Happy Halloween

 

Mmmmm…..pumpkin pi!!

Okay it’s not that scary but what if you don’t like math like my little pumpkins!      :)

And I wonder why I only get 6 kids at my door each year!   

If you didn’t see my little pumpkins Halloween last year you can see them here.

The Night Before Christmas

 
Well it looks like this snow is here to stay and it keeps falling.  So to give this a positive spin I like to think it came just in time to take pictures with Marlene’s The Night Before Christmas Quilt by Bunny Hill Designs.    Marlene did change a few blocks and replaced some with blocks from Bunny Hill’s Catch a Christmas Star quilt so it is not exactly like the original pattern.   There are also many buttons that still need to be added to finish off some of the details.

Marlene hand appliquéd all the blocks and did a beautiful job.  There is also some hand embroidery work on this quilt as well.

I had to add some of those new swirls for background fill on a few blocks and used a variety of other fills like loops, curls, stipple, pebbles, wavy lines, cross hatching and straight lines.  SID in the outer border.

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Fall 2012

If your visiting from the Bloggers Quilt Festival welcome to Tamarack Shack!    I am a longarm quilter that loves to make all types of quilts….traditional, modern, appliqué, curved, paper pieced, etc.   My blog is my journal of all the quilts I have worked on as well as the quilts I have finish for my clients so you never know what you’ll see next!

The quilt I picked to share on the festival is one I made recently and was surprised at how much I liked it when it was done. It started as a quick weekend project so I could try a new quilting design that I learned in Angela Walter’s quilting class on Craftsy.  I just loved her swirl design so took the class so I could see her quilt it out.  I find I can pick up a design quicker if I can see it being quilted. 


So I pieced this Chevron quilt using my favourite fabrics…batiks!     This is my first attempt as Angela’s swirls and I just love the texture they create.  I then balanced the swirls with the straight line quilting in the bright batiks so that the swirls could shine.

I enjoy dyeing fabrics as well and was lucky to have a bright green hand dyed fabric ready to use for the binding.

The back of the quilt is always fun to share too!

I enjoy having fun with my photography and making sure you can see the quilting when I post pictures on my blog.   I had a few request to share some photography tips and if your interested you can read that post here.

So a quick ‘practice’ quilt has now turned into a cute baby quilt that I will be giving for a Christmas gift to a new family member! 

I love it when the quilting makes the quilt, but I’m a bit bias about that.  ;)

Hope you enjoy the rest of the festival.   Thanks for stopping by.

Bloggers Quilt Festival Stats:
Finished quilt measures 32” x 36”
Quilted By Me
Best Category: Baby quilt, Photography

Curve it Up – Churn Dash Block

Here is my Churn Dash block which is the first in the Curve It Up QAL!   I was dyeing fabric for the background this morning and had some success.   I was leaning towards grey for the background and then I received a comment suggesting blue or grey so that helped in the decision making process.  Your comments really do help!  Oh I’m trying to ignore that white stuff you see around the block, I’m hoping it will disappear for a few more weeks before winter really sets in.

Paper Bag Quilt

This is Valery’s Paper Bag quilt that was a guild project last year.  We exchange 3” squares of fabrics and as walked around the table picking up the squares we placed them in a paper bag…hence the name!  :) 

I did some light custom quilting with open feathers in the border and setting triangles.  CC’s in the exchange squares and then challenged myself to not use a feather wreath in the centers, that’s my go-to design for snowball blocks. It’s good to try something new!

I love how the back looks too.

Friday is the Bloggers Quilt Festival again and I think I have chosen the quilt to share for that post.  For the last festival I shared my Paper Bag quilt and you can see that here.

Bali Love Song in Teal

And the Bali Love Song quilts just keep rolling into the Shack!!  I’ve lost track of how many I have quilted this year.  This one is Wendy’s and she said the fabric colors reminded her of the sea so I picked Mimosa for the panto.  It looks like crashing waves and was the right scale of a pattern for this small lap quilt.

Wendy requested a variegated thread and I had a purple King Tut that had  just the right shades of purple.

So have your heard about Jenny and Helen’s Curve it Up Quilt A Long using the Quick Curve Ruler?   Jenny has posted the first block here.

I have been trying to find some fabric in my stash that would work and I think I have finally come up with a plan.  I have 6 batiks and a pile of my hand dyed fabrics, now I just need to dye some background fabric and then I can get started. ..but what color???

Island Sunrise #1

 

It’s been a very busy week so I haven’t had much time to take pictures of the quilts I have been working on.  The constant rain the past two weeks hasn’t helped that either!  On Tuesday we had our guild meeting which is a full day of activities and on Thursday I taught a class on how to paper piece.  Then on Saturday our guild had a 6 Hour Quilt workshop, we worked with a partner and all the groups finished two quilt in less than 5 hours.  I also learnt how to make fabric bowls that you use as a hot pad around a bowl that you put in the microwave. My boys are always commenting how hot bowls get in the microwave when reheating leftovers so I know they will get a lot of use here.  I have made 3 sets  since last night!!  I tend to get obsessed about a craft when I’m first taught it.  I’ll be teaching this project at our next guild meeting in November and will post a tutorial on my blog after that as it is such a great idea and would make great xmas gifts.

The quilt above is Lynn’s Island Sunrise quilt that she made at the guild’s Judy Niemeyer workshop last month.  I know I’ll probably be getting a few of these so decided to start numbering them!  Lynn wanted a overall design so the piecing can shine.

We decided on the Curlz panto and I had a great Lava variegated thread in teal and beige that blended beautifully into all the fabrics.  That is always a challenge when doing an all-over with light and dark fabrics.

I just love the colors in Lynn’s quilt, teal and brown are one of my favourite combinations.

Good Morning

Sunrise on Schist Lake this morning. 

Chevron Baby Quilt

I have been taking an online quilting class on Craftsy called Quilting Negative Space and the teacher is Angela Walters.  This is the first class I have taken on Craftsy and I like that you can watch the lessons at your own pace when you have time.  The main reason I took this class was to learn Angela’s swirl design, I love how it has a layered look.

Since I don’t like to practice quilting on a solid piece of fabric I quickly pieced a very small baby quilt with my batik scraps this weekend.  I love how the swirls turned out, they are fast and fun to quilt up!  I then just stitched straight lines in the bright batiks to balance with the busy swirls. This also allows the swirls to be the focus.

  I’m putting the binding on right now so I hope to have it ready to bring to our guild’s Show and Tell tomorrow.  I found a bright green hand dyed fabric in my stash that was perfect…hope I didn’t dye this piece for a specific project because is used now!

Paisley

 

This is Rae’s Yellow Brick Road quilt and she used a beautiful collection of green and blue batiks.  

She wanted a quilting pattern that would remind her of water or waves and we decided on Paisley, a new panto that I have added to my collection.   Rae asked for wool batting and the quilting shows up beautifully on it.    She brought a pretty green flannel backing so along with the wool this will be a warm and cozy cuddle quilt.

Sweetness

This is Norma’s Cupcake quilt and all I could think about was cupcakes when I was quilting it!!

I have had my eye on a particular panto for some time now and when this quilt came through my doors I knew I finally had a reason to order it.  The panto is called Sweetness and is by Beany Girl Designs.   I know I’ll be using it again as I bought this cupcake fabric collection in a fat quarter bundle at our guilds Quilt Show in the spring.  I want to make a Log cabin quilt and fussy cut a cupcake in the center of each block!

Norma asked for Dream Puff batting to make it  light and fluffy as the quilt is for a little girl. I used pink So Fine thread and pink Bottom Line for the backing.

You can really see the puffy quilting in the early morning light in this picture.

  And here is a better picture of the piecing when the sun is not as intense a few hours later.

Bali Love Song Lap Quilt

This is another quilt by Maxine and this one is the Bali Love Song quilt, a very popular quilt pattern at our guild!  The original pattern makes a square quilt but she added 7 extra heart blocks to make it lap size. 

    She used the Coconut Bali Pop and a light beige flannel backing.   Whirlygig for the panto, Dream Blend batting, and a gold/brown Lava thread.

Wildlife Themed Log Cabin Quilt

 

This is Maxine’s Batik Log Cabin quilt and she fussy cut a wildlife image for the center of each log cabin block.  This quilt is a gift for her brother who loves to hunt and fish.

We decided that the Raindrop panto was a perfect choice for this quilt as it works with the outdoor/wildlife theme.  The batting is Dream Puff and the thread is a soft green So Fine on top and yellow Bottom Line on the back.   Love the definition that the Dream Puff gives….think I might just have to buy this batting by the roll now, instead of packages.

The backing is a flannel fish fabric and Maxine searched for a long time to find fabric that had fish we actually catch in our northern lakes. Pickerel, Perch, Trout, and Bass….did I miss any?