Urban planning... Sewing a Village

  Name:  Village

Design:  Village, Jumble, Miss Rosie's Quilt Co by Moda

Size:  70" by 80"

Fabric: Stash scraps fabric, Kona White

Binding:  Clown Stripe in black and white by Timeless Treasures

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 50 wt in white in a 3" grid more or less

Backing:  A crazy black on white quilting village that was just waiting for the right quilt

I had a lot of fun with this one.  Sewing a Village is quite the thing on Instagram but I am never one to follow a schedule and started making it and could not stop!  Big shout out to my buddy Cynthia for her lovely scrap donation that rounded out the last 20 or so houses.

This pattern is a Moda one and easily available.  It is just a whole pile of fun and I am sure I will end up making another one of these just because.  I was telling my husband that I was working on siding or roofing.  I totally went for it with the scraps and used up a ton of white and low volume fabrics.  The backing is a great but crazy print that I bought awhile ago to stash for backing and this was totally the one.  It is a quilter's village for sure.  I quilted this in a 3" irregular grid in Aurifil 50 wt in white.  The binding is a favourite.  Clown stripe in black from Timeless Treasures. This is a big quilt and I think it will live on the guest room bed.  Look at all the clothes pins!

I took these pictures on a dull early spring day a few weeks ago.  We are already looking a lot more springy but man, spring is late this year by a few weeks!

Sometimes you need to make a zippy pouch or two

 My buddy Cynthia was over for a sewing day last Friday.  She was busy making pouches so I joined in.  Sometimes you just have to.  Zippy pouches are so satisfying!  I went diving into the scraps and came up with this combination.

And then this one.
Lots fun!

Another baby quilt

   Name:  It's a Boy!

Design:  4" squares

Size:  36" by 44"

Fabric: Stash fabrics 

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 50 wt in white in cross hatch

So I started and finished this last weekend.  It doesn't take long to put together a super cute baby quilt when I have so many pre-cut 4" squares.  I keep them all sorted by colour in a plastic shoe box.  Having this ready to go supply with lots of solids, low volume options and background prints like my favourite Michael Miller Kiss Dot in fog makes it easy to add in a feature print and have a baby quilt ready to go in no time.  This one is for a staff member who is having a first baby and it's a boy!  

I backed it in a lovely flannelette and bound it in the Michael Miller Kiss Dots.  Cross hatch quilting in Aurifil 50 wt in white.  Super cute and cozy.  I am pretty sure I have said this before but I don't mark the quilting, I just drive.  Once you get used to aiming corner to corner in the blocks, there is really no need to mark. Just like driving a car, people!  I also made the binding before I finished the quilting.  This is something that Latifah Saafir told us she does when I was at her trunk show.  I usually get the quilt finished and quilted before I make final decisions about the binding and then make the binding.  But this time I had it all ready to go.  What a great feeling it was to have it there and ready!  Seems like such a small thing but I am going to do that more often.

Have a super day. I have 3 more days left with kids at school and then the wind down begins for summer holdiays. No grandbaby yet but it could be any day!

Grandbaby quilt number two

 Name: Number Two

Design: Inspired by a quilt that I pinned

Size: 36" by 45"

Fabric:  Medium grey Free 

spirit solid and Kona white

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 50 wt in white, 2 rows either side of the vertical block seams

Binding and Backing:  Kona buttercup for the binding, and an Alexander Henry Owl print, with Deer from Moda..

 I finished this one last night.  It is for our grand boy to be.  I was inspired by a quilt I found on pinterest some time ago.  Simple simple HST construction.  I used the magic 8 method of making 8 HSTs at a time and I trimmed them to 5".  Pretty much that easy.  The yellow binding finishes it so perfectly.  I quilted it with Aurifil 50 wt in white, double row, on either side of the vertical block seams, playing up the vertical nature of the design.  Backed with owls and deer for fun.  Ready for snuggles.

Hello spring!

Spring break came and went.  Lots of family and not as much sewing.  I now know a lot about strollers and car seats.  And let me just say that the options that exist for those essential baby gear items has certainly changed in the 31 years since our first baby arrived!  This Gramma had a lot of learning to do!  One of the things I did do over spring break was clean up my linen scrap box and when I did that, I found the gorgeous butterfly scrap and it needed to be made into something.  So here is a butterfly zippy completely made from scraps found in the linen scrap box.

Lots of lovely quilting with some Aurifil 40wt in a yellow-gold and on the back a 40wt Aurifil in linen. So much fun.

Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap

    Name: Just a little x block

Size:  19.5" by 19.5"

Fabric: Selection of prints from Bonnie and Camille, Bliss and Ruby, Cotton and Steel Hatbox lines, Kona White

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 50 wt in white, straight lines

Binding:   Kona white

Backing:  an awesome Sewing Studio print by Cynthia Frenette for Robert Kaufman 

I finished this little quilt last weekend.  I hung it on the barn wall in the misty rain and took a few quick pictures. This if for the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap on Instagram and after debating endlessly about what to do, I made 16 wee x blocks.  Each finishing at just a smidge under 4".  I used a variety of Cotton and Steel prints and some Bonnie and Camille prints from both Ruby and Bliss.  The Bonnie and Camille prints have been lingering far too long in the great wall of fabric so it felt good to use them.  I used Kona White as the background and binding and then did lots of straight line quilting in Aurifil 50 wt in white..  So much fun!

The backing is from my buddy Cynthia's line, Sewing Studio.  It seemed perfectly appropriate for a swap!  I also used one of Cynthia's labels on the back.  You can pop over to her Spoonflower shop to see all sorts of lovelies!

And now I just need to get it all wrapped up and off to the mail!

I think I see a whale

    Name:  I think I see a whale

Design:  Plus 4" squares

Size:  48" by 48"

Fabric: Kona Silver, lovely wee whale print from Sew Sisters, Navy crosshatch, Doe by Carolyn Freildlander 

for Robert Kaufman, Kiss Dots in Fog by Michael Miller and stash fabrics

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 50 wt in grey in cross hatch

Binding:   Navy crosshatch, Doe by Carolyn Freildlander 

for Robert Kaufman

I finished this baby quilt last weekend.  It is for our son and daughter in law's friend's baby boy who has not yet made an appearance.  The design specs included navy, grey and whales.  What did they get?  Navy, grey and whales!  But I did throw in some sky blue sketch.  I just had to.  I think it makes everything pop.  

Anyway.  Did I mention there was also a possible request to make the quilt square?  So Square it is.  I hummed and hawed about this quilt for a long long time.  I had the fabric sitting on my table most of the summer.  I knew the baby was not due until late September so I had time but I think I struggled to come up with a way to make it all work.  Then I tried the sky blue along with the grey and navy and I relaxed and went for it.  The whale fabric was really tricky to find.  There are whale prints out there but often the whales are big and primary colours abound.  The whale print I used is from Sew Sisters and is just perfect.  I quilted this one is lovely light grey Aurifil 50wt in a cross hatch.  The binding is a navy cross hatch from Carolyn Friedlander's Doe line.  

The back was a lot of fun too!  Have a look!  Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it Up Friday.  

An iPad Cozy

I made an iPad cozy for a friend.  I don't have a pattern.  I just based it on the cozy I made for my own iPad several years ago.  I used up some linen scraps... beautiful gray dot and some Essex steel.  It is the perfect shade of gray with a blue tinge.  Love it.  And I used a scrap of home decor weight fabric along with some Kona medium gray for the lining.  This made me very happy.  It was a whole lot of fun to make.  I used a beautiful Aurifil 40 wt for the quilting.  #5007 to be exact.  I found some awesome buttons in a jar and used hair ties for the closure.  Oh, this made me happy.  I almost didn't give it away.  But I did.  And it was happily received.  

Pillow Covers: Mixed up 9 patch

So.  I finished the pillow covers for our daughter last Sunday.  I hope they fit the bill.  They were a lot of fun to make because I started out with a 9 patch and then chopped them up as you would for a disappearing 9 patch.  The thing is... I did not follow any rules and then added in a plain linen square when I recombined the chopped up 9 patch.  I used a lovely mix of Carolyn Friedlander's fabrics.  Mostly Doe and a bit of Botanics.  Both of which I found at Sew Sisters!  Gotta love Canadian online shopping.

And you can see that I quilted the covers heavily.  Heavily.  Matchstick quilting in Aurifil 50 wt in cream.  I love the texture you get on a pillow cover with this extremely dense quilting.  I have this idea that the dense quilting makes the pillow cover more durable.  It could be all in my mind but I am going with it.  Seriously awesome texture.

Then the backs.  Simple lapped zipper.  A big lap.  And I like to place the zipper off centre.  Linen.  The best.  Yep.  There is the zipper.  Pillow covers for summer.  20" square.  Done.

Off to pick berries.  Western Canada is having an unprecedented heat wave.  We have not had more than a skiff of rain in the last 2 months and all the crops are 2-3 weeks early.  We are picking raspberries and blueberries in June.  This never happens. And it is hot.  Really hot.