Schnibbles Times Two

Ever since I received my copy of "Schnibbles Times Two" and saw the contest about it I wanted to join. I was thrilled when I saw that Kelly from Charming Chatter was hosting the contest through her online store - Cotton Charm Quilts.




I have decided to make "Plan C" (the small version) from the book with Moda Aviary fabric by 3 Sisters.

I will be changing the pattern slightly (which I am please to say is OK!). Because I only have one charm pack, I will make the border with the pink Aviary fabric.

I have until July 31, 2010, to complete this quilt and get all the necessary photos and form sent in to Kelly.

Another Quilt Show

This weekend I went to my parents, 1½ hours north of here. My Mother's quilting group had a quilt show yesterday and it was so much fun to meet my Mother's friends and see all the beautiful work that they do!

The pictures don't do any of the quilts justice, most were beautiful, vibrant colours.

The quilt in the back is my Mother's. She bought the kit in Alaska last year, it is called "Glacier". It even has hot glued little Swarovski crystals on it. I free motion quilted this one on her machine last year.

My Mother's Seasons of Migration Quilt.

There were many more quilts (bags, table runners, a bath mat (my Mother's again, it is made in that "chenille" technique with flannel and osnaburg), place-mats etc...). It was a wonderful show!!

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

Morden Trip

I took a trip to a wonderful quilt store in Morden (an hour away) today. The Quilters' Jewel was the only place I could find fabric to go with my hexagons.

They have such a great selection of fabric and the people are so wonderful!

All the red setting triangles are now cut, I just have to sew the rows together. It should be around 50" square. I might have enough red to add a little border, I will see how it turns out.

Deanna is having a great giveaway of a Curve Master Presser Foot - it looks fantastic, definitely something I want to try out!

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!! ♥

More Books!!

I was so thrilled that the McTavishing book I won from Wendy (for the free motion quilting challenge) came today!!


My dear friend also included another book for me!!

Love it! Thanks Wendy!!

"Thread Painting made easy" looks wonderful. It is all about free motion machine embroidery. Now with all the new books that I have (painting art quilts, applique art quilts and now free motion quilting and free motion embroidery) the ideas are swimming in my head. I will hopefully have more time by the end of the month, when my youngest finishes school.

Today I watched a bit of the Mctavishing DVD that came with the book, so I had to try out a bit of free motion quilting. It has been a week since I did any FMQ, and it was so nice to do some again!

I am trying to work on getting more fluid movement into my "McTavishing". Harder than it seems!

Have a great day and thanks for visiting!! ♥

Gardening

This week has been so wonderful that I have been working outside. Lots of weeding! It is amazing how with a bit of heat things are really starting to grow! (Especially the weeds!)

Flowers in the front.
Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers on the sunny south side.

Vegetable patch in the back.

I ordered some great books from Amazon, and I am so pleased. I want to start making art quilts and these books have fantastic ideas.

This one is painting fabric with acrylic fabric paints (SoSoft by DecoArt), and then embellishing with thread. The author, Pat Durbin, has included five projects in the book.

This one is based on a raw edge applique technique, with thread embellishments. The author, Leni Levenson Wiener, is a photographer and the first chapter in the book is "The Elements of Good Design". It has wonderful tips that would be applicable to regular quilt making, photography etc. It comes with a DVD (I haven't had time to look at it, the books came yesterday).

Time for something new for me, and these two books really inspire me. With the mosquitoes being horrendous outside, I might be spending a bit more time indoors!


Have a great day and thanks for visiting!! ♥

Back to Hexagons

I finished putting all the hexagons together!

I thought this layout was too jumbled, too hard to see the individual blocks.

This is an idea of how they would look with spaces. I thought this was better.

This is what it could look like with the addition of coordinating red fabric. I tried downloading the fabric swatches from Moda to EQ6 - and I managed to figure it out!! Always good to learn something new!!
This layout would make a nice little lap quilt. I think this is the best idea for the hexagons - just have to buy some red fabric. Another trip to the quilt store! ♥

I finally finished this little free motion painted postcard. Decided just to serge the edges since the zig-zag didn't work and it was too small to bind.

I am glad I took this picture yesterday, because when I saw the nest today it was empty! Hopefully they were big enough to fly, they seemed so small (only two, I don't know what happened to the other one?).

Have a great day and thanks for visiting!! ♥

Finished!!

I can't believe that I have finished my Pinwheel Sampler Quilt Along quilt!

This has been going on since January and I absolutely loved belonging to a quilt along. Thanks Rachel!!
You can see other wonderful Pinwheel quilts over at Flickr. It is amazing to see all the other variations.

I love this block.
I chose to quilt free-motion feathers in the pinwheels. They were so much fun to quilt and great practice. I realized that the secret to nice feathers is the angle that the loops come off the stem (vein?).

I used flannel for the backing,


and Hobbs Tuscany Wool batting (my favorite - to work with and to sleep under).

The layer cake (and part of a charm pack) I used was Alliance by Moda,

and the background was by Buggy Barn. All the fabric for the top is from KickAss Country Store, the people there are so wonderful and helpful!
I used Invisafil by Wonderfil for all the quilting (also from KACS), it has become my new favorite quilting thread. It is easy to work with and disappears into the fabric - seems to hide mistakes! I used Aurifil #50 in the bobbin, and a #80 Microtex needle to quilt.

I joined the 1800's Reproduction Fabric Club from KickAss Country Store awhile ago,

and in the Fall I plan on starting making blocks with the fabric I have collected. I am thinking of doing it as a very informal quilt-along. I would like to post a block (or two) every week (designed with the help of EQ7). I have a couple of ideas for quilt layouts too.

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

Finished Free Motion Quilting!

I finally finished free motion quilting my Pinwheel Quilt!

A close-up of the quilting

I really like how the feathers in the pinwheels turned out. Nothing was marked, it was all free hand. I used Invisafil for the whole quilt - absolutely love sewing with it. It disappears into the fabric and when you go over the line a few times, there is no thread build-up.
Just the binding left to do, but since I have been doing nothing but quilting for the past four days, it is time to catch up on my "regular duties"!

Goldfinch at the feeder

The robin babies are filling up the nest

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

More Free Motion Quilting

I am still free motion quilting my pinwheel quilt.


I really like how this block turned out. I am very pleased with the feathers in the pinwheels,

but I still don't know how I feel about the large "McTavishing" in the background. I think it looks too "sausage" like. I am hoping that by the end it will work out.
The little pinwheel just have a stitched in the ditch X in them.
I hope to finish this quilt in the next three days - I am home for a change, and I need to get my dining room table out of my kitchen (my large quilting project set-up). Four blocks quilted and 16 more to go!

I have been meaning to mention a wonderful fellow Manitoban's blog - Tactile Pleasures....In Fabric. Myra had a wonderful Show and Tell post showing some great free motion quilting by Melissa Marginet. Who, coincidentally, I met when I volunteered at the MCC Quilt Show. I recognized her bag from her website!!

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

Pinwheel Quilt

I pinned my pinwheel quilt together.

I used flannel for the backing and the batting is wool. It will be a large lap quilt.


I decided to do a large version of Mctavishing in the background and feathers for the pinwheels and a curved line for the triangles.
I was worried about all the quilting taking out the loft of the wool batting, but I think it will be fine. I enjoyed quilting my mother's quilt so much that I thought I should try a variation on mine.

I am using Invisafil thread for the quilting.

Last week I bought a new free motion foot to replace the one that broke. I was told that it was my fault that it broke, so they wouldn't replace it but gave me a discount on the new one. I thought I would take a video of the new foot as it does the same as the old one. The original free motion foot broke because the wire that is supposed to sit on top of the needle screw would get caught underneath the screw when I turned my machine on and the needle did the little dance (re-calibrated itself).
The wire finally broke when it got caught in the needle screw slot - I was also told that it was my fault for having the needle screw slot horizontally - there is no other way it can be when I tighten the needle in!! Not my fault!!



I have a Husqvarna 870 Quilt, and I am using the Husqvarna free motion spring action foot that goes with my machine. If it breaks again, I wanted documentation!! Thanks for putting up with the rant!!

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

Friday

I have been busy outside for the past few days - gardening! I didn't even turn on my computer yesterday!! All the plants and seeds have been planted - although I might have to re-seed, because of all the rain (and flooding) I think some of the seeds have rotted.
Today we had a little rain and I worked inside - quilting all day!

I finished free motion quilting my portion of my mother's Seasons of Migration quilt.


I did a leaf design in the outer border.


I finished this weeks focus and next I will start machine quilting the pinwheel quilt.

Outside the baby robins (3) have all hatched,

And my DH bought a welder, so my oldest child created a little sculpture for my garden!


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