It's Fresh Sewing Day....

It is always fun to visit with projects completed over the past month.  I had quite a few finishes as to be expected with being on holidays in the summer months.

1)  I started and finished Gemstones for a friend!  It is one of my favourite quilts to date and I love all the straight line quilting!  And how much fun to make a quilt for a dear friend and then see how much it is loved!
2)  Moving over to the little pictures at the top right!  Baby quilts for twin boys who entered the world a week and a half ago.  Wonky log cabins with lots of brights in similar but different quilts.
3)  My Stash Mini using some of my precious old and new Flea Market Fancy!
4) And down below and on the left, cross string blocks now happily residing on the guest room bed and this used a lot of my green and blue scraps!  Not enough though, those scraps are still spilling over their tubs!
5 and 6)  Getting a little Christmas-y in July with a pair of table runners!  I have to say it felt funny using Christmas fabrics in the summer but I went for it anyway!

There you have it!  I do love PicMonkey!  Linking up with Lynn at Lily's Quilts for Fresh Sewing Day!

A little Christmas in July...

I have been trying to do a little Christmas in July but it is hard to think Christmas when the flowers are blooming and the berries are doing their thing.  I did make a few table runners.  The top one is a wonky scrappy little star and the one below is wonky trees using Sandy Gervais' quilt pattern for the trees.  For the wonky stars, I used some light grey print Christmas fabric scraps.  The low volume allows the deep red stars to really pop.

And we picked blueberries today.  It has begun.  Happy Monday!!!

Something new...

Having baby quilts needed down the road, I thought I would take a risk and start a baby girl quilt.   I am using an end of the bolt chunk of this floral from the Sandy Gervais line, Lovely.  Not your typical baby fabric but I think it works well as wonky stars paired with solids and small prints.  Lots of sherbet-y colours!  Clever son's lovely girlfriend is in need of some baby gifts as fall approaches. Hopefully this will do for one of the intended babies.  If not, it will do for a baby at some point!  

I was inspired by this quilt and apparently the inspiration for her quilt came from here.  How can you go wrong with wonky stars?

Linking up with Judy for Design Wall Monday!

roses and phlox this morning...

Raspberries...

Picked and into the pot within 15 minutes the other day.  Yum.  Raspberries!  I made 2 batches.  16 jars.  That should get everyone through until next jam season.  We supply jam to both children and their significant others.  Next up blueberries.  They appear to be our best crop ever just late because of the terrible spring weather.  Happy weekend!

Seeing Double... sort of

 Baby quilts for twin boys who are now almost a week old.  Similar but different.  Wonky log cabins in lots of brights.  The 2 quilts are close to the same size but not quite.  One is bound in orange gingham print and the other in turquoise.  I felt it important to have the quilts be individuals but at the same time be similar enough to work for twins. Both are backed with a turquoise flannelette-brushed cotton.  Soft and snuggly.  The print on the back looks to me like blueberries so I like that!  I found it in my stash so that was a good thing.  I didn't buy any fabric for these quilts and that was nice too!  I find it very satisfying to shop my stash.  I did not quilt these a lot because I like baby quilts to be "floopy."  But I did some straight lines in my favourite Aurifil 50 wt in white.  I can't use any thread but Aurifil.  I am a complete convert.  The quilting shows up better from the backs in the photos down below.

I have to say these were so much fun to make and Husband and I popped them in the mail this morning!

Linking with Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday.

Work in Progress Wednesday!

Lots of progress made this past week.  We had quite a bit of rain which is bad for summer things but good for quilting time.

1) Twin baby boy quilts are quilted and ready for binding!!!!!  Most exciting.  The babies arrived last Friday so it would be nice to get the quilts in the mail soon.  I picked up similar but different bindings for the quilts which goes with their similar but different plan.

2)  I started a Wonky Wonky Little Star Christmas table runner.  I was trying to get in the spirit of all the Christmas in July stuff that is going on.  I am using lots of low value Christmas scraps along with the pop of colour.

3) And then there is Gemstones for a Friend!  Finished!!!!  I do love this quilt.  Officially off the work in progress list as it is finished, delivered, loved and blogged about!

And that is it for now!  Keeping that work in progress list done to manageable size!  Linking up with Work in Progress Wednesday!!!!

Quilt for a friend...

I have a very special friend.  She is kind, generous, big-hearted, funny, special and colourful!  I made her a quilt.  I had been stewing about this for awhile.  Wondering what to make and then what colours for her colourful self?  I noticed this block on Rachel's blog, Stitched in Color, and everything just fell into place.  Rachel called it Gemstones.  Perfect!  Because Patti is a gem.  So here it is.  A finished quilt for a friend.  

I used a variety of fabrics.  Lots of scraps and bits and pieces.  The solid is Kona Berry and a dot from Stof completes the setting triangles.  The binding is a stripe in the Prospect Park line.  I quilted it myself in dense straight lines using my favourite thread... Aurifil 50 wt in white.  I used a lot of thread.  I think I went through about 8 bobbins.  I love the effect of the straight line quilting!  Husband came up with the idea of using the yellow-y green along with the Kona Berry for the setting triangles.  It totally works!  And is just quirky enough!  

I took a picture of the label too.  I used a long strip of Berry and did some free motion handwriting.  The funny thing is that the handwriting actually looks like my handwriting!  I found that stitching a line first, helped me stay more uniform in size as I wrote.  

The backing is an assortment of colourful stuff from my stash.  Wow!  I love this quilt!  

I went down the road for a morning visit yesterday.  I hopped up to her door with the quilt under my arm.  I have to say I was feeling quite proud of myself!  She loved it!  Was totally surprised.  Shed some tears.  Oohed and ahhed.  Lots of hugs.  She noticed all the things that I thought she would like.  The pops of colour.  The really colourful back.  The bits of hand dyed purple that are in some of the squares.  She loved the setting triangles.  I have to say that was a brilliant idea of Husband's!  

Gemstones for a friend because she is one for sure.  

Quilt Stats:

name:  Gemstones for a Friend

size:  70" x 84"

quilted by me in Aurifil 50 wt white

fabric: stash and scraps with Kona Berry and Stof dots, binding Prospect Park 

Linking up with Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday!

Design Wall... seeing double!

Husband's best buddy just became Grampa to twin boys.  The babies were born on Friday.  An unbelievable 7 pounds 6 and 8 pounds respectively.  Seriously, that is a whole lot of baby!  I started these quilts for them last week and the idea was that they would be similar but not identical.  We want to make sure there is some individuality after all!  So quilt number one is already a quilt top.  I made wonky-ish log cabins around 5" and 3" squares of Bugs in a Jar from the Backyard Baby line.  The cabins are just a whole heap of brights.  This quilt has big squares finishing at 12.5"  CUTE!

Quilt number two is similar but with just 3" squares of Bugs in a Jar and squares finishing at 7.5"  I finished all the squares this afternoon and just have to do the final organization and then stitch them altogether.  Yippee!  And if I did my quilt math correctly, the quilts will be almost exactly the same size.

Love the Bugs in a Jar fabric.  I found a great length of turquoise with a bit of white brushed cotton for the backs.  I went shopping in my stash... the great wall of fabric and was most delighted to find something appropriate in brushed cotton (flannelette).  Cozy for babies!  What is even more exciting was that I was able to use up more scraps for these quilts!

Linking up with Judy's Design Wall Monday on her newly updated, most fabulous blog!

Some Flea Market Treasures!

I had to pop into the post office yesterday.  I was only a block away from a thrift store so I took a peak.  Yippee!  I found a treasure!  Apparently this little daffodil is a posy holder.  It is quite small.  Rather like a large egg cup and in fact that is what Husband thought it was.  It isn't.  It is for posies.  I love it.  Carlton Ware from the 1930s.  And a steal at $4.50!!!!!

This morning I found another treasure.  A large Anchor and Hocking milk glass fruit bowl.  $1.50.  Woo hoo!  It is larger than a dinner plate and has a pattern of grapes and leaves.  This made me most happy.  Not as happy as my posie holder but very happy indeed!

I also bought Husband a present.  Apparently there are 700 pie recipes contained in this book.  Published in 1965.  I think they might have found a few more pie recipes if they tried a little harder.

So there you have it.  Linking up with Sophie's Flea Market Finds!  Have a lovely rest of your day!

A Little Fabric Friday...

Mendocino, Heather Ross

Sometimes fabric jumps out at you and bites you in the ankle.  Before you can even think, it is in a bag and on its way home.  That happened to me the other day when I was buying the stainless steel Klutz glove.  I was standing at the cash.  Ho humming along.  Tried on the glove.  Looked down slightly at the "end of the bolt" display and grabbed without thinking just under a metre of .... Mendocino sea horses by Heather Ross.  Yep.  And heavily discounted at that because it was the end of a bolt.  I walked a few steps to a sale table and out went my hand and grabbed a sweet little stack of fat quarters on sale.  Yep.  Mendocino by Heather Ross.  Goes with my mermaids.  I bought the mermaids at the thrift store. Yep.  The thrift store.  Almost 2 years ago.  2 metres plus for about $3.  Just a little fabric Friday.

thrift store mermaids-Heather Ross

the pink stripey one got left out of the picture up top

Quilting Safety!

Well!  Since posting about my nasty rotary cutter vs. finger incident, I have been surprised by the number of people who have confessed to chopping off bits and pieces of themselves with the dreaded but ever so helpful and efficient rotary cutter.  Husband was convinced there had to be some sort of safety equipment for quilters and I was tickled to find the Klutz glove.  Named appropriately for people like me.  Those of you who decide to be clever ahead of potential injuries and buy the glove preemptively can cross out Klutz and write "Safety Glove for Clever Quilters" on the package.  Apparently this glove is cut resistant and is woven with stainless steel fibers and has so many grippy dots that it has to be helpful!  On the way home from the quilt shop, I was being ever so doubtful and was going on and on about how this sure does not look like stainless steel fibers but short of trying to cut the glove to test it, Husband just suggests I trust the packaging.  Once the giant finger bandage is off, I will try the glove out.  It will become part of what I do.

I also have this trusty piece of safety equipment.  The ruler handle.  My clever Mum gave this to me for Christmas.  I was not using it very much.  I actually refer to it as the quilt phone.  Anyway.  I found it did not stick to my ruler well but now, because I don't want to lose anymore pieces of me, I am using it.  I put a dab of water on each suction cup and it holds much more effectively to the ruler.  I also bought some tricky little non-skid discs that you stick to your ruler so that it does not slide when being used.  You can also buy a film that is applied to the ruler.  I may go back and get that film rather than the sticky discs.

So there you have it.  Quilt safety.  Have a lovely rest of your day!

Work in Progress Wednesday...

1)  I have been making great progress despite my quilting war wound (a.k.a.  Rotary cut finger).  Luckily I had finished quilting my gemstones quilt before the injury happened!!!!!  I had the binding all sewn on too with only the hand sewing to finish.     This one is almost ready for the big reveal!  So exciting!!!!

2) and 3)   I started turning this mess of fabric into strips and then...

 The strips into these...

Love these wonky-ish blocks.  We have friends of the family who are expecting the arrival of twin boys any second.  So 2 baby boy quilts are a must!  I have cranked out 5 or 6 of these blocks today even with the cartoon-like bandage on my finger.  Seriously, if Mickey Mouse was injured this is exactly the kind of bandage he would have!

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday!

The Good and the Bad...

Okay.  The good first.  I ordered a Kona Colour Card from the Fat Quarter Shop (on sale by the way) and it arrived!  It is so gorgeous! Drool worthy, in fact.

I was happily quilting along.  Cutting up some fabric for a new project.  I was concentrating really hard at a fussy cut strip of Bugs in a Jar.  And then, yep, a random quilting accident.  Yep indeed.  Rotary cutter met me finger.  Blech! I ran upstairs and hollered that I had cut my finger.  Husband jumped into first aid mode. I am known as a complete and utter baby with blood.  I don't know how many times I almost fainted.  I couldn't even think straight.  I told Husband that I kept seeing "stots."  Ya.  Stars and dots all at once.

Anyway, the short of the long story is that I have sliced off the tip of my left pointer finger quite neatly.  Not all of it.  Just a fair chunk.  I was not getting enough sympathy from Husband until he found the bit (chunk) next to my rotary cutter.  Ew!!!!!!

I am now having to endure all manner of finger jokes.  Husband is quite the wit let me tell you.  Apparently I am to be glad I am not a waitress.  Yep.  No tip.  Ha, ha.

Moral of the story... be careful people!  This really hurts!!!!  I am finished sewing for the day.  I will not return to the scene of the crime.  I might see more... stots!