WIP Wednesday

I’m continuing to work on the Leftovers Sampler. I now have the fourth row done and attached.



I’ve started on the 18 inch squares for the last row.


I have one more 18 inch square to do and some smaller filler blocks that will be 8 inches square and then some flying geese and this will be done. I am going to be intensely piecing the backing as well in order to use up more orphan blocks and also to empty out some of the fat quarters and yardage that I would like gone from the stash. What a lot of fun this has been and such a great stash buster.

I’m linking to the Needle and Thread Network’s WIP Wednesday

Design Wall Monday

I’m continuing to work on my Leftovers Sampler using up, in the process, all kinds of orphan blocks and projects and scraps and fat quarters and anything else I can get my hands on. I’ve completed another 18 inch block.



And have the beginnings of another.



This whole project has been designed and laid out using Electric Quilt 8 software. The overall look I’m going for is this quilt.



It is using up 6 inch, 10 inch and 12 inch blocks that were already made and sitting in various boxes.I’m making 18 inch and 20 inch blocks to fill in and add extra scale. Those large blocks have the added advantage of using up tons of scraps and fat quarters that have been hiding deep in the stash for many years. Some of the blocks in the computer mack up have been coloured to match and others haven’t. i’m having loads of fun doing this and may have become just slightly obsessed by the project. It may just get finished by the end of March.

I’m linking up to Monday Making, Design Wall Monday and Oh Scrap. And then I think I’ll finish that partially made block.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I finally chose the fabrics for the flower head for this section of Hold Onto Your Heart. I knew I wanted purples, but I couldn’t find the right purples in the fabrics I already had out. That meant I needed to go to my storage area under the stairs and dig out the purples box. Why is it that the colour I want is always the one on the bottom behind all the other boxes? (sigh) Anyhow, after I made a mess by pulling out the boxes, I found the colours I wanted and got busy making a flower head.



The background fabric for this project actually adds a whole other dimension. I love the teddy bear and the tea set sitting beside the flower.

I also finished my sweater this week.



I still need to weave in all the end bits, a job I’m not too terribly fond of. That’s it for my slow stitching this week. I’ll link up with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

WIP Wednesday

One of the bonuses of working on machine stitched quilts rather than hand stitched quilts is that there is progress to show faster. I’m working on a sampler using up old orphans and also some new blocks. I’ve gotten a second and third row done now and the rows are sewn together. I’m calling it my Leftovers Sampler.

I am really working outside my comfort zone here. I love all things balanced and symmetrical, and this quilt is neither of those. It is all different sizes and grids and because there is so much variety in it, I think it works.

I have finished the quilting on my Pioneer Log Cabin, a design by Judy Martin. It ticks all the boxes of balanced and symmetrical and I love it! It is quilted with all over Baptist Fans.



I exhausted all of the reds in my stash making this, so there will be an outing to a quilt shop to buy some red for binding.

Once I post this I’m going to start on the next row for my Leftovers Sampler. I’m linking up to the Canadian Needle and Thread Network WIP Wednesday.

What I’m working on....

For the last few years most of my sewing and quilting time has been taken up almost exclusively with hand pieced projects. While doing La Passacaglia I fell in love with the process of English Paper Piecing and it took over all my quilting time. But in the last few months my love of machine piecing has been renewed.
Back at the end of November I started working on a Log Cabin quilt designed by Judy Martin. It is in her book Extraordinary Log Cabins. Its name is Pioneer Log Cabin. The picture here shows it without the borders on yet. I was in such a hurry to get it loaded onto the long arm that I didn’t take pictures of it with the borders. And of course there is the problem of finding floor space big enough to take a picture of the whole thing. Once the quilting is done I’ll take it outside and spread it out on the snow for a glamour shot.



I loved the process of piecing this quilt so much that the entire quilt was pieced within the space of 2 months. It measures 96 x 96 inches. I’m quilting it with very simple and classic Baptist Fans which compliment the curves in the pricing quite well.

Last week I was doing some blog surfing and came across a block of the month from A Quilting Life. I thought it looked and sounded like a fun thing to do. It’s been ages and ages since I’ve done a block of the month. She is offering the blocks in three different sizes; 6 inch, 12 inch or 18 inch. Well that got me to thinking about all of the different blocks that have been started and abandoned over the years, some of which are 12 inch and others which are 12 inch. I went digging in the black hole in the back of the furnace room and found them - lots of them. So rather than follow along month by month with the Quilting Life BOM I’ve used it as a spring board to use up these odds and ends of blocks.  This is her January block, done in the 18 inch size along with a 12 inch and 2 6 inch blocks of my own.



Once I established that I liked the look and the concept I dove into my EQ8 computer program to find more blocks that would look good in the 18 inch format. By the end of Friday evening I had the first row done. The lighting isn’t the greatest in the next photo.



On Saturday I worked on a couple of other 18 inch blocks for the next row.



This project should go fairly quickly since I have a lot of the blocks already done.

I’m going to link up to  Monday Making and Design Wall Monday before getting back to more 18 inch blocks for this quilt. It is going to be so much fun to see this one grow.

Slow Sunday Stitching.

When I last posted a couple of weeks ago, I showed a picture of my sweater that still had the sleeves left to be knitted. I off handle mentioned that it wouldn’t take long to get them done, assuming I didn’t get distracted by something else. Well, I got distracted. I found a lovely shawl pattern that was perfect for an assortment of Cascade 220 yarn colours that have been hanging around here for years. I started and finished it in less than 2 weeks. It still needs to be blocked which will cure the curling of the edges, I hope.

I’ve picked the sweater back up and am now working on the sleeves.

If I keep  at it without getting distracted again, this should be done by the end of the week.

I also dug out my  Hold Onto your Heart quilt this past week to at least assess what needs to be done on it since it has been quite a while since I last worked on it. There is a flower head to go on top of the green stem to the right of the house. I’m still thinking purples.



 I did some digging in the box that holds this project and found a couple that will work. Perhaps that’s what I’ll do this afternoon.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Sunday stitching and other things

I’ve been missing in action for the last couple of weeks. I had a flare up up my blocked common bile duct which required another ERCP procedure. Basically that means they put a tube down the throat and thread it into where the bile duct is and they clear out the blockage. Unfortunately, one of the side effects/risks of this procedure is that the pancreas, which opens in the same spot os the bile duct, can get irritated. If it gets irritated it does all sorts of nasty things. Well, mine got irritated and it was nasty and led to 4 days in hospital on IV fluids and IV anti nausea meds that didn’t really work. That was 2 weeks ago and I’m still feeling the effects of it in decreased energy levels. But it’s getting better.

At the beginning of the year I came across a design for a temperature tracker quilt that I really liked. I’ve been tempted by the concept for quite some time, but haven’t liked any of the variations of designs enough to actually do one. This design is found on the blog Canuck Quilter designs in her post Temperature Tracker Quilt. After I saw that I went shopping for fabrics and found a wonderful Kona Fat Quarter bundle at Mad About Patchwork called Aviatrix in Summer which had enough colours in it to be able to get a gradation for the temperature quilt. I started the quilt last week and have the first three weeks of January done. I’m planning on doing the rest of this first month of the year today.

My slow stitching has been knitting on a sweater. It’s a pattern called Flat White by Casapinka. There are so many of her designs that I really like. All that’s left to do is the sleeves and they will go fast since it is made using  one of my favourite yarns, worsted weight Malabrigo Rios. The purple is the colour Sabuduria and the colour work part is Sand. If I keep going on this sweater without getting distracted by something else it will be my second knitting finish of the year. I finished a long cowl earlier in January but don’t have pictures of it yet.

I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.