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!♥

More Alternating Blocks

I finished up all the alternating blocks that I need for the Quilt Along.

All 41 blocks I need for the large quilt (plus 8 extra, because I had strip pieced the width of the fabric).

I finished piecing the Drunkards Path fruit table runner (it is 21" x 42"). I had been using the blocks as a "leaders - enders" when working on other blocks - but I finished it up because I wanted it out of the way. I plan on machine quilting it next week.

Now that the RPL table center is all finished I have switched to hand quilting.
This is the Bear Paw Quilt I plan on finishing as part of Myra's PhD Challenge. I started quilting it almost four years ago, and when I look at it now I realize that I could do much more with it if it was machine quilted!!! Plus it would have been finished by now!

Although the temperature is back down to -20°C, we did have temperatures above freezing a few days ago - now the snow looks like a skating rink. It is amazing how the snow has gone down.

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