My Confession

Yes, here it is, I’m going to make a public confession in hopes of trying to get this project re-booted.

This quilt was started a year ago.
The name of the quilt is “Diamonds are forever”, funny… that’s how long it’s taking me !

I started with alot of enthusiasm and gusto but…. that fizzled.
I think, probably because it was really slow going. Well, ok, I’m really slow going.
Last winter I completed about 35 , 8.5″ blocks and I plan on getting back at it this winter and be finished this winter sometime ( maybe I should be more specific for the time frame ???? )

I put what I have so far back up on the wall to photograph it in no particular order, definitely not the final arrangement for the blocks.

I think I knew last winter that it was going on the back burner the moment I started taking the blocks down to ‘temporarily’ make room for another smaller project.

Anyways, that’s my confession and by sharing it here as a WIP I’m challenging myself to get back at it and get ‘er done !
Please cheer me on by leaving a comment if you have ever made a string quilt and have some speed tips please share them ! – the clickie thing is up at the top of the post on the left

linking up with Lee and her WIP Wednesday here

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A little gift sewing

About a month ago I had seen a quilt block on Flicker that I just adored – loved it.
The scrappy fabrics used, the scale of the prints and the proportions of the block all really appealed to me. Oh, and the piecing was so well done too. I’m telling you, it was patchwork perfection !

Well lucky me/us, wouldn’t you know it – the person who created these lovelies recently, so generously, made a tutorial.

Within minutes of spotting the tutorial I was running out to my sewing room to make one and then had to run back and print out the instructions… at least I’m getting some exercise.

Here is what I made, it’s called an uneven 5 patch grid.

and then I added borders

and then I added all the rest to make it into a hot pad:

and then I made another one. See, I’m getting better, the second one is a little straighter and a little less puckered.

You can’t just gift one hot pad – it really should be a pair.

Now that you’ve seen my sorry little attempt, would you like to see how a pro does it ?
You may notice that I changed the dimensions just a titch because I wanted to make my block justa little bigger.
You’ll find Rachel’s excellent work and wonderful tutorial right here

I’d love it if you would leave a comment – the thingie to click on is up at the top of this post on the left by the date.

P.S., Linking up with Amanda Jean for finish it up Friday.

Welcome Blogathoners

Hi there and welcome to my little page on the interwebs.

This is my first time participating in the Canadian Blogathon and I’m hoping to make some new friends and find some new blogs… maybe even win a prize ! That’d be great, I hardly ever enter contests so … yep, I can’t remember the last time I won a prize ! Thanks so much to the host Sew Sisters Quilt Shop and all the co-sponsors for making this opportunity for all us bloggers new and old.

I haven’t been blogging very long but please, have a look around and let me know what you think.
Actually, I haven’t been a quilter very long either. It’s right around this time of year, three years ago that I started my first quilt. I have never taken a class – everything I know, I have learned from other peoples blogs. I am always surprised at how much useful information bloggers generously put on their blogs. So many tutorials and free patterns. That is one of the reasons I started my blog – to share and pass on what I have been discovering about quilting and sewing projects. Who knows, maybe in the far distant future I will discover an easier way of doing something and try writing my own tutorial to share. Ha ! don’t hold your breath, though, I’m still very much in the learning phase !

So this post wouldn’t be complete without a picture of some sewing:

This is a 10″ paper pieced pattern called Diamond Star
from Kristy at Quiet Play. The template can be found on Craftsy for FREE ! Yes, another example of the generosity on the internet. This is perhaps the 3rd different block I have paper pieced. I don’t know why I enjoy paper piecing – it’s crazy that it works and I can’t imagine how it was discovered/invented. I am soooo slow at it though – maybe because there is too much time that passes between each time I have a ‘go’ at it. This 10″ block probably took me a full afternoon. How fast are the rest of you – does that sound about right or crazy slow ?
Any speed tips ?

I’m not 100% sure of what I’m going to do with this star but I’ll let ya know !

Thanks for visiting. Please leave a comment. The comment thingie to click on is up by the title of this blog post on the left.

Not a brown bag lunch.

Hi There, hope you have had a good week.
Here are some pictures of an insulated lunch bag I made for my daughter.

Sometimes I get halfway through a project and think to myself, ” whatever made you think you could do this ! ” and this project was definitely one of those. It was out of my comfort zone. But, I persevered and it all turned out ok. The tutorial has lots of pictures and is really well written. This bag is insulated and lined with rip-stop fabric, has a zipper closure, some curved sewing and a ‘Y’ type of seam. Most of which were new to me.

I gave it to my daughter for her birthday in late August and she really liked it. She is a project specialist in marketing and advertising at a bank in Alberta. She tells me she takes it to work with her every day. She is an Amy Butler fan so the fabric was a good choice.

With Christmas coming I thought I would post it here for anyone looking for great gift ideas.

The tutorial was written by Sherri who has a great blog with other tutorials over at http://www.threadridinghood.com/wordpress/
(I wish I knew how to make those other kind of links where you just click on a word)

here is a direct link to the published tutorial:
http://www.sewmamasew.com/2014/06/insulated-lunch-sack/

Thanks for visiting. Please leave a comment. The thingie to click is up by the title of this post.

linking up with Amanda’s Finish it up Friday

This is what we do

For those of you that don’t know Rick Mercer, he is a Canadian television personality. He does a weekly half hour show that mostly pokes fun at our politicians but also travels around our huge country and teaches us about us. This past week he aired a segment about harvesting. The farm that hosted him is located about 3.5 hours from here. The segment was probably filmed in late September. I know it wasn’t early September because this area received snow and rain and the future of this years harvest was looking very bleak. But the weather turned around and we got the crop in. Operations on our farm are very similar to what you see here. There have been harvests where I did most of the combining but the last couple of years I have run the grain cart – you will see them dumping into the cart “on the go”. It takes some precision driving ! I’m not sure why they piled the wheat on the ground. We have piled barley on the ground but not wheat and we certainly don’t do somersaults down the pile ! Ain’t got no time for dat ! Near the start of the video the big guy thrashes the heads of wheat in his palm and explains what happens in the combine – that was a brilliant way to demonstrate this to the public ! The segment took over 10 hours to film and I commend the farmers that made the effort at this hectic time of year. Well done !

W.I.P.

This is what I’ve been working on and off for awhile now. I bought a fat quarter bundle of Cruiser Boulavard quite sometime ago and when it arrived I just didn’t think the scale of the prints suited the pattern I had in mind when I ordered the fabric. Is anyone else surprised like this when they order fabric online ?

So anyways, it sat in the cupboard. Eventually I stumbled on this pattern and I’m glad I waited. The arrangement of the blocks echos the placement of images in some of the prints.

This is the back. Again I wanted to tie the fabric prints into the quilt block placement. It’s also possible that I didn’t have enough backing fabric and had to come up with a creative way of making it all fit 😉

I had to lay the basted quilt out on my kitchen table to take these pictures. Winter has come to these parts during the last few days. The skies are overcast and we now have 4″ of snow with more on the way.

I will leave you with a picture of my studio taken 3 days ago from my kitchen window. BTW, most of the space in my studio is for my pottery but I have designated one room for my sewing.

linking up with Lee at http://www.freshlypieced.com/

My Apologies

for these lousy pictures !

This is the quilt I referred to in my last post. This is the quilt I made for my Mother for her 90th birthday last year. It’s not hard to see that the pictures are bad – they are over exposed and don’t represent the true colors of the quilt. On my monitor the colors are more true in the previous post.

The quilt itself turned out quite well and my Mother was very pleased with it. My Mother was an excellent sewer of garments but she had never made a quilt so this is the only handmade quilt she owns. I’d like to say she uses it everyday during her naps but she does not. She ‘displays’ it laid out on a table instead – yeesh !

It all started with that fabric you see for the binding and in various blocks. She had given me this fabric from her stash and said that it was ‘special’ to her but didn’t elaborate.

( yeah, these pictures just get worse when you blow them up )

So I took it home and began collecting fabrics to make a quilt, unbeknownst to her. There isn’t a true quilt shop for literally hundreds of miles around. There is a fabric store 35 miles in one direction and another of the same chain 55 mies in the other direction from where I live. So the fabric choices come from both stores as I tried to co-ordinate something to go with Mom’s fabric.

Here is a shot of the back.

It took me quite awhile to settle on a pattern as I was collecting fabric. The ladies in the fabric store think it is hilarious that I buy the fabric first and then find a pattern. As I learn more about quilting I am understanding their laughter !

The pattern was found here.

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2011/08/cartwheels-quilt.html

The instructions are very well written and it goes together easily.

Her pictures are kindof similar to mine in the overexposure department so now I don’t feel too bad ! It must be the contrast between the background fabric and the block that confuse the “point and shoot” camera settings.
I used yardage instead of the Jelly Roll used in her pattern.
The quilt is twin sized and I had it professionally longarm quilted.