Tuesday 29 December 2020

My Quilting Resolution Blog Hop

   Thank you Carla of Creatin' in the Sticks for hosting this blog hop!  I normally do not make News Year's resolutions, I don't want the stress of not accomplishing them hanging over me all year long. This year, as we all know has not been kind to anyone. So out with the old and in with the new kinder, gentler, I hope year ahead. 

To avoid getting overwhelmed by my resolutions in 2021 my goals are simple, as the best resolutions are stress-free. I aim to not accomplish my goals in one month but over the course of the entire year. 

My resolutions are as follows:

1. I hate, yes I know rather harsh but true none the less, UFO's. I have one hanging over my head, that has been there since my hubby passed away. I resolve to finish it up and list the pattern in my Etsy Shop.

started in March of 2020, the top is finished and it is basted just waiting for the quilting to start

2: Is this panel, I had printed by Spoonflower. The print is a photo taken by my daughter in law, I edited it and had it printed. My goal is to add a few borders round-robin style. Sound like a fun project! Do you have a panel, any panel, and want to play along with me. If so let me know in the comments. When leaving a comment please make sure you are not a no-reply commenter.

sunset on Tyson Lake

Those are two simple relatively easy to accomplish resolutions. 

Want to see what other bloggers have in mind for 2021, here is the list.






Sunday 20 December 2020

A Little Christmas

 This year is different in so many ways! And yet we will still be giving gifts. Whether by mail or for those that we can thankfully celebrate Christmas with, in person.

We as quilters are creative people, making gifts for our loved ones is something we can and do enjoy from the planning right through to the finish. I haven't done a lot of sewing this year or made many gifts, my sewjo has been sadly lacking.

When we give handmade gifts we give something personal and individual to the person receiving the gift. We are also giving a piece of ourselves every time we make and give a gift. Even if we make two of the same items, each one is unique and made with love. The love we have for each individual person is also unique to that person, and this is what gives each piece special meaning.

A homemade gift for my daughter

I think we give gifts; as a way to celebrate life, love, and friendships. 

I wish each and everyone a happy holiday season this very unusual Christmas season!

Did you make any homemade gifts this year for someone near and dear or perhaps a friend?


Wednesday 2 December 2020

2020 Virtual Cookie Exchange Blog Hop

 This is day 3 of the Virtual Cookie Exchange and Christmas Blog Hop, hosted by Carol at Just Let Me Quilt


What better time than Christmas to share a sweet treat, even if we can't all be together this year, we can always pop some cookies in the mail and share the joy of giving that makes Christmas so merry! Christmas is definitely going to be different for me. Normally I am a Christmas nut but with the loss of my hubby and not being able to have Christmas with all my children and grandchildren this year I am dreading it.

The cookie recipe I will be sharing this year is Cinnamon Roll Cookies. My grandma made the best cinnamon rolls, you know the ones made with sweet yeast dough. Yum, I do make them but these cookies are so much easier and almost as good. I think you'll enjoy them as much as my family does.

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla 
Filling
2 Tablespoons butter, melted and slightly cooled
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Icing
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla 

Cookie Dough:
Using a mixer, beat the butter for 1 minute on high speed until creamy. Beat in the sugar until completely creamed and smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined.

Making the rolls: 
Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Roll each portion out in a rectangle approximately 9×7 inches to about 1/4″ thickness. 
Kind of a rectangle, but it's all good

Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter onto each rectangle. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together then sprinkle evenly over each roll.

cinnamon sugar sprinkled on rolled out dough

Working slowly, tightly roll up each rectangle into a 9-inch log. If the dough cracks use your fingers to smooth it out. Some cracks are fine. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill the logs of dough for at least 2 hours. 
Preheat oven to 350°F. 
Remove dough logs from the refrigerator. Cut into 1/2 inch slices. Place slices onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper 2 inches apart.
Bake for 10-11 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove from the oven, allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.

Icing: 
Mix all of the icing ingredients together. Drizzle over cookies. Cover and store cookies at room temperature for up to 5 days. They also freeze well.

I like to place parchment paper under the cookies before drizzling the icing. I reused the parchment that I used when baking the cookies.

For my Christmas project, I made a  pillow top, in traditional colours.


I kept the quilting simple as I wanted a soft fluffy pillow. You can get the pattern in my Etsy shop.

Take a little time to visit the other blogs and pick up some more recipes for sweet treats.

Tuesday 22 September 2020

Hello Fall! A Blog Hop


 Today is my turn in the 'Hello Fall Blog Hop'. Thanks to, Carla from Creatin' in the Sticks, for this great idea. 

I was in Northern Ontario this past weekend at my son's, as you can see in the photo below the leaves are just starting to change. I love fall with its beautiful colours and with the weather changing to cooler temps it's time to start thinking of curling up under a quilt and reading a book or even binge watching Netflix.

a little inspiration

I had a project in mind with a bit of a Canadian twist for this blog hop. What's more Canadian then the maple leaf, and geese flying south for the winter? Now all I had to do was come up with a design and make it before my day to post. 
I played around in EQ8 and came up with something I thought would work and I could finish in time.

my fabric pull from green to orange

After pulling some fabrics, I was ready to start. A little flip and sew and I had a Maple leaf done.

maple leaf in progress

I placed the colours darkest to lightest from the stem out trying to get the impression of the leaves changing to fall colours.

Next up those flying geese.



I think I should have changed the order of the orange print and the orange solid, but too late now. That's what happens when I put my head down and foot to the pedal to get a project done, I forgot to check the colour placement. 

I like the stained glass look of a flimsy

I set the blocks on point, added some set in triangles and had a flimsy. I haven't free motion quilted in quite a few months and was worried I wouldn't be able to find my rhythm. I used Thermore batting from Hobbs, Aurifil thread #2024 for the background and Wonderfil Mirage for the leaf and geese.


dot to dot in the geese

I echoed the goose part of the flying geese and did some dot to dot aka Angela Walters quilting.

swirls in the leaf
I stitched in the ditch and echoed the leaf, then fmqed some swirls in the leaf parts. A couple could have been a little more rounded but they are fine, the rust started to fall off as I quilted the background with vines, leaves and swirls.

I brought the crow out to play

 And we have a finish. A nice new fall table runner for my table. 

all quilted and bound in green


I hope you get to enjoy the fall colours around or near you. Don't forget to go visit the rest of the bloggers posting today and see their fall colours.

Wednesday 9 September 2020

Welcome to the Garden Party Row Along Blog Hop

 Thanks to Marian at Seams to Be Sew who is the organizer behind this blog hop. This is my second year designing a row, this year's theme is a garden party.

Northcott Fabrics generously sponsors the row along, providing each of us designers with up to 1 yard of fabric.
Nortchcott Fabrics
Northcott Fabrics

Once we knew that the theme was going to be a Garden row.  I knew I would be making some kind of flower for my row, deciding what that flower would look like was the hard part. You see I love flowers, roses are my favourite. However, like most gardeners, I have a love for all flowers. 

small piecing
small piecing 

There is a little bit of small piecing in the blooms, these are 1 3/4'' by 1 3/4''. But I know you can do it.

My row is 18'' by 9''

You can download my row here from dropbox. It will be free until the end of October.

Be sure to enter today's giveaway. a Rafflecopter giveaway Clover USA - Quilting Notions Bundle
  


Clover USA - Quilting Notions Bundle includes Flower Head Pins, Seam Ripper, Wonder Clips, Fabric Folding Pen, Water Erasable Marker, Wonder Pins.

The complete rules for the giveaway can be found at Marian's blog Seams to be Sew.

This is the list of today's fellow bloggers make sure to visit them and collect their rows.

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Bobbin In Quilts Blog | Kissed Quilts | Patchwork Breeze

Songbird Designs | Stitchin’ at Home (Me)


I do not like the changes to blogger AT ALL! 












Saturday 30 May 2020

A New Chapter

This is the hardest post I've ever written. I recently lost my hubby of 43 years. This whole Covid thing has made handling his loss harder.  At a time when family and friends are needed the most and even a hug, all where lacking it feels so unreal. It has been a time of mixed emotions. It feels like my life has  been turned upside down and focus has been a challenge. I wander aimlessly around the house. I look at my sewing machine and have had no real desire to sew.





Friday 10 April 2020

Creativity and Hope

Creativity, the process of making something new. Hope, a feeling of expectation and a desire for certain things to happen.
I hope that we will return to normal or a near normal life.
Usually I'm busy preparing to have my family together for Easter. With 'Stay at Home' orders we will connect via phone calls or messaging. It will be different but necessary to help stop the spread. My oldest grandson Tyler sends random messages, they help to brighten my day. What I miss most are the little things like walking into a store to pick up one or two things and not feeling paranoid while doing it. The big thing I miss most are grandkid hugs!

 I just wanted, no needed to play with fabric, colour, thread in other words be creative. An idea came from a quote I read on the internet it is from Emily Dickinson:
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

Usually I start a new project in EQ, this time I played in my graphics program. At first I was just going to do a small trapunto whole cloth with the word hope, but I wasn't really feeling it. The feather kept tickling me. Then it hit me why not use a feather, thankfully not very hard. How?
The ideas flowed after that. But how was I going to add that feather, with thread of course after all the original idea of a whole cloth was still there. I had never done a whole cloth before. There's a first time for everything and I was going to jump in feet first.
tracing the lettering and feather using my lightbox

I printed out the layout I came up with, it took four pages, then I taped those pages together. I used a blue wash out marker to trace it onto a piece of Kona Cotton.
stitched with washout thread

I placed a piece of polyester batting for loftiness of the trapunto, and before you ask why I didn't use wool I have a wool allergy. I stitched the outline of the words and feather with wash away thread, then cut away the rest of the batting.
I layered the backing, Hobbs 80/20 batting, another piece of poly batting and the top.
backing, Hobbs batting, poly batting and top

Next up thread decisions, I auditioned Aurifil threads.
Aurifil thread selection

I was a little worried about stitching the feather and making a total mess of it. So I started with stitching Aurifil 2024 around all the lettering and the spine of the feather first. I thought micro stitching around the letters would make them pop, it does. BUT it is slow going and I figured after half an hour in I must have been off my rocker to be doing it. It was slow going but I do like the look of it.

That feather was taunting me and I thought it's now or never. For the feather I laid down a base using 2024 followed by 2311. I'm sorry I didn't take any step by step photos, I was too into the feather to even think about photos. I used 2304 and 2902 both 40 wt next.
I like how the feather turned out

Instead of a traditional binding I did a faced binding. This is the tutorial I used. I hand sewed the sides and the bottom corners but left the top corners unsewn, I am using them as hanging pockets.

the back 
I am happy with this my first whole cloth project.
no sun this morning

Would I do another whole cloth? I think so? Did it help fill my need for creativity? Yes!

I hope you are remaining positive and finding joy in the simple pleasures... maybe it's the smell of fresh bread, a phone call or message from a loved one or friend or maybe a sunny day.

Monday 30 March 2020

Stay at Home Day #4

We're staying home to stop the spread of this virus, but we can still share the love of quilting with friends all around the world. Today is the final day of the hop.


Have you started doing a Quilt Along or BOM to keep busy? Perhaps you're catching up on a WIP?

I am doing a little of this and that. I almost have my new pattern written and made. Are you interested in testing it?


not a hint of green
As part of the Stay At Home and Hop With Us blog hop I am offering a %20 discount on patterns in my Etsy store during the round robin.

Let me to introduce to you to some of my favourite quilting colleagues and friends.

DaySpring Quilt Company

Ms P Designs, USA

Stitchin’ at Home *You Are Here*

Sew Joy Creations

Ships & Violins

Patti’s Patchwork

Your Sewing Friend

The Geeky Bobbin

Colourwerx Designs

Kate Colleran Designs


Day #3

Bequilter

Presto Avenue Designs

Cheryl Lynch Quilts

Love to Color My World

Hissyfitz Designs

Canton Village Quilt Works

Anjeanette Klinder Designs

Pat Sloan – The Voice of Quilting

Said With Love

Orange Blossom Quilt Design

Day #2

Studio R Quilts

Toadally Quilts

From Blank Pages

Cotton Street Commons

Puppy Girl Designs

Phoebe Moon Quilt Designs

The Devoted Quilter

Christa Quilts

Stitched by Susan

Tamarinis

Day #1

Lone Star Pattern Works

Powered by Quilting

Cottage Rose Quilt Patterns

The Cloth Parcel

Faith and Fabric

Linen Closet Designs

Designs by Sarah J

Rona the Ribbiter Quilts

Quilt Fox Designs

Seam to Be Sew