Blessings

I finished the little "Blessings" quilt from the Temecula Quilt Co.

It is 16" square. They have updated the pattern, I cut out the setting triangles before they made the corrections, and had to recut them - I just guessed at 1" bigger on the measurements and it came out fine. I am glad that I had enough fabric.
It was such a fun quilt to make - I love basket blocks and the setting is a style I had never made before.

I hung it in my "mini quilt room" (aka the laundry room) with some other 16" squares. I had the third old wooden dry cleaning hanger waiting in there, and was so pleased that this quilt was the right size.

Now you can see why it is called the mini quilt room (although there are some big ones in there too).

I only have a few wall hangings in the rest of my house, so I go wild with them in this room.

Little quilts are such a nice way to try different patterns and quilting designs. There are still some blank spaces in there!
Julie (Me and My Stitches) has a great way to display quilts in her sewing room - the picture is on this post. I could squeeze more quilts in if I hung them that way....

My Mother made this bed runner (you can imagine my children's faces when I told them what this was, and how I didn't have one when I was making them guess what it was). The blocks are 12" square, so it is over 6 feet long. She paper/foundation pieced the blocks - you don't sew on the paper (she taught me how and I showed it here).

She asked me to quilt the border for her. I chose a feather design from Carla Barrett (Feathered Fibers) that I had never tried before.

The design is shown here. It was really fun to stitch. I tried the "bump, bump" way of stitching the feathers which I don't do often, but I am starting to like it more and more.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Igolochkoy

It is Spring Break for my youngest son and we spent a couple of days in the States at the beginning of the week. Fargo, ND, is an easy three hour drive south of here. My favourite store is there - Nordic Needle.

I, of course, indulged in my obsession with thread! All the beautiful colours and textures are so appealing - my blog is appropriately named by my oldest son.

I finally tried Igolochkoy (ee-gó-luch-koy) - Russian Punchneedle Embroidery with some of my new threads when I got home (I have had the tools and book for a while).

The work is done from the back with the little punchneedle tool, I used 3 strands of embroidery floss (these ones are overdyed) for this piece. The fabric is held drum tight in the hoop. The penny is just for scale.

The pattern for this is from the book "Miniature Punchneedle Embroidery" by Linda Repasky.

Instead of making it into a pin like the one in the book, I glued it to an old magnet (lightly sanded first), and trimmed around it.

I then glued a twisted cord around the piece.

I seem to have been making lots of twisted cord recently. I make twisted cord using a bent nail in the drill instead of a drill bit. I place the other end of the thread around a pencil that I put in a drawer in my craft table. Super simple and no fancy tools required!

The above picture is actually my first attempt at punchneedle - I quickly learned why you are not supposed to use 100% cotton fabric, when I reached the middle all the the fabric gave way - there is a large hole in the centre. I then tried it with polyester/cotton fabric, it was much easier and no hole! Weavers Cloth (a polyester/cotton fabric) is recommended, but I couldn't find any.

These pillows are made using a very similar technique, only with a larger punchneedle tool and wool, on velvet. The tops of the loops are cut off, and each section is trimmed for a 3-D effect. I made these about 30 years ago (yikes - I must have been a baby!). The flower one was started by my grandmother, the other pattern was hers also.

When I was at Nordic Needle I decided to buy these two Romanian Point Lace books - I thought it was about time I had actual books on the subject.
Since I posted my RPL tutorial  (2 years ago this summer), it has remained the most viewed thing on my blog - far outnumbering everything else on a daily basis. I am amazed since I consider this a "quilting blog".

Speaking of quilting - the pattern for the fifth Temecula Quilt Co block of the week - Blessings - came out  today. Tomorrow we will get the finishing instructions.

I didn't buy any fabric while I was in the States - I did go to some quilt stores, just didn't find anything - I guess I really don't need any more fabric, and there is a large quilt show coming up in Winnipeg next month which I am really looking forward to.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Fourth Blessing Block

Today I made this little 4" block from the Temecula Quilt Co.

It is the fourth block of their "Blessings" quilt along.

I also finally assembled these Easter Egg ornaments. I cross stitched them a few years ago and just never got around to cutting out layers of cardboard and putting them all together.

They were so easy to finish, I don't know why I waited so long! They are 4+1/2" tall.
The "Dresden Plates" behind are on an old clock that belonged to my great grandparents in Nova Scotia.

Here are a couple of things I forgot to show you -

I added some ribbons and bows to the tin cup and lace pincushion, so it is all finished and being used.

Plus, this is a little wall hanging that my mother made for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, using fabric that Wendy (Inky Threads) gave me. My Mom used her new Rose of Sharon die for the GO! cutter.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Fabric Bowl and Blessings

I finished the fabric bowl today!

It is about 13" across, and I used 50' of cotton cord, plus 26 WOF fabric strips (cut to 1"). I used  a regular machine needle ( #80 Universal) and sewed slowly so the stitches wouldn't skip. It was quite easy to sew. The longest part of making the bowl was wrapping the fabric around the cord

Tips (or things I should have done differently!) -
- I shouldn't have made such a big bowl. I should have started the side(s) sooner because it takes a few rows for the side(s) to take shape.
- I shouldn't have added handles for my first bowl. It was hard to get them the same size and directly across from each other. Plus I should have only added two rows for the handles (I wanted to use all the cord) because the last two rows changed the shape of the bowl, and the handles stick out to the side instead of sticking up.

I thought it would make a nice basket to hold projects for my sewing room.

It was lots of fun to make and I will definitely try it again - smaller, maybe a couple of different fabrics and no handles!

This is last week's Blessing block from the Temecula Quilt Co.

All three 4" blocks so far - two more to go I think.

It didn't get as warm as they originally thought it would, but lots more snow melted today, so still wonderful.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥


Has anyone else noticed that the "little pencil" used for editing posts and pages, and the "crossed wrenches" for editing things on the side bar, are missing on their blogs when they are signed in?

Bits and Pieces

First - Thanks so much to everyone who left such kind comments on the Granny's Hankie finished quilt post! Bloggers are the best!♥

This block is my first block of the new Temecula Quilt Co quilt along for the month of March - "Blessings".
It is going to be a block a week (every Thursday) for the month. Four 4" blocks and a finished little quilt that is about 18" square. The last one (Twelve Days of Christmas) was so much fun that I had to join in this one. 
The pattern calls for two 1-1/2" light squares, but it really needs 3 (two for the four-patch and one for the top). edit - they have updated the pattern now

There are a few of us making Hop To It blocks, and for March I have chosen block #3 Rose of Sharon Wreath.

This lovely package came this week, all the way from the other side of the world! I won a fat quarter from Christine (Once Upon a Quilt) - lucky for me it is red, my favourite colour. Thanks Christine!

Christine has also had some really interesting posts on Pinterest recently, that are well worth reading. Another friend also sent me this link about Pinterest (thanks Joanne!). Pinterest definitely lives in a grey legal area, certainly doesn't seem ethical. I added the small bit of HTML code to my blog that changes it so that pictures can't be pinned on Pinterest, but my son pointed out that people would still lift pictures and now they wouldn't be linked to my blog, so I removed the code.  I have had someone take my pictures and use them as their own, and that is much worse than people taking pictures because they are inspired by them. What to do?!
I added a Link With Love button to my blog - makes more sense to me. Thanks Pamela (The Long Way Around) for the link.

I haven't been spending time on Pinterest, but have found other ways to waste time on the internet -
Ellen's "Clumsy Thumbsy" on You Tube
and More Autocorrects
plus Awkward Family Photos

This new little flock of partridges seems to have the right attitude - one always looks out for the other.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥