Quilting and other Things

 Its been a very productive month quilting wise.   I finished binding the quilt I quilted in October and set up backing and bindings for the three tops that I had purchased backings for.  This is the Bold Mystery from Quilters Fancy (they used to have a store on Bloor near Royal York in Toronto but it has been closed for many years).  The copyright on the pattern is 1996 and the copyright in the colourful print is 1997.  I purchased the print for the mystery so I think the top was started in 1997.  Its sat on my UFO list for many years with a note to consider borders.  It now has borders and I quilted it with a pantograph called Lyre.  I had watched a Youtube video Tracey from Whirls 'n Swirls had posted about Customizing a Pantograph .  The bowtie block in this quilt has 3D centres which I wanted to keep so this was a timely watch.  I was able to either stop or modify the pattern at each of the centres so they are still free.  Tracey helped me check each one to get want I wanted. 

How did it get to be November already?!? I forgot to do a blogpost last week about what got done in October.  I did get some applique done on the moondance quilt. I'm slowly building the quilt up.  As a block gets all the applique I can do entirely on that block, it gets stitched to its neighbour.  There are pieces pinned to the block - those are the pieces that need to go over a seam.  I could stitch a couple more seams in that bottom row.  The goal is to work with as small a background area as I can.  I don't want to have to deal with the entire quilt top as I stitch down the flowers and dragon flies.  This month I'll continue to stitch down shapes.  I'd like to get the row I'm currently working on into its 3 four patches and a two patch at the end of the row.  Then I think there is one more set of 4 patches before I start assembling larger four patches.   I went out to Whirls n Swirls last week and quilted my Northern Lights quilt.  It was the Saturday Morning qu

 Last month I saw an ad for a Canon Road Trip.  They were setting up booths at different places across the country and inviting people to sign up to come play with one of their new mirrorless cameras.  There were three locations in Toronto -- Downsview Park, Evergreen Brick Works and Toronto Botanical Gardens on Sunday - Tuesday.  Monday worked the best for me which meant the Brick Works.  So I signed up to play with an R5 camera and had a fun afternoon out. I went to the Brick Works one afternoon last week to refresh my memory of the location as I've only visited there once or twice and then was able to arrive about 30 minutes before my appointment.  That let me take some pictures with my camera and lens.  Then I went and borrowed the R5 and a 24 - 105 lens and wander back around and took some of the same photos with the mirrorless.  I use an 18 - 300 lens so there were some challenges in a few places but given the mirrorless is full frame and captures just over twice as many pixe

 Well, this month is still going to be appliquing on my Moondance quilt. Last month I was going to try to get 20 done but didn't get far.  So I think this month I'll try for 10.  I have a few other things that I'm working on so hopefully this is more realistic. At the end of the month I have an appointment to go to the longarm studio and quilt something.  I haven't chosen which top I'll quilt so that's a big item on my list.  There are 10 tops on my list tagged for longarm quilting so I don't lack from choice.  I'll have to decide soon as it may need a trip to the fabric store for backing.   Linking up with Patty's One Monthly Goal

I started working on the applique but didn't get as many done as I thought I might.  Four are completely done and three are partially done.  I'm finding that I can't stitch as much of the blossoms as I thought when the quilt top is not assembled.  But I think I'll continue stitching what I can.   The stain glass quilt did go to the longarm studio with me this month and I did free motion in the pale blue areas representing the sky.  This is Sallie Biggs Pate's Stain Glass Garden quilt.  It was a block of the month in 1999/2000.  When I washed the top to remove the glue, some of the fabrics popped out of the leading and there it sat for many years.  Eventually I did a bit of zigzag over the exposed edges.  The binding went on last weekend and I was pleased to get it finished during Monday sewing.   In June I posted pictures of the new murals along the trail where I walk.  Recently I noticed a sign had been added.  The murals are the work of a local high school  - Fath

 The main goal this month is going to be stitching the blossoms on my Moondance quilt.  I don't think I'll get them all stitched down but I think I could get 20 of them done.  So that will be my goal.  I was able to stitch one full one during Monday Zoom Sewing this week and most of one during a Thursday afternoon zoom sewing session.  I'll have to get some set up for other zoom calls so I have hand work to amuse me along with the conversations. Here are the first two.  I traced the layout sheet onto tracing paper to help position leaves and petals.  I usually eye ball it but decided that I didn't want to have to redo the centres so will take a few minutes to use the tracing paper to get the rough positions. I also have an appointment to go back to the Longarm Studio and do some quilting.  Before Covid and breaking my wrist (dec 2019), I had taken my stain glass quilt to the studio and started quilting it.  All the black leading is quilted and I wanted to do some freemo