Get A Clue with Nancy Drew

I have been doing some thinking lately about friendship and what it entails. It can have its trials and tribulations like anything else but it also brings much joy, support and caring. I know I have good friends who help me get through the darker days and brighten up the lighter ones. One of my good "friends" since childhood has been Nancy Drew. She taught me about independence, bravery, intelligence, loyalty and friendship. She showed me that curiousity is a good thing.  To this day, she is a part of my life.

I had cut out the squares to start on my quilting retreat but I ended up completing my Snowmen Stars. Thinking about friendship reminded me of this quilt and I decided to get it out and work on it. Through thick and  thin Nancy Drew has always been there for me.

Linking to Design Wall Monday.

Off to The Quilter's They Go

My daughter and I got quilts done in the nick of done to be sent off to the quilter's for quilting for Christmas.

My daughter got her quilt done super fast. It took her one month to have it completed. The background fabric was bought at at our guild meeting in October. All of the fabric was from her collection. I am constantly amazed at how good she is at picking out fabrics for quilts. I was not that good when I first started.

My quilt I started three years ago. I got the piecing completed but then it sat for a long while as I decided I wanted a border on it. I took it to my LQS a couple of weeks ago and my children helped me picked out a border for it. It is hard to tell in the photo but there are leaves and red holly berries in the border. I am so happy that I am going to have this quilt done for Christmas. I told my husband that I only thing I want is to get it quilted.  I am thinking of coming up with patterns to do a red and green quilt for each season.

I have found a lot of joy in getting to share quilting with my family and I am so happy they enjoy it as well.

Linking to Finish It Up Friday, and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop.

Snowmen Stars

This quilt top is finally finished and I am so happy. I worked on it and got it finished two weeks ago when I went on a quilt retreat for the weekend. It was definitely a labour of love and overthinking. The pattern is True Blue by Minick and Simpson. It is hard to tell in the photo but the fabrics are snowmen and snowflakes. This was a kit that I had bought a few years ago on vacation. I had originally bought it for the fabric as I was working on a snowmen embroidery. At first I was going to make only a few of the stars and put the embroidery in between so rather than cutting everything out I only cut out a bit at a time. I ended up not liking how it was looking. On last year's retreat I had laid out the stars I had and realized I really liked it. The original pattern had a darker gold colour for the stars.  This year's retreat was finishing up the flying geese and putting on the borders. I have a love/hate relationship with flying geese but I think I would like to try them again.

Linking to Finish It Up Friday , Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop.

Happy Halloween!

My daughter and I have joined the Postcard Group at our guild and October's theme was Pumpkin/Squash. I chose to do the pumpkin face and my daughter did the pumpkin patch scene. I have been enjoying these postcards more than I thought I would. The hardest part to it is coming up with the ideas. Happy Halloween!

Northern Lights

I have my Northern Lights quilt finished. It is for my niece and hopefully I will get to see her at Christmas time to give it to her. In the midst of working on a lot of projects, it is nice to finish one to help my motivation for all the other ones that are only half finished.


Linking to TGIFF, Finish It Up Friday, and Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop.

Quilting Retreat

My daughter and I had a quilting retreat together at home for this Thanksgiving weekend complete with snacks. While I put on and started hand stitching a binding she almost sewed a complete quilt top. The rows just need to be sewn to one another. I am amazed at her ability to choose fabrics that work so well together and to be so focused to have so much done in such a short time. The quilting retreat was a huge success and I can't wait for us to have another one!

Linking to Design Wall Monday and Monday Making.

Slow Stitching Sunday - Happy Thanksgiving

I am using my Slow Stitching Sunday to hand stitch the binding for the Northern Lights Quilt that I am making my niece. I always find it satisfying and soothing when it is time to do the binding.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians! I am so grateful for a wonderful family and friends who support me in everything I do.

Churn Dash and Stars

I spent some of my Friday Night Sew-In looking at some of my older projects. I have a couple of projects that need to be ripped apart but I did not feel like working on them.  I ended  up working on my Churn Dash and Stars. I have been making the blocks scrappy so I cut out 4 blocks. I have to say that cutting is my least favourite part of quilting. I started sewing the blocks together. There are lots of little bits to the quilt which feels like it takes longer to make, but not really. I have a feeling that I am going to enjoy the end result.

Calendar Quilt Finale

I am so happy! My calendar quilt is finally done! I did one block a month in 2015, put together the top at my retreat in November 2016 and finally finished the quilt this week. My daughter helped me pick out the binding fabric for it. She has become my go to helper for design advice. She suggested that I put it up in our quilting room and I will. I enjoy doing the paper piecing and I have a few more patterns I would like to do.

Linking to TGIFF and Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop.

Sashing - WIP Wednesday

Summer seems to have become a time for me to finish up projects that just need a subtle push. These past few days I worked on my Kaleidoscope quilt and my Snowy Stars which needed some help with their sashing.

 I finally got all of the sashing done for my Kaleidoscope quilt and started auditioning fabrics for the borders.

For my Snowy Stars I cut the sashing for in between the rows. I was originally going to do something different with the fabrics so I just cut when I decided what I wanted to do.

It feels good to have these quilts move past the block stage. I can't wait until they become a quilt top!

Linking to Let's Bee Social and WIP Wednesday.

Pinwheels and Rails

I spent my Friday Night Sew In working on my Pinwheels and Rails quilt for my client aka my daughter.  I am making it using a Jelly Roll as well as fabric in my stash. It has been a lot of fun working on something simple and yet so vibrant. I love a lot of the classic patterns.

Oh Cherry Oh!

I decided that Summer is a better word to say than Snow right now. I have my Oh Cherry Oh done and I am so thrilled. This has been a UFO for a few years and I am thrilled to have it finished. I found the border fabric last year at Quilt Canada. It was not cherries, but I liked the combination of apples and cherries together. This quilt is for me, and it is one I would happily use when it is not so hot around here.

Linking to Finish It Up Friday , and TGIFF.

Snowmen Stars

I am not sure if I am allowed to say the S word in July - snow! I have been organizing my UFO's in the past couple of weeks to figure out what needs to be done to finish them. The stars were finished and needed to be put into rows so I have that done now. Next I will be working on the border and the flying geese.  I think I will be changing up the border a bit. I am in the mood again that done is better than perfect which helps productivity.

Linking to Let's Bee Social.

And Pretty Maids All In a Row

 "Mary, Mary, quite contrary"

By Mother Goose

Mary, Mary, quite contrary

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockleshells

And pretty maids all in a row.

Source: The Dorling Kindersley Book of Nursery Rhymes (2000)  

These boxes remind me of this poem. They were made as thank you gifts for people who have supported my children. I used the pattern from Seaside Stitches and Freemotion by the River. The sides are meant to be sewn down but I liked how they resembled tulips to me and decided to keep them that way. As always I need to make one for myself now.

Linking to Finish It Up Friday, and TGIFF. 

Happy Canada Day!

 This is the quilt my daughter made for Quilt Canada 2017! I was so proud to be able to go to the show with her and see her beautiful quilt on display. Happy Canada Day!

Teacher Gratitude

My children and I decided this year to choose one teacher who had meant a lot to them and make them a quilt. The quilts have now been given and both teachers were thrilled. Having people who help and support my children means a lot to me. I appreciate and am grateful for all they have done to encourage my children to pursue their passions and become wonderful, caring people.

 My Son's

My Daughter's

I am looking forward to a wonderful summer with my children and hopefully some quilting!

Linking to Finish It Up Friday, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop and TGIFF.

Sunday Scraps and Superman

I spent my Friday Night Sew In starting a new project. I got a jelly roll a couple of weeks ago and decide to make a rail fence pinwheel quilt. It turns out the jelly roll has many duplicate fabrics so I spent some time finding some fabrics to go with them.

Today for Slow Sunday Stitching I am working on the binding for the Lucky Stars quilt for my daughter's teacher. I can't believe the school year is almost over.

I would like to wish my husband a very Happy Father's Day. He is a Superman! Not only has he supported me as a Quilter for decades he also is an extremely supportive father of our daughter who is a Quilter as well. He drove us to Toronto and back in a day this week so we could see her quilt in Quilts Canada. It was an incredible show.

Being Grateful

Today is a day where I decided the gift to myself is to be grateful. I have so many people to be grateful for and so many things to be grateful for. Today I worked on the binding for my son's teacher's quilt. I also made a test fabric box made using a couple of patterns by Seaside Stitches and Freemotion by The River. I just need to add some buttons to it. I am going to be making a bunch of them for people who have been a big part in my children's lives. Being grateful feels good.


Linking to Let's Bee Social and WIP Wednesday and Linky Tuesday.

My Lucky Stars

The top is done for the Lucky Stars quilt. I ended up doing most of the sewing only because my daughter has had so many commitments this past month. I am happy to support her as she supports me as a quilter. She is my lucky star. At one of her commitments she saw her Brownie Leader who we had made a quilt for and right away her Leader told her that the quilt was on her bed. It is wonderful to hear that appreciation as my daughter is very kind and thoughtful. The quilt has gone to the quilter's now and when it comes back I will have a lot of binding to do. My daughter and I are going to start working on some free motion quilting together.

Linking to WIP Wednesday, Let's Bee Social and Linky Tuesday.

My Place In Canada - Youth Canada Quilt Challenge

My daughter has entered the Youth Quilt Challenge for Quilt Canada 2017. The challenge was My Place In Canada. She went a different way with the challenge. She made a Dresden Plate quilt to represent herself as the daughter of a quilter. The Dresden Plate was the first block that I had made, and I was touched that she chose to create it in her style. The first Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald was chosen for one of the petals as he is from the area we live in. I am excited to go to Quilt Canada in June and see her quilt as well as the other youth quilts. You can vote for the quilts. If you wish to vote for hers it is #44. Click here for the voting and to see the other quilts.

Linking to TGIFF, Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop and Finish It up Friday.

Oh My Lucky Stars

I am very fortunate and lucky to get to work again with my favourite quilter - my daughter! She decided that she want to make a quilt for her teacher out of the aqua and grey scraps leftover from the quilt I had made her. She had chosen all of the fabrics and pattern and I had made the quilt. She chose another pattern and while it was a great pattern it did not lend itself well to scraps. I made a couple of blocks and neither her nor I were happy with how it was looking. One of the blocks was a a star block and that we really liked. I then remembered the Lucky Stars pattern by Atkinson Designs. I have had the pattern for years and have always wanted to make it but never have. She really liked it to so I started cutting out the fabric for the other stars. I had already cut out the flying geese for the other pattern, so it will be a bit different but still fabulous! We needed a couple more fat quarters for the borders, so I brought the fabric to a beautiful quilt show we attended on the weekend. One of the booths had some more of the aqua and grey fabrics so we got them. I already know that this will be one of my favourite quilts once she has it finished. Oh My Lucky Stars!


Linking to WIP Wednesday, Let's Bee Social and Linky Tuesday.

Happiness Is ...

 A quilt ready for the quilter's

A quilt ready to be bound

A WIP brought back to life

Snowmen Stars

Winter wanted to go out with a bang so we got a bunch of snow two weeks ago. It made me want to take out my Snowmen quilt and get it organized. This quilt has been more finicky, as I was unsure what direction I wanted to take it in so I did not want to cut too far ahead if I changed my mind. My original thought had to put embroidery in the middle of it but I was not enjoying the look and the blocks were not fitting well together so I have set the embroidery aside for now. I now have all of the star blocks done and just having a few flying geese left to go. Once I get them done, the quilt will go back into its box for now. I have a few other more pressing projects to work on.


Linking to Linky Tuesday,  WIP Wednesday and Let's Bee Social.

Northern Lights Top

I have the top done now for my Northern Lights quilt and have started to work on the backing. It is going to be pieced in many sections so that it will be like a second quilt. I decided I wanted to use up all the extra fabric I had for the quilt rather than going out to buy a backing. It is cheaper, and gives me a chance to stretch my creativity to piece all of the left over fabrics together.

Linking to Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop.

Friday Night Sew-In - Interlocking Chains

My son and I started sewing together the blocks for the Interlocking Chains quilt. We have six columns sewn and three left to go. We have been taking turns sewing and it has worked out quite well. It is his turn again and then I will start sewing the rows together. Check out what others made for Friday Night Sew In.

Pink Log Cabin Love Part II

I have the squares sewn together for my log cabin. I can't believe how quickly it went together, once I knew what I wanted to do. Now I need to decide on the borders, and the quilt will only have been 16 years in the making!

Interlocking Chains

With the help of my son, I got all my blocks completed for the Interlocking Chains quilt.

Now it is all laid out and I will double check it before starting to sew. I am hoping to sew this all at once since there are so many blocks and I don't want to mess up the pattern. The blocks went together quickly and I am fascinated with the striking outcome. These would not be my colours but as always I like how quilting expand my tastes and love of different colours. My daughter has told me she would like me to make this quilt for her as well. This one, once completed will be going to one of my son's favourite teachers.



Linking to Let's Bee Social, and WIP Wednesday.

Pink Log Cabin Love

I started making this Log Cabin Quilt approximately 16 years ago. It was a Quilt in a Day pattern and I attended a workshop for it at a quilt store. Obviously, for me it wasn't a quilt in a day! It was originally meant to be a lap size with 12 blocks. I put most of it together but did not like it. The 12 blocks did not have a lot of patterns so it got set aside for many years. I would take it out every so often, look at it, think about giving it to another quilter and then would put it away again, until last week when I saw a gorgeous pink log cabin quilt on Mary's blog. It made me take out my quilt and look at it all over again. I realized that I had enough fabric left that I could make another four blocks which would give me much more choices in terms of settings. I made four more blocks and voila here is a new quilt.

I chose the Barn Raising setting. I love this quilt so much now and can't believe I had thought about giving it away. I have started sewing the rows together and I am excited to see it all together. This is what I love about quilting. It continues to surprise me, excite me and inspire me even after all these years!


Linking to Monday Making.

Inspiring Quilters

As today is International Women's Day I thought I would talk about some of the quilters that inspire me. I don't have much time to look at blogs anymore but these women have inspired me for a long time. In the past week their blogs have encouraged me to continue with my quilts.


Nicole from Sister's Choice Quilt showed a buzzsaw quilt that she has been working on. I have one that has been tucked away for years and now I have the urge to work on it.

Ariane  from Ariane Quilts creates beautiful quilts with lots of fabrics and small squares. After seeing her beautiful blocks I want to get out my 2 1/2 inch rainbow blocks and get them finished.

Cupcakes and Daisies creates gorgeous quilts. Every time she makes one I want to make the same one. She has made some great Miss Rosie's patterns and is having a Miss Rosie sew-along. It has encouraged me to get my Miss Rosie pattern started.

Mary from Making Scrap Quilts from Stash not only has an amazing blog but many great free patterns as well. I am making a quilt right now from one of her patterns and my son made a quilt using one of her patterns. I saw this stunning quilt that she was quilting and knew I want to get back to my pink log cabin quilt.

My daughter is an amazing quilter as well as having many other talents.

Years ago, she made this small mat for me and now she is teaching me how to cork so I can make one for myself. She is an excellent teacher and has a lot of patience.

Here is the start of my corking.

There are so many others who have inspired me as well. I thank you for all that you are and all that you do.

Linking to Let's Bee Social and WIP Wednesday.

Tuesday's Treasures

My mother-in-law gave me a gift card for Christmas to a quilt store. The store had a clearance sale on their Mystery boxes and I was able to get both of them, Happy and Timeless. Each box contains 25 fat quarters and I was thrilled to see so many that would fit with projects I am working on right now. I will definitely be sharing these with my children. For right now I have not taken them out of their boxes; I am still at the admiring stage. As always it is wonderful to have family who support your passions.

I also made myself another hat on the weekend to go with a new coat. The balls of yarn all had a different colour to start with and my son thought I should pick the one that started with red. I think he gave really good advice as I like how it came together.

Linking to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by The River.

Warm Heads, Warm Hearts

My children are very talented crafters. Along with quilting they both have other crafts that they enjoy. Last weekend we went to a craft store to get some supplies for them and I fell in love with some yarn.

There was a free pattern in front of it to either make a knit hat or a slouchy crochet hat. It has been a long time since I have crocheted so I decided to make the crochet hat and I knew my daughter would like that style.

 I started to make the hat, read the instructions but only noticed one of the small notes that you needed to know to make the hat. I got about two thirds of it done and knew that something was wrong. I went over the  pattern again and realized my mistake. I ended up taking it all out and starting it again.

 In the end it turned out well and my daughter was very happy with it. She wore it to school which for me feels like having one of my designs at the Oscars.

As it turns out there was enough yarn to make two hats so I made one for myself as well.

 It was nice to have a break from quilting. When I was getting out my crocheting hook I found some other half finished projects so they may be some more crocheting in my future!