Seasons of Migration Quilt

I have been free motion quilting my mother's Seasons of Migration Quilt.

It is a lap sized quilt. She bought the kit from KickAss Country Store at the last Winnipeg Quilt Show. They no longer list the kit on their website but they have the pattern, and the beautiful Moda fabric.

My mother did a beautiful job piecing it, and the applique is fused, with a machine blanket stitch to secure it.
I am adding my version of "Mctavishing" (Joanning ...?) to the lightest sections. I also added veins to the appliqued leaves.

I free motion quilted over the panels in a dark brown thread. I am using Invisafil (a 100wt polyester thread by Wonderfil), and a #70 Microtex needle. I love the way the thread disappears into the fabric.


I am also adding some feathers in the dark sections of the log cabin corner blocks.
I will also free motion quilt the borders on this quilt.
My mother glue basted the layers of the quilt and stitched in the ditch to hold it together. She will also do some free motion quilting (she is learning) - she is going to do the triangles with a curved line as recommended by Diane Gaudynski.

My focus this week is to finish my portion of the free motion quilting on this quilt. My mother wants to show it in the quilt show her quilting group (in Victoria Beach) is having on June 19th.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!! ♥

Show and Tell

Yesterday I went to my parents cottage (1½ hours north of where we live), to help my mother with free motion quilting her lap quilt that she recently finished.

I started sewing it on her machine, but I have brought the quilt home to work on now. I am trying out some Mctavishing. I will show more of this quilt over the next few days. It is great to have a chance to practice more free motion quilting!

While I was at my parents I took some photos of the cross-stitched pictures that my father has made. He took up cross-stitching when he retired about 17 years ago, and he does the most precise work! (Click on the pictures to enlarge)

This one is variegated silk thread on linen

This is what he is currently working on. The Aida will be completely covered when it is finished.

I also took a picture of a crazy quilt that I made for their 35th wedding anniversary - almost 16 years ago.

It poured all day and when we came home, there was flooding everywhere.

The field in the distance is still flooded today,

but at least the sun was shining and the wind will help dry things up.

Have a great day and thanks for dropping by!! ♥

MCC Quilt Show

I had the chance to volunteer at a quilt show yesterday. I met some wonderful ladies and had a great time. The show was excellent, here are a few photos.








This one is a word quilt by Brenda from Scraps and Strings. She also entered this quilt in the Bloggers Quilt Festival.

This one is by a friend of mine. It is called the Gift that Keeps on Giving. Her sister gave her 40 small paper pieced squares for her 40th birthday and this is something she made with them. Stunning!!

Over at Country Log Cabin, she has great pictures of a quilt show that she went to in Arlington at the beginning of May.

Thanks for dropping by and have a great day!! ♥

Catching Up!

Nothing really new going on. I have been doing all kinds of things lately, but now I finally have some time to catch up on blogging!! It is pouring rain outside.

My vegetable garden is already flooded and they forecast more rain and cool temperatures for the next few days!! But at least it will give me time for blogging and sewing!


I am still working on the free motion quilting challenge. I tried a feathered wreath - I think I might need to trace one out next time - this one is very uneven.

I wanted to mention when I painted the quilted postcard, I used these wonderful water colour pencil crayons (my oldest child gave them to me last Christmas). I don't know if they are permanent on fabric, I figured I wasn't going to wash a little postcard. I think to make it permanent I would have to use a textile medium instead of water.

I joined the Process Pledge, and we are supposed to talk more about what is involved in the things we create, so I will do my best!

I discovered this beautiful Robin's nest in my backyard. It is in a pine tree, pretty close to the ground, so we will be able to keep an eye on it without a ladder this time! We don't have cats in our area this year which is great news for this nest, but we are currently over run with voles!! I also found a vole nest with 5 hairless babies - didn't take a picture!

I was helping my sister-in-law paint her new condo and saw lots of baby geese yesterday.

Lastly! There is a great giveaway going on over at By Hoki Quilts, of a beautiful jelly roll and charm pack. There are celebrating the quilt store turning two on June 2nd. The giveaway will be June 3rd. Good luck!

It is absolutely pouring outside (the ditch is full of water) and the house is shaking will all the thunder!!! But my recycling box is in the middle of the street so I guess I will have to put on a raincoat and go get it!!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!! ♥

Free Motion Quilting

I have been FMQ this little postcard that I painted.



This postcard was inspired by the Quilt Rat's postcards. I have to figure out what to do on the edge. It is only 4" x 6", I tried a zig-zag stitch on the edge, but it didn't really work, and it seems too small to use regular binding - maybe I'll try bias binding.

Back in February I won a OWOH contest, and the prize of scrap booking supplies came today all the way from South Africa!


Cariena has a store and a great blog where she shows what she creates.
I am looking forward to trying new things!! Thanks Cariena!

I have been doing a lot of work outside - all the big jobs were finished this week-end!

Beds made bigger and perennials moved.


All the seeds planted.
We had a big rain last night and I think I can hear the seeds germinating!


Just the seedlings left to transplant, but that will wait another week or so, to make sure there is no more chance of frost. I am sure they would be fine now, the weather is great, but I have been growing those little plants for a few months, and don't want to lose them now.

Have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by!! ♥

Blogger Quilt Festival

I have been visiting blogs on the Blogger Quilt Festival, and decided to join in all the fun!





The quilt I chose to show is one that I finished in 2005. It is the first large (95"x95") quilt that I made, and it is hand quilted.

These kinds of quilts are often called "Orphaned Block" quilts, but I just made blocks that I liked and wanted to try. I made the blocks over about three years, out of scraps and fabric I bought for this quilt. I actually painted my bedroom red in anticipation of this quilt, but it never made it into that bedroom!!

I finished it when we moved to Alberta. We moved in the middle of winter (and to the middle of nowhere, where we knew no one!), so this was a wonderful project to keep me busy as we settled in. It also kept me warm when I was quilting it! I finished it within the first few months of moving.

I was originally stumped by how to but all the blocks together, but once I laid all the blocks out it sort of came together. It has been a very useful quilt, as I have made a couple of quilts from blocks that I really liked trying out.

My children's appliqued hand prints were the last blocks that I made for the quilt. I chose points with spaces for the border, the ones with three points remind me of dress making patterns (my mother made all out clothes growing up and it reminds me of her).

I have made several large quilts since this one, but this is still my favorite - I love the eclectic mix of it! And I still have one red wall in my bedroom - even after two moves!!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you get a chance to see all the wonderful quilts on display! ♥

Sew-In Results

Worked on more hexagons during the Friday Night Sew-In yesterday.


They are coming along slowly!

All together -


I am still doing some FMQ everyday. I saw a beautiful quilt at Feather on a Wire. It is called Greek Fossils, and is such a great example of FMQ and how different coloured threads make a great effect. It is made by Ferret. She is a long arm quilter, and on her blog she even shows a leather quilt!

American Goldfinches and a Robin -


It is so beautiful outside - that is where I have been spending my time!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!! ♥

Hexagons

I have been making hexagons.

I have a long way to go, but I wanted to see which layout I prefer. Off set with contrasting triangles (scraps of white just to see), or

all together (harder to see the individual hexagons).

I worked on some free motion quilting, but it looks the same everyday - hard to see with the fabric I used for the sample sandwich - no point showing it.

The weather has turned nice - almost 30° C - and I have been working outside this week. Not much time for sewing or sitting at the computer. We don't have a very long summer, I have to take advantage of the nice weather!

My plants waiting to be planted - for a couple more weeks just to be safe - we still could get frost!

A beautiful evening!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!! ♥

FMQC and a Finish

I finished the fruit table runner.


This is the back before I stitched down the binding - you can see the free motion quilting better. Finishing the border was yesterdays FMQ challenge.


This is today's - hard to see - it is leftover backing and batting from the table runner.

I bought the fruit fabric last year while on vacation in Oregon, because it goes with my dishes (Evesham by RW). Here it is on my dining room table. I just have to make a complimentary runner for the buffet with the leftover fabric - still haven't decided what to make.

If you are thinking of joining the Free Motion Quilting Challenge - you still have time - just let Wendy or I know.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!! ♥