Ice Cream Cone Quilt

My Ice Cream Cone quilt is done!    I posted about this quilt top back in April here so that is where you can find all the details about this cute block.   I added a purple batik inner border and pink batik outer border then repeated the purple again for the binding.

I was debating about custom quilting this one but once I realized I wanted to make it a snuggly quilt and use a Cuddle backing with Dream Puff batting I knew a panto would be all it needs.  I like to use Puff batting with Cuddle/Minkie backing as that prevents the long fibres from the backing to beard up into the top fabrics. 

I chose Wave on Wave for the panto and used white So Fine thread.

Camp Sew Crazy!

Just checking in to share a fun activity I did at camp this week!  Yes I went to camp…sewing camp with some amazing ladies.   We were celebrating a few special birthdays and had a sewing camp party.  I offered to teach an Ice Dyeing craft as you can’t have camp without a craft project to bring home right!  I have to say that these projects turned out better than my samples and I am now motivated to try a few new colour combinations because these ladies were so creative with their colour choices!

Here is everyone that did the craft with their piece.

Here is the whole gang!  We had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs.  I seem to have lost my voice by the time I got home but that is normal for me after these type of get togethers.

Cassiopeia

I wanted to make a summery version of our City Slicker pattern and chose the Gemstones Cassiopia from Cantik Batiks.  I also added a light batik from my stash for the background.   I wanted to custom quilt this one and come up with some new designs.  I decided on a leafy feather with a diamond lattice in the prints.  I also stitched in the ditch around all the background edges but not between the seams in the prints, I didn’t want to break up the diamond pattern.

One thing I did differently than I normally do is used all white So Fine thread.  I usually will switch to a dark neutral thread for the prints but I wanted to see how it would look.  I love the results and that saved a lot of time not having to change threads each row.

I love the texture the feathers created in the background!

Ice Dyeing

Now that I have time to play I really wanted to get back into dyeing fabric as I haven’t done that much this past year.  I was inspired to try this folding method from some pictures Terry shared on the APQS forum and she was kind enough to share the folding method she used with me.  I have done a lot of snow dyeing and some ice dyeing and the results are always a surprise!  For my first experiment I used Cerulean Blue and Raspberry on one piece and Cerulean Blue, Dark Green and Yellow on the second.  I was dyeing 100% cotton fabric in 16” x 58” size pieces.

For the second attempted I used four different blue shades on one and Red, Orange and Yellow on the second. This created more of a single tone piece and I was hoping for more variation in the shades. I’m still very pleased with the results but noticed I had more white areas this time and I know I twisted the pieces tighter so that is why. I need to loosen my twist to create less of a resist.

And since it is so hard for me to cut these pieces up my plan was to make infinity scarves, Terry mentioned when she taught this as a class most of her students were going to make scarves!  Great idea!

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada Day!   I was able to finish my Homecoming wall hanging by Shania Sunga Designs  just in time for the holiday!  This is part of the Cantik Canada Mystery quilt and though I wasn’t interested in doing the mystery quilt I really loved this piece.

 Most Canadian quilt shops carry this Mystery Quilt and I actually won mine from Fabriculous Quilt Shop.  Speaking of Fabriculous my Manitoba readers will be happy to hear that Wendy is now opening her new Gimli location and the Grand Opening is today! So if your in the area make sure to pop in and see her new shop!

Last night our town had our Canada Day fireworks and so I took my camera and enjoyed the 20 minute show.  This is the first time trying to photograph fireworks and I think I did okay. I haven’t edited or enhanced any of the colours, this is just what I saw!    I was using a 4 second exposure and that seems to work well until the finale.  Had to drop it down to 1.5 seconds or it was a big bright ball of light!

This were shot over Ross Lake and they even had a few fireworks bounce off the water and then explode, that was very cool!