Happy Holidays

Two sleeps and the big day will be here. A lot of work and time spent for one day. But when surrounded by those we love it is so worth it.
For those who celebrate this Christmas season as I do, Merry Christmas. For those who celebrate this holiday season in another way, Season's Greetings - Happy Holidays. I wish peace, love,  joy and good health to all.

Merry Christmas!

Medallion BOM Finished

This was slow going but at last I have a finish in plenty of time to give as a Christmas gift for my oldest son. You can read about this quilt here.  We have no sun which makes it hard to get good pictures. No snow either!

No snow yet! But also no sun.

The first border I added was simply HST's with a strip of background fabric added to each end to make the border fit. Then a strip of background fabric and a final strip of the same fabric as the sashing and inner border. It finished up at 70'' but after tossing it in the washer and dryer it finishes at 67 1/2''s square. I love a quilt fresh out of the dryer showing all the texture of the quilting. 

I did try out some ruler work with the ruler foot toe, you can read more about the foot here. Amy from Amy's Free Motion Quilting Adventures has a Craftsy class which I have already taken,this is an affiliate link. I only have one ruler but I know I will be buying more soon. 

It did take a bit to get used to moving the ruler with the fabric and I have, as my one granddaughter said a couple 'hills' where the I didn't move everything together as a unit. But overall I was impressed hills and all. As you can tell it doesn't take much to get me excited.

ruler work complete with 'hills'

harder to see the ruler work in this one mainly the background.

On top of that I have hardly any scraps from this project I made a scrappy binding, by sewing 1 1/2'' strips of all the red fabrics, together then cutting them at a 45 degree angle at 2 1/4'' for my binding width, then I sewed the cut strips together to make over 320'' of binding. I like the effect of the scrappy binding.

scrappy binding

By the way I fixed the block with the corners going the wrong way read about that here. I appliqued a  new piece over each corner and quilted them.  

all fixed

The colours in the quilt would have shown up better if Mr. Sun would have made an appearance.

hanging in a tree

I was going to make a table runner and a couple other things I had in mind for Christmas, maybe next year. I don't have a single thing wrapped and Christmas is next week....

Are you ready for Christmas?

How could I?

Did you ever have this happen? Apparently I need stronger glasses. I just can't believe I did this but the picture doesn't lie and it gets worse I quilted it and still didn't notice it.

big oops

Oh and of course the sashings are already quilted too. Now what? Do I rip it all out? I am already dreading even the thoughts of that idea. Do I leave it as is? The Amish are said to have a mistake somewhere in their quilts. Maybe I can pretend I'm Amish...  What would you do? Just in case you didn't catch it. See those HST's to the right they are turned in instead of out.

Sunday Stash Here I go again

I did it again...More Fat Quarters! I'm a sucker for them. I don't see any help in the near future of this problem getting any better. I bought these three bundles, I never buy bundles but I couldn't resist the temptation of these three, from Craftsy.  Craftsy is having 12 days of Christmas sale now. This is an affiliate link, I get a small compensation if you click on it. We have no snow! It is a little overcast, that is supposed to clear and the sun is going to make an appearance. Everyday that is a no shovel day is fantastic in my books. I know a Canadian who doesn't want snow, what can I say but pleaseee everyone else keep the white stuff to yourself. No sharing allowed!

Three bundles of quilty bliss

I haven't even opened these bundles yet. That will come later. First up this bundle of Michael Miller 10 piece Pastel Provence. One of my granddaughters is starting to collect all things Eiffel Tower. The bottom piece has Eiffel towers  on it. I am thinking of making a wall hanging for her using this bundle, for her birthday in March. At least I have a plan to use theses ones.

Pastel Provence bundle

Up next is Windham Fabrics Christmas Bundle. I am in short supply of Christmas fabrics and hopefully these are destined to become a table runner and pot holders. Maybe for next year as I don't see myself having time to get them done this year. But one never knows miracles do happen....

Christmas bundle 12 pieces

Last but not least is this 15 piece bundle of Traditional Windham Fabrics. No plan no ideas just a weak moment again. Who knows maybe an idea will appear. Maybe a BOM? 

Lovely bundle but sadly no idea on how to use them

I need to get to work on the quilting of my oldest son's Christmas gift you can read about it here. I bought a ruler toe foot and ruler for my DSM. I did some practicing on a quilt sandwich practice piece. I'm ready...kind of ....maybe to use it on my son's quilt. I'll have more about that in another post. In the meantime a sneak preview...at least it's all set up to start.

Charity Quilt

Every year my guild picks a charity and makes quilts during the year for that charity. Some of the quilts we have made and donated have been to Project Linus, the local women's shelter and community members in need of a little quilty love. This year we our charity is Victoria's Quilts Canada. They provide quilts to people in Canada who have cancer.

We sorted out fabrics and put them into colour coordinated kits, which we then put into large ziploc bags. The bag I took home had some pinks and greens. It also had various size cuts with no yardage. A little bit of a challenge, just what I need right now. I scoured the internet and pinterest looking for inspiration. I wanted a simple to piece project, heck I already had a big enough challenge with the sizes. I had various 6 1/2 inch blocks, some 2 1/2 inchish strips to name a couple.
I saw a quilt called Stacked Squares Quilt at Kitchen Table Quilting. You can download the pattern from the Moda Back Shop.  It uses a layer cake and jelly roll strips, but I thought I could adapt it to work with what I had.

I took the 6 1/2'' squares I had and added a 2 1/2'' strip to two sides and then darker 2 1/2'' strips to the those same sides, this gave me a 10'' finished block.This size block worked out great as I ended up with a 50 1/2 x 70 1/2 inch top. The sizes that Victoria Quilts wants are adult: approximately 50” x 70”, youth: approximately 48” x 60” and child: approximately 36” x 48”.

auditioning square and strips

 There were no whites so I used some of my own plus some additional fabrics for the squares and strips. It was an easy and quick top to piece. I think it turned out not too bad. I only hope it gives someone comfort in their journey, as battling cancer is not easy.

My version of Stacked Squares

I another picture with the sun just catching part of the top.

sun catching a portion of the top

Someone else in my guild will longarm it. My guild bought a roll of cotton batting and is also providing the flannel for the backs.

I am left with the following mostly 3'' squares a few 4'' and strips ranging from 1 3/4 to 2 1/2 inches. I could use some ideas for these. 

leftovers

How would you use them?

Black and White Stepping Out

Slow sewing is going to be the norm over the next several months as I deal with a health issue. I am trying to squeeze in a few minutes here and there when possible, as sewing is wonderful therapy.

I have been wanting to make a black and white since forever, well maybe not forever but for a long time. What better quilt to make than using my own pattern from the Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop, you can read about it in this post and also get the free pattern download. You can read about the fabrics I used here.

Black and White Stepping out top

I am trying to decide on borders. I scanned my fabric and played around in my graphics program with a possible idea of using some flying geese. 

flying geese borders

A narrow border of black and white and the flying geese centered on all four sides, and maybe white corners. I really like the blocks and don't want to take away from them.

I am also working on a charity quilt using fabric from my guild plus some of my own additions. You'll have to wait to see it in another post.

Until next time happy quilting!

Quilter's Planner

Stephanie from the Late Night Quilter has been hard at work on putting together a 2016 Quilter's planner. My block from the Fabri-Quilt Blog Hop is included in her planner! How very exciting! You can read about my block here and be sure to get the free instructions while you are there.

What a terrific and useful idea Stephanie had and to be able to put it all together in one planner is fantastic. I like to keep track of things on my calendar and can see what a help the planner will be with everything in one place.

This is what Stephanie has inside the planner:

Monthly calendars
Weekly calendars
Project planning pages
Swatch saver
Graph paper
Free motion quilting practice pages
Goal-setting prompts
8 full quilt patterns from amazing designers (Cheryl Brickey (Meadowmist Designs), Yvonne Fuchs (Quilting Jetgirl), Amy Garro (13 Spools), Lee Heinrich (Freshly Pieced), Mandy Leins (Mandalei Quilts), Pat Sloan (Pat Sloan), Kitty Wilkin (Night Quilter) and me).
52 original quilt block designs from awesome quilt bloggers
Gorgeous artwork pull-outs by the talented Kelsey Boes from Lovely and Enough
Reference section for quilting calculations and common construction techniques

Be sure to go to Stephanie's blog to read more about it. You can order one here. For a chance to receive a free PDF of the Project Planning Page go here.