Three Shades of Grey

This is Moira’s quilt and it was a kit she purchased online.  She thought the kit was made with shades of blue so was surprised when it arrived and it was grey.  We have all had that experience ordering online but even thought it wasn’t what she was expecting it is still a very striking quilt.  Since the piecing is very simple I chose a wavy panto called Bayside to add texture.  I used grey So Fine thread on top and grey Bottom Line on the back, and Quilters Dream Blend batting.

I helped Moira pick a backing at our guild retreat as we were very luck to have Shari from Road 17 N set up shop and join in our retreat.   She had the Zen Chic collection called Ink that was a great match to the solid greys on the top.

See how the quilt looks blue in this next photo!  That is why it is best to shop at quilt shops! :)

Still no snow but this morning the lake is starting to develop some ice along the shoreline.

Shadow Box Quilt

This is Myrna’s Shadow Box quilt and it will be a Christmas gift for her mom who is 94.    The purple and pink fabrics make this such a pretty quilt and I’m sure her mom will love it, especially since it was made by her daughter!   Myrna asked for custom quilting so I stitched in the ditch around the boxes, added a wavy feather in each box, curls in the white sashing and a feathered curls design in the outer border to tie it all together.

I love it when clients bring solid coloured backings as you can really see the quilting!

Second International Round Robins Revealed!

Today I’m sharing the final quilt tops of our second International Round Robin, a project I have been doing with Lori (Canada), Bronwyn (Australia) and Desley (Australia).   We have all received our quilt top back so it is time to share them on our blogs.  Back in July I shared Round Three which shows all the blocks and you can see those here .  It’s hard to believe we have been working on this for a year now.   I was given Bronwyn’s blocks and it was my job to make a quilt top out of the blocks made in the first three rounds.  I decided to add a lot of background fabric and put the blocks on point to create space for quilting designs!    I know that Bronwyn takes some of her quilt tops to Desley to quilt.   I added a bit of Celtic applique around the center block and used all the remaining focus fabric that traveled with the blocks to create the outer border using the flying geese blocks.

Here is Desley’s quilt top that Lori put together.  Just look at those borders!!!  I’m still blown away by this one and I know Desley love it.   Great job Lori!   I’m sure she will share more picture of this beauty on her blog soon.

This is Lori’s quilt top that Bronwyn put together.    Again I am amazed at the design elements that have been used and look forward to seeing how Lori quilts this one.

And here is my quilt top that Desley put together.  Again I love the layout and those borders!!  Lots of great quilting space for me to play with too.

As I was taking a few picture of my top today I realized that this quilt would look great on a square table!

I also had to hang if from my new screen door on the Shack, love finding new places for pictures!

So I wonder which one of us will get theirs quilted first?    If you never saw the results of our first Round Robin you can see those quilt tops here.

City Slicker–Pattern Number 7

Lori and I are very happy to announce we have published our seventh pattern for Highway 10 Designs, introducing City Slicker!   This is our first Jelly Roll friendly pattern and it can be made in two sizes depending on how many strips your jelly roll contains.   The PDF version is now available in our Etsy shop here and the paper version will be available in a couple of weeks.   We had a lot of fun with this pattern and at our retreat in Swan River a few weeks ago we had a “Name our Quilt’ contest.   There were a lot of great ideas and some that really made us laugh, I didn’t realize how competitive some of our quilting friends were too!  We didn’t go with any of the suggestions but that process was very eye opening as to how others see a quilt pattern. It is great to have a different perspective and that can open up new ideas.

  We took pictures of our cover quilt in Swan River at their museum as it was the perfect backdrop for this City Slicker.

Lori pieced and quilted this sample and we both felt this quilt is perfect for light custom quilting.   Lori came up with a great quilting design using curved rulers that filled in the rectangular space beautifully.    You can see more pictures of this quilt on Lori’s blog and read her story here.    Lori used a batik Jelly Roll by Hoffman Fabrics called Tide Pool and a light batik for the background.

The next two pictures highlight the quilting designs.  It was a cloudy day for our photo shoot but there was no wind or rain so we made it work as we only had a day together to get the job done.

I also made a sample of City Slicker and used a Jinny Beyer RJR batik strip bundle in the Fire colour way that I purchased from Crafty here.    This bundle repeats each fabric three times so there was less of a variety of colours in my quilt.  The background fabric is a light batik fabric.   I used Quilters Dream Blend batting and did light custom quilting on mine as well.   I quilted swirls in the background and did a diamond with feather motif in the rectangles.  The whole quilt is stitched in the ditch.   I was working hard to get this one done before all the fall colours in my yard blew away.  It looked so pretty surrounded by the fall leaves.

Now to our last sample.  While Lori and I were at Fabriculous in Swan River for our retreat we offered to sew a sample for Wendy’s shop as she is a wonderful supporter of our patterns.    Wendy chose a Moda Jelly Roll by Zen Chic called For You and a grey background.  Wendy is now an APQS longarm dealer and quilted her sample with a circle panto using Quilt Path, the computer system for APQS machines.  So if you live in the Swan River area and would love to quilt your own quilts on a longarm please contact Wendy to set up an appointment to take the Certification class to be able to rent her machines.  I’m so excited for her new venture and who knows maybe I will be teaching a few longarm classes there in the future! 

I’m working on a scrap version of this quilt with leftover batik strips that I have been saving for a few years.  I think this pattern will look just as nice as a scrap quilt as it does made from a fabric collections.

Pumpkin Spice

This Pumpkins Spice is no latte but a quilt designed by Karen Walker from the blog Laugh Yourself Into Stitches.  I shared a link to Karen’s pattern on my blog two years ago and my friend Rae just loved it and made one.  This is Rae’s quilt and she used Kansas Troubles fabrics to make her Pumpkin Spice quilt.   I chose the Flirtatious pantograph and used Navy So Fine thread on top and Navy Bottom Line on the back.    Rae brought a navy flannel backing so we decided to go with a Black Poly batting from Quilters Dream.   This quilt arrived at the right time of year to be photographed!  I’m kicking myself those as I do have a few pumpkins around and didn’t add them to the photo shoot.

Butterflies

Our guild is having a retreat this coming weekend so I am getting a few project ready to take.   I loved the Butterflies quilt pattern by Laundry Basket Quilts the first time I saw it and had to make it.  I used batik fabrics from my stash and spent the weekend tracing and cutting out the butterflies. My husband even joined me at the kitchen table and traced about half of the butterflies for me!  I have all the blocks fused and ready to applique down at the retreat.   The one thing I’m trying to decide on is do I embroider the antenna or drawn them on?  I embroidered a few already but I wasn’t enjoying the process and my friend Ardelle mentioned she just drew hers on.  I’m liking that idea more and more!

I have all 30 blocks ready to applique down with invisible thread at the retreat.  That should take me awhile.

See my post on the finished quilt here!

Baby Quarter Sections Quilt

This is Rae’s Quarter Sections quilt and she made the baby version for a gift for a new addition to the family that is arriving soon.   This is one of our Highway 10 Design patterns and it is a fat quarter friendly.   You only need 5 fat quarters to make this baby sized quilt.

I used the Bubbles pantograph for the quilting design, medium green So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.   Rae brought a cream coloured Minkie for the backing and you can see the quilting design nicely on it.

It was a beautiful sunny day today but there is a chance we might wake up to snow tomorrow!

Circle of Friends

This is Valery’s Circle of Friends quilt in xmas fabrics and the pattern is by Michelle Harris of Periwinkle Quilting and Beyond in Saskatoon. Here is her blog post about this quilt.    Valery said she would like it custom quilted and I know she likes feathers so did a combination of flowing feathers and holly leaf motifs.  The blocks are all stitched in the ditch and I just marked a circle to create the feathered wreath in the blocks.

I used white So Fine thread and white Bottom Line on most of the quilt and changed to red So Fine with red Bottom line in the red border.  Love the texture the quilting made on this quilt.