QPOM & Tim's Cups

I have been making some blocks for my guild's monthly quilt pattern project. Doesn't this block look yummy beside the Tim Horton's small takeout cup of coffee? I love the seasonal cups that Tim's have this year with the knitted patterns on them!

 


Just look at this cup - it's the medium size with the red knitting pattern. So adorable!
And the QPOM blocks are adorable too! All are scrappy and sometimes matchy. It is fun to pick out 3 scraps for each block.

And here is the large blue cup for when you are really thirsty. It inspired me to add some blue scraps into the quilt.

I am having a great time with this pattern and with trying out all sizes of the Tim's cups!

Design Wall Monday

On my design wall today is the Temecula Letter Sew Along.

All the sashing is sewn together and that took me quite a while to complete.
The quilt is smaller than I thought it would be, so I am thinking of adding a larger border to make it a bigger baby quilt. 






All of these coloured fabrics are hand dyed by Vicki Welsh and they have been so lovely to work with. I won them by participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge - how lucky am I?!?!
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Are you getting all worked up about all the things you have to do at this time of year? I usually get stressed every year around this time in December. Then usually around the middle of the month I start to scale back my grandiose plans, and reluctantly become more realistic about what I can actually accomplish in 24 hours.
Except for during Slow Sunday Stitching time. That is my time for stitching, and breathing. Everything else can wait!

My stitching project for December will be to finish my hand quilted sampler quilt. The hand quilting countdown is on - 3, 2, 1....

Stars - 17 of 20 quilted (3 left)

Sashings - 29 of 31 quilted (2 left)

Blocks - 11 of 12 quilted (1 left)



What are you hand stitching today? Are you finishing up some Christmas gifts? Link up your blog post below and show us your hand stitched projects. I am trying a variation with the link up this week so that the newest link added will appear at the top. We'll see if this is easier to view the new links as the day goes on.

Omigosh Scrappy Saturday

The month of December is a month of finishing up scrappy projects over at the RSC. I am slowly taking inventory of where I am in working on each scrappy project. 
These are the 56 blocks I've sewn over the last year for my version of Sue Garman's Omigosh pattern.

I like these blocks so much on the design wall I was thinking about not making the alternate blocks, and just making a quilt from these double 9 patch blocks. But then I look at the Omigosh pattern and like that even better, so I'm 99% sure I'll end up making the Full Omigosh.
Anyway, I finished a couple of light blue blocks that I started last month and they are very pretty. Now I only need a batrillion more! But I think this is exactly the way to sew a large scrap project like this one, using up the small quilting scraps generated throughout the year, and making a few blocks here and there each month.
Hop over to SoScrappy to see more scrappy project postings.

Cascadia Finale

Another mystery sew along has come to an end. Lori at Humble Quilts has posted the reveal of her mystery sew along, as well as the inspiration quilt - click here to see it.

This quilt used up a lot of scraps - 260 scrappy 1.5" squares to be exact!
I realized that my seminole rows were exactly 1 square shorter than the others, so I removed one square from the straight rows (instead of adding fabric to the end of the seminole rows) for a perfect fit. The finished size of the quilt is 17" x 17".

I had such fun with the machine quilting, stitching a wavy line through the diagonal rows, and diagonal lines through the straight rows. 

Can you see the quilting design in this photo?
A big thank you to Lori for another wonderful little quilty adventure! I can't wait to see what you will come up with next!

And now I am hopping over to Quiltville for the reveal of step #2 of the ongoing Grand Illusion mystery.

Max is in the Dog House

You will not believe what my granddog Max did.

He ate the corner of one of my favorite quilts!
Yes... ate it!
As in... the whole corner is gone, without any bits or scraps left to use to repair it!
OMG! 



The bite was taken from this quilt - Double Delight which was the 2009 mystery from Bonnie Hunter.

I want my quilts to be used and loved, but honestly...
why couldn't he have chomped on a quilt I don't like?!?!






I have no idea if I have any of these fabrics left to remake this corner.
All I can say is that he is lucky that he is so darn cute!

Mystery Quilt Progress

A bit of progress was made on mystery quilt blocks last night while watching QuiltCam. I set up a sewing center on the dining room table and started with a bit of maintenance for Lucy (my 301 Singer).  We were both thirsty, so I made sure we had enough to drink - one beverage for me and one for Lucy!

Then I started cutting and sewing. I am really enjoying working with my fabrics, three of which are from "Le Bouquet Francais" line by Moda's French General. They have such lovely selvages, so I am cutting those off before I cut the pieces for my blocks.


I sewed several more blocks for step #1 of the mystery and am already getting excited for the release of step #2 on Friday!

Design Wall Monday

I have been slowly working on step #1 of the Quiltville mystery this weekend. The instructions call for 100 "broken dishes" blocks, but I am only making half of the units for each step, so I need 50 blocks.
Here are the first 16 blocks finished and arranged in different ways on the design wall.
I have all the pieces cut and the HST's made for the remaining blocks (plus the 40 HST's to "set aside for another day") and my plan is to sew them tonight during QuiltCam. It was fun that during the first step we got to play with 4 of our 6 fabrics. It looks a little bit busy now, but just you wait until the steps progress, and it morphs each week into something completely different!
To see more mystery quilt blocks, hop over to the Quiltville link up. And to see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times. So much inspiration to see ...so little time!

December's UFO Project

Slow Sunday Stitchers have been seeing my block sampler quilt a lot over the last two months while I have been hand quilting it. I have decided to make this quilt my last UFO project of 2014. I was able to finish 6 UFO's on my 2014 list (on the right sidebar of my blog), and this week I also finished one challenging quilt top. I would like to add one more finish before the end of December. You can see more UFO goals over at a Lovely Year of Finishes.

Here is the basted quilt thrown over the boat launch at my friend's cottage. It had just been pulled out of the water for the winter, and it looked like an easel to me. A perfect place for photographing a quilt!

The sampler was pin basted at the end of September and I have been quilting it with each week for my Slow Sunday Stitching project. I have enjoyed it so much that sometimes I also pick it up in the evenings, and it is so close to being finished.


Here are the hand quilting stats:

Stars - 14 of 20 quilted

Blocks - 11 of 12 quilted

Sashings - 27 of 31 quilted

See what I mean?!? So close to being finished, although I still have to figure out what to quilt in the border.

Granddog Max is saying "Come on Grandma, time for some Slow Sunday Stitching on this quilt"!
What are you hand stitching today? Link up your blog post and share your project with us - we love to see what you are working on and encourage you along.

Scrappy Saturday - Spools

The colour of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is light blue. I have been finishing up a few blue spool blocks and went in search of the pile of blocks to see if I have enough to start putting this quilt together. Wow, do I ever!!

These are just the blue and purple spool blocks on the design wall. You can see on the bottom left of the design wall that I have a few more spool blocks to sew together into the 4 patch blocks. In playing around with different ideas, I decided my favorite layout was the on point setting with an extra spool between each block around the edges. And I think I will make the outside triangles from light scraps and then decide if it needs a border or not.
I also decided to make the spools my main Rainbow Scrap Challenge project for the month of December. It would be awesome to have these blocks into a finished quilt top by the end of the year!
To see more RSC projects, hop over to SoScrappy.

Grand Illusion is here!

It's a beautiful sunny Friday here and the Quiltville mystery has started.

Step #1 has been posted. Time to grab the rotary cutters and rulers and get cutting pieces. 

Temecula Letter Sew-Along

These are my little Temecula letter blocks that have been posted weekly since September. It has been a very comfortably paced sew-along to keep up with, and the last letters were posted yesterday.

I had a wee bit of difficulty with some of the letters. What do you think this letter is?!?
Next I will be cutting sashing strips and cornerstones, and there are still some filler blocks to sew.

Success!

My Roll, Roll Cotton Boll quilt top is finished!

This is the largest quilt I've ever made and measures 93" x 84". It takes up the whole wall in my quilt studio! The photo isn't great because it was taken indoors at night, but you get the idea.

This was my fabric collection that I started with for this  2010 Bonnie Hunter mystery.
I loved it then and I think it made a terrific quilt, although it was kind of like a long and painful labour to birth this quilt baby! LOL


This quilt was quite an accomplishment for me since it was my first time making seminole borders and it was a challenge indeed. But I am happy with how it all turned out and pleased as punch to have a finished quilt top!
To see more finishes for November, hop over to A Lovely Year of Finishes link up. And to see more progress being made on the "Bonnie UFO Challenge", hop over to Jo's Country Junction.

From Quiltville

A big thank you to Bonnie Hunter for this pattern and for all the fun she has given us quilters over the years.
And now.... 
Bonnie's next mystery called Grand Illusion starts on Friday over at Quiltville. You can see my fabric choices here. Are you joining in the fun?  All the Hot Quilters are doing it! LOL

QPOM

The Quilt Pattern of the Month (QPOM by Jackie Syer) at my quilt guild this month is called "Mini Bonanza".

I am using up chunks of some deep stash for this one and am not quite sure yet what the colour scheme will end up being. There are two blocks in this quilt - one block has a pinwheel center and the other has a 4 patch center. This pattern was designed for 100 of each of these 6" blocks. I won't be making that many, but I have a good start on the pinwheel blocks. 


Here are the first dozen blocks up on the design wall today. 
I am hoping to make a lot of progress on these blocks before step #1 of Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion mystery starts on Friday and I get wrapped up in that new project.

Design Wall Monday

Looks like I can't get away from seminole piecing this week. I had been trying to finish the seminole borders on my Roll Roll Cotton Boll quilt and having a dickens of a time. 
So I took a break from that project to work on my "Cascadia" mystery from Humble Quilts to work on part #3, and just try to guess what we were making? 

That's right.... not one, but two seminole pieced strips!
I had all the squares ready and got to work sewing on Lucy (a long bed 301 Singer). She sewed these little 1.5" squares beautifully. Together Lucy and I sewed up a huge pile of scraps in this project - each of the seminole strips uses 59 squares cut at 1.5"! 

I must also admit that a few swear words may have been said in the process... it was tricky to get those muslin triangles going in the right direction. Let's just say my seam ripper was well tested and I am happy to report that it is in perfect working condition.
But finally this step was completed and I put all the pieces of the mystery on the design wall.
My seminole rows are not as long as the previous rows sewn, so I hope that's the way it's supposed to be.
And I see at least one bright blue square that needs to be removed since it sticks out like a sore thumb!
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Slow Sunday Stitching Joy

What do you need from your stitching time today? 

I had a frustrated sewing week with trying to attach some very challenging seminole borders on a large quilt. So today, I need something fun and easy to stitch. No math to figure out, nothing to match up, no decisions to make - just fun stitching.  So I plan to pick up some pumpkin seed blocks that I had already prepared. These blocks are cut at 4", so when 4 are sewn together they will finish at 7" in the quilt.

Here is the what the block collection looked like last month. In November I have been working on finishing some orange and blue blocks to add in.

I just love this little block with the snail background fabric... very fun! I'll finish this one today and applique a few more happy blue blocks.

May your slow stitching bring you much JOY and soothing medicine today.
And if you would enjoy having company while you stitch, Bonnie Hunter is hosting QuiltCam at 2pm - click here to join in.
Link up your hand stitching blog post below and share your project with us.

Rainbow Alamo Stars

It's scrappy Saturday over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.
I have been making these little Alamo Star blocks for about two years now. You can read the first post here. 
They measure 2.75" and will be 2.25" once sewn to other star blocks.

I try to make some of these stars in the colour of the month over at RSC using batik scraps cut to 1.25".
I use the  Tri-Recs rulers to cut up the strips into useable pieces. Cutting the little pieces takes longer than sewing them together!

This is my little storage box where I keep some strips I want to cut, some pieces that have been cut and are ready to sew, and a few recently finished stars.
In december I am going to do a grand total count, and put them on the design wall to see how many more I want to make next year.
To see more scrappy updates, hop over to SoScrappy.

Shweshwe Fabric

Last week at my guild meeting we had guest speaker Celeste Compion. I was delighted to see her again since I met her years ago in a mini quilt class I was teaching, but haven't seen her for a long time. These are mini quilts she made in the class with me so many years ago!
Celeste shared with us about her new venture importing Shweshwe fabric from South Africa through her company called Meerkat Shweshwe. She is a wonderful speaker and we enjoyed hearing about how this 100% cotton fabric is made.

This is the cute "Three Cats" stamp on the back of the fabric which verifies that it is true Shweshwe made by Da Gama.

This is my special collection of Shweshwe fabric and now I am pondering what I could make with it. I am thinking of making a tote bag since the fabric is very durable. When you buy it, the fabric feels quite stiff so you have to prewash before sewing with it.

These chocolate and indigo colours are very traditional, but they also have wild and bright colours - you can check them out here.

Okay... time to stop admiring my Shweshwe and get to work on those RRCB borders!

Turned a Corner!

Yes I turned the first corner successfully!

It's pretty darn good if I do say so myself. And it only took about 4 tries! There has been more pulling and tugging and fudging in this quilt than any other I have ever made (with the notable exception of the IOP!)

But it matches up on this corner fairly well.

I probably should have mitered that green border, but too late now!

It has been very cold and windy here this week and snow season has started. It's great quilting weather!

A mid week break from myself

Am I the only one who can turn my hobby and the activities I immensely enjoy and rely on to center myself and creatively renew my energy, into a source of stress and pressure? Really? 
I am frustrated with myself.
I am going to do some relaxing hand stitching tonight. I am not going to berate myself for lack of "progress". I am not going to think of all the other things I should be doing (my UFO!) I am not going to feel guilty that the dirty dishes from today are still not washed, and I am not going to multitask.
I am going to breathe and stitch. 

And tomorrow I'm going to take the advice from Judy's comment from yesterday's post and get to work on that seminole border. She said "It's not a matter of life and death, it's a border. Now do it!"
You are so right Judy... a friend is always honest with a friend.
I think my big girl panties are in the laundry! As soon as I find them, I'll get to work on that border! LOL