Echo Curves

Some quilts speak very quietly on how they need to be quilted and others like Robins gorgeous Leaf quilt just spoke so clearly. I could hardly wait to get this one on my machine as I knew exactly how I wanted to quilt this one the moment I saw it.  If only every quilt spoke to me like this!

What I am most excited about on this quilt is the new border design that was shared on the MQR forum.  I finally got a chance to use my curved cross hatching rulers and I love love love this design.

I quilted a wood grain texture in the attic windows and SID around the leaves then echoed.

The snow is almost gone, just a few piles here and there in the yard but the forecast for tomorrow is for snow...no surprise! 

But I am happy I can use my favourite picture spot again!

Twister from Hand Dyes

I made a small table topper using my hand dyed fabric that I had cut into 5" charm size and the Lil' Twister ruler.  Just stitched in the ditch with invisible thread on my Janome.  I am going to take this one to our new local fabric shop to display along with my hand dyed charm packs.  I think it is a good idea to show samples of what can be made with just a charm pack of fabric.

I also finished Sandra's quilt that she was working on at our guild retreat. This is a beautiful fabric collection from our local shop Bliss Fabrics and Gifts and I used the pantograph called Heraldry.

Making the Grade

 I want to share the good news and let you know that my sister received a mark of 47/50 for her website design for Tamarack Shack!!  My website was her final project for her web design coarse and her professor had this to say in his final comments.

This is a thoroughly professional site, Elizabeth and both you are your client should be proud. I know I am.  I have to tell you that I don’t think I have given this high a grade in this course EVER. Be proud.  47/50.

*Happy Dance*

10 Minute Block

This is Lori's Ten Minute Block quilt and she asked for a simple free hand water design and just an echo in the brown curved diamond shapes.  This is a really fast quilt to make and I have included a link to the YouTube video with instructions.

Lori hand dyed the backing but it was a tone on tone print that didn't really match the design on the front.  So she said to use the solid back side instead.  When I went to quilt it I had to double check with her that she wanted me to use the back of the backing for the back..... :)

I felt like I was loading it wrong on the machine which was the right way this time.

The quilt retreat was great and I am glad I have Sunday to recover..I didn't get home until 11pm last night :)

So this is what I accomplished

I finished sewing the curves down on my Mexican Star.

Almost finished one of my boys twin size quilts but still need to decide on the borders.

And I also got a start on my Hopscotch quilt. Still along way to go on that one.

Humm...I don't think I can just leave this at that stage.  I think I know what I'll be sewing tonight.

Retreat Time

Our guild is having our Spring Retreat this Friday and Saturday so I am getting my projects all in order.  I have been working on this Mexican Star wall hanging all week and just need to sew back the curves on the 3D triangles. I have no idea how I'm going to quilt this one yet but I know where it is going to hang!

I have three other projects all boxed up and at different stages so we will see how long they stay UFO's. I am hoping to complete two project in these next two days.

I purchased Holly Taylor's Classics fat quarter bundle a month ago and am going to make two twin size quilts using the Yellow Brick Road pattern.  My Mom put in her request for new quilts for her guest room as the boys sleep in that room when we visit and it is a very feminine room so she would like to make it more masculine for the boys.
Then I have my purple fabrics from Bliss and want to use the Hopscotch pattern to make a queen size quilt.  No plan for this one, just like the fabrics.
Then back at our guild's xmas party I won a Thimbleberry fat quarter collection so I cut it up using my GO cutter and the Tumbler die.  It should make a nice lap size quilt, no home for that on either.
So these should keep me busy and keep me out of the yummy food that shows up at our retreats... well for a little while anyway.

Spring Melt

This is Val's Sampler quilt and she gave me free reign to quilt what I wanted.  The wide tone on tone border called for a feather treatment and in the centre I used the Happy Times panto.

We have had a few warm days here so the snow is slowly starting to melt.  My nice clear ice is now full of tiny cracks as the sun starts to melt the ice.  As the cracks melt deeper the ice starts to 'candle' but that is still a few weeks away.

It is three weeks...what a difference.  But today it is -18'C so I don't think there will be much melting today.

Bargello

Look what arrived in the mail today!  This beautiful bundle of fabric was put together for my by Carol and Wayne at Kickass Country Store.  This is a wonderful shop located in the tiny town of Plumas, Manitoba and they have an amazing store and customer service.  I emailed Carol and asked her if she could pull together fabric for a Bargello quilt called Surf Song from Eileen Wright's book Twist and Turn Bargello.  I sent Carol a picture of it and she got it bang on!  I am very happy...but now I have a problem.   I thought once I had all the fabric together for this quilt I would recommend it to the guild to be our next Raffle Quilt but it is soooo pretty...I want to keep it for myself.   What to do?  Well I guess I should do the right thing and offer it to the guild ...and hope the members hate it so I can make it for myself!  :) 

First 2011 Mystery Quilt

Here is Maxine's 2011 Mystery quilt....the one that we just finished giving out the instructions for at the guild last month.  She booked a spot for it months ago as she knew she would have it done in time to give to me for April.   It is all batik fabrics and I used a panto called Plush.    So Fine #510 Grotto thread on top and Bottom Line #643 Dark Green on the back.

I have my Mystery quilt top finished but it will be awhile before I get my turn on the longarm again.  I am now booked solid until the end of June and have started booking into Sept and Oct as I take the summer off.

I thought I would also share a link with you to an article that I was featured in on MQR. 

Quilter in the Spotlight 

MQR is a website for all machine quilter and I enjoy their forum.  I especially love to see the projects other quilters are working on, they are a great inspiration.

Hearts in Bloom

This is Sheri's quilt and I just love the red and brown fabrics in this collection.  She requested flowers and hearts for the quilting design to match the designs in the fabrics so I used the Hearts in Bloom pantograph.

I was having a bit of fun taking pictures of this quilt in my boys room as their dark brown furniture looks so good with this quilt.  Good thing they didn't catch me,  I don't think they would appreciate me making their room look 'girly' even if it was only for a few minutes :)

  

I actually finished two quilts for Sheri this week, I used a panto called Garden Frills on her Charm Square quilt.

Back from Spring Break

The kids were on Spring Break last week so we drove down to Saskatoon for a few days of shopping.  I did a good job supporting all the quilt shops we stopped at but it is hard to really do damage to the credit card when the family is waiting for you in the car!   I picked up the X Block rulers and book so hope to give that a try this next month and introduce it to the guild.  They are very similar to the Twister rulers but you start with a 9 patch and then cut.

I am looking forward to getting back to quilting this week.  The Shack is full of quilts ready for my attention so I can get back to quilting posts and not just posting about my dyeing projects.

The picture above is another one of my attempts at Mandala dyeing that I did a week ago.  Tim build me a new screen for snow dyeing and it works much better for the folded Mandala. It is 35" by 25" and on 6" legs.  I was trying for darker colors and mixed the dye in the snow is time.  It is hard to image what the end result will be when your looking at what looks like a large fuzzy yellow/red/navy catepillar!  :)

The two smaller pieces of fabric I folded to get a star image and the first one turned out much nicer than the second one.  I didn't have the folds tied tight enough on the second one.

I really like how the yellow dye interacted with the red on the large Mandala as it has almost has a flame like design.