Thrift Store Score!

Okay, I have this favourite thrift store.  While husband and I were out and about this weekend, of course, we had to stop in and check it out.  By we, I mean me.  Husband just about gave me a heart attack before Christmas by coming in to said thrift store to help me carry my purchases.  Seriously!  I just about fell over.  I am sure I was stuttering in shock.  Anyway, I convinced husband to stop at the thrift store.  2 things worked in my favour.  I had 2 bags of stuff to give them.  Perfect!  Husband loves to get rid of stuff.  Second thing in my favour, Tim Hortons is right around the corner.  A new one.  Perfect for a Saturday morning coffee fix!  So in I went, straight for the fabric.  They have a great selection on a regular basis.  I have no idea why.  I don't ask.  I just paw through it happily and what did I find???  OMG... check it out and look at the price.  So there.  Thrift store score.  Underwater sisters, Helen Ross, Free Spirit, Menocino. Beautiful silky cotton.  More than 1.5 metres and a total cost of $3.

First quilt 2011!

First quilt of 2011 finished.  I used a jelly roll that clever son and clever girlfriend gave me for my birthday.  Less than a year ago, I didn't know what a jelly roll was-other than a cake that one eats.  The jelly roll was Spring Charm by April Cornell for Moda.  Nice.  And the perfect way to brighten up the January drearies.  I used some of Gramma's stash for the first border and then some stuff from the local fabric store for the border and binding.  The backing is a thrift store find.  A heavy backing cotton in a pink print.  I didn't get a photo of it.  Husband and I were trying to manage the dog, the surprise snow today and the break in the clouds.  The quilt is a good size, 69" by 63" finished and I used the wonderful Jelly Filled pattern from Thimbleblossoms.  (Mum gave her book for Christmas too!  Simplify!)  Here's the funny thing.  I made this quilt for us at home never thinking that it would appeal to husband.  He says that it is his quilt.  He loves it. I sort of said that it is kind of pink....  Doesn't matter.  He loves it.  It is a bit bigger than the other ones I have made for us but he really likes the weight.  The heavier backing fabric makes it heavier.  It was HARD to quilt because of this.  My shoulders got a work out.  I did get a few wrinkles in the back. That's why I won't show you the back.  : )  I think he will share it with me though.

Doll quilt donation

I am almost up to date with my projects from 2010 and then I can start on this year!  So I had this thought.  A call went out for donations for a silent auction.  The school district's high school leadership kids were going to have a silent auction to raise money to put on a Christmas Dinner for the homeless.  I thought of making something.  I used this tutorial from Crazy Mom quilts.  Dolly bedding.  Fabric from my stash.  Then I hinted to husband that a doll bed would be so nice.  It's quilted with straight lines.  Made a little mattress pad and a pink flanelette nightgown.  Suggested again to husband that a doll bed would be so nice.  And so...

Cute or what?  The doll is my model.  And the best part of the whole story is that the doll quilt and little bed made $80 at the silent auction.  We already have an order for another for next Christmas.  The person who bought it wants to just donate $80 to the silent auction without having to go through the pressure and stress of winning the bid.  Too funny.  She has a second niece to gift it to.  I think we can manage that.

On a Rainy January Thursday

Christmas fabric.  Some of it is just not to my taste.  I thought I should try though, and make a few Christmas pillows.  So I popped over to one of the local quilt shops in the next town over and bought myself a charm pack.  Just one.  Fruitcake by Basic Grey for Moda.  I seem to gravitate to Basic Grey.  I like their fabric lines.  I am also obsessed with half square triangles.   Just so much fun.  So from one charm pack with some stash solids, and some thrift store heavy cotton for the backs and some vintage buttons we have 3 Christmas pillows which I really, really like. I cut some of the charm squares in half to make a border.  Pillows take no time at all to quilt!  Check out the rug on the back of the couch.  That's my Christmas rug.  My mum is a weaver of rugs.  The queen of recycling, she cuts up stuff and weaves rag rugs on a great big Swedish floor loom.

  

This last pillow was made with a few of the charm squares and then stash solids.  It kind of looks like a present.  


But they are all put away now until next year!  


Shall I confess to buying quite a bit of Fruitcake to make a Christmas quilt for next year?  Okay, I did.  It was on sale.  And oh, I also bought some of Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas.  I think I have changed my mind about Christmas fabric.  

on a roll

So this quilting thing is a little addictive.  I work full time and find that quilting is such a different outlet from my work life as an elementary school principal that I could probably make a case for quilting's therapeutic effect!  I have been keeping my crafty mum up to date with all my completed quilts and she put in her order.  "A quilt with a lot of aqua or turquoise with a little pink would be really nice for the spare bedroom," she says to me.  HMMMMM.  No problem!  My fabulous local quilt shop has this great sale in August where they set up tables with fabric samples and sell it by the pound.  I had, among other things, scored some fabulous samples of Blush by Basic Grey for Moda.  Perfect.  But what should the quilt look like?  A friend and I had been to a quilt show and the guild had a table of books and magazines for cheap.  My hand fell on a Moda pattern book for quilts from charm packs from several years ago.  And this is what happened...

A quilt for my mummy.  The darker turquoise bands around the half square triangles came from some cotton from my Gramma's stash.  I like to use bits of her fabric.  It is a nice way to remember her.  One of my Christmas pillows is on the floor too.  I will tell you about those later.

Mum opened this quilt up at Christmas.  She was happy.  Quilt number 5 for 2010.  Our cat likes it too.

It was meant to be...

Craigslist is my friend.  Back in September, I found a listing for a Janome 6260 QC for $300.  Be still my beating heart.  I fired off an email to the lister but there was already someone interested.  The lady promised to let me know if the deal fell through!  Short story.  She is mine.  Husband and I drove for hours in blasted rush hour traffic, construction zones and rain.  The lady had bought the machine on a whim and had used it to hem pants a few times over the past few years.  The quilting table and all the quilting feet, walking foot etc.  were still in the original sealed packaging!!!!  Let me tell you, it was gleeful.  Husband says it was meant to be and the machine was destined to be mine.  He is such a sweetie!

Having this lovely new to me machine has made a huge difference to my machine quilting.  And I quickly finished up nursey student daughter's scrappy purple quilt and used sulky variegated thread in lovely purple/violet tones to squiggle away in free motion loveliness.  She received it for Christmas.  She is happily snuggled under it at university.  It will keep her warm for her last semester!

I used this recipe from the Moda Bakeshop, "Blissful Confection." And I used the same pattern to make up a quilt for son and girlfriend for Christmas.  I used a layer cake-Moda's Urban Couture by Basic Grey. Son had given it to me for my birthday!  Clever boy.  This was a perfect colour for their apartment.  And I had more practice with free motion quilting... They received this quilt for Christmas too.  Happiness.  All of a sudden I had 4 quilts completed!  Wahoo!

next quilt

One down, more to go.  So in between picking way too many blueberries, I was reading a lot of quilt blogs.  I found the Moda Bakeshop.  It was like I had hit the motherlode.  I picked out the disappearing nine patch pattern from Rachel of P.S. I Quilt.   She made it from Christmas fabric-Moda Crazy Eights and intended a table topper.  I used stash fabric, except for the back which I bought at a local fabric store.  Some of the stash was from when nursey student daughter was a baby.  Some of the stash was stuff I had given my Mum and then asked for back.  Some of it was even from my Gramma's stash.  I was still being cheap, knowing that I was still practicing  free motion quilting.  I had also practiced a lot of little quilt sandwiches.  How frustrating to see that I could make fabulous free motion floopy flowers but my squiggles were really not so nice!

So here's the thing.  I like Craigslist.  I like thrift stores.  We have bought some very cool stuff on Craigslist.  Like the hardwood flooring for our living room/kitchen/dining room.  Gazillions of antique pressback chairs for the downstairs kitchen table that husband made from the cedar planks in our barn.  (But that is another story!)  The excercise bike that husband bought me for my 50th birthday.  I started checking Craigslist every day because I really felt that the only way to move forward with my free motion quilting, was to get a new sewing machine.  Or at least new to me...

Here's the disappearing nine patch quilt.