Butterfly Charm Quilt

In 2021 I joined in quilt block swap with some quilty friends back in Manitoba and I finished my quilt yesterday.  I had asked for the Lillyella Butterfly Charm blocks which is a free paper pieced pattern. I love how this wall hanging turned out, it makes we smile and think of my friends back in Manitoba when I look at it. 

 

When I got the blocks I took each one and put them on an angle by adding a wedge of background to each side so they all look like they are fluttering.

I found the perfect tiny floral print fabric at Keystone Modern Creative for the outer border and sashed it with a lime green Dublin basic. I quilted it with feathers in the outer border, SID around the butterflies and then added swirls in the background.

I have it hanging in my quilt studio now! Thanks ladies for making the blocks for me! 

Metro Rings Quilt

Cindy made this lovely Metro Rings quilt as a wedding gift for her daughter.  The wedding was on the weekend so I can now share this beautiful quilt that was in my studio a few months ago. The pattern is by Sew Kind of Wonderful using there Quick Curve ruler.  Cindy said her daughter requested a fabric from her late grandmother stash to be included in this quilt and I thought this was a lovely idea.  Once the fabric was picked Cindy added the remaining blues and light greys to give it a beautiful 'blue china' feel. 

I quilted it with the Simple Jacobean pantograph, used white So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.

Congratulation to the newlyweds and I hope they enjoy this gift made with love.

Trending Quilt

This past year I participated in the Trending Sew Along by Art East Quilting Co which was a Mystery project, we only knew the sloth as the first critter.  I purchased a kit from the designer so it was nice to just open an envelope each month and not have to fish through my stash to find fabrics.   I had been sharing my progress on this project each month on my Instagram account (tamarackshack1).

 

I quilted it with the Windswept pantograph, used blue So Fine thread that matches my background fabric and used Quilters Dream Blend batting.

I used a beautiful blue Stonehenge wide backing which matched the owl and narwhal.

I did change a few colours in the kits.  I made the unicorn a horse and changed the colours of the owl to blue from pinks.

I still need to get the binding on but that is a good rainy day project.

Deco Quilt Finished

Last December I shared this quilt top in a post here and said I was going to send it to someone special to quilt it for me.  Well that's just what I did, I sent my quilt to another longarmer!   I have a lot of friends who do longarm quilting as a business and it is fun for me to have samples of their work on my quilts. I sent this one to Wendy who owns a quilt shop in Brandon, MB called Fabriculous. She also has the same machine I own, an APQS Millennium but she has the Quilt Path computer system on hers.  I wanted some dense quilting on this one and found the perfect pantograph, its called Behold.  I definitely would not want to hand guild this design on my longarm.

 I was thrilled when I got this back from Wendy last week she did an amazing job!  I can't stop touching this quilt, the texture on it is amazing!  I plan on hanging this one in my studio as it makes me very happy when I look at it.

This quilt pattern is called Deco by Lo & Behold Stitchery. 

 

Mineral Matrix #5

Here is the 5th Mineral Matrix that has come though my door, including the one I made myself!  It was a BOM project offered by Up North Quilt Shop in 2018.  It was designed by A Wing and a Prayer and the kits used Tonga Batiks.  This one is Nyla's and she wanted an all over design.  

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

This was my last quilt for June and I'm ready to take my usual summer break.  My pile of personal quilt tops has been growing so I hope to get a few of those done over the summer and will share here.  I recently had a friend longarm one of my quilts as she has a computer on her machine and I wanted a specific design is not easily done hand guided.  So I hope to get photos of that quilt to share here soon!   I also have some new camera equipment I want to play with this summer so you know I like to share those nature photos over the summer too. 

Ophelia Tiles Quilt

Nyla pieced this lovely Ophelia Tiles quilt with is a pattern by Pine Tree Country Quilts.  She used the Ophelia fabric line from Northcott fabrics.  The bold peony design looks great with all the complimentary prints.

I used the Lavish pantograph, off white So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.

This is such a pretty fabric collection, makes a beautiful quilt.

 

Undercover Maker Mat

 I have been wanting to make a mat with pockets to put under my sewing machine when I'm at retreats and my sewing groups.  I found an orphan butterfly block that I made last year to test a swap pattern and realized the designer of this block also had a free mat pattern!  You can find the patterns for both the butterfly and mat at Lillyella's website here. 

You can also use it as a sewing machine cover as well!

Tim took me back to the Heron rookery on Sunday so I could take more photos.  There wasn't a lot of activity as all the chicks are still quite small and you can only see the tops of their heads when they are resting in the nest.  This time I just picked one nest that I could get a clear view of and kept my camera on a tripod focused on that nest.  This is what I was looking at for 30 minutes, I could just see the fuzzy heads of the chicks so knew they were in there.  I was hoping this adult was waiting for its mate to return with food.

My patience paid off!  We saw a heron approaching and all of a sudden she stood up tall and stretched her neck out! Yah I picked the right nest!

Then all three chicks popped up and were very excited!

Here comes lunch!

It was now the other parents turn to go catch some food!

I just ordered a new 2x teleconverter for my camera and hope it allows me to take closer clearer photos of the herons when we go back to check on the chicks in a few weeks.

Laundry Basket 2021 Mystery #2

 Vicki joined in the Laundry Basket 2021 Mystery quilt project and she used her stash to pieced this quilt.  

I quilted it with the Windswept pantograph and used a light beige So Fine thread.

Now that the weather finally feels like summer I have been planting my flowers and spending more time outside with my camera.  The hummingbirds are still one of my favorite subjects to photograph as they are so challenging to catch! 

Finally got a good one of this one with her beak in the fuchsias. 

Then she checked out the Verbena.

I have been putting out oranges to attract the orioles to the yard and since my apple tree is dying I thought I might as well make it useful so I stuck the oranges on it! 

I have checked out the local Heron nesting grounds a few times and the baby are starting to hatch.  Since they are a distance from the road with no access on the ground (swamp) its challenging to get photos with all the dead trees blocking the view.