A heart potholder and a stash quilt.

Happy Friday, hope everyone enjoyed Valentines Day this week !

I had a couple of extra blocks that did not make the cut for my Valentines table runner I showed you last so I made them into a potholder:

I also noticed that I hadn’t posted pictures of this scrap quilt I made almost a year ago…

The pictures are really bad and perhaps that’s why I didn’t post them. In person this quilt is really nice – it has a kinda quirky bohemian vibe and I’m so happy with how it turned out. It is one of a small handful of quilts that I have made that truly feel like “me”. The “pattern” is Allison Harris’s Jelly Strip Stash Buster Quilt  . The fabric is from stash yardage and jelly roll strips left over from another one of Allison’s patterns I made – “Breezy” and as I looked for that quilt to link to I realized that I may not have posted that one either – oh well.

Here’s another blurry picture of the backing. I used an ancient Mary Englebreit print and a pink pindot for the binding – you can also see some of Amanda Jean’s fabric in there. That white variegated stitch fabric is so great – goes with everything. I wish I had bought yards and yards of it in every colour, hahaha, says the girl trying to sew down her stash !

Speaking of Amanda – I am linking up with Finish it up Friday.

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Lovely

Hello, thanks for stopping by !

A few weeks ago I got it into my head that a Valentine table runner was in order. There are so many good tutorials and patterns out there it was hard to choose ! This is Sher Falls pattern “Lovely”. The table runner measures 19.5″ x 47.5″.

These heart blocks with the inside/outside juxtaposition really caught my eye and those tiny little hearts for the background fabric was a no brainer !

I’m not too crazy about these inside pictures but it’s been so cold here lately I just wasn’t gonna do them outside. Oh well. I’ll leave you with some selvage edge wisdom from Bonnie and Camille – good words to live by:

till next time, best wishes.

linking up with the ever amazing Amanda Jean for Finish it up Friday

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Christmas Sewing

This is a table runner I just finished up for our kitchen table. It measures 15.5″ x 51″ and is from the book “Tablerunner Bliss” by Sherri Falls.

Most of the fabric is by Jacquelynne Steves which I have had in my stash for years. I’m so happy I have finally got ’round to sewing with it… I’ve got loads of it left too but at least I’ve made a dent in it !

The above is a Christmas Star mini quilt ( potholder 😉 ) that I paper pieced using a lovely free template from Rose Johnston. The template comes in 4 sizes and is available here.

This second potholder is also paper pieced and I added a little appliqued star. That green fabric came from the $5.00 table ( which is now $7.00, lol, inflation ) and has gold glitter all over it ! I’m pretty sure the template is on Quilter’s Cache but I can’t remember what it is called.

 

Thanks so much for having a look.

Merry Christmas to you all.

linking up with Amanda for Finish it up Friday.

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The Chocolate Quilt

Here is my latest quilt finish. My husband named it  “The Chocolate Quilt”. It is my first isosceles triangle project. I cut a lot of triangles and started arranging them on my design wall; the final layout ending up with 190 triangles using 18 different fabrics. A great stash buster project the quilt finishes at approximatley 37″ x 52″.  I used a sweet grey pindot for the backing.

The quilt will be gifted to a tiny baby boy who lives in France. He was born in early October weighing less than 3 pounds at 1.285 kgs. What a miracle !

My most recent rescue cat followed me out to the photo shoot location. She is a gorgeous blue Russian. Not being really good at naming anything, I call her “the Russian”. What she did next really surprised me…

she made the leap up onto the grainary roof – at least an 8 foot jump ! Then she meowed and knocked snow all over me wanting me to help her down – jeeze !

For those who may be wondering why my husband named the triangle quilt “The Chocolate Quilt” ? Well, you know how when you break a piece off of one of those thin dark chocolate bars and some little crumbs of chocolate sprinkle down – sometimes un- noticed ? Yes, I am guilty of occasionally indulging while quilting and I think that while sewing the rows together those little crumbs leapt onto my fabric and I pressed them in without noticing ! I hear a hot iron can really set chocolate stains 😦

Later today I’m going to attempt to remove the stains, wish me luck !

Thanks for having a look and Happy Thanksgiving to all my visitors from south of the 49th parallel.

I’ll be linking to Finish it up Friday at CrazyMomQuilts.

p.s., I’ve disabled comments because of some disheartening comments

 

Oh Canada !

…how I love thee !

LOL, obviously enough to break radio/blog silence after so long.

I haven’t been doing much sewing lately but the group in town asked me to donate some pottery for door prizes. I do have some pottery inventory to choose from but decided to make these instead. Still pottery – right ? !

The above are 8.5″ potholders that I have foundation paper pieced.

These maple leaves aren’t paper pieced but what would Canada Day be without maple leaf potholders !

Not sewing much has not kept me away from the fabric store. I picked up a fat quarter bundle of beautiful saturated colour by Canadian textile artist Libs Elliot . My daughter that lives in the big city was able to track down a bottle of Absolut vodka that bears Libs name and her maple leaf quilt design on it… you know… for starching the fabric 😉 I really like her artist statement and process comments regarding her design and collaboration with Absolut here – you’ll find better pictures too.

Belated Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends and best wishes for a happy 4th of July celebration to my visitors from south of the border.

Thanks for dropping by. Linking up with CrazyMomQuilts

 

 

Two wonderful Women

Here are the latest things I’ve been working on. Not too big or impressive but these last few months have been difficult to focus and get much done.

I really wanted to do some christmassy sewing and after changing my mind a hundred times and with time running short I started cutting out the pieces for a single ‘swoon’ block .

I added a couple of borders and it now measures about 36″ square – a good size for a table topper I think.

Unfortunately Christmas has come and gone and I’ve only got to the basting stage – Oh well, early for next year.

The other bit of sewing I’ve completed is this little pot holder. I watched Jenny Doan’s (Missouri Star Quilt Co.) video. If you haven’t seen it yet you should have a look, it’s really cool. For some reason I can’t recall, I used 8.5″ squares instead of her 10″ squares.

The above is a shot of the back, to quilt it I stitched in the ditch as usual.

As this year draws gradually toward an end I have to say it’s been a tough year and I’m glad to see it close. There have been more than the usual struggles, disappointments and sadness.

Most notably; in early November my mother in law passed away and 29 days later my Mom passed away.

This picture was taken quite sometime ago but I choose it for this space because both of them are in the frame. That’s my Mom and my daughter blowing out the candles and my mother in law watching the fun on the right. They were friends and they had what they referred to as their “mutual admiration society”. They lived hundreds of miles apart but would talk on the phone occasionally, musing about how wonderful my kids – their shared grandchildren are. At my Mom’s funeral my 3 “children” overcame their sorrow and read a tribute they had written to their Grannie. I am so thankful and proud of them.

There is so much more I should/could say about these wonderful women but words just can’t encompass my loss. I will simply quote Kahlil Gibran:

“When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight” – Kahlil Gibran

 

linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it up Friday

 

Rainbow Kisses

I finally have something finished to show here ! I’m calling this one “Rainbow Kisses”.

The quilt measures approximately 48″x60″. I used Alyces’ Tic Tac Toe block tutorial to make the blocks. The batik kiss fabrics are from a Timeless Treasures 10″ square bundle I bought several years ago. I’m so happy that I have been able to use half of them… I’m taking suggestions on how to use the remaining 20 squares ! The background fabrics were all bought here and there as stash fabrics.

For the quilting I had started doing an organic wavy line pattern and then picked it all out and went with this crosshatch grid-work. I’m happy that I went to the trouble of starting over; I think this emphasizes the kisses better.

After auditioning several binding fabrics I used the same fabric for the binding as I had used for the backing – another batik. I think this is the “year of the batik” for me !

Sorry about these pictures. The quilt is actually quite square but it was hard keeping it pinned in place against the building. The pictures were taken earlier in the week under grey skies and windy conditions. I had looked at the weather forecast and decided to do the photo shoot under less than perfect conditions because the temperature was dropping through the week and it is now minus 27 degree celsius !!! and still windy !

Keep warm !   Thanks for having a look !

I’m linking up with Amanda for Finish it up Friday.

Zest for your nest

My most recent flimsy finish is a case of “must do – drop everything and get started !” I don’t know why I get like that but it happens. I saw this quilt by Amy Smart during my morning internet perusal and I had the fabric ordered by noon ! It was my first time ordering from Adrianne Ove of ilovefabric and let me tell you; it was sweet !

My international order was shipped super fast ( I think it took a week whereas those usually take 2-3 weeks ) and I received this cute little Thank You card and treat ( it’s the small things folks 🙂 )

Here is a shot of the selvages, in these times it is so good to receive a subtle positive message

I loved Amy’s layout sooo much but really tried to put my own spin on my work. It is also my first try at improv – not as easy as I thought but still not difficult.

The Thicket collection by gingiber has two different sized animal panels and several black and white prints. Before I dropped everything for this project I had been working on a top that includes quite a few black and white prints. So I was confident in just ordering a few of the Thicket prints to carry those textures found in the animal panels throughout the top. I have made the backing and am trying to figure out a plan for quilting it.

Thanks so much for having a look !

Linking up with Amanda for Finish it Up Friday.

Sable

I’ve been making mini quilts (potholders) again ! This is a block from Lori Holt’s Farm Girl Vintage book. I forget what she calls it but I’m pretty sure that it is actually a weathervane block.

This block may be called spinning windmill… if not – it should be, that’s what it looks like ! That ocher coloured print is a Kim Diehl fabric I snagged off the $5.00 table and I wish I had bought more because of course it was all gone by my next trip into town.

As usual, I stitched in the ditch for the quilting. I prefer to quilt small things this way as I think it doesn’t interfere with the look of the pieced design. I use 1 layer of batting with a layer of insulbrite for functionality as well as how it makes the design pop out a little more. Both potholders measure 8.5″ square.

Since the harvest has been put on hold because of weather I went to help out my Mom for several days.  I just happened to drop by a quilt fabric store and couldn’t resist picking up these prints:

I’m probably the last quilter to come across these funny acronyms but they gave me a much needed laugh ! I think SABLE best describes my fabric consumption situation.

In other news… I recently attended a 60th birthday party of a very good friend and gifted her this quilt:

She was so surprised and really seemed to love it. It’s so satisfying to give a quilt to someone who loves handmade things and values your time and effort. If you would like to read more about this quilt you can see my post here. I’m glad I took the above picture before I wrapped it up as the first pictures I took don’t show the colours as well.

Thanks for having a look.

Linking up with Amanda over at CMQ for Finish it up Friday.

 

 

 

Speedy Speedster

My daughter in the Big City is a very busy girl ! One of her many interests is being on the board of a charity that supports a woman’s art festival. Each October this charity puts on a fun night out fundraiser, complete with food, drink, entertainment and silent auction. Last year I donated this quilt to the silent auction. My daughter was home this past weekend for the Canadian Thanksgiving and I was able to finish this quilt in time for her to take back with her:

The pattern is called Woven and is a new one by Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew.  Her patterns are so well written; it was a pleasure to put together ! This baby sized quilt measures 35 1/2″ x 42 1/2″. I think it is a funny coincidence that the fabric collection used here is called Speedster and I was able to complete this quilt within a month of purchasing the pattern… pretty speedy for me !

With the exception of the white background fabric the prints are all scraps leftover from this disaster.

Here is a shot of the back:

I hastily stomped around in the cold wind and snow taking these pictures this past weekend so they’re not the best 🙂

I’m becoming a weather wimp !

This last picture taken indoors shows the quilting a bit better than the others. Just some straight-line quilting following the prints. I was hoping to emphasize the woven effect.

Thanks for having a look.

I’ll be linking up with Nicky and Leanne for Scraptastic Tuesday.

and with Amanda for Finish it up Friday.