Just Takes 2 - Part 8

Here is part 8 of the Just Takes 2 project.  I am happy to report I got all my blocks done before May 1st when the next set of instructions come out.  Part 7 had included the layout for the set of blocks done up to that point and I just now got around to laying them out to take a look at how it is shaping up.   You can see I have a hole in mine...that one block is suppose to be hand pieced and is still waiting to be made.  I think seeing this all laid out might just motivate me to get it done.

  

I'm not sure where my recent blocks will go in the layout but here they are with the rest of them.

The jury is still out whether I like this project or not.  I'm definitely working out of my comfort zone color wise and I usually don't like to make sampler quilts!  But I really like to try new things and it is using up a lot of my hand dyed scraps so I won't judge it until it is all done.

Chickens

See the chickens!  This is Dawn's quilt and she used fun chicken themed fabrics to make her quilt.  I think this is a variation on the Hunters Star pattern.

When I first saw this quilt I thought I would quilt feathers on it to go with the chicken and feather prints.  But after some thought I realized that feathers would just compete with the print on the fabrics and be too busy of a quilting design.  So freehand 3's and E's became the final choice.  Swirls always look great on any quilt!

 For the backing Dawn chose a cool chicken wire print fabric.

One Pattern, Two Different Results

This week I worked on two quilts of Donna's that were made from the pattern called BQ 2 by Maple Island Quilts.  She bought these two as kits at Quilter's Cottage in Stonewall, MB.  The first is a cute quilt for a girl with butterfly fabrics so I used the panto "Butterfly Charm" on it.

And the second quilt is a Hockey themed quilt for a boy.   I used the panto "Plush" on this one.

I love how different fabrics using the same pattern can really change the look of a quilt.

Hand Dyed Fabrics at the Show

At our guilds Quilt Show this weekend I was able to set up a table with my hand dyed fabrics and Lori sent up her fabrics along with her dyed Bamboo scarves and Mandala's.   My husband Tim made us a few trees to hang our fabrics on.  Here is Lori's scarves and Mandala's on her tree.  Note the cute little owl that Lori felted to go on the tree.

You can see one of her Mandala's in this next picture.  She also made a few baby quilts with them and added fleece for backing.

Here is my half of the table. I pulled two of my quilts from the main display area as I had entered more than my fair share and we were short on space.  I think they worked well in our display as I had snow dyed the backing of my "Check out the Stars" quilt and the front was made with about 60% of my hand dyed fabrics.  I had also dyed the backing of my "Beach Batik Quilt" so it fit right in. I made a few feathered fleece throws as well.  

Here is my tree that Tim made for my Snow Dyed fabrics. He even made me a little Tamarack tree and a wood shack to put at the bottom of the tree :)

Lori and I were not expecting to sell that much as our goal was to just show what we have been up to but I am happy to report the sales went well :)  

I just did a post on our guild's blog about the show so if your interested in seeing those pictures you can check them out here.

Quilt Show Recovery Time

Look what I got to bring home from our guilds Quilt Show this weekend!  Yes that is our Bargello Raffle quilt that I have been blogging about for the past year.  I still can't believe I drew my sister's name as the winner....seriously what are the chances of that happening?  I bought her 10 tickets for her birthday present so "Happy Birthday Betty"!   I just had to borrow it to take a little nap as I was quite tired by the time I got home after 3 days of fun and shopping :)

I will share pictures of the show soon but thought I would start with what I bought.  Mami's Country Quilts is going to teach a workshop at our guild in the fall and we decided on Island Sunrise at the project.  I bought my pattern and fabrics with Michele's help. I asked her for navy, brown and purple and she did a fabulous job  picking the fabrics and I only substituted a few to get some of my favorite batiks in there :)

 We hope to have a date booked for the workshop by the next meeting so guild members can sign up for the class, decide on their colors and order their kits from Mami's.  

Then I bought these goodies at Prairie Chicks!  I had borrowed Scrap Basket Sensations from a friend to make my Twinkle quilt and thought I better just get my own as there were so many great patterns in that book that I want to make.  I also picked up her other book too....plus a Bali pop and super cute Cupcake fabric  fat quarter bundle.

 I think I'm ready for another nap...now where is that Bargello quilt?  :)

Twinkle Quilted

I finished quilting my Twinkle quilt which was a pattern from Kim Brackett's book Scrap-Basket Sensations and am now putting the binding on.  I decided to do free hand swirls in the center and the echo curves in the border.  I think I need to buy the rest of Kim's books as they are great!

At first I thought I would SID around the purple stars but then changed my mind and just did the swirls right across.  I had my Rulermate extended base plate on my machine for doing the ruler work in the borders and found doing the free hand work in the center a little trickier than normal.  I kept bumping into the roller bars as as it reduces the usable quilting space I have when it is on and I kept forgetting I had it on.

I used Quilter's Dream Cotton Deluxe on this quilt to give it extra loft and once I wash it that should crinkle it up nicely.

I dyed the backing to match the light coloured fabrics on the front. It is hard to see in the photo but it is a beige/peach colour and I used the MX Procion Chino to dye it.

Still lots of snow as the temps are still getting down to -10'c at night and only highs of 4'c during the day so very slow melt this year.

Well last night was my last meeting as guild president and it was a great meeting. Lots of members showed up help with our quilt show preparations and our volunteer sheets are filling up. That was great to see. I am feeling very excited that our show as it is going to be a lot of fun as we have such a great group of ladies.  Today all I have planned is to bake cookies for the show, get all my and Lori's hand dyed fabrics tagged for sale....and yes we will be offering a discount at the show on our snow dyed fabrics.   Then load up my car with quilt frames, hangers, etc to deliver to the hall tonight and tomorrow the set up begins. 

I'll take pictures and share on the weekend.

Twinkle

This week I started piecing Twinkle from Kim Brackett's book Scrap-Basket Sensations.  I was happy to find a pattern that suited a light batik colored jelly roll I had purchased last summer.   I was able to play with my new EQ and figured out the largest size of quilt I could make with one jelly roll and I could get a 8 block by 8 block quilt with hardly any leftovers with this pattern. 

 I dyed the dark purple to go with another batik print that I was going to use in the outer border but ended up changing my mind on it. 

This was the original plan.....

....and this is the final plan. 

 I'm much happier with this choice as I love the higher contrast and it really makes the purple stars pop!   I also dyed the light backing you see behind it. You can see it better in the first picture I posted.

Here it is the finished top!

This is now loaded on my longarm and I have started the borders, just not sure yet how to quilt the center.

Floral Quilt

This is Yvonne's quilt and I had some fun feathering, CC'ing and cross-hatching. 

 Here is a peek at the back.   

I am getting better at using the same thread top and bottom and getting over my issues with seeing dark threads on a light backing.  I'm not going to fight it anymore and when it needs to be done like on this quilt I won't stress about it.  It might be hard to see in the photo but the outer border and feathered wreaths are done in black thread, the inner border in red thread, the rest in yellow.

I really like this next picture.  You can see my footprints from where I have been walking on the ice.  Not too many more days of that and the ice should be gone in less than a month.

I had to laugh at myself when I was trimming this quilt, I discovered I had missed two lines of cross hatching in the outer border. I thought I had checked it over well before taking it off the longarm...guess not!

Good thing it was an easy fix.....but 'SHHHH' don't tell Yvonne :)

Mystery Quilt #15

 I am up to #15 on the Mystery quilts that I have quilted for guild members.  It has been a few months since I quilted one but I'm sure there are still a few more out there.  

This is Robin's quilt, her second mystery that she made, I quilted her first one here.  

I chose to use the panto Whirlygig for this one.  

I didn't want to take this one off my bed as it match my room so well :)

The guild's Quilt Show is approaching quickly, nine more days to be exact, and there are so many details to  think about and get done.   Yesterday I had a few guild members over to work on our quilt Story Cards that get pinned to each quilt. I had typed out the story's on a data base that Gail had set up for us ( thank you Gail, that worked fabulous and a huge time saver!) and it only took an hour to proofread, print, cut and hole punch the cards.   Thanks to Audrey, Eileen, Yvonne and Phyl for coming over to help, that was fun :)

Next job is to figure out what quilts get hung where!  I like to have this figures out before the show as that save a lot of time during the hanging process. We have 153 quilts entered in our show and that amount decorates our community hall beautifully!  Looks like I'll be spending some quality time with our entry list and then once I get the hanging lists made I can get back to my longarm!

Card Trick

It finally stopped snowing tonight and the sun is trying to shine. We ended up with about 20 cm of snow this weekend and had half meter high snow drifts on the deck!

This is Wendy's Card Trick quilt.  She asked for the Rhapsody panto and it looks lovely on this quilt.

 Love the red fabric on the back!

Just Takes Two - Part 7

Here is part 7 of the Just Takes Two project I have been participating in.  I didn't post part 6 as it only had two blocks and I had an 'issue' with one of them.  The block used templates and I hate templates.  I kept cutting out the fabric without the seam allowance so I gave up and will probably try again when I am more focused on the task.   Part 7 had a block that was suppose to be hand appliqued and I enjoy hand applique but just don't have the time right now so fused it on and I will machine applique later.  Just need to keep up so I don't give up on the project.

We were enjoying nice weather this week.... until today!   It's a bit of a snowstorm out right now and our power has been off most of the day. On Friday we were finally seeing the sand path in the front yard and today....well we woke up to the white stuff and it had been coming down all day.

Feather Wreath

This is Valery's quilt and she said I could quilt it however I wanted to!  Those snowball blocks were a perfect spot for a feathered wreath. I used a stencil for the wreaths and marked it on with my Pounce tool. I love how that chalk just irons off.

I had fun free hand feathering the outer border.

Love the solid fabric on the back, it really shows off the quilting.