Merry and Bright

I have had this fabric, Merry and Bright for along time. It originally came as a kit but I decided I no longer liked the pattern. A few years ago at a retreat I attended someone was making the Charm Big Star pattern by Missouri Star Quilt Company using Christmas fabrics. I really liked it and decided to make a version for myself. The fabric showcases a lot of snowflakes so I wanted to find a snowflake pattern that I could use as the focus block. I found wonderful snowflake paper piecing patterns from Canuck Quilter Designs. I was also able to find a fabulous flannel red snowflake fabric for the binding. Quilting has definitely been helping through these self distancing times.

Linking to Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop.

Nancy Drew

I pulled out my Nancy Drew quilt last week and tried to figure out where I was with the quilt. This will be for me, and as with many other of my quilts it got put away when I had to work on a quilt for somone else. I started sewing all of the X blocks together and worked on it for the Friday Night Sew-In. I had about half of the quilt laid out before I put it away, so when I get them done I can start figuring out the rest of the layout.

Snowmen Stars

Winter wanted to go out with a bang so we got a bunch of snow two weeks ago. It made me want to take out my Snowmen quilt and get it organized. This quilt has been more finicky, as I was unsure what direction I wanted to take it in so I did not want to cut too far ahead if I changed my mind. My original thought had to put embroidery in the middle of it but I was not enjoying the look and the blocks were not fitting well together so I have set the embroidery aside for now. I now have all of the star blocks done and just having a few flying geese left to go. Once I get them done, the quilt will go back into its box for now. I have a few other more pressing projects to work on.


Linking to Linky Tuesday,  WIP Wednesday and Let's Bee Social.

Pink Log Cabin Love Part II

I have the squares sewn together for my log cabin. I can't believe how quickly it went together, once I knew what I wanted to do. Now I need to decide on the borders, and the quilt will only have been 16 years in the making!

Pink Log Cabin Love

I started making this Log Cabin Quilt approximately 16 years ago. It was a Quilt in a Day pattern and I attended a workshop for it at a quilt store. Obviously, for me it wasn't a quilt in a day! It was originally meant to be a lap size with 12 blocks. I put most of it together but did not like it. The 12 blocks did not have a lot of patterns so it got set aside for many years. I would take it out every so often, look at it, think about giving it to another quilter and then would put it away again, until last week when I saw a gorgeous pink log cabin quilt on Mary's blog. It made me take out my quilt and look at it all over again. I realized that I had enough fabric left that I could make another four blocks which would give me much more choices in terms of settings. I made four more blocks and voila here is a new quilt.

I chose the Barn Raising setting. I love this quilt so much now and can't believe I had thought about giving it away. I have started sewing the rows together and I am excited to see it all together. This is what I love about quilting. It continues to surprise me, excite me and inspire me even after all these years!


Linking to Monday Making.

The Allure Continues - Catcus Wreath

I got all of the individual sections sewn together, so I decided to put together one block to try out my Catcus Wreath quilt. I really like it. It is gratifying when all of the care and attention in putting the smaller pieces together ends up with the block being the right size. I can tell it is going to be a lot of fun. I think the hardest part will be deciding which greens to put together.


Linking up To The Needle and Thread Network.

Oh The Allure!

Oh, the allure of a new project! I think it is so enticing because you get to start fresh ; no mistakes have been made. Everything looks perfect and there is always the hope that nothing will go wrong. Normally, I start a new quilt every summer but I thought I would be able to resist this summer but I was incorrect.

I bought this fabric in June at a quilt show. I had originally intended the majority of it for a watermelon log cabin quilt but the pattern called for smaller sized strips, and I was not sure if I wanted to cut them all individually. I remembered a pattern I have had for quite a while that used the 2 1/2 strips. I have really enjoyed making the Cozy quilt patterns. I find them intricate but not too difficult to do.

 

I did have some greens in my stash but decided I wanted to add some more variety. I used a gift certificate from work to buy some more of the greens. New fabric is always part of the allure as well!

For me, one of the longest steps, but one of the most important is the cutting. Everything is ready to go! I think the hopes, and dreams of a quilter should be bottled and called Allure! It would definitely be a beautiful scent!

So close

So close and yet so far!

I was eagerly getting a quilt ready to take to the quilter's. All that needed to be done was to cut done the sides to make it rectangular. As I started cutting, I realized that I had made a big mistake. Each row needed to be offset from one another, but I had put two in the same direction. If I cut through the end of the block, the one block would be completely gone. I did not have enough time to fix it, so I set it aside and took a different quilt instead to the quilter's. I will fix my mistake and then it will be ready to go. I am going to be making this quilt again, so I will remember to be extra careful about where I place the blocks!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at The Needle and Thread Network.

The Creative Peaks

Well, as usual it has happened to me again. I go for a while without quilting too much, then get back into a project and wham, all the ideas come to me for my other projects. I find the creative process so fascinating with its valleys and peaks, especially when the peaks come and there is not enough time to climb all of them. That is why this blog is great. It keeps me on track and helps me remember my ideas when I have time to get back to them.



I now have all of my presents completed for my Flurry quilt.

My border fabric for my red/aqua quilt came yesterday so now I can put it on and have my August UFO finished. Another thing I find so fascinating is the mail system. It only took 9 days to get here from California. Sometimes it takes that long for things sent in Canada to reach me.

My son's Halloween quilt needs to be worked on as well. I finished up his sister's last year. Now it's his turn.

I also finally committed to what I am making for my nephew. Last year I changed fabric with my nephew and brother so that I could get a quilt done for my brother by Christmas.I was not really enjoying the pattern I had picked out for my brother. I tried out a different one for my nephew in EQ6 and I really like how it turned out.

I also have to start thinking about my guild's quilt show next year and I am going to be teaching at my LQS so I need to work on that too.

Let me know how you are doing and how you manage with the peaks of creativity.

Design Wall Monday

I have been playing with my half log cabins today. Eventually, they will become a king size quilt.

This is the first layout I played with. I like the ripple effect of the colours.

This is the second option I played around with. Some of the lights I can tell show up much darker, so if I go with this option I will need to rethink the lights I use.

Check out what others are doing on their design walls at Patchwork Times.

WIP Wednesday

 

This is the first time I have put up my Dresden Plates from my Bee Beautiful group. I knew if I took them all out I would want to do it right away. I have one more block to make and then I am going to add some colourful sashing. I really hope to have this done by the end of summer.  Check out what others are working on at Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday.

WIP Wednesday

Well, in the end I did not get any Friday Night Sewing done. I did however get a lot of long weekend sewing done. Monday was Victoria Day, a holiday here in Canada. Friday night ended up being used to clean up my quilting room and organize all of my projects. Saturday I spent playing with some half-square triangles for a Carpenter's Star quilt. I really admire the one that Ariane is making and I like the pattern from Mary. The half-square triangles are from a project that I changed my mind about, but they did not work with the Carpenter's Star either. On to Plan C for them. Sunday, I attached the binding to my Winter Wonderland quilt, now I need to hand stitch it to the back. 

 

Monday, I worked on my UFO Challenge #9 - the Cherry Quilt. I really love it. It is suppose to be a small lap size quilt, but I feel like it is calling out to me to be bigger. I am thinking of turning it into a double sized quilt. I have been having lots of fun checking out the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day. Check it out, if you haven't already and check out other people posting for WIP Wednesday.

Friday Night Sew-In

How ironic! I have time for the Friday Night Sew-In but not to report on it. My daughter attended her 1st birthday party today. She was very sweet and quieter than I expected. Here is my zig zag quilt. I got all the rows sewn together. Now I just need to add a block at the top and bottom and add the borders.

I started this quilt on the February Friday Night Sew-In, so it was neat to get the top done on the April Sew-In. I have a few other projects to finish, so it might be the next sew-in before I work on it again.

Making Up

Well,  I kissed and made up with my quilts this weekend! I have not worked on any of them since January. I have been working on guild blocks, bee blocks, charity blocks, Christmas swap blocks, and potholders, everything but my quilts. One of my quilts and I decided to part ways for a while. I could not decide if I wanted to do anything more with my pinwheel quilt, so I gave up and sent it out to the quilter's.

The second quilt I finally got put together after a long song and dance after 3 years. I just need to add a border to it and it will be ready for the next step.

The third quilt I worked on was my zigzag baby quilt. I had done all of the blocks on one of the Friday night Sew-Ins and this weekend I was able to get half of it pieced together. (This is the before picture, not the half sewn quilt top.) My camera is out of battery power

The quilts were so happy to have me back, and I was happy to be with them. I also should have another PHD done this week for Myra's challenge.

Oldest WIP

The winner of my 1 year giveaway is Nanette of Freda's Hive. Thank you for all of your well wishes and advice. As always I let you know how my journey continues to be a better machine quilter.

I have been so sick this past week and a half, and so have my children. I am so far behind in all of my quilting. We are starting to get better and hopefully I can get back to quilting. Next time, I schedule so much in I will have to remember to leave myself some sick days. Luckily for me, Julie is hosting a talk on your oldest WIP at Quilter's Daily Blog-Along. That I can handle. Ironically enough, they both reappeared in my life in the last couple of months.

This one here is the oldest. I would say it is about 10-11 years old. It was a little quilt and it is meant to be a pillow. It was iron on applique but I was not as good at stitching around the flowers, so it never got finished. My mom just found it last week in her basement.

This other one is about 9 years old. It was a course I took from a quilting store. They used Eleanor Burns' Quilt in a Day Log Cabin pattern. This was a test one for me, because I wanted to make one for my aunt. I did end up finishing the one for my aunt and it turned out beautifully. I got frustrated with this one, and gave it away to a quilting friend. She found it in her basement and returned it to me at Christmas time. I am going to finish it up. What is your oldest WIP?

I am also back in for the Friday Night Sew-In. It is fun knowing that we are all sewing together. I am going to be catching up on my quilting work.