Saw Blades Quilt

This is Iris's Saw Blades quilt and you can find this traditional block pattern at a great online site called Quilters Cache.   This website is an amazing resource if your looking for any block patterns.   Iris used beautiful bright colours for her quilt and a orange Minkie for the back!

I suggested she use Black Poly batting for this quilt and so we used Black Quilters Dream Poly.   With this being a queen size quilt and having Minkie on the back it is a very heavy quilt so added a poly batting keeps it from getting too heavy. Also the extra loft of poly helps reduce the Minkie fibres from bearding to the top which they like to do! Using black batting made sense as the background fabric is black and the thread  I used was black So Fine thread on top and backing. Using black thread on the back looks fine as it blends well into the Minkie fibres.

 I used the Plush panto as it looks like little saw blades too!  It is also a light density design and I prefer using those with Minkie backings.

You can see it was snowing lightly as I was taking these pictures ( in a -33'c windchill!)

Carry On Quilt

This is Valery's Carry On quilt and she found this pattern as a free download on the Benartex website. I did go look for it to add a link but couldn't find it so it might not be available anymore. *edited - thanks Bev for finding the pattern, download available here.*

  This is a very cute pattern and I love the fun fabrics Valery used in the suitcases.

I used one of my new pantos called Modernish as it reminded me of a map, just like the print in outer border fabric!

I used white So Fine thread, white Bottom Line thread on the back and Quilters Dream Blend batting.

Valery even pieced a few suitcase blocks to use on the back!

Warm Wishes Quilt

This is Gail's Warm Wishes quilt and it will be a gift for a new grandchild arriving in February!  The pattern is from Quiltmaker and you can find the free download here.  

She sent bamboo batting which is so soft and a purple flannel backing.  Perfect combination for a cozy quilt.  I used the Hearts in Bloom panto and white So Fine thread on top and purple Bottom Line on the back.

I won't mention how cold it was when I was taking these pictures, needless to say it was a very quick photo shot!

Quarter Sections #5

This is Myrna's Quarter Sections quilt and she used a beautiful fat quarter bundle she won at our guild xmas party last year. The fabric is a Holly Taylor design by Moda but not sure of the collection name.  Myrna didn't want it quilted with a xmas design as she wants to use this quilt on her couch all year round as these are the colour of her living-room.

I used the panto called Greenery and green So Fine thread on top and green Bottom Line thread on the back.  The batting is Quilters Dream Blend and the backing she used a the same red Grunge she used on her outer border. That Grunge fabric line is so nice!  It is amazing the colour difference in the next two picture that were taken indoors.  Lighten really makes a difference and the sun is so low on the horizon right now that the outdoor pictures don't always show the true colours.

Playing with Blocks Quilt

This is Hollie's Playing with Blocks quilt and it was a kit she purchased from Keepsake Quilting, you can still find the kit here.  It is made with cute 1930's Reproduction fabrics.  I chose Wave on Wave for the panto as the piecing was simple and this quilting design has a lot of smaller scale swirls and feathers.  So Fine white thread on top, off white Bottom Line on the back and Quilters Dream Blend batting. 

Its a cold one tonight, -27'c with a -37'c windchill.

Low Volume Plus Sew Along

My friend Laila, who blogs at Litamora's Quilt & Design, has invited her blog readers to join in a fun Sew Along, no rules!  You can visit her blog post to find out more about it here.  I chose to make my blocks using 2 1/2" strips and there is a great tutorial on how to make this Plus block on Kviltstina's blog here. She gave us permission to use her pattern image.  She also has a tutorial on how to make mini version here. I'm not sure how I'll lay mine out yet, I'll see how many I end up making first!  If you want to join in Laila has created a hashtag so we can see what you're making too if you are on Instagram.  #plusquiltsewalong2016

I had cut a box full of 2 1/2" strips of batik fabrics so just started grabbing from that box and from a green batik bundle I had.  I think mine will be all blues and greens so quite different from the other participants.

First Snow Dyeing of 2016

It has been awhile since I played with some Snow Dyeing so I fixed that last night!  If your new to my blog Snow Dyeing is a dyeing technique and you can read about it in my tutorial here.   For this 1 metre piece of fabric I used the liquid dye method and two colours of dyes.   I mixed 1 tsp of Slate Blue in 1 cup of water and 1 tsp of Soft Brown in 1 cup of water and poured/drizzles it over the snow. I left it over night in my basement and by morning all the snow had melted and I washed up the fabric to reveal this!

I'm always so excited to see the final piece of fabric with all the wonderful textures in it.  The reds in the brown dye really come forward.

Lug Nuts #4

This is Sheri's Lug Nuts quilt that she was working on at our Swan River Retreat.  You can find this pattern in our Highway 10 Designs Etsy shop here.  I love the soft corals, beige and browns she used, very pretty.

Its hard to see the quilting design in these pictures as the sun has not been out for the last few days but I used the panto Allium.   Quilters Dream Blend batting and a coral So Fine thread on top and a beige Bottom Line on the back.  I had a Stonehenge backing that match her quilt top perfectly!

I had a fun encounter this morning with a very friendly fox. I was sitting at my kitchen table when it walked by on our deck so I grabbed my camera and even had time to add the zoom lens and went outside to get a few pictures.  It was startled at my presents at first as it was just resting under our bird feeder but just ran around the house and came back.  Then it started chasing squirrels in our yard and I cheered it on!   He walked right up to me, within 2 metres, which was too close for me so I stepped back a few steps to keep a comfortable distance.

He is a very healthy looking fox with a fluffly red coat.   

This last picture is my favorite.

My client Sheri who made this Lug Nuts quilt will probably get a kick out of these fox pictures as her maiden name is Fox!  How appropriate to get great pictures of this creature on the day I was posting her quilt pictures.

Comfort Quilts

I wanted to finished a few of our guilds Comfort Quilts before I started back to work in January.  I finished these two and am now ready to go back to work tomorrow.  

This first one is a Snowball block quilt with a piano key border and it is wonderful to see a simple block turn into a beautiful quilt!  I used the Fascination panto and Hobbs 80/20 batting.

This second quilt is made from a block that I think is called Garlic Knot, it have been two years since we made these blocks!  I used the Popcorn panto and Hobbs 80/20 batting.