January’s OMG completed

Quilted and bound my One Monthly Goal for January is complete.  This Gold Tone Single bed size Mile a Minute quilt has been hanging around waiting to be quilted for a while.

 

The borders, cornerstones, sashing and backing are Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  The borders and cornerstones are Millefiore, the sashing I believe is Woven Haze and the back of the quilt is called Parasols. 

 

The Millefiore and parasols inspired me to use a pantograph called Spirals by Denise Schillinger.

 

If you are interested in making a Mile a Minute quilt, I have a tutorial that starts here.

I’m linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal (OMG), and I think I’ll check out a few of the other completed projects, as I’m sure I’ll find some inspiration there.

City Tiles Quilt Along W2

For week two of the City Tiles QAL we were to make a test block, cut the rest of the fabric and then go ahead and make two more blocks.  As I already had the fabric cut from week one (I just couldn’t stop) it was time to make a test block, here is my first block.

 

I really like how this is looking.  Once again, I’m using the pink fabrics my mom gave me in some fat eights bundles, the blue green corner fabrics are from my stash, and I decided to use an assortment of whites from my stash, so far all fabric I had on hand.  It feels good to be playing through my stockpile of fabric.  Here are two more blocks, they are a little more true to colour.

You can find the quilt along at City Tiles QAL and the week two post at Quilty Love.  It’s an Instagram quilt along, however I’m following and participating on my blog.

Baby’s Block

This is my son Kevin’s baby quilt from 41 years ago - today is Kevin’s birthday.  Baby's Block was probably the first quilt I ever completed. 

Before Kevin was born I took a quilting class at SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology) and this was one of the quilts I made during the class.  I was attracted to geometry in quilt blocks and liked the three-dimensional look of the baby’s block pattern.

The instructor was teaching us how to tie quilts, so this little quilt was tied, however I decided the ties should be on the underside of the quilt, to give contrast and decoration on the solid white back of the quilt, I felt the tie detail would be lost on the front of the quilt.

Kevin, who has three boys of his own, has this quilt at his home now.

Happy Birthday Kevin.

City Tiles quilt-along

I’ve decided to join in the City Tiles QAL, I saw a picture of the block on Pinterest, and was interested and while reading about City Tiles realized that it called for Fat Eights, I had a bunch of co-ordinating Fat Eights that my mom had given me and was wondering what to do with them.  City Tiles was the inspiration that I needed.

Week One is to Prep, Order (plan) fabrics, Plan out the quilt top. I guess I’m a little ahead of the game, I bought the pattern, started playing with the fabric and then cut everything (opps, that’s week two).  Here’s what I’ve got.

I’m trying to come up with a name of my version of City Tiles, perhaps Loretta’s (my mom’s name) Tiles, or Inspired by Loretta, any other ideas? 

Unfortunately I won’t be able to play along on Instagram, I can follow and view pictures on my computer, however I don’t have a device to download the Instagram application to.

It seems that this January is a time of starting, I think this is the third quilt I have started this month.  Feeling inspired.

You can see the quilt and start of the QAL at Quilty Love.

Cogs

Along with other projects I have on the go for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I have decided to work on a quilt called Cogs by Leila Gardunia.  As we have 10 months of colours to play through and I will need 48 of blocks to make a full-sized quilt I plan to make 5 blocks in each colour.  Here are my first 5 with the main colour of the block in light to medium blues, our January colours.

My friend Sandra is making this quilt, and I really liked that she was using srappy fabrics for the background.  I love scrappy and I felt it gave the blocks more appeal.

As I was making my blocks I needed to add the second colour in the cog as well as the centre piece, so I have gone ahead and pulled some fabrics in my stash for future months, following Angela’s colour plan for the 2018 RSC.

You can find this pattern in the Summer 2015 edition of Fons & Porter’s Scrap Quilts.

It is beneath human dignity to lose one’s individuality and become a mere cog in the machine.  ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Squared Away

This week I had fun with my light blue fabric and made these three blocks.

 

For 2018 I’m participating in Squared Away a sampler project for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and this is the January block.  Mari – The Academic Quilter – has blogged about a Red Cross, this Clara Stone block that dates to 1906, you can see her post and instructions here.

Angela (Soscrappy) and Mari (The Academic Quilter) have designed a sampler quilt which we will be piecing through for the first 10 months of this year, hopefully I will quilt and bind it before the end of the year.  Just one more way for me to sew through my stash.

After sewing my blocks I added the remaining cut fabric to my stash of strips, ready and waiting for a future quilt idea.

Consider joining in the weekly fun, get inspired or just enjoy the many lovely projects at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

My January Goal

For the One Monthly Goal link-up with Elm Street Quilts is to quilt this single bed size Gold Tone Mile a minute quilt.  I’m really pleased with the Kaffe Fassett Millefiore border.  

I think I might be quilting this with a spirals pantograph, the Kaffe Fassett Parasols fabric I picked for the back has inspired me.

I believe the New Year has encouraged many to finish projects, at last count there were 157 entries in the One Monthly Goal link-up for January.  Let’s see how we do.  Somewhere near the end of the month I’ll (hopefully) be posting this quilt finished.

I really do like goals, I don’t always achieve them, however they get me going in the right direction, and every little step counts.

2018 Rainbow Scrap Challenge

A New Year and new fun.  Once again I will be participating in and be inspired by the RainbowScrap Challenge.  It’s such a nice way to interact with other quilter’s, get great ideas and keep on track with using up (and creating new) scraps.

To start the year I made four scrappy quarter log cabin blocks in light blue, the colour Angela at Soscrappy has picked for January.

I was inspired by a quilt I saw on Sheila’s Sew Cook and Travel blog.  Sheila is another participant in the RSC.  You can see the blog of her quilt here.

I also plan on participating in Angela (Soscrappy) and Mari’s(The Academic Quilter) 2018 Rainbow Scrap Sampler, the tutorial can be found on both blogs.  Hopefully I’ll post my first blocks next Saturday.

Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory. ~ George S. Patton

Lynne’s quilt

I made this green mile a minute quilt especially for Lynne (a friend of my sister Cheryl) who hosted me and my husband a couple of years ago when we went to Cheryl’s convocation in Toronto.

I had always wanted to make her a gift, but for some reason stalled, any idea I had just didn’t seem right.  Then when my sister was on a recent visit to Calgary, she saw a monochromatic Mile a Minute quilt top that I had just completed, so I knew I would make Lynne a quilt in her colours.  I remembered burgundy’s and dark blue and my sister said definitely green.

I used up my larger pieces of green to complete the back of this quilt.

And included a label.

Lynne’s quilt is quilted with the Blowing in the Wind pantograph by Irene Steele of Willow Leaf Studios.

It's going in the mail tomorrow, I hope she likes it.

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. ~ Meister Eckhart