More (Too Many?) Christmas Projects!

Good morning all!

It's Wednesday again, and time to take stock.

My I Spy quilt is now sandwiched and ready to quilt. I was held up trying out thread for the quilting. I found some lovely silky shiny 100% polyester thread, only to find that I could not get the tension right. Perhaps you knew that would happen? At least I found out before I started. Turns out that this thread, in all it's wonderful colours, is for machine embroidery. So now I have some of my favourite thread and am ready to go. I was thinking of a simple grid, but diagonal. Trouble is I wanted to quilt in red, but I don't want to sew across the white alphabet letter blocks in red. And I couldn't get white. All out. The best I could get is a pale grey. Decisions, decisions.

I finished ruffle dress 1 for Miss K. Along the way I changed my ideas for this dress and recut the already cut dress pieces. Is nothing simple? Here's hoping the dress for Miss E goes more smoothly.



I've decided to make a lap quilt for my mother-in-law for Christmas. My daughter will take it when she goes to visit. The pattern is a Moda Bakeshop pattern called Blissful Confection. I'm going to use fabric called Sophie by Chez Moi

The large border will be in the cream colorway

I found this fabric on sale yesterday for the quilt back.

I'm going to a quilting retreat next month, so hope to have time to make it then.



Have you seen 

There are some great tutorials, and I'm inspired to make the placemats from Jennifer's own tute.

I also like the case for carrying cards and a notebook. Maybe I'll make that for me...  After Christmas!


Do you think I've got enough on the go?  Hoping I can report some finishes soon!

Check out the great projects over at Freshly Pieced.

Till next time

Sue

WIP Wednesday and other thoughts!

It's that day of the week again, and I'm not much further than last week. I'm waiting for fabric, don't you just hate that? I don't want to leave my current project and get all involved with something else and then have to put that down!

Here's a pic of my I Spy quilt so far, up on my design wall, aka my bedroom wall. It means I can look at it in my sleep and move things around!

As you see, I decided on a scrappy border and cut half square triangles to make a zigzag effect. I'm using the same 4" squares from the I Spy blocks, the ones with the small prints. I can't do much more until my solids arrive - bright red for sashing between the blocks and a bright turquoise thin first border. Can't wait to see how it looks put together. Everyone who's seen it (and they've all been adults) found things in the quilt to look at, so I'm hoping it will interest the little girls.

It really feels like fall outside. So many people say fall is their favourite season, not mine! Brr, and we've only just begun wrapping up and pulling out sweaters and coats. I admit, the leaves turning colour looks pretty. Our new trees are turning too, I hope this means they are alive so far.

Busy day tomorrow - quilt group in the morning, Stitch n Bitch at my house in the evening. In between there's an elliptical trainer being delivered. I have high hopes of exercising off my flab on this thing, but I ask you, is it likely??!!  Specially since my favourite activity is done sitting down! There's a thought, Quilting On The Go instead of QAYG.

Linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced, have a look at all the great projects there.

 
  

Till next time,

Sue

The truth, the whole truth...

Dawn from As Sweet As Cinnamon wonders why everyone picked the blog names that they did. I've wondered the same thing, and often find myself reading bloggers' profiles hoping it will explain an unusual name. Dawn is even offering a giveaway to satisfy her curiosity, so here goes!

I started my first quilt back in 2008 (oh where has the time gone?!!). It wasn't long before I was bitten by the quilting bug, and I haven't looked back since! I was eating, sleeping and dreaming quilts. I saw designs everywhere and read everything I could about the process so I could do it "better". My family started to roll their eyes when I got started on the subject. Friends have been known to run away! A piece of Kaffe Fassett fabric has brought me out in a rash on occasion. Now I ask you, does this sound like an addiction? In a good way of course!

What's your reason??

Till next time,

Sue

A new month, a new project!

I can't believe so much time has gone by... I've been busy!
If you've been following my adventures, you'll know that we moved house in August. So much work! My arms still ache from lifting boxes...oh wait, maybe it's from my suitcase!

 In mid-Sept I went to NY with 3 friends and had a great 5 days, sightseeing.

My friend and I visited Victoria of Bumblebeans. She has the most amazing studio, and was kind enough to show us some of her beautiful quilts.  Here are Victoria and Mary:

 While there we went to the Garment District. I tried to be restrained, but  I bought at least 20 lbs weight of fabric which I heaved with me to my next destination, England.  Ten days in England, and I'm home at last, with arms that must be inches longer from the weight of my suitcase!

Now back to the quilting!

I'm linking to Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day. Why not look at what all those great creative people have been doing?

I have two finishes to report, Flower Fairyland and Fishy Tales. They've both gone to their new owners.

Since both were framed rectangles I couldn't wait to do something different. I'm working on an I Spy quilt.

I decided to use a 9 patch form, and then I thought to go with the alphabet to sort things a bit. There are some very difficult letters to find! I expected U, X, Y, and Z to be problems. I was surprised at N and O and J. I've collected everywhere I've been, and have nearly finished the alphabet squares. Then I'll make about 20 9 patches that aren't sorted by letter and start putting things together. Fun!

I'm also linking to Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet. Sometimes it's hard to meet other bloggers, so this is a wonderful way to share my ideas, and read what others are thinking and doing. There's so much variety and creativity out there! Click on the link below to read what other bloggers, small in size but big in ambition, are doing!

Till next time,

Sue

More haste revisited - Murphy's Law

Hi everyone!

It's WIP Wednesday again, and I have a finish to report!!!

Well, the bottom line is that I finished the mermaid quilt (now called Fishy Tales) on time, and it now lives with its new owner.

Along the way, though, there were a number of problems:

I decided to piece the batting out of 4 long pieces left over. So I zig-zagged the seams so they butted together, and I thought it would be fine. Don't do it! Maybe for a crib quilt, but not for a large project. While trying to smooth it over the backing there were numerous folds that wouldn't straighten and I had to cut into each fold and lay it flat over itself, and then trim the extra off. Lots more work.

In my hurry I didn't leave enough extra batting and backing at the quilt top end, and since I was using spray adhesive I was stuck with it. Joke, ha, ha! I wound up having to add batting, and then piece some backing to lengthen that too.

When I was ready to trim all the edges straight for the binding, I cut into a little fold on the top and cut a hole right through the border on one side. I nearly cried!  Luckily it wasn't large. So I had to patch it top and bottom. Well, it's called patchwork, right?  See the little patch?

I did the quilting in a hurry, an all over clamshell marked with chalk. In my hurry I didn't check the back as often as usual, and there are a few places where the bottom tension was too loose. It would have been such an easy fix! The worst bits I ripped out and did again. The other few places are OK, but I'll always look at them, sigh!

                             If you look closely at the blue clamshells you can see it.

Here's the quilt back - pieced, because I wanted to use the panel instead of being satisfied with a single fabric. I even had the backing fabric ready!

                      I did the binding while visiting, and here is the finished quilt, with Miss E.

                                                And Flower Fairyland with Miss K.


So success, but at a price on my nerves!  Now back to a more reasonable (for me) pace!

                                       Check out all the great WIPs over at Freshly Pieced.

                                                                         Thanks Lee!



Until next time,

Sue

More haste!

More haste, less speed. That's what my mother used to say, and I suppose there's a bit of truth in it. So I hope that my rush to create this quilt doesn't backfire!

I finished Flower Fairyland for my older granddaughter, she's 7, and booked a flight to Vancouver Island for a visit. I guess I supposed I could say to her 5 year old sister, "I'm working on yours, it will be here soon". OK, OK, I get it now; as my son says, "They live in the moment".

My flight is on Aug 24th, and we are moving house this weekend. I still haven't packed a box, but I have been piecing the quilt top!

Luckily, the plans for the quilt have been in my head for months. I've been collecting the fabric, I bought some of it during my recent trip to San Francisco.

It's to be mermaids and things related to the ocean. My son and his family have moved to a house very near the beach, so Miss E has a big interest in ocean life.

                                                       
Here are the fabrics I started with:

I decided to use a pattern called Framed Rectangles from MaryQuilts, and fussy cut the mermaids, and seahorses for larger rectangles, and sharks, crabs, beach and ocean bottom for the smaller rectangles.
Now what to use for bordering the rectangles? I had 3 fabrics, and needed 4.

                                       
Here's my first try. I don't like it. The pink is more of a pale rose. From my stash, too easy!

So it's off the my LQS. The first thing I saw is this one, perfect!

                                        


Wouldn't you think these 2 dots were the same line? They're not though, one is Michael Miller and the other is Riley Blake.

Now I want one more. This is what I decided on with a lot of discussion. At first I didn't think so, but it grew on me. I guess I won't really know until the quilt is put together, and by then it will be too late!

                            

                                   Here are the blocks laid out. I'll be moving them round a lot.

Now for the border(s). Any ideas? I've got plenty of most of the fabric. I thought the seaweed. Trouble is that it is directional. Seaweed doesn't grow upside down or sideways, Miss E knows that! I've already taken a few blocks apart to get that seaweed growing upward!

Working name for the quilt is Under the Sea. You know, the cute song in The Little Mermaid. It's been running in my head as I'm piecing.

And you'll be able to call me the Midnight Quilter, to the tune of the Rolling Stones Midnight Rambler!

Linked to WIP Wednesday, thanks Lee!
Check out all the great WIPs going on!



Till next time
Sue

From Yardage to Sandwich in 6 hours

Hi everyone!


This week has just flown by!

 My quilting group has a member who had surgery and now has to have chemo. What a rotten deal. We decided to make her a surprise quilt to take along for her appointments. She's coming to our regular Thursday meetings, so we arranged a special sewing day on Friday.

We had already decided on the quilt pattern, and on some of the fabrics. It was a tough job choosing 12 fabrics that everone agreed on.

We started with the cutting

Here we all are, ready to go! We don't look tired yet.

Now we're sewing the fabric into 9 " squares, each square is different.

We laid out the squares, there's lots of discussion about the best layout!

And here's what we decided on. Sandy and Melanie are looking a bit tired!  We did have coffee breaks and a pot luck , it wasn't all sewing!

I'm cutting the backing:

And here's the quilt top with its borders:

It looks great! We sandwiched the quilt, and everyone was ready for home. In a moment of madness I offered to quilt it. Believe me, I'm not very experienced, and I've spent some nervous time since then worrying about spoiling everyone's work.

Here's how our project looks after quilting:

Now it just needs the binding, Melanie is doing that, and it can go to its new home. I think it will brighten up chemo treatments!

Thanks to Lee at Freshly Pieced; why not check out all the other Wednesday WIPs. There are some wonderful projects!

Until next time,

Sue