Lullaby Quarter Sections

This fall I taught a Beginner Class for our guild members and we made a baby sized Quarter Sections quilt.   I loaded my sample on the machine yesterday and feathered it up!   Swirly feathers in the center and simple feathers in the outer border.  I even had time to hand stitch the binding on last night too!  The fabric is Kate and Birdie’s Lullaby collection with is so pretty!   I used a peach So Fine Thread on top and a white Bottom Line thread on the back.  Quilters Dream Blend for the batting.

I also used a piece of this collection for the back too!  The border and binding is a Bella Solid.

As you can see I have been out on the lake, there is a good 4” to 6” of ice now but only an inch of snow on top so that makes it very easy to walk around.

Dresden Plates!

I have a new obsession thanks to my quilting friends!  Dresden Plates!  They are so addictive and fun to make, so consider yourself warned!   I recently purchased a fat quarter bundle of the JOL fabric, a Moda collection by Northern Quilter.  I fell in love with the red, grey, brown colour palette, and the snowflake and reindeer prints just called to me!  I wanted to make something special with the fabrics and Dresden's seemed to fit that well.  I figured I could make 20 blocks using the ten of the 12 fabrics in the bundle.  I removed the two white pieces as I knew I wanted the background to be white.

I used the Easy Dresden Ruler by Darlene Zimmerman.  I did a practice to test out the ruler and used 5” strips.  I had some scraps of Little Black Dress fabrics and the sample turned out great!

I liked how it went together and the final size using 5” strips so cut into my JOL fabric and started sewing. Each Dresden has two repeats of the same fabric as there are 10 fabrics and 20 blades.

Once all the Dresdens were put together I used the Blanket Stitch on my sewing machine to applique the Dresden to the 14 1/2” background square.  I decided to use white thread so you don’t see the travel stitch in the background and it looks hand appliqued.

I had just recently used brown Essex Linen on my wallet and had enough left over to use it in the center of the Dresden. The colour was perfect.  I hand appliqued the centres using the freezer paper method.

I have a few more to make and then I will sash it with more brown Essex Linen as I purchase more last week!

This time of year just after the lake freezes we commonly get large hoar frost crystals appear on the lake.  They grow very well on the areas of ice that I sweep off.  I was pleasantly surprised to find my ice rink covered in the crystals this morning.

It was –25’c this morning with a –33’c windchill.  The ice on the lake was cracking so loud last night, I really enjoy that sound, it means winter is here!  Oh and when I peeked out my window at 1am the northern lights were dancing across the sky!  I hope to get some pictures soon as they are suppose to be active all week.   But I’m not running outside at 1am in this cold!

Modern Black, White and Grey

This is my last client quilt for the year!  It belongs to Norma and she made it for her daughter who designed it, no pattern.  I have never quilted a quilt with folded pleated ( white area) but I was able to just lift up the edge of each pleat and stitch underneath. It was very thick to stitch through and I did have some thread breakage but I realized I just needed to go slow and then it was fine!

Since this is a very Modern quilt I thought I would try my hand at an Angela Walters design I have never tried.  It is called the Signature design in her book Shape By Shape Quilting.   Oh was it fun to quilt out, I love it!  I shared a picture of this on IG and Angela reposted it on her account, that was a wonderful surprised for this fangirl!   I only chalked out the basic shape and then echoed it on each side. I then did the curved design in the waves and finally the U-turns in the outer edge.   I did three repeats in the wider black fabrics strip and just one wavy design in the narrower black strip.

I used random wavy lines in the light grey fabrics and diagonal lines in the darker grey fabric for great contrast.  

So the ice is now strong enough to hold my weight near the shore so I cleared a small area for now.  It was –23’c this morning with a –35’c windchill.  It was a very quick photo shoot!

Ice Formations!

I really enjoy December as it is a month I do not book any quilts.   I have one more client quilt to share but haven’t taken pictures yet but hope to share that one soon.  The forecast is finally for sun but really cold temperatures!  I am working on a few of my own quilting project that I will share this month as well as any cool nature shots I get now that winter is here!

On Sunday Tim took me for a drive so I could take pictures and we stopped a the creek we usually watch the suckers run in the spring.  The water levels in the area have dropped considerably in the last week or two and one result of that is these very cool ice formations!  They look like Chandlers hanging off this tree.

This last one looks more like  a hat!   The water level in this creek must have really dropped quickly to have these form.

It is amazing what you can find if you take the time to explore the world around you!

Quarter Section–Oh Canada

This is Eileen’s Quarter Sections quilt and she used the Stonehenge Oh Canada fabric collection.    This is one of my favorite versions of this pattern and I made one without borders which I shared here.   Now I’m regretting not adding a border as Eileen's looks great with them!

I used the Maple Syrup pantograph, beige So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.  Eileen brought a red Stonehenge wide backing.

So this has been a very strange fall!  Usually by now the lakes been frozen over for a few weeks and I’m out there shovelling a rink to lay my quilts on.  The lake did start to ice over two weeks ago and then that all melted.  There was no ice around the dock yesterday and this morning about half our bay is frozen.  I really hope it stays this time as I can hardly wait to start walking out on the lake again.

Old Blue and the Necessary Clutch Wallet

Earlier this week I went to visit a few friends for a couple of days of sewing.  Nothing like hanging out and sewing with great friends in a quilt shop on the days it is closed!   Wendy’s shop Fabriculous is closed on Sunday and Mondays so those were the perfect days to visit.  I insisted she work on something that was not on her ‘to do’ list for the shop but make something that she would really have fun with.   She picked a pattern by Fibreworks called Old Blue and we had fun running around her shop picking fabrics.  I helped her piece the back and cut out the blue truck on the first day.  The second day she had a blast adding all the flowers to the truck. It was so much fun watching her enjoy having a shop and getting to use all those fabrics she loves.  She even named it ‘Road Trip” and added the letters to the quilt. Wendy will be kitting this pattern soon if you are interested!   While she was doing that I got started oh my Necessary Clutch Wallet, which is a pattern by Emmaline Bags.  I chose a Tim Holtz fabric for the flap ( and fussy cut so I could get the work Highway in the middle), a brown Essex Linen for the body of the wallet and for the inside I pick two beige star print fabrics.

Lori got to work on a new Highway 10 Designs sample for Wendy’s shop now that she brought in 250+ bolts of batiks ( at $12.98/m).  We picked some beautiful blues and a soft yellow for this Not Your Mother’s Rain Fence quilt which only took Lori the afternoon to piece!

Now I’m back to work and been very busy finishing my November quilting list. Only have one more quilt to go before I take December off.  I haven’t been able to take pictures of all the quilts that I have worked on this month so I do apologies to my clients for that.   Just too busy trying to get them done and the weather has not been cooperating either. It has been unseasonably warm, the lake ice that started to form is melting and we have been getting a lot of freezing rain!  The yard it too wet to take quilt pictures, I really hope we get more normal temperatures soon or even just some sunshine.

Fancy Fox #3

This is Sheri’s Fancy Fox quilt and the pattern is by Elizabeth Hartman.   Sheri asked for wood grain quilting which is always fun to do!  I’m pretty sure this was a kit from Fabriculous as the fabrics are exactly the same as the one that my client Heather made last year.  You can see that one here.   I love the addition of the glasses on this quilts.

She used a beautiful blue cotton backing!   I used grey So Fine thread on top, a blue Bottom Line on the back, and Quilters Dream Blend batting.

You may have noticed the ice is starting to form on the lake!  It was –14’c last night and it looks like we will stay below freezing from now on.  Just a dusting of snow on the ground so I’m hoping that stays away for a few more days while the lake freezes.

Chris Cross Quilt

Now before you tell me I spelled ‘Chris Cross’ wrong that is how they spell the name of the pattern, it is named after the designer!   This is Michele’s quilt and the pattern is from a free YouTube tutorial that you can find here.   I think the fabrics are Kansas Troubles and Michele requested the Maple Syrup pantograph.

I used a medium green So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.

You can see the lake is still open but we won’t have too many more days like this as the lake should freeze soon!

Christmas Hunters Star Quilt

Here is our guilds second Rapid Fire Hunters Star quilt and will be a One Day Raffle fundraiser at the Cranberry Portage Christmas Craft Sale on Nov 26.  Last week we raffled our Red and White Hunters Star at another local Christmas Craft Sale and sold about 350 ticket in 6 hours for $2 each.  If your quilting group is in need of a good fundraiser I would highly recommend this type of raffle.  When people hear it is ‘drawn today’ they are more likely to buy tickets.

I used Holly Berries for the pantograph, white So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.