Preemie Quilts!

Oh how I love to make preemie quilts!  They make me so happy!  If you have been reading my blog for a while you know that I like to make some of these every year for our local NICU.

Maybe that's odd but I really do love making them :-)  We have been cleaning out the basements lately (yuck) and in one of the boxes we came across this hand pieced Grandmother's Flower garden blob that I had started about 16 years ago!  I have no intention of finishing it and I couldn't handle throwing it away; so, I cleaned it up and cut out the most useable part of it and added some borders.  

I think that it is looking pretty cute!  I never would have finished the hand sewing to make this bigger so I feel it is a good use of the blocks ;-)

Next up, I came across these hand embroidered 4-block sets at a thrift store that just screamed preemie quilt!  I completely forgot that I had these until I found the Grandmother's Flower Garden UFO.  SO, I dug it out and cut it up into blocks, added some 30's print borders and Voila!  2 little preemie quilts!  Can you believe that those are hand embroidered!  It seemed like a waste not to do something with those - someone put a lot of hours into them!

Hopefully these little quilts will be well loved by some little ones :-)  And, as a bonus for me, I get to use up some UFO's and get them out of my stash!

Do you make any preemie quilts?

Cool Blue Metro Hoops

Oh how I love to take quilt pictures at the cottage!  Even though the shadows can be hit or miss it's always fun to take pictures out doors - or at least try to :-D

I finally took my Cool Blue Metro Hoops quilt (pattern by Sew Kind of Wonderful) off the frame and finished hand turning the binding while at the cottage on a rainy day.  There is no better time to do handwork, than a rainy day at the cottage, with nothing to do, but, watch a movie, or two, and bind.

So the next sunny day we went outside and snapped some shots.

Woodpiles always make interesting props :-D

As do benches made from excess wood.

I quilted this quilt in 40 weight Glide thread in White and used pre-wound bobbins.  I have to say I loved quilting this to death!!  I took inspiration from a few different quilters' work and some of my own ideas and just went to town with rulers.  Sometimes it's fun to push yourself a bit.

After I got some shots I used the quilt for one of favourite uses for quilts.  A little R&R by the water!!  

I love to use my quilts - that's what they are for!  You can see that even though this is heavily quilted it drapes beautifully and is soft and cuddly.  I think that the Glide thread and the Hobbs cotton batting have a lot to do with this.

And apparently a little shut-eye time ;-)

So, what do you think of my cottage quilts and my Cool Blue Metro Hoops?

Signature Quilt - A Commision

Hi All!

Happy first day of August!  For the past few months I have been working, on and off, on this commission quilt.  It is a family signature quilt made from blocks that were cut out and signed at a family reunion.  The owner chose the fabrics and colours and it was my job to put them together ;-)

Some of the blocks were signed horizontally and most were signed vertically using a sharpie marker.  Since there wasn't an even number of coloured blocks I had to improvise with the setting so that no two like colours were together.  This took some manipulating!  I finally decided that there was no way to make even vertical rows so I settled for horizontal rows that were all the same length.  Given the task of placing 90 blocks this was pretty big!!

Each block was originally cut with scissors so each block had to be squared up first and then sashed in Kona black to give some negative space.  I added a pieced border around the outside so that more signatures could be added at this summer's reunion - there is no way that another 90 blocks could be added to this quilt - it is already a LARGE queen size!

I have to say that I love all the signatures and sayings and I think that this will make a wonderful keep-sake for the family to cherish through out the years.  And, to me, this is the ultimate memory quilt :-D  

What do you think?

Finally Some Quilting!!

Hi all!

As some of you know I am currently working to complete my yoga teacher training 200 hours - and - man is it taking a LOT of my energy and time!  It's not just the 200 hours of in class time, it's the hours of pre-reading, supplemental reading and follow up work and study.  Don't mistake me - I am LOVING it!  It is so rewarding and interesting - it just doesn't leave a lot of time for quilting.  It's all good!

I have managed to complete a few projects though.  I will post some more pictures later; but, I completed a commission quilt as well as a highly quilted custom quilt that I am hand sewing the binding on.  So, after I got these two quilts off the frame I thought that I would put on a charity quilt and do some free-motion quilting.

Ta da!  Nice and easy free-motion quilting in an all-over pattern!  On and off the frame all in one day - LOVE!

This quilt is destined for our local chapter of Victoria's Quilts.  I like to have a quilt or two in my quilt closet from this group so that I can do a quick project and give back.  Plus, I really like the ladies in this group and the work they do so it's a win win!

Anyways, my next yoga courses aren't until October so hopefully I will have some more time to get more quilting work done before I have to ramp up again for the fall.  I have an idea to combine my love of yoga and quilting in an easy project but we will see if I get it done!

How about you all?  Are you working on any non-quilting projects as well?

Dessert Nine-Patch

Hey there!

I am happy to be sharing even more photos today!  I had a bit better luck taking these photos but not much!

On the same day that we went out to photograph the Metro Rings quilt we went out to try and grab a few shots of my batik 9-Patch quilt.  I am happy to say that this was the best photo of the bunch!

Not too shabby, but, it could have been a lot better had we not been absolutely FREEZING trying to take this!

I actually like this photo of the quilting that I took while I was quilting this quilt.  I love the way that the dense quilting makes the 9-patches really stand out and pop.

We tried for a couple of photos while we were at the cottage.

But, while we were out on the frozen lake it started to drizzle and the wind came up.

And then my dog decided to jump into the pictures LOL!  Luckily she's very cute and lovable.  Needless to say we didn't get any magazine ready pictures but we had a lot of fun trying!

My Pictures are Working Again!

Hi all!

I know it's been forever since I blogged!  But, for some unknown, at the time, reason I couldn't upload photos to my computer for a long time!  Anyways, we finally figured it out and now photos are uploading again so I can blog - yey!

I will start to share some of the things I have been working on - I have been slowly getting those quilt tops out of the closet and onto my frame for finishing!

I finally figured out how I wanted to quilt my Sew Kind of Wonderful 1930's Metro Rings quilt.  I wanted to make it look heirloom with hatching to fit with the style.

Talk about ruler-work with this one!  But the texture is great!  I used 40 weight Glide Thread and pre-wound white bobbins.

 On one of the coldest, and windiest, days in the winter my oldest son and I went down to the park to try to take some photos.  The sky was so clear and the sun was so bright I figured it would be great.  Wrong!  We froze standing there is the wind!!

I finally gave up and put the quilt flat on the snow to take this picture of the texture :-)  It worked!  Well, it worked a lot better than standing near the water in the cold wind!

I love the texture that quilting gives to a quilt - it really makes a quilt for me.  I really love the juxtaposition of the curves in the piecing and all the straight lines in the quilting.  And looking back at these photos I can clearly remember this day with a smile on my face :-) 

Desert Nine-Patch on the Frame Again!

Hi all!

Well, after the last heavy custom quilt I finished a couple of easy all-over quilted quilts for the cottage - I will post pictures of them later ;-) and then I pulled this quilt out of my closet.  This quilt was started in 2010 and the top was finished in 2011!!! It's finishing time was now.

I had put it on the frame a year ago and took it back off because I was frustrated with my quilting as I tried to emulate the computer quilting that was on the sample.  Sigh!  I should know better than to try and emulate computer quilting!  Needless to say it has sat in the closet for almost a year!

 

I took it out and decided to completely rip the quilting that had frustrated me so much!  It took some time but I think that it was really worth it!

 

I pulled out the Sew Kind of Wonderful long-arm rulers and quilted a swag and then went from there! I am so much more happy with the way that this is going!  The nine-patches pop and the quilting is adding a secondary element :-D  

I am using 40wt Glide thread in Cream for the top and pre-wound bobbins in cream as well.

Even though I am really happy that I waited until inspiration struck I think it is time for this UFO to get finished!  I always really liked this quilt and it has sat, in the back of my mind, for all those years; but, I had to wait until I had an idea.

So, what do you think?  Was a right to wait and then rip?

Ruler Foot

Well I finally gave in.  I finally bought a ruler foot for my long-arm!   I thought that I could continue to get away with compensating and moving the ruler and eye-balling it; but, I finally gave in.

I did try, a while ago, to find a foot here in Canada; but, as my fellow Canadians will know - sometimes it can be hard to find certain things here in Canada and postage, duty and taxes crossing the border can be out of the question!  For instance - one foot I was going to order was $99.00 USD and to ship the foot to Canada they were going to charge me an additional $49.00 USD!!!  Sorry.  No way.

I finally found a dealer here in Canada and ordered the foot that I need.  It was $65.00 CND and just $15.00 in shipping.  Much more reasonable!

Anyways, I thought that I would share a couple of pictures of the foot so that if you are thinking of getting one that you won't wait like I did!

 

The foot is much taller and wider than the foot that comes on the machine.

 

In this picture you can really see how much wider that foot is.  It is 1/2" wide - 1/4" away from the needle so that doing accurate ruler work will be much easier for me.

Honestly, after looking at the two feet together I cannot believe that I waited this long!  I love doing ruler work and I have been frustrated with my lack of accuracy so hopefully with this foot I will be able to fix that.

It's so funny how I can justify not getting a simple tool like this!!   My next purchase will be the Spoon (or Glide) foot I think when they come out with one for my machine :-D

How I'd better go and load something onto the frame so I can try this out!!

Metro Medallion in the Snow!

Happy New Years!

I hope that you all had an amazing holiday season!  I know that I did :-)  It was very relaxing.  We decided to have a low-key Christmas and New Years at the cottage this year and it was so nice!  But, the weather was absolutely freezing here!

I spent quite a bit of time inside, by the fire, with a cold :-P  So, what did I do?  I worked on hand turning the binding on my Sew Kind of Wonderful Metro Medallion quilt!

 

Ta Da!  All done and outside in the snow for some pictures :-D  It was so cold that the quilt didn't even get wet from the snow - it all just brushed right off!

 

A close-up of the machine quilting.  I decided to do a pretty heavily quilted custom that was very inspired by Jenny's quilting that she showed on her blog.  I loved the way that she did the swoop in the grey and thought that I would try my hand at it.  I found that it was easiest to mark the swoop instead of purely using rulers to get the spacing absolutely correct.  It only took a few minutes and the results were much better. 

I used 40 weight FilTech Glide thread in Pearl and Cool Grey 3 on the top and the pre-wound bobbins on the back.

 

Here I am peeking from behind the quilt while standing on the frozen Lake Kamaniskeg!  This picture was actually taken quite a ways out on the lake and the ice was like glass underneath all the snow!  And yes I am wearing a great big furry toque with ear-flaps - it was cold out!

So, this quilt marks my last finish of 2017!  I think it's good to end on a high note!  Did you accomplish what you had hoped you would?  I started another Sew Kind of Wonderful project and finished the top at the cottage - that will be my next blog post!  What about you?