Done, Done, Done!!

I finished off my last PhD Challenge with a day to spare! This is probably one of my quilts that I am most thrilled to have finished.

This Bear Paw quilt is 87" square. I used Warm and Natural batting for it and it is all hand quilted. I bought (on sale) 5 meters each of the two fabrics for the top and binding, and I had a little left over.
I started it in January 2007 when we lived in Alberta and my husband had moved back to Manitoba (I stayed behind so the boys could finish the school year) and I felt I needed something to occupy my time.
It is hand quilted because at the time I wasn't doing much machine quilting. It is my fourth large quilt that I have hand quilted (although I did start and finish another hand quilted quilt in 2007 and it has been on my bed ever since), but this one is my last! Machine quilting seems to offer more possibilities for me than hand quilting.
I don't want to think about how many hours of quilting it took - at times it seemed to go on for ever.

The back of the quilt,

and the border - I used a stencil. This took so long to quilt and you can't even see it from the front.

I quilted bears around the edge, and I chose circles to quilt all over it because I thought they contrasted well with all the points.

The instructions for the Bear Paw blocks and the bear design are all from this wonderful Eleanor Burns book.

Thanks Myra for hosting the PhD Challenge - I know I would never have finished this quilt without some incentive.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Finished Hand Quilting

I finally finished hand quilting the Bear Paw Quilt!!!!


I spent yesterday at a mini retreat with Myra and Corina (among others), and even though we did lots of chatting, I managed to do a lot of quilting. What a great way to spend the day! Now I just have to finish the binding - should manage to get it all done before the end of the PhD Challenge on Thursday.

I tried quilt pounce for the borders of the BP quilt and it worked really well, much quicker than marking all the individual lines of the stencil, and the design did not wear off as easily as plain chalk. Joan recommended it to me. The one I tried was an "iron out" one, and I found it helped to spray it with a bit of water before ironing, otherwise it took so long to iron out.

Next are a few pictures of the flowers in my garden -

The last two flowers (peony and iris) are perennials that were here when we moved in 4 years ago and this is the first year that they have bloomed - lovely to finally see what colours they are.

We have also been bike riding again - summer time is the best!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Under Pressure!

I have been hand quilting like a woman possessed this week, neglecting all my chores!

I am still quilting the never ending Bear Paw Quilt.

This is the back. Three of the borders are now finished!

I just have one more corner to quilt and four of the edge triangles. I am quilting bears in them.

I have until Thursday to finish this up - that is the end of Myra's PhD Challenge. This quilt has been on the go for over four years now and it will be a relief to have it finished. Thanks Myra for the challenge - I work well under pressure!

A goldfinch at the bird bath.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Pinwheels

I finished piecing all the pinwheels for the quilt that my youngest designed.

He made about 6 of the blocks. They are 12" blocks, the quilt is 48" x 60" so far. I will add a border. It is one of my projects for the PhD Challenge.
I was originally going to have a small green inner border, but have decided against it.

I had made an green pinwheel, but decided not to use it, so I added some applique and some foil batting - now it is a hot pad (12" square). I did the applique and free motion quilting with Invisafil.

I had lots of problems with my sewing machine when I was free motion quilting - the bobbin case kept jumping out of its proper place. I vacuumed the whole machine very well, changed the needle a few times, and it seems to be working fine now. When I bought my machine almost two years ago, I had one for a week and it kept doing the same thing - the store replaced the machine with the one I have now. I hope this isn't a problem with Husqvarnas?!

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

PhD Challenge Update

I have been working on my two projects for Myra's PhD Challenge.

I am really starting to enjoy hand-quilting again. I am using Valdani 35wt cotton quilting thread - which is my favorite for hand quilting. I think I have figured out the quilting designs for the Bear Paw's quilt too.

I finished making all the half square triangles (they are 6½" squares) for D's Quilt too, they just need to be trimmed and sewn into pinwheel blocks.

Last week I won this Zentagles book!!! And it came today!!! Thank-you so much Jill (aka the Quilt Rat)! Zentagles is an art form that I have been wanting to try.

Jill even signed the book on her project page!

A while ago I also won PDF Cookbooks from Linda (aka Scrapmaster) - thank-you so much Linda - the recipes and quilt pictures are fantastic!!

Four rabbits today - hopefully that is all of them!!

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

Myra's PhD Challenge

I joined Myra's PhD Challenge (Projects Half Done), with two projects that I am hoping to finish in the first 6 months of 2011.

My first project is a large Bear's Paw quilt that I started in January 2007. All I have left is about half of the hand quilting! I can't really explain why I have never gotten around to finishing it. My only excuse is that I have no real use for it (although that doesn't usually stop me!).


My second project is a Pinwheel quilt that my youngest son - D, designed with EQ - using fabric that I was given.

D pieced together these pinwheels and then got tired of it - so I have decided that now would be a good time to finish making the quilt. Maybe D will help me?!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful New Year and I wish you all the best!!♥

New Year's Resolutions?

It is almost the end of the year and I am already thinking about the New Year. Every year I try to do something new.
Last year it was learning Romanian Point Lace -


The year before it was learning to knit lace (and learning to knit from a graph)-

All the lace patterns are from older Anna magazines.

This year it was blogging and joining OPAM (One Project A Month), I thought it would be a great motivator for me to create things. It has been a great year and I have had lots of fun.
Now something different for next year - I think I want to finish a quilt that I started almost 4 years ago!

It is hand quilted (probably the last large quilt I will ever hand quilt), and it shouldn't take me to long to finish it, if I get working on it!


I decided to join Myra's PhD (Projects half Done) Challenge. I will start concentrating on the quilt in the new year.

For the rest of the month I will be working on the Romanian Point Lace table center.

I finished up another three flowers this week, only four flowers left to go.

Then I'll have to make lots of braid to finish it up.

There has been lots of sparrows in the yard.

The rabbits are like little vacuum cleaners under the bird feeder.

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