Circa 2016 Medallion Quilt

I finished my Circa 2016 Medallion Quilt!

The centre section was the Temecula Quilt Company's quilt-along-quilt for last year.

I added more borders to make is a bed sized quilt. It is 84"x95" (it's on a double bed).

This is quilted on my domestic sewing machine - I used a walking foot to stitch in the ditch around all the borders, and a spring action free motion foot for the rest of the quilting. I used Hobbs Tuscany Wool batting. The quilting was done with Aurifil 50wt thread, and Bottom Line 60wt thread.

It's probably just me but I always wondered how medallion quilts were made - how did quilter get the pieced borders to be the right size? Now I know all about 'Filler Borders', that is the secret to making a medallion quilt - plain fabric fills the space between the different sized pieced borders (a couple of mine are the same background fabric, and a few are a contrasting fabric). There is a bit of simple math involved in calculating the size of the filler borders.

Because the quilt is a rectangle the side filler borders are not the same size as the top/bottom filler borders.

When I was deciding on what borders to add to the quilt I chose to repeat some of the designs from the original centre section -

The Court House Steps blocks are laid out similar to the centre Hour Glass blocks-

The Sawtooth blocks are a repeat of one the centre blocks-

I had always wanted to make a Medallion Quilt, and I learned a lot with this quilt. It was a fun challenge!

I had a few more knitting finishes this week -

A hat and cowl made with yarn from Tanis Fibre Arts. The hat is a free Ravelry Pattern - Lake Reed, and the cowl was made using a cable chart from a Japanese knitting book my son brought me back from Japan.

This year my Mother and I decided to join the Tanis Fiber Arts 2017 Year in Colour Club, and this hat was the January pattern (Heira) and yarn. A quick knit with lovely merino and alpaca bulky yarn - you have to imagine that the leftover ball of yarn is a pom-pom, that I will make when I figure out exactly how to make one.

Luckily I live somewhere with 6 months of winter!

This is what is on my needles now, I am glad to be back knitting with hand spun.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥︎

Slowly Growing

I am still working on the Sawtooth block border for the Circa 2016 quilt - I am really pleased with how it is coming together.

Grackle at the feeder.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥

Growing Circa 2016 Quilt

I added the Sawtooth border on the Circa 2016 quilt top,

and began auditioning for the next border. I am thinking of 5" Sawtooth blocks with 4 Patch centres, set on a diagonal. Lots of fun!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Almost Finished Circa 2016

I finished sewing all the Circa 2016 blocks together, just haven't added the borders. After looking at it and realizing that even with the 5" of borders it is still a pretty small quilt (it measures 39"x47" now), so I think I am going to add more blocks and continue on the medallion quilt.

Someone asked me if the yardage required for the background was over estimated, and now that I have pieced it I can say that I have about a yard of extra fabric (I did use a different fabric for the centre - but that didn't use much - about a fat quarter).

It sure was a nice quilt along and I am glad that I decided to join in, this is a good start for my first medallion quilt!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

The Last of the Circa 2016 Blocks

I finished the last couple of Circa 2016 blocks, as well as the last of the 150 half square triangles. The instructions for how the quilt is put together comes out on Friday.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥

A Couple Knitting Finishes

I finished off some knitting projects this week. Both patterns are from Martina Behm. Her patterns are so well written, and a joy to make. Both are made with my hand spun yarn.

This pattern is Heaven and Space. I used some yarn that I dyed and blend. About 50% silk (noils and mulberry) and 50% wool (Polwarth), plus a little silver Angelina for sparkle. What I really like about this scarf/asymmetrical shawl is that it is reversible. The stitch pattern that was easily memorized.

Fibre and yarn-

The pattern for the hat is Langfield. It had really interesting construction, and had some 'new-to-me' elements. Perfect for a long colour repeat yarn. The yarn was made from BFL fibre from SweetGeorgia Yarn - a March 2014 Fibre Club fibre called Spring Thaw.

Fibre and yarn -

I also managed to keep up with the Circa 2016 blocks this past week! We are almost finished, and now the quilt is on the header picture of the Temecula Quilt Blog - no surprise anymore. The free patterns for the quilt blocks will be taken down when the quilt along is finished, and the pattern will go for sale.

Since I know what we are making I decided on the fabric for the background and started the centre (the instructions for this was near the beginning of the quilt along).

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥

QAL Blocks and Vacation Photos

We came back from vacation last week, so I got caught up on quilt along blocks (the story of my summer!).

The Westering Women block for August. When I first saw this all I saw was templates, and lots of Y-seams, I was so pleased there was an easier version! This turned out to be one of my favourite blocks.

These are the latest Circa 2016 blocks, plus more of the half square triangles.

For our vacation we went out west to the Rockies in British Columbia. Although we have been before, it was our first road trip without children. We had a lovely time, and saw such beautiful sites.

Alberta -

Of course it is always exciting to see the mountains (we are from the prairies). It was the coldest day of our trip and snowing in the mountains.

Yoho National Park, BC -

Takakkaw Falls - one of Canada's highest waterfalls
 - there are people in the photo 

Natural Bridge

Emerald Lake

Glacier National Park, BC -

Roger's Pass

Meadows in the Sky, Mt Revelstoke National Park, BC -

Shuswap Lake, BC -

Margaret Falls

huge old growth cedars, Margaret Falls

Sicamous Beach

Osoyoos, BC -

lots of vineyards and orchards

Kootenay Lake, BC -

Nelson

on the world's longest free ferry

Glass Bottle House

view of the lake at the Glass Bottle House

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥