Rotary Cutter Blades

A couple of months ago I bought an aqua "Splash" Olfa rotary cutter which has a new system for replacing the blades in order to reduce the probability of cutting yourself during the process. Okay, so this product was actually "new" in 2013, but it's new to me in 2017!

I needed to cut bazillions of triangles for Clarissa and the Bear so I got out the new rotary cutter. And somehow I got a nick in the very first blade of my new rotary cutter. I have no memory of cutting anything other than fabric. I am very careful to always keep the safety shield in place when I set the cutter down (since I have seen terrible injuries of quilters accidentally cutting themselves) so I really have no idea how the nick happened.
The blade was really sharp when I started using it, but after a few cuts it was missing threads consistently. I was able to easily replace the blade and think the new blade replacement system is great.
However, I do hope that this new $7 blade lasts longer than a few cuts!
Here are my questions:
1) What do you do with your old/nicked/dull rotary blades?
2) Do you get them sharpened?
3) Have you had any experience with using the blade sharpeners yourself? Is it a good investment?

Blockheads

Wednesday is the day that the new block pattern is posted for the Blockheads project. This is last week's block called "Bowtie Quartet". I used this as an opportunity to see if I still remembered how to sew a 3D bowtie block. (You can see the mini plaid bowtie quilt I made a few years ago here.)
It is a challenging technique. 

Not only does it resemble origami at one stage of block construction, but there are a few tricks to remember when sewing it that make the difference between success and failure. And the smaller the block is, the harder it is to sew it correctly.
Of course the first attempt (on the right) didn't work properly and no amount of tugging, twisting or ironing the block would get the centre knot to lay flat. Once I remembered how to match the pieces correctly, the second attempt on the left went more smoothly.


Here is my collection of the first 13 blocks on the design wall.
Hop over to Moda to see what block we are making this week.

Clarissa Design Wall

Clarissa block #14

I have been away and missed my regular design wall posting yesterday, so here it is today. Clarissa is on the design wall!
This is block #14 and is quite pale compared to most of the others. I think it will provide a some contrast and interest in the overall quilt. The dark brown and the Sweetwater text fabrics were both given to me by my friend Debby. They are from her Aunt's stash of fabric, which she recently inherited. I promised her they would be put to good use and here they are already in a block! 

This is my Clarissa block collection so far.

Total number of pieces in the quilt blocks so far = 2,016

To see more design wall postings this week, hop over to the link up at Small Quilts.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly Slow Sunday Stitching link up! 
This is where the hand stitchers gather to share the projects they are working on. When you create something with your own hands (not with a machine) it takes a lot longer to finish it. You have to develop perseverance and patience while you make a little bit of progress at a time. You learn to notice and appreciate the small things, and savour the feeling of accomplishment for each small step toward the finish. Sometimes it takes years to sustain the interest in the project. 

Grandma, how's the quilting coming along?!

Such is the case with my oldest UFO which I have been working on (or storing!) for 21 years!
It was pieced in 1996, and the border was added in 2012. 
For real! 

It was pin basted in 2015 and then the hand quilting was started. It's a really big quilt, and too hot to sit under in the summer, so it's a project I only work on in the winter. The time has come to put it away until the cool weather arrives again in the fall. This is the "high tech" chart I made to keep track of my stitching progress over the years.
This is the stitching finished so far:
11 of the 20 large stars done
16 of the 32 small stars done
26 of the 31 diamonds done

That's pretty good... more than half way there, not including the border. Today I am appreciating the progress and pondering how I might eventually quilt the border.
Now it's your turn... please link up your blogpost below and share the progress you are making on your slow stitching projects. 

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Scrappy Saturday

I have been slacking with my RSC efforts lately and finally made a bit of progress with green scraps. One of my favourite scrappy blocks to make this year is the Circle of Squares block. I found the perfect background fabric with the green stars at Cherished Pieces. It's so fun to look at these green squares and remember the projects for which they were purchased. Many of these are bits leftover from Easy Street.

The green block is #10 for the collection. This is another poor photo taken late at night, but you get the idea of how the project is developing.

In addition I wanted to get my green Alamo Star blocks sewn into 4 patches in May (see the aqua blocks here and the purple blocks here). But in laying them out on the table, I realized there were not nearly enough dark green blocks to work with. Apparently I only really like light green! So I cut out the pieces for 16 blocks with dark green backgrounds, and will sew these as leader-ender blocks and finish these sometime in June. I'm looking forward to working with yellow scraps this month.
Hop over to the weekly link up to see more Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.

UFO Report

Well, the intended UFO finish of the month did not receive any attention at all in the month of May. I could not find the fabric I thought I had reserved for the backing and got preoccupied with finishing Grand Illusion to donate to my local guild instead. That's okay... a UFO got finished, just not the one I had intended to finish in the month of May!
So what's up for June?
The Bear quilt is getting priority because I want it finished for camping season this year. I have all the fabric I need to completely finish this quilt, so I plan to focus, focus, and focus. The next step is making two or three more rows of bear paw blocks.
To see more UFO projects for the month of June, hop over to One Monthly Goal link up.

Clarissa #13

Clarissa block #13

This is the next block to join the Clarissa block collection (you can see the other blocks here).

This one has more dark red triangles than the other blocks. The project seemed to need this kind of a block.
I like the unique (inspired by a mistake) corner hourglass blocks with 3 dark triangles and 1 light.

This is how block #13 looks from the back. I have tried many ways to press the seams as I made each block, and have settled on this as the best so far. My favourite thing is spinning the centre seams on the hourglass blocks to make them lay nice and flat.
Total number of pieces in the quilt so far is 1,872!

Blockheads

This is my version of block #12 called "Puzzled". I challenged myself by using not one, but two, directional prints (always a challenge) and reversing the light/dark in this block. Only one seam had to be restitched in the making of the block and I am pleased with the result.




Here is my block collection so far on the design wall.
To see more variations on these blocks, visit the Blockheads Facebook page.
To see the new block we are sewing this week, visit the Moda blog.

Finished Quilt!

Pinned to the design wall today is a finished quilt! This is my version of Bonnie Hunter's pattern called Grand Illusion. It was her annual mystery quilt that started in November 2014. 

The quilting was quick and easy - just a horizontal and vertical grid with the walking foot.
This quilt taught me that I really am a scrappy quilter. I purchased new yardage for this quilt and struggled with it the whole time. I learned that I don't want to sew with new yardage because it just doesn't make my heart sing. Why use one green fabric when 10 or 20 greens will make me happier?!? 
Thank you to Bonnie for another wonderful mystery quilt experience! 
To see more projects on design walls, hop over to the link up at Small Quilts.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly linkup where we celebrate the art 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! 
Today I want to share with you a bit about the Mennonite Relief Sale that I attended yesterday. This is an annual auction of over 200 quilts.
It was a lovely day with great weather, yummy food, and a good turnout of generous people ready and willing to donate to this worthy cause. These are some of the tents where you can purchase food, plants, crafts, and I'm not really sure what all because I was over at the quilt auction.

Here is a photo of what the quilt auction arena looks like. The tilted bed on the right is where the next quilt being auctioned is viewed. You can see they are just putting a version of Celtic Soltice on the bed to be auctioned next.

hand quilting with Judy

Last year when I attended the Creativ Festival in Toronto, I enjoyed some hand quilting time with my friend Judy Pearce. This was a project that anyone could add a few stitches to, so of course I did. It was hard to tear myself away from visiting and quilting. At the time it was like finding an oasis in the middle of a desert!

Yesterday I saw that finished quilt auctioned and it sold for $275. 

This quilt is called Whirligig and was made by a small group of my sewing friends. It's the 6th quilt we have made specifically for this auction and we were delighted that it was sold for $700!

It was very inspiring to see so many gorgeous hand quilted treasures being appreciated and sold to new homes.

So now it's your turn! What are you hand stitching this week? 

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Quilt Auction

quilts waiting for new homes

Today is the Mennonite Relief Sale when there will be over 250 quilts auctioned to raise money for relief from hunger, poverty and natural disaster world wide, and for development and peace keeping efforts. It is an organization that is near and dear to my heart, and I have been attending this annual event for many years. 
My small group of quilting friends (the "Sew 'n Sews") have made and donated several quilts over the years, raising over $2,000 for this worthwhile cause. 
You can see the group quilt we donated for this year's auction here - Whirlygig #107. It's a hand quilted scrap quilt made from the fabric stashes of 5 very diverse quilters. 

And in keeping with the them of all of the efforts by the hundreds of people that go into raising money for this very worthy cause, I saw this sign today that I just had to make a U-turn to take a photo of. Love it!

150 Canadian Women Update

This is a quilt project to celebrate the 150th birthday of Canada by remembering the lives and contributions of 150 Canadian Women. The project is hosted by Next Step Quilt Designs. Three blocks are posted every 2 weeks and you'd think that wouldn't be hard to keep up with. But it has been a challenge for me. I made several blocks this past week, but have a lot more to make in order to be current.
First I print out the instructions and put them in a binder (a RED binder of course). Next I select some red and white fabrics for each block. I have purchased a few of the commemorative fabrics to include in some of the blocks.
Then I read about the woman's life that is being honoured in each block. The history has been fascinating to read and with each block I feel inspired by the women who faced very difficult challenges, most of whom were way ahead of their time. Like Helen Harrison who was a pilot from British Columbia who was the only female pilot in Canada who was paid as an aviator in 1940. Even though she had been a flying instructor in South Africa and was the first woman to fly and teach on military planes in the British Empire, she was rejected by the Royal Canadian Air Force in the second world war because she was a woman! 



While I reflect on the story of each woman's life, I get to work sewing the block components. Some of the blocks are straightforward and some are very complex, just like the lives they commemorate. 




Here is another interesting 150 celebration project by Canadian artist Libs Elliott. She teamed up with Absolut Vodka to make a new bottle design and a quilt using code to generate the design. You can see the quilt on her instagram here, her Facebook here, here's the video...Enjoy!

Improv Inspiration

Being inspired by the quilt bloggers posting their projects over at the AHIQ monthly link up, I got out my pink and white improv quilt again. 
It went into the UFO closet last year because the pink just became too much for me! I'm sure a little girl would love all that pink, and even though I like pink, this much pink is hard on my eyes to work on!

This quilt combines two types of blocks started in two different classes:
1) quarter log cabin blocks made in a class with Bethany Garner. The fabric pieces were cut with scissors and pieced in a free from way. 
2) strips sets made in a class with Cinzia Alloca.
This quilt layout just needs a little TLC to make some major progress, but it is competing with The Bear for time in my brain.
Suggestions are welcome!!
Hop over to the AHIQ link up and see all the wonderful improv quilts being made.

Weekly Blockheads

Are you keeping up with the weekly Blockheads pattern release?! I had no idea when I started this project how much fun it was going to be! I have tried some new techniques, enjoyed a few challenges, and practiced making favourite blocks. 
This is block #11 called Lisa's Star - click here for the link to the pattern.


This was a particularly rewarding block for me to sew. 
I must have muttered "I love this block" 10 times while I was making it. 
I'm telling you, I was totally in my happy place! I carefully cut everything and squared down each unit at every step of the construction and it's perfect! Just look at how small these adorable little pieces are!!  It's totally ridiculous how happy this makes me... and also a little concerning! LOL



Here are all the blocks together on the design wall. This will be a very interesting sampler quilt!
What will the Moda designers have us sewing this week?

Quilt Bee Report

Photo by Mitzi Designs

My quilt guild recently hosted a bee day and we had a very productive day working on various charity quilt projects. The comfort quilt committee did a terrific job of organizing projects for us to work on. And we had our very own photographer Mitzi documenting our day in photographs.

This is the package I worked on in the morning. See how everything is measured, labelled and perfectly organized to make the quilt top! The 12" blocks in the bag were made by guild members throughout the year using the pattern called "Divide and Conquer" (a free download at Pellon).

Here's the finished quilt top.
Kind of funky and definitely not my cup of tea, but I'm sure it will find a home with someone who likes it more than I do!
It's a true challenge to work on a project with colours you didn't chose, blocks you didn't make, where sewers have used a wide variety of 1/4" seams, and get it all to come together in some kind of coherent fashion. It was a great brain exercise for me. It will be quilted and finished by someone else in the guild.

Photo by Mitzi Design

Then I worked on piecing blocks for another project. Our photographer got some interesting photos and here is one of them. I was piecing blocks on Lucy (my long bed Singer 301).

Photo by Mitzi Designs

Here is a photo of Colleen and I. We were working on the same churn dash blocks using different colourways of the similar fabrics. 









It was a relaxing day of sewing quilts and visiting with friends, almost like an old fashioned Quilting Bee!

Design Wall Monday

Everyone knows how much I love the 100 Blocks magazines. It is creatively refreshing to flip through the patterns and see a wide variety of 12" block designs. When I got the latest issue #15, I was smitten by Bonnie Hunter's block - no surprise I'm sure! On the design wall today is my version of Bonnie's block.

I made this block from a baggie of scrap triangles given to me by a quilting friend at my guild. Although I set myself a challenge to use only the triangles in the bag, I ended up needing to add white squares and rectangles for the outside rows.

Total # of block pieces = 133!

These are some of the HSTs being squaring down using the BlocLoc ruler. 
WOW this was fun block to sew! It will probably be finished as a miniature quilt one day.

Linking up to design wall Monday which is now being hosted by Judy over at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, and Oh Scrap!

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly link up of hand stitched projects!
I am doing my favourite type of hand stitching today - binding. I finished the quilting this week on Grand Illusion (with my new Machingers). I really like this blue French General  fabric that I'm using for the binding. This quilt will be donated to my local quilt guild's comfort quilt collection and I'm so happy that it will be done before the last meeting of the year.

If you have a hand stitching project that you would like to show us, link up your blog post below. We hope that whatever you are stitching will be relaxing and fun! Enjoy!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Quilting Grand Illusion

Grand Illusion is closer to becoming a finished quilt. A backing was made from fabric pieces leftover from piecing the quilt top, including the sashings that I removed because they had a green fabric that I decided I didn't like in the quilt. It's much more labour intensive to piece a quilt backing than to buy yardage or a wide backing, but I'm so happy about using up all these leftovers! And it's almost like having a reversible quilt!

The machine quilting will be all stitch-in-the-ditch between the blocks and straight through the middle of all the blocks (horizontally and vertically) using the walking foot. It's boring, but a quick way to finish a quilt.

I thought I might need to invest in a a new pair of Machinger gloves (used for greater control when machine quilting) because the coating on the fingers seemed to be wearing out. But when I compared the old gloves to the new ones, I could hardly believe it! Oh my goodness I was WAY past needing new gloves!

Blockheads #10

This is block pattern #10 called "Basket and Flower". It was posted last week for the Blockheads sampler project. 

I am not an expert appliquer, so first I watched the applique tutorial that Jan Patek posted on her blog. That was really interesting so I tried her techniques on this block. It was a bit of a challenge to figure out the order in which to stitch the pieces down. 

From watching the tutorial, I learned not to stitch down the places where another piece should be underneath, such as the stem slipping under the basket.
But I couldn't figure out if the flower should be under the green part or on top. Or if the leaves should be under the stem or on top. Since the "on top" position was much easier to sew, that's what I did! 
To see my other blocks for this project, click here.
I'm heading over to the Moda blog to see block #11 which should be posted today... is it applique or piecing this week?!?!