A Runner's Bib Quilt

Happy New Year's Eve!

I hope that you've had an amazing Holiday season full of light and peace.

And, I hope that you have a joyous and safe New Year's Eve.  We're going to be chill here.  No big plans and we might not make it to midnight.

Our Christmas was really chill as well.  At the beginning of the month I had surgery for thyroid cancer and I've spent the last month recovering and healing.  Don't worry, we caught it early.  I got a referral to an excellent ENT from my doctor who found a small node.  After an ultrasound and a biopsy, it was discovered that it was thyroid cancer.  I had surgery to remove half my thyroid and everything looks good!  

Take care of yourself my friend.  Get the tests done, stay current with your appointments and advocate for yourself.  Early detection really is key.

You're worth it.

In other news LOL!

Check out this cool runner's bib quilt I made for a client!

The bibs are all made of a sort of plastic material.

I trimmed them down since they had holes in the corners, where the pins went, and then added sashing around them.  I love this effect!  The bibs are framed in a simple black fabric that really shows off the lettering.

The new owner LOVES this quilt!  Check out how and where it's being showcased.

I couldn't be happier with how it was received.

The new owner gets to see all of his bibs, while he trains inside, and he gets a beautiful reminder and acknowledgement of his achievements.

Reflections for a next time?

* Next time I would probably do this more like a Snow Ball and add triangles onto the corners to cover the holes rather than trimming them down.  This way some of the words would still be whole instead of trimmed off quite as much.  Then add the sashing to the sides etc.

* Or, I would do a photo transfer, of each bib, onto fabric, and leave the bibs as is.  This would make for a much more cozy quilt but it would up the cost a lot if I was printing this at home both in ink and photo transfer sheets.

I really love this quilt!  I love the fireworks fabric that is between the rows, and also on the back, and I love that he gets these out of a box and onto a wall to be able to enjoy them rather than store them.  I love that this was a birthday and Christmas gift.  Quilts really are the best gift ever ;-)

What do you think?

A Rag Quilt Gift and a Rag Rectangle Trick

 

Hello my friend!

Here in Ontario we had a huge dump of snow - huge, big cotton ball flakes that turned into baking snow kind of dump.  We were out at the cottage yesterday and drove back in the very start of the snow so it was nice to be tucked into our warm house to watch instead of being on the road.  In my gratitude journal that day I wrote - so grateful for our warm house amidst the snow.  Where ever you are - I wish you a cozy, warm day too.

While at the cottage I remembered I had rag quilt squares all ready to go in a bin.  Well, imagine my surprise when I opened the bin and found that they were quilted already - I thought they were just sandwiched!  This was an awesome surprise!

That night I laid out what I had in the bin and sewed it all together.  Here it is AFTER I washed it.

We took this picture right before we got on the road and BEFORE it was washed.  I think it still looks great even before it was washed the fringe really fluffs up afterwards.

What I really like about this one is that I use the rectangular die and the square die in a scrappy sort of way so there's not a lot of seams to match up - win!  It certainly makes things easier.  This quilt is going to be a Christmas gift for a friend and I hope that she loves it!

Although the rag rectangle die for the Go cutter has been discontinued, I came up with a way for you to be able to cut rag rectangles using your regular go die back in 2014, and I wrote a short tutorial on it.  This is such a great way to use those strips of flannel that are often leftover from cutting rag squares.

I've made too many rag quilts to count over the years but here are a few of my favourites:

Red and Green Sashed Rag Quilt

Blue Snowman Rag Quilt

Cog and Gear Rag Quilt

Minecraft Creeper Rag Quilt

Minecraft Skeleton Rag Quilt

I always cut my rag quilts using my AccuQuilt Studio dies - it's my favourite way to make a rag quilt because there is NO snipping!!  No hand cramps.  Sure, they need a a little more care when they're being sewn together, but, I can tell you, I never want to make a rag quilt the other way again.  I've made so many quilts using the rag dies and even have made a video (12 years ago!) about the Go! rag die.

I look like a baby in this video!  But this shows you how long I've been using the dies to cut rag quilts.  People often ask me if the dies wear out and I have to always say - no, but the mats do.  You'll know when it's time to change your mat but just keep repositioning and flipping.

Tell me - do you love the rag dies?  Or, do you prefer to snip, snip, snip?

Christmas Quilts

Christmas Quilts.  

Are you like me?  Do you absolutely adore the combination or red and green with gold?  Or, not your cup of tea?  I don't know why but I've always adored Christmas prints and the colour combination.  That's probably why my collection of Christmas quilts is now coming in at over a dozen!

Last year I offered an evening of yoga, sound, and my Christmas quilts, and, it was so popular and well received that we're doing it again this year.  I absolutely loved seeing everyone snuggling under my Christmas quilts - it was amazing to see my love of quilting coming into the yoga room.  Last year I finished a few more Christmas quilts and this year I added a couple more scrap quilts into my collection.  I started these when I was recovering from Covid and now they are done!

First up is the Christmas Take 5 quilt.  I adore this pattern so much!  It showcases large prints beautifully and somehow this ends up looking like presents.

I use the Accuquilt Studio die for this one and highly recommend it if you enjoy this pattern.  It makes sewing this together an absolute breeze and so easy to use up scraps from other projects.

Here's a close up of the Holly Leaf Meander (as I call it).  I think this always looks so good and it really isn't hard to do at all.  I made a video of how I do it - the video isn't perfect but I hope that it shows you the technique.  If you like the video I hope that you'll click the like button and subscribe to my channel.  This is sped up about 3 x's - man I wish I could quilt this fast!

I love the red wide-back I used on this one.  I used Glide cherry thread on the top and a pre-wound red bobbin.  This red wide-back became the centre pieces for the next quilt.

Next up is a wonky Log Cabin Quilt!  I am in LOVE with this quilt!

Seriously, I think this is the most fun piecing that I've had in a while.  I was able to use up little bits and pieces and it honestly did not matter what size the strips were, or, even if they were straight.  I just sewed and it was wonderful. ALL of this came from my stash including the red snowflake border (that was purchased to make masks) that was enough for borders and binding. 

Like I mentioned, the red centres are from the wide-back and they are all various sizes.  I tear my wide-backs, so they're straight of grain and way easier to load, so I had sort of an odd size strip to work with and just went with that for the centres.  I think the different sizes adds to the interest in this quilt.

This used up so many scraps!  So many little bits that I was saving - you know those bits that are just too small to be usable but way too big to throw out?  Well, here they are!  I used my 10.5" square die to square this up but I have to say, next time, I would square these up to 6.5" (finishing at 6") so that I wouldn't have to find such large scraps for the outside.

Now check out the back - I am thrilled about this backing.

Many years ago I used to work for a quilt store.  The owner loved country fabrics, primitives and homespuns.  Not really my thing but hey I still purchased fabric there!  Well, these homespuns have been sitting in my stash for over 15 years!  I have no idea why I had these - I think they might have been for a rag jacket (red would be the sleeves and binding I think) that I never got around to making.

I pulled them out and started to piece them together, in a way that made sense to me, and added the yellow and gold flannels in to make it larger.  This was perfect for Covid recovery because it was easy and there was no right way to do it - kind of like the from of this quilt!

Voila!

A red, green, and gold backing for my scrap quilt - all from my stash, using fabrics that I wasn't crazy about, but, I love for a backing.

So what do you think of my new Christmas quilts?