International Quilting Day

This past Saturday was International Quilting Day. I finished up a few projects.

I pieced the pillow top last week, and machine quilted and finished it this weekend. I started piecing the table topper last weekend and finished it this weekend. The little coaster/mug mat I made this weekend as part of a sew along.

For the pillow I added a piece of needlepoint that my Mother made a while ago - it has been waiting around for the right project and I thought it went very well with the French General fabric.

The diamond shaped table topper was made with the Mini Hex n More ruler. It is a great little ruler (about 3" long), and a nice way to use up little bits of fabric (it is pretty easy to figure out how to combine pieces for the patterns too). The table topper is about 18"x31" (measured from the points).

The mug mat pattern was from Kathleen Tracy (A Sentimental Quilter). It is about 4"x7".

Can you tell I am trying to use up every little piece of a French General fat quarter pack! Two quilt tops (waiting for quilting - the Double Wedding Ring quilt top has some French General yardage too), a pillow cover, a table topper, a mug mat and a little chicken pincushion.

 This is what is left of the FQ's - enough for a little selvage bag I think/hope.


Yesterday it looked like this-

and we woke up to this this morning-

The beauty of snow in March is that it will melt soon.

The animals had to dig for seeds. The snow didn't stop the partridges from fighting (you can see them in the background).

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

International Quilting Day

To celebrate this lovely day, I did some quilting!
My husband pointed out that it wasn't much different than any other day!

I made a little table runner using a ruler that I borrowed from my sister. The table runner is 12" x 26", the triangles are 6" high.

The ruler is called "'S' Curve - One Tool - Many Designs", but I could only find a couple of different pictures of quilts made with it. It is an interesting shape and was very easy to use.

I cut out 14 triangles, each is a different fabric. To cut out the fabric I used the small rotary cutter. I also put a layer of kitchen plastic wrap on the back of the ruler to make it less slippery.

I pieced the triangles into two rows.

I didn't use pins when I was joining triangles, I just lined up the edges as I stitched.

I pressed all the seams open.

I did pin the points together when I joined the two rows.

These triangles would also make a nice kaleidoscope pattern. I have also seen it used to make diamonds by using two triangles of the same fabric side by side.

I used cotton batting, and free motion quilted an allover meander - I just wanted something simple and flat.

For the bias binding I used a 15" square of fabric, and this method. I made the binding 2.5" wide.

I just use a rotary cutter to cut along the lines of the binding.

The finished table runner on the 'coffee table' in the family room.

We were surprised to see two squirrels at the bird feeder this week (we never see squirrels).

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Favourite Tools

I am currently working on a large whole cloth quilt and wanted to share some of my favourite tools that I have been using.

This is a Hera Marker from Clover (I know I mention it all the time), it is my absolute favourite marking tool. It just makes an indentation in the fibres of the fabric, so there is nothing permanent or damaging left behind, and nothing to remove later (the fibres bounce back in time). I attached a piece of string to it, to mark circles, and I have marked 6" increments along the string with a felt marker so that it can be used as a measuring tool too. It does need a hard surface underneath it when marking.

These are my newest purchase - Tron spring action scissors. They are so fine and sharp, plus they get around the pressor foot and under the quilt very easily - just lovely (they came highly recommended and I can see why). When I quilt feathers instead of back tracking up and down the spine, I just stop and reposition all the time, so there has been lots of threads to clip, these have made the job a breeze and they are pretty too.

This whole cloth quilt will be over 90" square, but because it is just two pieces of fabric and wool batting it is much easier to quilt on my domestic sewing machine than a pieced quilt (no seam allowances to add weight). I do have a good sewing machine, in a cabinet (which is wonderful!).

The quilt is my February project, and there will be lots more pictures when I am finished.

I have also been knitting and spinning -

I knit an entrelac hat from wool that I spun. It is my own design.

 This is my first ombré yarn that I have spun (BFL and silk from SweetGeorgia Yarns).

This shows the shading better. I am knitting a shawl with it.

Like lots of places we are still in the depths of winter! But is shouldn't be for much longer.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥

Pieces of Time Blocks

I am pleased to have a storm day to catch up on my blocks of the month.

These are Pieces of Time blocks, they are 7.5" blocks.

This weekend I also machine quilted this Drunkard's Path quilt that my Mother made -

The blocks are13.5" (made up of 3.5" DP blocks), and the quilt is 41" square. She cut out the blocks on her GO! Baby.

This past week I finished knitting an entrelac shawl (more like a scarf, it is ~2m or 79" long).

The pattern is Entrelac Shawl with Tassels by Eva Martinsson. A really lovely, well explained pattern.

I used merino wool and silk that I dyed and spun. I made a few changes to the pattern here is my Ravelry page for this project.

This is a picture of the storm that is keeping me in - high winds.

A couple of years ago I participated in a 365 day photo challenge, this year the same group started up again. There are nine of us from different parts of the world, so it is interesting to see the similarities and differences - it is a fun protect. Mine is Joanne's 365 Snapshots.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas Eve by eating traditional tourtière , with baked potatoes and salad

playing games,

This game is Blokus, a fun strategy game.

Sitting by the fire -

this is on the TV - some people don't have this TV channel that shows a fireplace and plays Christmas songs!
We also watched Trailer Park Boys Christmas Special (lots of Canadian traditions this evening!).

I am off to play more games - ping-pong and Rock Band. We are planning a relaxing, family Christmas.

I just wanted to show a few things that I did this week -

This is an entrelac neck warmer that I knit.

Entrelac knitting is made of little boxes. It is much easier than it looks.

I made it from this merino wool that I dyed and spun. More details on Ravelry.

I also spun my first skein of singles yarn this week.

It was made from a bunch of little bundles of different fibres that I hand carded into rolags.

This is a little wall hanging that I am machine quilting for those who think I have given up quilting (it is just really cold in my basement where my sewing room is - we have been having -30C temperatures recently). This is made with fabric I dyed last winter. I just have the background left to quilt.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful Christmas!♥

Back from a Break

I took a "blogger break" for what I thought would be a month and it turned into two months. Thanks to those who wrote and asked me how I was doing. Everything is fine, I just felt that I was wasting too much time on the computer.

I had a wonderful summer and here are some things that I accomplished -

I made myself a robe/housecoat with fabric I bought in Hawaii (less than $20 for 4yards for beautiful cotton!) last Christmas -

I rarely make practical things, so I was thrilled with this. I also made my husband some pyjamas since I was on a roll (no pictures, and not in bright floral fabric, but maybe next time!).

I made some more runners for shelves in my sewing room -

This one is made with little thimbles (about 1") cut from some left over fabric from a quilt I made last year. It was a leader-ender project.

This one was just to practice free motion quilting. They are both about 8" x 26".

Here they are on the shelves -

Can you tell I am running out of ways to use quilts!

I taught a Invisible Machine Appliqué class this summer, and this is what I designed for the class -

It is about 10" x 16". Everyone did wonderfully, and it was lots of fun for me!

I needed to replace some worn cushion covers and I designed another appliqué block -

The fabric I used had a paisley design, so I incorporated that into the appliqué design and the free motion quilting.

I left the appliqué and the borders puffy to accentuate them (it was so tempting to quilt a feather border, although they are only 2" borders, but I wanted to see what it would look like un-quilted, and I am pleased with the results).

I made a coordinating pieced block for the second cushion. This 12" block is "Sea Breeze" from the book 'Knockout Blocks and Sampler Quilts' by Judy Martin.

They are 16" cushions.

I have also been knitting with yarn that I spun -

This one from a pattern - "Lazy Katy" by Brigit Freyer. The yarn is from Merino Silk fibre from SweetGeorgia Yarn, in the colour way 'Maple'.

This scarf is made with Merino (from a good friend) that I dyed (it is spun about a worsted weight, and came out so soft and squishy). The pattern is 'Undulating Scarf' from a 2010 Spin Off magazine, and it is also available free on Ravelry. It is a wonderful pattern because the scarf is reversible. I changed the centre double increase because I couldn't figure out how to make the one described in the pattern (I did 'K1, YO, K1' all in the same stitch).

The next two shawlettes are ones that I designed after taking a couple of Craftsy classes (Lace Shawl Design and Shawlscapes) -

This is a lace one made from Kid Mohair that I bought while on holiday this summer (we went to where we used to live in Alberta and I went back to my old local yarn store - it was so nice!).

It is the first time I have spun mohair and it was lovely to spin.

This one I wanted to be more free form, and I made it up as I knitted, which was fun (this is inspired by the Shawlscapes class). I also spun the yarn without much thought and just enjoyed the process, and it came out really nice too. This is BFL from SGY in the colour way 'Chai Spice'

I completed some Blocks of the Month -

 
The August block for the Ostrich BOM, a Dresden Plate (this is an 18" block),

 
and 9-Patches for September (4.5" blocks).

My Pieces of Time BOM blocks for September (we took August off).

Whew!!

Thank-you so much for stopping by and have a great day!!♥