Friday Finish - Scrap Tucker

Pam Buda's latest Pocket Patchwork Sewalong is called "Tucker". It was a mystery quilt adventure, so we didn't know what we were making when we started. That's my idea of fun! 
What's a "Tucker" you ask? It's a little quilt made of scraps that you can tuck into little places in your home that need a bit of colour and quilty decoration. 


I changed my version slightly and instead of having the large scrap square portion at the top of the quilt, I inserted some letters and machine stitched around the edges to keep them in place. It measures 10.5" x 15.5".

Pam will be having an "Airing of the Quilts" next week and I'll remind you then so you can see the "Tuckers" that have been made. A big thank you to Pam for another fun quilt!

Christmas Machine Quilting

A friend asked me if I could do some machine quilting for a Christmas gift for her daughter. How could I resist? 

The quilt is a wonderful scrappy rail fence using purple, blue and teal scraps (hmmm... sounds just like my Starburst quilt colour palette!)




It's a fairly large quilt, so in order to finish it quickly, I quilted an easy wavy line following the general direction of the rails. Can you see the quilting lines on the lilac backing?





I used a new (to me) type of eucalyptus batting.  Have you made a quilt with this kind of batting before? Promotional materials say this batting is needle punched (no fibre migration), chemical free with no glues or resins, and hypo-allergenic.
It really was lovely to machine quilt, and I am wondering how it will wash and hold up over the years.  

My friend Jackie fixed my scissor fob that was accidentally cut while wrapping Christmas gifts last year. She also made a scissor holder that has PAPER embroidered on it, so the kids should be able to clearly identify which scissors are for cutting wrapping paper. And these lovely purple scissors which are only in the holder for the photo, and have the beaded fob with TAMS (acronym for "These Are My Scissors") will be hidden in my sewing room!

Scrap Squad - Candy Cane Show

I wrote yesterday that my Scrap Squad quilt has been posted over at the Quiltmaker blog. Click here to read more about the quilt.
Four of the six of us on the Scrap Squad wanted to make the Candy Cane Crush because it's such a great pattern. It is so interesting to see the various versions, and so for your viewing pleasure, here they are side by side (or top to bottom)...



The original design from the November/December issue of the magazine is called "Candy Cane Crush". The pattern is by Sandra Clemons and was made in red and white. 













Julie from Idaho made her queen sized version of the quilt in gorgeous purple fabrics and called it "Violets". She also made a piano key border that beautifully frames the design. You can read all about it here.

Keri from Arizona made her scrappy version of Candy Cane Crush using the quilt-as-you-go technique. She added red sashings to match the border. You can read more about how she made her quilt here. 

Donna from Pennsylvania started with the red and white colours and made the most intensely pieced scrappy quilt ever! Even her background pieces were scrappy so the total number of 1.5" squares cut and sewn is 6,699! Can you believe it?!? You can read more about her quilt here.




My version of the quilt has the blocks set on point so it looks a little different, but you can tell these quilts are all related. They are quilty cousins, made from the same genetic material/pattern, and reconfigured in unique ways! If I was independently wealthy, I'd fly all these quilted cousins (and their creators) to somewhere wonderful and we would meet in person and see each other's quilts in real life instead of on computers in blog land.

I have loved being part of the 2015 Scrap Squad and will be so sad when it's over. We have one more quilt to make for the beginning of 2016, and for our last project we can pick any Quiltmaker pattern we want. That's a lot of choice and a bit overwhelming. 

Scrap Squad Starburst

The full story about my lastest Scrap Squad quilt called Starburst has been posted on the Quiltmaker blog - click here to read it. I was tickled by Diane's note at the end (she's the editor). It really is a wonderful feeling when people acknowledge and appreciate the difficulty of a task you've tackled.
I will post more photos tomorrow of all the Scrap Squad versions of this quilt, but for now I wanted to remind myself of my binding accomplishment for November. 

Starburst was my only finished project in November. The perimeter of the quilt is 256" and when added to the total number of inches of binding up until October which was  3,453" ... 

gives me a grand total of 3,709" with one more month still to go in the year. I have already beaten my 2013 total of 3,145"!

Design Wall Monday

Allietare parts are on the design wall today. Step #2 was posted on friday and my parts were completed by Sunday. 
Here's a photo of the bin that stores my mystery parts sewn so far, minus the ones on the design wall, and the ones sitting on the ironing board!
It doesn't look like much yet, but just you wait. It will magically morph into something else week by week.

Step #2 was an easy step to work on and everything measured what it should.

Here are a few sets of some of the blocks on the design wall. 

Don't you think they look like rows of Santa hats? 






I was happy that this project gave me an opportunity to try out the Omnigrid Glow Line Tape I bought a while ago. The tape is used to mark shapes or lines on rulers, and it's one of those purchases you make and then wonder if you will actually ever use it. 

Can you see the yellow strip on the ruler below the red strip of fabric? It is a visual guide to help line up the strip with the correct measurement on the ruler. The benefit is that your brain doesn't have remember the size you need, and your eyes don't have to look for the numbers every time you reset the ruler. The tape guides your vision right to the line you need to see. The cutting went so much faster once I put the tape on. The colour of the tape is faint, not too distracting, but easy to locate.  I placed it slightly below the cutting line so that I could still see exactly where to line up the fabric strip. The tape is not very sticky, so it comes off easily which is great because you don't want sticky residue on your rulers. 
Hop over to Quiltville to see more Allietare progress postings, and then go visit Patchwork Times to see more design walls.

Slow Sunday Stitching

There are so many things to keep track of in life, especially at this time of year. My mind chronically spins with all the "to do" lists, of the things I would like to accomplish between now and December 25th in order to make Christmas a magical experience for the people I love. There were years when that spinning nearly put me way "over the edge".
If you are a Mom, you can probably recall years where you stayed up all night on Christmas Eve wrapping gifts that seemed to take forever, or finishing quilts that were not quite done, or constructing a Barbie Mini Van which required "some assembly" and in reality took 2 adults about 5 hours to build!
I've come a long way since the Barbie van incident! I now maintain a conscious awareness of the value of my time and remind myself frequently of how many hours are in the day! I keep track of things like how many tasks I want to tackle, and how much time I will realistically require in order to complete those tasks AND still maintain my sanity. 
I also celebrate small accomplishments along the way. This is also how I tackle large quilting projects. I am making some slow progress with my hand quilting project, and am keeping track of those small bits. In this project there are 32 small stars and 20 large stars to quilt. I have finished 3 of the small stars. It's a start!
How are you keeping your sanity at this busy time of year? 

I hope you will make some time to do some relaxing stitching today. Take a break, put your feet up, and scroll through the blogs below and learn from other hand stitchers.
Have a wonderful Slow Sunday!

Scrappy Saturday

Four more blocks are finished for my long term project - the Omigosh quilt. This brings the 2015 total of completed double nine patch blocks to 64, which means that 2 years into the project, the blocks are approximately 25% completed. 
Hop over to RSC and see what the quilters are up to this month. Angela is cooking up a new scrappy project for us for 2016. I'm not sure if I want to start another project when I should be finishing my other 8 rainbow quilts, many of which are so close to finishing!

December 6th

I realize that it's really December 4th but in Canada today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. We wear white ribbons and we remember the lives of the 14 women who were killed 26 years ago in "The Montreal Massacre" on December 6th. 



I attended a moving memorial service at the University of Waterloo this morning. Dr. Mary Wells gave an inspiring speech about discrimination and violence against women. It was encouraging to see the event so well attended by faculty and students in the engineering department, and by the general public.

After work today I will be retreating to the safety and solace of my sewing room to do some quilting. Quilters know that this is what keeps us stitched together!
I will be working on step #2 of the Quiltville mystery quilt.

Allietare Step 1

I am working away at a relaxed pace on step 1 of Allietare. I am more than half finished today and am sure I will be ready for the posting of step 2 on Friday. Instead of doing all the cutting, then all the sewing, then all the ironing, then all the trimming,  I am doing a little bit of each step every time I sit down to sew. 

Here are some of my strips ready for cutting. I am noticing that a few of my "grey" fabrics look more blue in real life, but I'm going to go ahead and use them up anyway. I am getting 14 or 15 HSTs per half strip using the Easy Angle Ruler, which I love!
How are your HSTs coming along?

UFO of the Month

November was a total bust in terms of UFO accomplishments. I was just too busy with other projects to finish my Deckade the Halls quilt.
I did get all the blocks sewn together and it's now ready for some borders. 
My December UFO goal will be to cuddle up under this finished quilt before Christmas!
To see more December UFO goals, hop over to A Lovely Year of Finishes.

Design Wall Monday

Work is continuing on my July Shop Hop blocks and the first 6 blocks are now up on the design wall. The top 3 blocks are variations of the churn dash block and were fun to make. The flying geese block on the bottom left was also fun. 

But the bottom middle block was frustrating due to complex cutting instructions which resulted in not cutting the pieces in an efficient manner (largest ones first) which then meant that I had to piece tiny bits of fabric together in order to make up the required size pieces. 

And the bottom right block was supposed to be made with templates (bleck!) so I cleverly designed a paper piecing block instead. However, not being as clever as I had thought, I forgot to figure in the seam allowance measurements so the pieces don't join up properly anywhere. All those nice corner points will also be gone when I piece the block in the quilt. Ugh.

Oh well, I'm telling myself (as I usually do) that I tried my best, so it's "good enough".  Move on.

If you want to see more design wall postings, hop over to visit Judy at Patchwork Times.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly linky party where we celebrate all forms of hand stitching. Make a cup of your favourite beverage to enjoy while you visit the blogs of slow stitchers around the world. It's the perfect way to start your Sunday!



I have been working on some of the sampler quilt blocks from the local July Shop Hop. When I was at quilt retreat I started this block and was able to finish it this week . It is an embroidery design in the centre of a pieced churn dash block.

Next up is a hexagon block, which unfortunately I am not enjoying. I hoped I would enjoy these hexies more since other hand stitchers seem to like making them. I have enjoyed making small hexies in the past, and I think the problem with this block is that the fabric pieces are precut and it's a struggle to have enough of a seam allowance to baste over the edges of the paper hexagons. The next step will be to whip stitch them together. I think I'll enjoy that stitching more.
What are you hoping to work on today? Link up your blog post below and share your hand stitching project.

Scrap Squad Starburst

My 5th Scrap Squad quilt is finished!

The original pattern is "Candy Cane Crush" by Sandra Clemons. I used the block pattern and then decided to put the blocks on point. To read more about this quilt, hop over to the Quiltmaker blog (not posted yet but stay tuned!) where I wrote about the design decisions, the construction of the top, and the machine quilting.
Even after all these years of making quilts, this one challenged me in new ways. 

These are some of the things I learned in making this quilt:
1) I learned how to painstakingly sew a border on the edge of a quilt with more than 160 blocks that need to be sewn precisely in order to not lose the points of all the squares.

2) I learned that it is a real challenge to make a quilt with so much white fabric. Every single stray thread showed on the quilt. I had to use the sticky lint roller on the backing, the batting, and both sides of the quilt top before basting. And then again after quilting. And still there were threads that were noticeable. 

3) I also learned that it is nearly impossible to photograph a white quilt and get the colour balance accurate.



4) And I was reminded not to try to photograph a quilt on a windy day! Remember when I tried to photograph Easy Street? The problem was that I cut it too close in terms of the timing for finishing the quilt and getting the photos taken for the deadline for writing the Quilty Pleasures blogpost. 

Because it is totally dark outside after 5 pm (when getting home from work) and I have poor indoor lighting for a white quilt (which makes it look yellow) the photos had to be taken on the windy day. Trying to get some decent photos in sub optimal conditions was not fun for me, but was quite entertaining for the neighbours!

Allietare Countdown

I didn't realize that the beginning of the Quiltville mystery is this Friday! Are you sewing along with the mystery gang?
The first step is revealed on Friday morning, and I finally corralled all my fabrics. I am going totally "by the book" this time and using the colours that Bonnie recommends. My collection looks a little boring to me, but I know that Bonnie's patterns always have a million pieces and it will be anything but boring!

The black fabrics are from my civil war fabric scrapbox, the reds are leftover from Confluence, many of the golds are leftover from Angel Solstice, and the neutrals are just always kicking around here. The greys are all new. I couldn't pick just one grey as recommended, but they all "read" fairly similar in value. 
I'm calling it good to go. 
Two more sleeps!

Maintenance Reminder

My sewing machine feet are getting a real workout this week in finishing my Scrap Squad quilt. These are my tried and true attachments, and have worked so hard over the years, they really should be retired. On the left is the walking foot, the middle is my piecing foot, and on the right is a very old free motion foot. I'm not sure which machine that one originally came with, but it's my favourite one. 

In preparation for the mystery starting this week, I decided to give my machine a bit of a spa treatment, including a thorough cleaning and oiling. And look what I found inside... a piece of thread caught in the bobbin gear. That is never a good thing. It took quite a bit of finessing with the tweezers to get that long thread unwound. 
Maintenance is such an important part of keeping our machines in good running condition. 
The machine is ready for Allietare.
Wait. Where's my fabric?

Design Table Monday

There has been a flurry of activity in my sewing room in order to complete my next Scrap Squad quilt, which will (maybe) be posted on the Quiltmaker blog on Friday. I have been slicing and sewing, and piecing and quilting up a storm in here. There are scraps of fabric everywhere. I wish I had a cleaning fairy to help restore some order. Everything looks organized in this photo, but I'm not showing you what's outside the picture frame!

trying to figure out the partial blocks

I really annoyed myself by following a creative thought, and deciding at the last minute to change the layout. That decision required a big change in the kinds of blocks I needed to make and it also required construction of partial blocks. 
Which meant doing some measurement calculations (not my strong suit). 
And that meant making mistakes. 
Which meant some swearing, followed by recalculations.
Repeat as needed.

It's my own fault, so to whom can I complain when it's totally self inflicted!?! 

No one. 
(Well, I'm kinda complaining to you right now!)

Time for an attitude adjustment!

To see some regular design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Slow Sunday Stitching in November

REST!

Generally speaking I detest November, when there is less natural light, the beautiful colours of fall are gone, and the cold winter weather descends. In the cycle of life, it's the time for hibernation, when we crawl into our caves, try to keep warm, and sleep until better weather returns. Modern day life does not allow that cycle, and we have to work just as much in November as in any other month of the year. But we can be sure to follow the healthy practice of having one day of rest each week. 
Today's our day to rest and be thankful. 
And stitch.

I was so lucky to have an entire weekend of rest when I attended a quilt retreat with my sister last week. Of course I took my winter hand quilting project, which is hung over the porch railing in this photo. We had such a great view of the lake that it was hard to concentrate on sewing at times. I didn't actually get a lot accomplished on the stitching, but I did achieve my primary goal of rest and relaxation!

It was gorgeous fall weather and you know me... I couldn't wait to stitch outside! As soon as the sun came out, I went out. My sister took this lovely photo of the sun shining right on me. It was cold, but the quilt was perfect to snuggle up under and kept me warm enough to be able to quilt for a while, until my hands got too cold to stitch.

Today I'll be stitching indoors, especially since snow is in the weather forecast. 

What are you hand stitching today? Link up your blog post below. We love to see what you're stitching and cheer you on!

Scrappy Saturday

It was such a busy week I haven't had time for blogging, and even if I did, my internet connection has not been cooperating with me.  But it's randomly back today, so I'll try to post this. 

I've been making some little nine patch blocks and using up some lime green scraps. This is the tin that my Omigosh scraps are stored in. The tin is 6.5" x 9" and contains hundreds of small bits of fabric, some squares, some strips, and some partial and completed 9 patch blocks. I love this tin in a very extreme (somewhat concerning) way! LOL! 

I've sewn up a pile of little blocks today, and here is the first finished double 9 patch block. Lime green blocks are noticeably absent in the block collection so far, so hopefully there will be more made to join this one today.

Here's a picture that gives a better perspective on the block size. It is smaller than the pattern! 
One more done, about 50 more (not all lime green) blocks to go!
Hop over to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge to see what the other quilters are sewing with their lime scraps.

Quilt Retreat

This past weekend I attended a quilt retreat with my sister. It took quite a few years for my sister to be convinced to try quilting, but she is a math oriented person so she likes that aspect of it. It's not a lifestyle for her like it is for me, but she does enjoy it as a hobby. And she convinced me that I needed a weekend getaway with fellow quilters.

This is our amazing ever patient host/co-ordinator/teacher Deb Beirnes helping my sister to figure out the next steps in making her tablerunner. 

One of the projects I worked on was making the blue July shop hop blocks.  I traced out the centre embroidery block with a frixion pen and pieced the churn dash pattern to surround it.

It really was the perfect piece to work on while at retreat - "The love of sewing is our common thread". Of course I had get some vitamin D along with my vitamin Q, so I went outside to enjoy some stitching in the sun!