Sunday Stash – the Monday version

When you buy quilting fabric it just follows that you have to buy batting at some point. Connecting Threads had a new sale each week last month but I sat on my hands and patiently waited until the batting finally went on sale. It was worth it – 35%off ! Here’s my goodies that arrived this past week:

The Hobbs 80/20 batting is my favourite because it doesn’t pack down the way some others do. The cotton/poly blend allows the quilting to show a bit better. Unfortunately Hobbs isn’t available anywhere close by. CT has the best price on shipping to Canada of any of the U.S.A. online shops I deal with – $7.99 for this entire order ! In Canada shipping prices go by size and weight. While I didn’t take a picture of the box, I’m guessing it was 20″ cubed though it wasn’t terribly heavy, so I feel that CT shipping rates are quite fair. I should add that the pillow form is very nice, also Hobbs. I don’t think I’ll ever buy another one from our “local” fabric shop, the quality isn’t close to comparable.

Those little tweezers should come in handy when removing foundation paper piecing. They have a very fine point and are substantially made. The roll of fusible tape has come in handy already. I’ve been using up a lot of batting trimmings while making all these potholders and now I don’t have to switch needle plates and zig zag them together. I’m just using these strips to join the batting scraps. Works like a charm 🙂

Of course I had to throw a little bit of fabric in my cart as well… I ordered a half yard cut of each, lol ! The navy is exactly 18″ and the Cotton & Steel must have been cut by someone more generous. The Faux Burlap navy is one of their own custom fabrics and I have to say I am impressed. It is a very smooth fabric with a soft hand. The colour is very rich and has quite a bit of depth to the faux texture as it has 4 different blues in the printing and goes really well with the C&S.

I absolutely love this selvage.

I hope you have scooped up some good quilty sales too. They have been pretty good lately. Mad About Patchwork is my favourite  Canadian online store and Pam has also been having a new sale each week in celebration of her 7 years in business. This weeks sale couldn’t be past up so I’ll have more to show next Sunday 😉 If you visit her site click on the ‘on sale’ button within the green bar along the top – there were some lovely bolts at just $6.00 a yard !!!

Linking up to Mollie Sparkles Sunday Stash

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Fear of commitment

A girl can never have too many potholders/trivets… right ?

After all they are really useful in the kitchen and would make a welcome hostess gift or really, anytime a gift is needed. Best of all, they allow me to try out a quilt block without making a commitment to making a whole quilt !

I was at the fabric shop and lo and behold they had their blenders on sale for 1/2 price. I just can’t pass up some juicy colours at $4.00/ half meter ( that’s 20″)

and even though I didn’t plan on making more potholders, I did anyways – I had to try out my new colours !

These are my first attempts at the wonky star block and the churn dash. I can really see why these blocks have been popular for so long.

You may recognize one of the fabrics I used as Terrain by Kate Spain. I have some of this left over from the first quilt I made and  it went really well with the blenders.

In other news. Those of you that have read previously about my helping a friend with her quilt frame and machine, here’s an update:

I went and helped Val for another 5 hours last week – we didn’t even take a lunch break because I told her that it was the last time I could come for quite sometime and the quilt is intended for a birthday that happens to be today. We were able to get just over half of the quilt quilted that day. We did get slowed down by bobbin issues and breaking thread and having to readjust the quilt on the rollers bars somewhat. Even factoring that in I just don’t know what is taking us so long ! Val was able to finish it on her own and got it bound and washed and sent me a picture. She doesn’t sound that happy with it but says that she’ll get better with time. I can see it is a bit puckery but it still looks ok from here. Here is the picture she sent:

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your weekend 🙂

Linking up with Finish it up Friday. Where Amanda is showing off a whole quilt and I am happy to have 3 potholders, sigh.

Sunday Stash

Good Morning ! This is the first time I have linked up with Mollie Sparkles Sunday Stash.

I caught  a great sale over at  Craftsy last month and my shipment just arrived on Wednesday. It takes about 3 weeks for items to be shipped from the U.S. to Saskatchewan. A U.S. blogger recently commented that she can order something by 10 a.m. Friday and she’ll have it the next day for weekend sewing ! Not me – by the time I get my order I have already changed my plans for it 5 times 😉

Anyways, here we go…

above, moving L to R : Anna Maria Horner folk song, Azalea (3 Yards), Anna Maria Horner 14 pc Folk Song Fat Quarter Bundle,

Kaffe Fassett Classics 15 pc Fat Quarter bundle, Cotton & Steel Simple Patch 6 1/2 Yards, and Jaybird Quilts Hex n More Ruler

 I was a little disappointed with this fabric – in the picture on Craftsy it looked quite a bit lighter. In person it is almost beige and has tiny flecks of darker bits that resemble finely ground coffee – I actually thought it had gotten dirty somehow during shipping. A very natural looking cloth. I’m sure I will be able to use it in something else but not for what I had originally intended though. The price worked out to be half of what I would have normally paid so – still a bargain !

 My first Kaffe Fasset purchase !

 Anna Maria Horner never disappoints !

look at that middle print – my favourite of the bunch   but I may have a new favourite tomorrow 🙂

The last item is the hex n more ruler – I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it but I am intrigued – any ideas? please comment !

last night I was looking out my kitchen window and it looked as though there was fire in the sky. Unfortunately I have a lousy camera and this was the best it could do. The building on the right is my creative place. The sunset didn’t last long but it was certainly spectacular. The snow is going quickly, we will soon be on the land readying it for this years crop.

PieceMaker Potholders

What, another potholder – nope not just one, two !

Perhaps I should have named my blog ‘PieceMaker Potholders’, I have really been on a potholder craze lately 🙂

Yes, they were paper pieced and I think I’m hooked ! There are 31 pieces to the front. Well, 32, if you count the binding.

The fabrics above are mostly Denyse Schmidt, a few blenders from a fabric shop and I think that solid is called lipstick.

The second one is made using some Amy Butler fabric, Dear Stella, Bonnie and Camille plus random blenders. I love going scrappy and plundering my stash. But what a mess that process creates ! – no, not showing you a picture of that !

The author actually calls these trivets, from the book ‘Patchwork Please’, by Ayumi Takahashi. They were so much fun to put together, I’m sure I’ll be making more.

Thanks for having a look. Please leave a comment – you’ll find it up at the top of the post by the date.

Have a great weekend – the weather is supposed to be positively spring-like here !

linking up with Amanda for Finish it up Friday.

The Second Quilt Quilted

Good Friday to you !

The last few posts I have included news about my helping a friend to figure out her quilt frame and get some quilting done. I have been calling it a longarm but that’s probably a misnomer. The machine on her frame is more like a domestic machine. While it has a wide throat space it probably doesn’t fit into the ‘long arm’ category. It could easily be removed and be used to sew normally with.

Over a year ago I traveled to the ‘big city’ and took a pantograph class at the local APQS rental studio. It was a very good experience and I was able to quilt two quilts that day. The first one I showed here. It was done during class time. Here is the second quilt I did that day having pre-arranged rental time directly following the class.

and the back:

This second quilt was done with very little coaching as the machines are easy to use and well maintained. It’s not perfect but I think it’s ok for a beginner. I’d love to go back and quilt a few more of my own quilts. It’s very satisfying to do it all yourself. The pattern for the quilt was from a beginner’s quilt-along courtesy of Rachel at Stitched in Color.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a terrific holiday weekend !

please leave a comment – it’s up at the top by the date

linking up to Finish it up Friday

By Guess or By Golly

I have done some sewing in the last week:

I finished up the placemats I started awhile back. I’m pretty happy with them and glad that I gave the denim a try. Parson Gray has some new fabric coming out in a few months so I’d like to purchase a bundle of that and make a more masculine version for the men at our table. I’m not a real matchie/matchie kind of person so having placemats that are all different will be a  “set” at my table.

In other news I have been continuing to travel the 120 miles round trip to help my friend with her quilting machine. Yesterday when I arrived at 10 am we had to finish her quilt back before we were able to take the practice piece off the frame and start loading her quilt. She also had to run down to the fabric store to get a new blade for her rotary cutter and some spray starch as she hadn’t done this in the week since I had last been there. This is the practice piece that we managed to do last week.

Since my last visit I had found a discussion board online where someone had so generously uploaded the manual that was supposed to be with my friends quilt frame. There were step-by-step instructions on how the backing, batting and top were to be loaded. This was different to how we loaded the practice piece because the manual couldn’t be found and we just did it by guess or by golly. Otherwise known as the slow and frustrating route. The frame does have a top mounted laser and so we are able to do pantographs but we don’t have them on a roll – they came in a package and the master sheet has to be photocopied and then taped together and then taped onto the horizontal shelf you see above the sewing machine.

I didn’t take a picture of the quilt we were able to get loaded yesterday but the picture above is how not to load it, LOL, but it worked for the practice piece ! Val said that there was a video that had come with the frame as well and it’s really too bad that it can’t be found as we have spent a tremendous amount of time pining and unpinning, rolling bars clockwise and counter clockwise, levelling the frame up and down… ect. I have now been helping her for 17 hours – not counting my traveling time and we have only just got the first quilt loaded and the top and sides basted for the first row. It’s not surprising anymore that the entire set-up has been in her basement for 7 years – untouched.

As we move further into spring I will have less and less time at my sewing machine and computer. I have agreed to try and go back to help her one day next week. I’m afraid that after that she will have to find some self motivation and get ‘er done as we say in the west !

Hoping that your projects aren’t nearly as frustrating and time consuming !!!!!!

linking up with the very funny ( yeah, she got me ) Lee at Freshly Pieced