Finally Spring

From this ...





to this ...




to this ...






Okay, where to begin. My mother bought me the jelly roll for Christmas 2007. Then last year I fell in love with the Fields of Flowers pattern. I absolutely loved the turquoise triangles. Last fall when I had some time I cut the strips into 4 10 1/2 " strips for a total of 160 strips. When I started in the winter to put them together I had some how mysteriously lost 10 of the strips. No big deal I thought, I will turn the design into straight rows, 5 x6 blocks. Well then I sewed the 1st row together I realized it was not going to work out. What I did when I was cutting the strips was to put a bunch on top of one another. This is something I never usually do. Well the result of that was quite a few still had their selvage edges on them. Now what to do? Part of the reason why I like quilting so much is the math. Even if you screw up, if you can figure out the math you can do something different. What I decided to do was to change the blocks from being 5 strips in a block to 4, which menat a lot of use for my seam ripper. This allowed me to cut down the blocks to 8 1/2 " and put the blocks back on point. I used the leftover strips to make a table runner for my mother. The other thing I got to do was to add a border. I also normally don't buy fabric on it's own without a project in mind, but I had fallen in love with this beautiful fabric called Secret Garden by Ro Gregg. It ended up matching perfectly with the quilt. Now that the quilt top is done, I am so happy with it. I have to admit that I am glad quilting is like childbirth. If I remembered all the pain of this quilt, I might not want to quilt again. Instead I am happily on to my next project and waiting to get this one quilted. I am going to be calling it Spring Meadow.

Trying Something New!

Well, I got my rainbow blocks done for the swap. Now, I am back to the quilt that has been trying me crazy. It should be easy, and it is and it is not. I think that part of the problem is that the quilt is for me, so I set it aside to work on others. While, it is getting done now, before I work on anything else. Quilt for son, no, bindings for dh and daughter's quilt - no! All this quilt needs is borders.

Since I have this bad habit of putting stuff aside for myself, I have decided to try something new. I was reading another blog who was going to do this and I have decided to try it. It is all about the leaders and enders as Bonnie from Quiltville describes them. Rather than using scraps at the beginning and the end she pieces together small blocks and then uses them to make a quilt. The quilts she has made from them are incredible. I am going to try to do this. I took a mystery quilt evening at my LQS in March and loved the pattern. Part of the cost for the evening was that you got a starter kit of fabric. Now normally, I would have never picked any of these colours for myself. They are more subduded than I am use to, but I fell in love with them. I did not know when I would get to it, because I have 2 baby quilts I need to get finished for August and the quilt for my son. I am going to use the small pieces of the quilt for the leaders and enders. I am eager to find out how much I will be able to get accomplished.

Inspiration

Inspiration comes from everywhere. Yesterday, my son was watching one of his Disney shows and it talked about giving Valentine's Day cards when it isn't Valentine's Day. After the show was over, he asked me for a big piece of paper,and asked if he had ever made me a Valentine's Day Card before. I told him yes he had. Then he went up to his room and made this picture for me. I am the one in the brown (I was wearing a brown sweater yesterday) and he is in the blue. At the top there are hearts and stars. His sister got upset that she did not have a card so he made one for her with him and her in the middle. As a mother, I am beaming with pride and as a quilter, I am thinking that is a great border. I guess, you cannot take the quilter out of me! I love how he used the different colours along the sides and kept the red for the top and the bottom. I like how it is a similar to the piano keys but going vertically instead. Now I am trying to figure out a quilt I can make using his idea as a border. I am thinking when I get my squares from the rainbow swap, this is the border I might use.

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Amy is hosting a Bloggers Quilt Festival. You talk about your favourite quilt on your blog and post the link back on her blog. Please join in. It is wonderful to see what is everyone is doing and there are great prizes to be won!


Rather than talk about my favourite quilt which is so hard to choose, and which I usually say is my first baby quilt made for my nephew, I am going to talk about the quilt that has my favourite sentiment. I took my 1st quilting course 17 years ago. It was a hand applique course. I enjoyed it but put aside quilting for a few years while I finished my schooling. I then took a beginner's quilting course through a evening interest program at a high school. I did not have a sewing machine at the time and I found out that I was not very good at hand piecing. A few years after that my dh bought me a sewing machine and I made quite a few baby quilts and some lap quilts. Then I had my children born 18 months apart. I was having a hard time deciding whether to continue quilting, knowing the time constraints I would have with two young children. When my youngest was 9 months hold I decided to take a beginner's course again, this time with a sewing machine. I thought the course would be useful to pick up tips since I had learned a lot on my own. I also wanted to make a decision about whether I would keep quilting. This quilt is the result.

NEVER ENDING

I learned a lot from my course. It was there that I realized that my passion for quilting and my husband and children was "never ending". Both would be filled with tears, laughter, joy and frustration but I could not live without either one.


The compromise I made for time is that for now I get my quilts quilted by other people. Since then, I have moved back to my hometown, gotten a quilting room and a new sewing machine. I have made many lap and baby quilts. I am now working on a king size quilt. Two years ago, I joined my LQG, entered this quilt into my guild's quilt show and now belong to the executive as the newsletter editor. My latest foray has been creating this blog and learning from so many of you.

April Showers Bring Many Quilts

When it rains it pours ....

Easter turned out to be a big quilting weekend for me. I got two quilts back from Tammy.

These are sneak peeks of the back. I still have to put the binding on.





I got the 1st block of my rainbow swap done.





I am almost done this quilt. I just need to add on some borders.


I also found out that my sister and her husband just bought a house. I had bought material in January to make her a quilt but I was not sure when I should make it, because I had not yet found anything I liked for my brother. Now I have a reason to give her her one without having one ready for him.






I was also waiting for a family friend to have a baby. Her due date was a week ago. Well, the baby has now been born and it's a girl! That means I get to use this quilt kit a bought a few years ago. Instead of red fabric it came with pink. Happy Quilting!

Quilt Possible

Well, I did get the tablerunner done on time. I thought it turned out pretty well. My mom was vey happy and that is the important thing. I got to use all of my scraps and that was the great thing for me. From my 2 1/2 inch scraps, my fat quarter and my half metre of fabric I only have a tiny piece of the fat quarter left. I also get to add this to my Spring to Finish.

Spring to Finish

I am participating in the Spring to Finish. My list will be a bit different because I get most of my quilt tops quilted by someone else. However, I do plan on submitting completely finished items to the challenge.

Quilt Impossible?

I got up at 6:30 this morning to work on a quilt for myself. Amy was asking about people who get up early to quilt and I am one of those. I start work at 8:00 so there have been mornings where I get up at 5:00 just to get some quilting done. I have 2 more rows to sew on it. I have some left over jelly roll scraps from it. Why is a long story and another posting. I started thinking about the backing. I was going to do a pieced backing similar to what AmandaJean does. I have been wanting to do one for a long time. As I started counting my scraps I realized I have enough to make a tablerunner. I also have two bigger pieces as well. Another part of my long story. So, here is my challenge. It is now 8:00 am EST. I am having a dinner with my family tonight at 5:00. pm We are spending the rest of Easter with DH family. Can I get the table runner in time for supper to give to my mother as an Easter gift or is this Quilt Impossible? Stay tuned for the answer!

Great Giveaway

PigTales & Quilts is giving away 30 fat quarters to celebrate her daughter's 30th birthday. Please tell her I sent you.

Motherhood

I don't get to watch Oprah very often but I did watch parts of it yesterday. It was all about motherhood. I have to agree with a lot of things that the mothers said. I don't want to admit when I need help and and I do worry what the other mothers will think. I meant an acquittance on the weekend and we were talking about Easter plans. I mentioned that we were visting family who live 3 hours away. She asked me how the kids were in the car and I said good. This part is true. Ever since my children have been born we have always lived a few hours away from some family. They are use to the drive. The part I omitted is that last summer we bought DVD players for the van for the 5 hour drive to grandma's cottage. We have since used it as well for the 3 hour drive as well. Why did I not mention this part? I thought it would make me look bad. 3 hours in the car gives me the chance to work on/finish craft projects or read a book I need to know about for my job working in a library. It is however hours that I lose with my children. Sometimes I feel like the guilt will never end. Why do we to this to ourselves? Okay, why do I do this to myself? So, for all the mothers out there whether it be of children or animals I want to say you are wonderful the way you are!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful nephew! He turns 8 today. He is one of the few people who can make me laugh on a regular basis. We have lots of fun together. He lives a few hours away so I don't get to see him as much as I wish I could. I made my 1st every baby quilt for him. As you can see it follows in my rainbow theme. It is still the favourite quilt I have ever made. I think it is about time I made him a new one.

Giveaway

A la mode is having a wonderful Heather Ross fabric giveaway.

Where is my quilt?

Last night, when I was lying down with my children to put them to bed, I had brought up my lap quilt to put over us. No, my son said I don't want the quilt on me. Fine, I say then there is more for your sister and me. His sister was quite happy with that. Then he says to me, mommy there is still a rectangle of the quilt on me. Okay, more effort to get it off of him. Well, the next thing he says is where is my kitty cat quilt? He must have known today was April Fool's Day. His kitty cat quilt is once that I started working on late last year and then put aside because I had others that had to be finished for Christmas. I have half the squares done. It is a mystery quilt pattern I found online. The mystery was already done, so I took a peek at the result. It was done in blues and yellows and it reminded me of this fat quarter collection of blues, greens and browns that I had of cats. I decided to make it for him as an older boy quilt and because he loves our cats so much. Looks like I have a new priority!

Giveaway

Coffee Time Stitches is having a wonderful cupcake giveaway!