A Finished Quilt!

One of the happiest events for a quilter is to actually finish a quilt (although starting one is quite happy too!) And if it's a pretty quilt that you really like, well that's even happier!

Happy Little Things hanging on my dining room wall

This is my version of "Happy Little Things" which was a quiltalong by Jacquelynne Steeves. Each month a free embroidery pattern plus a pieced block pattern was revealed. I enjoyed making this quilt so much, that it did not spend any time in the UFO closet at all!

echo quilting with the open toe foot

I enjoyed stitching a variety of machine quilting designs including stitch-in-the-ditch along the sashing with the walking foot, curved line quilting in the blocks, and echo quilting with the open toe free motion foot around the embroidery.

I quilted the last two borders at retreat. They were fun to quilt as the quilt was completely flat (which means I did a good job of measuring and attaching the borders). 

 2 border quilting designs (from the quilt back)

The piano key borders have a simple diagonal grid, the floral border has a wishbone design which I really love to quilt, and the last border has an uneven diagonal grid following the fabric design. It was wonderful to have a binding to hand stitch in the evenings while winding down for bedtime, and enjoying the quiet conversation with fellow retreaters.

"Happy Little Things" in the shadows

I took the quilt for an outing to try to get some good outside shots, because the colours in this quilt are hard to photograph with a flash. However, winter photography is challenging here in the winter. As it turns out it was too windy and too sunny to get a good shot but it was fun anyway.  Here it is on my favourite bridge with some weird shadows. Well, I guess along with all the happy things in life, we do also get some shadows!

This photo doesn't have the shadows and shows the true colour of the fabrics. It also shows some of the quilting. Not only am I happy that the quilt is finished, I'm so happy that it didn't fall into the river during the photo shoot!

Finished size of the quilt: 
42" x 52"

Linking up to Alicia's Finished (or not finished) Friday, Sarah's celebrations at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Cheryl's Favorite Finish.

Teaching and Giveaway

Triangle classroom

Last week I enjoyed teaching a machine quilting class at Triangle Sewing. They have such a wonderful classroom, large and spacious for spreading out quilts, and windows all around the room ... a wonderful place to spend a day. You can see my demo samples on the table and my  finished quilts behind.

quilt stack!

This is the stack of quilts I brought to show the students a range of quilting designs they could learn. One of my favourite quilts is hanging on the ironing board... Save The Bees was last year's BOM pattern by Jacquelynne Steeves. Each border was quilted with a different design... bricks, swirls, and ribbons.

machine quilting demo

And I brought another one of Jacquelynne's patterns to demo some quilting. This is my Happy Little Things quilt and I am demonstrating how to quilt a wishbone design in the floral border. Two more borders to go and this will be finished!

And while we are talking about Jacquelynne, hop over to her site to enter the Grand Prize draw for the Happy Little Things wrap up. It's a reminder to get your free patterns before they are deactivated. 

Happy Little Things Reveal and Giveaway Draw

The finishing instructions to the Happy Little Things BOM have now been posted and it's time to finish up your project! Hop over to Jacquelynne's blog The Art of Home to read all about it.

4 embroidery blocks in the centre of the quilt

This has been such a fun project to make and I especially enjoyed working on the four embroidery blocks in the centre of the quilt. 
That salmon coloured fabric is a hard one to photograph and looks different in every single shot I have taken.

top and bottom scrappy borders added

Here is the quilt after the scrappy top and bottom borders were added. I loved being able to use up all those little scraps from piecing the centre blocks! I had to do a lot of piecing small scraps of the white fabric sashing to get all the way around. The instructions said you need 2/3 yard for the sashing, and you really do! I managed to squeak it out of two fat quarters, but it was tough! Lesson learned... follow the directions!



Here is the finished quilt top in the daylight! 

finished quilt top

The on point grey gingham fabric is perfect for the final border and I was so happy I had enough (including the binding). I was hoping to get the quilt finished for the big reveal today, but ran out of time.

I did enjoy getting started on the machine quilting process. Picking threads is one of my favourite tasks, and I always chose a few spools to start. The soft green is for the bobbin, the cream and the salmon are for the majority of the quilting, and the grey might not actually make it into the quilt.

I have started free motion quilting around the embroidered flowers with the open U shaped foot so I can see exactly where the stitches are going. I hope to finish the quilting this week so hand stitching the binding can be my focus for Slow Sunday Stitching.

So guess what? In addition to receiving the Happy Little Things BOM pattern free, we are also having a giveaway of a Thermoweb prize pack! !

If you like to use fusibles, you will want to win this package (open to US and international sewers). You can enter my random draw by leaving a happy comment below. The winner's name will be drawn on December 8th.
And if you want more chances to win, visit the other bloggers below. You can see their version of the Happy Little Things quilt and enter their draws for up to 8 chances to win a prize (one prize per person per giveaway).

The Quilting Nook
Happy Quilting Melissa
Podunk Pretties 
The Crafty Quilter
Flamingo Toes
Allie-Oops Sweet Happy Life
Kathy's Quilts (that's me!)

A Quilting Life

And for another special treat, hop over to Sarah's Quilting by the Sea blog to see the lovely red and white table runner she made with these embroidery blocks!
You can see more projects over at the Sew Quilty Friends Facebook group.
Thanks again to Jacquelynne for another wonderful quilt pattern, a fun BOM adventure, and for all the wonderful prizes that have been generously offered to our blog readers. 

Happy Little Things BOM

It's time to reveal block #4 of the Happy Little Things BOM!

Block #4 Happy Little Things

Since I really enjoy hand embroidery, I must admit that stitching the flower design in the centre of these blocks is my favourite part! These flower designs by Jacquelynne are so sweet and very relaxing to stitch. 

 preparing half rectangle triangle units

In this block we are sewing 8 half rectangle triangle units. I always need to check, and double check that I have the placement correct before I sew these blocks because it doesn't "look right" to my quilter's brain that wants all the edges to be aligned. But if you follow Jacquelynne's instructions, I promise you they will turn out perfectly every time.

I love my four Happy Little Things blocks! Just wait until you see what I am doing for my quilt layout! Jacquelynne's pattern has several fun borders to add (which I'm doing) and I am also making my version of the quilt a little bigger.

Hop over to visit Jacquelynne's blog The Art of Home to learn more about the Happy Little Things BOM and get your free pattern.
And of course there is a terrific monthly giveaway which this month is a Morse Code Quilts book (so you can make quilts with secret messages!) and a package of adorable holiday pins from Just Another Button Company! 
You can enter the draws at all of these terrific blogs: 
A Quilting Life
Podunk Pretties
The Crafty Quilter
Flamingo Toes
Allie-Oops Sweet Happy Life
Happy Quilting Melissa 
The Quilting Nook 
Kathy's Quilts (that's me!)

The giveaway is open to all quilters around the world... one prize per person per monthly giveaway. 
You can enter my draw by leaving a comment below and tell me what is making you feel happy today! The winning comment will be randomly drawn on November 10th.
Linking up to Design Wall Monday over at Judy's.
Thanks for visiting!

Happy Little Things - block #3

It's time for block #3 of the "Happy Little Things" quilt by Jacquelynne Steeves! 
I started my block with the lovely flower embroidery pattern that is the centre of the design. The fall leaves are starting to change colour here so it was fun to take a photo of the embroidery in a tree that is changing colours to match my threads!

In this month's pattern we get to make the rectangle triangle blocks which uses a technique that is unique to Jacquelynne patterns. I always have to look at the pattern, and look at my pieces several times laid out on the cutting mat before I'm sure I have it right. it's a bit tricky but just follow the instructions and it comes out perfectly every time!

Here is my version of block #3 with the borders added. Unlike the previous blocks, 
this one only has 1 border around, so I chose 2 grey fabrics to compliment the colours of the embroidery and the pieced units.
So pretty!


And here are my first 3 blocks laid out on the floor. 

It's going to be an awesome quilt! 
Click here to hop over to Jacquelynne's blog to get more information about how to get your free copy of the pattern.

Happy Little Things Block #2

I am still out of town for the labour day weekend, and due to too much relaxation and celebrations, I forgot to post my second Happy Little Things BOM by Jacquelynne Steves! hop over to Jacquelynne's blog for more information on how to get your free pattern.

I pieced block #2 on my favourite white Singer featherweight 221K sewing machine. Here it is sewing the modified hourglass blocks. It is 55 years old and still sews like a dream!

Here is my block #2 mostly made from the Strawberry Jam line of fabric plus some greys. The centre of my block is hand embroidered according to Jacquelynne's pattern. I'm so happy with how it turned out and think it goes together well with block #1.


There is another fantastic giveaway this month which is an Aurifil thread box! To enter your name in the draw to win the thread all you have to so is leave a comment below. Do you use Aurifil thread? And if so, which is your favourite?

My favourite is the 50 weight thread for machine piecing and quilting. I usually buy the neutral thread in large cones, but the 1300 metre size is easier to use as it fits on all machines without needing a thread stand.

Giveaway will end on Sunday, September 8, 2019 night. Prize draw has been made and the winner is commenter #39. 
Congratulations to Nanette!

 Chopin - A Passionate Quilter said...

I have been using Aurifil thread since 2003 for applique, then I started usin it for my machines! At that time there was only 1 Distributor and she was a jewel.

Kathy I love your blocks for Happy... BOM! Doing a great job on keeping up with your projects!

Remember to visit the other featured bloggers and enter to win their thread draw too. You can only win once per month, but if you visit all the blogs listed below, you have at least 8 chances to win:

A Quilting Life  https://www.aquiltinglife.com/

Podunk Pretties http://podunkpretties.blogspot.com/ 

The Crafty Quilter   https://thecraftyquilter.com/

Flamingo Toes   https://flamingotoes.com/

Allie-Oops Sweet Happy Life   http://allie-oopssweethappylife.blogspot.com/

Happy Quilting Melissa http://www.happyquiltingmelissa.com/

The Quilting Nook https://thequiltingnook.wordpress.com/

Kathy's Quilts  https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/ (that's me!)

While I have been away my friend Barb taught me how to use my Instagram account, so you can hop over to see another photo of my block posted on Instagram.

Happy Little Things

It's time for the Happy Little Things BOM to begin! If you are a new visitor to my blog, welcome! I have been writing this quilt blog since 2006, posting regularly about my quilty adventures and the process of making quilts. I also host a hand stitching link up every Sunday, so feel free to visit anytime!
The Happy Little Things BOM will run from August to December and we hope you will join in the fun and create your own version of this Jacquelynne Steves pattern. To learn more about this project click here and make sure to sign up for your free pattern delivered right to your email.

centre of block #!

Today you can get the pattern and start making the 1st block. 
You can chose to have a plain piece of fabric, an appliqué or an embroidery in the centre of the block. 
Embroidery is one of my favourite hand stitching activities, so that is what my block centres will be.

Hand stitching is my favourite way to enjoy time at the park in the summer. I take my lawn chair and sit by the river, listening to the birds and sounds of the water, and slowly stitch the time away.

Block #1

Once you have your centre block made, you surround it with some flying geese blocks and then add a couple of borders, and there you have it... the first block is done!
Most of my fabrics are from the Strawberry Jam fabric line, with a bit of grey fabric added. If you prefer to have your fabrics chosen for you, click here to buy the fabric kit that Jacquelynne has put together for this project.

And if a free pattern for a beautiful quilt is not enough excitement, there are also going to be prizes to win every month throughout the BOM! 

The giveaway price for the first month is an Olfa gift pack (for US and Canadian residents, and an alternate prize for international winners). You can visit the bloggers and enter to win at each blog, but you may only win one of the prizes each month.
To enter the prize giveaway at my blog just scroll down to the end of this blog post and click on where it says 'comments', and leave a comment about what makes you happy! The winner's name will be randomly drawn on Sunday August 11th. 
The draw has taken place and the winner is:
commenter # 122 (out of 228 comments)... Congratulations to Diana from Texas!

I'm so happy to be one of the featured bloggers and can't wait to visit all the blogs to see how they made their 1st block! Here's the blog list, so go ahead leave a comment at each one to increase your chances of winning one of the prize packs:

A Quilting Life 

Podunk Pretties 

The Crafty Quilter   

Flamingo Toes   

Allie-Oops Sweet Happy Life   

Happy Quilting Melissa 

The Quilting Nook 

Kathy's Quilts (that's me!)