Surprise Sampler

This is another one of Marg's quilts.  This one is called Surprise Sampler and was a Block of the Month from Periwinkles in Saskatoon. This was Marg's first quilt using batiks and she was quite pleased with how they were to sew with.

She asked for my Quilters Dream Wool and I used a brown Lava thread.

The panto is Tickle.

The backing was a nice tone on tone brown to show off the quilting. 

I got up early to take these pictures so that I could use the ice before it turned into a large puddle like it has been all week during the daytime.

Back to Nature

This is Marg's Back to Nature quilt, a 2010 Block of the month pattern by Wing and a Prayer Designs.

She asked for Dream Wool batting and chose Ground Cover for the panto design.

I took this pictures in the morning when the top of the snow was still frozen hard.  The snow top is bumpy ...not the quilt :)

When I was taking the photo of the quilt on my deck railing I had to walk through knee deep snow.  The top layer of the snow is icy from melting during the warm days and as a kid sometimes I was able to walk on top of this kind of snow but I can't anymore!  That was always fun as you never knew with each step if you would stay on top or drop through that top snow crust and get a boot full of snow....like I did taking these pictures!

Alphabet Baby Quilt

This is Rae's Alphabet quilt and she appliqued all the letters by hand with a blanket stitch.  She used a great collection of vintage fabrics for this quilt making it perfect for a baby.

I quilted tiny loops in the background and SID around the letters. Then quilted piano keys in the outer border.

You can see all the white air bubbles frozen in the ice.  I took this picture a few days ago and the ice is now all cracked and cloudy from our warmer temperatures.

Mexican Star

This is Lynn Mexican Star quilt.  I just love this pattern and have made it for myself, you can see mine here.

I was doing a lot of 'Sit and Stare' with this one so I showed it to Desley and she suggested quilting leaf designs as the batik fabrics have a leaf print. So with that idea to get me going I quilted free hand leaf motifs in the different pieced areas of the background fabric.

I think the key to quilting this one is to keep the quilting density even so it will lay flat as it is a wall hanging.

I was tempted to do small dense background fill but very glad I didn't.

If you have come across my blog post looking for Mexican Star quilting ideas then I will direct you to a post on a friends blog that has what I think is the best quilting I have ever seen on his pattern ....click here!

Batik in Autumn Colours

This is Phyl's Batik Quilt and I used the panto Tickle to quilt it.  Green Lava thread and Dream Blend batting.

 Love the definition of the quilting in this shot!

 Don't know how much longer I will be able to use the ice as my back drop as it will be above zero all week so it is going to get wet out there as the snow melts.

Oh and guess what?  I won Jenny's Ruler and Pattern giveaway yesterday!!!!   :)

So I see an Urban Pods quilt in my future now.

Over the River and Through the Woods...

...to Tamarack Shack we go :)

This is Marlene's Over the River and Though the Woods quilt, a pattern from Crabapple Hill.

Marlene did a beautiful job embroidering this quilt top and I was very flattered she ask me to quilt it for her.  Marlene has sent a few quilt tops to Judi at Green Fairy so I was a bit nervous at first but once we started talking about how she wanted it quilted those nerves just disappeared.  

Marlene asked for stippling in the background and to leave the geese and star points unquilted. I just love how they pop off the quilt as I just did SID around them. I suggested cross hatching the center rectangle and then decided to also cross hatch the centers of the blocks.  Added some free hand quilting in the embroidered scene to highlight the landscape images.

The temperatures have finally warmed up here and the snow is starting to melt!  Let's hope spring has arrived early.

Just Takes Two -Part 5

I'm still keeping up with the Just Takes Two project and have just completed part 5.  The next set of instructions come out on Thursday and my goal is to be done each set of instructions before the next set come out.  This months as a bit trickier as the feather star block was template piecing not paper pieced. I have always wanted to make a feathers star and if it wasn't for that this block might have ended up in the garbage!  The instructions were good but the cutting instructions for one of the triangle pieces was too large and there were no trimming instructions. I had to wait until I was in the right frame of mind to figure it all out and once I was there it actually went together quite well once I figured out what to trim down.

Giveaway at Sew Kind of Wonderful!!

Jenny is giving away one of her Quick Curved Rulers and her Urban Pods pattern over at Sew Kind of Wonderful.  She will be making the draw on Monday so head on over there now and enter! :)

I don't usually do posts about giveaways but I truly believe this is one of those 'must have' quilting notions that every quilter should have as it takes the fear out of cutting and sewing curves. I just love mine!

Cutting into the Stash!

I have been busy quilting but unfortunately can't share any photos right now as the quilts are gifts and we don't want to ruin anyone surprise :)  But I can share what I have been getting ready for a retreat I am going to in May.  I have two quilts all cut out and ready to go so all I have to do is sit and sew!! I'm having fun with Jenny's ruler and finally cutting into my bright batik stash.

Last night we had more Northern Lights but with the full Moon they were very hard to see.  Tim took some shots of my Shack while I was working in there last night.  You can see how bright the moon was by the light on the snow on the roof. We had all the lights off in the house and the light in the shack is just from my machine.

Looking south.

Now if you have a bizarre sense of humor like I do then you might find this cartoon funny. It made me laugh especially after looking at this photo showing the constellation of Orion in the sky. Made me wonder if Tim purposely aligned the trees this way in the shot :)

Black and White

This is Lynn's Black and White quilt that is going to be a gift for her daughter.  I have quilted two of these quilts with straight lines and thought this time large swirls would be nice to try. The panto is called Fascination.

I love the backing fabric she chose for this quilt!

Bali Love Song Quilt

This is Lynn's Bali Love Song Quilt and the pattern can be found free at Hoffman Fabrics here.   She asked for it to be custom quilted and wanted my Teardrop quilting in the heart blocks.

This is a very pretty pattern and a great one for using your bali pops or jelly rolls.  

I had fun feathering in the setting triangles and outer border.

Back Online!

Well after 7 days of being offline I am happy to report I have my internet service back and the upgrade is definitely faster!!  I was finally able to watch a YouTube video without it stopping every few seconds to load, that was a joy! And just loading this first picture went much faster than usual so I can see a huge difference with the upgrade.

Now back to quilting!  This is Yvonne's quilt and she used the X-Block ruler to make this quilt at our last guild retreat.  The great thing about the X-Block ruler and patterns is that they show you how to use the pieces you cut off to make borders so no waste.

 I used the Feather Curls panto and pink Lava thread.

Now I can go catch up on all the blogs I like to read, I really missed not being able to check in with my online friends!

We are Experiencing Some Technical Difficulties...BLAH!

It has been 5 days since we have had internet service at home and so I have been pouting all week. I'm not sure who has been pouting more me or my teenage son!  On Sunday we were suppose to get an upgrade on our service and ended up with no internet at all!  It was a total failure so we are now in a waiting game with the company to get it fixed.  I am at my friend's house right now using her internet as we still do not have service!
So that being said I have had a lot of time to quilt....so here are a few pictures of what I have been working on since I have all this new found 'free-time'

I made three fleece throws to sell at our quilt show. Two are feathered and one has a music panto... just to be different.

The music panto is called Musica.

I also finished Am's quilt, this is one of her first quilts and was done beautifully.

The panto I used is called Floral Chain.

Hope to be back online soon.