New Quilt - Jack of Hearts

Yep...I caved, and started a new quilt called "Jack of Hearts". 
But for a good cause all the way around (rationalization at it's best!).
The fabric is old stuff from my stash combined with some fabric from my friend Marion's stash, which I will transform into a comfort quilt to add to my quilt guild's collection of quilts to donate to the Pediatric Sexual Assault unit. 
In addition, the money raised in purchasing the mystery quilt pattern will go towards the medical bills for the cutest little guy named Jack - learn about him here.
Step #1 was sent out last friday and here is my work so far - some sewing done and everything is cut out.
It's not too late if you would like to join in the fun - click here. Thanks to Heather Spence for really living out the message of one of my favorite stories by Loren Eiseley....it's how I want to live and it's why I go to work everyday!


“Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.
One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.
He came closer still and called out "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?"
The young man paused, looked up, and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean."
"I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" asked the somewhat startled wise man.
To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die."
Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!"
At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said,
"It made a difference for that one.”
― Loren Eiseley

Fall Fair Fun

Fall is my most favorite time of the year...such beautiful colours, cooler temperatures, and lots of fun activities, including fall fairs! This was one of the views I passed by on my way to drop off my quilt entries for the Erin Fall Fair last week.
To celebrate the fall fair season, let's have some fall fair fun! 
Guess the answer to these two questions:
1) How many Fall Fairs did I enter quilts in this year?
2) How many entries did I have in the Erin Fall Fair this past weekend? 
Here is a clue of how to calculate the number...the number of quilts in this pile, minus the number of entries that were in this pile, but stayed at home for some unknown reason  (although they were really looking forward to the outing!), plus the one I had to take off my bed to include that is not in the pile in this photo = the correct number of entries!! 
I will put all the winning guesses into a draw for a package of batik charm squares. I have two more blogposts to write re: fall fairs, and then I'll draw the winner from all the correct guesses.

Endure it or burn it?

Love ebbs and flows doesn't it?
Sometimes you're just so in love with a project that you can't stand to be apart from it. And sometimes every stitch is such hard work you can't stand to be around it.
I have read several blogs this week talking about the process of quilting and how they deal with each of the stages of creating a quilt. I wrote about my own struggles recently in hand quilting an older UFO that I named "the sad quilt" (click here and here if you missed reading about that). I finally decided that I was done with enduring that quilt. I needed to put that UFO back in the closet and work on something more uplifting. And I cannot believe the change in my mood when I'm quilting now.  I am eagerly anticipating every spare minute to hand quilt some stitches in my 36 patch quilt along project and revel in every stitch.
But never in all my ponderings about how to deal with challenging quilts and UFO's, did I ever think of the solution that Leah Day came up with! Did you see the blogpost on her her "Sinkhole Quilt"? Click here to be amazed! Very powerful and moving, with great insights to reflect on, about all challenges in life, not just the quilting ones! 
What are you enduring in your creative challenges? 
What do you need to burn or put leave behind? Just do it!

Treadling on Tuesday

I have been making friends with my new/old Treadle sewing machine.

Here is the certificate from the Singer website that indicates my machine was born in 1901.

Here is the bobbin and the bobbin case. It is called a vibrating shuttle bobbin, and this bobbin case happens to be in perfect condition. 
Isn't the bobbin interesting?
This photo compares the spool of Aurifil thread that I use for piecing, to the size of the bobbin and the bobbin casing. Very different from the bobbins of today's machines! I found great information about this type of bobbin case at the TreadleOn website.


This photo shows the bobbin winding mechanism. 
It also shows other beautiful details on the machine...  and how worn and cracked the belt is. Not sure what I need to do about that?

"OLD/NEW"

I just love this photo showing the old and the new. I am surfing the internet trying to find instructions on how to wind the bobbin! 
This is sooooo fun!
Now to see if it can actually sew! Actually I don't really care because it is so beautiful! 

Stay tuned for more "Treadling on Tuesday" episodes....

Design Wall Monday #38

It is Thanksgiving Monday here and mostly everyone has the day off...not me! I am on call for work, and will likely have a busy day. But I did get some time for sewing over the weekend and finished my 20 blocks for Lori's Mountain Trail Quilt Along.  Layout A

I am very happy with how my blocks turned out and had a great time sewing them. I have been playing with layouts on the design wall. 
Layout B

Layout C

Which layout do you prefer...

A, B, or C?

I like them all!

It's a small project, so I hope to finish putting the blocks together this week. Lori is posting the last step today tomorrow.

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

Slow Sunday Stitching

Happy Thanksgiving!
I feel so blessed to have my whole family together today to celebrate! There will be lots of visiting and game playing, laughing and eating. Not as much resting for the Aunties - we'll be trying to keep the teenagers fed, and trying to keep up with the pile of dishes most of the day. But I will be thankful for every moment.
I am sure that there will be some time for slow sunday stitching while drinking tea and chatting. I am continuing to work on my Garden Steps blocks. 
I decided I will stitch 9 of the 12 original blocks (leaving out #4, 9 and 12) which will give me a square wall hanging.

Seems kind of weird to be stitching these flower/spring blocks at the height of the fall, but I have been enjoying stitching them on the bus and was hoping to finish them all before I get out my Halloween project. Not sure I'm going to be able to wait on that!
What kind of hand work are you doing this week? 

Link up the blogpost about your hand stitching and your name will go into the draw for this charm pack. Thanks to everyone who linked up last week...what an inspiring list of projects we saw!

Just what the Dr. ordered...

Having a wonderful relaxing Saturday afternoon - listening to Bonnie on QuiltCam and sewing my blocks for Lori's quilt along.

Tough Week...

What makes a week tough?

Way too much of this, and still behind at work...

No where near enough of this going on, and only late at night...






Not a single second of this...

However, the work week is over and I was cheered up with this...

And with thoughts of the long weekend ahead, when there will be lots of time for quilting and time for being thankful 
...can't wait!

A Dream Come True!

I have always wanted a Treadle Sewing Machine. It seems like an odd thing to have on a bucket list, but hey, I'm a quilting addict, so most things on my bucket list have some connection to quilting! LOL
An antique treadle machine was always something I thought I could never afford, so kind of forgot about it. Until I came across one in a "flukey" kind of way that I could buy for $40...are you kidding me?!?
Still I didn't think I should get it, until my friend insisted:  "You are buying that machine and I'm taking you today to get it"! Gotta love friends who know exactly what to do to help you reach your dreams...and she's not even a quilter! 
So I bought it and here it is in my dining room...isn't it gorgeous?!? 

The sellers were an elderly couple, 84 years old, who couldn't remember anything about when they bought it or where they found it. They tried to figure it out in an adorable discussion, prompting each other's memories and piecing together memory fragments, and concluded that they must have bought it at an antique mall "many" years ago. The husband was a shoemaker and he knew how to run the machine fairly well, except he couldn't remember how the bobbin worked.
I have been researching obsessively on the internet to learn as much as possible about my new/old machine and I think it is a Sphinx Egyptian Singer Model 127.  In the Singer literature this machine is called "the woman's faithful friend the world over"...LOL!

According to this website, all "L models" were made in 1901. Doesn't she look great for being 111 years old?! 

The outer wood cabinet needs some work (don't we all?!?)  but the five drawers are in good shape and just look at the pretty wood work on the side of the drawers. 



The decals are in pristine condition and I can't stop studying them! Look at the details around the side of the needle...so pretty.  I'm thinking that there haven't been very many quilt blocks sliding across this plate...until it met me!


This is the decal on the bottom of the harp area...a sphinx in great condition.
Unfortunately I think that maybe means that this machine was not used very often, so I sure hope it is still in good enough condition to run smoothly. I look forward to sharing my adventures with getting my new/old machine working and learning this new skill of treadling!  
Thanks to Bonnie Hunter for re-sparking my interest in this dormant dream of mine with her quilt cam showing her own treadle machine. And check out the new/old treadle Bonnie was gifted this past weekend....what a beauty!
Sometimes we forget that dreams can come true and I will be eternally grateful for this reminder every time I look at my new/old sewing machine!

September Quilt Square Quilt Along

Finally finished my September block for the quilt along. It wasn't a hard one to sew, and I have no idea why it required so many re-sews! And after all that effort, it looks a little wonky. Oh well, it's done.  When I put the blocks up on the design wall earlier in the month, I thought I needed to add in more brown, but this block looks darker than the rest, so I might change out that border...we'll see. The brown stripe looks really psychedelic on my computer screen...does it on yours?!?
Check out the other September quilt along blocks over at Jo's Country Junction (for some reason I can't link up to the right post, so you'll have to wade through to find the block parade).

Design Wall Monday #37 - Quilt Along

I am starting out the new week and new month with a new project...seems like the right thing to do, eh?!?
I started another one of Lori's great quilt-alongs over at Humble Quilts, and have the step #1 four patches on my design wall. Love 'em!

I enjoyed a relaxed evening sewing these adorable four patch blocks and cutting all the fabric for the quilt top.

I am using a charm pack called Vintage Modern that I bought on the summer Shop Hop (and I am giving one of these charm packs away to link ups on the Slow Sunday Stitching post!).  
This is how I am cutting the charm squares, which gives me one of each of the sizes required plus one extra strip. It worked out perfectly!
For the "mountain trail" I am using a cherry red Kona solid.
I am slightly concerned, as I always am at the beginning of a new project, whether my fabrics will work the way I envision them. Here are the pieces laid out...the "darks" on the left and the "lights" on the right. I know that it will be a lower contrast quilt than the inspiration quilt and Lori's version, but am hoping that it will all turn out okay.
To see more design walls, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Free Motion Quilting Challenge

I almost forgot to post my September block for the Free Motion Quilting Challenge. This was the hardest design for me so far. I know it shouldn't be, but I find it so difficult to quilt on a line... not at all "free" motion. It's feels much easier for me to make up a design as I go, instead of trying to quilt on a line.

I tried out the Golden Threads Quilting Paper to make the pattern this month. It is just like tissue paper and easy to trace your pattern through. Then I just pinned the traced pattern to the block and quilted on the lines.

The challenging part of using this product was removing it. It wasn't a terrible task, but did leave lots of tiny bits of paper in the quilting crevices that I tried to remove with tweezers.

So here's the finished block.
Not bad if you stand 10 or 12 feet away without your glasses on. 
Up close...it's dismal!
Oh well. One of the benefits of this challenge is learning what you like to quilt and want to do more of, and discovering what you'll likely never do again!

Slow Sunday Stitching

In visiting blogs this week, I found this quote from Nicole:
"Life's too short to not have your heart sing when you sew". Well, actually it was Nicole's very wise quilt that I am quoting, and not really her (your quilts speak to you too, don't they?!?) 
I experienced that same realization with my hand quilting project this week. I finally decided to switch projects and wrote about it on Thursday's post.
I have been amazed at the difference in the energy I feel working on this quilt as compared to the last one. I hope I remember this lesson when I need to...it's amazing how we "know" something and then forget it!!
Now I can hardly wait for time to work on be with this quilt. I treated myself to a roadtrip on my one day off this week, and went to Quilter's Junction. I met two regular blog readers (hi guys!) and had fun chatting with them while I shopped a little. I got some new quilting needles and I LOVE them! They are size 10 and are very tiny, but with a big eye that I can actually thread without the threader!
I enjoyed some wonderful relaxation while quilting on their riverside deck, soaking up the perfect autumn weather, and filling up my "almost empty" well. I always talk about "filling your well" when I do trunk shows, and  this weekend I really had to "walk the talk". (For more reading about filling your well, hop over to Womenfolk and then check out interesting posts here and here).

What are your hands sewing this week to help fill up your well? Link up your handwork blog post and you will be entered in the draw for a Vintage Modern Charm Pack (stop by tomorrow's Design Wall Monday post to see what I'm making with mine!)

Orange is over!

This is the last Saturday of September...how did that happen?!?
It's been one heck of a month, topped off with a week where both kids were sick, and my son missed the whole week of school. Even the dog was sick and up 5 times during the night to go outside (if you get my drift!) I'm sure hoping for a good night's sleep sometime soon!
I was able to do a bit of sewing and met my monthly Rainbow Challenge goals. (I don't plan to mention that I didn't do a single thing on my UFO project this month or last month...*sigh*)

I sewed up some orange crumb blocks at the beginning of the month, and finished my orange Knot block last week. I posted the first 9 Knots blocks on my Design Wall Monday post if you missed seeing them. 

And this week, I finally finished up my orange paper pieced palm branch block (pattern is here). It was great to clear out so many scraps and play with the colour orange this month, while watching the leaves slowly turn orange at the beginning of my favorite season.
Check out the other projects being made with scraps over at SoScrappy.

Changing it up!

Sometimes you just get stuck in a rut and forget that you can change things to improve your life and/or quilting. I have been reflecting on that theme since the suggestions offered on my sad hand quilting project reminded me of the transforming power of choices. You don't have to keep doing the "same old, same old" if it's not what you need, or what makes you happy. So I decided to put that sad quilt right back in the closet...and immediately felt better!

But I needed a hand quilting project to work on and decided to consciously chose the quilt top from the UFO closet that had the most positive energy emanating from it....because if we're going to spend many hours together, it needs to be cheering me up, not dragging me down!

This is the one... my 36 patch quilt from the Crazy Mom Quilts' 36 patch quiltalong. You can read more about that quilt here, and see a truer photo of the colours.  
I am really enjoying seeing this quilt again! I can't remember if I posted a photo of it since I added the scrappy border, but I just love it!  I knew immediately how this quilt wanted to be quilted, and started quilting straight white lines on the diagonal...no marking, just eyeballing it from corner to corner. It's wobbly in places and I'm going to call that "charming"!  I am quilting three needles at a time across the hoop and then moving the hoop. I  foresee many happy hours of hand quilting ahead! 

Votes For Women

Block #4 that was issued this week for the Grandmother's Choice: Votes For Women sampler is sure a challenge. It's a beautiful block, but I didn't even get to the sewing part of the challenge. My printer refused to co-operate to print out the templates. So I guess I'll skip this one.

This is block #3 which is called "Union Square". 
I enjoyed sewing the block and reading about the Garrett sisters.
How are you doing with the sampler blocks? I've done 3 out of the first 4 - so far so good!

A Little Finish

My Summer Stars Quilt Along is finished and hanging on the wall. I quilted with the walking foot in the seam lines, and made chevrons on the setting triangles.
Simple and done!
It is just the cutest little thing! 
A big thanks to the creators of this pattern over at the Temecula Quilt Co. I'm linking up to Connie's Tuesday linky party so hop over and see the other projects creative people are making this week.
Okay...now down to business with the UFO for this month...only one week left in the month?  How did that happen?!?