Another happy day of sewing!

Yesterday was a Blue Mountain Quilters Guild drop in day, and I had another productive day of sewing and chatting!
My goal for the day was to get a backing pieced for a quilt I started about a year ago, get it sandwiched and the quilting started.


Success on all counts!

The back 

the quilting is started

going round the bend

Loving it so far!

Happy quilting!
Janet

Bloggers Quilt Festival Time!

It's that wonderful time of the year again when those of us not lucky enough to be able to go to Houston for the big show, get to partake in a big show of our own!
Welcome to anyone who has popped over from the links at Amy's Creative Side.  As I write this post, there are already over 220 quilters who have linked up.  It is going to be an intense weekend - for starters! - of blog hopping!
I've decided to share the quilt I made for the Robert Kaufman Kona Solids Challenge as part of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild.  We were challenged to create something using all the colours in the charm pack, we could add other fabrics, but the charm pack had to remain the focus of the quilt.  I added Kona Ash and Coal to my dark colour range charm pack.

This was a fun one to do, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, even though it involved taking those 5" charm squares and cutting them into 6 pieces and sewing them back together.
 I started the cutting for this quilt at a weekend retreat held by the Blue Mountain Quilter's Guild in April 2011.  When one of the ladies asked what I was doing and I described my project, her first comments were " You know, there's medication for that?"  The name stuck - here's my "There's Medication For That" quilt.


I designed this quilt in EQ6.  The little colour squares on this quilt finish at 1/2", each block at 3.5".

There were miles of sashing strips to be cut in a variety of sizes - thank goodness one of the retreat attendees had a June Taylor Shape cutter - this reduced my cutting time down to a mere fraction of the time, and sold me on getting one of these - if you haven't had the chance to use one, and you do a lot of strip work, it is well worth picking one up! Check out this video!

figuring out the layout

The top is pieced,
 I strip pieced the leftovers - the strip on the right, and used it on the back of the quilt

I quilted it with an all-over zig-zag, following the shape of the blocks. I don't normally, but for this quilt, I did use my walking foot. (I most often Free motion quilt, in a very organic (read as unplanned!) manner)

the quilting in progress

quilting finished

Here's how it looks from the back ( to read about what happens when you are watching playoff hockey, and piecing a quilt back, see this post!):

and the view from the front:

I love my "There's Medication for That" quilt and it resides in our living room, where I can enjoy it everyday.


Thank you for stopping by, and don't forget the visit all the other beautiful quilts that have been linked up!

Happy quilting!

What can I say?

I like a challenge!  The VMQG is participating in another Modern Quilt Guild challenge, and our reveal is set for our November meeting.  This challenge involves the HABITAT line, by Jay McCarroll, for FreeSpirit Fabrics.
Last night, I finished my piece - yaay!  But, for now, all you're going to get is this little tease.

Now, on to the next project - maybe even a Christmas present?  Now that would be a real challenge!


Happy quilting!

Tools Theme revealed!

Today is reveal day over at Tangled Textiles!
Here's my contribution to the Tools theme

The Words Remain

My take on the theme involves how tools have changed - we no longer use a quill pen and an inkwell, but a sewing machine can be a tool for writing!


Hop on over and see what everyone has created!  What an amazing, inspiring group I have the privilege of being associated with!


Happy quilting!

13 hours of sewing!

(okay, so I wrote this post on Sunday, but didn't get my pictures sorted out until today, so forgive the yesterday references!)


Yup!  Yesterday Saturday was a Vancouver modern Quilt Guild 1 day retreat, hosted by the fabulous Krista of  Poppyprint.  That girl knows how to host - and spoil rotten - a bunch of quilters for the day!  We were a very happy and well fed crew, let me tell you!  I had a very productive day - managed to work on three different projects, moving them all right along.  Check out some of the fabulous pictures that Sonja (Artisania) has posted on her blog of some of the amazing projects and fun that was had.


I started the morning with our October block for our VMQG meeting this week.

The idea here is if you make a Halloween themed block, you get a ticket for each block you make, and then are entered to win a bunch of the blocks - kind of a raffle, with spooktacular results!  (haha - couldn't resist!) I made two blocks, so I'll get two chances to win.


After finishing two ghost blocks, I moved on to the next project, but unfortunately, I can't quite show you that one yet, as it is in the works for my 4x6ers postcard swap.  yeah, I am really late!  These postcards were supposed to be mailed September 15, but I'm still messing around with them!  I can tell you that they involved some thread painting, and then today I added a bit of colour to them. I'm pretty happy with how they've turned out so far, and, I'm really hoping I'm going to get them in the mail before our November theme comes around.  sheeeesh!


By then it was lunch time, and I had to stop, enjoy the gorgeous sunshine coming through the window, and get some sustenance.  After lunch, I merrily started cutting sashings for my final project of the day.   I had a set of charm squares that's been kicking around my sewing space for years - I'd say at least 6?  I was so totally inspired by Krista's (yup - same Krista as above!) VMQG Robert Kaufman charm squares quilt - see it here, that I had to try it using this set of charms, to make a baby quilt.
Well, did you know that not all charm squares are 5" squares, and that you should always measure them first before you cut your sashings?  I learnt the hard way!

Instead of being able to dive right into sewing my blocks, I had to trim them all down to 5" first.  But, it did make a pretty little pile of scraps, don't ya think?
This pattern, which is a Malka Dubrawsky pattern, and can be found in her book "Fresh Quilting", is a really quick and easy pattern to sew up.  Very conducive to chain piecing.  Before long, I had all my blocks done, and was trying various layouts.

Got it all sorted out and had my top together, sandwiched, and quilting started before supper time!  My kind of project!  I quilted all over loose feathers, and by the time the day was over, only had a corner left to quilt.

Sunday at home I finished the quilting, machine bound it, and tossed it in the washing machine and this little quilt is done!

Lemon Sherbet

Now, I'm working away on my Tangled Textiles "Tools" theme challenge - reveal for that one is this Friday, but can you tell what tool this is?

 Happy quilting!


ps - I'm linking up!

on to new projects

I can finally say this one is done, and going out the door today!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends and happy quilting to all!

We have our winners!

with the help of Mr. Random # Generator, we have our two winners!

sorry, I can't seem to get the widget to print out here, but it was all legit - promise!

First number selected was #16 - and that would be ...

Erin, who gets the FQs and linen package.

And the second number up was 21 ...

 which is Moosestash Quilting, who wins the Fresh Flowers table topper kit.

Who knows?  there maybe a few other items that make their way into the packages to provide a little more packing material!

The winners have been notified by email, and the packages will go out once I receive mailing addresses.

Thank you so much everyone for participating and for following along with my ramblings!  I appreciate each and everyone of you, and all my other readers who may not follow, but pop in regularly to see what is going on!  You're the best!

Happy quilting!

Janet

The deadline is approaching

for the giveaway that is! Midnight tonight - that's just a smidge over 1.5 hours away!  Click here for the post to leave your comment.

I had a busy sewing weekend - yaaaay!  My DH was a way, so I got to sew uninterrupted by having to cook and converse - don't you just love those weekends?  Miss you honey, but boy was I busy!  Good times!

The wedding quilt - pretty soon I'll be saying that for the last time - just has to be bound - I finished the quilting today, and instead of putting a label on the back, I quilted the details in to the quilt.

The bindings all ready to go, and since I'm going to machine it completely, my aim is it will be done on Wednesday.  Can't get to it sooner as I have meetings this week - my Little Group meets tomorrow night - I think we've got ourselves a new challenge, but I missed the last meeting so I'll find out tomorrow, and I've got a quilt show committee meeting for the Blue Mountain Quilters Guild.  The show is October 2012, but we're just getting started with the planning.

After seeing all those cute little zipper pouches around blogland, I decided I had to try - here are my attempts, using this tutorial.

Silk pouch

Line pouch

I think these two qualify for Canoe Ridge Creations Sew Modern Monday, so I'm linking up!

and after making these two, I decided to make a bigger one with the thought of taking my knitting back and forth to work, I played around and came up with a different design.

Linen Knitting bag

And then today I really wanted to do something different so I decided to try the 3 Creative Studios Technique of the Month, thread sketching,the tutorial compliments of Monika of My Sweet Prairie

Thread sketching

I also got started on my Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild Habitat  Challenge, but can't show you that yet!

It was such a fun weekend!  I hope your's was productive, too!
Happy quilting!