I finished this a bit ago...

  Quilt stats

Name:  I Spy Another One

Design:  224-4" squares with 4" border

Size:  62" by 70"

Fabric: I Spy Scraps and stash fabrics

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 50 wt in white

I made another I Spy quilt over the Christmas holidays but I haven't shared a picture yet.  This is the third I Spy quilt that I have made in this style.  And this one is a donation quilt for my school's fun fair later this spring.  I hope they will raise a whole bunch of money with it!

I am getting smarter with each I Spy quilt I have made.  This time I cut a lot of fabric so I have a big supply of 4" squares of I Spy prints all ready to go for the next occasion.

I used a classic black and white stripe binding because I just love the look.  Doesn't it look like a whole pile of fun all rolled up like that?

This is quilted in a grid 1/4" from each seam line in Aurifil 50 wt in white.  The backing is a combination of 2 novelty prints from my stash.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it Up Friday!

Work in Progress...

Continuing in the manner that I do things... this is what I am working on right now.  I tend to finish one quilt before I start another. This is Geometric Slide from the wonderful book by Katie, Lee and Faith, Vintage Quilt Revival. I really love this book.  And I really love this quilt.  It goes together pretty quickly.  I only have 2 more blocks to make and then I can start adding in the solid white.  Of course I had to make a whole lot of these half square triangles first...

And then there was a whole pile of this...  I am not a fan of the trimming but I do really admire the results!

So fun!  What are you working on?  Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for Work in Progress Wednesday and the Needle and Thread Network.

More quilt mail... and I learned something today

Well... maybe I learned more than one thing.  Like don't hit publish your blog post until you actually write something.  Hmmm.

So... I ordered a few things from Mad About Patchwork the other day and surprise, surprise, two fat quarters fell into my shopping cart along with the Konas I had selected.  These are prints from Lizzy House and her catnap line.  Love the mice!

And the Konas are from the far left... Putty, Berry, Cerise, Mulberry and Pomegranate.  So pretty!

For those Canadians out there, Mad About Patchwork has really reasonable shipping.  Just saying.

The other thing I learned today is that there really are two ways to wind thread on a spool or cone.  Alex Veronelli, Product Manager of Aurifil, actually commented on my post from the other day and then we emailed back and forth a bit.  Now that is customer service!  Seriously fabulous.  Alex explained that industrial machines prefer thread wound counter clockwise and domestic machines, such as mine,  prefer the other.  Who knew?  The cone I recently got is therefore intended for industrial sewing machines but will work quite happily for me upside down!

This is what came in the mail on Friday

How fun is it to get a box of fat quarter bundles delivered right to the door?  There are 23 bundles of goodness for the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild's next Warp and Weft challenge.  I wonder what I will make with these!?  My guild buddies will have to take my word for it... this is a bunch of fabric eye candy!

From the top... 
Dots Blue Moon from Up, Up and Away by Skinny LaMinx for Cloud 9 Fabrics
Pennants waving ivory from Koi by Rashida Hale-Coleman for Cloud 9 Fabrics
Swallow Study in Lavender from Bungalow by Joel Dewberry for Westminster/Free Spirit Fabrics
Specimen Struck from Field Study by Anna Maria Horner for Westminster/Free Spirit Fabrics
King's Road  from Carnaby Street by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics
Ladylike from Carnaby Street by Pat Bravo  for Art Gallery Fabrics

Random Thursday...it's been a while

Here is the funny thing.  I cracked open this lovely large cone of Aurifil 50 wt in grey the other day.  ANd for some reason, the thread seems to have been wound in the wrong direction.  You can see how the thread on the right is hanging, and how I had to put the grey cone upside down to have the thread pulling in the correct direction.  How strange is that?

My husband found this wee critter in the back flower bed the other day when he was raking leaves and cleaning the perennial beds.  This is what he said about her in an email..."I found Alice under some leaves. She was walking around in circles and looking for her glasses, which she had dropped. We visited for a bit and then I left her to her task. Busy, busy, busy."  We think she is a rough sided newt.  WIth her tail unfurled, she was about 8" long.  After her photo op, she was returned to the garden to continue her search for her glasses.  Good thing Husband kept his gloves on because apparently newts can exude toxins.  How very clever of them!

Webster loves his toys.  He particularly enjoys a certain "toothbrush" that is no longer sold but we happened to have found some on ebay.  This is what a blissful doggy looks like as he begins to brush his teeth.  Happiness is a new doggy toothbrush!

Our guild works together with Warp and Weft, a really lovely Canadian online fabric shop owned by Esmari.  This is the bundle that I put together with Esmari's help.  Isn't it lovely?  All the bundles are on their way as we speak.  So exciting!

And I am linking up with Cindy for Random Thursday.  Let's review... thread, newts, dog tooth brushes and fabric.  So random.

What did I do this week?

I signed up again for Elizabeth Dackson's Lucky Stars Block of the Month again this year.  This is January's.  Oh my goodness.  What a lot of pieces!  And the bonus block is just below.  I made that one at the sew in on Saturday with my guild buddies.  It took me all day because there was a whole lot of talking going on and subsequently, a whole lot of stitch ripping.  Erg.

And together they look like this... Interestingly, the January block is a bit smaller than the bonus block and I think that I am going to make it work because I just don't fancy making another one.  I think that could have been another template printing issue.  But the funny thing is that I printed the templates at home at the same time.  I am just going to make it work.

And this is what it all looks like together on the design wall so far.  Placement is completely random at this point.  But it is starting to look pretty nice!

And I have started another quilt.  Yep.  So far it is just cut up fabric.  This is going to be Geometric Slide from the fabulous new quilting book Vintage Quilt Revival by Katie Blakesley, Lee Heinrich and Faith Jones!  Such an awesome book!

And that is what I am working on this week.  Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for Work In Progress Wednesday .

Sunday Stash and the story of a yucky ironing board

My Mum sent me a package of fabric the day.  She has taken advantage of a sale at her local quilt shop.  Thanks Mum!!!!!  I think she did really well.  Mum included a little note to say that I had to look carefully through the fabric and I was to think of money in a birthday cake.  This is what I found.  My Great Grandmother's pocket watch.  Isn't it so lovely?????  I am thrilled and it just needs a chain.

Yesterday I spent the day with a bunch of my guild members at an all day sew in.  We have so much fun.  There was a lot of laughing and a whole lot of fabric talk.  I did not get a ton of sewing done but I did manage to put together one of my Lucky Stars blocks.  Seriously!  It had a ton of pieces and I used my stitch ripper a lot.  Just saying.  Today I made another one and I got grossed out by my ironing board cover.

I went to the great wall of fabric and found this print.  It looked like ironing board fabric to me so I flipped over the ironing board and traced the board onto the fabric.  I then cut out the ironing board shape plus about 3" and attached some purchased bias tape, threaded some narrow elastic through the bias casing and...

this...  blech!

now looks like this...  Much better!

Making Lemonade...Pink that is!

 Name:  Pink Lemonade

Design: Mine

Block:  Kaleidoscope Block from Quilter's Cache

Size:  approx  41" by 49"

Fabric:  Kona Ash, 

Backing:  a pink print from my stash

Binding: Kona Pomegranate

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 40 wt in Pink  2415

I was going to call this quilt Oopsie-Baby because of how it came to be but then someone commented yesterday when I was talking about making lemonade with "oops" blocks that this was Pink Lemonade.  Pink Lemonade it is!  And yes, this one came about because of template printing issues creating blocks that were too big for my bee partner.  

As "oops" blocks go, I will definitely mark this one done as a most happy accident.  I think it totally works!  

The Kona Ash offsets the bright scrappy blocks really well.  And don't even get me started on the binding.  I love it!  

I usually leave baby quilts lightly quilted but this one begged for lots of quilting.  Straight lines about 1/2" apart all the way across in a fabulous Aurifil 40 wt in pink... number 2415 to be precise.    I love straight line quilting.  

Done and now in inventory waiting for a baby that needs a quilt.  Linking up tomorrow with Amanda Jean for finish it up Friday.

Work in Progress Wednesday... Making Lemonade

Well.  On the weekend I started to make lemonade.   I was trying to make the best of a bad situation.  I mentioned the other day that in attempting to make blocks for my January That Stash Bee, many of us struggled with the template.  Insert gnashing of teeth and general frustration.  I ended up with 2 and half supersize blocks along with the two that I sent off to my bee mate.  Even with a lot of fiddling and printing, my blocks turned out a bit on the small size.  The colours are gorgeous and the blocks were so lovely even as supersized blocks that I decided to make lemonade from my lemons.  I finished the third large block and added a whole bunch of Kona Ash and make a baby quilt.  

And it feels good.  All quilted up in a lovely light pink Aurifil 40 wt.  I auditioned several fabrics for binding before settling on Kona Pomegranate.  Now that is a lovely intense pink.

Linking up with Lee for Work in Progress Wednesday!  

Modern Mini... Are we there yet?

 Name:  Are we there yet?

Design: Mine

Size:  approx  26" by 30"

Fabric:  Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush, Kona solids... Curry and Cerise,

 Robert Kaufman linen cotton blend, Stof basics text print in ivory

Backing:  stash fabrics

Binding:  Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 40 wt ivory

I have spoken before about my lovely Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild and how we are playing a big role in the Creative Stitches Show in Abbotsford in March.  We are hosting a Modern Mini Challenge for the guild as part of the show as a way of demonstrating what modern quilting looks like.  Guild members have been selecting modern quilting themes out of a basket and then getting busy.  Since I am the guild challenge coordinator, I got busy fast so I could have a sample.  I selected alternate grid work as a modern quilting theme but when I started working, I also had expansive negative space, use of solids, bright, colourful prints as well.  I quilted it heavily with straight lines in an ivory Aurifil 40 wt and increased the length of the stitches a bit.  The stitches pop on the linen.  We decided to go a little bigger than a typical mini to showcase the modern quilting themes.  So here it is.  A modern mini.  I called it Are We There Yet? because I am really excited about the Creative Stitches show!

De-stash!

We had a grand de-stash at our Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild meeting on Thursday.  I took copious quantities of assorted crafty stuff to share and came home with a conservative pile of goodies.  I added much to my purple stash, added some other fabrics and a boat load of a really lovely home decor weight fabric.

I also came away with a fair collection of I Spy fabrics including some hockey prints.  I did not have any hockey prints!  And I was ever so well behaved this morning because I actually chopped up all the smaller pieces into 4" squares right away!

Cynthia shared some of the BOLT of vintage home decor weight fabric with me that she found on a thrifty adventure and Steam Trunk Cathy shared this crazy vegetable fabric and some Joe Boxer "Good to the Core" apple fabric with me.  It will probably become a picnic table cloth at some point.

I also won a charm pack!  Yahoo!  I have been on quite the winning steak of late.

Evidence of my good behaviour and good scrap management.

A Friday Finish on a Thursday...

 Quilt stats

Name:  Vintage Pinkness 

Design:  Mine, Economy blocks, 5.5"

Size:  38" by 48"

Fabric:  assorted stash fabric and scraps, Kona Baby Pink, pink stripe flannelette backing

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 50 wt in white

This is a baby quilt for a gift for one of our son's fiance's friends.  The baby is not yet born but the family knows she is a girl and her name will be Scarlet.  I was asked to make the quilt and was given free rein but the thought was that it should include some red.  Okay.  So this is what happened.  I started making Red Pepper Quilt's Economy blocks even before the big craze happened.  I am just so on it with trends!  Giggle.  But I alternated the blocks with solids in the palest of pinks.  Each block has a little whimsical square and I added a really sweet small scale pink print from Lecien for the border.  I just don't remember what it is called.  I have had it for quite awhile.  The binding is from Kate Spain's Christmas line.

And I quilted on either side of the blocks in Aurifil 50 wt in white and then added diagonals in each direction.  The diagonals really finished it perfectly.  The quilting has transformed this little quilt.  It went from being okay to being OKAY!  after the quilting.

First finish of the new year.  Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it up Friday.  And now I am off to guild.  De-stash night and I have a lot of stuff to get rid of!  So exciting!!!!

Working, working...

I popped these wee blocks in the mail the other day.  They are destined for a baby quilt project.  So fun.  And Economy blocks are all the rage right now.  These ones finished at 5.5" and were paper pieced using the tutorial and template available from Rita at Red Pepper Quilts.  Paper piecing these makes really accurate blocks!

I have also been working on the mini quilt for the Creative Stitches Challenge for my guild.  The modern quilting theme that my mini will demonstrate is alternate grid work but in making it, I have also used solids, ample use of negative space and bright, bold colours.  So there you go!

Here is a sneak peak of my mini as I was quilting it.

Linking up with the Needle and Thread Network and Lee at Freshly Pieced for Work in Progress Wednesday.

Another pillow...

This is a pillow I made for our clever son's lovely fiancée for Christmas.  Yes, people, you read it right, fiancée!!!  There is going to be a wedding!    Back to the pillow though, this is is a pattern from a book I won at quilt guild.   The pattern is for a quilt but I made a pillow.  It is very stained glass looking.  I used some scraps and some lovely linen/cotton blend for the sashing and the back.

And a little closer...

 and the back... which has a lapped zipper.

I was unsure what colour thread to use so I stuck a few tiny scraps on my test chunk of fabric plus batting.  I decided to use a lovely Aurifil 30 wt... 2315 was the colour.  It is a light yellow gold.  Yum.  I quilted it with lots of straight lines and quilted the bit on the back too.  The pillow was a big one.  About 22" square.  It made me happy.