Blooming Rings Quilt

This is Lori's amazing Double Wedding Ring quilt.  The pattern templates she used where from a pattern called Blooming Rings by Julie Taylor and can be found in the February 2021, issue 69, of Today's Quilter magazine.  Lori used much softer neutral colours for her quilt.

She made this quilt for her son and his fiancée for their up coming wedding this year. What a fabulous gift!  

I did light custom quilting and used my curved rulers to SID around all the rings.  I then free handed a pedal/leaf motif in the centers to evenly fill the space.  

I quilted it with white So Fine thread and Lori brought 100% cotton batting.

 

Embroidery Kits!

Oh boy!  I have a new addiction... embroidery kits!   I got a few cross stitch kits for Christmas and really enjoyed my evening time stitching as I use to cross stitch a lot before I started quilting years ago.

Well I then went down the rabbit hole and started searching embroidery on Instagram!  So many amazing kits and projects are now available.  And one of my favorite quilt shops, Fabriculous, starting carrying a few lines of embroidery kits in her shop so I picked up a three kits from there to give it a try.    

This little hedgehog was my latest finished and I was sure it was going to mess it up as I have never stitched single floss threads to make fur before! He turned out so sweet! 

The kits is by Jessica Long Embroidery and the 6" hoop that comes with it is great quality!

The kit I tried before the Hedgehogs was called Summer Birds, also by Jessica Long Embroidery 

The kits has the hummingbirds stitched in blue but I changed the colour to match the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds I get at our feeder in the summer. It is also in a 6" hoop.

Before that one I tried a kit from Kiriki called Star map and it was mostly backstitching on preprinted cotton fabric so that was a good transition project from being use to stitching on aida/linen to switching over to a tighter weave cotton fabric. Great quality 11" hoop in this kit too. 

And the two Cross Stitch kits I got for Christmas ( purchased at Keystone Modern Creative)  where both kits by Diana Watters. The first one is called Alpine Flowers and the second one is Twilight Garden.

Now I need to start shopping again for more projects as I whipped through all these in the last month.  I am still quite busy with my longarming, but its been so cold and windy I find my motivation to take quilt pictures is really low right now. But I hope once things warm up a bit I'll get back to my normal quilt posts.   

Granny Square Quilt

Kerri made this fun Granny Square quilt using a wonderful array of rainbow colours. She fussy cut an image from the fabrics for the center square in all the blocks.

I quilted it with the Popcorn pantograph, used white So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.

The backing is a sweet 'Robin in the Hood' flannel fabric by Michael Miller Fabrics.

Lily's Garden Quilt

Bev made this sweet quilt called Lily's Garden, pattern by Patrick Lose. Fabrics are also called Lily's Garden by Patrick Lose for RJR Fabrics.  She chose Ginger Snap for the pantograph and pink So Fine thread.  Batting is Quilters Dream Blend. 

Bev brought a lovely red flannel fabric for the backing that shows off the quilting. 

 

Atomic Starburst Quilt

Gail made this fun Atomic Starburst baby quilt, pattern by Violet Craft.  She used Tula Pink's Lineworks fabric and fussy cut the images in the diamonds. 

I quilted it with the Windswept pantograph, used charcoal So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.

The backing is a sweet Dear Stella fabric with panda bears. I used a lighter grey Magna-glide thread on the back.

Freezing Bubbles

When the weather turns really cold that's when it is fun to do some cold weather experiments.  One activity our family likes to do is freeze soap bubbles.  Up until this year I have only been able to get pictures of this while the bubble is still on the straw but I was determined to get the bubble in a more picturesque location.  Took about 40 tries but I final got a bubble to let go of the straw without popping!   It was -25'c outside with very little wind.

Here are the videos of the only two bubbles that didn't pop sitting on the snow covered post!

This first video took off on Instagram with over 104,000 views!  Crazy! Funny thing was so many people kept tagging friends in cold climates to get them to try it to see if it was real!  And no one asked for my special bubble formula! You can't use kiddie bubble solution for this experiment.  So I thought I would share that here for my blog followers.

Soap Bubble Recipe

200ml warm water

35ml dish soap ( I used blue Dawn)

35ml corn syrup ( I used the clear corn syrup)

30ml white sugar

Stir until all the sugars are dissolved. 

Place in fridge to cool liquid mixture, once cooled then your ready to head out into the cold to start blowing bubbles. You can use a straw or a bubble wand.  We made a large wand with a 6" diameter circle.  You can see in this next video how the bubble looks when it breaks. Its like tissue paper tearing.

I am back to quilting again...just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit before I try to take pictures outside!

 

Looking Back at 2021

At the end of every year I like to look back and review what I made for myself over the year.  Not a lot of quilting of personal projects this year as I spent more time with a camera in my hand. No trips or quilt retreats so I had to find joy in my own backyard, and surrounding area, and the wildlife and birds were a great distraction during this phase of the pandemic.  The hummingbirds provided a lot of entertainment, so did the swans, eagles, herons, loons, turtles, otters, insects, butterflies, deer, foxes, horses and of course the porcupine pictured above.  

I did make a few projects for myself this year so here they are.

The Ruby Waxed Canvas Tote using Kismet fabric.  Pattern is by Fabriculous. 

I love Moda's Cider collection and made a Quarter Sections using a Fat Quarter Bundle.

I had purchased a Moda Stiletto Jelly Roll and added a light Grunge to make this Washboard Road quilt.  This quilt now has a permanent spot on our couch.

I have been sitting on a Fat Quarter Bundle of Kate & Birdies True North and make a Home Quarter  quilt with it.  Added some red Grunge fat quarters and used it for the border as well.

And the last quilt finished was a Lug Nuts quilt for my friend Wendy.  Seems I was just making our own Highway 10 Design patterns a lot this year. LOL! Didn't get to many quilt shops this year for inspiration so hope to be able to do that again in the new year! 

Now that winter is here I try to find more creative ways to take pictures at night since it is dark by 4:30!  I have been watching videos on Light Painting and had some fun trying it.  I used three mini puck lights, added magnets and attached to a metal bar. Set the lights on multi colours and started swinging the bar around and taking 5 sec exposures. Here are the results.

My attempt at drawing a xmas tree...

...and a heart.

I then put one of the mini lights into a white grocery bag and got this effect.

And I totally planned for that to look like a bird! ;)

This one looks like a created a Portal into another dimension... 

...looks like it did! ;)

Thanks for visiting my blog over the years.  My blog has always been a photographic journal of my longarm business, my quilts and my nature photos.  Its a fun place for me to share and connect with other quilters, thank you for visiting!

Took this photo yesterday of the Sundogs and iridescent cloud when it was -25'c out!

Happy New Year!

A Swap and A Round Robin

 Last day of the year and I'm trying to catch up on my blog posts.  Back in July I shared a post about the Queen Bee block swap I as in and showed the blocks I received.  I have the top together and put the butterfly blocks on an angle to give them more motion.  Its a small wall hanging as the blocks are only 5" square but not sure how I'm going to quilt it.

This year I was more involved in Swaps, Quilt Alongs and Round Robins than working on my own quilts!  They are a great way to stay connected with other quilters during this pandemic!

In September I started another Round Robin with Lori and our 

two friends in Australia (Desley and Monique).

Here were our first blocks from Round One. 

I started mine with the Mini Focus Freeway block, pattern by Sassafras Lane Designs.

Lori made this fun Geometric Sewing Machine block, pattern by Quiet Play.

Desley made this Star block with a twist to it!

And Monique made this great Lone Star block which she offset and chopped!!!

And here is our results from Round Two.

I received Lori block and the instructions for this round were to add 'Lines' with a very open interpretation.  So I added lines of flying geese to her block. 

Lori had my block and added the film strip effect to it!

Desley had Monique's block and added the chopped off pieces back on plus some diamonds and lines!

Monique had Desley's block and added inner borders and a star to one corner with wispy lines!

We are currently working on the 3rd round where the instruction is to add 'Curves'.  I'll share those results in February!