February Post

     Although I'm a little late with the post, this is the quilt I made in February. I had purchased the package of multi-colored fabrics some time ago and the Royal Squares pattern seemed to be the perfect pattern for them. I made the quilt using the "quilt-as-you-go" method. I also tried glue basting for the first time and it has the advantage of stabilizing the fabrics before they are sewn together, so they don't stretch. I used some of the extra blocks left over from the front for the back, which makes the quilt reversible.

Until next time Happy Quilting!

And Now For Something Completely Different...

     This is the year of our bi-annual sale for World Missions. The date has been set for November 5 and I'm already trying to make some smaller items, different from quilts, which, I hope will be popular items. This is one idea that I've come up with so far. It's called "Bear in a Bag" and here are some knitted bears happily settled into their bags, waiting for someone to carry them home and cuddle them.

New Year, New Quilt

      It's only the first of February and already I've got another quilt to share. Actually, I finished it in January but didn't have the picture ready for the last post. This quilt is called "Cherry Blossoms" and is based on a pattern by a Hiroko Nakayama, a Japanese quilter. All the materials for the front, along with the batting and book containing the pattern were given to me by a special friend. I put together the quilt top, without the appliquéd cherry blossoms and leaves, and my quilting friend, Linda LeDrew, quilted it beautifully. After I sewed on the binding came the really hard part.
     The cherry blossoms are double sided and are loosely, but securely (I hope) attached to the quilt top using French knots. It was quite a challenge, as I didn't want any of the stitches to show on the back. The buds and leaves are also hand appliquéd, which was a much easier job. The quilt is for a double size bed, so working with so much bulk added to the difficulty.
     It's been "in the works" for quite a few months and I have to admit, it's great to have it finished.    It will be for sale at our bi-annual Mission Possible Sale later in the year.

December/January. Mission Accomplished!

     With all the excitement of Christmas, having all our family and other guests with us on Christmas Day, and coming and going for weeks afterward, there wasn't time to do a blog post in December. Now it's mid-January, but I'm happy to say that I did reach my goal of a quilt a month for 2015!  Hooray! In, fact, I exceeded it, by making a second Bird of Wisdom wall-hanging, as well as finishing the disappearing nine-patch I was working on in November. This a a pattern I found on the Missouri Star Quilt Co. website called the Window Pane Disappearing Nine-Patch. I wanted to try it, to see if I enjoyed making the pattern. So I choose a mixture of softer coloured pieces from my scrap stash, with one brighter fabric for contrast, and got to work. I used white fabric for the window-pane sashing and made it a crib-size quilt. Here it is:

Window Pane Disappearing Nine-Patch

This was a fun and easy pattern to make and if I try it again (there are so many patterns waiting to be tried!) I'll use a darker fabric for the sashing, which should change the look substantially.

Until next month, 

Happy Quilting!

November Quilt

     Another month, another quilt.

     The pattern for this one is "Pioneer Braid," also sometimes called "Prairie Braid." I've wanted to try this pattern for quite a while and when I saw a picture with the diamonds in the middle of the braid, I decided that was what I wanted to do. Purple and teal is one of my favourite colour combinations and I've had the striped fabric for the sashing and borders for quite a while. It all came together with the white diamonds and black binding echoing the pattern in the border fabric.
It's about double the size in the photo, as I draped it over my ironing board to take the picture.
     December is always a busy month, so it will be quite a challenge to complete another quilt, but I still have a baby quilt top made, which I just have to finish off. So perhaps I'll make my target of a-quilt-a-month in 2015.

October Quilts

October has found me busy quilting. I've actually been working on three or four projects but have only finished one. The rest are in various stages of incompletion. A full size quilt has gone to be quilted before I finish hand appliqueing some cherry blossoms to the surface.  A single bed coverlet is basted ready to be quilted by me; and a third is a little baby quilt top which I decided to make from scrap fabrics, to try a pattern before I used it in a larger quilt. Hopefully the last two of these will be finished in November.
But I did complete another "bird" wall-hanging. This is my own design and I love its simplicity and  the effect of the red cardinals on the white background is striking. I called it "Let there be Peace." Here it is.

So, far I'm on track for my "quilt-a-month" plan. 

Check in November to see what's new.

September Quilts

Moving (slowly) along with my attempt to finish a quilt-a-month through 2015, I must admit that I didn't finish anything in August, due to travel and visitors. So I'm trying to make up for it in September. So far I have finished one lap quilt and two wall-hangings.

Floral Pizzazz

     The first quilt is  a bright, bold lap-quilt which I called "Floral Pizzazz". The pattern is from Judy Sisneros' book "9-patch Pizzazz". This is a great pattern for using up large-scale prints and I had fun putting the quilt together from some fabrics which have been lying in my stash, just waiting for the right pattern to come along. Judy's was just perfect.
     I wanted a change from the more traditional quilting that I have been doing and when I saw Kim Caskey's "Bird of Wisdom" wall quilt at Earthly Goods quilt shop, I had no trouble deciding to buy the pattern and make my own version. It was a lot of fun to make and while I was finishing it, my mind was roaming among the possible variations of it that I could make. The words on the side are "Live, Love, Laugh, Listen, Learn."
      I finished it the second day and inspired by Kim's ideas began another one almost right away.

Bird of Wisdom

As you can see, I changed the bird to an owl and decided instead of strips to use a pieced panel below the bird. The words of wisdom on the side are: "Coincidence is God's Way of Doing Miracles Anonymously. " I still have more ideas and can't wait to start the next variation. (Sorry the angle of the photo distorts the quilt.)

Wise Old Owl 

How thankful I am to other quilters whose patterns are such a pleasure to work with and which stir my own creativity in the process.

To all my friends who like quilts and quilting, have a great day!