Stash Additions

I'm working on a couple projects that I can't show you. But that didn't stop me from adding to my stash, this after I was going to try and use more of my stash. Temptation. All I can say is I caved.

First up from Quilt Junction in Waterford. They were having a 40% off sale of batiks.

Northcott batiks, the back piece is 3 meters

Next up four one yard pieces at $9 a yard. I just couldn't resist. These are from Caroline Quilts, she was a vendor at my guild's quilt show last weekend. 

from left to right a Northcott 'Simply Neutral', 'Sandscapes' also from Northcott, 'Modern Love also a Northcott and last is 'Fusions Garden by Robert Kaufman
 

These last ones are also from Caroline Quilts. She calls these 'candy' They are end cuts in various sizes, they were $1 each.

love the owls

The owl piece sorry no info on the selvedge is 16'' x 21''. The green and purple piece is 12'' x 22'' and is Hamilton Grove by Sue Beevers. The multi colour drops is Songbird and is 11'' x 21''. The pink print is 8'' x 42'' and is Bloom Crazy. The two neutrals are both 11'' x 21''. 

After these additions I'm now back to my self imposed ( we all see how well that's going so far) NO new fabric purchases unless it's for secret sewing.

My Guild's Challenge

This year the challenge for my guild's quilt show was 'Home'. It is described as "What home means to you. Whether it is a place: your house, a place you have fond memories of, maybe flowers or family."  I decided to make mine based on family.

After a few ideas tossed around in the middle of the night. I know that I am not alone in the late night designing department. I finally settled on a brilliant idea, all my ideas are brilliant at least I think they are. I wanted a heart and family.

A red heart that said home, maybe some flowers as I love flowers and maybe a picture of my family. Everything spiraled from there. The challenge had a mind of it's own. 

First the red fabric. I couldn't find anything I liked and I wanted something that said home. I could have appliqued it, or stitched it or even used fabric markers all would have been fine. But I choose to go another direction I had fabric printed from Spoonflower, that I designed with 'Home where family is sewn into the fabric of my Life' printed on it.

fabric from Spooflower minus a heart shape

Once the fabric arrived I quickly cut into as you can see in the above photo. Next up the flowers, for which I first applied Steam a Seam 2 Lite to the back of the flower fabrics, before cutting the flowers out. I had and still have a lot of flowers cut out.

flowers, flowers and more flowers and this was after finishing the piece

I printed out pictures of my family, sorry no in-laws. I asked my family if they all wanted to be included and my daughter in-laws said no so I decided my son in-law wasn't going to make the cut either. My hubby doesn't want his picture front and center so I coloured him out of the photos.

first layout

One nice thing about the Steam a Seam it allows you to easily move the pieces around as long as they are not pressed down. I put them on a piece of pattern ease (Pattern Ease is a polyester non woven tracing material that can be used to create pattern pieces or sewn into projects as a light weight interfacing or stabilizer.), as the fabric pieces would be fused down to it. I cut the fused piece from the pattern ease along the outer edges, then appliqued the whole piece onto the background fabric latter. I wasn't happy with the first layout and moved the family around a lot until I settled on the final layout. 

I was right into the piece and forgot to take pictures along the way.

thread work

 I used Superiors monopoly for appliqueing the piece to the background. Then I cut loose using my favourite threads, Aurifil for the thread work, there where a lot of colour changes and burying of thread tails. 

a selection of Aurifil threads where used

I should have done more thread work before I started quilting it, but as I said earlier this project had a mind of it's own and decided I should add more thread work.

the back of the piece showing some of the thread work

And now for the big reveal in amongst my hostas.

my home, my happy place

These are the people who hold my love and will always come first. They are the 'Fabric of my Life'.

If you are in the area come and see what our show has to offer. We have quilts aplenty, a boutique and vendors. Some of the vendors are Sue Patten, K&A Quilts, Caroline Quilts. Even if you're not close by come on down. The show is at the Norwich Historical Museum, 89 Stover St. Norwich Ontario. 

Friday June 7th  12PM to 5PM

Saturday June 8th 10AM to 4PM

 

More Bits of Goings On

It's amazing how fast April seemed to come along this year. The months just continue to roll on, if I'm not careful I may get rolled right over.
April started out busy as the 1st is my anniversary, no sewing got done. We spent the day just doing little fun things that we enjoy, like a walk. Then a nice meal out at one of our favourite restaurants.

Sewing has been happening including more secret sewing this time for the 'Be A Diamond' blog hop hosted by Just Let Me Quilt.

A sneak peak at my project. 

a fun novelty print

This is as far as I am, I need to get moving on this project as my day is April 26th.

Some easy sewing also happened I saw these cute little bunny bags on pinterest. The tutorial is here. They were a quick make. My grandchildren will like these, especially filled with chocolates.

I made six in a couple hours

I have also been slowly working on my challenge project for my guild show. I have been using Steam a Seam 2 Lite on the back of the flowers and cutting them out. I need a whole lot more. 

I need to continue cutting more as this is only a small sample of what I'm going to be using

Now I just hope my idea for the guild challenge works out the way I have in my mind. That's the funny thing about these visions they don't always go the way we think they will. But I'm pushing forward as I'm sure it's going to look like I envision, fingers and toes crossed.

 

If you are looking for a great QAL hop on over to mmm!quilts. She has a lovely design, that makes 42 1/2'' square quilt a very manageable size and time schedule. I am sponsoring one of the prizes.

Now I better get busy and start putting thread to fabric.

What Happened to October?

I'm not sure where the time has gone. I feel like I blinked and all of a sudden it's November. It's not that I didn't do anything in October, I did. I'll let you be the judge.

There was a mystery tour through my guild. It was a great day with lots of laughter and shopping at some great quilt shops. We went to The Quilt Place in Shakespeare, Heart'n'Home in New Hamburg, E & E's Cloth & Creations in Newton, Cotton Harvest Shop in Seaforth, Ye Olde Quilt Shop in Stratford. A delicious lunch was enjoyed by all at Anna Mae's in Millbank.

two metres of Moda's Basic Grey from the Quilt Place and 4 metres of Northcott solid from Heart'n'Home

three one metre batik cuts from the Cotton Harvest. The blue is for my daughter 

The Northcott blue was purchased for a quilt for one of my grandson's. He wants blue and animals, he is getting both. I have been making blocks using patterns from Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts. Some are purchased patterns and some are free on her blog.

Brandon's animal quilt so far

Then there's a memory quilt, a cousin and I are making. 

I thread sketched the fishing rod and line

At November's guild meeting I will be demoing Inktense pencils.

this piece of batik with a little Inktense pencil work turned into leaves

I'm also doing a QAL, a Splash of Colour you can read more about it here.

Splash of Colour progress, the black with white dots is Cotton & Steel. There has been some reverse stitching involved in the progress of this one. I may have put the white and black print on the wrong side. All fixed now.

That sums up a little of what has kept me busy in October. After putting it in this post it's no wonder it flew by so fast.

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, My Quilt Infatuation

Shweshwe Fabric - Guest Speaker

My guilds guest speaker was Celeste of Meerkat Shweshwe Fabrics. What an enjoyable speaker! She took us through the history of Shweshwe and it's South African roots. She talked about the influence of Europeans and indigo. How colour has emerged as the youth of South Africa move into the cities.

beautiful array of colours

Celeste is an excellent speaker holding everyone's attention. I can't begin to do justice to the history of the Spruce manufacturing or 'Three Cats' trademark, to read more about the history of Shweshwe go to Celeste Meerkat's website.

we had a full house and getting good pictures of her quilts was difficult.

In the above photo she used both sides of the Shweshwe fabric.

the dots are orange

The fabric is stiff from the manufacturing process and needs to be prewashed before being used.