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?