Mount Redoubt Quilt - Midsummer's Dream

I have had this kit for awhile and got it out the other day to work on.  I was surprised how fast it went together and how much I like it!   I quilted down the applique pieces and then free hand quilted the water and swirls in the border. I used my Janome instead of my longarm this time since it was a small project.

 The kit included Swarovski crytals that are fused onto the flower centres and swan wings.

Christmas Quilt

Here is Eileens Christmas/holiday quilt and as you can see I'm trying to be more creative with my picture taking ( maybe that should be my New Years Resolution).   It is a mystery project that she was working on from a quilting magazine, can't remember which one.  It is called Christmas Lights but I had no intention of quilting a string of christmas lights on it!  Those setting triangles were just calling for their own design.

I designed and free handed the holly and berries for the setting triangles, as well as the ribbon swirl for the red border.

I also designed the outside border with a smaller version of the holly and berries.

I used a bold King Tut varigated thread in greens, reds and golds.

Vintage Quilt

It is amazing what a little quilting can do to a quilt.  These blocks were bound for the garbage can but were given a second chance by the guild.   I was working at Faktor one day when an older woman came in and asked if anyone at the store would want these blocks.  They were given to her by a friend who bought them at a garage sale years ago and they had been sitting in her basement for years since then.  She was going to throw then out so I said I would bring then to the guild to see if anything could be done with them.  The blocks were half hand pieced and half machine and in relatively good shape.  The ladies at the guild worked there magic and pieced then into a pretty quilt.  But you'll have to indulge me here when I say I think the quilting has given this quilt that extra something special!

I quilted a feather wreath in all the blocks.

Quilted feathers in the setting triangles, simple lines in the sashing and a swirl feather design in the outside border.

Here is the back.

Folded Borders!

Here is Rae's quilt that I finished with the Flourish pantograph and my new Connecting Threads thread!  Bought a large cone of white to try and had no problems with it, no breakage and it quilted beautifully.   I can't remember the name of this fabric collection but I know it is a Mark Lipinski line as I have 11 fat quarters of it from the Northcott contest.   I think I need to find the butterfly border fabric Rae used and them maybe I can do something with my fabrics!

This quilt has a tiny white folded border and I was able to keep it from flipping on me as I quilted by basting it down using my needle up/down feature every half inch.   You can see the tiny holes in the border in the picture below where I pulled the basting stitches out.  Anyone have a trick to easily remove those holes without scratching at the fabric?  I"ll let Rae know as she has the quilt back!  :)

Well this cold weather has affected my Millie and I'm finding some drag on my machine in certain areas so I know it's not a problem with my wheels.  It gets down to 12'C in my shack with our -40'C nights so I"m sure that is effecting the metal in the table. Added an extra heater for when I'm working in there but do not want to leave it on when I'm not in there.

I have the guild's Vintage quilt on the frame right now, it's the one we rescued from being thrown out.  I'll post pictures when I'm done, probably this weekend.

Birdhouse Raffle Quilt

IT'S DONE!!!!!!

This is the North Star Quilt Guild's raffle quilt for our 2010 Quilt Show in April.  My goal was to have it quilted by the December meeting and that is still a week away, so well ahead of schedule!!

Here are some close ups of the quilting.   That is suppose to be wood grain in the attic window sashing!

  

Introducing...

...me!   The latest issue of the Canadian Quilter is out and my introduction article is in this winter issue.  Most of you know that I am the CQA Manitoba Rep, I started in July 2009 and it is a two year volunteer position.   I was asked to write an article and send in some photos of my work.  My sister was visiting this summer and we wrote the article together, well it was more I gave her the facts and she did her magic and made me sound interesting!   So this post is just some shameless self promotion, but it is quilt related!

Batik Workshop

So I mentioned that I have been taking a Batik workshop this week.  It was held at the High School and they brought a teacher in from Winnipeg for the week long coarse for the Art students. About 10 additional adults were invited to join in and it was fun to go back to school ( but I definately felt old!)

I wasn't prepared with any design idea so I did a version of my Tamarack Shack logo.  I'm very happy with the finally result as you really don't know how it will turn out until you iron off the wax.  Now that I know what looks good  I would really like to give it another try with something more abstract.

Batiks have a translucent property so looks best with light behind, that is why it is taped to my window.

I handed in all my homework for my online quilt whisperer class and can sit back and see what others hand in.

County Lines

I quilted Dragonfly Pond with green variated thread on Rae's County Lines quilt.  The colors in this quilt are so relaxing and calm, and the brown adds a warm neutral to the palette. 

This is the first time I have quilted with my new Dream Blend batting and it has a beautiful loft to it.  It is very strong when tugging and adjusting in my frame so I enjoyed working with it too.  I will definately be ordering more rolls of this batting. 

Shirt Quilt

My client made this quilt out of shirts and added a few extra fabrics to finish the top.  It is going to be used on a couch in a jacuzzi room so I though the simple swirl pattern would look like swirling water!

I went to my Batik workshop yesterday since I'm feeling better. It's not what I was expecting ( design wise) but it will be interesting for me to see what kind of creation I end up with at the end of the week.