Happy 2019!

Happy New Year everyone!

Good bye to 2018 and hello to 2019!  I hope that this is a wonderful year for all of you!

Did anyone pick a word for 2019?  The word that has been rattling around in my head is UNION.  Why union?  Well, I feel like 2018 has been a year of reflection, study and introspection.  I have studied, meditated and been open for new things and experiences and I feel that this will be the year to bring it all together in union.

So what does this mean?  Well, I want to do a lot more of what interests me and try to find ways to bring my skills together in ways that make my heart sing.  Sounds pretty vague I know; but, hopefully I'll be able to articulate this better in the coming months.

In the meantime.  We spent Christmas at the cottage again this year; and, although it was very cold, it was perfect!  The lake froze over in our shallow little bay so there was lots of skating and hockey playing and it was probably the most classically Ontario Christmas I have had :-)

Here is River on our rink looking at a rainbow while the sun goes down.  And underneath our neighbours are flooding their rink for smoother skating.

I was also able to do quite a bit of sewing while there - did I mention how cold it was!!?  I completely finished my Guilty Pleasures T-Shirt quilt and turn the binding to the back by hand while spending time with the family.  I am so pleased with this quilt!  I'm actually surprised with how much I love it!  It makes me happy every time I look at it and it is so nice to sleep under.

I quilted it, top and bottom, in Glide Titanium thread in a free-hand wave pattern.  I backed it in a green flannel wide-back and used Hobbs 80/20 batting.  I can't even express to you how nice this is to sleep under and how cuddly it is!  My husband loves it too :-)

I actually liked making this quilt so much that I have more in the planning stages AND I wouldn't mind making some of these for others!  

I also managed to get some piecing done!

Since I only had an extremely limited selection of fabric there I picked a pattern from Sew Kind of Wonderful's book Mini Wonderful Curves that fit what I had and I spent some time piecing this beauty called Breezy Day.

I don't have a destination for this quilt so it's now in the "to be quilted" pile but I really do love the way that it came together!

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?

Another Top Out of the Closet

Hi all!

Since it looks like I might be done with Christmas long-arming I decided to take another quilt top out of the closet! This is one that I want to do heavy custom quilting on so I put it away for quite a while!

Well I had wanted to increase the size of the quilt and add borders to it - so I purchased the border print int the line and a kona to be the inside border.

Well, I pulled everything out of the closet yesterday and guess what?  I hated this border print!

 

I don't mean that it is a bad print but just not at all what I actually wanted!  There are only two repeats and I wanted four.  So, not enough for what I wanted to do.

BTW - do you like seeing my free-motion weights and my pup River's toys under the frame LOL!

 

This is the awesome quilt design by Sew Kind of Wonderful that I made quite some time ago - Metro medallion.  Now, I really don't think I want borders on it at all.  I think that it should end with a binding.  I honestly agree with the pattern makers that this one doesn't need or want borders after I take a look at it again.

 

 

So, I decided to see if I purchased enough fabric to back the quilt with it - guess what?  I had!!  I pieced the border fabric together and it will make a really nice backing :-D  Waste not want not!

I do really love taking a little time between the top and quilting because I find that it does give me some perspective on what should happen with the quilt.  Taking time is never a waste.  So often we want to rush and get things done - quilt quickly - make the top in a day etc etc.  There is nothing wrong with gaining some perspective and doing your work some justice.  Just my $0.02 :-D

Anyways - I will load this one onto the frame and custom quilt it next :-D

Ruler Work on a Baby Quilt

Hi all!

I was looking for another smaller project to load onto my frame and I remembered that I had this baby quilt I pieced together from a charm pack.

I had never decided how I wanted to quilt it so I put it away for a while but now seemed like a good time to bring it out!

 

I loaded it onto my frame and decided that I would do all ruler-work on it.  I decided on Continuous  Curve in the blocks and ditch-work and single hatching in the borders.  Since I usually will just do an  all-over pattern on a baby quilt this was new territory for me.

 

But, needless to say, I am pretty pleased with the way that it turned out!  It was definitely more labor-intensive than an all-over pattern  but I really like the effect and I love the borders!  I think I picked too steep of a curve for the Continuous Curve, if I am being honest, but I do like the over-all look :-D

I used a 40 weight Filtech Glide thread in cream for all of the quilting - top and bottom with a flannel fabric on the back.  My go-to thread for quilting and my go-to backing for baby quilts!

Now I just need to find a destination for this baby quilt!  Not bad for some Sunday quilting!

PS if you want to follow along with me on Instagram I would love to have you!  I try to post every couple of days - or - like today - twice!  Me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sunshower153/

T Shirt Quilt

Hi all!

Well winter finally hit here - a lot earlier than I wanted but this is Canada!

 I was recently commissioned, by my cousin actually, to make a t-shirt quilt from her son's t-shirts.  This will be a Christmas gift from the Mom and Dad and also from my Aunt (Grandmother) so it will be really special.

I was working pretty hard on getting the quilt completed so that they could have it for Christmas so I put a lot of hours into it in the past few weeks.  I do like making these t-shirt quilts since they are such great memory quilts!

 

Originally I was going to use some of the smaller logos in a nine-patch in one of the blocks; but, she had so many t-shirts for the body, and, I thought that one nine-patch in the body would look odd.  So, I sent her a text and asked what she thought of a pieced border.  She loved the idea so I ran with it!

The result - in my opinion I LOVE the pieced border!  I think that it really adds to the quilt and I was able to use all the small logos and other pieces of the shirts that would have been thrown out.  I would definitely do this again and I highly recommend it :-D

I stabilized each shirt before I pieced the quilt so that it was flat and wouldn't stretch out.  I used Kona Cotton Denim fabric as sashing and I quilted it using 40 weight FilTech Glide thread in blue.  I quilted a loose meander so that the quilt would remain nice a drapable. 

She's picking it up in a week and I hope that her son loves his Christmas present!

After the Quilt is Finished

So what do you do after you finally finish a quilt that you have put hundreds of hours into?? I was faced with this?  What do you do?  I definitely  couldn't load up another quilt like that!  Wooooow too much to face right now LOL!

So what did I do?  I loaded a friend's husband's hunting sleeping bag on and did some repair work as a favour - not a fun thing to do as it was really puffy!  Then I quilted three charity lap quilts for Victoria's Quilts.  They just wanted basic quilting and everything was ready to go so that was nice and easy.  All this is finished and out the door!  It felt great to get those done for other people.  But, I also want to get some work done for myself.

So, I decided to go into the Quilt Closet and I pulled out a few tops ready to quilt - I decided on this one and just finished loading it onto the frame.

It is a nice little Halloween wall-hanging that I would love to finish up before Halloween!  I think that I will do some custom quilting in the background and just have fun with it :-)  This is one of the samples I made when I was teaching the Accuquilt Go! Club and we were focusing on some of the Halloween dies.  It needs to get finished this year and now it is loaded on the frame!  

So, tell me, what do you do after you finish a big project?  What do you feel that you can tackle after it? 

Curve It Up Revealed!

And the big reveal!

I cannot believe that this is finally finished! Here I am - one very happy camper!  This was taken just a couple minutes after I finally finished this!! 

 

 Here is a closer picture for you if you're inclined :-D

The Curve It Up Sampler by Sew Kind of Wonderful is finished!!!  It is bound, hanging sleeve on and now, ready to show!  

I finished it up at the cottage where I could sit and do the hand work and enjoy the process without getting distracted by other things - believe me, I can distract myself from hand turning the binding! ;-)

 

I LOVE the way that the filled cross-hatch looks - even though it was a LOT of work - I think that it was worth it.

 

The cross-hatch makes the blocks pop and gives some interest to all the negative space in between the blocks.  I don't know that I want to do this again anytime soon - but - I certainly love the effect.

 

Even the back looks cool!  I think that it looks like a whole cloth quilt on the back with the white on white.  All the thread gives the blocks distinction on the back as well.

 

I think the dappled light coming through the trees looks really cool on the back of the quilt! 

Now that this quilt is finished - I miss the process a bit.  I never thought that I would say that but I do!  I just finished some easy quilting on 3 charity quilts; and, I have a few easier projects to do for myself but then I think I will consider another intense project like this one.

So - what do you think!!??

A Kickstarter Campaign for a New Die Line!

Hello my die-cutting friends!!  I thought that I would share some exciting news with you all about a Kickstarter campaign that my talented friend Ebony Love of LoveBug Studios is running!!  I remember Ebony's first Kickstarter campaign  to release her book.  It was an exciting process and I really enjoyed being a part of the whole thing.  I encourage you to take a look!

Ebony is probably the most knowledgeable die-cutting expert out there and she is hoping to release her own line of dies!!  Wahoo!  A die-cutting expert releasing dies - it's a match made in heaven!

Here is where we all come in - she needs help with raising funds for the initial launch.  Each level of pledge earns a different level of rewards.  There is no risk here - if the funds are not raised the project doesn't move forward.  I have already backed this project and I am excited to get my awesome rewards once this project comes to fruition.

The three dies she has created really fill a gap in our die-cutting world with the Orange Peel, Key West and Sunburst dies.  By the way - you just know that these shapes are going to be arranged just amazingly on the boards!

 

You might be asking - what can I make with these dies??  I am only going to show you one picture, of Ebony's, because she has many more on her Kickstarter page.

 

Aren't these quilts spectacular!??  I am really excited to have another option for additional dies and I am excited to support my friend, and leading expert, Ebony.

 

 

Just today I got an email with this sweet little treat of a quilt that Ebony came up with for the Sunburst die.  I love out-of-the-box thinking like this!  I am sure that there will be many more cool ideas to come out of these blocks.

Hope on over to the Kickstarter page for lots more information and a FAQs on what cutters these new dies work with and for more project ideas.  Take a look through the pledge / reward levels and see if you can find one that works for you!  I know that I did :-)