Grandma’s Stars Quilt Top

I was able to finish all my Grandma’s Star blocks at our guilds UFO day on Saturday and even made one extra as I change my layout plan when I got home.  My original plan was for a rectangular layout but that was too narrow so I decided to go with a square layout and add borders.    I used templates by Matilda’s Own to make these blocks and  you can only get them in Australia.   I think I’ll quilt this one in the summer and do some custom quilting on it for fun as I do not have anyone to give this too yet.

Spinwheels Quilt

 

This is Eileen’s quilt and the pattern is called Spinwheels from Tricia Cribbs book Turning Ten.    She use bright fabrics from her stash and a very cute white on white teddy bear print for the background.   The backing is Jade Cuddle, the batting is Dream Puff and the pantograph is called Popcorn.  This combination makes for a very soft cuddly quilt!

Grandma’s Star Block Update

I’ve been working on my Grandma’s Star blocks and have 7 complete so far. I’m really enjoying these blocks and the challenge of the ‘Y’ seams.  I have 6 more cut out and ready to piece and that will be my project at our guilds UFO day this Saturday.   I think I’ll make a baby quilt out of these blocks and alternates with rows of 3 blocks and 2 blocks and add a triangle fillers between the blocks.

Bento Box Quilt

 

This is Melba’s Bento Box quilt and she used animal print fabrics with a black background.  Now I’m not usually drawn to animal prints as I find them busy but pieced in this pattern they look really good.  I like that each print is surrounded by the black fabric and not touching the other prints.  Melba brought wool batting and we decided on Fascination for a simple panto design.  I found a tutorial at the Quilts of Love blog on how to make this block, Margaret did a great job on this tutorial and you can check it out here.

Juried Art Show Quilt

 

This winter our guild decided to make an art quilt to enter into the Northern Juried Art Show which was being held in Churchill, MB last week.  It didn’t win any prizes but that’s okay as it was fun to make.  We came up with the idea of “Eyes” as our theme and put them into the context of the feeling your being watched as you walk to the outhouse in the dark.   I’m not sure how many of you can relate to this idea but I sure can.  My parents had a cottage with no running water when I was young so trips to the outhouse, or ‘Biffy’ as we called it, were frequent and you never knew what was out there in the dark watching you!   So we called this quilt “ I Think I Can Wait ‘til Morning”.

Our guild members made scary animal eyes on a piece of Kona Black fabric that we handed out and they could use whatever technique they wanted to create their eyes.  We got back a wonderful range of eyes and then created a scene that included the outhouse in the background and two scary trees in the foreground.

I was asked to quilt it and as you can see by the pictures this was done back in March when the snow and ice where still around… and you thought there won’t be anymore ice pictures.  ;) 

I pebbled a path to the outhouse, added lots of extra quilted branches, added a spider web and spider and tall grasses along the bottom for more animals to hide in.

Mystic Creek

 
On the May long weekend we like to go watch the Sucker fish run in the creeks and this year we went to Mystic Creek.  I took this opportunity to bring my camera along and play with my shutter speed to play with the different effects you can capture with moving water.

It was harder to get clear pictures of the fish as they dart around so I took video instead. Here are two of the videos.

Hopscotch Quilt

This is Sheri’s Hopscotch quilt that she made for her man because he had started asking “ When are you going to make ME a quilt”.  He is very supportive of her quilting passion and I love hearing stories about guys asking for quilts!  Now I like to tease Sheri about her Hopscotch addiction and she said after making this one, which is 85” x112”, it will definitely be her last one as she has made many quilts with this pattern.

She asked for Dragonfly Pond for the panto as there are dragonflies on the fabric prints in one of the main fabrics.  The top is made with batiks and the backing was a soft beige flannel.  Quilters Dream Blend for the batting, So Fine Grey thread on top and Bottom Line beige on the backing.

Metal Quilt Blocks

I’m back from a great trip down to Dauphin to visit my friend Lori.  When I arrived I was greeted to the aroma of the 4 cakes just out of the oven, she is a great cook so this was a big treat for me as I hate cooking!  We took a trip down to Kickass Country Store and bought fabrics to finish 4 quilting projects.  We also went to an amazing greenhouse, one of the best I’ve ever seen, so picked up a few plants.  This two places will be on my ‘must do’ list when I go to visit next spring.  Also Lori hosted a small get together one evening with some of her local guild members so it was nice to meet her new quilting friends.   Believe it or not I didn’t take any pictures but Lori did so you can check out her blog post here.

Now to these Metal barn blocks, this is what I bought Lori for her birthday and I bought two for myself!   The company that makes them is called Classic Metal Company and they have a great selection of blocks to chose from.  When I first went to place my order on their website they didn’t take orders out of the United States. I was really disappointed but then just emailed the company and they were happy to mail them too me, they just didn’t have their website set up for out of country orders. That was a big relief so it’s good to ask if you encounter this problem.  I bought the Bear Paw and Mariners Compass in green to match my shack door.  I was going to put both on the outside of my shack but I really liked how the Compass looked in my sewing area in the house so that’s where it’s going to stay.

Stack and Whack

 

This is Sheri’s first Stack and Whack quilt.  Recently at one of our guild UFO days some of the members offered to teach the ‘Stack and Whack’ method to members that have never seen this done before. Sheri was very excited to learn and found a blue/gray/gold floral print in her stash to give it a try.  The soft yellow background fabric really sets off the blocks nicely.  The backing is a yellow Minkie and shows off the Butterfly Charm panto very well.

Tomorrow I’m driving down to Dauphin to visit my friend Lori for a few days.   It was her birthday recently and I have a really cool quilting gift for her that I haven’t blogged about yet, didn’t want to spoil the surprise!   Maybe she will post a picture of it on her blog before I get back to share it here. :)   We are planning on visiting one of our favourite quilt shops so hope to come home with some new fabric goodies.

Serenade Quilt Top

 

Hope you are all enjoying a nice Mother’s Day.  I was able to finish piecing my Serenade quilt and have a few pictures to share.

You can see the ice is slowly melting and this morning Tim put the canoe in the lake and took me for a paddle while I took pictures!  Saw our neighbourhood muskrat and he was nice to cooperate and sit still for a picture.

  Next we watched the Jack fish ( Northern Pike) swimming around, this one is about 20 “ long.  I was able to put my new polarized filter to work as this allows me to take great pictures of the fish without getting glare off the surface of the water.

Then we watched the Osprey circling overhead.  I love watching them dive down to the water to catch fish but he didn’t do that this time.  We had geese, loons, and one eagle in the bay this morning too but they disappeared before we put the canoe in the water.

Layer Cake Quilt

Here is a peek at the latest quilt top I’m working on.  Last Saturday there was a quilting retreat at a local lodge, I went to this one last year but decided not to go this year.  A quilt shop called Fabriculous  from Swan River, MB set up shop at the retreat and I wouldn’t miss an opportunity to shop for fabric!  I picked up this great Layer Cake called Serenade by Kate Spain and found a pattern on Moda Bake Shop that I thought would work for this collection.  I had some Kona Snow for background in my stash so cut right into it!  :)

If you read the pattern at Moda Bake Shop there is quite a debate on pressing your seams open in the comment section, worth reading for entertainment value as the quilt police were in full force!  I pressed my seams to the dark fabric because I like the look of my printed fabrics raised up from the background fabric and don’t like to see dark fabric seam allowances showing behind the lighter background fabric. It has nothing to do with making a stronger seam because that in my opinion is false.  I will press my seams open if I’m sewing two fabric that are the same to make it look like one piece.  In my opinion, if you want a super strong seam then quilt on the high side of the ditch and that seam will never open because your quilting thought both fabrics….just like side seams on jeans!  :)

I have 5 blocks done and hope to get the remaining 7 finished this weekend. I like the secondary pattern that this created when you put these blocks together. 

I hope everyone has a nice Mother’s Day weekend.  I received some flowers from my guys already :)

Curved Sashing Tutorial Without Center Seams

Yesterday I spent some time working on the curved sashing for the Curve It Up quilt and I realized there was another way to do it.  I didn’t want to have a seam running down the center of the designs so figured out how to do it using one piece of focus fabric for each section.    Jenny did a great tutorial on how to do the curve sashing design,  you can find it here,  but thought I would share my version as I know a few of my readers are doing this Quilt Along too.

First cut a 5 1/2” square from the focus fabric and then cut 4 squares from the background fabric that are 2 5/8”.  Draw a diagonal line on the background squares and lay them on the 5 1/2” square as shown.

Then sew along the diagonal lines.   I like to stitch just off the line to the right as shown in the next picture.  This allows the final square to be exactly 5 1/2”.

Once all four sides are stitched, trim to 1/4” and press to the focus fabric. You should have a 5 1/2” square.

Next is the curved section.   Cut a 4” x9” rectangle from your focus fabric and follow Jenny’s instructions for cutting the curve but cut on both sides of the rectangle.

Then cut the background pieces following Jenny’s instructions and attached them to the focus fabric.

Then trim the curved block down to 5 1/2” x 8 1/2”, being careful to center the design and have the two ends of the focus fabric be around 3/8” wide at the outside edge.

Here are the two pieces sewn together.  The focus fabrics should connect for a total of  about 3/4” at the seam creating a continuous border.  I did manage to dye 3 meters of grey background that matched my original fabric pretty well, yeah!  I hope I decide on a focus fabric color soon as I still have to dye that fabric and I really want to finished this project as I have really enjoyed it!