Seeing Stars

Today I’m participating in something new to me…..

The Quilting Gallery blog hosts a Weekly Quilt Contest and this weeks theme is Stars.   I have never entered a quilt before but thought I would participate this week as I had a few quilts that qualified. I ended up picking my 2011 Mystery quilt that I made for my son.  You can see my original post for this quilt here.  If you want to check it out all the other quilts and vote for your favourite just click on the icon below.

Batik Log Cabin

 

This is Sandra’s Batik Log Cabin quilt and the only request she had was there be feathers in the light fabrics. I was happy to oblige!   I added straight lines in the green half of the blocks to highlight the diamond shape layout of the quilt.   I didn’t realize just how many stop and starts doing the diagonal lines would take but it was worth the effort as I love the combination of feathers and lines.

  I used Quilter’s Dream Cotton Deluxe batting and So Fine thread.

This was my last client quilt for November so I’ve finished my all my quilting commitments for the year early!   I hope you don’t think I’m bragging… oh who am I kidding of coarse I’m bragging. “Woo Hoo I’m done for the year!!!!”   :)     I’m really happy to have the next month to work on my own projects.  I already have some snow dyeing on the go and in the process of melting,  made 5 sets of microwaveable fabric bowls this week and I even had my serger out today to work on more xmas gifts.  Now what other trouble can I get into……

Blog Featured in…

I had a nice surprise last week, I was contacted by Machine Quilting Unlimited blog editor Alycia to see if she could feature my blog on their blog!  Wow, they want to feature my little blog, of coarse!  You can see the blog post here.   If you have never heard of the Machine Quilting Unlimited it is one of the best quilting magazines out there and one of only two quilting magazines I have ever subscribed too.

I can’t have a blog post without a few quilt pictures so here is a table runner I pieced last night.  Tim is out of town for a week so I’m sure I’ll have a few more late night piecing sessions.  I used half a charm pack of Cuzco fabric and used all the darker fabrics for this runner. I’ll made a second runner with the lighter fabrics. The pattern is Scrappy Stars found in the Little Charmers II by Heather Mulder Peterson


I am planning on taking December off again so I am working on my last client quilt for the year!  I still have a few more client quilts to share with you then I can start boring you with my personal projects and my usually December rambling.  :)

Arabella Quilt

 

This is Robin’s Arabella qult and you can find this pattern free to download here.

I was excited to try a new panto called Sweet Pea by Urban Elementz.   The fabrics in this quilt have a leaf theme so I knew I wanted to quilt it with a leaf design, also I knew Robin likes leaves!    It was a bit tricky to quilt out as I had to focus really hard in remembering which side of the curls I was quilting so I didn’t follow the same line back out of the curl.   But after a few rows I found my groove.

The backing was a dark brown paisley design.

There is now about 8” of inch of ice so very safe to walk on.  As Tim and I were shovelling off the rink the ice was talking to us with soft cracking and popping sounds. I think a normal person would probably run for shore but when your use to hearing the loud echoing sounds of the ice cracking at night,even when your in the house, you become use to this sound!   The sound is just expansion as the lake builds ice.  

But when I’m standing out there and hear the cracking sounds under my feet it definitely gives me a bit of an adrenaline rush ….so I just shovel faster.    ;)

Curve It Up – Rail Fence Block

I finished my next block in the “Curve It Up” quilt along being hosted by Jenny and Helen.  You can find the instructions for this block here.   I am using a lot of my hand dyed fabrics on this project and throwing in one commercial batik in each block  to make it interesting.

We had a nice snow fall Friday night so on Saturday Tim and I went for a walk in the bush.   Last year we discovered an old trail near our house and we plan to make this a regular walk to get us out of the house in the winter.  The more snow we get the more beautiful the trail will become as it is sheltered from the wind and the snow will continue to build up on the spruce trees. I’m still kicking myself for not bringing my camera last year so this year I hope to capture that winter wonderland later in the season.   Here is what it looks like right now.

The path widen and narrows and there are a lot of large tree laying across the trail so you can’t take a snowmobile down it.

Modern Bed Runner

I was so excited when Yvonne brought me this bed runner and asked for modern quilting on it.  This is the first time a client has asked for modern quilting so I can finally put my online quilting class with Angela Walters to work!  

This quilt pattern is called Shades of Grey and is from Kim Schaefer’s book Skinny Quilts.

I asked Yvonne what fabric collection she use and she said they were a ‘mismatch of fat quarters’….they look so good together I thought they were a collection.   Some are Timeless Treasures and some are from the Remembrance collection by Brannock and Patek.

  I decided to just stitch in the ditch and the do spiral squares in the centers of each square and around the light coloured frames in the center. It was a lot of fun stitching out the spirals and not worrying about them looking exactly the same.   No marking at all!

I almost forgot to take a picture of the backing fabric, it was so unique and goes so well with the modern style!

Island Sunrise #2

I quilted two quilts for Sheri this past week.  The first is her Island Sunrise quilt that she made at our guild’s workshop.  She chose a great color combination of black, gray, red and gold.

I use the panto design called Plush and a gold/brown So Fine thread.

The second quilt is this fun Grinch quilt that she is going to hang in her office for the Christmas season…in hopes of winning the office decorating contest this year!  I think this will definitely give her an edge in the contest!  :)

I used a new panto called Bubbles designed by Hermione Agee, the circles reminded me of jingle bells!

I used #486 So Fine thread which I think should be renamed ‘Grinch Green’ as it matched the Grinch perfectly!

Microwaveable Fabric Bowl Tutorial

Now you may be wondering what is a Microwaveable fabric bowl….well it’s a hot pad that allows you to take a hot bowl right out of the microwave without burning your hands!  If you have teenagers like I do you will agree this idea is great!

 I was first introduced to these bowls at a guild meeting when Marg showed us a set she made with her winter quilting group in Arizona.  They had discovered a tutorial on a quilting forum for these bowls and I asked Marg to showed me how to make them so I can teach them at our guild meeting this month.  She made a few improvement to the original tutorial so I thought I would share the new and improved version with you. So I did not design these bowls and if you know who did I would love to give them credit as it is a genius idea! The quilter that did the first tutorial said she was not the original designer.

The most important thing you have to remember about this project is you must use 100% cotton for all your materials…including thread as this is going into the microwave!  Also do not use fabrics with metallic prints or sparks will fly!

The set you see above is made from 8”, 10” and 12” squares.   For each bowl you need two squares of fabric and two squares of batting all cut to the same size.  I like to use the same two coordinating fabrics for each bowl in a set.

Here is what you need to make one bowl.

Step One – On the squares of batting mark a center horizontal and vertical line. 
Step Two - Mark a small line on all four center lines measuring from the outside edge.  For the 8” square measure 2” from the outer edge, for a 10” square measure in 2 1/2” and for the 12” square measure in 3”.


Step Three – Layer a square of batting on the wrong side of the fabric square.  Pin on the center lines as show. You will have two of these for one bowl.


Step Four -  Fold the square in half on one of the lines and stitch a dart from the small line to the outer edge.  For the 8” square make your dart 1/2” wide on the outer edge, for the 10” square make it 3/4”  and for the 12” square make the dart 1” wide at the outer edge.

Do this on all four sides.

The fabric side of the bowl will look like this.  You will have two of these in different colors but the same size.

Step Five – Clip extra batting from the darts, this will eliminate some bulk.

Step Six – Take these two fabric squares with batting now attached and layer them right sides together.   Stitch the two layers together leaving a 3” opening.

The bowl will now look like this.

When you piece these two layers together make sure your darts are alternating direction to eliminate bulk.

Also when you are stitching around the corners do not pivot sharply but take an extra stitch or two on the angle to round the corner.


Step Seven – Trim extra batting around the outer seam allowance on both sides and clip the extra fabric in the corners on an angle.


Step Eight – Now you are ready to turn the bowl right side out.  Once right side out topstitch the outer edge and this will close the opening.  You can then quilt a design in the center of the bowl to hold the layers together and create a firmer bottom to the bowl.

You are now ready to use your bowl in your microwave!  You can also use this to hold a cold ice cream bowl too!  :)

Here is a complete set of three bowls that nestle nicely together.

I used Quilter’s Dream Deluxe Cotton batting which are quite thick but you can use a thinner 100% cotton batting as each bowl has two layers of batting inside.

Hope your enjoyed this tutorial!

Kathy