Floral Twister Quilt

Here is Eileen's Twister quilt, she wanted custom quilting and said I could do whatever I wanted....except feathers!  That's right, she's not a fan of feathers and I love to tease her about this.  The background has an odd shape so it was a bit of a challenge to come up a non feather design.  So I ended up quilting leaves and swirls in the background and SID around the twister block and filled them with swirls. I think this worked out to be a good compromise in design and introduced a feather like style without being too feathery!

County Lines

This is Adele's quilt and she used the County Lines pattern with the fabric she won from our guild's xmas party two years ago.  It is great to see those fabrics turned into quilt and on that note I guess since I won the fabric at last years guild party I better get cracking and make a quilt with mine too.   Our guild is having a retreat this weekend so that will be one of the projects I'm bringing.

I used a soft green So Fine thread and my Feather Curls panto.

The County Lines pattern is a popular pattern amongst our guild members. It really highlights a fabric collection beautifully.

Simple Simon #2

This is the second Simple Simon quilt Michele has asked me to quilt for her. You can see her first one here.

She asked for cross hatching in the outer border and 'Come Dance with Me' panto in the centre.  I used a beige/gold colour So Fine thread on top and a medium grey on the bottom.

Mystery Quilt #9

Here is Yvonne's Mystery quilt and she used a cream, blue and red colour palette from the Back to Nature collection from Timeless Treasures.  The print fabric has holly leaves and berries and she made this to be a Christmas quilt so the panto was an easy choice... Hollyberries.

I did a free hand holly motif in the outer border and used Lava thread.

*Note to local quilters*

I am going to teach Free Motion quilting again and if you are interested in taking my class please contact me for details. 

Tickle

This is Yvonne's beautiful batik quilt and she asked for an over all quilting design.   We decided on Tickle for the panto and a colourful Lava thread.  I like how this quilt pattern is made up of 7 1/2"x4" rectangles, it would be a great way to use some of my batik fat quarters that I have been collecting over the years.  Going to add this one to my 'to-do' list!

Arabella Quilt

This is Nathalie's quilt and the pattern is called Arabella.  You can find the pattern free on Benartex website  here.  She used the fabric line that is on the pattern, it is called Habitat by Michele D'Amore.

I quilted my favourite Echo Curves in the outer border using my curved rulers and then quilted the centre with a panto called Flirtatious.

I had a special package arrive in the mail today all the way from Australia. I knew the package was coming but had no idea just what was inside.  My friend Desley send me a box full of quilting and candy goodies in exchange for a few tickets on our guild's Bargello quilt.  I had a lot of fun opening the box and seeing all the different candy and cookies we do not have in Canada.  I have tried a few so far but want to make them last as I can't just run to the store to buy some more.   But I'm sure they won't last long as I have no will power and my boys are enjoying them too.

Munch munch... those Tim Tam's are delicious...munch munch munch.

Thanks Desley!

Munch, munch, munch!!  

:)

Tool Time

This is Phyl's quilt and she made it as a surprise gift for her carpenter husband.  The fabrics have images of tools and what quilter could resist buying this collection if you have a handy man in your life!

The backing fabric is all hammers and nails!

I used the panto called Plush and bright orange Lava thread. I am lovin my Lava threads!!

Mystery Quilt #8

This is Sasheen's Mystery quilt that she made with beautiful browns, creams, and orange batiks.  I suggested a new panto design called Spiral Squares and Sasheen was very supportive in trying something new.   I had seen this one used by Jenny on her clients quilts and I always loved how they looked so I bought the panto. I really wanted to try a linear design on the Mystery quilt and I like how this one was on an angle. It really worked well with the on-point setting of this quilt and in the borders.

I used a brown variegated Lava thread on top and a black Bottom Line on the backing.

She bought a beautiful black/brown/cream print batik for the backing that could easily make this a reversible quilt.

Scrappy Squares

We have been enjoying some unseasonally hot weather this week which has interrupting my quilting time, and I'm not complaining! I did manage to finish Val Scrappy Squares quilt before the sunshine lured me out of my quilting studio.  Val used a muslin foundation to stitch her purposely 'wonky' squares and I had never quilted a top that had a foundation before. But it was no problem for my machine and it turned out great.

I used a panto called Fascination and So Fine thread.

So for the last few days I have been out in my kayak at least twice a day, followed by a swim. Yes I said swim which is unheard of in our northern lakes this time of year. Usually by now the lake is freezing but it is the same temperature it was in the middle of July.

Also the lake has been calm like glass, just perfect for paddling.

One thing I love about kayaking is the ability to just glide over rock that are just inches under the water.

But don't worry, this area has been marked to warn other boats to stay away.  

( I have hit reefs with a boat before...not fun!)

This reef is usually about a foot out of the water but with the high water levels this year it was completely underwater this summer.

GO! 3 1/2" Tumbler

This summer I found time to play with my GO cutter and tried the 3 1/2" Tumbler die.  I had some batik fabrics left over from another project and cut it all up using the die.  I was lucky and had some matching teal hand dyed fabric in my stash to use for the borders.  I had enough blocks to make a table runner and one place-mat. Our guild donates placemats to the local Meals on Wheels in December so it is a great way to use up scraps and to show our appreciation to our seniors in the community.
Yesterday I quilted it using Lava Superior Thread, a new thread to me, and I am so please with how this thread quilts and looks. It is 35wt variegated poly thread.   I bought 27 cones from a friend on a longarm chat site and I am now realizing what a steal of a deal I got as now I know I'm going to use this thread a lot.  I have already tried it on two client quilts this month and am just loving the results (those pictures coming soon!)

Let's Talk Dirt for a Minute

Sewing machine dirt that is!!

When was the last time you cleaned your machine, I mean really clean it. Have you ever taken the bottom off your machine to find were all the lint is really hiding?? I'm not just talking under the bobbin case.

I learnt where all this lint is hiding a few years ago when my automatic thread cutter stopped working and I took my machine to our local Janome Dealer.  When she opened up the bottom of the machine she was confronted with a monstrosity of a lint ball that was preventing my cutting blade from moving!!! Once it was cleaned out the cutting button worked just fine. ( How embarrassing!)  But in my defence I had quilted about 200 quilts on this great work horse of a machine by then.  I decided to buy the cutter, that she had ordered special for me, just in case I needed it later and I'm so glad I did as I finally wore out my cutter this summer.

To replace the cutter I had to take the bottom of my machine off and I found this little pile of lint, a straight pin and a broken needle.  Since I only piece on this machine and have not quilted on it since I bought my longarm 3 years ago I imagine this is a small amount of lint compared to what the dealer found.

Once I cleaned out all the lint I got to work taking the cutting mechanism off the machine...not too bad of a job but when I looked a the new cutter it was made differently and had an extra adapter part!  After using a bit of muscle to coax a few pieces apart I got the job done and my cutter now works great. I had my fingers cross the first time I pressed the cut button.

So now my machine is running great and sounding much better now that I fixed the cutter. It is amazing how you get use to the sound of your machine even when it isn't sounding so well.

Just ask my friends when they had to listen to my machine at a retreat  a few years ago when I wore out the needle bar!! It sounded okay to me, I was use to the banging noise by then!!     :)

Northern Palette

This is the guilds second quilt from the "Makin New Friends" fat quarter bundle we purchased and we still have enough fabric to make one more quilt using the Perfect Ten pattern. This one will soon belong to a lucky guild member as it will be raffled at our xmas party in December.

As I was taking pictures of this quilt today I noticed something interesting...the colours in the quilt are the same as the colours in my surroundings.  It has a Northern palette of colour, dark blue of the water, light blue of the sky, dark green of the spruce and lighter green of the birch, along with the white of the birch bark. No wonder many of us at the guild were drawn to the colours on this quilt, it's the view out our windows.

 I used a variegated green King Tut thread and the Happy Times panto.