2014- The Backstory

What a year 2014 has been!  I haven't been blogging very much, but I joined Instagram!! 

It's just so quick to post a photo, and write a little blurb.

Yup! I've gotten lazy!

I tried a little harder to keep track of projects done this year. In years past, I didn't do a very good job of labeling photos with the year.

So, this is going to be mainly photo mosaics of my work this past year.

For my own benefit!

I'll start with the quilts.

I am seriously running out of places to put them, but can't stop making them. I think there will be some gifting done in the New Year!

 Top row: Mini Churndash for a swap, Molehills- a baby quilt and pattern testing.

Second row: Postage stamp- love this one! Mini Trajectory- for IGminiswap

Third Row: Vintage 9 patch- started last year, but finally finished it this year. Pathways- using HRT's- I will never give this one away! Elementary- my first "plus" quilt.

Bottom row: Hello,again- a scrappy quilt using some of my stashed away bits of fabric. Diamonds Are Forever- another pattern test, and I used Oakshott and Chambray. Wildly colourful, and I love it!

Last quilt of the year is still in progress, but I have the rest of the fabric now and should have the top completed this week.

The final one isdefinitely my favourite of the year using Alison Glass Handcrafted, Cirrus solids and Cotton & Steel basics. This is going to be huge, and will be a new bed quilt!

There is just something about a "plus" quilt that appeals to me!

Next up is bags, pouches etc

Top row: My favourite handbag and wallet- The Boyd St. Bowling Bag and Necessary Clutch wallet. I still use them! Amy Butler's WEEKENDER!!!

This just about killed me, but OMG, I sure love it now! And Indelible is my favourite fabric of the year! Love the handmade hardware too!

Second row: My first Sew Together Bag. Hmmm- I have a second one somewhere! I didn't find it all that hard to make. I know some people had difficulty with it though. A few travel pouches for underwear which I gifted to friends. A Diva Wallet for our Christmas Gift Exchange for Saskatoon MQG

Bottom row: More of the Diva Wallet. I made 2 of them, and love the one I am using. I have 2 more frames, and plan to pick some gorgeous fabric to use in them!

Crafty stuff:

Well, you know,  just a mixture of different things! Oh, there is the other Sew Together Bag! I gave it away! A few cushions in there too. On the middle and bottom (R) are the EPP cushions all done by hand! Fun, but so darn much work!

do. Good Stitches Happiness Circle- I love sewing for this group, and the quilters are just amazing.

Canadians Quilt {bee}

So much fun sewing for other Canadian quilters! I skipped out on the 2015 round, and now I kinda regret it! 

A Bunch of Other Stuff:

Wow! Just a mixture of different thing. I do a lot of paper piecing, and love to test blocks for some amazing designers. How do they do it?? It boggles my puny brain!!

A few wonky photos here! Like the walrus laying on his side! Maybe he's just tired! I made a pile of microwave safe bowl and plate cozies for friends who wanted to gift them. Worked for me!

Of course, I made socks! My drawer is really getting full, but I find it so relaxing and I need something to do when watching TV at night. I rarely sew at night as the lighting isn't all that good and I get eye strain so easily.

Economy Blocks- yikes! I need to get busy and finish this!

 

Well, I think that is all of my crap stuff!! It always surprises me that I did so many things in a year!

I haven't really made any quilting goals for next year. It seems to happen that plans change frequently, so I just go with it!

I'm finding the mini quilt swaps to be so much fun!You can try something new, but on a small scale. 

I want to limit my quilts to maybe 2! But, there are just so many patterns out there calling to me! I must resist!

I am also going to sew from my stash in the coming year!

Well....I already know that I'll be buying Cotton & Steel, but, other than that....

Okay, I am in a Liberty monthly club, but that's not NEW!

I can see that this is going to be tough! All I can do is try...

Alrighty then... way to much blah, blah blah.

I'm done here!

Happy New Year to you all, and happy sewing in 2015!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Noivember finish- A Lovely Year of Finishes

Here we are with November coming to a close, winter has set in, and Christmas is right around the corner!

Which brings us to another month of

A Lovely Year of Finishes.

I am really happy with this months finish!
I keep changing the name of this quilt, but now I sticking with...

Diamonds Are Forever

 This quilt is a pattern which I was lucky enough to test for
Aylin-Nilya
This was an incredible pattern, and her directions and templates for this quilt were amazing.
I decided to pull out my Oakshott box and pair it with some black Chambray.
A few of the blocks were matchy, but, for the most part, I just picked random colours.
My only criteria was that there needed to be a lot of contrast!
I guess I got that! In spades!!

For the first time, I used glue exclusively in piecing these blocks.
It worked out amazingly well, especially with the bias edges and the really fine quality of the fabric!
As you can see, there are a lot of pieces to each block, and it was essential that the seams match.
I was a bit stumped about how to quilt this. Fate intervened when I picked up some amazing Indelible.

 Then I got a class through Craftsy.
It was Jacquie Gering -Creative Quilting With Your Walking Foot.
I picked some of my favourite Auriful colours and got to work!

I alternated the variegated #4670 and the black #2690 threads in straight line quilting throughout all the Chambray.
My lovely assistant points out where the strips intersect...

In each diamond I did radiant line quilting using Aurifil #2600- my all time favourite colour!

This quilt measures 59"x75"
You can't live in Canada without the "quilt in the snow" photo, so here it is!

And, spotted in the wild...

So, thanks for stopping by, and I hope you also had a successful finish for November.
Time to link up!

A Lovely Year of Finishes - November goal setting!

I love the setting new goals part! Don't you?

Now, actually getting them done is a whole other matter!

I think I'm going to be okay this month though. 

I really, really want to get this one done, as I promised myself that I wouldn't start a new one until then. 

Talk about motivation, or what!

The best part is that I really love this quilt!

This diamond pattern is from 

Aylin-Nilya, and she kindly agreed to let me be a tester for her!

I pulled out my Oakshott Colourbox, and added some black cotton Chambray. 

The Chambray is very similar to the Oakshott in feel and density. 

The pattern was a joy to make using cardstock templates, and I also used the glue basting method for all the seams! Nary a pin in site! Because the fabrics are quite thin, the glue basting kept the fabric from stretching all over the place!

As you can see, I paid little attention to colour matching! Eek!

Oops! I posted this before I actually finished it That's the trouble with switching between my laptop and my ipad!

I'm planning to quilt it with several Aurifil thread colours.

So, NOW I'm finished, and linking up!

I hope you are all joining in and getting some finishes done before the mad rush to Christmas deadlines!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2014

Well, if anything can get me back into blogging, it's the

Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Once again, Amy's Creative Side is hosting this biannual event.
It is always so much fun to participate in this, and see what everyone has been up to since the Spring Festival.
My entry will be seen in the Small Quilt category.
This is Pathways

I made this quilt using HRT's , and various low volume prints.
While I'm the first to admit low volume is not a favourite for me, it did work rather well in this quilt!
It measures 52"x 59"

For me, basting is always 505 spray, with a few pins around the perimeter of the quilt.

 I used this great fabric for the back that has all the months on it, and even invented a couple new months!

For the quilting, I set up my Janome Horizon with this serpentine stitch. There were a lot of steps to set this up, but it turned out really well, and I can hardly wait to use it again.
The thread I used is my favourite Aurifil #2600 grey.

I'm so happy with this quilt!!
Thanks so much for stopping by, and please check out all the other entries in the Festival.
I hope you have entered a quilt too!

A Lovely Year of Finishes- August

Hello, again!

This is the name of my latest quilt finish....and my completed goal for August's

ALYoF

I really must say, I enjoyed saying hello again to so many favourite fabrics that I have used in other quilts and projects.

A fun way to scrap bust, as well as make a lovely quilt.

This is a combination of 2 tutorials by the amazing Lori Holt from Bee In My Bonnet.

Each block measure 16", so it goes together quite quickly.

Here is one of the blocks, which is called Scrappy Crossroads.

The cross is formed when joined with other blocks.

The quilting is pretty straight forward...

intersecting grid....

For the binding, I used a golden yellow and white wide stripe.

The backing is a multi dot fabric I got from a local fabric shop. I think it picks up all the colours in the quilt top!

This lap quilt measures 51" x 66"

A great snuggle size!

Linking up this finish for

A Lovely Year of Finishes.

A Lovely Year of Finishes

Pets on Quilts Show!

Last year I watched the fun on Lily Pad Quilting, as a huge number of pet lovers showed off their precious friends.

Cats on Quilts category

So, this year I decided to join in and show you Kissa and Sheriti, my two female Egyptian Mau cats.

It doesn't matter how small I fold a quilt, they find a way to both fit on it!

They do like to sleep curled up together..

This is Sheriti, a tiny little girl who loves to spend the day in my sewing room with me. She pre-tests everything!

She is also asthmatic, and uses an inhaler....

yes, you read it right!

This is Kissa, who would much rather wait for the finished quilt! 

She is a big girl!!

Oh yeah, we are kinda cute!

Thanks so much to Lily Pad Quilting for hosting this very special event!

Grab a cup of coffee and hop on over to see all the lovely pets and quilts this year. It will make you smile for the whole day!

A Lovely Year of Finishes- August goal setting

The Dog Days of Summer are upon us, and I admit that I love the heat!

Although, it seems I do spend more time indoors than I did when I was younger!

Maybe because I have a sewing machine that is calling to me on a daily basis!

Since finishing my July quilt, I was wondering if I would have a quilt to work on in August, or if something else would come along.

I have started a Weekender, but that isn't my goal for this month! Lol!

As luck would have it, Lori Holt posted 2 tutorials on Instagram for fantastic scrap busting blocks called Scrappy Crossroads and Two by Four.

Because she has so many requests to also post them on her blog- Bee In My Bonnet, she did!

So, my goal is to finish this quilt top!

I'm off to a pretty good start, I think!
 

The best part, is making a big dent in my scrap pile!

So, I'm off to link up at Fiber of All Sorts for

A Lovely Year of Finishes.

A Lovely Year of Finishes

A Lovely Year of Finishes...July 2014 finished

For July, I set what I believed to be an achievable goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes!
I am so happy to be finished this quilt, and it really was fun to do!
Pathways!

It started out as a challenge to myself to try HRT's using the tutorial from Latifah at The Quilt Engineer. She posted this as a tutorial for the MQG.

I sliced and diced, pressed and trimmed!
I must admit that I am not a fan of pressing seams open,
but I did it anyway.

Low volume with pink, purple, yellow, black and coral..ish!

Whew! I was happy to get all these blocks done!

I did look at a couple layouts, but it seemed that simple was the way to go!

I spray basted and pinned with a little help....

The backing is from a fabric line called 8 Days A Week.

I used the months line. Really nice backing and I would definitely use it again!

I didn't have enough to match when I pieced the back, so ended up with some new months!!

I really want to change my birthday to Fovember! Don't you??

On to the quilting!!

I have a Janome Horizon, and programmed a stitch provided by Janome, called Serpentine stitch.
Here is the actual link to setting up the Serpentine Stitch-
  http://onlinesewing.squarespace.com/storage/post-images/poth2.pdf

This was the first time I have used it, and I sure do love it!

I put 3 rows in each path, and it was so quick, and gives the quilt great texture.

The best part of the Serpentine stitch is that it is and end to end stitch!

No burying thread!! Yay for that!

 As always, I used Aurifil thread!! Love it!

This is #2600, and I use so much of it, for piecing and quilting.
For me, it is the perfect grey.

The binding fabric is a really nice grey stripe that I had in my stash.

This little darling measures 52"x59"

I am tremendously pleased with this July finish, and am linking up for
A Lovely Year of Finishes

 

Thanks so much for stopping by, and please go and check out all the finishes for July!