His

I was in a panic 3 weeks before Christmas. I had a date with a quilter and did not have my brother's quilt ready. I called her up on a Thursday and got a week's extension. The only problem with that is that I knew the quilt I had started making for him would not be ready in time. I had to scrap it, and come up with something quick. I started searching the Internet desperate for an idea, when I happened to look in the sidebar of Piecemeal Quilts, a blog I read on a regular basis. There was this gorgeous quilt that Sandi had designed for her mom to make for somebody else. It was easy to make and had all of the same colours that were in my sister's quilt. I could not believe it. It felt like the angels were singing. I had quite a bit of fabric left from my sister's quilt because I had bought fat quarters. It was going to be used for my nephew, but I could easily change and give the quilt I started for my brother to my nephew. I started on it right that night. I changed up a few of the fabrics from my sister's quilt and I had a great brown that did not look good in her quilt that looked great in his. I did not have enough time to get a good fabric for a border but it was still big enough for a lap size quilt and it allowed me to use that great green/blue fabric that I had gotten 3 yards for $11. My brother was thrilled with the quilt and I think quite stunned. Anyhow without further ado, here it is:

I love how it turned out and so did my husband. We both wanted to keep this one. I think another one will be in the works.

Patchwork Times UFO Challenge 2011

Swaps - 2009, Bees - 2010, 2011 - UFO's

I have decided that 2011 will be the year of the UFO. I am joining Judy's UFO Challenge. What happens is that you make a list of 12 UFO's you would like to get finished. You get to decide what finished means to you, whether it be as a quilt top or a completed quilt. For me it will mean quilt top, since I have mine quilted by someone else. Each month she will post a number, and whatever quilt matches with the number on your list will be the one you are working on. My husband did question whether this would increase my stress level for this, feeling as though I had to get them finished by the end of the month but since most of these quilts are for me, I think I will be okay. I do have my nephew/niece's quilt on the list to finish and I will have a new niece or nephew come February.


Here is my list:

1. Mountain Mystery
2. Wandering Star
3. Butterfly
4. Jelly Roll Sampler
5. Tulip
6. Fresh
7. Red/Aqua
8. Cameo
9. Cherry
10. Snowmen
11. Snowman Applique
12. Purple/Aqua

There is still time to sign up. The first number will be posted January 1, 2011.

Jill was the winner of my Mystery Giveaway.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I wish you and your family a happy holiday!

Advent Calendar

I love Advent Calendars. With young kids around, it is hard to keep the chocolate ones around.

This is one that a great friend made me years ago. I just love it!

This is an advent calendar I got today. It was not quite my husband's style, but it was mine and the cashier's so it came home with me. I can't believe there are only 5 more pompoms waiting for an ornament!

Friday Night Sew-In

Well, my arch nemesis has been conquered. I don't think I will ever be making a quilt out of it though. After all of the frustration I decided to do some mindless sewing by creating more of my 4 patches.

I really need to get to my binding, tomorrow!

Arch nemesis

 

This block more commonly known as the asterisk block is my arch nemesis. It is the October block, for my Sew Modern Quilt Bee. We were given fabric to make 2 of them. The first time I tried the block I had left the selvage end on because I was trying to use the least amount of fabric possible because the scraps were asked to be returned. Well, I  had not left enough of the end and the selvage would have become part of the block. So then I cut off the selvage end and then tried it a second time. Still not enough. Set it aside and worked on my quilts that had to go to the quilter's. Picked it up for a 3 time, found some other instructions for it and managed to struggle through. Last week, started working on the second one.  Got busy and picked it up again on the weekend to finish. Can't find part of the fabric. Look everywhere. All my quilting bee stuff is organized together so I knew it had to be in my quilting room. Still can't find it. Ask my daughter who is a fabric hoarder. No, she did not take it. Then my son pipes up, are you looking for a green piece? Yes, I say. Well, it turns out he had taken it to use to make a net for his air hockey table. My husband found the fabric on the floor all  covered in tape, assumed it was garbage and through it out! So short story long, that's how the asterisk block became my arch nemesis.

I am hoping to rectify this tonight as I am participating in the Friday Night Sew-In. I will finally finish the long saga of the asterisk block and hopefully get to work on some of my other bee blocks.

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, 3 bags full. 

Well, I don't have 3 bags full but about 2 projects.

I won this amazing wool applique kit from Paula Stoddard of Pacific Patchwork. She is the designer of the pattern.  I have also being making her free redwork Love Is patterns. I have never worked with wool before and I have not done much applique so I am excited to be able to try something new.

Knitting is something I used to do lots.  With all of the great Christmas movies, and Christmas travelling I got the itch to do some knitting again. My husband asked me if I needed to start another project. No, not really but I always like have something to keep me busy. I  started making a scarf for my daughter on the weekend. I love how she thought I would have it done in a few hours, and then I could make her some mittens too!

Mystery Giveaway

In blogging with my  artist friend, Michele, I teased her about having 500 followers and suggested that she should have a giveaway.  She, being more astute and greatly more talented than me, figured out that this week Sew Mama Sew was organizing another huge blog bonanza. I somehow missed the boat on that one. Since, she is having one, I feel it is only right that I have one too. Michele made me have this giveaway! You should really check out her blog. She makes things with household items that I did not think were possible. Plus she makes it look easy, even though I know it is not.

Anyhow for this giveaway is going to be a mystery for you and me. I definitely know it will include fabric, and maybe some other goodies as well. I am going to have this open until December 24 at 7:00 pm EST. The winner will be announced December 25 and the package will be mailed out before the end of the year. If you are a no-reply blogger, than you need to leave an email in the comments, otherwise I will have to choose someone else. Winner will be chosen randomly.

To enter this giveaway, I want to know what your favourite tradition is at this time of year, no matter how you celebrate. My son is learning about traditions and celebrations right now in school and I thought it would be fun to find out how other people celebrate.

My favourite tradition is to get some Hot Chocolate ready and go for a drive with my husband and children to look at all the beautiful Christmas lights. Good luck in the giveaway!

12 Days of Postings

I have not posted in a while. Life has been crazy and I really have not quilted very much either. I have decided to catch up on my postings by having the 12 Days of Postings. A little pressure before Christmas, is good, isn't it?


Here is some fabric I have bought in the recent while.

The dots are for my Jelly Roll Quilt, the flower fabric is for my Cameo quilt, I got the stripes for binding, and the dark blue for binding.  I love the Lizzy Dish fabric, and I got 3 yards of the green fabric with stripes  for $11 US. That is a huge deal for fabric in Canada that is $17 a metre. It became the backing for a quickly made quilt.

I have gotten 2 of my quilts back from the quilter's and they look amazing! Next week will be spent binding and then they will be all ready for Christmas.

Log Cabin Love Finale

 

Here is my finished Log Cabin quilt. I am so thrilled with it and the quilting that Tammy did. It was a hard one to give away, but I reminded myself that I am only its surrogate owner. I have been under some stress lately, both internal and external so I decided to give the quilt to my friend now, as a family quilt rather than making his daughters' each individual quilts. I still might do that, but the pressure is off me now. I gave it to him this week and he was very happy and surprised by it.  He has an appreciation and understanding of how much work goes into a quilt and I always like giving quilts to people who do. Now, back to those half square triangles for my brother!

Presenting ...

Here is the finished quilt top for my sister. I will be busy doing a lot of binding in December. I am happy with out it turned out after taking so long to decide what pattern to use. I have a quilt to bind this week and a week and a half to finish my brother's which I just started on Friday. Wish me luck!

Friday Night Sew-In

Well Friday Night Sew-In ended up being a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

First, I started working on one of my Love Is redwork blocks.

Then I worked with my son on his Halloween quilt. He is designing how he would like the borders to be.


Lastly, I got started on all of the half square triangles I need for my brother's quilt (336 to be exact).

It needs to be done in 2 weeks, so I am going to be a busy Canadian beaver for the next little while!

Sew Cal Gal's Christmas Quilt Show

Here is my entry for Sew Cal Gal's Christmas Quilt Show.

I pieced the blocks this summer as part of the Star Sampler Quilt Along by Bradie Sparrow of QuiltCetera. I had gotten some of the fabric as a fat quarter bundle of corals and aquas from the Have a Very Sheri Berry Holiday last year for my birthday. I was unsure what to do with it, until I find out that line also had some really cute Christmas/Winter fabric with it. This is going to be my Christmas gift to myself. Right now, it is at the quilter's. I am tempted to put it away until Christmas when it comes back, but I don't know if I can wait that long.  There are many incredible quilts in the show, so go have a look and there is still time to enter one of your own.

"BEE" dancing

I am so excited that I am doing the happy dance! I got my very first bee block ever back from my Bee Beautiful group in the mail.  It is so beautiful and so perfect for me. Thank you so much Stephanie! 

I am still working on my bee blocks for my Sew Modern Bee. I have had to take the one out a couple times, but I am sure that the third time is a charm. I also need to start thinking about what I would like them to do for me. My month is February, and I know that it will come up faster than I think.

Visions of sugar plums dancing in my head ...

I am sure I will have visions of sugar plums dancing in my head once I am done and cuddled under this quilt.  This was my summer project. It was the Star Sampler Quilt Along by Bradie Sparrow of QuiltCetera. It was a fun quilt to do and came together so quickly. There was a medallion star in the middle in the original pattern but I changed it because I wanted to showcase some of the novelty fabrics. I love this quilt so much. I was unsure at first with the colours but I am very happy with how it has turned out and my decision to make myself a quilt for Christmas. Now, I just need to add the borders and it will be ready for the quilter's. Getting it back will be like Christmas morning for me!

What the heart wants ...

What I was really hoping this year was to get four quilts done for Christmas for my family. I got sidetracked in the summer by a couple of great quilt alongs. Then I also decided to make some quilts for my friend's daughters. Last weekend with the fast process of my sister's quilt in my head, I decided to start working on my niece's quilt.  All the pieces were already cut out which made it faster and I was making butterfly's for her, so I was not going to be changing my mind a million times like I normally do. This is the first time ever that I completely chain pieced all the sections of a quilt. It was neat and pretty fast. Usually I make a few blocks at a time so I don't lose any pieces.

Here are a few of the blocks as they are progressing along. I have also never used a black background before. I really like it and my points are turning out really well.

 

At the end of the day, I realized that I was not going to get all of it done that I wanted. I already pretty much knew this. I decided to focus on my sister's and brother's quilt and to make my summer worthwhile finish my Christmas Star Sampler Quilt. The heart is good, because there is always hope.

When you're not looking

Life is what happens when you are not looking. For some reason, I have had this thought in my head that I am a slow quilter. Three weekends ago, my children went and played with their cousin, and I had a day to sew. I managed to get all of the blocks done for my sister's quilt. Two weekends ago I had a bit more time, and I was able to get them sewn into a quilt top.

Now, I just have to put the borders on it. After all this I realized the only thing lacking in me is time. Most of my PHDs hanging around are for me. The quilts for others I do get done, so I guess I am not doing too badly after all.

Happy Halloween/Blogger's Quilt Festival

The quilt I have chosen for the Blogger's Quilt Festival is my Halloween quilt which I just finished today. It is special to me for many reasons.  I made it with many other women all over the world in a Halloween Block Swap hosted by Jane's Fabrics. It is also the first swap quilt I have finished. I spent last summer making spider webs, and I got all of these incredible blocks back for my efforts.  To me, it shows the power of blogging, and the amount of sharing and friendship that quilters give to one another. As Halloween is not my favourite holiday, this is something I would have never done on my own. I love all of the different material and techniques used to create the blocks. My very talented friend Tammy did the quilting and I love the spider webs that she quilted into each of the 9 patches. This quilt is one that I will always treasure and I thank every one who shared their talents with me.

Fabric Frolic

If it was affordable, I would buy one piece of fabric at a time, so I would have fabric arriving more often. However, I am happy to have a nice big juicy package waiting for me when I get home.All of the fabric came from Hawthorne Threads.

I had previously bought the blue Castle Peeps fq bundle but they were out of the out colours at the time. Now, I have them and I can't wait to make something with them. I have a few ideas. I definitely want something simple and big that will show off the amazing fabric.

I had started working on my cameo quilt, but stopped because I was a bit unhappy with the fabric choices I had. I wanted to spice it up a bit and they had an Eden fq set which will nicely fit in with the other colours. Now I can start to work on it again.

I got this for my nephew's quilt. With the extra fabric left from my sister's quilt I cut up 5 inch squares. I have a pattern in mind.

Finally, I bought a Fresh Scrap pack. These pieces are so huge, somehow I can't seem to think of them as scraps. I am thrilled with all of them, and the green is going to go wonderfully with my cameo quilt.

Finally!

 If a picture could say a thousand words!

This photo says a lot to me. It tells me that I finally have started on the quilt for my sister. The fabric that has been in my blog header for so long has now been cut up. To get to this point has taken a  long time. I originally started collecting fabrics over a year ago. I was inspired by a quilt pattern by  Heather Mulder Peterson  for the colours. After a while, I had all the fabric but realized I did not want to use that pattern anymore. I asked my sister if she preferred squares, rectangles, or circles and she told me squares, which narrowed my search somewhat. Then a few weeks ago, I was getting quite desperate because I wanted to make her the quilt for Christmas. I looked through my "book stash" and there staring at me was the quilt pattern ironically also by Heather Mulder Peterson.

Projects made in blocks are good for me, because with the limited time I have I can make one at a time, and see progress. It probably takes me longer to do the quilt that way, but it helps me keep everything organized. It also gives me a chance to hopefully start and make my brother's quilt before Christmas. That one was easier to choose the fabric for as it is a 2 colour quilt and I am happy with the pattern.

Log Cabin Love Part II

Here is my finished Log Cabin quilt top. I am so in love with it. I don't want to give it away. I find it interesting how colours capture us. Last year I was so in to turquoise and this year I am in love with purple. This quilt is such a great combination of the two. It is off to Tammy to be quilted.

I had such a hard time deciding what quilts I wanted to be quilted by Christmas. I went back and forth for weeks trying myself crazy. I really need to start doing more machine quilting but after all the time I put into making the quilt, I always want perfection and my machine quilting would not cut it. I finally decided that my sister's, and brother's quilt were the most important as well as my Sheri Berry Christmas Star Sampler quilt along I did during the summer. It is great to have it decided and now I am merrily quilting along.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my Canadian friends! I am thankful for family, friends and all of my quilting friends who support me and encourage me.

The B Side

Well, it has been a while since I have been sick for such a long period of time. You forget how draining it can be. I have been sick for a couple of weeks but am starting to feel better today. It came at an inopportune time, not that there is ever a good time but October is my month for my Bee Beautiful group. I was so upset about being behind that I felt like giving up my month. I got my packages in the mail today, and I am so happy. Here is what my incredible group of women are going to be making for me:

I chose the Dresden Plate block for my members to make.The Dresden Plate is one of the first blocks that I sewed and quilted as a wall hanging many, many years ago. It was how I came up with my name for my blog. I have never actually made a Dresden Plate quilt though, so I am so thrilled to be having one!

Silver and Gold

One of my favourite songs:

Make new friends, but keep the old.
One is silver, and the other gold.


Well, I have some new friends (aka projects) and some golden friends.


These 2 projects are the other quilts for my friend with 3 daughters.

This is a kit  that I have had for a few years now. When I got it, I knew it came with pink instead of red but I never could seem the right person to make it for.  Earlier this year I had decided to just use the fabric for something else. I am so happy now that I have found the perfect girl for this quilt.



I had a hard time deciding for my friend's oldest daughter. I started off with a pink and yellow scheme, and I first thought about doing another log cabin but decided there was too many other quilts I wanted to try. I then thought about the pineapple block. I liked the idea of using the 1 1/2 inch strips in a completely different way. Then I remembered the Cameos quilt pattern I have which is based on the pineapple block. I dug into my stash and found an Eden charm pack. I decided to use them for the centres and my colour scheme; pink, yellow, purple and green. I tried a block last week and I really love it. It does not require any special rulers, but I had bought the pineapple ruler a few years ago and had not used it yet. It works well with the pattern, and it is nice to know I am also use my "ruler stash".

Now to my golden friends. Darlene is one of the most amazing quilters I know. She sent me this scissor fob and I love it so much. I love too knowing the fact that I will have her with me in my sewing room.

I have another golden friend. She is amazing at everything and so supportive of all my quilting. She also has  ESP because somehow she knew I had broken my favourite pin dish a few weeks ago. She came back from a trip to Switzerland with this for me:

My daughter did try to tell me that it was really meant as a bathtub and proceeded to wash her rocks in it. Luckily I was able to rescue it when she was not looking. Wishing you all silver and gold!

Buzzing Bees

As part of Amy's One Thing, One Week Challenge, I said I would get my bee blocks done. They have been buzzing around me for a bit. I was able to get all 3 of them done.

August Bee Beautiful

September Bee Beautiful

September Sew Modern

I am very happy to have these done. Now, I need to get my fabric kits ready for October. It is my month for the Bee Beautiful group.

Fabric Friday and more Fs

I have been purchasing fabric for my Bee Beautiful month which is October. Along the way, I have picked up some other fabrics.

I love the Miss Jump's Scrapbag fabric. I used it for my dad's quilt and I found a new local quilt store, and picked these up while there.

Castle Peeps by Lizzy House is another one of my favourites. I bought a fat quarter bundle in the blue line and now I am looking to get the rest.

This picture did not show the true colour of the fabric. It is a deep and vibrant purple.

I finally bought myself some Bubblegum Basics that I have been admiring for so long from Jane's Fabrics. I also had been wanting the Meadowsweet Dots when my nephew told me he wanted a red, and orange quilt. Now he has changed his mind to blue, yellow and green but the dots will still come in handy.


Once again, I am participating in the Friday Night Sew-In. I have been to busy to sew lately, but I am starting to get back into the groove so I have no idea what I am going to work on. Christmas is coming and the quilts must be done.

I have also been walking everyday as part of my Fitness Improv(e) Your Butt challenge. I just have not been very good at keeping track of my walking.

Hope you are all doing well.

Design Wall Monday

Here is the progress made on my Log Cabin quilt. I have been having fun watching it come together. Most of the fabric is from my stash except for 2 fat quarters. I love the visual impact that Log Cabins have.


I have been spending sometime trying to organize my quilting for Christmas. It always seems to come to early even though it is the same time every year. I think I have a plan in place. See more Design Wall Mondays at Patchwork Times.

Log Cabin Love

I have decided to make quilts for my friend's 3 daughters. I love children's quilts the best and it has been so much fun figuring out what patterns I am going to use.  One of them I decided on was a Log Cabin. I have had a baby log cabin pattern for a long time and I have always wanted to make it. I made a Log Cabin years ago but because the strips were bigger I had less layouts to choose from. This log cabin uses 1 1/2 inch strips so I am excited about all the possibilities.

I got a great package in the mail yesterday.  I had entered a giveaway on RennaLily's blog and won a set of Barb Sackel fat quarters.

I also won this cute cross-stitch pattern in August from Andrea. My daughter has claimed it as something I need to make for her.

I am off to enjoy the last long weekend before school starts here with hopefully some quilting mixed in. Have a great weekend!