Another Quick Finish

This is the third placemat I have made from the scrap bin. There were a lot of little William Morris prints in a random scrap bag that someone gave me, and I cut them to either a large or small square, or a rectangle. I sewed them together like a jigsaw puzzle and really enjoyed the process. The scraps looked pretty in the bag, but seeing them all sewn together is a bit much! Perhaps it needed some sashing to give the eyes a place to rest?

Oh well, it's done now.

It has another William Morris fabric for the  backing. I did some minimal stitch-in-the-ditch quilting.

Here are all three placemats on the design wall. I have a couple other bags of scraps waiting to become a placemat next year!

December UFO Finished!

My December UFO was quilted, labelled, bound, and wrapped and under the tree by Christmas morning! Now that's what I call a Christmas miracle! This was a project started in 2007 and inspired by Leanne Beasley. It was called the 365 Challenge and the goal was to document the life of your family on fabric. 

I lost interest in the project in early 2008 and didn't return to it until December of this year when I thought it was the perfect time to recall "the good old days" and bring back some happy childhood memories for my kids.

The quilt is not much to look at but it is rich in memories and love. When I read some of the entries of all the things I used to be able to do in one day, I was impressed! Life is completely different now, so it is a gift to have these little fabric notes to remind us of those days gone by.

Linking up to One Monthly Goal

A quick finish

My November UFO project is last year's Quiltville mystery called Frolic. It's a lot of complex sewing and I just needed a quick finish for some instant gratification.

These pieces were found in a scrap bag and they wanted to become a placemat. How do I know that? Well they told me of course!

The original owner probably abandoned the project because the strips weren't fitting together well. I made some tucks, added a few pieces of fabric and a wide border.

The machine quilting was simple diagonal lines which aren't exactly straight due to the wonkiness of some of the piecing. But that's okay... finished is better than perfect!

This is the second placemat I've made to donate to Meals on Wheels. I love the idea that someone will enjoy their nutritious food along with a little quilty goodness!

Okay... back to Frolic!

October Mini Finish

Most of my October accomplishments occurred  because I cleaned the quilting room at the beginning of the month. New windows were installed, so space had to be made for the workers to walk through. It's amazing the treasures that were (re) discovered!

I found two 3" finished blocks and lots of strips and couldn't wait to sit down and sew more blocks. Sewing the blocks together was the challenging part and lots of pins were required. 

If you haven't made anything yet with 1" strips, this is what it looks like from the back. It's all seam allowances, which I press open to try to get it to lay flatter.

While I was sewing the 9 blocks together, I decided to turn it into a pillow. I made the Peace  block to go on the other side of the pillow, and bordered both blocks with the same batik fabric.

I machine quilted both blocks with just a piece of batting underneath. I quilted random leaves around the Peace block. This is how it looks from the back.

There are 225 1" squares in the mini quilt which finish at .5". I was really proud of that piecing, and think that the large print border and feather quilting takes attention away from the centre piecing. That's okay... I still love my finished pillow!

This is where my new pillow lives - in my reading corner with the library book I am enjoying and the beautiful shawl my friend Louise made for me. 

Hop over to The Constant Quilter to see the other mini quilt projects made this month.

Finished UFO

I'm so excited that I met my UFO goal this month! It was really busy and that I managed to complete a quilt feels terrific!

This quilt top was made in a mystery quilt class with Deb Beirnes 2 years ago. I sewed the top on my 1953 Singer 301 which still sews like a dream.

I machine quilted this project on my 1995 Brother 1500 which also still sews like a dream. You can read more about the "loose feathers" quilting design I tried in Friday's post.

Here is the finished quilt measuring 50" square. The original pattern is by Larisa Key.

I put a little panel of the Eiffel tower on the back just for fun, with a Riley Blake black and white print and a strip of tan Kim Diehl fabric.

I was disappointed that the feather/hearts quilting design is sideways to the Paris panel on the back. I didn't realize I did that until I took the photo of the backing just now. Oh well, that's the way things go sometimes.

Linking up to One Monthly Goal

Quick Placemat Finish

I haven't been blogging much due to the frustration factor, but I'm going to try hard to write blog posts for 4 days in a row this weekend! When I was cleaning up  (just a bit, not going crazy) I found another bag of leftover scraps that was gifted from a friend. There were mostly strips made of 5 squares in different orders like the one at the top of this photo. Maybe it was an Irish Chain variation she was making?

I separated some of the squares and played around with layouts until I came up with this. There was even enough fabric in the bag for the border and binding. 

Here is a photo from the back so you can see the machine quilting pattern. It was rewarding to take a bag of someone's scraps and create a lovely placemat that can be donated to Meals on Wheels.

Linking up to Alycia's Finished or not Friday

What are you finishing this week?

September Mini Quilt

I am excited to be posting 2 finishes this week!

This is my September mini quilt that was made from a free pattern by Snowy Days Quilting. The pattern is called "Stars at sea" and was part of "QAL by the sea".  

The hardest part was cutting out and organizing the 86 pieces for the 12" block.

The easiest part was picking the thread colours for quilting. Blue thread in the background sky and yellow or gold thread for the stars.

I machine quilted the star blocks with straight lines using the free motion foot.  It's always a challenge for me to quilt a project evenly and not "over quilt" some areas. I quilted a few random radiating lines in the background to help the quilt lay flatter, and was careful to stop when it was "enough".

I was so pleased with that starry blue batik that I found in the stash for the background of this starry night mini quilt, but it was difficult to accurately photograph and looks a little different in each photo. 

Finished size"12.5" x 12.5"

Hop over to The Constant Quilter to see more mini quilts made this month.

September UFO

My UFO of the month is called Home Grown. It is one of Nancy Halvorsen's wonderful patterns, and it was made from a kit by Cherished Pieces. I just can't say enough about how wonderful the kit was. I don't usually sew quilts from kits but I fell in love with this one. It was beautifully organized, and even though I made several cutting errors, there was plenty of fabric to not have to worry about having enough. If you've ever made a quilt from a bad kit, you will know exactly what I'm talking about!

The machine quilting was so much fun. Quilting with all the colours is like being in kindergarten again and painting with ALL the colours. Why use a neutral thread when you can use yellow, aqua, salmon, and navy?!? So fun! I free motion stitched around most of the flowers with a coordinating thread colour. You can read more about the quilting here.

In the border I quilted a free motion feather design using white thread on the solid white border and blue thread on the outside print. It's such a was fun and fast way to quilt a border. See the free motion foot? It's 25 years old - the same age as my sewing machine and even though I have acquired several new feet over the years, it's still my "go to"!

I love how the quilting looks from the back too.

This photo shows the feather design on the border quilt well. 

Finished Size: 41.5" x 52"

It was a windy day when I finished the quilt and tried to get some photos. I love this quilt just as much as I did when I saw the sample in the quilt store window!  I will be giving this quilt to my sister for her 50th birthday and I hope she will enjoy having it in her home.

If you would like to have my copy of the Home Grown book that this pattern is in, just leave a comment and I'll draw a name and mail it to the winner. It's such a lovely book, but I know I will never make any of the other patterns so it should go to live with someone who might! I did a quick search and it looks like you can still get the panel for this pattern at several shops.

Linking up to One Monthly Goal and Finished or Not Friday.

August Miniature Quilt

August Miniature Quilt

Wendy who blogs at The Constant Quilter hosts a miniature quilt party at the end of each month. This is my finished mini for August. It was exactly what the Doctor ordered for this month (just kidding, no Doctor gives quilting orders!)

Max and the Mini

To give you a better size perspective, we have Max the granddog posing with the finished quilt. Yes, he is bigger than the quilt and definitely cuter!

Finished Size: 9.5" x 12.5"

It was hours of mindless fun to play with 1" scraps and make a little quilted treasure out of 70 little squares that finish at half an inch.

Click here to read more about the making of this quilt, and click here to see my other mini quilt finishes this year.

Finished Shoo Fly!

It's been a while since I finished a larger (not miniature) quilt and in this crazy pandemic life, it's a miracle that anything quilting gets accomplished!

Finished Shoo Fly!

I'm just so happy with how this quilt turned out! This is my favourite kind of quilt - made slowly over time with lots of scraps of all the colours, and full of memories 💜

This quilt started with the 2019 Quiltville leader-ender challenge. I sewed a few bocks every month from scraps on my cutting table, and from the scraps donated by my friends.

machine quilted loops

I am slightly annoyed by the random direction of the loops. I wanted it to be consistent, but my quilting brain couldn't concentrate enough to make it happen. So now I am saying "I meant to do it this way"! Also, I wasn't sure if it was finished or not as the centre of the blocks are kind of puffy. But it really grew on me and I decided not to add any more quilting to it.

quilt backing

The backing is just a plain grey piece of yardage and I like how the quilting design looks on the back of the quilt.

Size of quilt: 51" x 71"

binding scraps

I also love the random pieces that I was able to use up from the leftover binding scraps basket. I wasn't sure what colour the binding was going to be, but there were a lot of turquoise/aqua/green strips so that's what it became.
Linking up to Finished (or not) Friday!

This Little Pandemic Piggy

Happy Canada Day!
It will be a different kind of celebration this year for Canada Day. There will be no parades, no public firework displays, no midway in the park, no outdoor concerts, and no gatherings of more than 10 people. It is such a strange time due to COVID.

In addition to quietly celebrating Canada Day, I am also celebrating that "This Little Pandemic Piggy" quilt is finished! 

"This Little Pandemic Piggy"

I did a bit of machine quilting and then added some hand quilting in pink stitches for added texture and interest (and fun!) 

auditioning binding fabrics

I had so many creative suggestions for names for this project - you can see some of them in the comment section on this post. Julierose suggested "This little piggy" and I added the "pandemic" adjective. I also had help from blog readers to decide the layout since I wasn't sure about how to position the letters/words around the centre block. 

The centre pig block is from Kelli's blog "Seriously... I think it needs stitches" and the letters are inspired by Tonya Ricucci's style of letter making from Word Play Quilts.
Finished size: 16" x 17"

I really wanted to have the words read "Take ONLY what you need", but there was not enough space on a mini quilt for that many words. But still... the sentiment is there. Take what you need and leave the rest to share with your neighbours/community! This mini quilt will be my reminder of what the COVID19 experience was like in March and April. The panic buying and hoarding that went on was shocking to me. I think some people won't have to purchase toilet paper for about 20 years! Having witnessed the selfishness every day, I shudder to think what would happen if there ever was an actual food supply chain issue!

Here are my 2020 minis quilts (minus the red and white April mini that seems to be MIA!)

2020 Miniature Quilts

I'm so pleased to have my June mini quilt finished! Hop over to Wendy's blog The Constant Quilter to see more mini quilt finishes this month.  And also...I'm so tickled to have my mini nesting doll block included in Wendy's "Community Supper" potholder style quilt!

Finished Quilt

I just finished hand stitching the binding on my version of Carole's mystery pattern called "The Twist". I am very happy to have a finish this month already!

Scrap Dance Twist

It was a delight to create this quilt with the easy to sew but interesting blocks in the design, using pastel colours that I don't usually work with, and finding those sweet fussy cut centre blocks to use up. See how the Mama is taking away a spool of thread from the kitten? So sweet!



I used warm and natural batting, which is my favourite for machine quilting. It is needle punched so it doesn't have scrim or glue, and it can be quilted with lines up to 10" apart. I just love it!

This is the back of the quilt. I had the yellow yardage and extended it with a strip of blue print inserted vertically and horizontally at the midpoint.
Everything used in making this quilt was from the stash... total win!



This quilt is being donated to my guild comfort quilt collection. We all know that violence and sexual abuse did not take a holiday during COVID, and my local guild donates quilts to the pediatric sexual assault treatment team at our local hospital. 

Unfortunately is a very busy service all the time and the staff are grateful to have a quilt to wrap around a victim of abuse when they come into hospital. This is going to bring someone a big quilty hug and hopefully provide lots of comfort.

Finished size: 48" x 60"

Linking to Finished (or not) Friday