The Replacement

It was –34’c this morning when I took this picture, the cracks on the ice have really opened up in the cold.

I finally have all 100 block completed for my Just Takes Two Mystery Project!!!   I decided to pitch the instructions for the hand pieced block and make one that I would enjoy….a Celtic knot block!  I love doing Celtic appliqué, it was the perfect way to personalize this quilt.  I was going to machine appliqué it but then changed my mind hand appliquéd the bias strips down and am very happy with the results.   I’ll even share a close up of my stitches :)   I found this very relaxing to do.

Our guild’s Christmas party is next week and I volunteered to take care of our silent auction.  We have had some beautiful hand made items donated to the auction this year and I also wanted to add a few pre-cut fabrics into the mix.  Here is a teaser for my guild members of some of the fabrics I purchase with the guilds money!   These were all purchase on Black Friday sales so the guild will definitely make money on these items.

Curve it Up – 4 Patch Block

 

Here is the next block in the Curve it Up Quilt Along, you can find the instructions for the 4-Patch block on Helen’s blog here. 

I really like how the blocks are turning out but I might make one adjustment to the Saw Tooth block.  I’m thinking of  taking the brown corner triangles off and adding a solid background square so the star shape floats in the background.  Once I make a few more blocks I’ll decided if I’ll do that or not.

I’ve been doing a bit of quilting and have my Jewel Box quilt on my machine but most of my time this week has been spent baking and getting ready for the Christmas.  I did finished one small UFO, this cute little wall hanging that was a kit my neighbour Phyl gave me as a gift for watching her house.  Looks like my little Tamarack Shack!!   The pattern is called “Cabin in the North Woods” by Patch Abilities and is only 6” x22”.  It now hangs at my back door, so cute!

99 out of 100

The last set of instructions for the Just Takes Two Mystery were posted on Dec 1 and I have the final layout now too.  I have 99 out of 100 done.   Still haven’t attempted block 23 as it is all hand piecing…I like hand appliqué but not hand piecing.  There are EIGHT pages of instructions!  See why it is intimidating me!!   It’s called Grandmother Favourite Compass…..it’s a pretty block but I hate using templates.  I always forget to add the 1/4” seam allowance and end up with a block that’s too small.  It doesn't matter how many times I remind myself to add the seam allowance I always seem to forget.
 

So I’m going to try to find another 12 1/2” block to substitute into the quilt.  I've come this far I can’t quit now!!

Here is the last two sets of blocks, plus the ‘key’ block I didn't like at first but decided it wasn't that bad so just did it.

I don’t think I would have keep up with this project if it wasn't for Lori’s occasional nudge so it was a great project to do with a friend.  So when you find yourself thinking about starting a new mystery that you would really like to see to completion ask a friend to work along with you. You might find you have a competitive side that keeps you motivated to keep ahead of your friend ;)

Snow Dyed Scarves

 
Here is my first attempt at snow dyeing  Bamboo Jersey for scarves.  Lori started making these last year using the low immersion dyeing technique and gave me two for my birthday!  She then made a bunch to sell at our guilds Quilt Show and they did very well.    I only had enough Bamboo fabric to make 5 scarves and I want to give these as Christmas gifts so didn't want to goof them up.  So three are dyed with one color and two are dyed with two colors. I was worried if I did two colors on all the scarves I would end up with a lot of purple! :) 


I was really surprised that the one I made by mixing cerulean blue and fuchsia with came out cerulean blue and fuchsia…that was the one I was going for purple!  But I’m thrilled with the look of the middle one as you never know what to expect with snow dyeing, that’s half the fun!

We had a lot of snow fall this weekend and I finished all the shoveling today, that was a good workout!    It was also nice to see the sunshine, we have seen a lot of clouds the past few months.  But the forecast is for another 10cm of snow tomorrow!!

We have about a foot of ice…you can tell by how deeps the cracks are.

I was happy to see that a neighbor went for a ride on their snowmobile and made a great walking path for us around our bay, much easier than trudging through the snow.

Catch a Christmas Star

This is Raye’s second appliqué quilt that I quilted for her this year and the pattern is called Catch a Christmas Star by Bunny Hill Designs.  I took this picture a few weeks ago but things look different here now, we have a ton of snow and you can’t even see where my ice rink is!!  Good thing the boys do not have school today, they can help shovel the foot of snow that is one it!!  No they don’t have a Snow day, it just a regular planned day off.  My boys have always wished for a snow day but the school bus keeps making it to our house no matter how deep the snow is!

Raye appliquéd this quilt by hand with a buttonhole stitch and embroidered embellishments.

I had fun with all the different background fills and SID around all the appliqué.  I did my curls in the black inner border a bit different and paired the curls together with the first one being larger than added a slightly smaller one off of it. I really like how it turned out instead of making them evenly spaced all around.  Some times a subtle change can make a difference.

I used Dream Puff batting to give it extra loft and So Fine threads, probably had about 8 thread changes on this one.

I added loops and stars in the red border to go with the folksy feel the quilt has.

Christmas Appliqué Quilt

I'm so excited to finally be able to share this quilt with you and the timing is perfect as the quilt has a Christmas theme.   I quilted this for Raye back in March so we don't have this much snow yet.   Raye actually made two appliqué quilts this year that I quilted for her and each are gifts for her two daughter in-laws for their birthdays which was this month.  I'll share the second quilt in my next post.


The quilt is called Celebrate the Season and was a series of 9 individual patterns by The City Stitcher - Designs by Janet Miller.  Raye did all the appliqué by hand with a blanket/buttonhole stitch and still had a few embellishments to add on the snowman and gingerbread men after I was done quilting it.


I had fun quilting swirls in the borders, different background fills in the blocks and did a bit of ruler work to make stars in the green squares.

I though this would be a fun quilt to show the before and after pictures as the quilting really did change the whole feel of this quilt.

Before...

After....

It's not a quilt until it is quilted!   :)

Seeing Stars

Today I’m participating in something new to me…..

The Quilting Gallery blog hosts a Weekly Quilt Contest and this weeks theme is Stars.   I have never entered a quilt before but thought I would participate this week as I had a few quilts that qualified. I ended up picking my 2011 Mystery quilt that I made for my son.  You can see my original post for this quilt here.  If you want to check it out all the other quilts and vote for your favourite just click on the icon below.

Batik Log Cabin

 

This is Sandra’s Batik Log Cabin quilt and the only request she had was there be feathers in the light fabrics. I was happy to oblige!   I added straight lines in the green half of the blocks to highlight the diamond shape layout of the quilt.   I didn’t realize just how many stop and starts doing the diagonal lines would take but it was worth the effort as I love the combination of feathers and lines.

  I used Quilter’s Dream Cotton Deluxe batting and So Fine thread.

This was my last client quilt for November so I’ve finished my all my quilting commitments for the year early!   I hope you don’t think I’m bragging… oh who am I kidding of coarse I’m bragging. “Woo Hoo I’m done for the year!!!!”   :)     I’m really happy to have the next month to work on my own projects.  I already have some snow dyeing on the go and in the process of melting,  made 5 sets of microwaveable fabric bowls this week and I even had my serger out today to work on more xmas gifts.  Now what other trouble can I get into……

Blog Featured in…

I had a nice surprise last week, I was contacted by Machine Quilting Unlimited blog editor Alycia to see if she could feature my blog on their blog!  Wow, they want to feature my little blog, of coarse!  You can see the blog post here.   If you have never heard of the Machine Quilting Unlimited it is one of the best quilting magazines out there and one of only two quilting magazines I have ever subscribed too.

I can’t have a blog post without a few quilt pictures so here is a table runner I pieced last night.  Tim is out of town for a week so I’m sure I’ll have a few more late night piecing sessions.  I used half a charm pack of Cuzco fabric and used all the darker fabrics for this runner. I’ll made a second runner with the lighter fabrics. The pattern is Scrappy Stars found in the Little Charmers II by Heather Mulder Peterson


I am planning on taking December off again so I am working on my last client quilt for the year!  I still have a few more client quilts to share with you then I can start boring you with my personal projects and my usually December rambling.  :)

Arabella Quilt

 

This is Robin’s Arabella qult and you can find this pattern free to download here.

I was excited to try a new panto called Sweet Pea by Urban Elementz.   The fabrics in this quilt have a leaf theme so I knew I wanted to quilt it with a leaf design, also I knew Robin likes leaves!    It was a bit tricky to quilt out as I had to focus really hard in remembering which side of the curls I was quilting so I didn’t follow the same line back out of the curl.   But after a few rows I found my groove.

The backing was a dark brown paisley design.

There is now about 8” of inch of ice so very safe to walk on.  As Tim and I were shovelling off the rink the ice was talking to us with soft cracking and popping sounds. I think a normal person would probably run for shore but when your use to hearing the loud echoing sounds of the ice cracking at night,even when your in the house, you become use to this sound!   The sound is just expansion as the lake builds ice.  

But when I’m standing out there and hear the cracking sounds under my feet it definitely gives me a bit of an adrenaline rush ….so I just shovel faster.    ;)

Curve It Up – Rail Fence Block

I finished my next block in the “Curve It Up” quilt along being hosted by Jenny and Helen.  You can find the instructions for this block here.   I am using a lot of my hand dyed fabrics on this project and throwing in one commercial batik in each block  to make it interesting.

We had a nice snow fall Friday night so on Saturday Tim and I went for a walk in the bush.   Last year we discovered an old trail near our house and we plan to make this a regular walk to get us out of the house in the winter.  The more snow we get the more beautiful the trail will become as it is sheltered from the wind and the snow will continue to build up on the spruce trees. I’m still kicking myself for not bringing my camera last year so this year I hope to capture that winter wonderland later in the season.   Here is what it looks like right now.

The path widen and narrows and there are a lot of large tree laying across the trail so you can’t take a snowmobile down it.