Quarter Sections Quilt in Cider Fabrics

 My second finish of the summer is my Quarter Sections quilt made with the Cider collection from Moda. I just fell in love with this fabric line when I saw it so had to buy a fat quarter bundle. It came with coordinating Grunge fabrics so I bought extra teal for the border and binding. 

I couldn't find my original photo of this fabric bundle so copied my Instagram pic which shows I bought it from Fabric Snob in Manitoba.  

I quilted it with the Wildflowers pantograph as that matched well with the tiny flower prints in this collection.   I used a light teal So Fine thread and Quilters Dream 80/20. 

I have been spending a lot of time with my camera this month, enjoy the challenges of taking hummingbird pictures.  Here are a few of my favorites so far.

He has his tongue out in the next one.  Think he was mad at the other hummers for chasing him away from the feeder.

Love how his red throat feather sparkle in this next one.

Been working on capturing their wing feathers in flight.

The hummingbird do not like to share at the feeders so they fight and chase each other away.  I'm trying to capture these moments too but they happen in a blink of an eye!

I also love taking pictures of frogs, toads, snakes and all insects.  

This toad was the size of the palm of my hand so I got down to his level to snap this picture. Love his expression and those eyes! LOL! 

Washboard Road Quilt in Stiletto

I made this Washboard Road quilt top about 6 months ago so was happy to load it on my machine this week and get it quilted and bound.  This is one of our Highway 10 Designs patterns that you can find on our website in either paper or PDF format.  I had purchased a Stiletto jelly roll and border fabric by Moda from Road 17N quilt shop as well as a Grunge for the background.

I quilted it with the Flourish pantograph, used light beige So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.

I took this quilt to Fort France to find some new locations to take pictures.  Had good luck at Point Park on Rainy Lake and didn't have to drag Tim around to any more locations.

I usually don't take pictures of a quilt with the sun shining behind them but that was a suggestion to try in the Quilt Photography online class I took this spring. I like how they turned out, give the quilt a softer look as it doesn't highlight the quilting.

 

I have been enjoying my summer break so far and spending more time outside with my camera than inside sewing.  Mainly taking picture of bugs, butterflies, and birds.  All challenging subjects that don't sit still!   Also have been out kayaking on the local lakes and hope to find another lake to try this weekend. 

This was at Off Lake.

This is the crystal clear water of Crow Lake.

Its been very dry here, lots of forest fires in our region so the air has been very smoky.  Took this shot the other day before sunset..

I just loaded another one of my own quilts on the machine so hope to get that quilted up soon!

Queen Bee Block Swap

Last fall a group of friends asked if I would join in their block swap that would start in January of 2021. I had never participated in one before so thought why not.  This swap is a Queen Bee block swap as each month one of the participants is queen for a month and all the other members make the block she chose and you sent the blocks you make to her that month. Since there were 9 of us participating we decided that we would all make each queen two of the blocks she chose so that we all end up with 16 blocks total.  I got the month of April and chose the paper pieced butterfly block that is a free pattern on Lilyella's blog which you can find at this link here.  The pattern has 3 different butterfly designs so I got a lovely mixture in the 16 blocks I received.

I asked for bright colour fabrics and send the ladies the above picture for inspiration. 

So here are the blocks I received from my wonderful swap buddies! 

Lori 

Yvonne

Sheri

Amy

Reneta

Shalane

Jocelyn

Wendy

Now to figure out how to make them into a wall hanging as the blocks are only 5" square.

Once the year is over I'll share all the blocks I made for the other participants.  But if your on Instagram we have been sharing our blocks with the hashtag #badassmbquilters and #beebadassblocks and I have been sharing the ones I have made so far on my personal Instagram at 'tamarackshack1'