What we’re Working On

 I didn’t get too many pictures yesterday. I was pretty focused on finding the perfect fabrics to build loons with. I’m doing a variation of this block. It will have some pieced flying geese in the background. We have started the blocks for next year’s fund raiser. It will be a combination of Marie Noah blocks and McKenna Ryan designs for another Muskoka themed wildlife and countryside quilt. It takes a lot of sorting and a lot of digging in order to find the prefect fabric just right for a loon’s wing. However, I did get a few pictures of a couple of finishes and an in progress quilt top. This wildlife chain quilt is finished and will be prayed over on Sunday before going to its new home. Janet finished putting together this Big Block moose themed top. And Donna is almost finished this trip around the world top. Here at home I’ve been working on a design by Judy Martin called Capistrano from her book Stellar Quilts. I fell in love with the design and had to make it. I suspect it will be added to next year’s fundraiser, since the last thing we need here is another queen sized bed quilt. I’m enjoying the intense challenge of the piecing. It’s a nice change after all the endless strip piecing. It will likely take until deep into the winter before it is done. I think it will be domestic machine quilted as I go in sections. I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday

I have had the best day.....

Just the best day. It started much earlier than my days usually do, at about 7:50 am, with my dearest husband bringing me a cup of coffee to wake me up while I was still in bed. He knew I was going out for a sewing day, and kindly brought me a cup of coffee to make starting the day a bit easier. He's such a sweetie....... I think I'll keep him. Christine came to pick me up about 8:45 and away we went to Gail's for a sew day. I started sewing on my new quilt, "Thanksgiving" from Judy Martin's book Patchwork Among Friends. In the 5 hours we were there, I finished 2 blocks.
I am totally in love with these blocks. I wanted to keep on going, but, sadly, I had to come home and do some packing and moving of stuff. Gail was working on putting borders onto her Great Granny Squares quilt. By the time we left, she had all the borders sewn on. She's a pretty fast piecer. Christine was working on machine quilting a baby quilt, and then on her nine patch swap blocks. Karen was working on a Yellow Brick Road quilt. Bad blogger that I am, I didn't get pictures of their projects.
While I was at Gail's, Scott and Matt were here working on putting the closet back in the master bedroom. It was a successful operation, and the bedroom that became my studio is slowly transforming back into a bedroom. While they finished up the closet, I grabbed a whole pile of stuff that needed to be out of that room, and moved over to the apartment. I actually remembered to take the camera with me this time, and take some pictures. Here's the finished fireplace, with the cubby hole above it waiting for the TV to be installed. Beside it is the IKEA shelving unit that Scott and I put together on Wednesday, without either one of us losing any hair. Some of the stuff I took over today will live in that shelving unit. I didn't want to get too carried away putting stuff in it, though, because it still needs to be fastened to the wall so it won't tip over. It didn't make sense to put in things that will only need to be taken back out again. The other side of the fireplace will also be getting a shelving unit.
 
Here's one view of the kitchen, with the chairs we also picked up and put together on Wednesday. That will be our dining area. And this is what the kitchen looks like from the other angle.

 So after all that, we had a very simple supper of french toast. Then, because Gail and Christine were talking about the Mystery quilt pattern by Bonnie Hunter they are planning on doing, starting in March, and they asked if I was interested in playing along with them. I said yes, since I am having so much fun not being a solitary quilter any more. That, of course, meant that I had to go out to get the pattern in the current Quiltmaker magazine. The first stop was Chapters. They didn't have a copy of the magazine, but they do have a Starbucks. While Noel was here, he got me started on Starbucks hot apple cider, with the spices and whipped cream and caramel. It is soooooo good, like drinking liquid apple pie. So, I picked up one of those while in there. But then, I still had to see if I could get a copy of that magazine. Next stop, Walmart, and they had a copy. So, now I can study the beginning instructions, and see if I can find the fabrics to use in it. All of my fat quarters of fabric are still here. But the rest of my fabrics of larger cuts than fat quarters are over at the apartment, still in boxes. I just might have to do some more unpacking.

Design Wall Monday, Dec. 31, 2012

Another Monday, another blank design wall. I'm making good progress in getting all my fabric bits and odds and ends sorted and cut into regular sized pieces, with the leftovers going into either string or crumb containers. I really want to start life in the new apartment with a fresh and organized approach to all my fabrics, both stash and scraps and crumbs. It's a lot of work, and quite tedious, but I think I'll be glad to have it done. The only problem... I'm starting to have sewing machine withdrawal. I have all these gorgeous strips and bits, and now I want to sew something with them. LOL!! But I have promised myself that I will persevere, and get it all done.
However, I do have a picture of a finish that I can share. Nathan's quilt is done.
This is a pattern from Judy Martin's book Patchwork Among Friends. The pattern itself is called "Forever Friends". This one was so much fun to do, with all the bright colours, and the novelty prints at the center of each of the stars. It was doubly fun, because I started this at a Quilt-til-you-wilt day, sponsored by the guild back in November. I had so much fun sewing in a group, rather than by myself as I usually do. And Gail helped with the pairing of the fabric colours for the star points, the backgrounds and the center print.
I especially like this one.For the backing, I used up the last of the fish themed fat quarters that I had that were simply too cute to cut up. All three of Lisa's boys have backings made out of fabrics from this collection.Here's a close up of some of those fishy fabrics.
 
I'm Linking up to Judys' Design wall Monday at Patchwork Times.  I'm working the next 3 evenings at the hospital, but I might be able to get more ironing and sorting and cutting done before going in to work. I am determined to get that chore done, and to never let it get this bad again.
Edit: Here it is, Friday already, and I haven't had a chance to write another post. But, I'm going to kink this one to Crazy Mom Quilts, where every Friday there is a link up to celebrate our finishes. 

Two finishes this week.

I have 2 great finishes this week, both Christmas gifts for our Grandsons.
The first is what I've been calling Avery's Truck Quilt. I'm not too terribly good with creative and catchy names for quilts.

I first saw this particular quilt design over on Jamie's blog here. I asked her if I could use the design, and she graciously said yes. I quilted it with an all over design called Hotwheels, designed by Dave Hudson, and purchased from Digi-tech Designs. 
The design shows up really well on the white areas on the backing. The bindings were done with my now normal faux-piping technique using the border fabric as the binding, with just an accent of orange in between. The backing was made with leftovers from the fabrics for the quilt top, plus other fabrics that I thought said something about Avery. There is book fabric in there, because he loves his books, yellow and chocolate lab fabrics, because he has a chocolate lab named Shelby. There are sailboats, because he loves the water, and lives quite close to it. The back was almost as fun to piece as the front.

Then the other finish I have is Jack's quilt, which is a pattern by Judy Martin, called Celebration, found in her book Scraps.

 I quilted it using a very simple continuous curve. I wanted all the fun fabrics in the quilt to be the focus, rather than the quilting. His binding is a diagonally printed stripe, with red as the piping contrast.
I'm looking forward to being able to give it to him and to explain to him that it is more than a quilt, that it is a game, called I Spy, and start him looking for all the fun things in it..... good things to eat, things found on a farm, things that live in the water......
I had some really fun fish and ocean themed fat quarters that I could never quite bring myself to cut into, since they are just so much fun to look at whole. So I pieced them into a backing.

Here's a close up of one of them. These were such fun quilts to make. There are still 2 more, waiting to be finished, as well. I'm linking up to the blog Crazy Mom Quilts for the Finish it Friday posts.

Design Wall Monday, Nov. 5, 2012

This is the beginnings of another quilt by Judy Martin, called Celebrations. I actually showed this exact same picture last week, and there hasn't been any change to it. I have lots more of the three-sies of novelty fabrics sewn, since I've been using them as leaders and enders. But I'm not sure how much more sewing there will be done in the next little while. My lovely, generous daughter may have shared her head cold with me.  My head had been filling up all day, and I'm starting to get chills. Wasn't that wonderful of her..... NOT! I was supposed to be going back to work tomorrow after being off sick for the last 2 weeks, but if this keeps up, that won't be happening. Ah well, this too shall pass.
I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times and her design wall Monday listing. I think maybe I'll cuddle under a quilt with a cup of tea, and look at all the fun stuff.

Design Wall Monday, May 28, 2012

I spent a quiet day yesterday in my sewing room, and managed to get quite a bit done. Avignon Picnic is now a flimsy. I had been planning on putting borders on it, but when I hung it up on the wall, it told me that it was a perfect size for a twin bed, and that it considered itself done. I decided not to argue. LOL!
And I got a start on the quilt that I bought the fabric for on my trip out with Jannette. It's a
pattern from Judy Martin's new book, Patchwork Among Friends, called Heartland Star. I have to say, yet again, that I love her patterns, the way they are written, and the quick cutting rotary techniques she uses. Of course, it always helps to actually read the instructions. Somehow, I ended up making eight of these units, instead of four, my fault, not the pattern's. But, I'm sure I'll find a use for the other four somewhere. The next step is cutting and piecing the diamond units for the points of the stars. That might take a while. This time I'll make sure I double check the actual amounts I need. LOL!
I'm working today, and I still want to do some playing in my sewing room, and maybe get a start on the star points, so I'm making this a short one. As usual, I'm linking to Judy Laquidara's Design Wall Monday. If you've got a few minutes, there's always lots of fun stuff to see over there.

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

 There is a festival of quilts happening over at Amy's Creative Side I've spent some time over there this afternoon, and there is a LOT to see. I've decided to jump in, and add one of my own. When I was over there grabbing the link, there were a whopping 271 entries, so far. That is a lot of quilts!!! We can go to a quilt show, and never leave the house. And, with the wonderful Pinterest boards, there is a great way to save the favourites of them all.

So, to my entry: it's a quilt I did 3 or 4 years ago, before I started blogging, called New England Beauty. It is from a book by Judy Martin called The Block Book. I actually received this book as a Christmas present from my parents shortly after the book came out in 1998. I fell in love with this pattern as soon as I saw it in the book, but had to wait a large number of years before my skills were up to it. I've mentioned before that I love Judy Martin's patterns. They are well written and easy to follow. I particularly love patterns that create secondary designs, and this one definitely does that. The individual blocks disappear into the overall effect of the quilt. I'd had my longarm for a few years by the time I did this quilt, and so was confident enough to be able to do some custom quilting on it.

There are feathers in the backgrounds of the eight pointed stars, as well as feathers in the points of the 4 pointed stars. This is one of my favourite quilts, and it has place of honour on my bed. If you get a chance, go over and browse through some of those quilts, but be prepared to get caught up in all those quilts, and lose track of time. I think I'll try to portion them out to something like 20 at a time.

There are feathers in the backgrounds of the eight pointed stars, as well as feathers in the points of the 4 pointed stars. This is one of my favourite quilts, and it has place of honour on my bed. If you get a chance, go over and browse through some of those quilts, but be prepared to get caught up in all those quilts, and lose track of time. I think I'll try to portion them out to something like 20 at a time.

Shakespeare in the Park is done

Shakespeare is done. The top at least, and I'm totally loving it. I have a love affair going with Judy Martin patterns. They are so clearly written, and so easy to follow. And she has some unique rotary cutting methods that end up saving fabric. I can't recommend her books and patterns enough. I have been following the blog Amylouwho for a little while now. Every Friday she hosts a Friday Finish. Up till now I haven't had anything that was finished in time to post in this group. I think Shakespeare is a good place to start. If you go over to her site, you'll see other  finishes. The fun part is that they aren't all quilting finishes, but a variety of sewing projects, including the cutest little girl dresses.