Sunday 26 February 2017

Lumber Jack or Jill Quilt

I have accomplished my One Monthly Goal (OMG) for February which was to quilt and bind this plaid exchange quilt.  You can read the whole story of this quilt here.
 
Lumber Jack or Jill quilt
I asked my son and husband to help me pick a pantograph at the beginning of the month and they agreed on the Timber pantograph by Melanie J. Caldwell, which is what gave me the idea naming it the  Lumber Jack or Jill quilt. 


Timber pantograph
I used a plaid flannel from my stash to back the quilt, then went shopping for a binding, a little difficult when all the fabrics in the quilt are from at least 20 years ago.  I was looking for a plaid homespun which I thought I would cut on the bias.  I was not able to find any that complimented the colours in the plaids of the quilt, however when I found this Kaffe Fassett woven stripe I was happy.
 

I think this will be a cuddle quilt for the TV room.  Have a look at some of the other finishes for February and perhaps join us for the March finishing event at Elm Street Quilts.

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. ~ Rumi

Saturday 25 February 2017

Aqua Wonky Churn Dash

This is the last Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in Blue/Green and my final little project was to make a couple more wonky churn dash blocks.
Wonky Churn Dash quilt blocks

I also made a few leaders and enders from 2 ½ inch squares for a postage stamp quilt I’m working on.


I have my Rainbow Rows quilt on the long-arm machine with hopes of getting it finished by the end of the month for another Rainbow project finish, I’m half way through quilting and then need to sew the binding on.  I hope I can, I’d love to have another finish.


You can enjoy all the pretty blue/green projects being created for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at Soscrappy.

Thursday 23 February 2017

Steps

Is what Carol called this bright design used in two baby quilts that she made to be contributed to charity.

Keeping in the baby theme, Carol picked the Tumblin’ Teddy Bears pantograph by Patricia E. Ritter.  One quilt was quilted with red thread and the other with blue.

Carol had me machine sew the binding to the front of the quilt for her and included a sweet label to go on each quilt.

To me nothing in the world is as precious as a genuine smile, especially from a child. ~ Rumi

Wednesday 22 February 2017

Pillowcases

I have such a fabric stash that I would like to use, that I don’t often feel like adding to it when visiting quilting stores, and I do want to support quilt stores, so lately rather then buying fat quarters I’ve been purchasing enough fabric to make a pillowcase or two.  They sew up quickly, and I’m happy to have a finished usable product right away instead of more fabric sitting on my shelf.

One day when my grandson Owen walked into my house and said “Grandma, if you ever wanted to, you could make me a pillowcase.” I found this fun Sock Monkey fabric and made a pillowcase for both grandsons, Owen and Mace.




Another day I was  going through my fabric stash and came upon these larger pieces of clown fabrics, I remembered that my son Callum’s friend Seth likes clown, so I made him a pair of pillowcases, Callum tells me he loves them.  I actually have enough fabric left to make two or three more for my grandsons.  One of Owen’s quilts is backed with the clown fabric already.  So much clown fabric.


A couple of summers ago I was in Toronto in the garment district and came upon a gorgeous piece of linen,  I love linen pillowcases, so bought enough to make a set for me and my husband.  I was overwhelmed looking at fabrics in Toronto, such selection and fabric store after fabric store, I really had trouble buying anything, there was so much to choose from.  I did buy this linen and a piece of Liberty of London, as well as a piece of blue and white shirting.





These pillowcases were make using the burrito method.  My favourite way to make pillowcases, as it leaves no unfinished seams.

Saturday 18 February 2017

Birch Tree Quilt Blocks

For this week of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge I made some Blue/Green Birch Tree quilt blocks.
 
Birch Tree Quilt blocks

The Birch Tree Pattern is by Amanda Jean Nyberg, she has a blog at Crazy Mom Quilts and is one of the co-authors of the book Sunday Morning Quilts.  My background fabric is from Colorways by Vicki Welsh. There were two different blue/green swatches in my rainbow of colours from Vicki, can you see the very slight variance in this picture?


I’m really liking how these Birch Tree blocks are coming together and once I’ve sewn my way through the rainbow should have a Birch Tree baby quilt.  I’m enjoying using itty bitty scraps for these blocks.

There are a lot of inspirational scrappy and rainbow quilty pictures to enjoy at Saturday’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge, have a look.

Saturday 11 February 2017

Aquamarine

This week I worked on a couple of Scrappy Trip-along quilt blocks in aquamarine, which is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour for February.
 

Scrappy Trip-along quilt blocks
 Over the past couple of years I have made seven of these in each colour to participate in the RSC, as I was sorting through my blocks I noticed I only had five aquas.  I’m not sure if I ran out of scraps in that colour, or just ran out of steam or time.
 

These blocks will join their brothers and sisters - I have seven blocks of ten different colour groupings. 
A Rainbow of Scrappy Trip-along quilt blocks
Okay, I just realized that this will be a big quilt, I’d better stop now.  If I make it 8 x 8 blocks, which is 64 blocks it would finish at around 108 x 108, that’s King size, and I’d be left with 6 blocks, yikes.  I’ll have to rethink this.  Time to stop sewing Scrappy Trip along blocks.


Have a look at all the pretty aqua (teal) projects for February’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge at Soscrappy, and come by next Saturday to see another aqua project in progress.

Saturday 4 February 2017

Aqua slabs

Friday evening, I spent an enjoyable time sewing two aqua slabs (after Cheryl Arkison’s fashion) so that I could participate in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge which happens every Saturday.  Each month Angela picks a new colour and we all link up on Saturday to show what we've accomplished.  I have a few rainbow projects on the go that need an aquamarine piece (or something blue/green) to help bring them nearer to completion, so part of my evening was preparing, choosing and gathering aqua bits, and just having fun playing with fabric – my happy place.



Aqua Slabs (quilt blocks)
These two new slabs will join a bunch of others, and I believe I am near to having a quilt top.  They are actually quite large, 15 inches unfinished, so two more (I’m planning on black) will make a 60 x 90 quilt.
A Rainbow of Slabs

Do you need a little inspiration, especially on using up some scraps?  Have a look at what others are doing at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, for this first Saturday in February.

Thursday 2 February 2017

Plaid quilt project

My February goal for the OMG (One Monthly Goal) event is to complete – quilt and bind - this plaid quilt.


Plaid square exchange quilt
Again, it is a very old project which has been hanging around for a long time.  There are really two quilts to this story, somewhere around twenty years ago I took part in a fabric exchange, and for this exchange we each had to send eight, eight inch squares to the other participants.  There where 10 people in each group, so we ended up with 80 squares apiece. 

When I got my squares I laid them out on the floor and liked the way they looked, so I just sewed them together to make a quilt for my then little boy’s ‘big boy’ bed.  I tied his quilt and finished it with a prairie point binding.  I loved this quilt so much that the next time a plaid exchange came around, I signed up again and what I’m going to finish this month is the second quilt.

Here is a picture of the first, well-loved old quilt.


Plaid quilt with prairie point border/binding
Here is the second on the long-arm machine, as of this morning and ready to go.



Check out the many great project on the go for the February OMG event at Elm Street Quilts, and perhaps join us in finishing fun. Be sure to check back here at the end of February to see if I have completed  the Plaid quilt and which pantograph my guys picked for it.