Random Thursday...

Don't you just love the quilting on the cover quilt?  I am going to try that soon.  I joined the Modern Quilt Guild as an individual member.  Our guild has not officially joined yet.  So that is why I have a new blog button saying that I am a member.  I will apparently get a pin and a card in the mail.  I also got invited to join the next fabric challenge.  Gotta love that!



It is roll up the rim time.  Get in to Tim Horton's while you can because not only do you get to roll up the rim the standard way, but you get a bonus roll.  How exciting is that?  And I didn't win anything on this cup.  Darn.

I found this gorgeous blue glass sugar bowl at the thrift store at Christmas.  Mum and I were thrift shopping.  I went to pay for it and I could not find my wallet.  Immediate panic attack. It turns out it was just in the car.  While I was out looking for my wallet in the car, Mum paid for the sugar bowl.  Thanks, Mum!  Now I just need to find the creamer.  And maybe Mum will be with me and I will forget my wallet in the car again.  He he he.

And while the snow is starting to melt, it is still a winter wonderland.  The snowdrops are visible again outside the dining room window.  This little fellow was not impressed with the snow.  It is a Varied Thrush.  Husband kept asking what kind of bird is that.  I told him and then pointed out that the Varied Thrush is the bird on the February calendar page in the kitchen.  Coincidence or what?

So that is my random stuff for this week.  Lining up with Cindy for Random Thursday.

Here's the thing...

I started quilting this mini quilt.  I am quite pleased with it so far.  I am leaving the stars alone but am doing some serious quilting in between.  I went around each star to start with to really define the stars and then started filling in.  I am quite pleased with it so far.  I actually changed my free motion quilting foot from the open toe one that I have always used to the one that is a complete metal ring with a hole in the middle.  I REALLY like that one and for some crazy reason, I think it works way better.

I also started a baby quilt.  It is just a start.  This is the fabric cut into 4" squares.  Once I had it up on the wall, I decided the Kona Ash did not need to be there but I left the pale yellow solid.

And here is what it looks like so far.  Nice and simple.  The funny thing was that I was not sure if it was big enough so I looked up another baby quilt that I made with 4" squares and I had exactly the same number of 4" squares up on the wall.  I was very intuitive about the size of a baby quilt without realizing it.

I signed up for the Sweet and Simple Scrappy Swap on Flickr and I received my secret partner information already so I can get busy with that this weekend.  We need to make a drawstring bag from Jeni's drawstring bag and fill it full of fabric scraps and notion goodness.

And I leave you with our yard on Saturday before most of the snow fell.  Thankfully it finally stopped last evening and the big melt began today.  We were quit convinced that winter was over.  But it wasn't.  

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for Work in Progress Wednesday.  What are you working on?

Sunday Stash in the snow...

Just when we thought winter was mostly behind us, we got a whomp of snow.  And I mean a whomp of snow!  Almost a foot has fallen on us!

I added 5 yards of this Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush print to the great wall of fabric.  I have been using this print as the "boss" fabric in my Lucky Stars BOM quilt and I was starting to fret that my paper piecing extravaganza would eat up the remaining bit before you know it.  I was down to about a yard.  EEK!  And Innocent Crush has been out for a long time and I think this may have been one of the more popular prints from the line.  It is just not that easy to find but.. my fabric sleuthing did not let me down!  I found it and I bought all they had left at Flying Bulldogs on Etsy.  Excellent service and fast delivery.  And on sale.  It was a total win win.  This Etsy shop has a lot of Anna Maria Horner fabrics and all sorts of other lovely stuff.

So there.  Sunday stash in the snow.  My snowdrops were blooming and now they are completely buried.  Oh, and did I mention that Canada won gold in men's hockey?  They played like girls. Oh, did I mention that Canada won gold in women's hockey?

A Finish... Geometric Slide

  Name:  Geometric Slide

Design: From Vintage Quilt Revival

Size:  approx  60" by 60"

Fabric:  Kona White, Anna Maria Horner, Joel Dewberry and stash fabrics 

Binding: Joel Dewberry

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 50 wt in white

Please welcome Geometric Slide.  I finished this one a few weeks ago but for some reason I have not blogged about it yet so let me tell you a little bit about it.  This is one of the quilts in Vintage Quilt Revival by Katie Blakesley, Lee Heinrich and Faith Jones.  And I have already said how much I love this book but I will say it again.  I love this book.  

Geometric slide is quick to put together because there are not that many blocks.  The block is straightforward and easy piecing.  What makes the quilt sing is the great negative space and the alternate block placement.  Doesn't that sound like an Public Service Announcement for modern quilting?  

I used the same colours as in the book and in fact, I think some of the prints were the same.  I adore Joel Dewberry's orange prints and there are two of them in this one.  One in the binding and another in the blocks.  Straight line quilting was my choice.  Lots of straight lines in my favourite Aurifil 50 wt in white.  I just lengthened the stitches a bit and away I went.  

The quilt is backed in a solid butter yellow cotton vintage sheet and a little bit of fun piecing.  

Ad it is a finish. Linking up with Amanda Jean for finish it up Friday.

This is what happened...

I am working a mini quilt for the Creative Stitches show at Tradex in March.  I made more blocks.  13 of them because I wanted this layout so that I could do this...

EEP!  This is what it looked like before all the setting triangles were actually stitched and the rows sewn together but you get the idea.  My husband loved when I used a similar layout for this quilt.  Considering he is number one quilt advisor, I went for it again.

The block is from Amy's Creative Side...

It is waiting for sandwiching and then will come the big quilting dilemma.  Any suggestions would be welcome!  And do I ever need to get all those pesky threads off the design wall!

Linking up with Lee for Work in Progress Wednesday!

On the Design Wall...

Yesterday I started another mini quilt project in preparation for The Creative Stitches Show in March in Abbotsford.  I used the paper piecing template from Amy's Creative Side for these small star blocks.  The blocks finish at 6.5" blocks.

I kept messing around with the layout.  I liked the layout with 9 blocks.  But then Husband came to see what I was doing.  I kept making blocks until I  had 13 blocks.  Husband gave his two cents in the whole process as well which is why I ended up making more, more, more!  And then I had to decide if I wanted all the same colours going in the same direction or random.  I went for the same direction.  And just so you know, these were a lot of fun to make.  Not too many pieces.  Just fun.  Linking up with Judy's design wall Monday.

Happy Valentine's Day

I made a few little Valentine's for my family.  Just about coaster size.  The half square triangles finished at 1" square.  Just tiny!  Popped in the mail for everyone but Husband.  I am sure our son will think I have lost my mind.  Mum already received her's and it made her so happy!

Happy Valentine's!  The smell of sugar and vanilla will permeate the school with a sea of candy and cupcakes.

The Best Night of the Month!

Tomorrow evening is quilt guild night.  It is such a fun time and a great group of quilty peeps.  We do a lot of show and tell and I am going to give a wee talk on Flickr and Online Swaps and Bees.  We also have door prizes.  Lots of door prizes.  I try to take something to each meeting for the door prizes.  This time I made something.... a zippy pouch with my little bitty scraps.  I stuffed it with some fun items and we are good to go.  Look at it sitting there with all that lovely Aurifil thread!  Fun!

Getting busy!

Yesterday I put together the February Lucky Stars Block of the Month.  It had fewer pieces than some of the other ones of late so it was a welcome change.  For some reason, the centre pinwheel is a bit off but in the big scheme of themes once it is in a quilt, I don't think it will be a big deal.  My husband didn't notice it when I showed him the block and that was a good sign!  He he he!  16 blocks and counting!

Then I worked on a little Valentine's project with some itty bitty half square triangles.  So fun!

I also put together a zippy pouch for a door prize donation at the next quilt guild meeting.  I used a bunch of my "sawdust"scraps and pieced them together with some Kona Charcoal.  And by sawdust I mean those little scraps that are too big to throw in the garbage but too small to go in the scrap bins.  I keep them all in a shopping bag and every once in a while a dive in a do something with them.  This was a good use of them!  I just apologize for the really bad photo that I took just prior to quilting the front and back panels.  What was i thinking?

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for Work in Progress Wednesday!

Bee Blocks... Cross patch

Kelli asked for Cross Patch blocks from the Vintage Quilt Revival book for February's That Stash Bee Blocks.  (Did I tell you how much I love this book?)  And this block was quick to put together and it looks awesome!  I am going to put this on my must make list.  So with the Family Day long weekend, I was able to take care of a few things on my list and I still have another day of sewing ahead of me.


Yippee!  I will be popping these in the mail tomorrow.  Done!  Linking up with Judy's Design Wall Monday.

In Progress...

I have been busy with Geometric Slide.  This is a quilt from the book Vintage Quilt Revival.  I used a Joel Dewberry print for the binding and I straight line quilted the heck out of it.  Just when I started to hand stitch the binding, I noticed that I had a pucker in the backing right near the edge... thankfully.  And of course, this would have been the last few rows of quilting when I was trying to get finished before lunch on Sunday.  Argh!  Bad words!   So... during the first bit of the Super Bowl, I got busy with the stitch ripper and ripped out a few rows of quilting in order to smooth the pucker.  I also had to undo the machine stitched binding in that area.  More bad words.  There is a happy ending to the story.  Pucker disappeared.  Quilting is done.  Binding is attached and hand sewn and of course, Seattle won the Super Bowl.

And as an aside, I really love Joel Dewberry's orange prints.  I am not a huge fan of orange and it is lacking in my stash but I have found that no matter what the line, if it is an orange and a Joel Dewberry, I am going to like it.  Maybe I should say that I am a fan of Joel Dewberry.  And I really like what he does with orange.  Just saying.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for Work in Progress Wednesday.

Have you ever?

Have you ever ordered a scrap pack from Hawthorne Threads?  I have.  They are awesome bundles of  fabric goodness.  They had them on sale.  In fact, they are still on sale right now.  $6.99 for the equivalent of about 2 yards of fabric scraps.  I ordered several packs... and this is what arrived.  Look at the stack!  There scraps are most always width of fabric and are seriously good pieces of designer fabric.  It is fold-able fabric!   FUN!  I was talking about this at my guild sew in and at least one of my guild buddies ordered scrap packs and were just as thrilled with what arrived.