Friday, December 30, 2016

OMG....One Monthly Goal, December

I have been working hard to get caught up with my HappyDays quilt, which has been the Sarah Fielke BOM for 2016. I'd really like to make headway on this one before her 2017 BOM begins!


My goal for December was to get all the wreath blocks completed. Thanks to some downtime during my Alberta trip, I am happy to report they are done....


I think I have one more 12" applique block to do, a couple of pieced blocks and 24 6" Ohio Star blocks to do. Oh, and I almost forgot the border. Sarah gives three options on the final border and I think I'll just have to go with the one with the applique!

I took advantage of online sales over Christmas to bump my stash for the upcoming Sarah Fielke 2017 BOM, Down the Rabbit Hole...



A goal I am setting for 2017 is to try my hand (needle?) at Improv quilting.

As luck would have it, Santa brought me a book for Christmas, recommended to him by Stephie at Dawn Chorus Studio. I haven't even looked inside the book yet. I want to wait 'til I can give it my full attention over a cup of tea.



On a final note, I want to thank Sandra at Musings of a Menopausal Melon for the cute mini that I won on her blog this past month...so cute!...

I am linking up to Elm Street Quilts for the "Finish" link-up for One Monthly Goal.

Bye for now!




Thursday, December 29, 2016

Home Sweet Home!

It's nice to go away....but even nicer when you get home!

I have a ton of things to do in the next couple of days but they can wait an hour until I unwind a bit.

We've spent the last week in Alberta for Christmas. We only had a couple of days of very cold weather....the rest of the time, not so bad.

I've never taken stitching to do on an airplane before, but thought I'd give it a try this time. I didn't risk taking scissors, the only thing I could have lost to security was an old needle. 

I know I've seen posts of people taking hexie projects on flights. I'm not into the hexie craze, but I do like English Paper Piecing. Preparing to go away I made sure I had lots to take along....and it all fit into the cute zippered bag that was gifted to me by the Twilight Guild in Simcoe when I did my trunk show there.

A little girl and her mother asked what I was doing and I explained that this was the beginning of a new quilt. The young woman said, "I wish I could do that!"....and I replied, "You can!".

This has been my third visit to the Edmonton area and I finally got to visit the West Edmonton Mall. Everyone always asks if I've been and I can finally say I have....and on Boxing Day, to boot!

I've heard stories of this mall, but my imagination did not do it justice.

In this mall there is a full amusement park...

....a full waterpark with a wave pool, which my husband says is bigger than the one at Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara...

There was a skating rink, but this week it was covered for an auto exhibit.

There is a pirate ship with a full water feature, including seals that people could get their picture taken with....

I'm glad I finally got to go to the "West Ed"!....I almost came home with a beautiful pair of cowboy boots....I do regret passing them up!

I did get to a local quilt shop. They had these banners on display available from Northcott this year...I purchased the Ontario and Alberta ones....I will incorporate them into the backing of my 150 Canadian Women quilt.

For the first time I experience deep-fried turkey. 

Before...

After...

I have to say....not a fan of the deep-fried turkey. I feel like going out to see if there is any turkey left in the supermarket so I can have a traditionally baked one. Oh well, it was nice to try something new.

Finally, I just want to share some photos of an attraction we visited, the Muttart Conservatory.

In each of the four "pyramids" a different biome is featured.


Image result for muttart conservatory images


As I wandered around I was thinking of friends who would have loved the conservatory, so I'm sharing a few pictures that they may have liked...

 The Owl-Eye Pincushion


 The Elephant Foot Tree




....and this one...so cool!...



Sorry the info about the Voodoo Lily is so hard to read, it's the best I could do.

That's all for now....time to tackle the pile of laundry!

I am linking up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Peaceful stitching time

I'm starting to think that I start each post with commentary about the weather!

We had quite the day yesterday ending with a layer of freezing rain.

Which means that it's the perfect morning to cozy up with a bit more stitching than usual!

I've been trying to get some applique prepped and ready for the holiday season. My main focus has been on my Sarah Fielke 2016 BOM, Happy Days.

Maybe it's because her new BOM for 2017 starts soon! It's called Down the Rabbit Hole and you can read about it here.

This is the block I was working on this morning...



I can see now what the fuss is all about with English Paper Piecing...although I think I need just a bit more practice on my fussy cutting.

We haven't received many Christmas cards this year, but we did receive one from Scotland....


Luckily, it came with a translation on the back....


My Learn to Run class did do our graduation night 5K run...in the bitter cold! I am proud to say that we all rocked it, and even though I'm not speedy I didn't stop once!

I've made many new friends on this journey. Here we all are after our big night...


I think I'll be taking a blogging break 'til the New Year, so have a great holiday season everyone and I'll meet back up with you in 2017!!!

I am linking up with Kathy at Kathy's Quilts for some Slow Sunday Stitching

Have a lovely day!

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

A beautiful quilt to end the year....

Ever since I started my longarm journey I've promised myself the last two weeks of the year as "time off". 

It's usually a mad rush to get the quilts done that need doing before Christmas but this year I've seemed to kept up nicely and finished the last quilt of the year on Monday.

The quilt is a real beauty, designed by the piecer herself!





The centre was a perfectly done Mariner's Compass....surrounded by a large circle. The aim was to have this look like a Dreamcatcher...and I think we succeeded!



The eagle feathers were a feature that she was hoping could be incorporated...



We used wool batting (love!) and the back was a solid flannelette (I love that word, it makes me think of my mom) which makes the back as wonderful as the front....





Now that quilting is done for the year I can relax a bit....getting ready for Christmas, get some serious prep work done for applique ( I hope! ), do some organising in the sewing room. 

The last couple of weeks I've spent my coffee hour enjoying the quilting of my Quilty365....


I haven't hand-quilted a large project in quite a while. Today I find myself suffering quite a muscle strain in my hand. I'm figuring it's the quilting so this morning I took a break and did a bit of embroidery on a Life is Beautiful block...


My stitches are a bit wobbly in places, but that's ok....it's really all about enjoying the journey, isn't it? Just doing your best on any particular day.

Image result for running cartoon images

Some of you know that I've been involved in a Learn to Run class.

I've never been anything close to what you would call an athlete. I still find it surreal that I've been going faithfully to this class for the last fifteen weeks. 

I've had the fun of sharing this adventure with an old friend...and made some new friends along the way! 

Thursday night we have our graduation run....we will run the entire 5K with no walking intervals. Wish me luck! I am quite proud of our whole group of "runners"!!!


I am linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social.

Have a great day!

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Little flakes, big snow?

We're supposed to be in for some Winter weather for the next 24 hours and there are snowflakes out my window already. 

My husband always says, "little flakes, big snow...big flakes, little snow". I don't know if that's true but we'll test his theory today. This morning we have little flakes falling.


A perfect morning for a bit of sleeping in followed by some handwork. My secret pleasure this time of year is early weekend mornings with my applique and a sappy Hallmark Christmas movie. 




Binding is not my favourite part of quilt-making but it needs to be done and I have two to do, so that is what I started my day with...



It's nice to start the day off slowly....you can see what others are working on over with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching where you'll find Kathy also working on some binding. I think it's that time of year...with people finishing things up by year-end or for Christmas gifts.

I'll be spending the rest of the day catching up on my longarm commitments....for the last few days I've been working on this beauty....



For many reasons, this quilt is one of the most beautiful I've worked on. I'll have to ask the piecer if I can share pictures of it when it's completed.


Some of you may remember that this Summer we had a litter of puppies to occupy our time. Once in a while, but less frequent now, I'll get a photo by text of how the pups are doing.

Yesterday, literally within two minutes of each other, I received these pictures of two of the puppies.....



So cute! It's so nice to get occasional updates. We've really had an awesome experience with the "parents" of our puppies.

I kind of hope the weather holds off for the next week. For the last fourteen weeks I've been going to my Learn to Run classes. This will be the final week....with our graduation being on Thursday.....wish me luck!!!

Have a great day...I hope you also can relax with a bit of stitching!


Sunday, December 4, 2016

Loving my slow stitching!

It looks like a dreary sort of day out there today. 

I wonder if there is some link to the weather and the amount of time I spend at my hand-work in the mornings? I have certainly put more than my usual amount of stitches in my quilt this morning. 

Maybe once in a while it's just nice to take things slow.

This morning I did some more quilting on my hearts...



It's difficult to put this aside and do what needs be doing! Namely, binding some quilty gifts. I know a lot of people out there enjoy doing the binding, but I just see it as something that needs to be done to have the quilt completed....in other words, a chore.

Here is one quilt that will be slated for stitching the binding down...



This was a great pattern to follow by Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs and is called State of Being. I think I may be starting to embrace the look of modern quilts!

The quilt is for my 2-year old grandson when he soon will have his first big-boy bed, so I attached a fun border. In this picture you can see that I really like the fact that I can attach the binding to the quilt with the longarm...





I needed to make a baby quilt for our latest grandbaby and my original idea was just not working out. Luckily, a friend shared a quick go-to idea....and I love it! It just took a charm pack and some background fabric. I neglected to buy some matching fabric for the binding so I think I'll use the leftover fox fabric from the State of Being quilt.



The plan will be to have this one quilted up before the weekend is over so I can return to client's quilts on Monday.


I've been working on the 150 Canadian Women quilt and decided to sash it as it goes along....something I'm sure I'll appreciate a year from now!...but I also decided to put in scrappy cornerstones, as well.



I have a good reason for this. Sometimes, if I just sew in long horizontal sashing, the vertical blocks don't always line up. I don't know how to explain what I mean, but if it's happened to you then you'll understand! By putting in the cornerstones I think I'll have a much better chance at things looking nice and square. 

As an added bonus, I think it will look awesome!

I am linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching ( and I do think there will more Slow Stitching in my day today! ) and with Quilting is More Fun Than Housework for Oh,Scrap!.

I am also linking up with a blogger I've just discovered recently, Tweety Loves Quilting!

Have a great day!


Thursday, December 1, 2016

One Monthly Goal for December

I'm sure December is going to fly by. I still would like to have a goal to complete this month, though. 

Taking part in OMG (One Monthly Goal) does give one a sense of accomplishment.....and moves some quilty projects closer to the finish line!

My goal for December is to finish a portion of my Happy Days quilt. This part needs six of these blocks, measuring at 6.5x12.5...

....and one similar block measuring 6x6.

I'd like to prep the pieces needed in the next couple of days. Once the pieces are ready, the applique usually follows quite nicely!


Thanks everyone who commented on my quandary of which direction to go with my Chapman Coverlet, which you can see here. You've helped me decide to go totally scrappy with this one....but leaning toward more clear fabrics and not muddy ones. I think it's going to be a wonderful quilt!

I've re-started my 150 Canadian Women quilt using white fabrics instead of the tan that I had originally started with...

I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal.

Have a lovely, sunny day!

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

The Chapman Coverlet

So here's the thing....I miss doing my daily hearts for the Quilty365. 

One of the benefits to having a quilt like that on the go is that is is a great take-along project. I enjoy having small blocks to work on during guild meetings, vacation, applique group, etc.

There's a quilt that's piqued my interest for a while now...The Chapman Coverlet. I'd have to look into it more, but I'm thinking it's a reproduction of an antique quilt....but don't quote me on that.

I've had the pattern and templates for a few months...



Each block is 2.5" unfinished, so a nice size to tuck away for a travel project!

Most Chapman Coverlet quilts I see on Facebook and Instagram are done in Civil war prints. I could do that to use up my scraps, but those fabrics don't make me happy.

I've done up two blocks to try to choose...one in 1930's (which always make me happy!) and more modern prints, like Tula Pink, which are very bright and cheery. 

Hmmmm, maybe Pinterest will have some good fabric ideas for this quilt.



Half of the blocks are dark applique on light background, and the other half will be light on dark. 

A few minutes ago I'd thought to stick the 30's fabrics for this one....but now I'm not sure again!

Even my meager collection of Kaffe Fassett fabrics called out to be considered yesterday....but I really don't have much of that sort of thing. I wonder if they could be partnered with the other Tula Pink and Cotton&Steel-type fabrics in my stash?

I am linking up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social. Have a look at her blogpost today to see some quilt patterns she has created to commemorate Canada's 150th!


Sunday, November 27, 2016

Sunday Stitches on One Monthly Goal!

My goal for this month was to have the top completed on my Quilty365/Year in My Life.

The last heart took place mid-month, so I had a couple of weeks to get it together....and I did!


I ended up using the border fabric that I've had in my stash for quite a few years, and am happy with the end result.

As soon as I was able, I snuck this quilt onto the longarm to be basted...


I don't know if hand-quilters know that this is a service that a longarmer can offer. In the past I spent many afternoons crawling around the living room floor basting quilts that were stretched out and pinned to the carpet. What a pain, literally! 

I knew a couple of months ago when this quilt was hanging on the design wall that it was begging for hand-quilting. What an absolute pleasure it was to sit and get the first stitches into the quilt. I don't know how to explain the peaceful feeling to someone who doesn't enjoy stitching with their hands. 


I wish I could get decent photos of the quilting process. I love the texture of hand-quilting...



I think what makes this more special to hand-quilt is the meaning behind many of the blocks. In hand-quilting the quilt I find myself reflecting on the past year.....grandchildren being born, a Summer of puppies, sad days and happy ones. 

I am very glad to have taken on this project which has resulted in such a special quilt.

My husband hasn't seen me quilt a full-sized quilt before. When I picked it up yesterday to poke at a bit, he said how he thought I had finished already. lol....I thought he was joking, but no he wasn't....he just had no idea that this will be ongoing for a few months.

I am linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching, and with Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework for Oh,Scrap!.

I am also linking with Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal!


By the way, is anyone taking part in the year-long sewalong just started lately? It is to commemorate Canada's 150th birthday next year.

There will be three blocks released every week 'til we have all 150 6" blocks!

There is still time to join in, as we are just at week #2. I have the first week done, but will be re-doing them as I want to make the blocks red and white instead of red and tan....now's the time to make the switch before I'm too far along!....



I think I'll try to find time this afternoon to get these re-done.

You can read about this quilting project here. Oh, and every block comes with a story of an important woman in Canadian history!

I am linking this post to the linky party that Audrey is hosting at Quilty Folk for Quilty365.

Have a great day!