Inspiration on Pinterest (QW)

I was browsing through Pinterest the other day and came across some inspiration.  I am always looking for some quilting designs or scrap quilt designs to use up my bits and pieces.

I wasn't disappointed with what I saw.  I can get lost in time while on Pinterest, but I do try to keep it to a minimum.  Especially recently, while I am trying to get as much as I can done.

This first picture I want to keep a record of.  The waves are very nice and can be easily set up on my tablet to be quilted out on the longarm. I like the optical illusion that you get when the waves curve in together really close and back out again.  It almost makes the waves look 3D.

This next picture, is to use up some of my 2" strips.  While I am cutting up the scraps I could be cutting sets for these blocks.  I like the chain effect.  You could even set these on a diagonal to have the chains going up and down the quilt, for a different look.

I also saved this picture, as I am really into zig zags.  I love the scrappiness of this one, and with the scraps being contained by the grey separating the rows of scraps.

There was a lot more stuff I saved on Pinterest to refer to later.  But these ones I want to keep in the forefront of my thoughts.  I may need them soon.

Hope you like the inspiration.

Finished quilting the NICU scrappy strips quilt

It's Friday, yay!  But really, where has the time gone......

I feel that the time keeps speeding up.  The older I get the faster it goes.  I try my hardest to take advantage of my time, but there are not enough hours in the day, unless I go without sleep.... I love my sleep too much to forgo it, but people keep teasing that I am getting closer to the time of sleepless nights with hormones and the change of life....lol.  I'll be fighting it off!

 Last week some time I decided to work on another NICU quilt.  I think I posted about the starting orphan block that makes up this centre.  The centre block is my daughter's leftover block from Bonnie Hunter's Fair and Square quilt that she made.  So I had to come up with a design to enlarge it to make a NICU quilt.

It's a bit bright, but my daughter likes it, so maybe it would be more appealing to a younger audience.  To start off,  to enlarge it, I decided to use a grey small border to separate the block from the rest of the quilt.  It was a toss up whether I was going to put the block on a diagonal or not, but in the end no matter how I tried, I could not think of what to do next.  The problem was once you put the block on a diagonal, you are left with little room to add much more as borders, because the length diagonally is larger and adding the corner pieces to square it off again takes a lot of room.

So, in the end I went with adding a small strip border, followed by another small grey border, topped off with a wider strip border, all with mitered corners to add a bit of interest.  It is a bit bright, but there are a lot of kid type fabrics, that they could play I Spy with it.  There are horses, skating dogs and cats, toys, and some other stuff that I don't recall right at the moment.

Above is a closeup of the quilting. And below is the finished quilt.  I like the movement of the circles. It's a nice pattern and will be suitable for modern quilts or for children and young adults.  I like it so much, I am wondering if I have a quilt that I am making for myself, that I can use this pattern on.

This weekend I may not have much time for quilting, it's getting close to the end of tax session here and I almost forgot to schedule it.  So, Saturday I have an appointment with the accountant and I come home to do my mom's for her.

The weather is supposed to be nice, but I doubt nice enough to get out in the garden.  If not, you know where to find me....lol.

I still have to try and get some things done before the end of the month (my own imposed deadline).

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Simply Arranged wool appliqué wall hanging

I am flipping through all my pictures of stuff I was going to share on my blog and realized that I forgot to show you something that I recently started.

Started!!!  Who me?!  Of coarse I did, but with good justification, or so I keep telling myself....lol.

I bought a kit, back in the summer, last year at a quilt show.  It was a wool booth with wools, threads, beads and kits.  I have been wanting to try something in wool for a long time, so when I saw this cute little wall hanging for 50% I had to have it.

So.......when I signed up for the Summertime Sampler wool quilt wall hanging, I had forgotten that I had this kit.  It wasn't until I was on my way home from the first class that I remembered.

I started rationalizing, that this wall hanging is much smaller than Summertime Sample, and that maybe I should do it first, to practice, before I get into the real thing.  Well.....that's all it took!  Didn't need to come up with any other excuses.  What can I say, sometimes I'm easy....lol

I cut out and pieced all the flannel pieces to make the centre of the wall hanging, including sashings and the first border.  I moved on to sorting the wool pieces in the kit.

I used the fusible web called Barely There to trace the pieces.  The picture above is how far I got with the blocks. 

Throughout the week I traced the pieces and fused them to the selected wool colours.  The picture below shows all my pieces ready to go, when I get a chance to get back to it.

I know what you are probably thinking, why start another wool project.  Well.....here comes more rationalizing.  You see.......I have another class coming up the first weekend of May.  Though I was doing well with this wall hanging, I figured since I took the class, I should at least show them something that I completed or at least started.  The rest of the story is obvious.  Hence I started Summertime Sampler...... 

Do I feel guilty for starting something else when I have already many other things on the go....NO!!

I work at everything as time goes on.  A bit here and a bit there.  Lots of things get done and given away to charities, some to family and a few for myself.  I feel that it is the many things that iI do that keeps me from getting bored and because I have so many that is what keeps me motivated to get them done, before I acquire an even larger amount of UFOs.

Either way, I feel no guilt or shame, as this is my happy place and people benefit from what I do!

Finished quilting the second Mountain Majesty quilt

So, here is the second mountain majesties quilt.  I had the blocks done for a bit, but it took me a while to find time to assemble the quilt.  This one is pretty much the same as the last post's quilt, only the placement of the blocks are different and the small border.

I also quilted it differently.  I made a wave design on my tablet with deep waves.  It looks modern.  I think it may be versatile for younger kids, modern quilts and anywhere that you are just looking for some texture.

Here is a picture of the back of the quilt, where you see the quilting better against the cream.

Here is the finished quilt.  Like I said earlier, not much different than the first one.

Finished quilting the first Mountain Majesty quilt

This month I started this quilt.  Initially it was going to be a large double size quilt to use up all the odd large print fabric chunks that I was given over time.  It started out well, as the blocks are very easy to make.

I just kept making the blocks required.  I thought to myself that the quilt is getting pretty big and I didn't have a backing fabric the size needed.  But I did have a fabric that was 56" wide and I had many meters of it.  So, I broke down the quilt into two.  The two quilts are the same size and used every block I had.  It just felt like it was meant to be.  Now I have two lap size quilts for donation.

I like the zig zag layout.  It seems to be one of my favourites at this present time.  This pattern also looks great in specific colourways, like all blue and white for example.  Mine is scrappy, because I am trying to use up what I have.  Trying to clear out some older fabrics.

Here is a close up.  As you can tell, I used everything!  But as a whole, it still works.

Pattern is from Bonnie Hunter's free patterns on Quiltville blog.  At the top she has tabs.  You will find it under the free pattern tab called Mountain Majesties.

Have fun!

Progress on summertime sampler

On Sunday after a lovely dinner/family gathering at my mom's, I took another "me" day.  That's a day where I take on no responsibilities and do what my heart desires.  I spent the whole day in my happy place.....my quilting room.

I made some more blocks for the summer sampler quilt/wall hanging.  Here is the watermelon block. There are no hand stitches yet, as I am just taking the time to set the blocks up.

I have laid out the blocks on my sewing table and I am sorting colours, to distribute them across the quilt, and fuse them in place with Barely There fusible webbing.  Once I am done all the blocks, I can at my leisure, do the handwork.

This is the potted flower block.  So far, my mom says this is her favourite.

There is the tea pot and tea cups block.  On this block, hand stitched swirls will make a huge difference to the overall feel of this block.  Most of the blocks are the same.  The handwork will set them off, give them more definition and detail.

Followed by the fish block.  I am truly not in love with the fish.  Not liking how the very bright green fins stand out against the pink fish and distract your eyes from looking at the whole block, as one.  I also find the light blue fins of the red fish a bit blinding.  It almost looks like white in the picture.

I am going to have to give this block a bit more thought, once I am done setting the others.

Next we have the house block.  This block will also benefit from some handwork.  In the original block the house is a perky yellow, however I have found it difficult to find wool in yellow.  In the whole store there was only one yellow piece, and that yellow piece was a very bright yellow.  So, I've gone with a more traditional colour for the house.  My thought being that the house colour will balance out the watering can on the other side of the quilt.

Purple is another difficult colour to find.  Hence the green for the roof of the house, instead of purple.  If all else fails, I tend to go with traditional.  It doesn't make for an exciting block, but not every block needs to be eye catching.  Some of them, just need to be pretty.

So, there you have it!!!  I am halfway there, with six out of the twelve blocks, set and the next two are already drawn out.

I can already see a very big difference in my blocks from the ones in the original pattern.  Though there are many blocks very similar to the original blocks, mine look a bit more subdued.  The original pattern of Summertime Sampler is very bright and beautiful!  It uses all solids, whereas mine uses mostly patterned wool fabric with some solids and the ones I am using are not quite so bright.

I feel that it is just as pretty, but in a different way.  I was initially drawn to the brightness of the original pattern, however I am still very much liking my version of the pattern.  Hope you like it too!

Summertime sampler progress

Back on March 30th, I did a class for wool appliqué.  We didn't even open the pattern in the class.  Instead the instructor had us making a coaster.  The coaster was of a wool circle with a flower and a couple of leaves.  It was a good starter kit, to get a handle on how to make the buttonhole stitch and just in general working with wool.

Our next meeting is on May 4th, and I up until this point, haven't even opened my pattern.  I hope she is not expecting us to have it done....lol

Making the coaster, taught me that I like working with the soft texture of wool, and how easy it is to appliqué without having to turn under the seam allowance.

I cleaned the piles up a bit for the picture, but earlier, it looked like colour just threw up all over my cutting table....lol   Don't those piles of colour look yummy!

This next table is across from the cutting table pictured above.  It's my sewing table, where I set up all the black background blocks, with each of the paper patterns of the individual blocks.  I've basically lay out some of the major colours, dispersing them across the quilt.  Minus all the green leaves.

I am currently working on the tea pot and tea cups block.  That is where the hole is, on the table with no block.  The pattern book lays on my machine edge, at the top righthand corner of the picture, and my ironing pad is just to the right of that.

The way I work is, I take the background block to my wool ironing pad, which sits beside my machine.  I staple the plastic see through drawing, of the block design I made, to the top edge of the block.  From there I have the placement pattern and flip it up and down as I need it.  My wool ironing pad is large enough to hold my block, some space for my iron and a corner for ironing the pieces to the Barely There fusible web.  I cut the pieces out, place them on the block, according to the plastic placement sheet and iron them in place.

I will continue this for each piece until I complete the block, layering all the different elements, and moving on to the next block, until all the blocks are done.  The whole process is very soothing.  Playing with colours, drawing the shapes, ironing, cutting , ironing some more, repeat.  I could do this all day.  In fact, until I had to get ready for Easter dinner at my mom's, that is exactly what I did all day.  I felt so peaceful in my happy place.

After all the colour play, I got down to business and completed this block.  My first block of twelve.  This is the watering can full of sunflowers.  I am really loving the texture you get from the different layers of wool and the different shades of yellow with their different fabric patterns.  

I am loving it!!  Can you guess what I will be doing all day today! Lol

NICU red X's quilt

For some reason, even with the gloomy weather, I feel excited going into this long weekend.  The week flew by and I was at Thursday.  That's when it hit me that this Thursday is technically the Friday of the long weekend.  All day I was so energized.

After work, I still had energy, so I took out these red X's.  These were orphan blocks from a quilt sashing that did not work out.  These were to be the cornerstones.  As I said, they didn't work out, so instead, they are getting a second opportunity, this time as blocks in a NICU quilt.

From 4 1/2" squares, came this quilt.  I had some pretty sunflower fabric with a red background, that I thought would work with the red X's.  I added the red border to contain the X's, otherwise they just seemed to float in mid air.  

At about that time, my daughter came down and I asked her to select something for the next two borders.  We both thought the dark brown looked good to bring out the centres of the sunflowers and she chose another reddish border to finish it off.

However, I miscounted how big the quilt would be, so when I got the brown border on and measured for the last border, I realized that the quilt was already big enough for a NICU quilt.

By this time it was just after 7:30 pm and I offered to drive my daughter to work.  When I got back though, I still felt restless with energy.  So I decided, why stop there and proceeded to load the quilt on the longarm.

I just recently purchased this Baptist fan pantograph and thought I would try it for this quilt.  The arcs are spaces 3/4" apart, which is fine for a smaller project like this one, but when I get ready to do a larger quilt, I will enlarge the motif so that the spacing is at least 1" apart.

Now there is the trimming, binding and label left to do, to finish this NICU quilt, with only 14 more to go......lol. It sounds like a lot, but they don't take much time to make.  There are so many, because one day I decided to clean up all my leftover block parts from various previous quilts.  Now all those bits and pieces have I plan.

What's on the agenda today?  Well........today I am aiming to finish all the red alternating blocks of the American, Patchwork & Quilting UFO challenge quilt for April.  From there we will see.......

I have a very large list of stuff I want to get done.  As I have this 4 day long weekend, let's see just how much of it I can get done.  I'll keep you informed.  Wish me luck.

Finished quilting the second of two Quilts of Valour

In the last post, I showed you the first Quilt of Valour that I quilted.  Now let me show you this second one.  This quilt is made up of many orphan blocks that people donated.  Someone put them together with sashing between and I quilted it.

I am leaving the post with just the one picture.  I just could not decide which blocks to highlight.  They were all pretty.  The common theme is blue, but there were some lighter blocks added to soften the look of the quilt.  I quilted this quilt with a medium blue thread to blend into the blue blocks and soft enough not to overwhelm the lighter block, with just enough of a peek-a-boo affect when it passes through the black sashing.  

I like how it turned out.  Now it goes back and someone else will bind and label it.

Finished quilting the first of two Quilts of Valour

There is a group called Quilt of Valour.  This group of many people across Canada was established to honour the men and women who protect our freedom.  All across Canada the wounded men and women are given a quilt.

This group has decide, to set a challenge to all the quilt makers.  The challenge is to make and distribute a total of 20,000 quilts by 2020.  I believe they are at about 14,000 so far.  That's not bad.

Many of the Guilds are participating.  Some are making blocks and others are making quilts out of them.  Different areas will be set up for distribution.  Everyone working together for this common cause.

I'm not sure how long this has been going on.  I just found out about it last month when I attended a new Guild.  Last month, some time, I posted about me making a couple of blocks for the cause.  This month I decided to contribute by quilting a couple of quilts.  This is the first one.

A bunch of people made the blocks, someone put them together and a few ladies organized getting the batting and backing together.  I quilted it, trimmed it and someone else will bind it.  Teamwork!

I quilted this quilt with a pantograph I have of maple leaves.  How fitting for a quilt of valour.  Just like our flag, red and white with a maple leaf.  This pantograph is called Maple Sugar.

I am happy to help this cause.  Our soldiers are deserving.

Finished quilting customer's coloured zig zag quilt

This is a customer's quilt.  The design is vertical up and down the quilt.  To me it looks like lightening.  Zigzags are and chevrons are all coming back in, but with a modern twist.  This very pretty and bright quilt will make any young girl happy.  The colours are so cheerful!

I loaded this quilt on horizontally in order to have the quilting design direction match the rows of the quilt's design.  This pantograph is called Seafoam.

I like that the design has swirls, waves and circles/bubbles, that soften the edges of the lines in the quilt design.  For the most part, the design blends in to the fabric, so this picture on a diagonal shows more of the texture that you get with this quilting design.

I am hoping my customer likes it.  It was one of those drop off and leave things.  She did say she peeked in the bag and liked what she saw of the backing.

Finished the pineapple quilt

This pineapple quilt was my 2018 American Patchwork & Quilting UFO challenge quilt for October.  When I put this quilt on the list, I had the blocks 1/3 of the way done.  When the number for this quilt was called, I pulled it out and proceeded to work on the blocks.  Even with the few set backs that I had, I still did manage to complete the top in October.  That is where it sat, waiting in line to get quilted.

I finished quilting the quilt in the beginning of December.  I was determined to get as many quilts as I could done and off my list.  2018 was a very good year for me, with getting many UFOs completed.

I like how the quilt looks in picture.  You can really see the difference between the light and dark areas.  When you are in person and up close, you get distracted by all the different fabrics.  I can tell you for sure at this is a real stash buster.  The quilt is queen size.  As the expression goes, I have everything in here except the kitchen sink!  And I am not joking, really, everything!

Here is a closer look.  I like the illusion of circles made by the position of the light fabrics.  Just an FYI, the bottom border is not crooked, it's just the way the quilt was hanging off the bed while I was taking the pictures.

I quilted this quilt with an all over edge to edge pantograph called Whole Lotta Feathers.  The top is so busy, that it wouldn't matter what I quilted on it, because it doesn't show.  The quilt design, not the quilting is the star of the show.

Finished quilting Brown Bear paws quilt

This is a quilt I started in March/2017.  I wasn't working on it steady, but doing it leader/ender style for the half square triangles.  When I put it on the American Patchwork & Quilting UFO list for last year 2018, I figured when it was called I would concentrate on finishing it.

The quilt number was called for March/2018, and so I took it out and worked on it.  I was really into those scrappy strip blocks, in various shades of brown, from chocolate to taupe and some heading toward the rust colour, others heading toward the burnt red and some toward mustard.  I wanted as much variety as I could get, but that still read as a brown block.  I think I succeeded.  I love the whole think and everything about the quilt.

I managed to get the quilt top completed in the month of March, but it wasn't until later in June/2018 that I finished quilting the quilt.  Here is a picture of the quilt hanging from my longarm rails.  I just took it off and lay it there.

It helps to see the actual quilting on a slight diagonal, when the light is not directly on the quilt.  This next picture is a closeup of the sashings, both the orange one and the blue one, the first orange small border and part of the final border.

                                

This one here, is what I did with the outer corner of the borders.  I wanted something a bit different than the usual plain border, so I took the bear paw blocks out into the border.

Lastly, here is the whole quilt.  It's a big one!  Fits a queen size bed very generously.  Though this is our movie night couch quilt for all three of us movie watchers to sit comfortably without fighting for coverage.

I like this quilt a lot.  I like the play of the brown with the subtle burnt orange sashings and first border.  I like the blue sashings with the colour brown and the touch of red, as the cornerstone for the blocks, as well as in the square-in-a-square blocks, in the sashing of the quilt.

I would have to say, that this is definitely one of my favourite quilts.  There is no pattern, as I sort of designed it as I when.  The bear paw block itself is a traditional block, and I just gave it a bit of a twist by making it with scrappy strings in the blocks.

Hope you like it, as much as I do!!!

My new fat quarter draws

Yesturday, I started writing a post with....Yay! It's Friday and where has the time gone, however it didn't get posted.  I started, but got pulled away, got distracted and after had to go to work.  It was a crazy day and by the time I got home to crash, I had completely forgotten to post.

I thought to myself that March was crazy and flew by.  Well, it looks like April is going just as fast.  Can someone please push the emergency STOP button!  I mean really!!!  I need the time to slow down, so I can get all the things I want to get done, done.

Today we are almost at tea time.  I spent the day cleaning up loose ends, running around and just recently, I took all the pictures that I have been putting off, due to the gloomy weather and lack of good lighting.  So, for the next bit, you're going to be getting some nice eye candy, of all the quilts that I finished.  Some of them are even from the end of last year.

I while back, I took apart some very large drawers that were under my bed for storage.  I didn't use them, as I felt they collected more dust than I liked and what was stored in them did not stay clean.  Shortly after, I had a brainstorm.  I wanted a better system for storing my fat quarters.

So, I got all my power tools out.   Table saw, miter saw, air compressor, nailed, sander and all.  I decided to make some drawers to fit my cupboard unit in my quilt room.  This is what I came up with.  They are simple drawers, but they get the job done.

Doesn't it look pretty all filled up with my fat quarters, and I have some room to spare too.  I am loving it!  All the yummy fabric.  As I use up yardage, if the pieces left are at least a fat quarter, I will fold them and store them as they are.  If they are smaller than a fat quarter, I will cut them up into usable sizes.

Today while I was heading to my car, for all the running around I needed to do, I spotted flowers in my garden.  I just had to go back and take a picture.  It is such a beautiful day out today and seeing the flowers just boosted my mood even further.

This post is turning out to be a bit of this and a bit of that.  I am sure most of you won't mind.  But if you do and don't want to see anything non quilt related, you can stop reading here.

Here is something else I wanted to share with you.  This is my peaceful little four legged baby, Maddie.  She always needs to be covered up and tucked in.  Usually she wants her head under the covers too, but this time she was just napping like a person.

The blanket, a child's receiving blanket, is curtesy of my mom, her Grandmother, as we were at Grandma's house and didn't have her own blanket.  Can you say spoiled little girl....lol

Now here is my little baby awake, sitting up proud and regal.  She is a Vizsla and she is 2 1/2 years old, human age.  We all love our baby and cannot imagine life without her.  I'm sure everyone says that about their own four legged babies.

This is in my office space.  During the day, Maddie hangs out with me.  Her blue toy bucket is behind her and her doggie bed is to the right of her.  You can just catch the corner of her purple pillow, and I am sitting on a chair at my desk.

Hope you enjoyed a little peek into my life.  Have a great day, while I sit and have some tea.

Finished quilting a small charity quilt for my mom

My mom made this small quilt for charity.  I'm not sure which one.  It's a simple quilt.  The size would be good for wheelchair lap quilt.  She asked me to quilt it.

With all the rose colour and the feminine backing, I just had to do pink/rose coloured hearts.  I like how they stand out in the burgundy alternating blocks.  The texture on the quilt with this pattern is great!  You can't help but to run your hands over it....lol

This quilt was the first of four quilts I quilted on Sunday/yesturday.  More on those to come later.

Today we are supposed to be getting really nice warm weather.  Can't wait!  I am about done with winter, since the day after Christmas! Lol

Have a great day everyone.

My newest NICU quilt

Last month at the Halton Hills Quilt Guilt meeting, we had a speaker by the name of Sandy Lindal.  Her truck show is called Confessions of a Scrapaholic.  It was a great show, with lots of inspiration!!!

I was so inspired, that by the time I got home, I just couldn't resist going into my quilt room to sew.  I had some strips already cut up and decided to sew this little NICU quilt.  I completed the top and was still in bed by 11:00 pm.  A little late for me, but I know that I would not have fallen asleep right away, with all those beautiful scrappy quilts running through my head....lol

The design of the quilt is as such, to allow me to practice some more freehand quilting in all directions.  The top lefthand quarter, the designs will be quilted from left to right.  The top righthand quarter will be quilted from top to bottom, and so forth (I'm sure you get the picture).

Now to quilt it!

Finished quilting customer's good fortune

I'd like to share with you, a customer's Good Fortune quilt.  A recent mystery quilt hosted by Bonnie Hunter, one of my favourite quilting celebrities.  The mystery was held from Nov/18-Jan/19.  My customer had it completed in very good time and it looks great!  She chose to do the same colourway as Bonnie.  What a surprise pop of colour with that orange and red combo.  It's gorgeous!

Above I just finished loading it to the longarm.  On a previous post, I talked about the backing and how I loaded it.  Below is the quilt top floating, ready and waiting to be quilted.

Here is the finished quilt.  My customer went through all my samples and chose to do a simple elongated alternating wave.  It really sets it off.  It's not an in your face design, so it does not distract from the quilt's pretty design or colours.  It gives the quilt a subtle texture.  I've used this design on many quilts already.  It's pretty popular.  I'm proud that it's one of my own designs that I programmed in Quilt Path.

I've since heard from my customer.  She has already binded the quilt and it sits proudly on her bed.  She loves how the quilting turned out.  That makes me happy!

Have a great day everybody!!  I am off to see how productive I can be today.  Lots to do, with so little time to do it!