Summertime Sampler

Well.....I seem to have gotten into a bit of trouble again......  You guessed it.  I started yet another new quilting project.  I know what you're saying.........WHAT!!!

But....I couldn't help myself.  The email came in for all the classes being held at The Hobby Horse, and I just seemed to cave in.  Who could resisted the beautiful, bright and cheerful colours of Summertime Sampler.  I saw the pattern the week before, when I visited the store and held myself off.  However, when the email came in.......I just could not resist.

Today was the first class.  The pattern is by Erica Kaprow published by C&T Publishing.  This is a colourful wool applique wall hanging with 12 Sunny quilt blocks.

My favorite is the simplest block.  The watermelon with the birds, though all the blocks are gorgeous!

I thought that each block played a roll in triggering a memory for me, like this tea pot block with two cups of tea.  And the bouquet of flowers, tied up in a pretty bow.

There are twelve blocks all together and I will enjoy working on each of them.

Today the instructor/owner Gail gave us a small coaster to work on, to get our feet wet, sort of speak.  We got a taste of working with wool, to try it out and see if we would enjoy completing an entire wall hanging before making the commitment.

I don't think there was anyone there this day that was not hooked.  Working with wool is........different.  The soft textile, the warmth of the overall look.  I'm not quite sure how else to describe it, it was consuming.  We were drawn into the process of making the many small stitches to complete the project.

Anyways, no matter how badly I may have described it, if you've ever worked with wool, you will understand what I mean.

So...........another quilt project to add to the list.  Oh well, that's how it goes....lol

More progress on March's American Patchwork

Since I've been back from Quebec, I've been plugging away on my challenge quilt, for the month of March.  I finished all the blocks.  The colouring is darker than I envisioned it, but my daughter says it still looks good.  I used the solid fabrics for the geese flying across the quilt.  Each diagonal row is the same colour and no two rows are the same colour.

Since the picture above was taken, I assembled all the rows horizontally and vertically, including the first border.

For the last few days I was cutting the scraps for the borders.  I have them cut, sorted and just now finished assembling the first border.  I also added the border to the top.  I still think that it's pretty bright and busy, but won't stop now.

Now onto the next three borders.  I plan on working on the next border after dinner, hoping to finish this quilt top by the end of Friday.  I still need some time to work on a label from my UFO list by the end of March too.  It's doable.  Just have to keep at it.

I'm looking forward to this weekend.  It's the longarm quilting bootcamp.  Two full days of instructions, practice, learning new tricks and technics.  The instructor said to get plenty of rest, as by the end of each day we will be brain dead....lol.  That sounds really brutal.

Have a great night!

Finished quilting the HHQG quilt (QW)

This quilt was made by two members of the guild.  I was asked to quilt it.  It's a pretty and simple quilt.  I decided to keep the quilting simple too.  The binding is going to be a dark medium blue.

Close up of the quilting.

This is a charity quilt.  I'm not sure of the destination yet.

I really like the pattern of this quilt and want to make one.....some day!

The UFO challenge quilt for March

Yesturday, I was working on some customer quilts and some quilts for the guild.  The guild quilts are for various charities.  This pretty much took up the majority of the day.  Now, today I had some time to work on my own charity quilt.  I will probably be giving this one to Project Linus or possibly the guild.

I started the day at this point.  I am making a flying geese block variation and I've decided to add sashing between the blocks.  My diagonal rows are each the same solid colour fabric, with no two diagonal rows the same.  I also have every row heading left, with the cool colours (ie blue and green) and every row veering to the right in the warm colours (ie red, orange, and yellow).

By the end of the day, with only some/minimal distractions, I managed to finish the blocks for this quilt.

It looks a little bit busy, as I've used scrap fabrics for each of the "wings", though each goose has the same set of fabrics for their wings.  That part of it is not necessarily noticeable in the picture above.

I now have to assemble the rows and work on the borders.  With two weeks left of the month, there is a good chance of finishing this top.  I plan on waiting to quilt this quilt top until after I do the quilting bootcamp.  I am hoping the bootcamp will give me more experience with different techniques, that will allow me to experiment on this top.

I'll post the progress as I go.

Enjoy the little that is left of the evening.

Gathering flowers quilt fourth two blocks

Well, I am back!  It's been a busy two weeks.  In that time I had to catch up on things before I went away, my trip to Quebec and getting things back in order since I've been back.  I'm ready to jump back into quilting.  

In good time too, as today is National Quilting Day!  Yay!  I have a valid reason for an all "ME" day....lol.  The family has been warned (not that they actually need warning, as they are pretty accommodating).  

Tomorrow it's a Dylan day (my son) and another day will be for someone else.  These "me" days seems to work for our family.  They're days that the person of the day, gets to be catered to (ie plan the activities and menu, or have stuff done for them, etc.).

So, today.........hmmmmm.  What will I do, what will I do?  First off I will work on finishing two customer quilts, finish off two guild charity quilts, followed by assembling one of my own charity quilts.  I will be lucky if I can get even that much done, but the list does not stop there.  My goal today is to join in some Facebook groups geared toward National Quilting Day and have some fun, while trying to get as much as I can done off my list.

My post will be small today as I want to get started, so I will leave you with some pictures from much earlier in time, back in December during my Christmas break.  The first picture is of a heart vine called  Berry Vine from page 16 of Kay MacKenzie's Inspired By Tradition book.

I like this block.  Loving the curve of the vine in the shape of a heart.  The vine is done, leaving the leaves and berries left to stitch down.  I am liking the subtle contrast between the different coloured leaves and the different coloured berries.

This second block is my version of Straight Basket from page 84 of Mini Dietrich's Baltimore Basics book.  I didn't want the 3D flowers from the original design, so I swapped them out for hearts instead.  On this block the bracket is already done, or at the thin stems are.  Now I need to finish the bulky part of the basket and all the contents of the basket.

I am still looking forward to the time I can get started on these blocks again.  There are a bunch more quilts I want to get off my list before I dive into this one.  I think that once I really get started on this one, I will want to finish it.  This means I will need a lot of time, being that it's all handwork and that there are 20 blocks in all.

I keep putting myself off by saying soon......soon.  I am gearing up to it.  Maybe I may break down and do one of them, just to satisfy my itch.........we'll see.

That's it for now, have a great day everyone and Happy National Quilting Day!!!

March's American Patchwork & Quilting UFO challenge quilt

My American Patchwork & Quilting UFO challenge quilt for the month of March is the Scrappy Flying Geese quilt.  This quilt was started a long, long time ago.  I don't even know why it was not finished, as it's not a hard quilt.  I think it may have just been forgotten.

Regardless, this is what I have done so far.  My plan is to use the bright solid fabrics for the geese and scrappy for the wings that extend on each side of the goose/geese.  Each set of wings is the same fabric.

Each solid coloured geese will be flying on a diagonal across the quilt and each diagonal row will be a different colour.  Above you can see the one completed diagonal row of red geese and the turquoise row has two blocks so far.

This is a charity quilt for Project Linus.  It will have 4 X 6 rows, with each block finishing at 7 1/2" square.  There will be sashings that measure 1 3/4" wide in grey with the first border the same grey.  Lastly, there will be a final border, however not sure yet what fabric or the size.  Without the last border, the top will measure 38 3/4" X 57 1/4", so I am thinking maybe a 5" border to finish the quilt.

This may be the first quilt I will succeed in completing for this challenge this year.  Yay!

Wish me luck, as I have a very busy month, this month!

Quilting a Bonnie Hunter Good Fortune quilt for a customer

Yesturday, I spent the day loading and quilting good fortune.  There was a discussion on one of the Facebook groups about squaring up the backing before loading the quilt.  I personally expect my customers to have care and make the backing as straightish as possible.  Most people do their best when sewing the seams together as they are usually following the salvage.  I have had a couple that were more challenging, but in general the backings are straightish.

I thought I would share a photo of a backing fabric and how I load it to the machine, even if the backing is not straight (for the record though, this one is straight).  On my longarm I load the bottom of the backing on first, so step one is to lay the backing across my bars.  I will centre the backing, with the backing just floating there.  I will line up any reference points that I have.  If it is a horizontal seam I will line it up with my bars. If the seams are vertical I can line it up to the measuring tape.

Either way you do it, you will immediately see if the bottom edge is straight or not.  I do not cut a customer backing to make it straight. I straighten the backing on the longarm and clamp the backing to the leaders, knowing that regardless of the edge, the backing is centred and will line up perfectly with the quilt top (or nearly perfect within 1/2").

Once this is done I will carefully roll the backing onto the bottom roller making sure to check my reference points.  When I get close to the top, I will again instantly see if the top is straight or not.  And again, regardless I will not trim this, I will keep the tension taught, knowing I have the backing straight and clamp the edge to the top roller.  It works for me every time.

I took a picture of the backing of this quilt to show something else too.  It is not yet fully loaded.  The picture shows the bottom has been clamped and rolled up some with the top portion floating over the top bar.  This is how I roll them.  The leaders on the top bar, creates the friction needed to keep the backing taught while I roll.

As I said already, I do not trim or square up a backing.  Well, this backing had a lot of excess fabric on each side.  The backing was almost 125" wide, and the quilt top itself was only 90" (36" difference and at least 30" more than I needed).  So, what I did was fold the fabric edges inward (as seen in the picture above), and just rolled the backing up as usual.  If rolled up carefully and taught, it will not create any problems and will not have sage.

The thing you need to remember is that the only parts you are concerned with while quilting is the space between the two bars (the quilting area), not anywhere else.  There are times, when there is a lot of piecing on the backing, that you will get loose spots on the bar, but by the time that section reaches the quilting area it will be fine.  Loose spots on the take up bar does not mean saggy backing.  The loose spots are usually there because the seams take up more room than the one single layer of fabric.

You have to remember, that your backing should not be tight while you are quilting, there should be a bit of give.  Sometimes the waviness in a heavily quilted quilt is not created by the quilting itself, but by over stretching the backing.  If it is too tight, once the tension is released the backing goes back down to size and takes the top and batting with it, creating the waves.

Above I have the top view of the quilt that I am ready to start quilting.  I float my tops to keep everything lined up. If there is any fullness I will catch it as I advance with my measuring tape and my added markers (seen above on bar with yellow tape.  The red tape is holding my tape measure in place.

I hope this helps someone.  There is a lot to learn, but if we all share our best practices, we will all learn together faster.