May's Small Quilt

I finished this month's Small Quilt.

I tried using different fabrics for the pieces like the pattern-

from "Civil War Sewing Circle" by Kathleen Tracy

but I don't think I had enough strongly contrasting colours.

I thought mine looked chaotic. I didn't add borders because I thought that would "soothe" it, and I wanted to just keep the chaotic look.

I machine quilted continuous curves in the stars.

I like how the half square triangles that weren't quilted pop out.
I used silk batting and quilted it with Bottom Line thread - a 60Wt polyester thread. It is 12" square.

I pinned a ribbon on the back and hung it on an old rake with the EQ BOM quilt.

These small quilts are so much fun to make - thanks Kathy (A Sentimental Quilter).

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!❤

May's Free Motion Quilting Challenge

I finished this month's Free-Motion Quilting Challenge from SewCalGal. This is Leah Day's design.

The design started with a foundation meander (it is on an 8" square).

The first part of the design was a wiggly meander over the foundation line,

and the second part of the design was made of straight lines over the foundation lines - a railroad design.

 I really like how both these designs turned out.
Thank-you so much to SewCalGal and Leah Day!

This is last months FMQC design from Don Linn,

and I finally got around to adding some more detail to it.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!❤

Double Wedding Ring Quilt

I finished the Double Wedding Ring Quilt (made with the GO! - all the instructions are here).

It is a wedding gift for my niece (the wedding is next Saturday and we gave her the quilt this evening).
The quilt is 62" x 73".

I free motion quilted it on my home sewing machine.

I did continuous curves for all the ring pieces, with a heart design in the 4-patches.

The centre of the melons have a open heart feather design.

I started by  marking a centre line using a Hera marker.

There are feathered wreathes for the centres of the rings.

These started with marking a circle using the pointy end of the Hera marker (tracing the centre of the masking tape).

 First I quilted the circle.

I added the outside loops using the "bump, bump" feather method. I marked the centre for the inside loops using the end of the Aurifil thread (just had to press and twist it to leave a slight mark).

Then I filled in the centre with the mark as a rough guide.

I used Aurifil #50 thread for the quilting, with wool batting and a #80 Microtex needle. I used wide back flannel for the backing since it is a lap quilt.

I made the bias binding following this method, and a 30" square of fabric cut about 2+1/4" (I had lots left over and could have cut it 2+1/2" wide).

 I enjoyed making this quilt so much that I bought fabric for another one -

French General -  Rouenneries Deux.

It will have this layout (made using EQ7) - with red circles and grey/beige circles, and be a larger bed quilt.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!❤

MCC Quilt Show

Today I had the opportunity to volunteer at a quilt show. It was a great way to spend the morning. I worked with a lovely lady, and since we worked at the door, talked to all kinds of people.

I quickly took a few pictures before the day got started (sorry they aren't the best, I only had a few minutes. I went back after volunteering to have a better look at the quilts).

Once again, since these are not my work, please do not pin them!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!❤

Sewing Room Clean Up

I am so pleased to have finished quilting the Double Wedding Ring quilt.

It came out better than I expected and I just have to finish hand sewing the binding to the back (I will show the finished results when it is all finished).

I machine quilted 3 quilts in the past two weeks and so today was the day to clean and put my sewing room back in order (I have a set up that involves an old countertop cut to fit my machine for quilting large quilts).
I waited for a sale of free shipping to buy batting, but didn't enjoy having quilt tops waiting for quilting and then quilting three at once (Hamels is having another free shipping week - until May 30th for Canadian and US orders, so I will order some batting in advance for some projects I have lined up).

I cleaned my sewing machine and wanted to pass on a wonderful tip I recently read about on the internet (sorry can't remember where) - they suggested using a pipe cleaner for the hard to reach areas of the sewing machine. It works wonderfully and got into all kinds of spots I have never been able to clean.

Some one recently asked to see some close up pictures of my sewing area (click on the pictures to make them bigger), so here goes -

I have lots of old kitchen things on the wall. The collection started with a few things that we found in the first house we bought and then people started giving me things. Most of them come from my aunt (from my grandmother's house - my mother remembers using the cake tins on the left, the rolling pin was also my grandmother's). The printers drawers on the right hold thread (my degree hangs under them  - it was either here or the laundry room!). I am lucky to have a big, old (heavy) drafting table as my cutting table.

This sampler (about 10" x 15") was made by my grandmother (Gracia Bergeron 1893-1976) when she was young, in boarding school (St Grégoire, Quebec), around 1910.

Incredibly tiny quilting stitches, buttonholes,

mending stitches,

and patching along with the embroidery.

This picture is of my grandmother on the left when she was a teenager, along with her sister and their mother (also about 1910).

The clothes on the wall are also from my grandmother.

The christening gown and cape are on the right.

The gown is so tiny. I don't know how old it is, but my grandmother's first child was born in 1918. The silk ribbon is all fractured on the gown.

My aunt gave me this mohair coat and hat to make teddy bears, but I couldn't cut it up.

This picture shows my grandmother holding one of my aunts wearing the coat and hat, about 1929, along with my grandfather and some of my mother's oldest siblings, plus a cousin. My mother is the youngest of 11 (9 survived to adulthood), her father died a few months before she was born.

Tomorrow I am volunteering at a quilt show - always very enjoyable!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!❤