere.  The one thing I know, about what my daughter likes, is that she likes the clean crisp look of stitch in the ditch.  It helped to make the individual nine patch blocks puff up.  I used a curved ruler to practice the curve grid along the perimeter solid blocks.  I ran this design into the first border.

For the centre solid blocks I chose to practice placement with the quilt path.  I learned quickly how to place the motif.  The butterfly motif is an up and down design, so I learned to place it on a diagonal facing right and facing left.  It is weird how the placement markers distort the motif until you have them all placed.  I still have a lot to learn about the quilt path, but I do learn a bit each time I use it.

For the first border I did some free motion quilting with a dense squiggle between the curved design.  While doing this, I learned as well, how to travel in the ditch to my next section, without cutting the thread.  Lastly, on the final border, I used the lines of the fabric my daughter chose.  Every red line got quilted, in a straight line, with the help of my ruler.  Here again, I traveled in the ditch to the next section, without stopping.  

This was a simple quilt, but I learned quite a lot.  I am happy with the results.  The quilt turned out nice,  and my daughter likes it too!  One more quilt off the list of my top 12 priority list for 2017.

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

9. Quilting-Purple star quilt (my own)....

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

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

5. Handwork-Reconstructed Dresden plate quilt (my own)....only 6 blocks left to appliqué

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

8. Leader/ender-Bonnie's mystery quilt (my own)....Alternate block left to do

Total number of quilts completed - 6
Total number of quilts left to be completed - 6

Completed quilts:

3. Spools quilt (my own)

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

11. Log cabin quilt from Sharon (charity) 

7. Mini pumpkin wall hanging (my own)

1. Lise's Dresden plate quilt (commissioned) 

2. Sabryna's yellow nine patch quilt (family)

Playing around with a new to me grid design

I bought this panel many years ago on sale, but put it away, as I didn't know what I wanted to do with it.  I took it out for a practice piece.  I saw this design on YouTube through Tracey from Whirls and Swirls quilting.  This is one of her grid designs.

I thought it was very pretty and feminine looking.  When the design is done there is a secondary design that is created when the two sides meet.  Above and below are pictures of the blocks.  As you can see I still need to practice it, but I think it is pretty good for my first go round of this design.

Here is the panel.  It is simple, and good for practicing.  In the alternate blocks I outlined the roses and did stippling around it, all while going from left to right and back again without rethreading.

Movement is starting to come easier for me, granted I still need to practice, practice, practice, if I am to get as good on the longarm as I am on the domestic machine.  Slowly but surely it will come.

Now I have to load up my mom's quilt that she gave me to practice on.

Christmas in July

A little while back, I thought I would get a few blocks done of the Xmas pineapple blossom quilt.  All the fabrics were going to be Christmas fabrics.  People have been giving me bits and pieces of fabric and I have a collection, in anticipation of making myself a Christmas quilt.

September last year my mother and I went on a shop hop for my birthday.  While we were shopping, there was a shop that had their Christmas fabric on sale for 30% off.  Not that I was really looking, because as I said, I have a collection already, but I needed a background fabric or a main fabric to tie everything together.  

While there I found the grey fabric on the right block below.  At the same time I bought some "new" Christmas colour fabrics.  They were lighter, like pink with red and white snowflakes or teal with multi coloured ornaments, etc.  The grey looked great with them.........at the time.

I forgot though that the majority of the Christmas fabric I have is more traditional, so next to the grey, they just did not stand out.  The colours were washed out.  They were lost.  There was not enough contrast, as they were all of the same value.

It was a bit discouraging, as I was very excited to finally get started on my Christmas quilt, but I did not like this one block I did, so I put everything away.  

As time went on, I kept going through different options.  Trying to figure out what I wanted to do.  In the end I went with white.  Not just a plan solid white.  The fabrics are white on white and they all have snowflakes.  Different snowflakes.  

These are the leftover fabrics from when my daughter was making her snowman quilt.  I bought her many different kinds of white background fabric with snowflakes.  She is finished her blocks, so what is left is all mine.  They're not large pieces, but there are many, so I should have enough.

I made two blocks so far.  I like the contrast much better, even the lighter "new" Christmas coloured fabrics is going to look good with the white.  You may not see the different snowflakes in the pictures above, but in person you see the variety.

This is a quilt that is on my top 12 priority quilts.  Now there is a chance that I may be able to get it done, though I am not holding my breathe. There are just too many interruptions lately and I am starting to feel that I am falling behind.  I will still make an effort and hopefully still make a large dent in what I have on my list.  The list was made to keep me focused, and it does.  So far this year I have been very successful in completing many quilts.  That makes me happy.

Christmas in July.  It is a bit weird working on Christmas fabric when it is beautiful, hot and sunny outside.

Enjoy!

Working on some labels

I am making some progress,  yesturday I finished making the label for the My Flower Garden quilt and I attached the label to the quilt.  This one now only needs the sleeve attached.

This morning after relaxing with my tea, I got the next label out to work on.  This one is for the Scrappy Log Cabin quilt.  This label was a small one, so I finished it this morning.  Once I attach the label to the quilt, I will finish the outline stitches.

Non quilt related. Yesturday while making a BBQ, I noticed my mini hydrangea bush was blooming.  This bush gets only 1 1/2' tall when full grown.  Right now it is just less the 1'.  It is so small it is cute and the flowers are large in comparison.  The pink looks good beside the red of the neighbouring flowers.

Enjoy the last day of a long weekend!  Beautiful sunshine.