Wishes

This summer I had purchased a fat quarter bundle of the Wishes collection from Road 17 N in Winkler and this weekend I decided to make a few baby quilts with them.   I used a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman called Charm Squares Quilt Redux and you can download the pattern for free here.   I had 15 fat quarters and made 3 Charm quilts plus had enough extra fabric to run through my Go Cutter using the Isosceles Triangle die and made a fourth.   I used Kona Snow for the background and backing.

I quilted two with wavy lines and two with swirls.   Used Quilters Dream Blend batting and off white So Fine thread.

Each Charm quilt is made with 5 different fat quarters and the Triangle quilt is made with scraps from all three quilts.

Autumn BQ4 Quilt

This is Robin’s BQ4 quilt in autumn batik colours and I was glad she gave me this quilt this time of year.    She brought Hobbs batting, I used a gold shade of So Fine thread and used the Fascination pantograph.

If you remember the picture of Wendy’s Four Patch Charm quilt it was taken right here just a few days ago and now two of the birch trees are bare!   Looks like it is time to get out the rake!

The last couple of days Tim and I have been going out for evening drives so I can get pictures of the beautiful fall colours so here are some of those pictures.

The first picture is a view over looking a small valley  where the local x-country ski club has many of their trails.    In the background is Ross Lake which is in the town of Flin Flon.  If you look real hard you can see a few house but most of the buildings are out of view because of the trees.

The next couple of pictures were taking at the Scenic Tower at Bakers Narrows Provincial Park.  I loved the clouds that day and this next picture is my absolute favourite!

And on our way home one night we meet up with our neighbourhood bear.  He has been hanging around our road all week and I think the conservation officers finally trapped him this morning and moved him to a new location far away from the cottages.

Mahjongg #4

This is Iris’s Mahjongg quilt that she made in our guilds beginner class.   She made hers similar to Moira’s by adding the same borders and used blue and purple batiks.   The pantograph is called Joust, the batting is Quilters Dream Blend and the thread is a light blue So Fine.   These beginner quilts have turned out amazing, they have all laid nice and flat on my machine with no issues at all.

The Northern Lights were active again Tuesday night so I took a few more pictures. 

Our motion lights kept turning on behind me on the house but I was glad that it didn’t ruin my pictures, they still turned out good.  That is why the garage is lit up so much!  I love the effect the approaching clouds made across the lights at the bottom of the picture.   I also didn’t realize I had the Big Dipper centered in the shot too!

Four Patch Charm Quilt #1

I was really excited to be given this quilt to quilt as it was made with my Four Patch Charm Tutorial which you can find here.    This quilt belongs to Wendy and she did a great job picking bright coloured batiks fabric for this project, they are not a collection.   At first she mentioned she would love to have it quilted exactly like I did mine, which I have no problem doing, but she brought a Minkie backing.   I don’t like to quilt heavily with Minkie as it looks like a hot mess on the back!  Once I explained that to her she understood and them mentioned she planned on making another one so will bring a cotton backing for the next one so it can be custom quilted.  Great solution! 

Wendy said this one will be for her couch so I suggested Quilters Dream Puff batting to keep it cozy and not add any more weight to the quilt as the Minkie is heavy.  She loved the Deja Vu panto that she saw on one of my quilts so that was the one for this quilt.  I used off white So Fine thread top and off white Bottom Line on the backing.

The leave have turned yellow quite quickly and are falling fast.  Autumn is such a short season here.

Swan River Retreat Weekend

I spent this past weekend in Swan River, Manitoba at a quilt retreat that Lori and I organized and was hosted by Wendy and George at their quilt shop called Fabriculous!    Lori and I had an idea to have a retreat with members of her Dauphin guild and my Flin Flon guild with the focus being on having fun and making new quilting friends, you can never have too many quilting friends!  The whole weekend was catered so no cooking or doing dishing, just eating, sewing, socializing and maybe a bit of wine tasting!  Wendy’s shop is set up wonderfully for a retreat as she bought a church to set up her shop and the basement has a large hall area with a kitchen.   We set up the tables in groups of four and had two Dauphin quilters and two Flin Flon quilters in each group.  We asked Wendy to make the seating arrangements and to mix it up a bit so members were not sitting with there best friends…even Lori and I were not sitting together.  That worked out very well as I got to know some of the other guilds members better and that was the whole point.  Lori and I actually didn’t get a lot of time to sew, we were socializing more and helping others shop upstairs, but that is what we love to do.  We enjoying helping others spend their money on fabric!

The food was fabulous and the atmosphere of eating your meals in a quilt shop to candle light with great company was so enjoyable!

The ladies got a lot accomplished and there were many projects finished.

Yes there was a bit of ripping to do but there was always someone there to lend a hand.

Here are some of the tops that were finished.

Here is Lori with her original yet to be named quilt top and who knows maybe it will turn into a pattern for Highway 10 Designs in the future for those that like more intricate piecing!

We also found a few Highway 10 Designs quilts in the shop so have to share pictures of those too! 

Here is Quarter Sections.

Here is Not  Your Mother’s Rail Fence.

Lori and I had a surprise project for the ladies and just told them to bring an old T-shirt, or buy a cheap one, made out of interlock (rib knit doesn’t work).  If you search “ T-shirt scarf tutorials’ on Google you’ll find a lot of links on how to make them.  We cut ours into 1” strips and then followed the instructions.  It makes a quick no-sew project!   I got the ladies to model theirs for a group picture and glad they were patient with me with wanting to get the best picture as I shuffled people around!   I’m use to doing that with quilts not people!

Wendy took the camera so I could jump into the picture to prove I was there!

A big thanks to Wendy and George at Fabriculous for their wonderful hospitality and mischievous nature!     To all the guild members that trusted us to organized this event and make the road trip to Swan River I hope you all had a wonderful time and made new friends!   Everyone agreed we have to do this again so booked our next one for April!   I’m already looking forward to it, hope you can all make it back next year.

Snack Time

This is another one of Eileen’s baby quilts, this time she used Snack TIme by Jaybird Designs for the pattern.   I didn’t know the name of the pattern when we were discussing panto designs so when we decided on Popcorn for the panto and then asked the name of the quilt pattern, I thought how perfect!    I used Quilters Dream Puff batting and White So Fine thread.