This is Cynthia’s Mahjongg quilt and it is for a little boy so she used space themed fabrics. I thought the Plush pantograph would make a good design and it would look like spinning galaxies on the quilt. I used golden yellow So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.
This is Jeannie’s Magic Tile quilt and the pattern is by Kathleen Bissett. Jeannie used lovely bright coloured fabrics with a solid black insert fabric to create the blocks. This is a great pattern to add to your ‘To-do “ list if you have never made one, I’ve made two over the years.
I used Mimosa for the pantograph, blue So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.
The lake ice is turning grey and I am staying off it now. Should have open water in our bay in about 10 days!
This is Roberta’s Pearls quilt and the pattern is designed by Zen Chic. The fabric collection she used is called Gigi Blooms by Adorn It. Roberta first suggested circle quilting designs all over like on the pattern cover but I do not have a computer on my longarm so I suggested Bora Bora for a paper pantograph. I think it worked out well and gave a similar effect.
My duck has returned from under our last snowfall…
and so has our neighbourhood bear! New set of tracks on the lake so it looks like he is doing the rounds again. And for those of you worrying about me running around on the ice still, if a 400lb bear can walk on it then I should be good too! :)
This quilt was made by the Manitoba Prairie Quilters, a Quilt Guild in Winnipeg. They made a beautiful New York Beauty style quilt with flowing hand appliqued feather leaves. This will be their next raffle quilt at their 2018 Quilt Show. The quilt was inspired by a photo of a quilt made by Kathy Martin called Rob’s Quilt, here is a link to the quilt. Joan Dupuis-Neal, a MPQ member, created a foundation pattern using EQ7 and many members helped in making the blocks. Joan assembled the blocks and then hand appliqued the feather leaves with help from Karen McConkey.
Since this is a raffle quilt I had to think of ways to keep the cost of quilting down but still quilt it in the way that will highlight the piecing and add texture. One way that really saves time is to use only one thread across the top. I picked a 100wt Invisafil #217 which blending in beautifully with all the batik fabrics. I also didn’t do any heavy background fill but instead added ‘ghost’ feather leaves around the applique as well as quilted free hand feather wreaths in the open areas.
I stitched in the ditch around all the New York Beauty circles and spikes and added a curved element to the center. I alternated with two different designs in the background of the spikes for added interest. I used The Quilted Pineapple Curved Templates in 4 different sizes, as well as the small QP Edge Ruler. I used the QP BFF curved ruler to aid in SID around all the appliqued feather leaves.
I made a template of the feather applique shape and used a chalk pencil to mark the ‘ghost’ shapes flowing from the applique.
We had a visitor walk by our place on the lake the other night and he left his footprints in the snow. Looks to be a medium sized black bear from the size of those claw prints! And just the other night I was running around on the ice taking pictures of the northern lights! Think I’ll stay closer to home now!
Good Luck to the MPQ’s on this great fundraiser! I’ll be sure to buy tickets when I go to the Quilt Show next spring, it really looks great on my bed! :)
Its been a while since I shared some Northern Lights photos and last night around midnight Tim and I walked out on the lake ice to get a few pictures. It was nice to be out in only –5’c temperatures to take pictures but this time of year the lake ice is very noisy! As we walked out across our bay to the main lake the ice was cracking and popping which added to the excitement of being under the lights. These first pictures are taken looking northwest back out our house.
As we walked back I wanted to get a shot of our house lights with the lights.
As the lights faded I wanted to get a shot of my birch trees which you see so often in my quilt pictures.
This is Megan’s Gravity quilt and it is a pattern by Jaybird Designs. This is the third one I have quilted and you can see the other two here and here. I have changed up the designs a bit in the center blocks, added more swirls but used a lot of the same design elements as before. The big change this time is the background design. Megan sent me a picture from a blog called Schnig Schnag so I used her design as my inspiration. Love how it turned out but a lot of ruler work!
I used a lot of rulers on this quilt and they were my QP Curved Templates and the QP Edge straight rulers. I didn’t do any SID as all the seams are pressed open, I usually prefer to SID but this quilt pattern does not need it.
The batting is Quilters Dream Blend.
I made myself a template for marking the background design. I used a double blade Exacto knife and old x-ray film to create the template. Then I used my Bohin chalk pencil to mark the corners of the design onto the fabric, not the whole design, just so I knew where to aim my ruler as I stitched it out.
I used Monopoly for the center quilting and two shades of grey for the background designs. I used #410 for the two darkest diamonds and #408 for the three lightest grey diamonds. The bobbin thread was a light grey Bottom Line for the whole back.
You may have noticed there is snow on the lake again! We had 25cm of snow fall on the Easter Long weekend! I took these pictures this morning while the snow was still hard and dry from the below zero temps last night. Should get up to +9’c today so it will be a wet sloppy mess soon enough!
