It's been so long since I posted.......it's been a long winter as well......both appear to go hand in hand.
Needless to say, I have been quilting, ALOT.
As soon as I can manage to get my pictures in order, I will update this blog and hopefully not miss any of the quilts I have made.
In the past week or so, I have opened an account with ancestory and with alot of help from my daughter, the family tree has taken off. What I find is that it is very addicting and the more you learn, the more you want to do. It certainly helps when your daughter is a researcher and is adamant about having documentation in black and white before that person gets a branch on your tree.
Now, off to find my photos!
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
India Embroidery Pieces
Stephanie's next door neighbour made a trip to India and purchased crates of linens and bedding items. Stephanie obained some of these items and brought them over to show me and to discuss quilting some of them. It was exciting to see what she had and even more exciting when she dashed back home, went to her neighbour's and brought one crate over for me to go through. I purchased a baker's dozen of the pillow shams she had and have already started taking them apart. I want to use the embroidered parts and make them into a quilt for Breagha.
Here is a sampling of what I bought.
I just love them, Each one is about 10 inches square and I am thinking of incorporating them with modern blocks in mostly white with bits of solid colored fabrics throughout. I'm pretty sure that Breagha will like them and it'll be another quilt to add to her collection.
Here is a sampling of what I bought.
I just love them, Each one is about 10 inches square and I am thinking of incorporating them with modern blocks in mostly white with bits of solid colored fabrics throughout. I'm pretty sure that Breagha will like them and it'll be another quilt to add to her collection.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
New Addition to the Family
MEET BELLA
This kitten was making all kinds of racket in the alley. At first we thought it might be an injured bird since we have numerous bird feeders in our yard but no, it was a tiny ball of fur that created all that noise and pushed itself under the fence and into our arms. This all happened the evening of Aug. 7, 2012 and at that time, she barely looked old enough to have left her mother. (In fact, after a visit to the vet, she was too young to have been seperated from her mother as she was only about 4 weeks old).
Both my husband and I have had pets our entire lives. Not the kind of pets that one gets from a breeder, not even a "breed". No, we are people who own pets that others have discarded and we do not get to pick a pet, the pet picks us. Two years ago, we made the decision that we would no longer have any pets and that decision was not made lightly. Pet ownership is a huge responsibility and with our advancing years, it was time to stop caring for pets.
Every effort was made to initially try and find the owners. We felt sure that this kitten had escaped from a home and that someone, anyone, would be desperately trying to find her. Not so.....an ad was placed on Kijjii, a call was made to the SPCA and a description of the kitten was left as well as the area she was found in. No one was interested.
So on September 10, a firm decision was made to keep her. She had already been with us so long that it seemed almost cruel to think of finding her another home with another family. Animals, like people, can not be uprooted and planted with different families every few weeks.
Under protest, not wanting any more animals......we find ourselves parenting once again and the worst part is that.......we are liking it and we are in love with her.
This kitten was making all kinds of racket in the alley. At first we thought it might be an injured bird since we have numerous bird feeders in our yard but no, it was a tiny ball of fur that created all that noise and pushed itself under the fence and into our arms. This all happened the evening of Aug. 7, 2012 and at that time, she barely looked old enough to have left her mother. (In fact, after a visit to the vet, she was too young to have been seperated from her mother as she was only about 4 weeks old).
Both my husband and I have had pets our entire lives. Not the kind of pets that one gets from a breeder, not even a "breed". No, we are people who own pets that others have discarded and we do not get to pick a pet, the pet picks us. Two years ago, we made the decision that we would no longer have any pets and that decision was not made lightly. Pet ownership is a huge responsibility and with our advancing years, it was time to stop caring for pets.
Every effort was made to initially try and find the owners. We felt sure that this kitten had escaped from a home and that someone, anyone, would be desperately trying to find her. Not so.....an ad was placed on Kijjii, a call was made to the SPCA and a description of the kitten was left as well as the area she was found in. No one was interested.
So on September 10, a firm decision was made to keep her. She had already been with us so long that it seemed almost cruel to think of finding her another home with another family. Animals, like people, can not be uprooted and planted with different families every few weeks.
Under protest, not wanting any more animals......we find ourselves parenting once again and the worst part is that.......we are liking it and we are in love with her.
STEPHANIE'S LOG CABIN
This was taken yesterday, September 14, 2012, in my backyard. Steph is my stepdaughter and has been a cancer survivor many times during her life. She is about to undergo yet another surgery in Calgary and this quilt will be travelling with her. During Steph's numerous hospitalizations, she never fails to take a quilt with her.....it's become her thing and I am happy to keep her supplied with them. Even better news is that Steph herself is becoming a quilter and will soon be able to add her own efforts to her collection of quilts.
The log cabin quilt is near and dear to my heart. When I first began quilting, a log cabin was one of my first quilts and since then, I find myself going back to the pattern over and over through the years. That first, original log cabin, is owned by my daughter, Michelle.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Breagha's RAG QUILT
Just completed quilt #14 for my two and a half year old grandaughter. For some people, that would indicate an excessive number of quilts. It really isn't when you consider how often these quilts require washing and the fact that there is always one or two on her little bed.
I ordered the fat quarter bundle from Connecting Threads called "Wild Ones". They were on sale at a great price so I ordered additional yardage as well. Bear in mind, this line is flannel, the one medium I don't care to work with, but my daughter loves it and I am beginning to suspect that my grandaughter will too.
This is the first time I have tried the rag quilt pattern although it seems there is a rag quilt on almost every quilting blog out there. Looked at numerous tutorials but finally decided the one method I liked best was this one:
http://www.crazymomquilts.blogspot.ca/2012/02/crazy-mom-quilts-one-way-to-make.html
Amanda Jean is awesome when it comes to tutorials of any kind. I love how she encourages you to always "make it your own". As you know, what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for everyone.
The changes that I made were changes that worked best for me. Little things that made a big difference. For one thing, I used fusible cotton batting rather than just plain batting. I can't begin to tell you what a difference it made in keeping those squares together. Perhaps a little more work as you have to iron them together but definitely worth it. Amanda used her walking foot to quilt an X, I wanted to practice my stipple quilting so I went wild on all these 5 inch sandwiches. Other than that, I followed her instructions completely.
I also got a tad creative in photographing this quilt, something I normally don't do.....but I wanted to email these photographs to my daughter, just to see her reaction and of course, it was the reaction I had hoped for, she loved it and emailed me back to let me know that she was keeping this quilt for herself!!!!
After photographing this quilt, I spent the evening worrying about the fact that a rag quilt does not call for a binding. I worried that the constant pulling on the edges, with the weight of all that flannel, would cause too much strain so I decided to attempt a binding. Off to Fabricland I went and bought a plain pink flannel meter of fabric, came home, sewed the binding and found it easier than I expected. Used my walking foot and it travelled over the joins easily.
And here it is, binding completed. I am so glad that I did this as it just gives added strength to the quilt. The thing that I especially like about this pattern is that you can change up the sizing of the quilt so easily just by adding more blocks. The pattern called for 150 blocks but I made 195 because I wanted it large enough to fit Breagha's Big Girl Bed that she just moved into.
This is the back of the quilt. As we all know, fabric is expensive and a person always has scraps from past projects. The three different fabrics you see on this backing came from flannels that I had used in Breagha's other quilts. I had all these pieces of flannel, not enough to do anything with, but too much to throw away. I used every bit of all the leftovers in making this rag quilt and loved that they got used up. When I was doing the layout for the front of the rag quilt, I had made up my mind that I would not think about how the back was going to look. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the random backing actually turned out as well as it did.
This quilt is heavily stippled with machine quilting but I have to admit, it is so soft and the flannel gives it such weight that I am seriously considering making another flannel rag quilt.
So, that's another quilt for my beloved grandaughter and another entry into the blog that I know she will read one day.
I ordered the fat quarter bundle from Connecting Threads called "Wild Ones". They were on sale at a great price so I ordered additional yardage as well. Bear in mind, this line is flannel, the one medium I don't care to work with, but my daughter loves it and I am beginning to suspect that my grandaughter will too.
This is the first time I have tried the rag quilt pattern although it seems there is a rag quilt on almost every quilting blog out there. Looked at numerous tutorials but finally decided the one method I liked best was this one:
http://www.crazymomquilts.blogspot.ca/2012/02/crazy-mom-quilts-one-way-to-make.html
Amanda Jean is awesome when it comes to tutorials of any kind. I love how she encourages you to always "make it your own". As you know, what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for everyone.
The changes that I made were changes that worked best for me. Little things that made a big difference. For one thing, I used fusible cotton batting rather than just plain batting. I can't begin to tell you what a difference it made in keeping those squares together. Perhaps a little more work as you have to iron them together but definitely worth it. Amanda used her walking foot to quilt an X, I wanted to practice my stipple quilting so I went wild on all these 5 inch sandwiches. Other than that, I followed her instructions completely.
I also got a tad creative in photographing this quilt, something I normally don't do.....but I wanted to email these photographs to my daughter, just to see her reaction and of course, it was the reaction I had hoped for, she loved it and emailed me back to let me know that she was keeping this quilt for herself!!!!
After photographing this quilt, I spent the evening worrying about the fact that a rag quilt does not call for a binding. I worried that the constant pulling on the edges, with the weight of all that flannel, would cause too much strain so I decided to attempt a binding. Off to Fabricland I went and bought a plain pink flannel meter of fabric, came home, sewed the binding and found it easier than I expected. Used my walking foot and it travelled over the joins easily.
And here it is, binding completed. I am so glad that I did this as it just gives added strength to the quilt. The thing that I especially like about this pattern is that you can change up the sizing of the quilt so easily just by adding more blocks. The pattern called for 150 blocks but I made 195 because I wanted it large enough to fit Breagha's Big Girl Bed that she just moved into.
This is the back of the quilt. As we all know, fabric is expensive and a person always has scraps from past projects. The three different fabrics you see on this backing came from flannels that I had used in Breagha's other quilts. I had all these pieces of flannel, not enough to do anything with, but too much to throw away. I used every bit of all the leftovers in making this rag quilt and loved that they got used up. When I was doing the layout for the front of the rag quilt, I had made up my mind that I would not think about how the back was going to look. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the random backing actually turned out as well as it did.
This quilt is heavily stippled with machine quilting but I have to admit, it is so soft and the flannel gives it such weight that I am seriously considering making another flannel rag quilt.
So, that's another quilt for my beloved grandaughter and another entry into the blog that I know she will read one day.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Breagha's Lil Rascals Quilt
This quilt is number 13 for Breagha, if you count the little lap quilt that I made for her.
All started with Moda's lil rascals charm packs. I have been purchasing these on Ebay and using them sparingly on other quilts I have made for Breagha. There were four packs left and I decided not to hoard them any longer but just go ahead and use them up in a quilt made exclusively of lil rascals.
I just love charm packs......whoever invented them for quilters deserves alot of kisses and hugs.
One of my daughter's favorite quilts for Breagha is the Lollipop Quilt so I thought it would be fitting to use the same pattern for the Lil Rascals quilt - a tossed nine patch that uses a fabric line without any fillers.
The quilt measure 58" square, not a large quilt by any means, but not a small one either. Breagha has just gone from a crib to a toddler's bed so this size quilt will serve her for a few more years to come. I know, she already has so many this size but a child can never have too many quilts from Grandma.
Handquilted the entire quilt with flowers on the largest squares (4 and 1/2"), x's on the longer halved pieces, outlined all the straight lines, hearts in the borders to wrap it up with love. Used a brown quilting thread.
Backed the quilt in white, so the brown quilting thread I used is very dominant on the back.
Used a dark brown Kona solid for the binding.
Washed and ready to be boxed up and shipped to Scotland.
All started with Moda's lil rascals charm packs. I have been purchasing these on Ebay and using them sparingly on other quilts I have made for Breagha. There were four packs left and I decided not to hoard them any longer but just go ahead and use them up in a quilt made exclusively of lil rascals.
I just love charm packs......whoever invented them for quilters deserves alot of kisses and hugs.
One of my daughter's favorite quilts for Breagha is the Lollipop Quilt so I thought it would be fitting to use the same pattern for the Lil Rascals quilt - a tossed nine patch that uses a fabric line without any fillers.
The quilt measure 58" square, not a large quilt by any means, but not a small one either. Breagha has just gone from a crib to a toddler's bed so this size quilt will serve her for a few more years to come. I know, she already has so many this size but a child can never have too many quilts from Grandma.
Handquilted the entire quilt with flowers on the largest squares (4 and 1/2"), x's on the longer halved pieces, outlined all the straight lines, hearts in the borders to wrap it up with love. Used a brown quilting thread.
Backed the quilt in white, so the brown quilting thread I used is very dominant on the back.
Used a dark brown Kona solid for the binding.
Washed and ready to be boxed up and shipped to Scotland.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
When Things Come Together
Mailed Breagha's Berenstain Bears lap quilt over a week ago. Today, I was out shopping and quite by accident, came across some Berenstain Bears books. Purchased these three for Breagha.
But, of course, the one book that made me really happy was Mama's New Job, and guess what Mama does.....she quilts! It would have been a perfect book if we could change Mama to Grandma, but I'll settle for a book about quilts.
I will need a picture of Breagha, sitting in her chair, with her Berenstain Bears lap quilt and this book in her hands. What a good day this has been.
But, of course, the one book that made me really happy was Mama's New Job, and guess what Mama does.....she quilts! It would have been a perfect book if we could change Mama to Grandma, but I'll settle for a book about quilts.
I will need a picture of Breagha, sitting in her chair, with her Berenstain Bears lap quilt and this book in her hands. What a good day this has been.
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