I went to Orillia

Today I went to Orillia.  There was a quilt show this weekend.  I almost missed it.  I just happened to see it listed on a calendar that I don't use regularly.  My son and I had a nice Sunday drive.  I would like to share with you a slideshow of the quilt show, but not sure yet how to do it.  I have been on the computer trying to figure it out for the past 2 hours, with no luck.  I will keep trying and hopefully another day I can show you the show.

After the show we went to some small antique shops. We had a leisure ride home taking all the side roads and enjoyed the scenery of open county fields.  We came across a solid wood store with custom wood work pieces.  I spotted a unit that I have been wanting to store and display my quilts.  Here is a picture.

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The unit is glass on all three sides and about 5 1/2' high with real leaded glass pains.  A simple design.  The doors slide to each side and I got the bonus drawer at the bottom that I hadn't thought of.

Sorry I couldn't give you a slide show, but I will keep trying.  In the meantime here are just a couple of pictures from the show.

Basket weave quilt

Today was another look after the house day.  I had to run out to get supplies to finish the bathroom.  When I got back, managed to remove all the silicone around the tub, in the shower stall and around the sink. Tedious stuff sure take a lot of time. Once that was done started removing the silicone from the granite counters in the kitchen.

As I didn't get a chance to do any quilting today, I thought I would share with you another scrappy quilt that I like to make.  It is a basket weave quilt.  This one is set on a diagonal. 

These quilts help use up the miscellaneous stripes in the scrap drawer.  Like the spider web anything goes for these ones as well. For this one I did a light, dark, light, dark strip until I filled up the square size I wanted.  These squares are 6" finished.  The size is a small lap quilt.  You can do any colour combination with this quilt and they look very good with a one colour scheme as well. A blue would like great with all different blues from baby blue to turquoise all the way up to navy blue.

Here is a close up picture that includes the border.  The next two photos are of the quilting.

The top quilting photo shows that quilting on a multi coloured background, which usually does not show up well.  The design comes in and out depending on the colour of the material and the colour of the thread.  The second photo shows the simple loop-da-loop design on the small border.  The large border was done up in stippling.  Due to the colour and business of the fabric with all the white lines, I knew no one would see anything that I did on it.

Spring quilt

Unfortunately another day goes by without being able to get any quilt time in.  We all have lives to look after.  So, today I thought I would show you a quilt I made.  I call it my spring quilt.  The colours are perky.  A soft sunshine yellow with Easter egg purple and a bunch of random cheerful colors.

This quilt is a lap size quilt.  The yellow in the picture is a little bit deeper than in real life, but the best I can do with artificial lighting.  The setting is pinwheels on a diagonal with alternating plain squares.  When I look at this quilt it makes me smile.  It does not always take a complicated pattern.  Sometime the simple ones can be just as effective.  The four-patch, the nine-patch or the pinwheel blocks are very easy to make and seem to be the blocks of choice for many quilters.

This picture is a close up of the corner, showing the quilting I did on it.  The patterns are from a book called Quilting Inside the Lines by Pam Clarke.  Not too sure if you can see it.  The large border is a larger version of the motif that you see in the corner and the small border is the little motif at the side of the flower in the corner motif.  The part you don't see in the picture is the plain block which is quilted in a swirl.

Read quilts

Tonight's quilting bee was canceled. Our hostess was still sick.  Hope she gets better soon.

Today after dinner I had about an hour to do some quilting.  I finished all the vertical lines and started a couple of the horizontal lines.  I only had an hour because my son wanted some reading time.  This is when my daughter, my son and I get together on my bed and read.  In the earlier years it was the only way I could get my son to read.  Now that he enjoys reading it's not required, but he still likes to get together.  It is his way of having some mommy time.  Closeness but still doing his own thing.  While he read his book, I caught up with reading Bonnie's blog.  She is always so busy and very inspirational.

Now that it is late, son is in bed and daughter watching tv with her dad, I am trying to decide what to do.  Hubby came up while I was reading with our son to show me that I had a surprise in the mail waiting for me.

Ooh! Ahh!  Quiltmaker magazine.  It is too late to do any more quilting as my eyes won't focus, so maybe instead I can continue to read.  Or instead of the magazine maybe I might want to read this.

The Goodbye Quilt by Susan Wiggs.  A friend lent me the book some time ago, I think just before Christmas, but I didn't have much time to sit and read.  What shall I read magazine or book???

I think the book has won out.  Quilts, quilts and quilts!  Yes I eat, sleep and dream quilts.  I read quilts too.

Quilting today

Last night before bed I thought I would work on some more of my hand work block for the flower garden quilt.  But it wasn't long before I realized that I was too tired to see well.  I finished the blue bell flowers along one side of a stem.  Not too much, but more than I had done yesterday.

Today I had a deadline.  I had to finish a bit of quilting for a friend that is due for tomorrow.  After work, groceries and making dinner I started working on her quilt.  All done.  While quilting it I felt that I had so little to do on it.  I was in the mood for actual quilting, so decides to continue quilting and started quilting in the ditch of the faux appliqué quilt that I showed everyone in a previous post.  So far I have about half the vertical in the ditch lines done.

Tomorrow I have the quilting bee to attend. Looking forward to it. Great opportunity to spend time with other quilters and make some friends. Our group of about seven women get together every other Wednesday.  We work on some hand work, we sit to enjoy some tea and treats, we chit chat and have lot of laughs too.  Can't wait.

A little bit of background information

After I wrote my post last night regarding the reasons I didn't get too much quilting done, I thought to myself that maybe I should give people a bit of background information about my life.  Quilting is right in the middle of it, but there is so much more.  I also thought to myself that setting a commitment to post something quilty everyday might be setting myself up for failure.  You see I first and foremost am a wife and mother of two, a daughter and a son.  I have aging parents and siblings who have children of their own.  I work full time. I also do some quilting for others on the side, as well as landscaping and indoor renovations depending on the season and how often my sister may need help with her contrasts.  I just purchased a home 1 1/2 years ago and am in the process of renovating it.  My family has been a great help.  We all help each other.  It works out well.

So, you see?  It can get pretty hectic around here.  As I mentioned in a previous post, my family is very supportive.  When I need some down time to sew a few stitches, they understand.  My spouse and children do what they can to help out.  Not saying that everything is peachy because believe me we have those days that you just want to put up your hands and scream. Our family is very dramatic at times and our emotions are strong and true.  I love everything and wouldn't change a thing.

My new commitment to you and myself is to write as often as time will allow.  I will aim for daily, however if I miss a couple of days it will just have to do.  Some days I may even post more than once if I get those days that I can devote the whole day to quilting.  If quilty topics get a bit low one day or two I may just throw in some other stuff that I am working on.  Our lives are like that, sometime we must devote more time to family/friends, sometimes work, renovations, housekeeping and other times hobbies or pleasures.

Today I can add something quilt related.  While listening to an audio book, I sat and worked on my hand stitch for my flower garden quilt.  I was able to complete the bee hive and started on the French knots of the morning glory vine.

This is a picture while it sits on my lap. Needs a bit of ironing, but you can see it well enough as is.

For those who do quilting you will understand when I say that making a quilt can be a long process.  There are times that I work on many things at once because I need variety in my quilting as we do in life and other times I have the concentration to do the one project from start to finish. This last one may be a bit more rare, depending on the size of quilt.  The reason I say this is so that you won't be surprised when I show you different parts of  a quilt at various stages of completion, like I did for the spider web blocks.  I tend to go with the flow.  It helps me get more done.  Nothing worst than doing something you don't like or want to do.

Hope this helps to explain things a bit better.  Enjoy your evening everyone.

Paper piecing the spider webs

Here are some spider web wedges that are covered in fabric strips.  I have only 9 more to do.  I like to stay stitch around the perimeter between the cut line and the quarter inch seam.  I find it keeps the shape from stretching.

This is the other side of the wedge before trimming. In this one the only drawn lines are the wedge shape so I know where it needs to go. Otherwise the strips are all different sizes, so you just fill up the space making sure you extend the fabric past the cut line.

And the last two photos are of the web after it is trimmed.  I did all this last night.

Today unfortunately I didn't get any quilting done.  It was time to take care of the house.  I am in the middle of renovations around here.  I was able to install the double bi-fold doors in the guest room and frame it all out. Had to run out as well to purchase an exterior light for the electrician to wire up.  When I got back I just could not resist the beautiful day we were having, so took out the rake to gather all the left over leaves and twigs.  Swept up the curb side dirt, sidewalk and walkways.  By the time that was all done I had to fix dinner, clean up and get the kids to bed.  You know how it is.  Now I am taking a short break before I tackle the big mess I made in the guest room from cutting down the doors to size, gluing new tops and sanding.  I certainly know how to make a mess.

Hoping tomorrow I can get a few stitches in.