Hello Canada - I am here

Yes - I am in my motherland.  I have no internet on my phone and have found that not having access to my emails, BBM and Instagram is driving me insane.  I can't even do the daily spin on Candy Crush!!!!  Disaster, I know!!

My rental car is a Fiat 500 soft top so I have been driving from Kinburn to Arnprior with the roof down and the radio on!  My hair is now a mess and has been wind-whipped into knots but I sure am enjoying the flat, long stretches of pothole-free roads.

**Just a quick check in to tell Katy that I can't wait to meet her tomorrow along with the rest of the Ottawa Modern Quilt Guild - I am so excited!!  See you at 7:15pm or so right?

Since I have no way to share any pictures with you from my camera at the moment, here is a picture of something I have been craving and can now finally purchase here in Canada:

I never did understand why they are called Swedish Berries but boy oh boy they are "gud".

Happy Monday to you all wherever you are!

Schnitzel and Boo mini quilt

I accomplished my June ALYoF goal - to complete my Schnitzel & Boo Mini Quilt Swap mini quilt.  Yay

Can you believe that this particular swap has over 600 participants - wild.  This also makes it hard to determine who may be making you a mini but this makes it fun to keep guessing until the work of art actually arrives on your doorstep!

For my partner, Tula Pink was listed as one of their favourite designers.  I dug through my stash (one of my promises to myself in the Fabric Fast was to 'use what I already have') and I discovered a few lovely Tula Pink fat quarters.  I cut a few 5" charms and sewed them to some white charms and then cut them and cut them again and once again and ended up with a whole bunch of 2" half square triangles.  I really had no plan except to cut and see what could happen!

With a few of the scraps I also made a Thumb/finger pincushion ring and a needle book with some pins in it.  I hope my partner loves this set as much as I do.

For the quilting I used my Hera Marker and quilted some relatively straight lines on the diagonal.  I like the book of it - especially from the back which shows a grid on point effect.  What a great feeling to have it completed before I depart for my holiday and before the deadline.

Linking to Fiber of All Sorts.  TOO LATE to link!  Boohoo.

The 'Gator Quilt - Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on The 'Gator Blog Hop!  I was fortunate to be a pattern tester for Louise of I'm Feelin' Crafty whose blog I love!  She has designed a very cute quilt pattern with three paper pieced alligators on it.  I tested the large alligator and made a small quilt, 48" x 49".  I am quite smitten with this fella - isn't he cute?  I had some sunshine on the day I took the picture so my apologies that this picture is a bit washed out, even in the shade!

Green and grey together are my favourite colours at the moment so I decided to use those to make the alligator.  Looks like a popular colour combo as Louise's quilt it also green and grey!  This pattern was fast and easy to make.  My top tip would be to get out your pencil crayons to mark which colour fabric goes where so you can piece with confidence and speed!

I attempted to do some pebbling on his body for some major texture (achieved) but I still have a looooong way to go with my free motion skills.  I went around and around thinking more circles would make it better - not so sure about my logic now though!!  I used a 40 weight Aurifil (my favourite) in #2882 green.

For the wadding, I chose to use a product I have not used before and I will definitely use it again!  This wadding is very light in weight so the small quilt is light and feels in proportion to the size.  The brand is Quilters Dream Angel "Heavenly Batting Made 100% with Flame Retardant Fibers".  Ideal for a baby quilt.

As you can see, I used the [now discontinued] Ikea Britten Nummers for the backing.  As baby grows up he/she will be able to learn numbers!

Thank you for letting me be a pattern tester Lousie - I love my new 'Gator quilt!

You can find Louise's pattern for sale on Craftsy and if you want some more 'Gator inspiration, check out the other bloggers on the hop:

June 10th- I'm Feelin' Crafty

June 11th- A Quilter's Table

June 13th- Marci Girl Designs

June 14th- I'm Feelin' Crafty- showing off other Testers work!

June 15th- Made By Amanda Rose

June 16th- Wombat Quilts

June 17th- Wips and Tuts

June 18th- Shaffer Sisters

June 19th- [Amy's] Crafty Shenanigans - YOU ARE HERE

June 20th- I'm Feelin' Crafty

And one last picture of the 'gator sandwich before quilting and showing the green fabrics:

 Linking this finish to the Littlest Thistle Q2 FAL.
Check out my original Q2 FAL post HERE.

Month of May in review

May is always a busy month.  I participated in the Sew Mama Sew giveaway week, celebrated my 40th birthday, sold a quilt and wall hanging at the local church fete and was quite busy all month at my day job.  A lot of time was spent playing with learning how to use my new android phone and playing Candy Crush.  The new phone also meant that I could finally join the crazy world of Instagram so I have been exploring that new avenue of media too.

In other news, my nephew had his birthday and I sold a quilt.  This is a miracle of miracles I know!!  I am totally pleased with myself!

A fabric challenge, quilt along, swaps, a bee block and a competition for the month of May!

My favourite make in May was my Citrus Triangle quilt.  Green, grey and white with a hint of teal/aqua in the binding - what is not to love!!?  I tried spiral quilting for the first time and have a long way to go to make it look perfect but I LOVE the effect.  I will definitely be using this method again.  Can't wait to see it all washed and crinkly!

I also love the plaid shaggy edge quilt too [EDIT:  this quilt was completed in April].  There will always be room in my 'modern quilter heart' for a bit of old fashioned plaid!

 
Now that it is half way through the month of June, I am relieved to finally get the May post completed! Hopefully I am not so tardy for my month of June report!

Have a great night!

ALYoF June goal

What?  The 7th of June already?  Time is whizzing past so quickly for me!  I still haven't done my May recap. 

I have a huge list of things I MUST do in June so I have picked a fun one for my ALYoF goal.  I picked my #schnitzelandboominiquiltswap.

My partner likes Tula Pink fabrics so I went with some Tula Pink fabrics!  I had so much fun playing around with these 2-inch HST blocks.  Here are just a few of the other ways I could have gone:

This mini quilt is my June A Lovely Year of Finishes goal.  Fingers crossed I can get it done because I go away in less than two weeks and will need to post it the day I return from holiday!  Nothing like a bit of pressure to get things done!

Linking up to Fiber of All Sorts.

Umbrella Prints 2014

My pack of Umbrella Prints Trimmings was blue/aqua this year so basically I just drooled on the little packet of trimmings for quite some time before I actually had the nerve to cut into them!   In a few days, be sure to look at the 2014 board on Pinterest to see how creative people can be with just a few pieces!  And then REPIN and COMMENT on mine, of course!!!  The picture with the most repins/comments is one of the winners!!! CLICK HERE to see my picture over on Pinterest!

What did I make with this pack of trimmings?  A [soft sculpture] dragonfly of course!  And two brooches, a jam jar pincushion using my own tutorial and a needlebook!  I still have a few small scraps left over so I will make a few more brooches (another day).

The wings have wire in them so I can bend them to be more forward or flat.  Eventually I will prop him up on the edge of the bookcase.  I am @amyscraftyshenanigans on Instagram so do go have a look at the two brooches I made - I posted them separately.  Here they are together:

Here is a picture of the jam jar pincushion and needlebook with a little 'postage stamp' style Umbrella Print flower pinned to the pincushion.  I had to add green in somewhere!

Happy sewing!

Linking to Whoop Whoop! and Finish it Friday

Heal's (furnishing) fabric

Heal's is re-launching their own-brand of  fabrics.  I was lucky to get a sample of two of these home-dec/upholstery weight fabrics to be creative with.  The graphic print with peacocks is by Malika Favre (called Peacock Flower) and the coral print is by Zandra Rhodes (called Top Brass 2).

I pulled some Kona cotton solids to frame squares of Peacock Flower and I made a table runner.  I like mixing home-dec weight with quilting cotton - it gives an additional texture!  On this occasion, I interfaced the squares as I figure this runner will be washed quite a lot and I wanted to make sure they held up to my robust washing machine!

 

I used an Aurifil variegated thread for my quilting - a sort of swooped-straight-line-curved-semi-cross-hatch kind of quilting!! And on the back - some Ikea Nummers of course!

With the Top Brass 2 fabric, I made a zippy pouch.  Once again, I used some Kona cotton fabric to crate a contrasting bottom.  I also added two rows of fun stitches to 'quilt' the bag and a piece of ribbon as a tag to add some finishing touches.  

The sunshine made my photos look really wild!  Sorry!

Here is a link to a YouTube video about the re-launch.  Thank you Heal's for letting me play with these fabrics! 

Happy Monday everyone!

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Citrus Triangle large quilt category

Finally I am able to properly reveal my Citrus Triangle Quilt and I am entering it in to the Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side.  Be sure to pop over and see all the other entries - it truly is a feast for the eyes!

As part of the Triangle Quilt Along with The Sassy Quilter, I managed to complete make my 'Citrus Triangle' quilt within the time frame of the quilt-along, despite starting a tiny bit late!  For my quilt, I pulled a stack of greens, greys and low volume whites to make my equilateral triangles with.  I am on a fabric fast so I used what I had in my stash.  I LOVE how it turned out!!  I am a green-fabric-kind-of-person -- can you tell!!?

For the binding, I went with what I had in the house (grey with white dots) but decided to add just a touch of the teal as you can see in the picture above and just below.  I am so glad I did because it would have been a rather green/grey/white quilt other wise!!  I used some chevrons to back it with.  Again, this is what I had in my stash.

This outdoor photo (below) does not do this quilt justice as it was rather sunny when I took the photo so my greens are looking a little pale here.  However, I include this picture because it shows the circular quilting that I did on the quilt.  I love the effect and can't wait to wash it to see how it crinkles up!

Here is the initial pull of fabric inspiration for my quilt.  Some of these didn't make the final quilt and I did add a few more to make my quilt bigger.  Such a yummy stack of fabric. 

 
QUILT STATS:
Size: 53.5 x 74 inches
Pattern: 5" equilateral triangles
Thread: pieced with Aurifil Mako 50  #2021 and quilted with Aurifil Mako 40 (green spool) thread #2882
Wadding: 80/20

Linking this finish to Q2 FAL with the Littlest Thistle.
Check out my original goal post HERE.

Blogger's Quilt Festival - NYB Mini Quilt entry

Time to enter the Blogger's Quilt Festival!  I have only entered a couple of times before so this is pretty exciting!  There are already so many amazing quilts linked up and so much inspiration I can hardly contain myself!! Thank you to Amy's Creative Side for hosting this on-line festival!

I have decided to submit my DSTT New York Beauty in to the MINI QUILT category.

My original blog post about it is HERE.  You see, Dear Stella and Timeless Treasures held a "Modern Traditional" mini competition with Katy Jones (Monkey Do) and Julie Herman (Jaybird Quilts) so I entered this beauty (pun intended!!) into the competition.  And won.  Crazy awesome world!

Each side is 20 inches as shown by the tape measure in the picture below.  You can just see the straight-line quilting in invisible thread here too.

I enjoyed making this mini quilt and used some fan fabrics!  I posted a few sneak-peak pics on Instagram as I was making it and those ants were quite a hit but some people thought they were a bit creepy!  I love those ants!  Here it is before I quilted it and put the binding on:

QUILT STATS:
Size: 20" x 20" = 80 inches total perimeter
Thread: Aurifil and invisible thread
Fabrics: Dear Stella and Timeless Treasures
Pattern: New York Beauty blocks

Modern She Made - Hexie Swap

You already know that I LOVE SWAPS!  I signed up for the Modern She Made Hexie Swap and was sent my partner.  After a bit of stalking, I decided that I would make her the Sew Together Bag.  I started this bag at the very beginning of March and got to about 90% complete.  Then it sat and sat and I realised I really disliked the print fabrics I picked.  So, out came my handy clover seam ripper and I took it back to just the pocket section.  And now here is what it looks like - COMPLETED!!

I love this fabric - so happy and colourful and I am so lucky that it coordinated with the pocket section I made originally!  I did a tiny bit of hand quilting on some of the diamond shapes and love how those diamonds actually make hexies.

The pattern makes a really clever three-zipped-pocket pouch with storage sections in between and opens wide but boy did I struggle with the instructions.  Thankfully The Quilt Barn did a sew-along earlier in the year so there were visuals for me to turn to!  [I am a visual learner]

Kona fabrics are the best - all of those solids sure come in handy when making bags!  I went with a dark blue (not sure the shade) that I had on hand that matched the navy on the outer fabric so it tied it all together.  I love it when a plan (ahem) comes together!  'Sew Together'... hahahaa

This label sums it up:

Here is the whole parcel that I sent.  I had fun gathering teas, a rainbowy notebook (my partner loves rainbows), chocolate, scraps, zippers and a tea towel with hexies on it and a hexagon shaped potholder.

And here is the pot holder and coordinating tea towel. The colour is a little off here - the purples and oranges look electric but they aren't that bright in person. 

I sure hope that my partner likes everything because I had a lot of fun sewing for her. 

GOOD NEWS:  this is one of my 2nd Quarter FAL goals and I can now cross it off my list!

Linking to ALYOF May

 

Linking to TGIFF over at My Quilt Infatuation and with Finish it Friday. 

GIVEAWAY Handmade item and tutorial link

Hello and welcome to my [HANDMADE] giveaway.  I am also having a [SUPPLIES] giveaway so do check that out as well!

Today I am giving away a Weighted Mouse Pincushion.  The winner can pick which one of these little guys they would like!

And guess what - you can make your own mouse using my tutorial.  Click on The Daily Stitch to see how to make one!

This is an easy-peasy giveaway to enter -- just tell me which mouse you would like to win!  Followers get a second entry.  I will ship worldwide - yay!  The winner will be chosen by a random draw on the 19th May and I will notify the winner by email so be sure I have a way to contact you!

Though I normally try to respond to comments left on my blog, I won't be responding to replies on this occasion but thank you for entering in advance!  Good luck and happy blog-hopping!  Be sure to check out all the other blogs linked up for the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day - Supplies

I love Giveaway Day Week with Sew Mama Sew!  I always have so much fun finding new blogs to follow and people to meet!!  Be sure to check out all of the giveaways that are linked up!  This is my [SUPPLIES] giveaway - please feel free to also enter my [HANDMADE] giveaway of a totally cute Weighted Mouse Pincushion.

What have I got for one lucky person?  I have a selection of blue scraps!  I love fabric scraps - and hope you do too!  There are lots of big pieces and a handful of small bits - all perfect for scrappy projects and paper piecing patterns.  225 grams/8 oz of fabric - yum!

To enter, please leave a comment telling me who your favourite online fabric store is. Followers can have a second entry!  This giveaway is open worldwide and one winner will be randomly drawn and emailed on 19th May.

Good luck and happy blog-hopping! 

April 2014 - in review

A little late with my Month in Review but here is my mosaic for April:

I sent some blocks for a Soy Amado quilt, finished some bee blocks, made a name badge and pattern tested the Girlfriend wallet for Little Mushroom Cap.  And YAY - I finished the Plaid Shaggy Quilt off my list of 2nd Quarter FAL and here is Jax helping to 'show it off':

My favourite make in April has to be my #DSTT Challenge mini quilt.  Yup - I won!  Here is the link to the post about the mini.

Happy sewing.  See you tomorrow with a GIVEAWAY! 

[Eventually] linking to: