Looking Back at 2013

For my last blog post of 2013 I like to look back at my personal quilting projects for the year.    As someone who spends a lot of time finished other people quilts I think it is important to find time for my own projects as well.   Keeping that balance and taking a few breaks though out the year really helps me keep focused and keep the joy in quilting.  I was able to finished two UFO’s this month and have somehow acquired a few more fabric bundles to replace the ones I used up, so much for trying to decrease the pile of pre-cuts!

Here are my quilts for 2013.

April – Mod Pop quilt made from batik fabrics.  This one is mine!

April – Isosceles Triangle #1 baby quilt using Reunion fabric collection.

April – Isosceles Triangles #2 baby quilt.

April – Hugs and Kisses quilt I made for my nieces 14th birthday.

June – Alternate Routes quilt -  The first pattern Lori and I designed and published under our new Highway 10 Designs name.  We used the pattern as Mystery project for our guilds.

June – Serenade Quilt that I donated to the flood victims in Alberta.

July – Curve It Up QAL that I donated to the disaster at Lac-Megantic, Quebec.

July – Batik Tote Bags

August – Grandma’s Star – Mixed modern quilting with a traditional block.

September – Medallion QAL using the Quick Curved Ruler

October – Pedal to the Metal – Second Highway 10 Designs pattern.

November – Not Your Mother’s Rail Fence – Third Highway 10 Designs pattern and I gave this quilt to my Grandmother.

December – Yellow Brick Road in Northern Solitudes fabric.

December – Mirror Mirror in batik fabrics.

I hope you had a productive year in your sewing rooms and that you were able to make a few projects for yourself in 2013!

Happy New Year and all the best in 2014!

Merry Christmas

I didn’t make any Christmas projects this year but I did win a cute fabric bundle at our guilds xmas party last week.  I really like how the fabric was folded into a tree and thought this would be a great idea to share on my blog.  The fabric collection is called Christmas Classics by Maywood Studios.    Looks like I’ll be making a Christmas table runner for next year.

The first step in making the trees is to fold the fat quarters in half and then in half again.

If you have a 60’ ruler that will help with the first fold.  You see there is an extra bit of fabric hanging below, just fold and tuck that under the first fold.

Keep folding the triangle across the strip until you get to the end and tuck the extra end piece inside the folds to hold the triangle together.

To make the trunk fold the fat quarter in thirds…

… and then in half.

Fold one end in about 3” and then roll from the other end.

  Now you can tuck all the fat quarters together and add the trunk and you have a fabric xmas tree.  :)

We are having a nice quiet Christmas this year and I’m happy to report the weather has warmed up.  It’s –12’c today so it feels like we are having a heat wave!  

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Peanuts Christmas Quilt

This is Eileen’s Peanuts Christmas Quilt that she made for her sister and family for Christmas this year.  I just got the okay to blog about it as she gave it to them today so they could enjoy it over the holidays.   She bought this as a kit from Nancy’s Notions and you can find it here.   We decided on Dream Puff for the batting as it will be a cuddle quilt for the couch and I used Popcorn for the panto too keep the quilting design light.  I also thought Popcorn goes well with Peanuts!  ;)

This was a tricky quilt to get good picture of so I zoomed in so you could see the cartoon panels better.

    The border fabric is really cute and it is also the fabric Eileen used for the backing as well.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Weather Outside is Frightful…

The Winter Solstice has arrived in all it grand splendour!    Woke up to a icy sunny sky and –41’c ( that is also –41’F if your wondering).   This is the coldest December I have experienced in a long time and I wonder what January will have in store for us.   So if you have been wondering why there haven’t been many outdoor pictures on my blog lately you now have your answer! :)  

I did venture out yesterday when it was a balmy –31’c to get some pictures of my Mirror Mirror quilt.    This is the same quilt pattern that I quilted for our  guild a few weeks ago shown here.  This is another great pattern for using up fat quarter bundles that seen to accumulate in your sewing room. I used an Island Batik bundle called Hydrangea.  The panto is Taro, light blue So Fine thread and Dream Blend batting.

I had a great blue backing in my stash that worked well for this quilt and I am now stitching the binding on as I sit by my wood stove to keep warm!

Under the Australian Sun

I pieced this quilt top our last guilds UFO day using the Perfect Ten pattern.  It uses ten fat quarters so was the perfect pattern to make with the ten fat quarters Desley sent me this summer.    The fabric collection is called Under the Australian Sun and is only available in Australia.  I still need to add an outer border and Desley said she would send me some more fabric on our next goodie exchange which will be next month!  I always look forward to those and need to start collecting my goodies to send to her.   It was fun to make this quilt top as I’m not familiar with a lot of the plants used in the fabric designs.  I used Kona Snow for the frames and Kona black for the inner border.

You can see the finished quilt with the outer border and quilting HERE!

Snow Dyeing Brown

 

On Monday I did some Snow Dyeing using soft brown, yellow and cerulean blue.  Since brown is made up of many colors it is a hard to predict the outcome.    The brown usually separates into shades of red which it did but I was hoping that since I was pouring the warm liquid dye onto the snow it would bond quicker to the fabric keep its brown color, not so.  I also broke one of my rules guild lines about not mixing too many color as I know that can result in a very muddy colored piece of fabric.  I added a bit of golden yellow to the mix as well.  I was surprised that the colors were not too muddy and that you could still see the blue and yellow in a few spots, especially on my smaller pieces of fabric.

Today I am going to load a quilt on my longarm that I pieced on the weekend so hope to share that with you soon.  I seem to be on a mission this month to use up some of my fat quarter bundles that I have acquired over the last couple of years.

Northern Solitudes

 

Last December I won a lovely fat quarter bundle of Northern Solitudes fabrics by Holly Taylor at our guilds xmas party.   I don’t like to sit on fabric bundles too long so thought I would challenge myself to make a quilt out of this fabric by this years party. I’m happy to report that I got it done and our guilds party is next week so I have something to take for Show and Tell.  Since the bundle of fabric was quite big I ended up making a queen size quilt ( 95” x105”) and used the Yellow Brick Road pattern as I like how it uses up the whole fat quarter.

The collection has a dragonfly print in a couple of the fabrics so I chose Dragonfly Pond for the panto.   Dream Blend batting and a light green So Fine thread.

I did a very quick photo shoot outside this morning as it is –30’c and will stay that way all day.  No surprise as it has been like that all week!   It is suppose to warm up to more normal temperatures next week ( highs of –15’c)  so I hope that is true but I’ll believe it when I see it.