Hexagon quilt

I took out all the pieces for my hexagon quilt.  I haven't seen them for a while and I have been wanting to sort out the different fabrics and colours.  Making sure I had a good mix distributed across the quilt.  The centre of the quilt and the last border alone, take 2042 hexagons, not including the white sashings or yellow centres.

I had some waiting in the car time, when I had to pick up my daughter, so the first thing I thought of was, finally I get to put a few stitches into my hexagon quilt.  I usually only get to work on it while waiting in the car or doctors offices.  Thank goodness the latter was not necessary.

When I got home though I just could not stop there.  I attached a couple of floret units together.  The little corner unit, for the start of the centre, got added to them.  By the time I finished this it was time to head to bed, however I could not stop thinking about sorting the fabrics.

I now have that done too.  I sorted everything out, and piled them into groups.  They are pinned into groups of parts, to complete the different sections of borders, diamonds and side pieces.  Everything fits nicely in this container I had on hand.

The cottage trip for our family reunion was great.  Always nice to see those that we haven't seen for a whole year.  Even our four legged family members had fun.  Maddie had the run of the island, except for the neighbours on the right of the cottage.  Wouldn't you know, that is where she always wanted to go.  Here she is laying in the sun on the porch.  This was something seldom seen, as she was mostly none stop running, everywhere.

Now that summer is coming to a close, my son is at orientation at school, my daughter is still working waiting for school to start back up, and I have to really crack down on getting everything ready for the quilt show.  I just received my rulers in the mail, so I am ready to get back to quilting the purple stars quilt.  I have only September and part of October to get everything done.

Enjoy the last few days before school is back, and traffic increases.

Progress on my Argyle quilt

I have been making some progress on my Argyle quilt.  I now have all the blocks, corners and side pieces done.  All I have left to do is assemble the top and add borders.

I think it looks good so far.

I've also been working on binding, labels, bits and pieces here and there, and adding the additional backing to the purple quilt, so that I can get that one finished.

Noting much to show you but a lot of progress happening in everything.

This weekend we are off to a family reunion at the cottage, so I won't be posting again until the earliest Monday.

Enjoy you weekend everyone and keep safe.

Appliqué at our Quilting Bee meeting

Last Wednesday was our quilting bee meeting.  Everyone working on their own thing.  I brought one of the quilt labels I am working on.  Another friend brought her hexagon quilt pieces.  She is in the process of attaching the fabric to the papers.

This post is for one of the ladies/Carol, who brought her appliqué blocks in.  The lighting in the room was not very good for taking picture.  Everything has turned out yellow and washed out.  Each of these blocks is white and the colours are a bit brighter.

I am saving the block above as a possibility for an appliqué quilt that I am making.  I am short of three or four block layouts.  So, as I come across a layout that I like I will save it.  When it comes time to finish the quilt, I can look them over and make a final decision.

This next one is only partially set up.  There are pencil marks to show the rest of the layout, however the picture did not pick them up.

I am so ready to pull out my appliqué blocks and make some progress on them, but I can't do it just yet.  Instead, I took out the container of blocks and admired them for a little bit.  Most of the blocks are started with the bias stem pieces and the bias baskets as well.

I started this quilt many years ago.  This is the one I started, when I didn't know how to appliqué yet.  I was obviously aiming high when I set about to make this quilt.  I liked it so much, I didn't want to ruin it with my inexperience, that after I finished the easy stuff (ie the bias stems), I put it away.

I have since made smaller pieces and I now have confidence that I can do this quilt justice.  The problem now is lack of time and too many projects on the go.  This still needs to take a back seat.  Though one of these days, there is no telling when, I will just break down and do one.  They are so pretty.

Every time Carol brings in an appliqué project, I get the fever.  Handwork wise, I have to finish the Dresden plate blocks first......

Colourful reversible quilt

Why is it, that our four legged family members always gravitate to the quilts we are working on.  She doesn't even care that there are pins in the rows to mark them.

I was sitting there at my machine talking to my daughter who is sitting across the table in the comfy chair and this little girls comes and just plops herself in the middle of my work.  By the time I got my iPod out to take the picture she partially sat up, arms spread out to say, "you are not getting any of these rows". Lol.

Our little girl wanted some loving and attention.

This morning, while it was not my doggy duty time, I was working on getting these rows together.  All seven rows are now together and once I post this post, I will work on assembling the rows together.  

As this is a reversible quilt, the blocks were assembled as a "quilt as you go".  That means once the rows are together, this quilt will be complete.  Aside from the binding that is.

I am really making some progress on my list of quilts.  Even though I started some, I still have less now than when I started.  Yay!

Have a great day everyone.

My argyle quilt

I designed this quilt back in January/2016.  I collected the fabrics and packed them all away.  There it sat for a while.  Later on, maybe 6 months or more, I realized that I needed some of these bright colours for another quilt.

At that point, I decided that I needed to figure out how much fabric I needed, and start cutting out the strips.  So, I did that and kitted up the bright coloured fabrics.  And.......there it sat for another while.

At the tail end of 2016, when I was making my priority list for 2017, I decided I really wanted to see one of my own designs come to life.  This quilt was one of the twelve quilts to be completed.

Initially I named it Grey, black & bright quilt.  I know, I know, how boring, but at the time I real did not know what to call it.  Just now when I uploaded the picture here to post about it, it struck me, just how much the quilt looked like an argyle sock or sweater.  So, I have changed the name to Argyle quilt.

I worked on this Saturday morning.  I am about half way done.  Do you like it so far?  I do!

That was all the time I had that day to work on it, because in the afternoon, we headed Northwest to Maddie's breeder, for a Vizsla family reunion.  What fun the dogs had.

They were constantly running, chasing each other, jumping in the water or hopping through the fields of tall hay.  It was very funny, the hopping part.  They looked like bunnies, hop, hop, hop. Lol

All these dogs are from the same breeder, but with different parentage.  Maddie's litter had six dogs born.  Two were males and four females.  Of Maddie's litter, only one other sibling was there to celebrate.  In the picture below, is Maddie's brother, Tucker.  They were horsing around for a while, joining the other dogs, and playing some more.  I think they had a blast.

Not only the dogs enjoyed themselves, the owners had a nice time socializing and watching the dogs interact with each other.  I am already looking forward to next year, when they have their next reunion.

Finished the Beach ball quilt, in memory of my Aunt Alice

A while back I received some fabrics that belonged to my Aunt Alice.  Her daughter gave it to me, as she knew I made charity quilts and thought I could use up the fabric for a good cause.  

My Aunt used to make fabric covered albums for each of her grandchildren and some of the now older nieces and nephews.  She had a variety of themed fabric and a lot that were cut up in small pieces, like she were going to use the "picture" to applique.  Very much like fussy cutting a portion of the fabric.  

Outside of a red polka dot fabric, some solids and a black background fabric with carousel horses on it, all the fabrics were for a very young audience.  With ABCs, alligators, lions, bears, and the like.  Other than the majority of the fabrics having a white background, there was nothing else in common that I could pull together to make everything work together and play nicely.

So.....I thought, first let's use up the small pieces.  They are usually the most difficult to come up with ideas for.  Instead of trying to highlight each fabric design, I put everything in together, cut the motifs into smaller strips and did foundation piecing.  

This block is an oldie.  It is traditionally call a snowball block, however as my Aunt lived near a beach that we went to often, I decided to call this quilt Beach Ball.  

Here is the finished NICU quilt top.  In order to tie everything together, in each block I made sure there was a black piece and a red polka dot fabric, otherwise anything when in it.  For the corners I used one of my Aunts solid blue fabrics.  I was able to finish this in a few hours.  I am thinking it turn out pretty good, for a bunch of mismatch themed fabrics.

  

Yesturday, after I finished what I could on my Purple Stars quilt, I loaded up this one.  I wanted to try a new to me quilting design.  The design is inspired by Angela Walters.  This is her free motion Flower Meander design.  It's gorgeous!  I really love the texture the petals make on the quilt.

Here is a look at the back.  I did mine in a bigger scale.  Trying to keep the petals consistent is harder than it looks, but man was this design fun to do.  I enjoyed doing it so much, that I am trying to think of what I can use it on next.  Like anything else in learning to quilt, I need to practice, practice and practice some more.

To my Aunt Alice.  You are very much missed.

Update on the Purple Stars quilt

Yesturday, I was making headway on my Purple Stars quilt.  I had the day to work on it.  Things we're going along smoothly.  With every block, my free motion quilting is improving.  Yay!  Here is a picture of the ribbon design I am using on the star points.  I am liking all that I have done so far.

I have only one more row to quilt.  Yay!!!  I am cheering myself on, while listening to a romance audiobook on my iPod.  I am seeing the end of the tunnel.  I roll up the quilt and thought to myself wooh, nothing like cutting it close for the batting.............

 *#%^{*}^#%#^{*|+[^{^=+*^%. That was before I notice where the leader clip was.  I just wanted to cry.  I am 6" short on the backing.  How did this happen?  This was a pre-packaged backing that was 108" X 108" and my quilt is not.  I should have had more than enough backing!  Did they cut it wrong?  Has anyone else had this problem?  

What a set back............  So this morning after a late night movie to take my mind off of this mess and a good nights sleep, I am geared up to go.  I will just deal with this.  It is not the end of the world.  I can do this!  I will finish the last row, take the quilt off the frame, add fabric to extend the backing, and wait for my large curved ruler to arrive, so I can re-load the quilt to do up the final border.

I should never have assumed it was the right size (measure twice theory).  Looking on the bright side.....learning how to handle adding pieces to a partially quilted quilt, and learning how to reload a quilt after it has been mostly quilted, is good......lol.

There is always a bright side, if you look hard enough......if you don't find it, make it up.  Lol. So long as you deal with it and don't give up.

Forest green quilt top complete

A few days ago I needed to do a small quilt, to get something done.  I needed the satisfaction of having something accomplished.  I have been quilting all day and though it is coming along, it will still be some time before I can call it complete.

So....I pulled out a box that contained the squares to do this forest green quilt.  It is not much, but it is a finish.  At least to the quilting stage.

Someone give this to me to complete.  However, due to the poor workmanship, I had to take it all apart and recut the blocks to re-sew them back again.  I have a backing already.  Now it has to wait it's turn to be quilted along with three other small NICU quilts.  Wonder what quilting design I can practice on this on?

Now that I also cleared that off the design wall, I can get back to figuring out what to do with my 150th Canada birthday fabric.  I want to design a horizontal panel to be used as part of a backing, for my Canadian Northwind quilt.

But.........today, I have some work to do.  I have to get back to plastering the ceiling in the livingroom.  Fun, wow.....NOT!!

This is what is under my needle

I am working on my purple stars quilt.  I am trying to get this one ready for the show.  I loaded the quilt on Sunday and managed to get one and a half rows done, of a total of six rows.

I am using a 60 weight thread in a cream colour, so that I do not have to change out the thread with each colour in the blocks.  This colour will blend well with all the colours.  In the purple sections, depending on how light the purple is, you will barely see the quilting.   This way you will see the texture of the quilting, but the quilt pattern itself will be the focal point. 

In the purple star points, I quilted two ends of a twirly ribbon.

In the middle of the star, on the deeper green, I did a double half moon all the way around the block along each corner.

Not shown in the post is the corner unit of the star block, which is the chain for light green that goes from corner to corner.  In them, I did a loop chain, and in the cream colour background fabric I did loop-da-loop, also known as a cursive letter l or e depending on size.

It is coming along well.   Hopefully before long I will have it done and ready for binding and a label.

Finished quilting my Mom's Rick Rack Nines

I almost forgot to post about my finish from last weekend.  I finished quilting my Mom's Rick Rack Nines quilt from Bonnie Hunter's book, Adventures with Leaders and Enders.  My mom is still trying to use up all of her scraps, that she has from making clothing and household items.  She has since started making quilts and accumulating more fabrics from borders backings and bindings.

My mom saw how quickly I can get quilts put together when I go into my pre cut fabrics, similar to what Bonnie does, but with the sizes that work best for me and the types of quilts I make.  So, one day she decided to go through some of her fabrics, to cut pieces for her Texas Braid quilt, another one of Bonnie's patterns.  For that pattern you start out with 2" strips.  While doing it, I told her if she only had a little piece of the strip left, to cut it up into squares and put them aside.

She thought, ok, I can do that.  So she cut and cut and cut some more.  By the time she had the Texas Braid pieces all done, she also had more the half of these squares cut, but at that time she did not know what she was going to do with them.

When she came over to look through Bonnie's books that I had, she found this one.  It so happens to be in the same book as the Texas Braid quilt.

I didn't remember to take the quilt upstairs to get the whole quilt shot, but the first picture above shows a good portion of it.  The next picture below is a close up.  For this quilt I was practicing this curved design in all the nine patches and I did some ruler work for all the white square.  

I have to say that I am getting more comfortable with both free motion and ruler work on the longarm.  It is quite different than quilting on my domestic machine.

For the borders I did some more ruler work with my circle templates.  I had to use five circle sizes to complete each Baptist fan pattern.  I did the Baptist fan all the way around the border.  It looks pretty good and it helped take care of some of the fullness that was in the borders.

It's been pretty helpful that my mom has been letting me quilt her quilts for her.  I need to continue to practice different techniques and she lets me do whatever I want.  I think I have this free motion design down pat.  Next quilt is going to be my purple stars quilt, that is going into the upcoming quilt show.

There are a few new techniques I want to do on this one.  Just hoping I don't mess it up, being that it is going into the show and all.  Putting my quilts into the show is the best form of advertising there is.  People can actually see samples of my work.  Mom is putting some of her quilts, that I quilted for her in the show too.

Another one bits the dust

Another one bits the dust..........and now there are four.

This block finish is kind of funny.  You can find inspiration everywhere, you just have to pick up on the clues.  This one was a BIG clue.  I started off this morning taking care of emails catching up on Facebook and so forth.

While I was reading Facebook there was a post from American Patchwork, saying happy August.  It went on to ask if you have joint the challenge. The UFO (UnFinished Objects) challenge and saying that it wasn't too late to join.

I know I read about it, at the beginning of the year, I believe.  Basically, it was to make a list of twelve UFOs that you wanted to finish this year, and every month they would pick a number.  You would work on trying to finish the quilt that corresponded to that number.  That is about all I remember of it, but I thing there was more to it, like sending in your finish and stuff.

Anyways, this Facebook notice said August was number five.  I didn't sign up for the challenge when it started, as I had enough on my plate to deal with, but I did have a list of twelve quilts of my own.  So.........just for fun I got off my tablet and looked up my list, to see what I had listed for number five.

I bet you guessed it!  It was my Dresden plate quilt.  So I quickly finished my tea and got started on my block.  The challenge gave me a direction.  Another block now done and the other three are sewn down in the centre round.  Maybe I will take them up for the challenge of August.  It my help keep me focused.  I seem to be scattering all over the place again.

More Canadian Northwind blocks done

Periodically I have been working on my Canadian Northwind blocks.  A few here, a few there.  Last weekend I even got 16 of them done.  So, now I am half way done the blocks.  It's looking good on the design wall.  With every block, I am getting more motivated to getting it done.

Love the variety that I have going, even though this is only a two colour quilt.  Just red and white.

Yesturday I was working on the label for my Vintage Machine wall hanging that is going into the show.  I have two and a half rows complete and need three and a half more to go.  I am going to be working on that this morning, as it is a late start for me at work today.

Enjoy the day and make the most of it.

Converting a placemat pattern, top done

Since my last post, regarding this placemat, I finished the placemat portion of this little NICU quilt and scrounged around in my 1 1/2" blocks to come up with the first border section of blue and yellow blocks.  I added them to only the top and the bottom in order to make the quilt square.

Like a drawing or a colouring book, that has the black lines to outline the separate parts, I decided I wanted to do the same with these parts.  It also helped to make the quilt come up to the right size.  Once that was done I added the last border of 2" finished checkerboard squares in blue and gold to match the inside placemat.

All and all I think it turned out nice.  I like when I can make something pretty, with what I have on hand.  Now to quilt it, bind it and hand it in.

It was nice working on something for a special cause.  I also enjoyed just playing around and letting the process just happen, without a plan in advance.  I've had that placemat for a while.  Now it has found a home, in a quilt instead.  You could say the placemat graduated to a higher purpose.....lol.

Another Dresden plate block done

Another Dresden plate block done.  This means I only have five more to go.  Yay!  I am getting there.  

I've had a pretty busy schedule lately.  I have been able to slip some time in here and there, but haven't had much time to sit and write the posts to go with the pictures.  

I think that many people are in the same boat, during the summer.  Many are on vacation, away or at the cottage.  During the summer there are more get togethers, BBQ, gardens to maintain and always more of the renovations.  The days and nights are full, and before you know it the summer is done.

My kids remind me that the summer holidays are already halfway gone.  

Non-quilty related, I thought I would leave you with a hydrangea tree I have in my backyard.  The variation is called strawberry.  The blooms open as white, fade into pink and mature to a deep pink when the cooler whether comes.  Very pretty whenever it is in bloom in all the different stages.  This is what I look at, through the window, just outside my quilting room.

Enjoy what we have left of the summer!  Make it count.