Sneak Peak

I loaded my Lazy Sunday quilt, which was a mystery in the Quiltmaker magazine last spring and summer, designed by Bonnie Hunter. I had all kinds of plans for this quilt. I purchased a new pantograph that I thought would look fabulous on it. I got the pantograph all printed out and taped together, and then ran into a snag. The pantograph turned out not to be straight... my error, not the panto's. And then, once this quilt was on the frame, it told me, in no uncertain terms, that it didn't want a pantograph done on it. It didn't want anything fancy, just lots and lots of texture. Far be it from me to argue with a quilt, so that's what it's getting. I'm doing free hand swirls, fairly densely. It's a really happy, busy quilt, as Bonnie Hunter quilts tend to be, and it seemed like dense quilting, in scale with all the piecing, was what it wanted. I've done 2 passes and gone through 2 bobbins, already. I'm keeping the bobbins in one place for this one, as they are emptied, just to keep track, out of curiosity, how many it takes to do this quilt. I have a meeting tonight, so this is as far as it is getting today. It just might get finished tomorrow, which would be fabulous.

Customer Quilts.

I've been back at working at long arm quilting since the beginning of last week, after taking a 2 week break over the Christmas and New year holidays. I've finished up three for Amalia. First was a wall hanging based on the One Block Wonder. She used a very delicate print for her blocks, and I love the way they look. The movement in the blocks is visible, and yet quite subtle. I quilted it with an overall free hand swirl with feathers around the outside of the swirls.

 There are feathered swirls also in the borders. And the geometric blocks have various straight lines quilted into them, to accentuate their shapes. I love the depth these geometric boxes give to the quilt. The shading and shadows in the top box are fabulous.

 Then there is this snowman wall hanging. I really like the effect of them looking in the window. There are stars quilted into the border, and a wood grain type treatment in the window sashes. The background behind the snowmen is pebbled, and the snowmen are outlined

 Then there is this geometric beauty. It is a lap sized variation of the Bento Box pattern, using Kona cottons,

It has quite a modern feel to it, so I thought some modern quilting would be appropriate for it. I used a pantograph called Modern Bricks. I like the way the quilting design incorporates a Baptist Fan feel to it, with some swirls thrown in.
I'm going to try and be more faithful about posting the customer quilts I do this year. I'm thinking of Wednesdays as a good day to loosely plan for this.

Design Wall Monday, Jan. 13, 2014

I'm a little late posting today. I had meant to earlier, but then got involved in knitting and watching movies, and lost all track of time. I have Three of a Kind still on my wall, a pattern by Judy Martin, from her book Scraps. I'm up to 15 blocks now, out of the 36 that I need. I got quite a few cut out tonight, but, due to the knitting and the movies, didn't get any further. However, my sweater got a lot done, so, tomorrow I'll spend more time sewing than knitting.
I'm linking up to Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday, after which, I'm going back to my knitting.

Stash and Stitching report, week 2, 2014

Here it is again. The My Tweets block number 8. The only things left to stitch down on this one are the three yellow flower centers up on the top left. I will be finishing these up this afternoon, and then I can start on the next block. Depending on how much longer it takes to stitch those down, I might get the pattern pages for block nine taped together, and maybe the bias stems ready to start. I think I am going to approach the next block a little differently. My usual habit has been to prepare all the shapes and glue baste them down, before starting any of the stitching. This time I think I'll take it slower than that. It might make the task a little less overwhelming. I'll try it, anyway. It might give me a bit more of a boost to be able to more clearly see the progress on the block, as different elements are added. I'm finding it helpful, so far this year, to have kind of a loose schedule for doing things at a certain time, in this case, choosing to spend a certain amount of time on Sunday afternoons peacefully hand stitching. It is soothing and relaxing, and gives momentum to a long standing project that I really want to get done, since it has been on the go since the end of 2010.... yikes!!
My stash has seen a little more reduction, slowly working on various blocks and projects, and no additions. That might change by the end of the month, since there is a background fabric that I need for a new project. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this one before, but it's a block of the month, being posted by Mad About Patchwork, called Cathy's Carousel, not named after me, but the designer,  named Cathy Price, who designs blocks of the month for her guild, the Lanark County Quilters' Guild. It actually started 3 months ago, but I've printed off the instructions, so I won't lose them.The original plan was that Gail, who blogs as The Cozy Quilter, and I were going to work on it together, at the same time. However, I got a bit impatient, and really wanted to get started on it..... there's that startitis flaring up again...... so I started it yesterday during my sewing afternoon with Gail and Karen and Christine, over at Gail's house yesterday afternoon.

There are quite a few more strips to be added to the braid yet, but it is started. I think it might get set aside in its own little box, and become my take to Gail's project for the next undetermined period of time.

Used this week:                                1.8 yards
Used this year:                                   3.4 yards
Added this week:                               0 yards
Added this year:                                 0 yards
Balance:                                           3.4 more yards out than in.

I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

Playing the Scrappy Saturday Blues

I have this week's group of Scrappy blue bow ties done.  There are nine 6 inch blocks.

And there are nine 3 inch blocks.

And seven out of eight of the triple four patch blocks are done. One more of these, and then I can work on the pinwheel block. I'm devoting one weekend each month to each of these different sets of blocks. I think that makes it manageable, and maybe I'll be able to keep up. It certainly didn't take long to sew up those bow ties up there. I'm heading out to Gail's Saturday afternoon, for a sewing afternoon. I'll take the last of the triple four patch blocks with me to finish up. But before we sew, we're going to check out a yarn shop. I might be coming home with a bit more yarn. I just might also be coming home with a BOM that we both really like started, which will make for another new project started. I'm taking my fabric pulls for it with me, so that's what I'll be working on. I'm linking to Scraphappy Saturday. Lots of fun stuff to see there today.

On the Needles, Jan. 10, 2014

My Pinery sweater is growing. It's about 5 inches long down the sides now, and I've started the waist decreases. I'm hoping, though, that this yarn relaxes a lot when it blocks, since it's
looking kinda small. But that might be because it's all bunched up on the circular needle. I took a tape measure last night, and roughly measured around the bust, and it measures OK. I am loving the way the cables are looking. I've been setting aside an hour or two every evening to work on this. I'm enjoying the knit, the pattern, and the feel of the wool. I am looking forward to it being done, and being able to wear it. If it doesn't fit, then it is, after all, only yarn, and it can be taken apart and used for something else, although that would be horribly discouraging after all the hours I've put into it. I did do a tension swatch when I started, but I didn't block out the tension swatch to see how much give it had. I'll know better next time. I'm relatively new, not to knitting, but knitting with anything other than inexpensive acrylic yarns, which I've never blocked before. So, this is a learning curve. Actually, now that I think of it, I could always knit a test swatch from my next ball of yarn, and block that, and see what happens. Yep, that's what I'm gonna do, and then I'll know, before I go too much further on this.
I'm linking up to Judy's On the Needles. There's lots of other lovely, tempting, inspiring projects over there. Looking at them all is how I get myself into trouble, with too many projects, but it sure is a lot of fun.

Design Wall Monday Jan. 6, 2014

Here it is, the first Monday of the New Year, and I have a new project up on the wall. This is my celebrate the New Year by starting something new project. These are the first ten blocks of Three of a Kind, a pattern from Judy Martin's book Scraps, and it is indeed using up scraps, lots and lots of 1 1/2 inch strip scraps. Anything that is 22 inches long, or has enough to get a combined amount of that amount, can go into this one. I'm not grouping colour families, or anything like that in these. I'm just looking for contrast, with the darkest fabric at the back of the block to give some depth to the illusion of the quilt, with the colours crossing behind each other. I'm using Kona Ash as the background, and I really like how it it acting as a showcase for the rest of the colours. These are easy blocks to sew together, once I have them laid out on a design board beside my chair, so that I can pick them up and sew them in the correct order. The plan is to continue with this until it is finished, rather than letting it get to an Unfinished Object. I'm working on my UFO of the month, at the same time as this. The UFO that I chose for this month is my Thanksgiving quilt, also a pattern by Judy Martin. I still have leaves to finish for the borders, and I'm using the leaf pieces as leaders and enders for the Three of a Kind blocks. A great way to work on 2 quilts at the same time. I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday where there are lots and lots of fun, inspirational, tempting projects on other design walls to see. I am going to stick to my goal of finishing before starting, but it sure is going to be hard.