Small Town Quilt Shopping

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope that you all had a great Christmas and are preparing for a wonderful New Years!

We're up at the cottage right now and we got snowed in!  We were having unseasonably nice weather until yesterday when we got a huge dump of snow!

I should have snapped a picture yesterday when the great, big cotton ball looking snow flakes were falling - it was spectacular!

What wasn't spectacular was shovelling out and being unable to leave the cottage because the roads were icy.  As we are pretty far out we are some of the last to be salted - no worries!

I managed to get everything accomplished that I wanted to - and then some.  So, if you can believe it, I ran out of projects; and, I didn't have anymore fabric to play with - gasp!!  I had to shop for more!

I knew that there was a small fabric section in the local Steadman's Department Store so we went today as we needed some groceries and other supplies.  I have purchased thread and needles there before but I haven't really taken more than a few minutes to look around as we are always driving through.

Lots of fabric variety for a really small town!!

Quilting stencils and more fabric.  Some good quilt shop quality and some lesser quality but good stuff!

This notion isle is a real life saver for the quilter at the cottage!  Let's just say I wasn't the only quilter on vacation in that isle today ;-)  It has pretty much everything you might need (and good prices too!!!.

I managed to find some fabrics (of course!); including, a perfect fish flannel fabric that I will be basing a baby quilt around.

I had a great time today chatting with some local quilters and receiving absolutely amazing and attentive service.  Sure the selection wasn't as big as a city store; but, the service was second to none and I found some fabrics to make a project today and tomorrow as well as good quality, affordable wide-backs and solids.

I love small towns :-D

What are you doing today to keep out of the weather?

On A Roll With Projects!

Hi everyone!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas!  So far mine has been amazing!!  So relaxing up here at the cottage, visiting with family, and, doing some quilting!

I was inspired by my Christmas quilts to pull out this UFO Christmas quilt that had everything done on it except one thing - yep - the hand sewing!  All that had to be finished was turing the binding to the back of the quilt.  Sigh, I so often leave projects here; or, at least really want to.  I don't necessarily enjoy hand turning the binding to the back but I really enjoy the look and feel of it.

So I sat for a couple evenings slowly working on the binding.  Why slowly?  Well, I was watching movies with my family and enjoying their company; and, besides, I was in no rush!  You can see the hanging sleeve and binding all sewn into place except the last few inches of binding!!!

And, there we have it!  The finished Blazing Star quilt!!  I am very happy with it and so happy that it is finished!  Yey!!  A day late sure, but, still up for the Christmas holidays!

I used the Accuquilt Blazing Star die and the pattern that comes with the die to make this quilt.  It went together so nicely using the dies cuts!  Next time I think that I would add some green to the quilt but I do like the red and gold ;-)

Next up I will be finishing a larger bed sized quilt binding.  I might have it done tonight but I wanted to get this quilt on the wall for Boxing Day; so, I chose to put it aside and finish this one.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's project!!

Christmas at the Cottage

Merry Christmas everyone!!

I hope that you are all having an absolutely wonderful day full of love and light!

We decided to spend this Christmas at the cottage - since it is our first season with it - and - since the weather is so beautiful and green!  We have loved every minute of it here and are cherishing family but also being out in the woods and at the water.

I decided to bring up my Christmas bed quilts so that we could have them at the cottage and still enjoy them.  Plus, they make wonderful, easy, decorations.

I find that overtime I pull them out and put them on the beds that I take a little walk down memory lane and remember making these quilts and the fabrics in them.  I do a lot with scrap fabrics so when I lay these quilts out and run my hands across them I can't help but look at the individual fabrics and remember the projects they came from.  

2010 Crazy Short Cut Christmas Quilt.

2012 Christmas Quilt A Long I designed.

2005 Leaders and Enders Scrap Christmas Quilt.  I never really blogged on this quilt since I started this blog in 2006 but you can see the first mention of it in the link.

2004 Christmas Tree Skirt - pre-blog!!

These are just a few things that I decided to bring up for Christmas but I have so many others LOL!  

Do you have any favourite Christmas projects that you just love bringing out?

How to Quilt it??

Hi all!

I pulled out this Hunter's Star quilt I made a while back with the intention of quilting it.  Then I remembered why I put it away.

Oh ya!  I have no idea how I want to quilt this LOL!

I want to do an all-over for this one because there as so many seams and it is such high contrast.

But, what colour would go all-over this?  I think I will use my Loricles Egyptian Eye grooved board, or, maybe the swirls, and do an an edge to edge pattern.  But, what thread would look good from edge to edge?  The sandy gold?  The green gold?  The chartreuse?  

I'll wait until daylight and look again when it is light.

What would you do?

Quilt Repairing

Hi all!

A friend of mine asked me for my help.  She said - Katrina I have a quilt, that my Grandmother made, that is badly damaged.  I know I should throw it out (she doesn't sew) but I love it so much!  Can you take a look at it?  Of course I said yes!

Well, the quilt was old, frail, and, badly damaged.  This quilt has been well loved, and, well used!

There are several smaller holes like this one.

And one massive one!!!!  Ohhh man!

I said - my dear this is an heirloom quilt!  I shouldn't touch it!  She said - I want to use it.  I love it - I don't care what you have to do I want to use this quilt again.  Every bone in my body was screaming - no, no, no!!

She trumped me - she said - well, I guess I should just throw it out then.  At that point I said - let me see what I can do - sigh.

She said - I have extra pieces that her Grandmother didn't use in the quilt - oh this is getting better I thought!

Turns out she had extra pinwheels!  The quilter had matching stitched the hand turned pinwheels onto the quilt - joy!  I can do that!

We talked about it and she said - just put these over the holes and do the best you can - I want to use the quilt again.  She kept stressing how much she loved the quilt and wanted to use it again.  Long story short - this quilt is going to be worn out from loving it.  That's what made me take these steps to repair it as best I could.

I should have taken more photos but I appliquéd the wheels down after whip sticking the holes closed.  Not ideal; but, the quilt can be loved again!

Personally I love the scattered pinwheels and I love that they are original (albeit left-overs) to the quilt!

Before anyone jumps down my throat about working on an heirloom quilt like this; please, take a look at the damage and also note that this quilt was destined to be possibly thrown out b/c she thought that it wasn't good anymore.  This way the quilt can be loved and used - like a hug from her Grandmother :-)