Round Robin Quilted

This week I have been taking it easy and enjoying a bit of a quilting break, well not completely!    I did put my Round Robin on my machine and quilted it up this week and got the binding on as well.  I started by stabilizing the whole quilt with stitch in the ditch as I had no idea what I wanted to quilt on it.  I started with the outer border feathers and from there I decided on the feather motifs for the setting triangles.  I made the pebble borders with alternating big and small pebbles for a different look and had to really focus to get them reasonability even. That was one moment where a computer on my machine would have been nice.   Took a while to decide on what to put in the inner white border but a simple curl feather design seemed to fit nicely.

We have been making more ‘ice balls’ for our deck railing and they go right to the end of the deck now!  I'm now making a bunch for down by the dock too!

The weather has been unseasonably warm here so we have been going for a lot of walk out along our bush trail, packing it well with our snowshoes.   We managed to convince our youngest son to finally walk our trail and I think he might of even enjoyed it!   It has been snowing all week here so the trees are all white with fresh snow so I’m waiting for the sun to peek out to get pictures of my Day Break quilt that I finished over a week ago.    Looks like we might see some sun by the end of the week so I hope to get some pictures of it before New Years.

Christmas Cookies!

 

I’m not one to spend a lot of time in the kitchen but I do enjoy Christmas baking.  This year I found a link to a video on how to decorate this super cute Reindeer cookies and what makes them so clever is you use a Gingerbread man shape and turn it upside down!  I made sugar cookies and decorated them like in the video and really enjoyed the process.  It’s nice to add a new treat to the family favourites.  Here is the link to the video.  Hope to save a few to bring to our guild Christmas party on Tuesday…but no promises, cookies disappear fast here!

New Round Robin Started

Last  year I did a Round Robin with Lori, Desley and Bronwyn and you can see the final results of that project here.   Since we were all really happy with our final quilt top we decided to do this again but this time Desley and Bronwyn made the rules.  This time we are using a point system and different sized blocks are assigned different points.  For Round One we had to make 9 to 12 points worth of blocks using a consistent fabric in some or all of the blocks.  The consistent fabric gets mailed with the blocks each round so there is continuity in all the blocks. 

Here are my blocks and my fabric. 

Here is Lori’s blocks and her fabric.

Here are Bronwyn’s blocks and fabric.

And Desley’s blocks and fabrics.

We are having unseasonably warm weather this week and it got up to +2’c yesterday and will be the same today.  The down side is it has affected my ice and it is no longer clear but looks like frosted glass!  

I’m not sure if I’m happy or sad about this.  Maybe it will clear up over time again.

 

So since it has been warm I’ve been playing out in the snow again!  I love winter!!

Day Break Quilt

I’m so excited to share this quilt with you as it was so much fun to quilt!  It belongs to Lynn and the pattern is called Day Break by Jaybird Designs.   She used a line of fabric called Shimmer and the background fabric is a linen/cotton blend.  Lynn said she like how Angela Walters quilted one using the same fabrics so I used that as my inspiration, you can see that quilt here on Jaybirds site.   I spent a bit of time thinking how I wanted to quilt this one and knew I that I wanted to make the hexagon and star shapes the focus so I echoed around those.  I like to work within seam lines instead of working across them for the most part so that helped me define my quilting designs.  I decided to use three different designs in the star fabrics and in the outer border of each hexagon as that way the same design would never touch. The rest of the designs I kept the same on each block to create continuity in the piece.   Lynn will be using this a wall hanging but didn’t want it quilted to heavy. 

Here are some close ups of the quilting designs.  I did l’s in one star with matching l’s and e’s in the outer border, feathers in the second star with a feather curl in that outer border and a simple triangle in the third with loops in the outer border.  All the blocks have the same overlapping CC design in the center and straight lines radiating from the background.  I think it turned out to be a nice blend of curves and lines.  Lots of ruler work and stops and starts but it didn’t take to long to complete, only two full days of quilting!

Look at that pretty ice!  It is warming up to 0’c today so I’m panicking that it will ruin my ice!  It is suppose to warm up to +3’ on Friday!!  I think I’m the only one not happy about that!

Picture of the backing which is the same linen/cotton blend fabric that is the on the top.

I used a beige So Fine thread for the top, beige Bottom Line on the back and Quilters Dream Blend batting.

I am now finished my clients quilt for the year!  I have a few of my own quilts to finish and one being a Day Break quilt but in batiks. I think I’ll work on that one first and don’t be surprised if I quilt it the same or very similar to this one!

Four Patch Charm Quilt #2

This is Wendy’s Four Patch Charm Quilt and she made it using my tutorial here.  This is actually her second Four Patch quilt and you can see the her first one here.  This time she used shades of blues and beiges for her charm squares and a lighter beige background.  Wendy asked for the same pantograph design, Deja Vu, and brought a cream coloured Minkie backing.   I used a light beige So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting instead of Puff this time and it worked out very well.

We had a lot of snow fall yesterday, about 15 to 20cm so I had a lot of shovelling to do before getting my pictures.  Here is the before shot at sunrise.

First I had to shovel a path to the lake

…then shovelled and swept the rink.  Good workout!

Now it’s time to get back to my last client quilt for the year and it’s a beauty!

Vintage Dresden Plate Quilt

This is Alex’s Dresden Plate quilt and it has a lovely story to go with it.  In the 80’s her grandmother Eva started cutting and piecing the Dresden petals together and Alex remembers helping her thread her needles as Eva’s vision was starting to fail.  Eva then gave the Dresden circles to her daughter to make a quilt but her daughter didn’t quilt so they just sat in a box unfinished.  This year Alex, who loves to quilt, took her grandmothers work and appliqued them onto a background squares, added the center circles and sashing according to the pattern her grandmother started it with.  This will be a Christmas gift for Alex’s mother ( Eva’s daughter) so I’m sure it will be a wonderful surprise and be a special family heirloom.

I quilted a feather motif in the sashing, loops in the Dresden petals, stippled the background and added a swirl in the center of each block.   Used Quilters Dream Blend batting, and cream and rust coloured So Fine thread.

Stonehenge Wide Backing!

Attention local quilters!!!

I’m very excited to let you know that I now carry Stonehenge Extra Wide backings! I have 8 colours to chose from at the moment, they range from dark brown, gold, grey, light green to beige.  I’ll carry samples with me to guild days so if you’re looking for a backing you can see if any of these will work for your quilt.

We do not have a fabric shop in town and the nearest quilt shop is about 370km away so getting a backing for a quilt usually involves online shopping or waiting for a trip out of town.  I hope this will be a nice convenience for the local quilters.

Now to some quilting pictures!   This is Terry’s Hopscotch quilt and she requested Garden Frill for the panto design.  The batting is Quilters Dream Blend and the thread is a beige So Fine.