Felines and Fibre Arts

Lone Star - Part 3

2012-06-02T09:00:00.000-04:00

I finally have finished sewing together all the strips into the 8 sections for the Lone Star quilt. This is as far as I have been able to get on this project to date. A lot has been happening at my end and most of it has been non-quilting. If you have been following my posts you already know the details, and if you just follow the Lone Star Quilt Along group then you can check things out in my Sunday May 20th post.

Here are the pictures of the 8 completed sections, starting with 1 & 2 which were completed back in April.

Next are sections 3 & 4.

Then we have sections 5 & 6.

Finally here are sections 7 & 8.

I hope everyone has fun at today's Lone Star quilt along. I won't be here to join in the fun. I'm heading down to London, Ont. to visit my mom and her friend Jean at the nursing home. Then it's off to see a few out of town friends since likely I won't get another chance this month with everything that is happening next week. Have a great weekend.

Hollis Chatelain Workshop

2012-05-26T21:09:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday I attended a workshop by Hollis Chatelain called "Quilt Line As The Third Design Aspect". It was hosted by Marilyn Farquhar and held at her quilting studio (and home) north of Waterloo, Ont. Here is a brief description of the workshop from Hollis' web site: http://www.hollisart.com/

"This is a process class that will help you find new ideas on how to use quilting to enhance the look of your quilt. We will be working on design, not technique. We would like to go further than just holding the three layers together with stitches. The main objective is to use quilting lines to create depth, texture, tension, or shadowing which give a new dimension to your quilt. Lines can be inspired by an endless variety of things (nature, architecture, technology, etc.) to add visual interest and reinforce the overall design of your quilt. Even straight lines can become a design in themselves. You will be working with the quilt tops you bring, which can be a traditional patchwork or a contemporary design. We will pin the quilt tops on the wall one after the other and discuss the possibilities of how to enhance what you like best and diminish what you like least in your quilts."

I have to say that this was one of the best workshops that I have attended and I came away with a wealth of knowledge and a new perspective of how to approach my quilting designs. The first part of the workshop Hollis covered off colour and what effects you can get depending on the colour of threads you select for your quilting. Next was a discussion on line and the effects of lines on your quilting based on their shape, direction and style. Then Hollis talked about the design aspect and how the quilting needs to enhance your quilt as well as be able to stand on its own from a design perspective.

We had a group of about 20 and everyone brought a quilt top to share and discuss. There was a good diversity from traditional pieced, modern pieced, traditional & modern applique, everything from small wall hangings to queen size bed quilts and every colour of the rainbow. This diversity provided for some interesting discussions and I'm sure everyone was able to take away some good ideas for their future projects.

I highly recommend this workshop so if Hollis is going to be teaching in your area in the future it would be a worthwhile experience.

Thanks Marilyn for hosting this event and thanks Hollis for proving a very enjoyable and valuable workshop.

Where Have I Been and Where Am I Going

2012-05-20T23:44:00.002-04:00

I realized that it's been well over a month since my last post and I'm sure several of you may be wondering what have I been up to. Well on the quilting front not much at the moment. Life sort of happened on my way to the sewing room and my creativity sort of got put on hold for a bit.

A few of you who I chat with outside of my blog already know this, but the rest don't and I feel I need to share this since I am still here reading your blogs, but I'm not doing much at my end. Awhile back one of the specialists that I was seeing found a lump on the right side of my thyroid. So as with these types of things one goes through the pre-requisite needle aspiration biopsy, ultrasound, then ultrasound guided biopsy. For those who don't have the privilage of living in Canada and experiencing our medical system, these tests can take a month or longer to get booked, and with each one you will wait 2 to 3 weeks to get the results. So knowing this and knowing that the wait for surgery can be upwards of 3 to 4 months I had made sure I booked my surgery at the beginning of this process.

My last biopsy was done on April 30th and I got the results on May 15th which were inconclusive so at this time they still don't know whether it is benign or malignant. Since my last biopsy was an ultrasound guided one, they first did a full scan of the thyroid and have now discovered some smaller lumps on the left side. The good thing is that my surgery is less than 3 weeks away on June 7th so this will be taken care of and will be sent off for full analysis. Then I will know with 100% certainty if these lumps are benign or malignant. The prognosis is good since 80% of thyroid lumps are benign and of the 20%, a high percentage are very slow growing and easily treated with specific radiation treatments. So I'm quite optimistic that all will go well and once this is over I will be able to get my creativity back on track and start working on some projects.

My sea turtle quilt will be put on hold for a few months since in the last few weeks I have had a few new ideas come to mind that I want to explore and these will be easier to execute since they will be smaller wall hangings and will allow me to get back into the grove of things.

Have a great week everyone.

Lone Star - Part 2

2012-04-07T08:27:00.000-04:00

I have to be honest that not much has happened here with my Lone Star quilt. First of all I was busy most of March getting the "Spirt of the Land" quilt finished for a 50th birthday present which had to be done before the end of the month. I did get all my strips cut and this week I started to sew the first few sections together.

This weekend though we are having UV film installed on the windows in the sewing room and the one bedroom since both of these rooms face west and in the summer time it gets very hot in there and even with A/C units in there they tent to struggle to keep the rooms cool, well more like keep them warm instead of hot :-). So needless to say this week there was limited time for sewing with things like packing up books shelves in the bedroom, packing up some stuff in the sewing room and then on Thursday it was time to move things away from the windows to get at the curtains down so that they could get washed on Friday. That was the end of sewing time since the sewing machines are set up next to the windows for the best light.

So here are the 2 sections that I have managed to get sewn together for the Lone Star, they may look a bit crooked but that is because I have not pressed then yet. I'm going to wait on that until I'm ready to cut them.

If you read my previous post you may notice that something has changed. Previously when I had looked at the strips lined up through a "ruby beholder" to check for value I ended up switching my last 2 fabrics around. So fabric 7 now became fabric 8. This was the fabric that was suppose to originally be the purple botanical fabric but I didn't have enough so I had to switch if for one similar in a hand dyed batik. Well now that this fabric was in position 8 I only needed 5/8 of a yard and I had plenty so I swapped it back in as per the original plan.

So this will be my only post today since there is still more work to be done before the guy comes in to install the UV film and once that is done, then it's time to get everything put back.

I hope everyone has fun today with their Lone Star projects and have a Happy Easter.

Spirit of the Land - part 4

2012-03-25T21:36:00.000-04:00

The Spirit of the Land quilt got finished yesterday and here is how it looks.

Today we had the party for Costa's 50th birthday. He loved his quilt and decided that he wants to hang it up in his bedroom so I actually still have it and will now attach a hanging sleeve. He didn't want to use it as a lap quilt and have his kitties sitting or laying on it and leaving fur all over it. Also he said this way he can look at it and appreciate the beauty and the work that went into it. What a nice sentiment.

Speaking of kitties sitting on quilts, here is Jordie giving the quilt his final test and yes I did take the lint roller to it before I packaged it up :-).

Spirit of the Land - part 3

2012-03-20T09:09:00.000-04:00

I have finished the quilting on the Spirit of the Land quilt. Here is what I quilted in the columns of the coin sections. In the two larger columns the patterns are sort of abstract organic leaf shapes and in the narrow one I did acorns.

Then in the border I did trees going around the quilt. These two pictures were actually taken from the back of the quilt since it was hard to see the brown quilting on the brown border fabric.

I also have an update for you on the Connecting Threads thread that I used for the quilting. As I mentioned in my previous post it did sew nicely, no tension issues, no skipped stitches and the quilting does look great. The spool of thread looked a little bit linty but nothing significant so I didn't think it was going to be an issue.

Yesterday I was making the binding so I was changing thread, bobbins and going back to my walking foot. When I went to change the bobbin I noticed a lot of fuzzy stuff so I thought I better take the plate off and have a loot. I was not happy with what I saw, it looked like a bird had made a nest in there. So if you are planning on using the Connecting Threads cotton thread make sure that you clean your machine much more often than you normally would with the more expensive threads. This is a picture of what came out of my bobbin.

So all that is left to get done is attach the binding to the quilt and sew on the label. I'm right on schedule to get this quilt done for the birthday party on Sunday.

Spirit of the Land - part 2

2012-03-10T15:30:00.000-05:00

I finished the stitch in the ditch on the Spirit of the Land quilt today. Once I finally got started it didn't take all that long and I have to say that I'm so glad that I invested in a stitch in the ditch foot for my sewing machine. This is what it looks like and I have to tell you it makes it so much easier to follow the lines between two seams on a quilt. I now hardly veer over onto the other side and I can go at a decent pace. Prior to using this foot, I used the walking foot but it was harder to stay on course.

Here is a sample of what my stitch in the ditch sewing looks like. You will have to click on the picture to be able to see the details.

Now the other thing I promised everyone was a review of what I think of Connecting Threads cotton thread for quilting. I finished my first row of quilting on this quilt and I have to say I'm please with the results. There was no skipping of stitches while I was quilting, the tension was spot on, and the end result looks great. Two thumbs up!

So I have 2 weeks to get this quilt finished. Getting that cold / flu bug last week didn't help since it put me out of commission right up until this week Thursday, but I'm feeling much better now. Nothing like a deadline to keep one focused. Have a great weekend everyone.

UPDATE Mon March 19th: I have finished the quilting on the coin quilt and will post pictures shortly but I need to give you some more information on the Connecting Threads cotton thread. As I mentioned above it did sew nicely, no tension issues, no skipped sitches and the quilting does look great. The spool of thread looked a little bit linty but nothing significant so I didn't think it was going to be an issue.

Today I had to make my binding so I was switching thread, bobbins, and going back to my walking foot. When I went to change the bobbin I noticed a lot of fuzzy stuff so I thought I better take the plate off and have a look. I was not happy with what I saw, it looked like a bird had made a nest in there. So if you are planning on using the Connecting Threads cotton thread make sure that you clean your machine more often than you normally would with the more expensive threads.

Lone Star - Part 1

2012-03-03T10:56:00.001-05:00

It's the first Saturday of the month, so that means it's Lone Star Quilt Along time! Quilt Sue of Quilt Times is our hostess this month. You can check out what is happening on her blog to see what she is doing as well as check out the linky for what others have been up to with their Lone Star projects.

I've got my strips cut (sort of) for the Lone Start quilt. What do I mean by sort of, well that will become evident later in my post. First of all I have to say I had to make one change in my fabrics. When I started to iron all the fabric and I came to the purple botanical marble fabric as I unfolded it I discovered that I had used some of the fabric for a previous applique project and there wasn't enough of it. So I replaced it with a purple hand dyed batik that I had in similar tones. Here are the two fabrics, the first being the botanical marble and the second the hand dyed batik.

Once I had my strips cut I decided it might be a good idea to put a set of the strips up on my design wall to make sure that the colours all flowed well based on my original plan. Here is what it looks like and I don't know if you see it, but the two darker purples in the middle appear to be in the wrong order. The hand dyed batik is actually reading darker that the purple with the metallic gold dots. I have something called a "ruby beholder" which allows you to view fabric as values by masking their colours and when I used this tool sure enough the purple hand dyed batik is darker than the purple with the metallic gold dots. For more information on this tool you can check it out here: http://www.martingale-pub.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=5_0&products_id=884

So this is the new arrangement.

Fortunately I have more of the purple with the metallic gold dots and I will need to cut 6 more strips, thus my cutting isn't quite finished. This will have to wait since I have been fighting a bad head cold for the last couple of days and today will be another rest day to try and get over this bug.

If Money Were No Object

2012-02-29T15:48:00.001-05:00

If money were no object what brand of thread would you buy?

I would buy Superior Thread and Aurifil Thread. I've used each brand, love the quality, love the colours, but when you are on a budget I don't love the price, especially if you are going to need a fair bit of thread for up and coming projects. For people who are on tight budgets buying nice thread for your quilting projects can become just as big of an investment as the fabric itself. That is what I found out recently when I went to look for thread and started picking what I was going to need for me Sea Turtle project. Buy the time I went to my shopping cart my total was well over $100 and that didn't even include shipping. So I tried to cut back thinking on what I could do without and still my order was over $70. Unfortunately at this time I couldn't justify the amount since I'm currently unemployed and that was a significant expenditure.

Then the next day I got an e-mail from Connecting Threads (http://www.connectingthreads.com/Quilting.cfm) announcing that they have 33 new colours of thread and the picture showed some very nice colours. I checked with some blogger friends and a few people have used their threads and have liked them and the prices are very reasonable. The other nice thing about Connecting Threads is if you are not satisfied with your purchase you can return it for a refund so I figured I had nothing to lose. I ordered their Beach House set which is 10 spools of thread, each spool has 1200 yards for $21.90. I also picked up some individual colours of thread at $2.49 a spool and some fabric so my order came to just over $50.00. Shipping to Canada is $7.00 if your order is over $50.00 and free in the US which is a great deal.

This is the Beach House set of colours.

My order arrived today and I just had to test out my new threads to see if they were worth buying. I have to say yes they are. I did several things with them today. I did some piecing and that worked out nicely. Then I sewed one of my applique designs and it did a great job of that as you can see in the picture below. (click on the picture for a closer look).

Then I wanted to test the thread on the applique finishing stitch and I really like the results of that.

I did buy some brown thread and when I go to do the quilting on the coin quilt I will use their thread and will let you know how I like it for actual quilting. So far I have to give it a two thumbs up.

Sea Turtles - Part 2

2012-02-24T13:41:00.000-05:00

First here is my design for the Sea Turtle quilt. It took me some time before I finally got to this stage. I had another design but I wasn't happy with it so it was back to the drawing board. This one I like and I'm looking forward to working on this quilt.

So next was testing the curve piecing for the top layer. There is the traditional method where you take two fabrics, lay both of them right side up, have a section overlapping and in that area take your rotary cutter and cut your curve. Then you place the right sides together along the cut curve and carefully stitch along the curve. Here is a blog with a tutorial showing this method: http://www.cherylmalkowski.com/blog/?p=6

Then there is another method that I discovered in a book by Karen Eckmeier called "Layered Waves" where she basically cuts a curve, presses the edge under 1/4" and then top stitches it to her layer of fabric. http://www.kareneckmeier.com/patterns.htm

I figured it was worth testing out both methods to see which would be more suitable for my Sea Turtle quilt. I started with the traditional method and came up with some issues fairly quickly. I had some pieces of fabric develop waves and didn't want to lay flat as you can see at the top of the piece in the picture below. When I tried to add pieces that didn't go from edge to edge there were puckering issues as is evident on the left hand side of this piece.

Then I tried Karen's method. The challenge here is getting the curved edges ironed under so that they lay flat and you don't burn your fingers. A long tweezer tool does come in handy. The end result is quite nice, the piece lays flat and I can get more curvy shapes and do all kinds of inset pieces.

Next I went and did a sample design for the reverse applique and here is what that looks like. You will have to click on the image to see the stitching since it is done in a beige thread. One other thing that I did this time was add a layer of Misty Fuse to the back of the top layer to see if it would help with the fraying that I experienced while cutting out the design when I was doing the Wild Mustang quilt.

Here is the cut out for the first curved piecing method. The Misty Fuse did make a big difference in stabilizing the fabric and kept things from fraying excessively.

This is the cut out for the second curved piecing method. When I actually go to do this on my Sea Turtle quilt I would have to make sure that I pick a different colour thread for stitching out the design from what I use to do the top stitching of the curves. Here I used the same thread and at times it was a bit of a challenge to figure out where to cut the fabric.

Finally I wanted to test out a new stitch for finishing the applique and on the Janome it is called a shading stitch. I found that this stitch was easier to sew around the applique shapes than the standard applique stitch and not as intensive as a satin stitch.

My pick for the curved piecing is to use the method that Karen describes in her book. I find it gives me more flexibility in terms of the types of curves I can create and I don't get things like puckering and waving happening with her method. I will also use this new stitch that I found called the shading stitch for finishing my applique design.

My next step is actually going to be designing the wave top layer for this project. Initially I thought it would be easy just to wing it and cut curves as I go and sew them and I would have my top. But as I was doing my sample it became apparent that I can get myself into a rut fairly quickly and start cutting shapes that look too much alike. Thus I figure it's best for me to design the wave top on paper first so I have a guide for my curve cutting.

Spirit of the Land - part 1

2012-02-19T12:03:00.000-05:00

Well it looks like I have another major birthday coming up. A friend will be turning 50 at the end of March so I need another quilt to commemorate the occasion. Fortunately I had all the makings for another coin quilt and since it is an easy pattern I now have the top all done as well as the back put together. Here is how they look.

I plan to quilt a leaf pattern through the coin sections of the quilt top and a selection of tree silhouettes around the border.

You may be wondering how the sea turtle quilt project is coming along. I have been struggling with the actual design for the reverse applique. I came up with one design but I wasn't 100% happy with it. Finally I think I have come up with something that I like and I'm just tweaking it and should be able to share with you shortly. Also I have two different methods to test out for the curved piecing for the top layer of the reverse applique. I will also let you know how the two methods work and which one I go with.

Lone Star Quilt Along

2012-02-04T12:45:00.000-05:00

Well I have been enticed by yet another quilting project. I have always loved the look of Lone Star quilts but I certainly didn't want to do all that work of cutting and piecing all those little diamond shapes, that's just not me. Then my friend Elizabeth at Sand and Sunshine
(http://sandandsunshine.blogspot.com/) found instructions to do it the strip pieced method. She has been working on her Lone Star for a couple of months and hers has turned out amazing. Here is the site with the instructions on how to create the Lone Star using the strip pieced method: http://www.angelfire.com/va3/jclane/LoneStar/LoneStar.html

So the next thing was do I have the fabrics for this project since right now I'm on a restricted budget when it comes to fabric shopping due to the fact that I am still unemployed. Time to check out the stash and sure enough I came up with a combination that I really like and I think it will make a stunning Lone Star. Here is my fabric selection.

I won't be starting this project until I have my sea turtle quilt top done since that is my first priority at the moment. I was hoping to get more work done in it this weekend, but unfortunately I managed to sprain one of my fingers yesterday. It is quite painful and I now have it in a splint plus I have been applying ice to it every couple of hours. It makes it rather difficult to do things like use the rotary cutter, iron fabric, or put two pieces of fabric together accurately for sewing. I'm hoping that having it splinted and the icing will get it healed quicker and I will be able to get back to my sewing early next week.

I also want to say thank you to Quilt Sue (http://quilttimes.blogspot.com/) and Jayne (http://jaynesquiltingroom.blogspot.com/) who are running the Lone Star Quilt Along support group the first Saturday of every month. So if you are interested in making a Lone Star quilt, even if it is some time in the future, come out and see what everyone is doing. You will find all kinds of useful information and inspiration.

Sea Turtles - Part 1

2012-01-29T08:11:00.000-05:00

My next project is going to be another reverse applique wall hanging, this time with sea turtles as the theme. I'm still working on the actual reverse applique design and hope to have that finalized shortly. I have also been working on putting together the sea turtles layer. This is the one that lays underneath the top layer and gets exposed when the reverse applique design is cut out. Here is what this layer is going to look like, I still have to finish sewing together all the columns.

The top layer is going to be lighter in colour and these are the fabrics that will make up that layer. The plan for this layer is to do more free form curved piecing to try and give the look of waves on the ocean. The blue in the upper right hand corner appears to be rather dark in the photo but in relation to the fabrics in the turtle layer it is a fair bit lighter. The lighting in my sewing room is great for sewing since I have lots of windows and natural light, but I guess my camera things other wise.

UFOs - Finished the Gloria Loughman Wall Hangings

2012-01-19T15:55:00.000-05:00

I finally finished the 2 wall hangings from the Gloria Loughman workshop that I took back in the fall of 2008. It's great to see them finished and have a couple of items no longer be UFOs. Unlike some people in blog land who I see have long lists of UFOs, I find personally that if my list of UFOs gets too long it starts to give me anxiety. I think in part it has to do with my upbringing which was working class and there were many a time that things were tight because factories had layoffs during down times so you learned to live frugally and with purpose. So when I see too many UFOs on my list I start to question myself why did I decide to do tht project if it's just going to lay around collecting dust and never get finished.

There are many legitimate reasons why projects get put on hold but for me I like to keep those numbers down to a dull roar. Also every now and then I will take a hard look at what is there and decide if something will ever get finished or is there something about a particular project that in my books it will likely remain a UFO forever. If that is the case then it is time to donate it to someone who can put it to good use and finish it. Why should it collect dust in a box for decades. So I have decided that the Kaffe Fassett diamond quilt project will never get done. I have lost complete interest in it and have no desire to complete it. I will donate the cut diamonds to the guild that I belong to for their charity quilt group where someone will gladly make it up into a quilt for charity. I'll even make sure to provide some fabric for the back and binding and hopefully there will be someone interested in working on it.

So here are the finished wall hangings. This one is called Colour is Magic.

This one is called Layer by Layer.

Here is a close up of the quilting that I did in the borders of both of these wall hangings.

So now to decide what I will be working on next, stay tuned.

First Snow of Winter

2012-01-13T10:21:00.000-05:00

We finally got our first so called "snow storm" of winter and in reality it's not much of a storm here in Toronto. We have had an incredibly mild winter so far and most of the precipitation has been in the form of rain including a major soaking yesterday. The latest system was actually 2 systems that crossed paths over the great lakes and were suppose to bring our first real taste of winter. There was a Texas Low coming up from the south full of moisture followed by an Arctic Low bringing the cold temperatures needed to make snow. Yesterday with the bulk of the precipitation the Arctic Low hadn't quite made its way to our area and now that it is here most of the moisture is to the east of us where they are expecting significant snow falls. We will likely see an inch of snow when it's all done but this morning things got pretty messy when the wet roads from all the rain froze.

Here are a couple of pictures from my balcony of the first snow of the winter, it really doesn't look all that spcetacular because it's not the big fluffy kind that sticks to trees and creates those beautiful post card images. These are the very fine flakes that don't really stick to much.

Hope everyone is keeping warm and safe today. Have a great weekend and hope you find some time for your quilting projects.

2012 New Years Goals

2012-01-01T22:15:00.002-05:00

I hope everyone has had a pleasant New Years Day. I went out with friends last night to a lovely French restaurant to ring in the New Year. It was a great time catching up with good friends and a most enjoyable meal. Today has been a quiet laid back kind of day.

I've done my review of projects that I would like to get done this year, and here is the list. As always it will be interesting to see what gets completed, what doesn't and what new projects come along.

I also listed my UFOs that have no commitments at this time for completion and this list I only added one new project from 2011 so that's not too bad. I think as quilters it seems that everyone has the never ending supply of UFOs.

Jan: Finish quilting the 2 wall hangings from Gloria Loughman’s workshops
Jan: Develop my design for the reverse applique quilt "Sea Turtles"
Feb: Create the "Sea Turtles" quilt top
Mar: Finish the quilt top "In full Bloom - Poppy" from Elaine Quehl's workshop
Apr: Design and create the quilt top for the shoe wall hanging called "Stiletto Heels"
May: I'm signed up for Hollis Chatelain's workshop "Quilt Line as the Third Design Element" and need to bring in 3 quilt tops for discusion and quilt design creation. My plan is to take the "Sea Turtles", "In Full Bloom - Poppy" and "Stiletto Heels" quilt tops.
Jun: Finish quilting "In full Bloom - Poppy" so it is ready to give to my mom for her 90th birthday in August
Jul: Attend Ricky Tim's Super Quilt seminar being held in Rochester NY. I enjoyed this so much when I went to Cape Cod back in 2010, that when I saw it being held so close to home, I figured it would be worth while to attend a second time and hopefully several of the gals from my small quilt group will also come.
Jul - Aug: Finish quilting "Sea Turtles"
Sep: Finish quilting "Stiletto Heels"
Oct: Finish Falling Splendor quilt
Christmas charity quilt: Using blocks from the Friday Block Party 2009

Any time:
1: One block wonder quilt ( I already have the fabric and am curious as to how this will turn out)
2: Start my own unique design of a Rhapsody quilt based on Ricky Tims techniques – the plan here is to have a completed design ready to start a quilt the following year, this in my books is a major project
3: Create a landscape quilt based on the Picture Piecing techniques of Cynthia England

UFOs that are outstanding: I wonder if any of these will come off the plate this year
Hawaiian orchid pillow – hand quilting
Kaffe Fassett – colour in design diamond quilt
BOM: Drunkard’s Path Variations
Tranquil Moments quilt – quilting left to do
Small Wall Hanging (that was to go into a silent auction) – quilting done, need to finish beading and sew binding

So there's my list for 2012. It will be interesting to see what new things will come in to tempt me and change priorities along the way.

Happy New Year everyone.

2011 New Years Goals - Final Review

2011-12-31T14:13:00.000-05:00

Another year is coming to an end. So it's time to take a look at what I had set out as my goals for this year, what was I able to accomplish, what didn't happen and what else came along. First is a list of my original goals and what happened with each one.

Feb: Tammy's Secret Garden – this is a 50th birthday present for a dear friend of mine that I have known for many years – completed
Feb: Signed up for the "In Full Bloom" workshop with Elaine Quehl which is a flower wall hanging and I will be doing a poppy – poppy completed, still need to finish background and then the quilting
Feb: Also signed up for a second workshop called "Surface Design Techniques" with Elaine Quehl – completed (note: this was just a workshop exploring techniques with no actual project to complete)
Mar: Finish Falling Splendor quilt – never started
Spring: Create a Kaleidoscope quilt based on Ricky Tims techniques from his quilt seminar that I attended last fall – cancelled this project
Spring - Summer: Create a landscape quilt based on the Picture Piecing techniques of Cynthia England – never started
Jul: Another birthday quilt present for a friend – completed
Aug: Create a small quilt for the silent auction for the York Heritage Quilt Guild 2011 Show in Nov – started but never completed
Sep - Oct: Create a quilt to enter into the York Heritage Quilt Guild 2011 Show in Nov: this became the Wild Mustang quilt – completed
Christmas charity quilt: Using blocks from the Friday Block Party 2009 – never started

Any time:
One block wonder quilt ( I already have the fabric and am curious as to how this will turn out) – never started
Start my own unique design of a Rhapsody quilt based on Ricky Tims techniques – the plan here is to have a completed design ready to start a quilt the following year, this in my books is a major project – never started

UFOs that are outstanding: – all are still outstanding but I have the 2 wall hangings from Gloria's workshop sandwiched and ready for quilting
Hawaiian orchid pillow – hand quilting
2 wall hangings from Gloria Loughman’s workshop – colour is magic and layer by layer
Kaffe Fassett – colour in design diamond quilt
BOM: Drunkard’s Path Variations
Tranquil Moments quilt – quilting left to do
So from this list I completed 3 projects, 4 are partially finished, 1 I decided not to go forward with, and the rest will be moved to next year to be done or become UFOs but hopefully sometime in the future will get done.

In addition the following new projects happened in 2011:
Nov: Quilted 2 oriental wall hangings for a friend – completed
Dec: Quilted an additional 2 oriental wall hangings for a friend – completed

So in addition to the 3 completed projects from the original list I did another 4 partial projects (quilting only) in 2011. I have to admit that this hasn't been as successful a year for my quilting as previous years but I have had some medical issues that I have been dealing with. One of which has been severe iron deficiency anemia which left me very fatigued and at times I barely had enough energy to get through the basics of a given day. I have had this condition for almost 3 years, have been through the gamut of tests and basically no one was able to find a definitive cause for it. I was finally switched from iron supplements which actually stopped working this spring and spent 3 months going for weekly iron infusion treatments at the local hospital. I have to say that my system has responded well to the treatments and it looks like at this time I just need to go about every 3 months for a top up treatment to keep my levels in the normal range.

So next I'm going to review what my goals are going to be for 2012 and then will post them hopefully on New Year's Day.

I wish everyone a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year,
Vicki

UFOs

2011-12-19T16:57:00.000-05:00

Well there's not much time till the end of the year and I knew that if I started a new project that there was no chance of it getting done before 2012. So I looked through my list of UFOs from my post at the beginning of the year titled "2011 New Years Goals". There I also listed what UFOs I had at the beginning of the year. I noticed that I had 2 wall hangings from a class that I took from Gloria Loughman back in Dec 2008. I think it is about time I got these finished.

I got the one sewn together since it was still in pieces, and then the borders attached to both of the wall hangings.

I now have to cut fabric for the backings, cut batting and make the quilt sandwiches. That should get done in the next day or so. I likely won't get the quilting done until sometime between Christmas and New Years eve, but the plan is to get these two finished before New Year's Day.

Helping Out A Friend - Kimono Wall Hangings part 2

2011-12-12T10:18:00.000-05:00

Well it's been awhile since I have posted. It's been that time of year getting things ready for the holidays along with the usual colds that happen and slow things down at times. The only quilting that I have done was to finish the remaining 2 kimono wall hangings for my friend. Here are pictures of the last 2.

We had our Christmas dinner and get together with friends yesterday and had a lovely time. The friend who I was helping out on these kimono wall hangings was finally able to give her gifts to our friends and they loved them. I did get credit for the quilting and they loved the details that I included like the koi fish and the Japanese maples.

So what else have I been doing, Christmas baking. So what did I make I make this year? A cherry streusel bar.

Ginger spice cookies and chocolate orange macaroons.

Maple pecan squares.

Nanaimo bars.

So what is your favorite Christmas treat?

Wild Mustang - Part 12 Final Touches

2011-11-09T16:48:00.001-05:00

I ended up doing one more thing to the Wild Mustang quilt. Several weeks ago I came across a web site called Sedona Flame where they sell both jewellery and beads in the southwest style.
http://www.sedonaflame.com/fetish.htm The beads looked great and I thought they would add another dimension to the Wild Mustang quilt. The perfect place for them was in the small brown inner border and I wanted to stick with stones in the brown tones. I initially looked at the horses but there wasn't enough quantity in the various brown toned stones. I checked the Zuni bears and there I was able to get the quantity that I needed and the price was actually better than what it would have cost me for the horses. I ended up getting 10 each of the tiger eye, oyster opal agate, picture jasper and leopardskin jasper beads. I was hoping to get the silverleaf but it wasn't available.

The stones arrived last week and they were perfect in terms of colour, size and shape. I just finished sewing the last of the beads onto the quilt today and it is ready to be delivered tomorrow to the guild to get ready for the show which starts on Friday. Here's the overall picture of the quilt with the beads on it. Basically the beads just circle around the quilt going from left to right, following the same direction as the quilted horses heads in the border.

Here is a close up of the beads.

So for those of you who live in the Toronto area or are visiting this weekend don't forget to come out and see the show. For details you can check the show's web site at:
http://www.yhqg.org/Celebration/quiltshow2011/celebrationXI.html

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Fall 2011

2011-11-01T21:51:00.000-04:00

Amy's Creative Side is sponsoring the Fall 2011 Bloggers Quilt Festival. You can check out some wonderful quilts, enter your quilt in the show as well as sign up for some wonderful giveaways at: http://amyscreativeside.com/2011/10/28/bloggers-quilt-festival-fall-2011/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+amyscreativeside+%28Amy%27s+Creative+Side%29

A special quilt that I made was back in 2009 and it was called Dragon Odyssey.

I made it for a close friend of mine. She had asked for a quilt with dragons but most of the fabric with dragons on it was geared more to kids. I eventually saw a wall hanging that used a batik dragon panel and I thought that this was a much better idea. I was able to source a batik dragon and made this quilt for my friend's birthday. Her favourite colours are purple and turquoise so those were the main colours that I used for this quilt. She loved the quilt and to this day it hangs in her living room.

Helping Out A Friend - Kimono Wall Hangings

2011-10-31T21:43:00.001-04:00

A friend of mine was making these Kimono Wall Hangings a few years ago and only got them finished to a certain point. They were pieced, the sandwiches made and stitch in the ditching was done. She developed arthritis in her thumbs and now has a hard time hanging onto the quilts to be able to guide them to do free motion quilting or to follow any kind of quilting pattern. So I volunteered to help her get the quilting done.

There are 4 wall hangings in total, 2 of each style. Here is the first one that is completed.

In the border I went with a stylized chrysanthemum pattern. This pattern I'm using in all four wall hangings.

Then in the sleeves of this style of wall hanging I quilted koi fish.

I also did koi fish in the cream coloured areas of the wall hanging.

Here is the second one that is completed.

On the sleeves and at the bottom of the kimono there are small fabric origami kimonos that were hand appliqued to the wall hanging. My friend picked them up at one of the yearend sales that were held at our quilt guild.

Then in the cream coloured areas of this style of wall hanging I quilted Japanese maple leaves.

So I now have 2 left to do, one each of the above styles. This has been a fun project, it gave me some more practice on my quilting skills and fortunately they were a manageable size.

Wild Mustang - Part 11

2011-10-23T14:24:00.000-04:00

The Wild Mustang is finished. I got the binding on a few days ago and the label is on but the last couple of days we had a lot of dark and stormy weather which made it difficult to take any decent pictures. Today the sun finally came out and I got my picture of the finished wall hanging. Here it is.

Here is a picture of the back. The light Stongehenge fabric at the top is the hanging sleeve, I unfortunately didn't have enough of the darker fabrics left for a sleeve.

For anyone in the Toronto area or will be in the city on November 11 - 13 and would like to see the Wild Mustang along with lots of other great quilts, it is going to be at the York Heritage Quilters Guild Show. You can get details at the show's web site at: http://www.yhqg.org/Celebration/quiltshow2011/celebrationXI.html

So what's next you may wonder. I figure it's time to go back and work on the poppy wall hanging that I started in the spring time.

Wild Mustang - Part 10

2011-10-14T17:46:00.001-04:00

I finished the border quilting on the Wild Mustang quilt yesterday. I was quilting a horse head motif with a flowing mane. Here is what it looks like. If you click on the picture you should be able to see it a bit better.

The horse heads just circled around the whole quilt.

Today I got the binding attached and now I just need to get the hand sewing done and get the label attached. So it's almost done.

Tips & Tricks - Joining The Ends of The Binding

2011-10-14T17:40:00.000-04:00

I have been asked by a couple of my quilting friends how do I join the ends of my binding. I have to admit that it did take me awhile to learn and in the end I actually had to figure it out on my own. I looked it up on the web and most of what I saw didn't quilt make sense to me. A friend recommended a book Called Rotary Magic by Nancy Johnson-Srebro which really is a good overall reference book, and it helped me almost get there. But I still managed to mess it up by either getting the two ends twisted, or sewing it inside out, or I ended up with too much binding or not enough. I had a friend help me, I watched her a couple of times and still no luck. So one day I sat down with the Rotary Magic book and tried to figure out where I was getting stumped and tried to come up with a way that would work for me. After several attempts I was successful and ever since my bindings come out every time, never twisted and always the right size. So here is my step by step instructions for how I join the ends of the binding.

First make sure you leave a good 15 inches of binding before you start sewing it on and when you come to the end leave 15 inches of working space between where you start and end the inital sewing of your binding. I found that this really makes a big difference instead of the usually 8 - 12 inches.

Next take the right hand strip and unfold it so it lays flat against your cutting board.

Place you 6" square ruler on point and the middle line is lined up against the left hand side of the strip and the first inch of the ruler is above the bottom of the quilt.

Take your rotary cutter and cut along the diagonal at the bottom of the ruler.

Your right hand strip should look like this.

Take the left hand strip and place it along the edge of the quilt. Carefully flip open just the top layer and take a pin and pin down the bottom portion where the binding is attached to the quilt (left hand side) and again at the opposite end (right hand side). (click on picture for better details)

Now carefully fold over the left hand side and pin it about 2 inches from the first pin.

Bring the left hand strip of binding and lay it on top of the opened up binding.

Lay your 6 inch ruler over the edge of the left hand strip. Draw a line across the entire back of the right hand piece to mark where the left hand piece ends.

Draw two more lines 1/4" apart from the original line that you drew going towards the unattached end of the right hand binding piece. (click on picture for better details)

Cut off excess binding.

Lay the 2 binding strips back on top of the quilt in their normal positions.

Bring the right sides together of the right and left hand binding strips and flip so that you now have the wrong side facing you. If you scrunch your quilt here it will be easier.

Place a pin in the middle and at either end. At the ends you will notice that you will have points extending beyond the regular line of the binding. This is the way is should look. See areas in green circles. (click on picture for better details)

Add a couple of extra pins to ensure nothing shifts.

Now you sew down the middle line of the three that were drawn.

Take the pins out and finger press the seam open.

Fold the binding back into position and check to see that it is the appropriate length. At this point you can trim the points.

Now finish sewing the rest of the binding. As you can see from my binding it was the right size for this quilt.

I hope that is has been of help and if you have any questions please feel free to ask and I will try to help you out.