Friday 14 December 2012

Bits

I think that is the title of a lot of the blogs I post. I think one of my New Years resolutions should be to post more often. Smaller posts, that is the answer. I guess I am some what of a haphazard blogger. It just is not something I think about until I have a few things to share. It kind of catches up with me. Anyway will en devour to catch up.

First, I wanted to share about the new threads I ordered from Connecting Threads. As some of you know I recently started long arm quilting. So was trying out different threads. The polyester cones
work so well. Hardly any breakage at all. It is a fine thread which is the look that I like.




Next, finished this little quilt last week. It was a top that someone gave me. It is a scrappy one to say the least. There is every thing in there. Even fabric with tractors! I felt it deserved to be quilted. The same amount of work goes into a quilt top no mater what fabric is used. It was a good one for practicing on. I think it will make a great summer table topper, despite the odd Christmas fabric :)  Pics coming up. See if you can see the tractors. Quilt design is Angela Walter's.








The first and only mug rug I have made. It took a bit of time to make. Sorry it is side ways ;( I just know there is a way to fix that!





















Next a Christmas table topper. The hexies are about the size of a sandwich plate. Had a bit of trouble with the binding so went on line. Found a great tutorial. Here. Heather has a tutorial for the inner angle and the outer angle of hexies.




And last but not least, my niece Annie Rose at the long arm machine. After a little verbal instruction and two minutes practice on the side where the batting is,away she went. She just stepped up to the handles and pressed the start button. No fear or hesitation. The quilt that she is quilting on is her own design. She is a very talented young woman in so many areas. What a privilege to share the love of quilting with her.




Everyone is no doubt in the midst of preparing for Christmas. Remember the real reason for the season is the birth of our Saviour.

Watch out for today's blessings!




Monday 26 November 2012

As promised

An update on how the quilting is going on the long arm. To say the least it is lots of fun and I still can't believe I own one. It is challenging to not be on it all of the time.

This quilt I did with swirls, which are my favorite to do so far. You can see that they need to be a bit more uniform but that will come.






This next quilt was pieced by a friend of mine. The top was given to me as a gift! I have to say that it is my all time favorite style. So scrappy and the pieces are 1 3/8", finished. It is big enough, to more than cover a queen sized bed. Because of all of the small pieces and moderately dense quilting it is heavy.



There are two different blocks. Pic below shows the two designs. The design in the little nine patch block was a flower of sorts and the strip block had back and forth quilting in the first and third strip.


There was also two borders. First border was two squares wide, so I did a crosshatch of sorts. A bit wobbly but it is such a fun design to do, so I want to get better at it. The other border was made of  the strip squares so it  made a piano key border. I quilted back and forth on every other strip, the same as I did the blocks.


These last two pictures are for Esther over at Threads on the floor. We discovered from blogging back and forth, we were making the same quilt, "Celtic Knot". Check hers out. Her color ways are  different from mine. It has 2,025, 2 1/2 " squares. My top needs borders and it is ready to quilt. It will probably be after Christmas. Not sure how I will quilt it yet.



As you can see, it is scrappy!



Thanks for checking in.



Watch out for today's blessings!

Saturday 17 November 2012

Happy B-Day to my amazing sister

I was the first one to turn fifty, and slowly but surely all of my siblings follow. It is my sister Dianne's turn this year.



I was thinking the same thing, she sure doesn't look fifty. She is beautiful inside and out! She loves those around her, freely and with all that she is. Her life is a testimony to the love that is given to us by God. Having her apart of my everyday life is such a blessing!

This is the little quilty I made for her birthday. It reminded me of her giving spirit. I called it " A Mother's Heart"



A close up:


It is a from Mckenna Ryan's "Bella Garden". So fun to make.

The long arm is buzzing along nicely. I try and spend a bit of time on it every day. Pics soon!

Watch out for today's blessings!




Monday 5 November 2012

What I have been up to!

Before too much more time has passed I wanted to share some pictures of how the long arm quilting is going. I never dreamed it would be so much fun. There is a definite learning curve though and I am trying to be patient.

This quilt was a good one to start on I think. The strips gave me the idea to practice a different design the width of every three or four strips. Here are couple of the designs I tried.







Next is a picture of a quilt I did for a friend. She made the top and I quilted it.



The back, an all over design.



And last but not least a sneak peak.



Thanks to all of my quilting heroes. Linda, Esther, Leah Day, Wendy Shepard, Greenfairies, Angela Walters and Patsy Thompson, just to name some. So appreciate your contribution to my quilting journey.


Watch out for today's blessings!


Thursday 18 October 2012

I have gone over to the long side!

I will explain in a minute. Maybe you can guess:)

But first I can not believe how long it has been since my last post. What a whirlwind of a summer and beginning of fall. Lots of stuff happened, both good and challenging. I want to share some of the good things!

 My Sister was home from Florida and my niece from NY that I had not seen for five years. We all had such fun. They rented a little cottage very close to our house. Ten days goes by super fast.



Then we had 80th B Day celebration for my dad. Had tons of food, family and friends old and new. Mum and dad!



My amazing Dad and his four kids.




In Sept one of my nephews got married to and amazing young woman. What beautiful ceremony.


Next Phoenix Arizona for a week. It was like being on another planet. Scenery was so amazing!
This was the view from our hotel room. First time we had ever traveled to a place like this.



And then end of Sept into Oct, 3 weeks in Alberta, visiting the sweetest little family. Not bias at all. We had sooo much FUN! Walks and talks, reading and playing, holding and hugging. Basically I was given the privileged to do life with them. That is what I enjoy most of all.  Thanks guys!


As far as quilting goes, I feel like I have lived vicariously through my favorite blogs. I believe blogging (for me anyway) has an ebb and flow just like life. I loved keeping in touch and seeing all of the projects that were accomplished over the summer. Good job!

Well now to explain the title if you haven't already guessed. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words so.........


This machine IS actually in my studio! Even as I look at this photo I am still amazed. I never dreamt in a million years that I would have a long arm sewing machine, but there it is. My sweet husband convinced me that now was the right time to get one. It is a Pfaff Precision 3. Hubby and I opened the box, went step by step until it was set up. Followed the DVDs and manual to the letter and before we knew it, it was ready to go. It is a dream to sew on it.


First stitches sewn. It is so fun!



I was never a "jump in with both feet" kind of a person, but I did with this. I have a "real" quilt on the machine now, trying out different designs to get the feel of it. It definitely will take a lot of practice, but I am looking forward to the process.

Glad to be back! Will be posting a bit more often I hope. At least now you know where I will be and what I am doing!

Thanks for catching up with me.

Watch out for today's blessings!


Friday 6 July 2012

Odd ends and bits.

That is a line from a Brooke Fraser song. It nicely describes this post.
When I first started my blog it was mainly for the intent to document what was happening in the quilting part of my world. Well, it wasn't long before I discovered that it is hard for me to separate one part of my life from another. I do try for the most part, but this is the post that bubbled to the top when I sat down this morning.
So much has gone on this past month or so. My daughter arrived home from Thailand. She was co -leader of YWAM Truro here in NS. Their out reach was in Thailand. It was a stretching time for all of us. That is her looking at the camera wearing the red dress. So good to have her back.



My Brother and his family has also returned from a year doing missions in the Phillipines. Their time there was both amazing and hard.


We have had fun homecomings and food. Laughter, tears and hugs.

When so much is going on, my quilting is usually of the "not too much thinking" type.
I made some blocks for Margaret's Hope Chest.



Here is a close up and link. A quick little block.



And delicious piecing! It is an on going nine patch scrappy quilt I have had on the go for awhile. Perfect to do when my mind and heart are in other places.


Summer is clicking along. Enjoy it with all it brings!

Watch out for today's blessings!

Monday 11 June 2012

It has arrived!

Yes, the quilt book that I won arrived on Friday. It was exciting to say the least. I can't remember the last time I won anything. As you can see it is the book "Geared for Guys". It is signed by the author, Emily Herrick, of "Crazy Old Ladies".



 There are some amazing quilts in there. Here is the first one I want to do. It will be for a friend of the family.



It is called "Switch Back". I will probably stick pretty close to  these colours, which means I have to buy fabric. There is a huge fabric store about three hours drive from where I live. Will get there sometime this summer for sure.

Thanking the people of "Crazy Old Ladies" for the chance to win!

Watch out for today's blessings!

Tuesday 5 June 2012

I am stumped!

Ok, I need some ideas. I have had this quilt "sandwiched" for a long time. Every time I pick it up to quilt it, I don't!


 I do know that I don't want an all over design, but a design that features the block.  Kind of a bad picture but you see the orange and yellow blocks come together to make a white four point star.

For those who are not sure what my set up is; I sew on a Pfaff expression 4.0 which is a home machine with a larger than normal sewing space. If you are a long armer and you have a design that might work, please pass it along.

How would you quilt this quilt?

Watch out for today's blessing!

Friday 18 May 2012

Bloggers Spring Quilt Festival

 I just find it all too exciting for words.
Thank you  Amy!           Amy's creative side

Here is the quilt I chose to submit. It is called "Fred's Roses". I made it just this spring for a friend of mine who turned eighty. Her husband who has been gone for several years, always had amazing roses.


It is a paper piecing design by Eileen Sullivan. Lots of small pieces, which I love. I also tried trapunto for the first time. I took the opportunity to try some different machine quilting which is another passion of mine.



You can kind of see the trapunto in this last photo.




Thanks for the opportunity to share!

D

Taking a design wall.......

to a whole new level! I wanted to use this design on a quilt that was ready to be quilted. It is Wendy's at Ivoryspring. She has lots to show you if you haven't visited her yet. Anyways, I was practicing this design by drawing it out on paper. It wasn't coming out like I wanted it to. The small piece of paper didn't allow me to get the feel of it. Can you guess what I did?




I drew it on  the wall! It was so freeing and it sure helped me get the feel of it and draw the design the size I wanted to do it on the quilt. I wasn't sure what Hubby would say, but he thought it "looked nice". It gave me the idea to maybe paint that wall with chalk board paint.

Here is what it looked like done on the quilt. What I liked about this design was the little swirly bits. I used them to "fill in" around the flowers. So if I was stuck in a weird place that a flower wouldn't fit, I did a swirl to get out.


As you can see, it is a strip quilt. Don't seem to get tired of this pattern.





I have been sewing strips to paper like you do for foundation piecing. Then you have to rip off all of the paper. Of which I have a pile in my living room as we speak, from the next one in progress. I have since discovered there is a ruler you can use! Did not know there was such a thing. I am getting one!

Going to link up with Pat's TGIFF. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend. In Canada it is a long one.

Watch out for today's blessings.

Monday 30 April 2012

Sunday Afternoon Fun

I had an opportunity  to "play" yesterday afternoon. Last week I bought a couple of stencils from Judi http://greenfairyquilts.blogspot.ca/ at Green Fairy quilts. She sells the stencils as PDF so you dont even have to wait for them to come in the mail. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy a visit to Judi's blog. Her quilting is exquisite.

This little quilty is just 10x10 ish. I wanted to try the design out before actually using it in a quilt. The method I used to mark the stencil you can find on Pat's blog. She follows SewCalGal's FMQ challenge. All info is on Pat's blog with links to the other blog. It worked very well.

Micro stippling on the outside of the design and pebbles on the inside. It is amazing how much you can learn from one little piece.



 I have a quilt top that has some big squares in it. I am always challenged by big open spaces. I think this design will work well.

I am forever grateful to quilters who share their knowledge and experience. So exciting to try something new.

Watch out for today's blessings!

Thursday 19 April 2012

Fred's Roses

That is what I called this little wall hanging. I made it for a friend of mine who turned 80 last week. Fred was her husband's name and he always had amazing roses bushes. He passed away several years ago, so it was kind of a tribute to him as well .



It was a paper piecing pattern by Eileen Sullivan. Her patterns are so fun to do. Fabric was bits and pieces of batiks. Paper still on the back.



Some pics of the machine quilting.





You cant really tell but that rose in the front is trapunto-ed. I did the roses and leaves in the front and the rose buds. It was the first time I had tried trapunto. Not sure if i really liked it but it does add a bit of dimension.

Sun is shining but still a bit cold here to be outside gardening, so will sew for a bit today. Working on my swoon blocks and a mystery quilt from the online Quilt Mag.

Watch out for today's blessings!