A January finish

What a feeling to have this quilt completed to the "flimsy" stage. I am very happy.

I will be hand-quilting this quilt and am really looking forward to it. I love the fact that I can baste quilts on the longarm. Something this size used to take me a full afternoon to hand-baste. That was back in the days when I had carpeting in the living room and I would pin the backing to the carpet and lay the batting and top on. Then an afternoon of crawling around the floor basting the quilt. My "grumpy knees" surely can't take the abuse anymore. Thanks to Gayle at Mangofeet for the phrase "grumpy knees", it's perfect!

This was my January goal for OMG - One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts, and I'm very please to have completed it.

I'm actually finishing this Sarah Fielke BOM just as the one for 2018 is starting up, literally! This year's is called Simple Folk and there is still lots of time to join in. You can read about it HERE. With the BOM you get the pattern every month as well as a wonderful video tutorial every month.

In the foreground of the picture above, is my Sarah Fielke BOM from 2016, Happy Days, currently being worked on on the longarm.

I'm custom-quilting it, but not overly so. I am having fun with a new-to-me cross-hatching method. It's fairly quick and I think it will unify the blocks in the end.

Hopefully, by this time next week I will have started putting some stitches into Down the Rabbit Hole. 

I am linking up today with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social and with Susan at Quilt Fabrication for Midweek Makers.

It looks to be a dreary end to January. A perfect time to get some sewing done and visit some quilty blogs to get inspired.

Have a lovely day!

A burst of sewing!

This week most of my work on the longarm has been put on hold as I've been nursing a back problem that pops up from time to time. 

I have managed to get a bit of sewing done as I'm ok in a seated position :)


First up was sewing one of the final borders for Down the Rabbit Hole. I held my breath as I pinned it onto the quilt, wondering if it would fit. Luckily, Sarah Fielke designs a pretty good pattern....

This morning I appliqued the final leaf to Down the Rabbit Hole!!


I also finished my Magnolia Mystery offered by Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs. This is the second mystery I've done thru' Meadow Mist Designs and Cheryl does a wonderful job!

I am going to hold off on quilting this one until I have the time to really have fun with all that open space.


I've also sewn my blocks for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge....what a lot I've accomplished while off "sick"!

Here are my Squared Away blocks...

The block at the top of the picture actually makes my eyes glaze over a bit because of the fabric choices....but I'm leaving it in.

I also have my three birds done for the month....except for their legs, those will come in February hopefully....

Aren't they adorable!!

I do hope to get back to the longarm today as I'm actually working on one of my own quilts, Happy Days, which was the BOM offered by Sarah Fielke in 2016...

I hope my back continues to improve as I have signed up for the Robbie Burns 8k, which is run this Sunday. I have so looked forward to this race (maybe because I get to wear my kilt, or maybe to start the race to bagpipes?). 

Here I am running in my kilt in the Caledonia Race in the Fall which was a warm, muggy day. We were encouraged to dress with a Scottish theme, but I think there weren't more than ten of us that did!

....and such a special feeling crossing the finish line with a good friend, which doesn't happen often...

Today I am linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? and with Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Fridays. 

I am also linking with Sandra at Musings of a Menopausal Melon for TGIFF - Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday, and with Angela at So Scrappy to see what others have been working on for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Happy Days

I'm excited this week to have one of my own quilts on the longarm this week.

This is my "Happy Days" quilt, the 2016 BOM designed by Sarah Fielke. I completed the top at a Retreat last Spring and had hoped to have it quilted in time for Fall Fair season, but that did not happen.

I mounted the quilt on the weekend...

...and started the stitch-in-the-ditch sewing yesterday. There's only one problem, I wrenched my back on Sunday and am not able to stand for any length of time, so my work at the longarm is minimal.

At least when I do custom-quilting I can lean on the rails of the longarm :/


Being a bit laid-up means a bit of extra applique time, and some time sewing the final border for my Down the Rabbit Hole!

I'm on track to having this one completed by the end of the month!!

The final border is a 6" pieced border. There's always a moment when you hold your breath wondering if a long, pieced border will actually fit.

And, guess what?....this one went on so beautifully!....

I have only six more leaves to applique to the opposite applique border (tomorrow morning!), then once I finish piecing the other three borders it will all be sewn together. I can hardly believe it!


Today I am linking up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social, and with Susan at Quilt Fabrication for Midweek Makers.

Almost done!

I'm finally on the last applique border of Down the Rabbit Hole!

Only about 55 leaves to go...

Many times on quilty Facebook groups the question is asked if one should trim the background away from behind appliqued pieces.

I thought I'd chime in here with what I think. Keep in mind that in the end it's up to you, it's your quilt...to each his own. 

When I have applique in a quilt and I know it's going to be quilted on the longarm, I leave the background intact. There is no reason, in my opinion to snip it away. The added "bulk" is next to nil and the longarm will have no problem whatsoever quilting it. I may trim a bit if there are multiple layers, but I can't say I remember ever doing this. 

On the other hand, when I'm doing a quilt that I know I'll be hand-quilting, such as Down the Rabbit Hole, I will trim the background away....so as to make hand-quilting a little easier.

Here is a bit of applique from this week....

...and here is the back...all trimmed....

I like the small Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Curved Scissors for the trimming. Can you see the little bit of curve? This is to make it easier to trim without snipping into the applique itself. 

I've tried a pair of the scissors with the "duck-bill" look to them and found them awkward to use. 

No affiliation here....just letting you know what I like.

There's also a theory that you should leave the background intact so as to lend stability to the quilt. I tend to think that once the quilt is all quilted it will be pretty stable.

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Is anyone looking for new projects to start on? I'll give you two suggestions (which I first read about over at Kathy's Quilts...I think she and I share the same "Quilt Along Addiction"!).

The first is called It's a "Wild" Life hosted by Sew Incredibly Crazy....just a block per month....do-able, right???

The second is found at From My Carolina Home and is called Square Dance. This is a mystery and offered in many sizes. I am going to pick the table-topper size....just so I can have fun playing along!

Today I am linking with Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday, and with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?.

RSC18 and PEQ MQG

This month the colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is light and medium blue.

As an added bonus, we are offered a quilty project, Squared Away, to do.  

There are sixteen half-square triangles used in this month's block. I happened to come across my stash of Thangles and thought this would be a good opportunity to use them...

I plan on making three blocks each month, and have two done so far...

I like them! Although, I'm not sure I'll continue to use the Thangles. They are a good method, but I can get the same result with the Easy Angle ruler. By using the ruler I skip the step of removing the papers from the Thangles. I'll have a think about it.

Of course, my other project for the RSC18 is to construct three birds per month from the Black Birds pattern designed by Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts that I wrote about HERE. 

Adorable....I think I'll try to get another done this weekend.

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I've also completed Clue #5 for the PEI MQG Mystery quilt....

This step used a nifty trick on trimming the rectangles so that are cut just right...see how the seam doesn't run directly corner-to-corner? There was a suggested video to watch to learn the technique which was a huge help!

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I think I've been holed up too long in the house because of all the crazy weather lately....I feel like an outing today. 

The Ice Wine Festival in Niagara started this week, so we may plan on a nice drive down to our favourite winery, Kacaba Vineyards and Winery, and sample the food/wine pairing. 

It's too easy for me to become a hermit in the Winter.....at least I can take solace in the fact that we'll be looking forward to Spring in two months, right?

I am linking up with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and linking this post to the PEI Mystery Quilt-along post. Also, for the first time, I am linking with Sew Can She for Show Off Saturday.

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

Leaves, leaves and more leaves

I've been working away at the leaves on the border of Down the Rabbit Hole. Haha, it seems like that is all I post about lately....but I'm still hoping to be finished by the end of the month.

I took the time last night to pin the different components to the design wall. I folded the quilt in quarters just to see how it's going...

I'm pretty sure I appliqued more leaves than what was called for but I really like it to look full!

I'm planning on the rabbits being on the sides of the quilt, not top and bottom....so I will sew those borders on the other way so the rabbits won't be hanging off the side of the bed upside-down.

This morning I couldn't resist taking a break from leaf-sewing to put a few stitches into a new embroidery, Send My Love, which is the i stitch club 2018 offered by Gail Pan. I blame this "start" squarely on Kathy from Kathy's Quilts. 

I just stitched a little to appease myself since I want to keep on track with my applique.

The weather has been all over the place lately. Be it frigid cold, snow or what-have-you, it's been difficult to push myself out the door at night to go to my run club. 

This week I took advantage of a relatively new indoor walking/running track that was built as part of the new arena in Cayuga. 

Every time I go there it's obvious that this is a good investment for communities. I see young runners, seniors doing some walking, young mothers with babies in strollers...all enjoying the benefits that this offers.

Sometimes I use an app on my phone when I run called Map My Run. It was obvious the other day that this app does not like 
indoor-track exercise...

.....plus, I know darn well that I didn't just run 1.4k!!! So funny!

I am linking up today with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop and with Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday

TBT - Shadow of the Bear

I have made some blog-friends in the last couple of years....many I have yet to meet in person.

One of these is Sandra who writes Musings of a Menopausal Melon. We should have met this past year at a longarm class being offered down Niagara-way, but that was unfortunately cancelled.

The other day, I read that Sandra is starting a once-a-month linky party called Throwback Thursday. Today is the first installment.

When I read that she was doing this, I was literally within an hour of gifting a quilt to a friend. I think it was "meant to be" that I share a picture of this quilt before it made it's way out the door.

I know that all three pictures are basically showing the same image, but I think it's cute that Minnie and Cooper think the picture-taking is all about them!

This quilt is called Shadow of the Bear...since the bear paws are kind of shadowed. A group of us made these quilts in a workshop given by my friend, Deb Allan, in 2001 (we think). 

I'm pretty sure this was a mystery class. It was a lot of sewing and used up a lot of scraps and is probably one of the nicest mystery quilts I have seen. I hand-quilted it and it is gently used, but still in remarkable shape.

What I love most about this quilt is the staggered nature of the log cabin blocks, which adds so much interest and motion to the quilt.

Looking at the pictures, I'm getting flashbacks on trimming up all of those half-square triangles....there was so much work to this quilt...but worth it!

I hope you can visit with Sandra for Throwback Thursday and show her some quilty-love on starting the new linky party.