A Lovely Year of Finishes- April is Elementary!

Yay for the end of April, and hopefully the last of the never-ending winter!

I had some fun with my April project.

It all started with a bundle of Eclectic Elements by Tim Holtz, and a few Textured Solids ( really wish I had used more colours).

I made a big pile of Plus blocks which finish at 11"

These blocks are really quick to do, and chain piecing makes them even faster.

I had a few extra blocks after picking a layout I liked, and decided to incorporate them into the back. Which made me remember that Sarah @ Sew What Sherlock? has converted the pieced X and + block to a paper pieced block in three different sizes! Yay Sarah!

So. I made a few of those as well, and a backing was born!

They grey I used for the back is a really nice linen that I got a couple years ago at a local fabric shop.

I had an idea for the quilting the Plus portion of the block right from the start. At a Quilt Show, I bought a really nice variegated spool of thread by Sulky. I haven't used anything but Aurifil for over a year now, but didn't have the colour I needed.

I think my machine has become an Aurifil snob!! I had terrible problems using this new thread. While I had Aurifil 50wt #2600 in the bobbin, I had constant breakage of the Sulky. I used a 90/14 topstitch needle that usually works really well me, but not this time! I then realized that the Sulky was a 30wt, which may have been the problem! 

I used my FMQ foot to avoid turning the quilt so much, so the lines are very organic!! Oddly enough, I had less thread breakage going side to side, rather than up and down.

Once I was finished the Plus sections, I switched to Aurifil, and heaved a sigh of relief!

I do love the colour of the variegated thread though! Yellow, orange, green and a bit of purple which adds a real pop of colour.

  In all the background corners (4 per block), I did a FMQ leaf.

Here is a bit of it on the back, with some thread that needed to be picked out! I had a lot of this on the back!

It took me a whole day to bury all the darn threads.

 Sure don't like that part!

The stripe binding is another print from the Eclectic Elements line, and I think finished off the quilt so nicely.

I tried something new! Labeling quilts just never gets done, so I decided to try a method I saw in somewhere land!

I folded a 6" block into a triangle and added it to a bottom corner and it was sewn in with the binding. I added a decorative machine stitch across the fold of the triangle and hand stitched it to the back after the binding was on.

I think it turned out pretty well, I just need to work on my hand writing next time!

This afternoon I went out to the backyard in my boots to take some pictures!

Elementary measures 57"x68"

I'm happily linking up with Shanna & Melissa.

A Lovely Year of Finishes.

A Little Catch-Up

It's snowing cats and dogs, and I can't get my finished quilt photographed today, so I thought I'd post about a few other things!

Maybe some pictures of Bee blocks!

Loved doing these paper pieced circles for Marika. They are for our Happiness Circle @ do. Good Stitches

She did a little photo tutorial on Flickr.

I don't remember if I posted these already, but they are the blocks from the first 4 months of Canadians Quilt {bee}. The blocks these ladies are choosing are really great!

I know I posted photos of my latest Boyd St. Bowling Bag purse, but I followed that up with a matching Necessary Clutch Wallet!

Both patterns are from Emmaline Bags. I just love Janelle's patterns!

She also has great hardware, like zipper pulls.

Then, I went and joined the Pack Patch Mini QAL! Each week we make a tiny patchwork block based on a theme chosen by Chase from Quarter Inch Mark.

The great thing is that they take only minutes to sew up. The fun comes in picking fabric to match the theme!

True Colours/Favourite Colours

 April Showers/Brings May Flowers

Born in..../Wish I Was Born In....

I can hardly wait for next weeks theme!

And Finally!!

I did finish Postage Paid but don't have great photos of it.

Kissa looking pretty!

I really liked adding the envelopes with the postage stamp blocks!

Enough already.....I should go and shovel the snow!

Serves me right.....I had my summer tires put on last week!

WIP Wednesday 16-04-2014

Say, what!!!

Well, it's just been ages since I have done a WIP Wednesday post, let alone blogged at all!

I have lots of sewing projects on the go, but have really lost the urge to blog about them much. What's with that, I wonder?

Maybe it's too much time on Instagram, which I recently joined!!

So, onto my most recent WIP.

I have called it Elementary, and the fabrics are Eclectic Elements and Textured Solids.

I started making a bunch of Plus blocks, which are just so quick to do.

So, in no time at all, I had them all done.

This week, I drew out a very rudimentary plan for the backing.....

very low, low tech!!!

Because had a few leftover blocks, I wanted to put them on the back.

I also did a few different sizes of paper pieced x&+ blocks. Sarah from Sew What Sherlock has made her paper pieced patterns available for free! She has 

them in 8", 6" and3". So cool, and fun!

So I hope to get this quilt back finished, and basted this week. Maybe even start quilting it!

I'll be linking up to 

WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

as well as TNTN

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great sewing week!

A Lovely Year of Finishes- April goal setting

Like a big dummy, I forgot to link up my March finish in time! I kept waiting for nice picture taking weather, and that just didn't happen.

I'll do a separate post about it :-)...

So, it's on to April's goal which is my Plus quilt using a bundle of Eclectic Elements and Textured solids.

I have most of the blocks done, so I need to figure out a layout and backing, and then put this baby together.

So far, I am really liking this one, so I hope it finishes as well as it started!
I'll be linking up for April!