Friday Night Sew In

Tonight is the Friday Night Sew In hosted by Heidi and Bobbi.

I am attempting my first fabric bowl! We'll see how far I get.

Usually I volunteer one afternoon a week at a school library, but this week it was the spring book fair, and I was there for three full days. Such fun! And so wonderful to see all the children - lots I have known since they were in Kindergarten. The theme this year was "A Book Luau". Notice the "quilted" signs on the walls made with book jackets - guess who made those!

We have been having fabulous weather (supposed to be 24C on Sunday) and my oldest was thrilled to be able to take out his motorcycle for the first time this year (about a month earlier than previous years).

Back to sewing!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Pincushion

I wasted a bit of time on Pinterest this weekend and was inspired to make a new pincushion (here is a link for pincushions on Pinterest). The one that inspired me was the pincushion at the bottom of this blog.

I have a bunch of these old metal Christmas light reflectors (from my SIL) that I thought would work in place of a metal tart tin,

and some old lace and pieces of cut up handkerchiefs from crazy quilting, so I was ready to get started.

I used two layers of cloth,

and added some lace edging. I used "iron away" stabilizer underneath when I added decorative machine stitching to join the layers, and then added some beads and buttons. I hand stitched around the edge to gather the circle.

I used a small bit of wool batting for the stuffing, along with a washer (for shape and weight) and a fishing weight (to make it even heavier).

I glued the whole thing together. I will add some ribbon around the pincushion to fill in between the metal and fabric, and a piece of rubber on the bottom.
I will be out volunteering for the next three days (no sewing!), but will show a picture (hopefully one that isn't blurry like this one) when it is finished.

I did try out the pincushion in a few other containers to see what it would look like. I decided to stay with the metal one because it wouldn't break if (more like 'when') it was knocked over!

It is not like I needed another pincushion! Pinterest is addictive!!

We have been having warm temperatures and the snow is melting fast - yeah!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

More Piecing

I finished sewing the Rob Peter to Pay Paul blocks together, and the flimsy is all ready for quilting (just need to get some batting - seems to a constant thing!). These are 7" blocks I cut with the GO! when I was stash busting in December. My mother pieced all the blocks, and between the two of us all the blocks are joined together. The top is 70"x84". I love this GO! die - there are so many options.

The quilt blocks would have looked great on point too.

This little 4" block is this week's Temecula Quilt Co quilt along block.

The two blocks so far.

It was very windy this afternoon and this was an odd sight - 5 partridges all standing still, facing the sun, usually they are busy eating and moving around.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Back to Piecing

I am glad to be piecing again.

This is Winding Ways cut with the GO!. The pieces go together so well and it has been lots of fun to sew. This is about a quarter of the quilt, and it should be about 94" square when it is finished. The blocks are almost 8".

I have decided to have the edges of the quilt follow the curves of the blocks (well, really they are half blocks along the edge).

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Hop To It Blocks

I finished up March's Hop To It block (from the book by Edyta Sitar). It is so much fun making these blocks with Wendy (Inky Threads), Joan (at Leschenault) and Raewyn (lovetostitch). We only have 4 more blocks to make, and I hope that we come up with another project that we can all work on together when this one is finished.

Here are the 8 blocks we have so far.

Turning a beautiful pattern into blocks of the month is a great way to get a quilt done, and stitching with friends - even better!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

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!♥

Finished Granny's Hankie!

I am so pleased to have finished the Granny's Hankie Quilt! The quilt came out to 98" square with the quilting. Can you hear my son behind the quilt complaining  - "Stop making such big quilts Mom!" - my husband and son are standing on stools with their arms up - the quilt is floor to ceiling.
This was a 2011 block-of-the-month from Denise Russart at Just Quilting. Thank-you so much the wonderful pattern Denise!

My sister was kind enough to let me take a picture of the quilt on her queen size bed (because I don't have a bed big enough - yes, another quilt for the closet, or as my brother says - to cover the lawn tractor).

Now for some details on the quilting -

I quilted in the ditch around all the blocks and all appliqué pieces, and then did  "McTavishing" in the block backgrounds. I "pebbled" the centre circles of the blocks (because I thought they were too puffy).

I free motion quilted the sashing with perpendicular lines, and the yellow inner border is quilted using the walking foot. I thought that the straight lines contrasted with the curves of the other quilting. I kept the circles in the thin black border plain because they complimented the appliqué pieces.

I quilted a meandering feather in the black "connected garages" and McTavished the red background.

The outer border (the yellow/red/yellow one) was quilted with a design from the amazingly talented Judi at Green Fairy Quilts - she kindly gave me permission to copy one of her designs (mine is no where near as nice as the original seen here, but I am so pleased with how it turned out. There is so much stitching in this border - each side used 2 bobbins of thread!).
Borders are a great place to try harder quilting designs if you quilt on a domestic sewing machine - it is just easier to quilt borders.

The corner nine-pathces have feathered wreathes because that is one of my favourite designs (and I try to add them where ever I can!).

This is some of the thread that I used. The black is a 60Wt thread from Tre Stelle - there was 2000 meters on that spool, and the red almost empty spool is Genziana 50Wt thread (also Tre Stelle) - only 1300 meters on that spool (I had to start using Aurifil in the bobbin because I knew that I wouldn't have enough red thread). I used different colours of Aurifil 50Wt thread for around the appliqué pieces. I found the Tre Stelle thread a bit lintier than Aurifil (the thread I normally use for quilting), but I really liked quilting with the 60Wt thread.

The batting is wool (Hobbs Tuscany). The quilt started out 102" and is now 98" square. I used a white Clover pen and a Clover Hera marker for marking the quilting lines. It is quilted on my domestic sewing machine.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!♥

February's FMQ Challenge

I seem to be like everyone else, when I first discovered Diane Gaudynski's style of quilting (for me it was two years ago), the look of my quilting changed for the better. I have both of her books and highly recommend them.

This month's challenge was fabulous. Diane's instructions are so wonderful and I had lots of fun sewing this feather.

I added a couple of other feathers,

and filled the 8" block with echoing, using a lighter coloured thread that matched the background. I used Aurifil #50 thread for the top and the bobbin.

Thanks so much to Diane Gaudynski and Sew Cal Gal for this month's challenge.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥
Sorry about the large watermarks across the pictures - I made adjustments that were incorrect and couldn't change the pictures back.

Two Borders

I finished quilting two of the four borders on the Granny's Hankie Quilt. The small black border has circles (I am thinking of going back and adding smaller circles inside the circles).

I marked the centre of the feathers in the large border with a french curve and a white Clover iron-out pen.

This pen works so well.

With the feathers added I find that this border looks less like a row of garages.

I then added some filler stitching in the red to match the background of the blocks.
I think I know what I am going to quilt in the outer border and the sashing, so I now feel that this quilt is coming together nicely. I find that figuring out what to quilt is one of the hardest aspects in quilting!

We had a bit of a snow storm today and the flock of partridges found shelter under a tree (I have never seen the partridges in a tree, and they tend to run more than fly).

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!✒

A Knitting Finish

I finished knitting a lace scarf. It is 11" x 57". This was a wonderful, easy pattern to make.

The pattern is a free one from Ravelry - Fern Lace Scarf by Knitting Pixie. If you don't belong to Ravelry it is a wonderful knitting/crocheting site that is free to join. There are so many patterns (free, and ones for sale), and it is a great way to search for patterns using yarn that you might have in your stash.

I used one whole skein of Maiden Hair yarn (silk, mohair and nylon) and size 4.5mm needles. I cast on 64 stitches instead of 54 because I wanted the scarf to be a bit wider than the pattern.

I used Addi Turbo Click interchangeable knitting needles for the first time. I bought this set after Gail (Quilt, Knit, Run Sew) mentioned how much she liked her interchangeable needles. Since my knitting needle collection was lacking, I decided to look into interchangeable needles. When interchangeable needles first came out I think there were a few problems, but improvements seem to have been made. I decided to go with the Addi Turbo ones because I like knitting with metal needles and have enjoyed the Addi Turbo ones.
They click together beautifully, and the link was nice and smooth, the stitches never got caught. I bought them online from Camilla Valley Farm (a Canadian company).

Last week I was worried about there only being 11 partridges in the flock that normally had 13. Today 2 partridges were at the feeders - I guess something happened?!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!❥

Friday Night Sew In Results

Yesterday I finished the background filler on three of the quilt blocks (17" blocks) of the Granny's Hankie quilt.

The block's backgrounds are now finished. I will add some details to the blocks later.

 I also marked circles in the little black border.

I plan on quilting a meandering feather in the black part of this border, with some filler stitching in the red.
Then I have to decide how to quilt the outer border, the little yellow border and the sashing.

I also did some knitting last knit.

Another successful Friday Night Sew In! Thanks Heidi!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥