Rearranging Quilts

I decided to put some new quilts on the wall in my sewing studio. I am trying to decide if I want to try and sell a couple of quilts so I thought that I would put, the one on the left, up on the wall to see if it grows on me :) Well, putting these two quilts up in the corner above the gas fireplace has completely transformed this corner! I actually like the two quilts together. The quilt on the right is called "Sue's Favourite Blocks" I designed it as a Block of the Month (BOM) for my local quilt guild. I designed this quilt so that people would learn a new skill or unit each month. I wanted to make it so that if people made a block for the guild draw and a block for themselves they will have a nice wall quilt for themselves. The project went over really well and people liked doing a sort of group project.

As a side not I am completely determined to redo my quilting room this summer. I think that I will paint the walls a light tan or cream and put in berber carpet. I like carpet in this room because I like to sit on the floor in this room. It will be A LOT of work just to take all he "stuff" out of this room but I think that it will be worth it in the end.

Baby Quilt Finished

Well, I finished another baby quilt and it is delivered to the woman who ordered it from me! She is really happy with it so that is always really rewarding. Even though they picked out the fabrics and the pattern themselves I couldn't help but be a bit worried that they wouldn't like it. I always get like that :) every time I give a quilt as a gift I worry that they won't like it.

Do we all worry that our work will be appreciated and liked? Probably. It's silly though.


I have another baby quilt to make for two of our friends who are due in May and I had a bit of a brainwave today about it. I think that I will do another 4-patch 1-patch quilt using the yellow and white patches and the blue batik bears as the feature fabric. You can see the border fabric with corner-stones but I am not sure what to do for the first border. I have three different fabrics in there. I like the pink/purple fabric or the green the best I think. We are not sure about the sex of the baby so I am leaning towards the green fabric myself but a purple batik might be nice too. I'll have to go and hunt through my stash again :)

Which fabric do you guys think would look nice for the first border and probably binding?

Latest Projects

Hi all;
I haven't been blogging much lately because I have been working hard on this project here. It is my latest sweatshirt jacket. I finally finished covering the sweatshirt with batik pieces and finished with the decorative stitching using a gold rayon thread. I used the stitch and flip method to do the crazy patch using the sweatshirt pieces as the foundation. I like this technique because after you are done the stitching the quilting is done but I really think that the decorative stitching adds a lot to the garment and provides a bridge between the colours. I am thinking of adding some machine embroideries to some of the patches to really set the jacket off and make it a bit more like traditional crazy patch quilts. When I teach this class again, on Saturday, I will assemble the jacket and add the binding. I am thinking about curving the neckline for some added interest. If you'd like to see my tutorial for making a sweatshirt jacket please go to this page for part one and this page for part two.
I am going to start another baby quilt today as well. I am going to use the same pattern as the quilt that I made here. It is my favourite baby quilt pattern and I love the size that it makes up. I am making it for a woman to give to her grandson. They want it a bit longer than I usually make it but that isn't a problem. The top fabric is the feature fabric and the others are the supporting fabrics. The bottom fabric is a really nice flannel fabric for the back. I think that it is going to turn out very nicely :) The fabrics are washed now to press and start cutting.

Hearts Fabric Postcards

Hi all!

It's been a while since I've blogged. I've been a a bit of a knitting kick right now so I actually haven't done all that much sewing. I've made a few pair of slippers for myself and my boys, and, to be honest, I've forgotten how long it takes to knit things :) I want to move onto socks, since I LOVE hand-knit socks, but, I hate how much they cost :) Isn't that always the way :)

I have, however, made up a bunch of these lips and hearts snow globe fabric postcards for a yahoo group postcard swap. I really enjoy making these cards to swap with other people from around the globe. They are fun to make, and, you can try out many different techniques without making the big commitment of a quilt. These ones use use clear vinyl to encase various confetti and beads and anything else that you might want. When you shake them the "stuff" moves around. If I get started early enough, I will make some Christmas ones for my Christmas cards this year. They take awhile so making 30 something might be a stretch.

Another Baby Quilt Finished

I finally finished that baby quilt that I bought the fabric for ages ago! I used my favorite one-patch, four-patch baby quilt pattern and I had the entire top made and quilted in a day. I also had the binding machine sewn on. Turning the binding to the back by hand, however, is another thing. It took four sittings for me to hand-turn the binding to the back. What is it about me and hand-turning the binding to the back?? I really like doing hand appliqué but something about hand-turning the binding really bores me :) I have friends that just LOVE doing it and can't wait to start the binding. Me? Not so much! It is the last step in making the quilt but I will put it off for as long as possible. Yes, I do know various ways to machine bind; but, I just don't like the look of them as much. How pathetic is that? :) I like the look but I don't like to bind by hand. LOL! Enough on my rant about binding.

What is your favorite way of binding?

Another UFO Finish - #20

Well, I finally finished it :) This was a small wall hanging that I started about 8 years ago and I think was my third quilt project. My friend gave me the fish panel, and, I don't know why, but, I decided to border it in Japanese fabric. Hmmm? I wonder what I was thinking at the time LOL.

Anyways this is another project that I sliced the border on and put away for a number of years. Can you see a trend here at all?? LOL! Well, I finally finished it up this week and I am glad to get it out of the pile. It is only 21" square so it just seems like such a silly little project to have as a UFO. Oh well, it is finished now.

Next I need to finish up the baby quilt that I picked the fabric for a while back; and, I need to make a baby quilt for some people that commissioned one from me. After that, it is on to a wedding quilt that I need for the end of June. I have a good idea for the pattern and I think that I will use some of my own hand-dyes for it. I hope that the couple will like it. So many quilts so little time!! Life is good.

My 30's Quilt is on the Frame!

Hi all;
I thought that I would share a picture of my 1930's Dresden Plate quilt on the hand quilting frame. We just started hand quilting it last week but I forgot my camera. You can see a few lines of quilting at the bottom of the picture. I just love this quilt. It is so fresh and bright looking and I really think that it will be perfect on the bed in the summer time. I think that I may make some pillow cases to go with it (at some point!). The more I think about putting prairie points around the outside the more I like that idea. I think that it will really tie in with the points on the Dresden Plates. It will also use up some more of my 30's prints! As usual, I bought WAY too much fabric. I am also thinking about doing a sweatshirt jacket out of the 30's prints. It would be a nice jacket for the spring.

Tonight is our quilt guild night. I didn't make it to the last meeting since my husband didn't get home from work in time. I told him not to worry about getting home fast because the roads were really icy and it was really foggy. Oh well!! I live in Canada :)

Christmas UFO Completed

Hi all;
Well I got UFO #19 completely finished! I liked the layout of the scrap half-square triangles so I went with it! Luckily I had enough of the background fabric and some more batik for the borders. I used up a Christmas brushed cotton that was left-over from the back of a Christmas quilt I made a while ago and there was just enough for the backing and for a sleeve. I love using up left-overs like that.

I tried a slightly different feather quilting for this quilt and used Yenmet metallic threads for the first time. It worked really well and I am pleased with the result. I'm not sure if you can really see it but it is there :)

I think that I am going to rewrite my UFO list so that I take some out and maybe add in a few as well. Now to quilt the other little wall hanging.

More UFO Completions

Hi all!
I got UFO #18 completely finished yesterday! Here it is! Four place mats and a center piece or separate table topper. I can't tell you how pleased I am to have finished this. I just have to package it up, and, send it off now, and, see if the couple likes it. I hope that they do. I have made a vow to myself to stop buying pre-printed place mat panels. I have one more to finish, that has tea cups on it, but after that NO MORE!! I find that they actually take quite a bit of time, and, are not that much fun for me anymore. Back when I bought this project, about 4 years ago, I thought that these were the best ever; but, I like other things now. When I was doing another set I actually figured it out that start to finish, including machine quilting, they took me about an hour each. Ah well!! They are finished now.

I was so inspired by this completion that I pulled out another UFO that has been bugging me. I really wanted to get this one done before Christmas but hey it will be done for next Christmas. This is a whole bunch of half square triangles that I made several years ago while demonstrating the Eleanor Burns Triangle Square Up Ruler. I made a small quilt out of four of the center blocks that you see there and these were the left-overs. These have been sitting there in a ziplock bag all these years just waiting for something to be done with them. I pulled them out and placed them in what I think is a pleasing arrangement. Luckily I had enough of the background fabric to fill in the blanks and I put the quilt top together yesterday after I finished with the place mats. It is now basted and waiting to be quilted! I'll post a picture of it when I finish it off (maybe tomorrow or so).

I got so inspired that I actually pulled out another UFO and finished the top and basted it as well. This one is one of my first projects and has been sitting there for almost 9 years! It is another instance where I cut into the border fabric. I looked at it again and said "Ah, the borders are too big anyways!" So, the borders on this quilt got cut down as well. After I finish quilting it I will post a picture of it as well.

So all told that means that I am finished or making progress on UFO's #18, #19 and #20! Not too bad!

Tackling Another UFO

Hi all!
Even though I finished 17 UFO's in 2007 I still have many more to go! Some of these are really silly UFO's and some I really don't want anymore. I think that I will have to take a very close look at some of them and decide if I want to give them away or add them to our guild's yard sale. I did manage to turn several of my UFO's into gifts and baby quilts which made me really happy. I'm actually at a stage right now where I feel bogged down by my UFO's and unmotivated to start any new projects. I have made the resolution to either finish these projects or get rid of them! They are causing me undue stress and anxiety over completing them! This is causing me to not really want to quilt as much as I used to. I think that I will have to be brutally honest with myself and chop the UFO heap to only the projects that I actually WANT to be finished and either want to KEEP or want to GIVE AWAY. What do you think? I figure that there is no point in draining myself over projects that I really have no interest in anyways. Who cares if I lose some money in giving these projects away; I really think that my motivation is worth more than a few dollars.

This UFO is, I believe, a Kathy Schmitz panel that I purchased about 4 years ago to make 4 place mats and a table topper. I cut everything out and put the borders on the place mats. Then, with a quick slip of the rotary cutter, I sliced into the stack of place mats and made about a half inch cut into them. I was so mad, and, I didn't have enough of the border print to take off the top border and replace it. So into a bag it went to sit for a few years. You can see the little sliced bits at the top of the place mats.

This UFO has been really bothering me; because, I could have it finished in no time at all. Well, I pulled it out this morning and got a brain-wave! Why not just trim the half inch off the top and bottom! So, I did, and, I think that they look just fine! I pulled the Kathy Schmitz pinkish star fabric out of my stash as a suitable backing fabric and I think that I will try to finish these up today! I have a friend whose house I think that these would go very nicely in and would enjoy a late Christmas gift of them. I feel pretty good about this UFO since this one was really bothering me; and, I was able to pull out of my stash.

On another note. I finished the Dresden Plate quilt top and completely marked it! After I had finished marking it I decided that the border would need more quilting so I went back around it again and added more. I'm not sure if you can see the marking very well or not in this picture. I did a one inch cross-hatch all over the body of the quilt, and, in the center of the dresden plates. I did a single hatch coming out from the saw tooth border; but, that didn't seem tight enough, so, I added in another line a quarter inch in from that line. I used the Clover blue was away pen. Quilt marking takes so much time and if you try to do it fast it looks horrible. Ah well! It goes on the frame on Tuesday night to be quilted by the bee that I belong to "The Silver Thimbles." I can't wait! I got the new 90% silk and 10% polyester batting put out by Hobbs to try this time :)

I Finished the Little Sheep Rug

Hi all!
I finished the little sheep rug and I wanted to post a photo of it for you all. A friend of mine gave me the great orange wool to whip the edges with and I have to say that I think that it is a perfect match for the orange in the rug. I added the little C's and G's into the body of the sheep because I thought that it would look too dull without it. I really didn't like this project, when I started, it to be honest, but, it has since grown on me. I was making it for a Christmas gift but that space has passed now LOL! I think that I may keep it for myself now!

I have also finished marking my 1930's Dresden Plate Quilt. The marking took me hours!!!! I cannot stress that enough :) I think that I probably spent about 9 hours marking this quilt! I completely hate marking a quilt so this was a real chore but I think that it will be worth the effort! I'll post a picture tomorrow maybe :)

World's Stupidest Quilting Mistake!!

Well I've done it!

I have made the world's stupidest quilting mistake today! I was putting on the last two borders for my 1930's Dresden plate quilt. Everything was going along well. I measured the center of the top to find out how long to cut the borders. I was using corner-stones so I measured to the borders. But, wait for it, I measured to the inside of the first (pieced) border not to the outside of the pieced border!!!!! I even reconfirmed this measurement three times!! So I cut my borders, on the lengthwise grain, 5 full inches too short! You can see this in the picture. What was I thinking! Thank goodness I have enough extra fabric that I can get another two borders out of it! I had been thinking to bind it in the background fabric but that idea is shot now! Well, I guess I could still use the mis-cut border fabric. Oh well. I was also thinking that prairie points and a mock binding, out of the purple, would be nice. I guess that's what I'll do now.

Other than that I think that the quilt is turning out very nicely :) So be honest have you ever heard of a stupider quilting mistake?? Maybe it's a full moon!

New computer and Rug Hooking

Hi all!
I hope that everyone has had a wonderful holiday season. I received an IMac for Christmas :) What a lucky girl I am! I have to say that it is really wonderful and sooo much better than my old PC. My poor old PC would chug along and crash on me. So I have been in the process of trying to remember my passwords for my e-mail accounts and this blogger account. What a lot of passwords for everything! Now to get my ITunes library transfered over :)

I have been working on a little rug hooked sheep over the holidays. I wasn't really sold on it when I first got it but I have to say that it is really growing on me :) I added the little swirls in the sheep's body as a detail; but, I'm still not really sold on it yet. I like the way that the nine-patch squares are working out in the background though. I was thinking of expanding it a bit by putting a picket fence or something around the outside of the sheep. There is quite a bit of burlap left around the outside of the sheep so I think that it might look nice.

Now I just need to get onto finishing the 30's Dresden Plate quilt top for next week!

A New Baby Quilt in the Making!

Hi all!

Here is one of my next project! I have a new baby quilt to make! Yey! Well, actually I have two now to make but this is the next one that needs to be finished LOL!

This quilt will be a simple one patch four patch design. The bottom fabric is the feature fabric and border fabric. The yellow poke-a-dot fabric is going to be in the four-patches and the small orange is the first border. The orange batik fabric is actually from the expectant parents' wedding quilt. You can see the quilt here. The top green fabric is the brushed cotton backing fabric. The pattern that I am going to use is from the Ursula Reikes book Quilts for Baby: Easy as ABC. I've done it before several times and I always really like it (you can see another one here). I like a simple baby quilt so that people will use it instead of putting it away to be an heirloom! Do you like my fabrics?

Christmas Pencil Toppers Finished

Hi all!
We are starting to get really close to Christmas and I am working frantically trying to finish up a few more Christmas projects!

Here is another one finally finished! I thought that I would make Christmas pencil toppers for my two son's classes. Well 44 toppers, and many hours, later I have them finished!! Wow! I don't know if I will do this again but it was fun to do it at least once! I think that this project would have been better started in the summer LOL!

The snow man is from Ann the Gran and the Christmas tree is a freebie from Embroidery Garden. They both stitch out very nicely and use felt as the backing so it's not all a fill! just add a pencil into the spot underneath and you are finished. I am going to go out tomorrow and see if I can get some Christmas pencils for the kids. I think that would really complete the gift.

How are your holiday projects going??

Snowmen Fabric Postcards

I finally finished making these snowmen fabric postcards today! I will get them out into the mail tomorrow and heave a sigh of relief. I don't know what I was thinking signing up for a swap that had to ship out right before Christmas; especially, with all the fabric postcards that I made for friends and family. I really liked the theme of the swap and I love that it is so international. Two of the cards are going to Australia, one to Turkey and one to France. I think that's pretty cool!

With all the snow that we have had over the past couple of weeks I could have built about a dozen or two snowmen in my front yard today!

Christmas Fabric Postcards

Hi all!

Well, this is this year's batch of Christmas fabric postcards! They are finally done! What a lot of work but I just love them :) All the white ones are addressed and ready to go I just have to do the coloured ones. I bought some of those clear peel and stick envelopes that a lot of people use and I think that I will put them in the envelopes this year since the postcards are white. What do you think? I bought a few hundred of them so I don't mind using them :)

These were fun cards to make. I saw the metallic net fabric at Fabric Land a few weeks back and thought that it would be a nice easy way to make cards if I layered the fabric over other fabric. I didn't buy any of it and so the idea took firm root in my mind. I went back a week later and guess what?? It was on 50% off!! Gotta' love that! So I grabbed a meter of each and then dug into my stash for some other fabrics.

The white trim is just a knitting yarn. I think that it really finishes them off and makes them look cozy.

Are you all done your Christmas preparations yet?

Christmas Yo Yo's

Hi all!

Here is a yo yo Christmas tree garland that I started a while ago! Now that I am thinking about putting up the tree I thought that I would pull it back out and start sewing the yo yo's together. I am using the Clover yo yo maker and it is wonderful!!! I saw this idea several years ago in a quilting magazine and loved it but I really didn't want to make yo yo's the traditional way. Way to tedious for me :) So when this tool came out I promptly got it and started these. I figure that this can be one of these projects that I add to every year and it just gets better and better. I have realized though that I need to make a whole lot more of these and in many different fabrics if I want the garland to be interesting :)

Now I just need to finish a couple more gifts and my Christmas fabric post cards and I will be all set!! How are you all doing with your Christmas projects??

The Center of the Dresden Plate Quilt is Finished

Well here is the center of the 1930's Dresden Plate quilt! I really like the way that it is turning out so far. It's so cheerful and very different from anything that i have made so far. I usually use a lot darker colours so this is out of my comfort zone a bit. I think that it will be so nice for the summer time. I will be putting a sawtooth border on next followed by a solid white border.

This quilt will be hand quilted, in the bee that I belong to, in crosshatch. I think that it is going to look beautiful when it is finally finished.

I am a terrible blogger

Hi all! Sorry I have been MIA lately. I haven't actually been doing that much sewing lately and what I have done I have done for other people. I machine quilted two quilts for a friend of mine and made a bunch of neckerchiefs for the local Wolf Cub Troop that my son belongs to. Lots of busy work but not for me LOL!

The one quilt that I am working on is for my Quilting Bee "The Silver Thimbles." It is a 1930's reproduction Dresden Plate quilt. I am using the Mardi Michelle templates and hand appliquéing it. So far it is turning out wonderfully! My quilt goes on the frame next to be hand-quilted by the group. I love hand-quilting in a bee! There is something really wonderful about sitting around in a group and working on a project together.

I need to work on some more UFO's and get them out of the way and I need to start working on some Christmas presents. I need to make some place mats etc. And, I need to embroider some ornaments. Oh so many things to do!

Rug hooking mug mats

Hi all!
I hope that everyone is well in blogging land!

These are some rug hooked mug mats that I just finished. I drew the patterns on some burlap and hooked them with some left-over pre-cut strips. They were really fast to hook up and did actually use up some scraps. Then I steamed them and glued some cork-board to the back of them. I didn't whip the edges or anything I just turned them to the back. Whipping the edges seemed like too much work for these little coasters :) Maybe I'm just lazy!?? Anyways, on to the next project!!
I got this older rug hooking pattern from a fiber show a few weeks ago. It is an older Rittermere pattern and still had the original tag on it. I'm not sure if you can really see it but I am going to do the sun flowers in yellow, the star in orange, the background in blues and I'm not really sure about the boarder. What do you all think? I think maybe that the first boarder would look good red and the second black; but, my husband says no! Maybe a dark green would be nice actually HMMMMM! Too many decisions sometimes :)

Sorry about another rug hooking post but I do love doing it!

Hummel Emboirderies

I am currently stitching out some of the Pfaff Hummel collection of embroideries. I started these about three years ago and never got around to finishing them! I feel so bad :( Anyways, they are wonderful embroideries and very well digitized. I have 12 done her but I can't decide if I should do 16 or 20 of the embroideries to make a wall quilt.

I would also like your help on the borders. I am thinking of a thin flap of the brown around each Hummel followed by a small, maybe 2" sashing around each block. You can just see the sashing fabric in the top right hand corner. What do you think? I would really appreciate some help with this one :)

Another Sweatshirt Jacket

Hi all!

I put the finishing stitches in the binding on this jacket this morning! I am happy to finally have finished this jacket. I made it for a friend (who owns the local quilt shop) and it was started in the spring if you can believe it. I cut apart the sweatshirt and did almost all of the piecing then I put it away until this week :) I really didn't do too much sewing at all this summer and this was one of the projects that got put away. It's very embarrassing that I put it away for so long especially when it is for someone else. Oh well!

Here's the back of the jacket. Just a very simple piecing pattern. I cut 4 1/2" strips and joined them together. Then I made them all into a tube and sub-cut it into 4 1/2" tubes. I rotated the tubes until I found where I wanted the pieces and then cut them apart. Very simple but with such amazing fabric you really don't need anything fussy.

If you want to see my explanation on how I do sweatshirt jacket you can check it out in my older blog post Part 1 and Part 2.

If you have any questions at all please feel free to post them and I will do my best to answer them.

An Older baby Quilt

Hi all!

I thought that I would share this photo of an older baby quilt with you all. I made this about 2 years ago for two very dear friends of ours. The baby's father and my husband go bird watching together so I thought that a backyard birds quilt would be great for them. From top left and down we have a chickadee, a cardinal, a gold finch, a blue bird and a nuthatch. They are all completely out of proportion but hey! They still really like it! The embroideries all com from Ann the Gran website and are free designs. i really liked how they all stitched out and the little boy who recieved the quilt still absolutely loves it. When I was trying to take this picture he was trying to pick the quilt up off the floor to take it back. I think that that is one of the most rewarding reactions that you can get from a child about their quilt! When I took the quilts back last summer to repair them the three children, to whom they were given, were all a little bit disturbed that their quilts were being taken away (even for just a little while!). I know that that might sound a little odd but it means that the quilts are loved and appreciated. And, to me, that is what quilt making is all about :)

More preserving :)

Hi all!
Again it is not quilting but here is what I did today :) I put up two full bushels of Roma tomatoes! We bought the tomatoes at the Parkdale Market in Ottawa yesterday and last night I chopped one 10 pound bag of onions and and about 6 pounds of chili peppers and red peppers. Wow was that a lot of work but it made a massive difference when it came to doing all the tomatoes this morning. I started preserving this morning at about 8:30 am and i finished at about 4:00 pm. Whew! You can see a picture of the three tomatoes sauces here. On the far end is tomato sauce with onions and red peppers and chilies. Big pot closest to us is tomatoes with onions and red peppers and the small pot is just crushed tomatoes.
Finally at about 4:00 pm or so today I had all the jars water processed and labeled! Not too bad huh? I can't believe that I was able to do this many tomatoes all in the same day! My secret is the Lee Valley European Tomato Press! It is the most amazing thing and if you like to preserve tomatoes you should definitely get one. This is not an ad I'm just saying that this is something that you can not live without once you've tried it :) 8 years ago I tried to process one full bushel of tomatoes the old fashioned way and it took me three days! (Maybe I'm slow) With the Lee Valley press we did two full bushels today! All you do it take off the stem end of the tomatoes and quarter them; put them into a pot and scald them until they release their jouice and their skins start to come away from the flesh; then put them though the press. I put them through the press three times to get the most out of the pulp. The press removes all the skins and the seeds! How cool is that!! Sorry but I just love this press a lot and it has eliminated a million hours from my preserving hours!

BTW I use this for jams in exactly the same way :)

Sorry about another no quilting post but this took up a lot of my time and I wanted to share my day with you all :)

Another Baby Quilt

Hi all!

Thank you all for your responses on if it is me or my age. I really enjoyed reading all your comments and found your perspectives very interesting. I really appreciate it!


I finished and delivered another baby quilt to a new-born little baby girl yesterday. What a cutie! The Mother is also a quilter so she really appreciated the quilt. I think that just because the Mom is a quilter doesn't mean that she shouldn't get baby quilts as well LOL! This is a pattern from Ursula Reikes' book "Quilts for Baby: Easy as ABC". I love her baby quilt books! She has I think 3 or 4 out and I would highly recommend them. The patterns are a good size and simple enough to whip up in no time at all. I have done this pattern several times and really like it since it showcases a nice children's print so well. This is one of the few baby quilts that I have had the opportunity to do for a little girl. I had to actually go and purchase the pink ducky fabric because I just didn't have really any baby girl fabrics! Shucks, I had to go fabric shopping LOL! It seems that most of our friends have had boys. Hmm . . . .so much for women being 52% of the population! :) Just watch now my friends will all start having little girls now :) Well, another excuse to shop for some more fabric :) Like I need an excuse :)

Is it me or is it my age??

I have to say this is a question that comes to my mind very often when I go into a new quilt shop. When I was on vacation last week I went into a quilt shop that I've never been in before. There was only one other customer at the time and they were having a great conversation then she left within a minute of me coming in. I said hello to the owner and smiled the owner just smiled at me and said "Let me know if you need anything" and proceeded to go and sit down in the back and start to sew. I looked around the shop for about 10 more minutes and took some bolts off the shelf looked at the fat quarters. I was the only person in the shop and she didn't even look at me again. I was going to purchase some fat quarters but then I thought "No way! Why should I after that service!"

At another time I was in a quilt store and I asked a question about a pattern for a Lone Star type of a quilt. The worker looked at me and handed me a pattern for an easy nine-patch quilt and said "Maybe you'd be better with this pattern." I couldn't believe it!

Now don't get me wrong I've had great service all over the place; but, I have to wonder if it is my age that's the problem. I am in my mid-thirties and I have been quilting since my late twenties. I ask this question because I have seen women of an older generation getting excellent service from the same quilt store employees. I've even been in one store several times and I keep getting the same service (I've stopped going there now). Do people assume that because I am younger that I can't be a serious quilter or that they'd be wasting their time with me? You'd think that store owners would want to foster the younger quilters not discourage them. I guess I just don't understand this one. I would love to know your view-points on this one :)

Not quilting or sewing but it's what I did yesterday!

Hi all!

I thought that I would post a photo of the work that I did yesterday! I know that it's not quilting or sewing but it took me 11 1/2 hours to make all of these so I thought that I would post it. I allowed myself 6 hours to process a whole bushel of pickling cucumbers and man was I wrong. I finished the last batch at 11:30 pm last night. I was exhausted!

From left to right: sweet sliced dills, bread and butter pickles, lemon cucumber pickles (this one is new to me) sandwich stacker dills, and kosher-style dills. I love doing preserving work in late summer. I love looking at all the different colours in the jars and knowing that I made it myself. I have done jam the past two years so this year I decided that it was pickles and tomatoes that would be put up. Do you guys do canning as well?

UFO Finish #16! for 2007

Hi all;
Sorry I haven't been blogging much :) I really haven't been sewing much and the weather has just been so wonderful right now that I want to be outside.
I have just finished my UFO #16 for the year. This one was left over units that I made while demonstrating the Eleanor Burns Triangle Square Up Ruler and flying geese ruler way back when! I made it into a baby quilt that will be on its way very soon. I am very pleased to get this one finished since there was no reason for it to be left for so long! I have got to learn my lesson and finish things soon after starting them :)

More Fabric Postcards

Hi all!

Are you all as excited about the release of Harry Potter 7 tomorrow as I am :) I will be spending the weekend with a good book and a few cups of tea I think :)

Here are my latest fabric post cards. These are for three different swaps. On the far left is "June Brides." I did the ring-bearer pillow complete with rings. In the middle is "Orange You Glad" and this one was completely open as to what we could do. On the far right is "Somethings Fishy." I did small snow globes with fish confetti in them. When you shake them the fish all move around. I got motivated and finished all these swaps early and mailed them out so that I could enjoy watching the cards come in without worrying about getting mine finished. I find that when inspiration and motivation strike you gotta go with it!

Smiles For Children

Hi all!
I have been working on getting a box of embroidered items ready to ship out to the Smiles For Children Project. People from around the world send items in to a wonderful woman who bags them up and ships them to places around the world where the children have very little. I've been working with this project for a couple of years now and just love it. We make tic-tac-toe boards, finger puppets, paper dolls, pencil toppers and sucker covers and much more :) If you have an embroidery machine and would like to volunteer, or would just like more information, you can check out the link on the right or here. You can also see one of my previous shipments here. I did more sucker covers and pencil toppers this time and I am running my x's and o's right now. I think that the kids will like them? What do you think?

Fabric Post Card Display

Hi all;

I thought that I would post a photo of the way that I have just found to display my fabric post cards. This is a cafe curtain wire rod system from Ikea :) Here is a link to it if you want to see it. It has little clips that clip onto the top of the cards and an adjustable thick wire that is strung a few inches away from the wall. I was never happy with the way that I had them tacked up onto the wall; and, when we were in Ikea the other day I was looking at this system and a light bulb went on over my head. I love "a ha!" moments. I am going to go back and get a couple more of these. I also think that they would be great for hanging small wall quilts. Sorry the picture couldn't take in the entire post card display but this is the best that I could do :)

Quilt Guild Challenge Quilt

Hi all;
We had out quilt guild final meeting for the year last night. Wow what a great meeting :) We had a potluck appetizer type of buffet and the judging to the challenge last night.

The challenge was neat. We had 32 people enter so the challenge got divided into two groups. Out of the groups of 16 we all had to submit one meter of fabric. The next month we got back 1/16 of each of the meters of fabric. We were allowed to add one neutral and one other fabric.

This is my entry into the challenge. It is a pattern called "Magic Circles' from the book Scrap Frenzy by Sally Schneider. The pattern appealed to me since I teach pilates and we use a tool called a magic circle. The rings are mostly the different fabrics but my "other" fabric is in the rings as well. The neutral is the cream background fabric. I hand quilted this quilt 1/4" outside of every seam in the background and on a diagonal in the border. I didn't place but I had a lot of fun with the challenge especially since I didn't find myself inspired by the fabric so I had to come up with something that would be usable later and that I would like.

What do you all think? :)

UFO #15 for 2007!

Hi all;
I have been off my UFO challenge for a while but I did manage to finish another one. This quilt is made up of triangle in a square units that I made when I was demonstrating the Eleanor Burns Triangle in a Square ruler. I had planned on making a much larger quilt initially but I lost interest in the project and these blocks sat in a bag for 3 or so years. I needed to make a baby quilt so this seemed like a good use for the blocks. I didn't have enough of the fabric on the border so I came up with this design to use up some more blocks too. I think that it looks pretty funky. I'm not sure if you can really see the quilting but I think that it looks pretty funky too :) I almost don't want to give this one away.

15 down and only 18 more to go :)

Fabric Dyeing Workshop

I took a fabric dyeing workshop on the weekend from a local hand dyer named Elaine Quehl. Her fabrics are wonderful and she has been dyeing for many years so I thought that a class from her would be great :) I like to take classes like this from people who have been doing it for quite a while and whose work I have seen before. I wasn't disappointed! It was a great class. I have done some dyeing before in the brights so when I took the class I decided to dye the "earthy" 12 step colour wheel. They are pictured on the top. We also did some direct application dyeing using all kinds of colours. They are on the bottom.

At the beginning of the class we were given some socks that had been scoured and prepared for dying. This was in case we spilled any dye on our feet. Well, if you can believe it no one did so we had to do some direct application dyeing on our socks to get them coloured. Pictured is my oldest son posing with the socks on. They look pretty cool :) Personally, I prefer lower socks so if I do that again I'll get some shorter socks LOL! I love the effect though.

I've had some PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabric for a while now just waiting for me to get some inspiration to start dyeing again so hopefully this will give me the kick that I need :) UPDATE: I dyed 7 meters of fabric today with the dyes that were left over from class. No one else wanted to take them so I said that I would since I knew that I had everything ready to dye. I'll see how they turn out tomorrow.

Another UPDATE:
Here are the one meter cuts of fabric that I dyed from the left over dye from the class. I used the same "baggie" wet application technique for these ones and wow do I love the colours. I was really loose with the formulas and just added a bit of this and a bit of that to the baggies. I really love that blue and I love the second red :) Some of the baggies had more of the soda ash solution added to them then others since I was running out. Likewise, some of the baggies had more dye in them than others. I love the freedom of dyeing and the experimentation.


This is a two meter cut that I dyed in the direct application method of dyeing using the little bits of dye that was left after I finished the above pieces. I added a bit more water to the dye solutions to dilute it a bit more. I did a lot of scrunching of the fabric and tried not to get too much mixing. I absolutely love the way that this piece turned out :) I love the colours and the tones :) I love how vibrant the colours are. I showed this at my quilt guild (to a few of the ladies) last night and they thought that I had purchased it so I guess that is a pretty big compliment :) Too mcuh fun! I think that I need to buy more PFD fabric :)

Bella Fiori Table Runner

Hi all;
I am trying to be a better blogger :) Here is another project that my friend Sandy and I did together. We didn't want to take the whole summer off so we decided to do this Bella Fiori table runner together. It is from Creative Expressions Magazine, issue #11, and the embroideries are by Jenny Haskins. We could only see part of the table runner in the picture so we made our best guess to the rest of it. It is a really neat project with the way that the diagonal lines are done, with a 6 mm twin needle and the serpentine stitch on my Pfaff, first then the embroideries are laid down.

Here is a picture of the table runner from a bit more of a distance. We rounded the edges (you can see that a bit). The quilting is done after the backing is on but only in some of the squares. This makes the table runner lay really flat and adds a lot of interest I find.

I'll post a picture of my finished rose bouquet wall hanging once I get the binding turned to the back.

What do you think :)

Rughooking

Hi all!

Long time no blog again but this time I can say that we went to the cottage and then I had a major computer melt-down :( I tried it again yesterday and it worked again :) So here I am :)

I started a new rug hooking project. I am doing a chair seat for a 150 year old chair that I stripped and re caned. I had to weave the cane by hand and it turned out wonderful. I have some more chairs to refinish and re cane and I plan on making chair pads for all of them. It will be a big project but I think that it will be worth it in the end. This is the first one that I am working on. It is out of scraps from the pumpkin rug that I made for my son.

The only thing that I am not sure of is the reddish plaid that I have started in the border. What do you guys think?

I didn't have enough of any one background type of wool so I over-dyed and off-white wool that I salvaged from a jacket using the onion skin dying technique. The wools on the left were the first ones that I did (with LOTS of onion skins in the pot), and, I thought that they turned out too dark for the background; but, they are perfect for the insides of the flowers.

The second set worked out really well for the background of the chair pad. I wanted some mottling but not a ton so these worked out well. Now to finish the chair pad :)

This weekend

What a great weekend :) Two of our friends invited us to their friend's cottage for the weekend and what a great weekend it was :) I could get used to that :) I love the cottage life. I can just envision myself ina cottage. I could take my Featherweight and have a great time :) I didn't do any sewing at all and I relaxed on the dock. Life is good.

Update

Hi all! I hope that spring is treating you all well. I have been spending a lot of time outside lately of course. My garden is growing like mad and is making me very happy. I can just stand there looking at it :)

I haven't been doing much work for myself lately. I have been quilting for other people and trying to get all of that finished up.

Here's what's new for me :) This is my new sewing machine!! Isn't she a beauty?? This is the Pfaff Hobby Grand Quilter. It is a straight stitch sewing machine with a larger harp (throat) and does it ever sew fast and beautifully. It is a semi industrial machine and I will use it for machine quilting. I am loving using it and getting to know what it can do. I need to get my husband to build me another table so that I can sink this down into the table. Right now I am using it on top of my table and using the extension table.

Joyce asked if I got the stitch regulator and no I didn't. I have been machine quilting for several years now and I find that my stitches are pretty even without it. The machine already has a speed control so that is enough for me. I don't plan to use this on a frame but rather just sink it into a table and quilt like normal. Thanks for the question!