A Quilting Party

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My quilty sister Cheryl came to visit me for a couple days and we got some quilting done. :)

She arrived at my place on Tuesday morning and after a bit of a catch up we got ourselves into the sewing room and started loading my gray and yellow quilt.

I honestly don't know why but there was some trouble getting the stitching to look correct.


I am not sure if it was because I was using a darker thread on white and light coloured fabrics but in the end we worked it out and got the quilting done. I think it looks terrific!

Photo showing the texture of the quilting.

I just love the texture that the quilting gave to this quilt - so pretty. I will take more photos showing the finished quilt once I get the binding done.

This photo shows the true colours of the quilt.

Next up we loaded Cheryl's quilt and things were going great until something happened with the bobbin and we didn't notice until we had to make another bobbin change. Grrr.....we had to rip out just about a whole row of stitching. It was probably a total of about 70" in length and 11" in width. We were exhausted by the whole thing. It really is difficult to rip stitches when the quilt is loaded on a frame! So, after that adventure we called it a day and left it to finish on Thursday.

All is well that ends well though because her quilt is stunning. It was so gorgeous even before the quilting was done but you know that the magic really happens in the quilting. :0))

street view

Cheryl left my place yesterday and I usually will drive her to the bus depot but the weather was just atrocious and I did not want to drive during the ice storm. She did take a taxi to the depot and I did feel a bit bad about not driving her but it was awful outside.

I really thought that she should have stayed until today but it probably would not have made any difference. I took these photos this morning. Everything is coated in ice including the roads - very treacherous. I think it is a good thing that today is a holiday and most people are staying in, safe and sound, and not going to work or school.

back yard view

Violets for Block Lotto & Rainbow Scrap Challenge

This month, as a participant in Block Lotto, I made violet blocks and they are just so pretty! One of the best things about these blocks is that I was able to use scraps from my stash to complete them. These blocks also work for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by Angela of soscrappy because the colours chosen for the month of March are purple with yellow accents and I certainly used lots of those from my scraps for these blocks.

The only fabric that I used that was not from scrappy leftover bits or strips was one of the gray background fabrics. I was even able to use some of the leftover gray fabric that I am using in the disappearing pinwheel quilt that I am currently working on. Works for me! :0

 I really hope that I am one of the lucky winners this month!!

Ugly Christmas Sweater QAL- Block 9 & 10

Block 9 - Turnstile

Block 10 - Swedish Star

I have chosen to make the 20 block version of the Ugly Christmas Sweater Quilt and so with these two blocks finished I have made it to the half-way point! I am still behind in my block making but I did get four made this week. :) You can find all of the information regarding this QAL here.

For some reason, in all of my photos, the dark green and dark blue are so dark that they look almost black to me.

I am done with them for this week but we will see if I can manage to make four more blocks next week. I do make a huge mess when creating these blocks but it is fun. I am pulling out scraps and any fabric from my stash that has any hint of Christmas or is just plain old seasonal looking. I am going for sorta ugly but in a cute way. :)

Life is Very Good! :0

Life is good around here - mostly! We have been celebrating very good news for both of my sons. My eldest returned to university after graduating several years ago and has been accepted in the Masters program for English starting in September which is fantastic news for him and my youngest (who has a birthday today) just started a new job on Monday. He graduated with a degree in Finance and he got a job in his field at one of the big banks. I couldn't be prouder or happier for both of them!

Now for the 'mostly'...funny story. I had planned on doing some quilting last evening after spending the day working but my son had other business for me to attend to.  I ended up spending some time at the hospital with my younger son....it wasn't really serious...but I didn't think going to a clinic would help. My son had just got home from work and was sitting at his computer desk just relaxing. He dropped something on the seat of his chair and it fell in the crack between the seat and the back. He reached down to brush it out and he got caught by a fishing hook! I know....a fish hook....what the heck!!?? It went into his finger quite deeply and we knew it was barbed because we couldn't get it out. So we went to hospital where they took an xray, saw that it had one barb and it was determined that they could freeze his finger, make a small incision and then pull the hook out. My son had me video the entire procedure for posterity. ;)

It was quite ridiculous to see him sitting in the waiting area at the hospital still dressed in his work clothes -shirt, tie, and dress pants - with a fish hook sticking out of his finger.

Today, I plan on doing a lot of sewing to make up for lost time! I have so many projects that want attention from me that sometimes it is hard to choose which one to work on. I am nearing completion of the Disappearing Pinwheel quilt so I think that is the one that will get my attention today. I have already started adding the borders and it shouldn't be long before it is a finished flimsy.

I wish you all a happy sewing day today!

Ugly Christmas Sweater QAL-Block 7 & 8

Two by Three and Two by Two

Not surprisingly, I have fallen behind in this quilt along but I am definitely not out and I really want to get caught up and be current with it.  Lorna from Sew Fresh Quilts releases two blocks per week and at that rate it really is quite easy for me to fall behind even though the sweater blocks are not really difficult to make. With these two blocks finished I am still five blocks behind but if I can manage to make four blocks per week over the next couple weeks I should be able to get back on track.

I think it is such a cute quilt idea and I am quite happy with the way my blocks look - a little funky and a little fun!

Butterfly Blocks

Yesterday, I posted about getting my scraps together and cut for my butterfly blocks that will be included in the Column Quilt that I am making as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Well, the blocks are all made and I think they look pretty cute!

using a cardboard template to mark the corners

I just finished working on the bonus hsts that were created by double sewing the stitch and flip corners that were used in making the butterfly wings.

Even though I took the time to carefully measure and mark the corners to create my bonus hsts, I still needed to do a bit of sliver trimming.

Definitely worth the effort! I now have a little pile of these 2" bonus hsts that are perfectly sized to finish at 1.5".

Scrap Wrangling

Today I am working on my butterfly blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge column quilt. I have been digging through my scraps looking for all varieties of purple fabric ranging from the lightest shades to very deep dark shades. I did find quite a good stash of purple pieces in my 3.5" strip bin and also in my 3.5" squares stash. The block also requires yellow and I was able to grab some yellow strips that were leftover from making my version of Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice mystery quilt. I love my scrap bins! Pop on over to soscrappy's and check out the links to other participants in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. You will surely be inspired!

While I was digging around for fabric scraps for the RSC blocks I was also thinking about the blocks that I am making for the Block Lotto and my OMMS this month. They are required to be made in all shades of purple, pink or blue and require a yellow center. I was able to do the cutting for them as well although I still need to cut the background fabric. Doing double duty at the scraps bins is certainly quite a time saver!

The plan for the rest of the day is to finish the butterfly blocks, make peanut butter cookies (that my family is eagerly awaiting) and make fried chicken for dinner. Why can't I just sew all day? :)

Disappearing Pinwheel - Progress

I have been making good and steady progress on this quilt top. I have finished all of the blocks in the body and joined them together and now I have started working on the pinwheels for the borders.







Of course the blocks in the border are not going to fit perfectly to the quilt top so I have to figure out the math and make a border around the quilt top to allow it to fit.

I am trying to follow the video tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Co. but they don't provide actual instructions to make the border. It is quite obvious that there is sashing between each border pinwheel but the only information in the instructions was that the quilt top had an inner border and an outer border of 2.5" background fabric. I think the best thing for me to do is to decide the width of the sashing I want to use, sew it and the border pinwheels together and then make an inner border to make it all fit together. I will need to give the top a good pressing before I start measuring and I will definitely need to do all of the math on a day when I am not tired! ;)

This quilt is going to be just so soft and pretty!

Old MacDonald Mystery Sampler

I made seven more Snails Trails blocks this February that will be part of my OMMS that is being hosted by Sophie of Block Lotto. I originally made these four brown blocks for my February Block Lotto entry but they weren't quite up to snuff and were a little too small. They were less than a 1/4" out but I knew I could do better so I made a second set of brown blocks for entry in Block Lotto and I posted about them previously. I knew these blocks would be just fine in my sampler so I made three more in green to go with them.

The lesson I learned when making these blocks is that it is better for me to cut the triangle pieces a bit bigger and trim them down to size - it worked like magic!