2” Square Bethlehem Star is Done!!!

It’s done!  What a process this was!  So many years in the making from start to finish and I can say WAHOO!  Done and bound!  They last time I posted about this was the end of January in 2019 when I was trying to get the pieces organized and cut to see if I had enough and now - here it is!

These are all 2” cut squares, 6” finished squares and 6” finished half square triangles (HST).  Yes, the whole quilt. 

Three units.  Simple idea, but, a bit of a beast LOL!  I do like it though now that it is done!  I quilted the star points in a different thread to match the Kona solid (Paprika I think) in straight lines to give them a bit of definition. 

The rest of the quilt I used Glide 40wt Sand in sort of a Paisley, Floral Swirl.  I did pay attention to the tan coloured points and quilted in the ditch and echo inside for some emphasis.

Sand is a go to colour for me since it blends and shines against so many fabrics!

On the back I used a brown flannel wide-back for extra warmth and softness.  I do love the wide-backs!  plus, look at how the threads just pop!!

 The inspiration for this quilt was the Swoon quilts that were all over social media a few years ago.  I looked at them and thought - that’s the Bethlehem Star that’s been around forever!  So instead of using a jelly roll and cutting 2.5” squares I reworked the math and used my 2” squares and made 4 blocks!  I didn’t need a pattern - I just drew it out on some binder paper - old school! If you want to check out the original sketch you can see it here. And then I made it into a Leaders and Enders project. 

Needless to say - this project was about 5 years or so in the making and I couldn’t be more thrilled that it is done!!  I have more leaders and Enders projects on the go and I am ALWAYS cutting up more 2” squares!

I Joined the Dream Big Craze!

 I finally joined the Dream Big craze!

I finally got one of the panels quilted that I bought a few years ago.  I don’t know why I put it off so long!  These are nice to quilt and you really can’t go wrong!

I love taking photos right here, at the cottage, it is the perfect place to show all sizes of quilts; and, if they are small enough I can can even pop my head in! 

I also have no idea why I chose the tone on tone cream to quilt for my first one when I bought so many of the colour ways!  But hey!  It is done, bound, photographed and now blogged on so it is a win!

I do love the low tones though - so soothing to the eye and perfect for a bedroom against the wooden walls.

This one gives a bit more details if you want to see them.  I did a simple feather, echo and pebble to quilt.  I used 40 weight Glide thread in Sand with the matching pre-wound bobbin.  Sand is a favourite of mine!

Not a huge blog post but I am proud of this quilt!

And Another Finish!

Another 2” squares finish!

I was so excited to get this one done as it spent a fair amount of time in the UFO closet as well.  My poor quilts!  They must feel so neglected sometimes LOL!  If they had feelings that is!  

This one got put on the back burner because I really wanted to miter those borders and use the two fabrics in the Quarter Square Triangle Blocks (QST); but, well, I don’t enjoy mitering and I am picky about it!  But I LOVE how this turned out!!  And here it is!  Yey!

Here it is under the needle of my P3 getting the ruler work treatment.  Yep that is me :-D

  

I do love pushing my ruler-work skills and figuring things out.  I am not too incredibly thrilled with this border.  I think it looks like a DNA spiral but hey - done is better than perfect right?  And, I learned a lot.

I am a lot more thrilled with the inside of the quilt.  I really like the curves on all the straight lines. It took a LONG time to do all of this custom quilting but I think that the end product is pretty cool. And, another good thing, that is a wide-back batik batting that I HAD in my stash!  I had purchased it when it was 1/3 off and stashed it away and Voila!

The quilt is now on a bed, where it belongs, not in the closet and it is off my mind.  Another scrap project done.  Another UFO taken care of.  Now if I can only get another dozen quilts finished I might be getting caught up!

What about you?  Anything under your needle today?

It’s Me!

Hi all!

Frequent readers of my, now, sporadic blog will know that I don’t like sharing photos of myself very often so I thought that I would share this one from this summer.  I attended an outdoor, socially distanced, wedding of a dear friend this summer.  Of course I made the mask and bought the dress to match the shoes!  I thought that was just a given LOL!  These shoes are the awesome Fluevog shoes in the Achiever line!  Some quilting friends asked me where I got them, at the wedding, so I am providing the link ;-)

2020 has certainly been a unique year for all of us.  Quilting has given way to mask making for me but I am happy to use my talents, and, my stash, for something worthwhile and something that helps.  Thank goodness for my son’s help and the mask dies or I never would have been able to make the thousands of masks I have made!  Yes, you read that correctly!  I think I am over 4000 masks!  So, I think you get the reason I haven’t been posting on my blog as much.  I have been making masks and selling them on my page!  I didn’t want to turn my blog into an advertisement for my masks so it has fallen to the wayside for a bit.  So sorry!

I have been able to get some quilting done.  UFO’s mostly and man this feels so good!!  Now that mask making has slowed down a bit, and, my longarm is finally uncovered, I am going to get back to quilting!!  You honestly have no idea how happy this had made me.  I would look over at my longarm, and then look at the pile of masks, to sew, for orders, and, go sew masks.  I mean, this won’t last forever!  I hope!  

At the start of the pandemic I did get some serious quilting hours in though!  I finished this scrappy log cabin that I have been working on, on and off, for several years!

Look at this beauty!  Log Cabins are seriously one of my favourite scrap quilts.  They always look so good!  I love looking at scrap quilts and remembering where I used the fabrics and recalling the stories behind them.  I love how they always seem to work!!!  Some of those fabrics that you think won’t work always seem to work and become the ZING in the quilt that makes it sing!  The turquoise and chartreuse just make my heart happy!

To quilt this quilt I decided on a large meander and feather.  I am sure there are YouTube videos on this; but, honestly you just quilt (the section you are working on) in a large meander and then feather each side of it in your favourite way to feather.  It looks so much more difficult than it is, I promise!  Next time I am quilting this I might make a video on this.  I use 40 weight Glide Thread in the Sand colour and used the prewound bobbins in the matching colour.  I love using the prewounds!  They hold so much more thread on them and tension beautifully for me - remember to take out your backlash spring or use a separate bobbin case for it though!  

So, what is next for me?  I have taken a bunch of pictures of what i have been working on and I will get back into the groove of sharing with you all again!!  I miss the community of quilters!  What about you all?  

How have you been doing?

Face Masks!

How are you all!

Well aren’t we all living in a very different world!  My hair needs done and I coordinated my mask to the shimmering water behind me!  I hope that you are all staying safe and keeping well.

I have been busy making masks to help keep people safe and if you can believe it my oldest  is my partner in all of this!  He has been helping me put the Kam Snaps on the sides of my masks (so that you can choose between elastics for the ears or ties!). Kam Snaps is an AMAZING company to work with and they offer a high quality product with amazing customer service.  If you are interested in snaps - check them out - you will not be disappointed.  Tell Judy Katrina sent you!!

I feel so blessed to have both of my boys at home right now where this Mama Bear can take care of them!  When this all started all I wanted to do was keep my boys at home and protect them!  Totally irrational I know as they are 19 and 21 and both much taller and bigger than I am LOL!!!!

I am so thankful to have this project to do - to help - to do something in this time!!  I purchased the Olsen Mask die from Accuquilt to speed up the process and save my wrists in the process!!  Unfortunately, I received a defective die and I am in the process of having it replaced.  Let’s hope that it comes soon!

Because, man of man do I have sewing to do!! Check out those piles of masks! 

Look at how gorgeous the masks are with ties and snaps!!

I couldn’t resist making masks out of these cute Canadian critters to help people accessorize summer attire this cottage season!

Want to see how I add Kam Snaps to my Olsen masks?? Here is my YouTube video!  Please excuse the lack of makeup!!

And, if you would like to see how I use the awesome Kam Snaps to switch between elastics, for the ears, and ties check out this video!!  

Please let me know what you think and if you have any questions!  Check in!  Stay safe and keep taking care of each other!

A Concert T-Shirt Quilt

Hi all!

It feels like lately all I do is t-shirt quilts!  Believe me I am not complaining :-D   I love making memory quilts.  There is something so special about them!

This particular quilt is for an avid concert-goer.  She has a LARGE collection of concert shirts.  But, these were the 12 shirts that she could "part" with.  I told her - this way she could enjoy these 12 shirts, and memories, every day instead of one at a time if she happened to wear the shirt that day.

These are some good memories!  Not to mention some great concerts I bet!  Sorry for the shadow across the quilt.  The day was sunny and perfect temperature at the cottage and this is my favourite spot for taking photos.  I can't redo it because the quilt has been delivered!

I quilted the quilt in a simple meander pattern using 40 wt Glide Thread in a light blue top and bobbin.  I used a light blue backing fabric as well in a colour that matches the light blue April Wine t-shirt in the middle.  I also used the same fabric for the binding and I love how it framed the quilt!  I looked at black or navy for the binding but there is so much black and navy in the quilt already it would have "floated the edge instead of providing a frame - does that make sense?

Right after this quilt was taken off the frame I quilted my LEGO Mini Figure t-shirt quilt and got to finishing it up.

I'm almost finished the binding on it; but, for now I will work on this during the daylight hours.  I'll show this quilt soon - after the last stitches are taken.  And, if you can believe it, I have two more t-shirt quilt commissions that have come in that I will get started on this weekend!

Happy Long Weekend everyone!  I hope that you get a few stitches in!!  

A Quilt for a Friend

Hi there!

I hope that you are enjoying the later days of August!  The weather has been humid here but we are enjoying the last days of summer!  My oldest is home again after finishing his college diploma and getting his affairs sorted out :-)

I took some of the summer finishing up this quilt for a friend.  I January I lost a dear quilting friend after her battle with Pancreatic Cancer.  While she was ill she was trying to finish quilts for all her grand-children.  She didn't quite get there.  After her death one of her daughters was sorting through her sewing room and found this horse panel that was clearly purchased for one of here grand-daughters who loaves her horses!

She asked me if I could make it into a finished quilt for her - and - how could I refuse!!!  Of course I would!  I proposed many different setting options for her; but, what she wanted was for the panel to just have borders added and finished.  How could I refuse!?

Luckily my local quilt shop (LQS) where the panel was purchased still had some supporting fabrics.  I took a picture of them and brought her the fabric choices.  I knew that she would pick the black and grey prints since these are the colours that she loves to wear LOL!  I simply added borders to make the quilt large enough to be a throw for her to cuddle under.  

I discussed various quilting options with her; but, what she wanted was for it to be quilted the way that her Grandmother would have quilted it.  That meant hand-quilting it or a meander.  Meander won out!  I used Glide thread Warm Grey and it quilted up beautifully!!

I am in love with this grey barn-board fabric that the owner of my LQS suggested!  It goes perfectly with the theme and colours of the panel!  What a find!

When it came to the binding of the quilt I found myself stalled.  I just couldn't bring myself to tackle the last steps of this quilt.  Overall, this was an emotional quilt for me but the hand sewing was just hard.  Probably because this was one of the ladies that I hand quilt with in my Tuesday night Bee.  Needless to say, I finished it.

I am happy that I could do this favour for my friend, and, of course, her grand-daughter.  I miss her so much; but, it was nice to be able to finish one of her last projects and make the gift to her grand-daughter happen.  Now it's time to give it to it's owner whom I know will cherish it!!

Quilts really are a great big hug from the maker!!

Organizing / Sorting / Processing

Happy August all!!

Ahhh summer!  I have been spending as much time as possible at the cottage this summer since winter was so long, spring was long and it feels like summer just got here!  Oh well - you have to make the most of what you have!

After a long weekend with friends at the cottage, I came home and was looking for some brown ribbon, in one of my drawers, when I pulled out this MESS!!

Uggg!!!  I don't know how I over-looked this for so long!!  Scraps, 2" squares, ribbon, sequins, zippers, elastics and MORE.  My first impulse was to upend this over the garbage bin.  Luckily I posted a picture to Instagram to see what others would do.  Everyone said to process it so I DID!  Wahoo!

First I pressed all the scraps and squares and sorted it.  Found some more in another drawer and repeated the process.  Thank goodness for my AccuQuilt die cutting system!  If I had to go back to rotary cutting 2" squares from scraps I probably would have thrown it all out

And now my 2" square bin is completely full - I'm not really sure that I will ever use this many squares!  I have so many leaders and enders (L&E) quilts to finish somedays I think I might just piece them instead of doing the L&E technique.  Sigh!!

My ribbon, zippers, sequins, elastic and more is sorted into drawers.  I can find what I am looking for now easily; but, I think that I have way too much of all of this!  I may have to donate this, as a lot of you suggested, but, for now, I am happy that it is sorted!

So, that means that I have one set of drawers sorted.  Organizing is such a long process.  Some people love it!  I don't hate it, but, I don't love it.  What about you?  

Another T-Shirt Quilt

Thank you all for your comments about negative feedback - your support mean a lot to me!  xo

I decided to put all of that on the back-burner for now and work on a commission T-Shirt Quilt!  I love doing these!

These are some of the owners concert t-shirts.  To be entrusted with these treasures is so awesome and special.  She said that she has more but this is all that she could give up LOL!!

Personally, I think, that turning treasures like this into a quilt is the absolute best way to enjoy and preserve these mementoes.  I may be a little bit biased here, of course, but, if you have 30 shirts, and you want to enjoy them, that means wearing a different shirt every day for a month!!  This way she can enjoy 12 t-shirts all at the same time and everyday!  

So what do you think of the light blue fabric, on the right, for backing??  I think that it suits the shirts; and, I could quilt it in a light blue thread and maybe use the same light blue fabric for the binding.. Thoughts?

Question - Negative Feedback

Hey all!!

I hope that you are enjoying this hot summer!  It's not as hot as last summer but it's still pretty hot!

I have been reflecting a bit, ok dwelling a bit, on negative feedback.  Specifically I have been thinking about the thumbs down on YouTube.

I have put up a few videos on YouTube to share with other quilters and help answer questions I get a lot.  I haven't put up any recently, for various reasons; but, today I was looking at my videos and I noticed negative reviews or thumbs down on some of the videos.

Now, don't get me wrong, people can absolutely, 100%, leave negative feedback if they wish; but, as a video-maker I am left thinking - why?  What didn't you like?  What could I have done better?  Do you just hate me?  Hate the video?  Not find it useful?  What!!?

In other words - it's not constructive LOL!  The comment feedback I received is all good so what compelled these 8 people to click the thumbs down button?  It just makes me wonder.

I've used the thumbs down button.  I am a Zumba instructor and I have used the thumbs down button when people post our exclusive choreography, that we pay for, for others to take.  When people are hateful, or just plain mean.  So, I do use it.

I am just a bit of a dweller - ok a lot of a dweller - so I find myself wondering if my other ideas are good enough to make a video or if they will get more thumbs down.  Silly I am sure; but, that's the way that my brain works!

So, here's my question, to those of you who use the thumbs down button on YouTube, why do you click the thumbs down icon?

Want to check out my YouTube videos?  Here ya go!  

A Little Charity Quilting

Happy Sunday!!

What's a girl to do on a cloudy, cool Sunday in June (the day after a day long yoga festival)?  Well, my answer is a little quick charity quilting!

Our local guild is making some quilts for local homeless youths and I volunteered to quilt a couple of them.  These were the perfect project for me today :-)

I used 40 wt Glide Thread in Cornflower - top and bobbin in an all over meander.

It was requested that the quilting be fairly loose and the thread be bright and cheerful - and I think that I met the requirements :-D 

The thread definitely matches the backings in intensity!! Nice bright flannel backing would bring a smile to anyone's face.

These are now folded up and ready to be returned, bound and given to their new owners.  I hope that they bring some joy.

What are you up to this weekend?

Leaders and Enders Woes!

 Good Morning all!

Lately i have been sorting through my scraps :-(  This started because I pulled out a drawer looking for a fabric that I knew was there.  Sigh, I never should have pulled that drawer out because it started a complete avalanche of scrap sorting that I have been putting off - ignoring really in the hope that they will go away LOL!

Anyways, I pieced three more preemie quilt tops and a scrappy rail-fence (I will show that later); and, in the process I completely filled up my 2" square bin and started a rather large 2" square bin of children't prints!

I store mine in plastic shoe boxes as they are easy to store and stack; and, hold more than you think!  I mean, check this out - this 2" square box is full!

And heavy!  I had this bin down to about 1/3 and now it's overflowing again -sigh!

I packaged up my Scrappy Swoon blocks from a couple blog posts again and still need 10 16-patches to get going on the assembly of this quilt.  I was able to piece 10 while I was making the preemie quilts and rail fence - so just 10 more needed!!

While I was doing my scrap cutting I decided to pull out a couple of my other leaders and enders (L&E) projects that I have on the go.  The scrappy bow-ties that Bonnie Hunter inspired a few years ago.  And the Split Nine-Patch I started a few years ago.

I have a lot of blocks done but not nearly enough to make a quilt!!

This means I have two more L&E projects on the go after I finish the Scrappy Swoon quilt!!  Oh man!

As I was pulling down bins of projects my Christmas bin almost fell on my head! (The bins are stored on a shelf up over my head!).  So, of course, I opened it up!

Tumblers, half-square triangles (HST) and 2" squares - oh my!  Doing a quick look at this bin I see that a Jacob's Ladder quilt would be beautiful in these Christmas prints!  So, that makes 3 L&E projects I have to finish!

Long time readers may remember these blocks from my Scrappy Christmas Quilt A Long I ran sever years ago.  Well, now, it appears that I have enough for another whole quilt already cut out!!

With three L&E projects in the wings and one large one almost ready to assemble (not to mention one ready to go on the frame!) I seem to have A LOT of scrap projects ready to go! 

So, the question is - do I continue with these L&E style or just start piecing them?  Hmmm . . . . . . of course I have other projects I am working on; but, right now I feel a little overwhelmed to be honest.  Although, I don't need any of these quilts except for a trunk show that I am doing at The Quilting Quarters next month.

I need to pick one to work on next and I need to choose how to proceed.  So, do I dive in and start chain piecing or continue on??  What would you do?

Ride For Dad T-Shirt Quilt

Happy Saturday All!

We have actual sun here today!  Wahoo!  Sun just instantly lifts my spirits!

I thought that I would post another t-shirt quilt I've been working on.  I found this grouping of Ride For Dad t-shirts at a thrift store and I thought that they would make a nice grouping for a quilt; and, afterwards it could make a nice donation as Ride For Dad raises money for prostate cancer.  Or, maybe someone will fall in love with it and want to purchase it!!

I'm not sure if I want to add borders onto this or not; so, I think I'll put this on a hanger and put it into the closet for a while; or, maybe one of my awesome readers has a suggestions???

So, why am I making all these t-shirt quilts?  I want to start taking in some t-shirts to make these for other people so I wanted to get process, costs, supplies and time down so I can give accurate quotes to people.  Accurate and also fair to both of us and paying myself a wage that that will make taking this on worth it!  

So frequently I see quilters selling items or offering their services in a manner that is completely undervaluing their time and skill.  To me, this is a disservice to the quilting industry as a whole.  What we do takes skill, ability and a LOT of time.  We should value ourselves enough to be paid a living wage when we offer our services to others.  Long story short, I need it to be worth my while to work for others.

Some people will say - people won't pay me that amount!!!  That's ok - there are plenty of t-shirt quilt companies out there that will work for MUCH cheaper than I will; and, they do a much cheaper job in every sense of the word.   I figure - if this is the amount people are willing to invest in their quilt, then I am not the quilter for them.  

I could meet the much lower price.  IE use much cheaper fabric, thread batting, not use stabilizer etc, do much quicker and lesser quilting, do an inside out method to avoid doing a binding AND pay myself $1.00 per hour; but, why would I??  I wouldn't want to put my name on this, I wouldn't enjoy the process and I wouldn't want to pay for or own the finished product!!

What a long rant!!  LOL!!  Do you have any thoughts about this??  I would love to hear them :-)  Am I alone in feeling this way?

Leaders and Enders

Another Leaders and Enders project is finally in the organizing stages!

This stage is always exciting to me because I get to add up the blocks and see if I have enough blocks and get an idea of how it may look sewn up!

I got this idea a few years ago from several quilts that I saw on the internet - the Swoon quilts.  I immediately thought that this would make a really nice L&E quilt and drafted out the pattern quickly on paper to adapt it to my 2" squares.  I did this a few years ago and then went about my regular piecing while making these 16-patches and 10-block half blocks.

Fast forward a few years and I had a couple of stacks of blocks!  I decided to do some counting and some cutting to see where I was.

I discovered that I was 20 16-patch blocks short from enough!!  Sigh!  Oh well, I decided to continue with my cutting and organizing anyways so I can box it up and then put it aside for a bit longer.

I was very happy to to use the background cream fabric and brown fabric.  they were purchased YEARS ago for another project, that I decided not to do, and these shades will not find themselves into a different quilt any time soon; so, it was great to use them up!

All the cutting is done and the half-square triangles are all pieced!  Notice the one pieced brown triangle?  I was just a bit short of this fabric so I decided to piece a couple of them - it's a scrap quilt anyways!!   The red colour I have also had in my stash for a long time and I think that it will be perfect for the star points!  More fabrics used from my stash!  Yay!!   I am still short of 16-patches but that is for another day!!

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of Leaders and Enders you can check out the video I made on them years ago.  

So tell me - do you have a leaders and ender project on the go??

T-Shirt Quilts!

Hi all!

Brrrr it's cold outside here!!  I mean really cold and that is not my favourite weather at all!  It's very good quilting weather, however, so that is what I have been doing!  I love to make t-shirt quilts.  They are so unique and personal and fun to make!

While I was collecting t-shirts for my Guilty Pleasures quilt I was seeing a lot of Minions shirts out there; so, I started to grab a few with the intention of putting together a throw for a friend of mine who loves Minions and who has had a challenging past couple of years.  

So I grabbed the ones I came across and finally got to stabilizing them.  And guess what - not enough!!!

I asked some of my fitness participants if they had any that they didn't want anymore and one of the ladies had two!!!  It was just enough to  finish the quilt off with a few sashing strips of t-shirt fabric!!  I was able to get it quilted and bound and I gave it to her today for her birthday!!!  Yay!! 

What do you think?  I think that it turned out great and she was so surprised and happy with it :-D  That made me so happy and it made my day!

After I made progress with this quilt, I was on a roll, and pulled out the Lego Mini-Figure t-shirts that I have been collecting as well.  I cut into them, stabilized them and then squared them up into blocks.  Why lego mini-figures?  Well, my boys were (still are) really into them so I thought that it would make a nice quilt for another lego fanatic once it was done being a store sample for the t-shirt quilt class I teach.

 Sigh, guess what??  I need a couple more t-shirts to make this into a better size!

Oh well!  At least I got this far with it!!  Now to hunt for a couple more mini-figure t-shirts!!!  

Quilting Therapy

Happy Sunday all!

It's been a hard week.  A friend of mine passed away and the funeral was this week.  It was very sad but we are healing.  I was just given two quilts to quilt for Victoria's Quilts and the colours were so wonderful and bright that I wanted to get them onto the frame and quilt them.  It was great therapy to work on these quilts and add texture to them.

The first one I used a grooved board at the back of my machine to quilt these lovely wavy lines.  I love how it makes it look like they are lanterns blowing in the breeze.

This batik beauty just needed some texture added so I quilted a simple all-over wave pattern in a blue Glide thread.  I love the bright, cheerful colours.

Waves are really a go-to pattern for me, especially for batik quilts!

Next I pulled out this month's piecing for the Sedona QAL that Sew Kind of Wonderful just started.  It is just one group of blocks a month - not too much to do; but, really nice chain-piecing to do.  I do love some chain piecing!

Quilt Therapy really is wonderful and does work.  I am so glad that I have quilting in my life :-)