D's Quilt Officially Finished

The label is sewn -

so now the pinwheel quilt is officially finished! (I tried some Zentangling on the label.)


It is my first PhD Challenge quilt finished!!

This quilt is made from fabric that I inherited from a family friend. My youngest son wanted to design a quilt on EQ7, and he came up with this quilt to use the fabric. He also sewed a few of the blocks.
The quilt is 62" x 74". The pinwheels are 12" blocks, made with 6+7/8" squares to make the HST's. It has 7" borders.
I used wool batting (Tuscany Heirloom) and flannel backing.

I quilted it on my home sewing machine, with lots of free form feathers (no marking - too lazy!). I thought that the black fabric was the main fabric and the grey the background, so I did feathers in all the black, but once I started adding "McTavishing" to the grey areas, I realized that the feathers weren't noticeable, so I added a few feathers to the grey.
I used mostly Invisafil (100wt) on the top and Aurifil (which I buy from Tristan) for the bobbin. I did have to switch to all Aurifil for the last 3 borders because the bobbin case kept jumping out of place. I had no problems once there was Aurifil in the top. I think the Invisafil was too static - I did try putting it in the freezer for a bit and it helped for a while.

The switch in thread is not noticeable.
I tried a new (to me) border design that was lots of fun - free form feathers that had all different sizes of "blobs" (I am sure there is a technical term?).

The back of the quilt.
The stay stitching lines aren't really noticeable. A few people made a suggestion to use thread that washes out for the stay stitching - great idea - thanks!!

Do rabbits have clocks?

I started noticing that every morning, just before 8 am, the rabbits come to the back door. It is the time that I normally have some fruit/vegetable trimmings from breakfast and school lunch preparations to throw out. OK, I guess they have me trained!! They usually get a little something extra!! They're so cute!

Tonight's sunset.

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

Great Day!

I had such a wonderful day! I was invited by Myra to join her at a mini retreat for one of her quilt groups. I have never quilted with a group - what a fantastic way to spend the day! I met some lovely, talented ladies and I hope to be invited again (hint, hint).

I didn't take any pictures, but Myra took pictures of some of the quilts, so hopefully she will post them. She did!

I was lucky enough to win a door prize - a 4" squares pack (I don't what they are called). I think I will make some disappearing nine-patch blocks.

I managed to finish sewing the binding on D's Quilt (more about it tomorrow, after I sew on the label and it is officially finished).

It is so lovely to put faces to names of people I have met through blogging! Thank-you so much for inviting me Myra!!

Last week I was asked to volunteer in my youngest son's class. They were working on hydraulics. Pamela (The Long Way Around) posted her daughter's groups creation. There are 5 girls and 20 boys in the class - and the girls had the most artistically creative project! Helping in the class was another great way to spend the day!

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

Quilting Weekend

It has been a wonderful long weekend (today is Louis Riel Day in Manitoba). I have been working on machine quilting the pinwheel quilt.

Just the borders left to quilt. The quilting is slow-going because when I sew at a normal faster speed the bobbin case slips out of place -

and the thread gets caught. See the little knife on the left side of the picture - my finger has so many little cuts in it! You would think I would learn!!
The black bobbin case should look like this -

I'll schedule a check-up for it after I have finished all the quilt along blocks.

We have also been having lots of fun outside too.


I have never seen so much snow here.

The snow drifts are so high that we look down on trees and

hop over a 6 foot fence!

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

Friday Night Sew-In Results

Last night I finished the stay-stitching (quilting in the ditch) on the pinwheel quilt,

And started on the free motion quilting - feathers in the black pinwheels.

It is the first time I have stay-stitched a quilt, and I don't know if I like how it looks on the back of the quilt - that is why I only did them one way. Maybe once all the quilting is finished the straight lines will "disappear"?

Thank-you to Bobbi and Heidi for hosting the FNSI.

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

Friday Night Sew-In

Tonight is the Friday Night Sew In hosted by Crafty Vegas Mom.

I am working on the pinwheel quilt. I added the borders and got it all ready for quilting.

I am quilting it in the ditch with a walking foot and Invisafil thread (Aurifil in the bobbin) to start with, then I'll do some free motion quilting.

I am using my regular quilting set up.

There was a blizzard over night (started yesterday afternoon).

This morning there was just high winds and blowing snow,

by this evening things had calmed down, just lots of snow drifts left.

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!!♥

Update

I was unable to access my blog yesterday, so lots of catching up!!

Yesterday, my youngest son, who is 12, designed (with EQ6) a quilt



and started sewing blocks. 5 done, 15 more to go.



They are 12" blocks and it will be a bed quilt. He has already made a few quilted items, but this is the first large quilt he will make. He has done all the sewing so far, and did a great job - look at those points!!

I made four blocks for the pinwheel sampler quilt along. I decided to do Blocks #4, because I was worried about running out of fabric from the layer cake. The other two are a variation of Blocks #1


Only one more week of blocks to go!!

At the quilt show I bought some Aurifil #50 thread, and have been trying it out. It is wonderful!! Nice and fine, and so easy to sew with. I also pieced with it and it makes the seams flatter. The bobbin also lasts a long time. I was so impressed with Aurifil, that I ordered more from Tristan Italian Threads in BC.

The end cap of the thread comes off so that you can wind the end of the thread and replace the end cap, so there is not threads hanging every where.

I tried out some designs.


I don't like the dark thread on the light background.
Also tried colouring the designs with watercolour pencil crayons (a Christmas present from my oldest son).


Today I was checking out older posts from Feather On A Wire and Karen McTavish's website, and was inspired to create this -

I was working out my own version of a background design -
I like the "pearls", the "swoops" remind me of a cross section of a sand dune.

I used a gold colour thread for the centers and one echo.

This -
has now become this -


I sure feel that I have a lot more control of my stitches after a week of practice!

Now I am ready to try out machine quilting on some actual quilts. I think I will start with a mini quilt.

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