The Rainbow

White negative space makes me very happy, especially when the other fabrics are so vibrant.

This quilt is a class on Craftsy called Magical Blocks out of the box.  I started it in 2015 and finished just in time to give it away at Christmas.

The size is 62 x 84 - just barely large enough to cover the top of a queen sized mattress.

I backed it with cuddly purple flannel which it appears that I failed to document.  Sigh.  December is not a good month for remembering all the things.

I did a lot of walking feet to outline the blocks, but then went in with a darning food and made each block unique.  I did it all in white thread.  That was scary on such a dark back.

I'm linking up to Free Motion by the River

21 Pilots

This is a commission that I finished in September.  I think.  Wow.  Time is flying by. Apparently my memory is flying by too.

21 Pilots is a music group.  The circle with the lines in the middle is their logo.

I'm linking up to Free Motion by the River

Palate Cleanser

This fall I had two back to back commissions that used lots of red and black.  

Before I dove into the second one, I decided to do a little baby quilt with bright colours just for a change of scenery.

The centre of each of these blocks is 4.5".  The strips around them are 2.5"to make an 8.5" unfinished block.  It was fun to dip into my "strings" or "strips" drawer to make the entire quilt.  Even the binding is made up of small scraps.

I'm linking up to Free Motion by the River

November One Monthly Goal

Most of my commissions are "I need a quilt, what do you have done / mostly done"  or the people asking for the quilt are local to me so we can choose colour together.

This commission has been entirely be email and it's minorly freaking me out because there is so much room for colour discrepancy from my camera to someone else's phone or computer screen.  Here are the two colour pallets I presented to them:  The picked the top one.

Yesterday they approved this arrangement - do you see any resemblance between the top picture and the bottom picture in terms of colour?  I don't.

I used lots of descriptive words in my emails:  "yellows that lean orange".  Hopefully it's enough that there are no surprises when they receive the finished quilt.

This project is due at Christmas when we will both be in the same city at the same time, but I really want it done this month so I can finish my bits up before Christmas.  It could happen.

I'm linking up to  One Monthly Goal. and Finished or Not Friday

It's a Bag!

I'm not much of a sewer.  I love making quilts, but I didn't not begin as a sewer.  Clothing patterns may as well be Greek.  That being said, I picked this pattern up from Green Fairy Quilts a while back so when my older daughter needed a "gym strip" bag for school, I used this pattern as my starting point and modified it for use with denim and to the size needed.  I'm very pleased with it and more to the point, so is my daughter!

I'm linking up to:
Elm Street Quilts
Free Motion by the River
My Quilt Infatuation

A Goal for September

Last month I finished a commission - a monster Darth Vader quilt in less than three weeks.  It helped that my children were with various grandparents.

This month, I want to finish another commission using a nearly identical colour scheme.  I'm ready to put the middle bits on.  This is the logo for a group called 21 Pilots.  My client's a fan.

I'm linking up to One Monthly Goal.

Darth Vader

A year ago, I made R2D2 for a precious baby in our lives.  The story is that her Daddy liked it so much he wanted it for himself.  Mom said no so he asked me if I'd make one for him.

Here it is.

This is the second quilt I've made where I've liked the back better than the front.  The first is this quilt I made for my sister.

There's 20 - 30 hours of quilting in this roughly 80 x 80 quilt.  I lost track.  Perhaps I should invest in stop watches?  It took me three weeks of going straight to the sewing machine after work to get this done.

Mr Vader was so much fun to make and I learned a lot in the process.

One commission down.  Time for the next one :)

I'm linking up with One Monthly Goal, Finished or Not Friday, Bee Social , Thread Thursday and Crazy Mom Quilts

A Nutty August Goal

I've had a good quilt year.  I've finished six quilts that have just been hanging around feeling under appreciated.

  

Then a friend had a question.  I made his daughter an R2D2 quilt when she was born (click here) and he wanted his own since his wife wouldn't let him steal his child's.  LOL

So now I have a commission.  The pattern above is what we settled on.  It's going to be red instead white.  I have all the materials and the red bits all are all roughly cut.

Update:  Here's the red roughly placed on a black sandwich.  Time to move everything into position.

I need to put this one to bed (that feels like a pun to me) as soon as possible so that I can start another commission that came in a week after the first.  Eek.

My nutty goal this month is to FINISH THIS QUILT!!  I know.  It's gonna be a stretch.  Time to quilt!!

I'm linking up with  One Monthly Goal

Q3: Summer is Busy!

I'm very pleased with the progress I made during Q2.  I finished three quilts (of four) and completed a couple other small projects that were never on my list:

Bee Happy

Ruth's Pinwheels

Aurifil 2014 BOM

Butterflies

A Pillow

Grandma's 9-Patch

Again, I have put off finishing my hand quilting project.  Perhaps Q3 will be the quarter when I conquer the beastie.  It's going to look so good when it's finally done.  My sewing room needs to turn into a guest room for a week so I'll try to have everything I need handy to finish that while I mourn the 7 day loss of my sewing machine.

The other project I would love to finish in the next three months is a Craftsy Class:  Magical Blocks out of the Box.  I decided to make things extra hard on myself by attempting a rainbow effect across the top.  I only have the large "R" block to make then I can piece it all and add the border.

I'm linking up to Finish-A-Long

Thy Word a.k.a. Bee Happy

I'm losing a friend this week.  Okay.  That sounds really melodramatic.  She's moving to another town several hours away, but I won't see her every week and I won't get to sing with her, perhaps for a very long time so I'm feeling a little melodramatic.

I started this quilt in 2013.  I saw something similar somewhere and set out to recreate it.  I was very new to quilting and didn't understand that it was a simple 9-patch.  I laid all my 2½" blocks out on a bed and sewed strips together.  When I told my much more experienced quilting friend how I did it, she laughed herself silly and took pictures so she could show more people and tell them the story of the newb.

After the top was done, I put it away for years.  I just didn't have a clue how to quilt it. 

Enter the friend I mentioned at the beginning.  I was showing her my unfinished tops.  We stopped at this one and just looked and looked and looked at the wonderful little bits of fabric patterns.  We found thimbles and purses and as the title of the quilt suggests, bees.  I realised this is the good bye I needed to give her.

I quilted prayers into the black borders:

Numbers 6:24-26 (NIV)

The Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make his face shine on you

and be gracious to you;

the Lord turn his face toward you 

and give you peace.”’

Romans 15:13(NIV)

 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I never intended to give this one away so I have to make myself another.  This time, I'll make 9-patches!

This is a finished for Q2 (click here) with Finish-A-Long

I'm linking up to One Monthly Goal, Thread Thursday and Crazy Mom Quilts

Ruth's Pinwheels

Several years ago I was gifted with blocks.  These pretty 3-D blocks.  I loved the bright cheerful colours.

I set them aside for a while.  I like mulling on projects.

This year when I set a goal of finishing 9 UFOs, I decided Ruth's should be one of them.

When a mutual friend of Ruth's and mine needed silent auction donations for a fundraiser, I thought this would be the perfect piece for her.

This is a finished for Q2 (click here) with Finish-A-Long

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts

Butterflies

Last week my older daughter told me that her teacher was expecting and could we . . . (she gestured towards my "in case of baby" quilt stash).

I was all about giving her teacher a quilt, but I saw an opportunity to veer off my self imposed to-do list to do something that's been in my brain for a while.

Grandma gave me these flowers and butterflies already cut.  I have no idea where they come from.  There are a few butterflies that we didn't use that celebrate Saskatchewan's 50th year as a province.  That was 1955.  I have no idea if all the fabric is from the 50s but they definitely appear to be vintage.

I sandwiched a top without butterflies and quilted a diamond pattern with 6" parallel lines using a walking foot.  Then we placed the butterflies and I FMQed over them using a darning foot.  The edges of the butterflies were snipped so that hopefully they will fray really nice and soft when the quilt is washed.

The Small One gave this quilt to her teacher this week.  The teacher's older son has asked if he could keep it.  I suppose that means they like it :)

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and She Can Quilt today.

One Monthly Goal: June

I have a friend who's moving away at the end of June.  We're having a good bye lunch for her, so my goal for June is to get this completely ready by June 18.

I keep humming and hawing over the quilting.  So far I've just stitched in the ditch along the light / dark.

I'm linking up with One Monthly Goal

Aurifil 2014 BOM

Do you remember the Aurifil 2014 BOM?  I had a lot of fun with it but never got past making the top.  It's been in a drawer since that December.

It had to go on my list for 2017.

I tried to step up my quilting game on this quilt.  Every block is done differently, the sashing has ribbon candy in it and there is some very dense quilting in the white triangles.  I like how it looks, but it sure increases the amount of time it takes to finish!

This is a finished for Q2 (click here) with Finish-A-Long

I'm linking to One Monthly Goal and  Crazy Mom Quilts

I Made a Pillow

Do you ever have one of those moments where you just have to stop what you're doing and stitch something up?  That happened to me last weekend when I saw Amanda Jean's (crazy mom quilts) couch full of pillows.  There was nothing for it - I had to make one.

Because there were other things on my to do list that day, I looked through the huge container of orphan blocks that my Grandmother gives me and picked out 8 that matched - four for each side of the pillow.

I'm very pleased with my little pillow.  I may need to make another.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts

One Monthly Goal: May

My One Monthly Goal for May is the Aurifil 2014 BOM.  The finished top has been in a drawer for over two years.  Finally last month I took it out, sandwiched it and started drawing a quilting plan.

Perhaps I can finally conquer this guy this month!

Linked with:  One Monthly Goal

Grandma's Nine-Patch

When Grandma send me more of her orphans, I knew I needed to play with the 9 patches she sent.  Even though I wasn't going to start any new quilts this year.

I've decided it doesn't count because I've already finished it!

This is a small quilt - only 30 x 30.  I made one of the blocks so I'd have enough.  The green one is mine.

I used a walking foot to quilt this baby.  I think it only took about 2 hours!

I'm linking up with One Monthly Goal - This is my April Goal

2017 FAL Q2

In Q1, I had 3 goals, two of which I finished.  I still am not feeling the love for my hand quilting project, although I think I've figured out how to proceed, I just actually have to - you know - proceed.

So - here are my goals for Q1:
Top: The evil hand quilting of doom, carried over from Q1
Left: 9 patch that I don't know how I'm going to quilt - the top is done
Right:  Pinwheel blocks a friend gave me - the top is nearly done
Bottom:  The Aurofil BOM from 2014 - the top is done

There is lots of FMQ in Q2.  Sounds fun!

I'm linking up to Finish-A-Long

One Monthly Goal: Nine Patch Baby Quilt

I am blessed to be a part of a family of quilters.  My grandmother, two aunts and my sister all share a common obsession, but what's truly lovely is that our shared art form takes all of us in different directions.  It's fairly easy to tell who's is who's just by colour choice and pattern.

My grandmother goes about her quilts a lot different than I do.  Piecing isn't my favourite part, so I do only as much as the quilt requires.  Grandmother, on the other hand, makes many many blocks and auditions them until she is happy.  The rest go in a box and then every couple of years a yummy parcel of treats arrives in my mail box.

I think that some year, I will devote a year to using these blocks - yes, a year.  There are hundreds.  You can click this link to see what I've already done with past Grandma Blocks.

Meanwhile, these 8 looked so particularly delicious that I pieced them together immediately (with a block I made which I hope doesn't look too out of place.

Since this isn't on my list, I want it finished very quickly and thus it is my One Monthly goal for April.  Preferably I want it done in the next two weeks so I can give it away immediately.

I'm linking up with One Monthly Goal

River in the Sky

A friend happened to be at my house while I was sandwiching this quilt.  She helpfully said "This looks like a river in the sky" and thus, the quilt has a better name than Blue Squirrel.

The same helpful quilt namer also suggested the quilt patterns.

This is a finish for #2017FAL - My original post is here.
This is also a finish for One Monthly Goal, my original post is here.

I'm linking up with One Monthly Goal, Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish-A-Long

One Monthly Goal: March

My March goal is to completely finish this squirrel that I started in 2016.  This UFO isn't that old, but I'll be glad to have it done because it was a spur of the moment afternoon thing that didn't really have a purpose other than curiosity - not that that's a bad reason to make a quilt 😃 .

I'm linking up to One Monthly Goal

Ruby Laces

Yes!  

This is a finish for #2017FAL - My original post is here.

I started this quilt fairly early on (about 2010).  I was given a shoe box full of strings.  I used the coloured strings to created God's Promise.  The neutrals were sewn into long strips and then cut into 60 degree diamonds.

After that many many fabrics were auditioned for the lattice.  I believe I even took a poll.  Burgundy won.

I made it into a top and promptly tossed in a box.  Last month I took a craftsy class - Angela's Dot-to-Dot quilting and realised this would be the perfect guinea pig for her techniques.  Just for posterity - here are all the fills I used on the edges - a different one in each square!

I'm linking up with:
One Monthly Goal and
Finish-A-Long
Crazy Mom Quilts