Inspiration for a future quilt (QW)

I saw this beautiful quilt on one of Bonnie Hunter's Blog, from one of her retreaters, some time around Aug/2025.  This person is in the process of hand quilting it in a hoop.  Looks like she is doing echoing in the white areas and again in the blue.  Seeing this picture, just renewed my want to make one of my own.  I love this one all in different colours of blue.

It has been a while that I've wanted to make one of my own, that when my mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I thought of this GO! Accuquilt die cutter.  It will make easy work of cutting all those curves.  So, that became my Christmas present.......I won't tell you which Christmas though....lol.  

Come to think of it, it wasn't that long ago, because it was while we were living here in this house and we moved here 4 1/2 years ago.  Hmmmm, I am going to go with two Christmases ago, but don't hold me to it.  The pattern name on this die cutter is Joseph's coat 11" finished die.

Part of the dilemma of starting this quilt, is trying to make up my mind on what colour or colours I want to do mine in.  The blue one above is gorgeous, I also like scrappy colours.  I was also thinking maybe something with modern fabrics, but I don't think I have enough of that type of fabric, to do the last option.  The one thing I do want to do, is only use the fabrics I already have.  In other words using my scraps.

I'm still concentrating on finishing some of the quilts I already have started, before I get into anything new, and there is a list of "Quilt-want-to-be" quilts that I started.  I started the list to remind me of what I want to do, but also to acknowledge that I want to do it and hold myself off from actually starting it.  It works.....sometimes.....lol.

My works in progress list is coming down.  I'll share those details with you soon.  Christmas and New Years are fast approaching!!  I can't believe how fast we got here this year.

Take care everyone.

Happy with some progress around here

Yesterday I had the day off work and thought I would tackle some loose ends.  I had a lot of stuff all over the place in the studio.  But before I got to that stuff, I just could not resist making a block for my Christmas quilt.  I have to redo a seam to line it up better, but otherwise I like this simple block.  The way this is sewn, it will make a red grid across the quilt and then the green will make another grid in between.  When I saw the picture of this quilt, I was inspired.

Once I got that out of my system, I was able to get down to business and cleaning up around here.  I started with clearing all the excessive piles of stuff.  Both from my daughter and myself.  The surfaces are getting cleared.  Getting, but not quite done.  One step at a time.

Eventually I decided that I wanted to finish cutting all the solid fabric strips, so I tackled that pile.  This took me a bit longer than I thought it would, but I keep telling myself that it is to be expected, as I was in fact cutting enough to make a few quilts.  The 2 1/2" strips were for the Colour Crazy quilt.  The 2" strips were for another quilt I have planned.  This one is what you see in the bin below.  Beside those strips are squares in 2 1/2" and 2" from the leftovers ready to make another quilt, though the squares do not have a pattern just yet.

In this picture below, are the pieces for the Colour Crazy quilt.  In this pile there are yellows, oranges, pinks, reds and greens.  I am happy to say that I have completed cutting all the solid fabric I need and this took care of three different piles scattered about.

I also found some fabric to use for the binding of the NICU star quilts and I organized all the scraps and fat quarters ready to be ironed.  This last part is currently taking up the full length of my longarm, so once I get that done, it will make a huge difference in the room.  

I am getting there.....a few more hours should get this place back in order.....minus the projects that are piled on my sewing table waiting for me to work on them.

Take care everyone.

I'm seeing stars

After finishing the quilting of my hexagon quilt, I decided to start loading up the NICU star quilts.  I made three of them so far.  Quilting these up got me three check marks, on my list of required sewing!!

There's not much to say about these small quilts.  What you see, is what you get.  These NICU quilts measure 24" square.  Starting with the centre bordered block at 12" and the star border width at 6" each.  It makes for an easy block with a 6" x 12" (finished size) flying geese to make up the star points.  Fast and easy, but still cute!

Light blue with yellow flowers and background stripes:

Dark blue with colourful flowers and background grey:

Dark blue with colourful polka-dots and background green:

I still have two more of these stars cut out and ready to sew together.  But that will be another time.  The 2nd Monkey Bar quilt is also ready in rows and waiting to be sewn together.  I'm still trying to see how many of the quilts on my list I can get done before the end of the year.  I am down to 42 now with these three plus the hexagon quilt quilted.  Yeah!!

Today I have some cleaning up to do, but also trying to get some sewing time in, just for me.

Take care everyone.

The Christmas quilt is ready to start

I finally finish cutting out all the pieces for my Christmas quilt.  It's at my machine and ready to go. There are 288 red 3 1/2" squares, over 576 green 2" squares, 312 sashing 2" x 6 1/2" rectangles and 1152 white 2" squares!  Enough to make a king size quilt, minus the borders.

I couldn't have planned it any better.  All the white pieces are cut and all I have left are these two smaller leftover pieces.  Nothing like cutting it close....lol.

Tomorrow I have the day off, so I have to get the studio back in order.  I have the ladies coming this weekend to sew.  I feel like lately all I've been doing is making messes and cleaning up....lol.  After I get the place in order, I am hoping to start working on the Christmas quilt.  I have a bunch of stitch and flip corners to do on the red squares and then the green four patches.  I am looking forward to working on this one, beings as we are in December in the Christmas season.  

Do any of you do that?  Quilt with the seasons?  I've got my Welcome to the North Pole appliqué block out for this season, along with this Christmas quilt.  Even my daughter is embroidering with the season, with her pattern called Snow Days.

Here is a picture showing how far she has come along on her embroidery stitching.  The stitches are done using a dark charcoal colour.

Take care everyone.

Hexagon quilt is finally finished

I first posted about this quilt back on Sept 13/2014, or rather posted about the pieces that my cousin gave me, from a pile of tops and pieces, that belonged to her mother-in-law and her husband's grandmother.  You can visit that post for all the details, but basically many of the pieces were in the shape of a hexagon diamond with a centre white hexagon.

By Nov 18/2014, after working with my cousin's other hexagon quilt tops, with florets and diamonds, I came up with a plan for the quilt that I wanted to make, which would honour the original maker.  You can read more about it in that post.  From there, throughout various posts, I talked about the process I went through to prepare the hexagons.  By Nov 29/2014 post, I was preparing the grab and go tin that would be with me for a very long time and go with me everywhere.

This quilt was not meant to be finished quickly.  Afterall, I was assembling this quilt all by hand.  So throughout the time from Sept/2014 until now, I would work on this quilt, on and off.  It turned out to be a fairly large quilt.  Almost a queen size, but I consider it to be a large double size.

Now, fast forward to Aug 15/2025, when I finally put in the last stitch to finish the top of this hexagon quilt.  That is almost nine years in the making, as it traveled with me wherever I went, and was worked on whenever I had bits of time.  I can't even explain how I felt when it was done.  I guess the feeling was an astonishment.  Shock and happiness all rolled into one.

I held onto the top in that state for a while.  I knew I wanted to quilt it freehand on the longarm, but also knew that it would take a long time to complete.  By Nov 21/2025 I had the top on the longarm and was in the process of quilting it.  Taking my time, as I have to be careful not to exert my hands.  Each pass of the machine (16" depth) takes 2 hours to quilt, so that too, takes time.

Here's a picture of the back, which shows off the quilting a bit better, with the shadows from the light. 

So now, I can call it done!!!  Still have the binding to do, but when the top is quilted, I consider it to be done.  I am so surprised, happy and shocked at the same time that this quilt is done!  Nine years!!!  Wow!!  

Unfortunately, this is not the longest standing quilt that I have.......lol.  I'm embarrassed to say it, but I still have the one that I started back in 2011.  The Gathering Flowers quilt, however I am trying to remedy that, as I have recently been working on it.  There is a theme though going on......all my longest quilts are handwork.....slow sewing for me is REALLY slow......lol.  But I do enjoy the whole process of handwork.  I'm just not fast at it.

Take care everyone.  Don't forget to take some time for yourself.

Pulled out my Welcome to the North Pole appliqué blocks

I started this quilt some time around Aug 20th, this year.  I posted about it on Aug 25th, as I completed the first block.  I posted about finishing block two on Aug 31st and then started the third block.  That is exactly where I left off, and exactly where I am at, at the moment.  This got put aside when I started to install the baseboards in my studio and paint the ceiling, walls and baseboards, after repairing the holes from adding in some more pot lights.

I can hear what everyone is yelling at the screen as they read this.....lol.....  You don't think I've said the same thing to myself?  I know this shouldn't come out now, as I already have an appliqué quilt out.  But you know......I've been really good.  All day yesterday I was productive and I also quilted one whole section/pass of the hexagon quilt on the longarm, which took me two full hours.  I had to quit though, after I advanced the quilt and stabilized it, ready to quilt the last pass.  I sat there in front of the longarm machine, debating if I had the energy to do two more hours to finish it, but I had to face it....I didn't.

It was still early and I still wanted to do something, but I couldn't do another two hours of quilting.  While I was sitting there, I spied my blocks under the shelf, so I pulled them out to see what was what with it.....  When I saw that I only needed to appliqué the sign on the first two blocks, I thought, OH!, I can do that up real quick and call it done.....lol.  So, upstairs they came with me to work on.  

The Sprinkles Ice Cream Shoppe now has a sign.  Do you like the tree?  I used a fabric that makes it look like it is already decorated.  All so cute!

The North Pole Bakery now has a sign.  I just noticed that these two blocks have the same red fabric with dots.  Luckily for me this was intentional and the blocks are not near each other in the wall hanging.

So the two first blocks are done.  Yeah!  Now I can think about quilting them.  This quilt is being done as a quilt-as-you-go.  I am going to do this one on my domestic machine.

Today I have some cleaning and Christmas decorating to take care of.  I am hoping it will go smoothly.  Then maybe, just maybe, I can get the last pass of quilting the hexagon quilt.  That would be amazing!  Wish me luck.

Take care everyone.

More progress on the appliqué blocks

For the past few days, during my breaks and lunch, I would sit down and relax, while doing some of my hand appliqué blocks.  This first one is the one I chose to do for December.  The basket, leaves and rose buds were already completed previously.  What was left to do were the five berries and the three flowers.  So far, I did the berries and one flower.

I find the flowers a bit tedious, with all the ins and outs of the petals.  So I gave it a bit of a break and picked up this next block to work on.  I wanted to keep the momentum going and figured that working on any block will get me further ahead.  This block had the round ring of the wreath, already completed and the rose buds are already folded and pressed.  Yesterday, I basted all the leaves and started appliquéing them to the block.  Five done and seven more to go.  The cut out pieces are on the paper at the top of the picture and the actual block is at the bottom of the picture.  

We'll see how this one goes....if I finish it first, I'll count it for the December's block instead.  Either way I am making progress on this quilt, so that's great!!

Take care everyone.  Enjoy your weekend!