On the design wall... progress

I kept making blocks all weekend and bing, bang, bam, my hillside village was completed!  I have yet to sew all the blocks together but that will go together quickly.  Honestly, this was so much fun to make and I have to thank Carla at Grace and Favour for the inspiration.  I saw her finished quilt on her blog and I had to make it too!  Anyway.  You can download the free pattern by following the link over at Pretty Little Quilts.  

I had a big messy pile of solids out all over the table.  It was making me crazy so I stuffed them all into a laundry basket.  It was a lot easier to put it all away at the end!

Kona Club Challenge over at Sew Sisters and a Giveaway

I have a project featured over at  Sew Sisters for their Kona Club Challenge today.  I was asked to come up with an original project using one of their monthly bundles of Kona cotton.  Each month Kona Club members recieve 4 FQs or 4 half yards of Kona Cotton.  The bundle is inspired by a photograph and the bundle I used  was from August.  But I am not going to tell you anything more.

Pop on over and have a look and enter the giveway for some Kona cottons!

On the design wall: Hillside Houses

Okay.  This is just way too much fun.  Hillside Houses was a quilt along early this year.  I am a bit late to the party but I had a whole lot of fun making houses yesterday and today.  In between power outages.  It has been super wet and super windy.  

This is a free pattern and I am picking out colours as I go along with a bit of inspiration from Carla and Grace and Favour.  I love the addition of purple.  I am making a heck of a mess though as I keep pull solids and messing around with it all.  Have a look.  Mess!  

Sunday Sale at Sew Sisters!

Get ready!  Sew Sisters is having a big sale this Sunday, online only!  20% off yardage only.  Have a look at all the info on their blog so you don't miss out on the great deals!  I might just have a gift certificate that I got for my birthday and I think I might have to go shopping!

All you need to know about the Sew Sisters Sunday Sale!

Better than Christmas!

I think I may have mentioned that I am a member of the most awesome Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild.    In fact this past year, I have been the guild president.  It has been a big year for the guild.  We grew big time and we became an official guild with membership in both the Canadian Quilters' Association and the mothership, The Modern Quilt Guild.  Through it all, the guild focused on fun, friendship, tons of laughter, and buckets of creativity and inspiration.  This past year has been super busy for me at work and then both kids got married and all sorts of other things.  I knew that I had to step back and just be a member so last week, I presided over my last meeting.  It was also our 5th anniversary party.  And let me just say, we know how to party!  I was blown away when the guild presented me with a giant box of fabric and vintage goodness as a thank you gift.  Oh.my.goodness.  All my favourites.  You guys are the best!!!!  Valley girls rock!

Yesterday, when I shared the whole long story about the Grape Juice quilt, I mentioned that I used Aurifil 50wt in grey... Dove in actual fact.  I should have mentioned and I will do that now that the deal of the month at Sew Sisters is a set of 3 spools of Aurifil 50 wt and the set includes the work horse colours.  White, Black and Dove.  It is a really good deal.  3 spools for $24.73.  That is 45% off!  Just for September.  

Stock up on Kona while you are there and Sew Sisters now has Essex Linen.  For real.  Awesome!

Grape Juice: A finished quilt with a bit of a spilled history

    Name: Grape Juice

Design:  Quarter Log Cabin by Liz Katsuro

Size:  64" by 80"

Fabric: Purple, bright pink and low volume scraps 

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

Binding:   Kona Eggplant

Backing:  an awesome vintage sheet in purple

I actually thought I was finished this quilt last weekend.  I sat down at the computer.  I fired up my blog.  I loaded the pictures and... I realized that the quilt had a boo boo.  Oh my word.  Obviously some of the blocks in the last row had become turned around in the quilt assembly and I did not notice until I was ready to write up a celebratory blog post.  For crying in the soup.  This quilt was finished, people.  Seriously.  Quilted every 1/2"  in long rows.  Bound solidly.  Even lint brushed.  And it had a boo boo.  So.  This quilt is now recovering from major surgery of the quilt kind.  I undid the binding.  I unpicked the row of zigzag stitching that I do before I bind the quilt.  I unpicked the bazillion rows of quilting up the length of the quilt so that I could free  the bottom row.  I unpicked the bottom row, and separated the blocks.  Reassembled them CORRECTLY this time and then began the whole process in reverse.  Good grief.  Note to self.  Please check the layout VERY VERY carefully before putting the whole shebang together.  The really crazy thing is that as soon as I look at the pictures of it sitting on the floor all basted and ready to go, I see the mistake.  This quilt stayed on the floor basted for almost 2 weeks and I did not notice and Husband did not notice.  Blah!  Never have I picked out so many tiny threads.  So that is the story of the Grape Juice quilt that spilled.

So... I found the tutorial for this quilt when I was looking for a way to use up a bunch of scraps.  It is a great tutorial and uses 2.5" strips.  You can burn through a lot of scraps and it just works.  I decided to stick to a fairly unified colour group despite the scrappiness.  I started this on my featherweight and finished it on my Janome.  I originally was going to make a smaller quilt but it grew.  Now that it is done and I mean, really done, I think I really like it.  Last weekend I was just plain sick of it.  I am so over that now.  Okay.  So.  I quilted it densely in long straight lines in lovely Aurifil 50 wt in grey. The one called Dove.  The binding is Kona Eggplant.  The whites are a complete mixture of low volume leftovers and that is okay.

And the name?  We have had a bumper crop of purple grapes and we made grape juice last weekend.  This quilt is the colour of the grape juice without a doubt.  What do you think about the vintage sheet backing?  It was a really heavy 100% cotton sheet.  It is very happy!  And our grass is starting to recover from the record breaking heat and the water restrictions but it still looks pretty bad in spots.

Lots of grapes still and surprisingly the bears have not been into them yet.  I say yet, because we did have a bear in the yard yesterday.  She was quite lovely and I have named her Mabel.  I do hope she keeps her distance.  She is welcome to the field, the woods and the pond but lets just keep it at that.  Linking up with Leanne for Scraptastic Tuesday!

Just three things... well maybe four

I have a few things on the go.  First of all, I am back to work and at a new school this year so that is keeping my busy!  Kids will be back in school next week and then we will get in the grove.  Secondly, the weather has been the story here in southern BC.  We had a terrific wind storm on the weekend and while we had little damage and were only out of power for about 9 hours, some people are still not back on the grid.  Apparently over 700,000 people were out of power at the height of it all.  YOIKS!!!  Today, there was a major thunder and lightening and hail event along with RAIN!!!  But I missed all of that, because I was in a hotel with some of my staff at a conference.  Oh, did I mention the earthquake that woke us up the other day?  Seriously!

Anyway, 2 quilts are on the go.  The St. Louis 16 patch on the design wall is a donation quilt and I will finish it up this weekend.  And my scrappy purple quarter log cabin is sitting on the floor waiting for quilting.  I need to get busy!  Thank goodness for  the long weekend coming up!

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