Quilting and other Things

 Well, that was very successful. First up was adding the borders to the Christmas ABC quilt.  The top was finished in late 2019 or early 2020.  I remembering looking for a border print as I drove to the guild retreat in February of 2020 but didn't see anything I liked.  Then the shutdown happened.  I finally took the quilt top to a store in this past summer and found a striped print I liked.  So now, I have the borders on, the binding made and the label started.  It needs a backing and can join the line to go out to be quilted.  Since it is a stripe, I did do a bias binding.  I like the roll the bias gives a stripe binding. My sister asked for a Barbados Bag for Christmas but she wanted it a wider than the one I made for myself.  I had originally planned to make a new one for me at the same time but then decided I'd be better focusing on one bag at a time.  Just as well.  When she came over one weekend, I had her pull some fabr...

 Once again Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl is a hosting a  Planning Party  for the coming year.  So its time to look at what happened this year and what I'd like to accomplish next year.  Use the link above to join the party or see what others are planning. Review of 2021: Quilting : 1.  Clean and organize quilt room. This started off well then stopped.  I think its safe to say it may have regressed.  Still planning on getting this done though. 2.  I'm going to continue with the Motivation Monday ideas.  I'm still working on the list I created for 2017.  The goal at the time was to move things forward.  I think that will still be the goal for some things as they are quite large.  The list still includes Canada BOM from Guild 2015/16 - finish blocks and assemble rows.  - Completed (quilted and bound too) ABC Applique - choose border fabric (after shops reopen) and complete top. - done  Top done, binding made and ...

 The main goal this month is to continue the applique on the moondance quilt.   I've finished the three blocks since I took this photo.  The blocks are sewn in pairs and I've started stitching pieces over the seam.  I'd like to get all of the applique done this month but I don't think that's realistic so I'll aim to get the pairs and four patches stitched and the applique done over those seams.  There is still the pillow row to add at the top and it has another 19 things to be appliqued so I think it will take two months to get this to a finished top - unless I do more hand stitching than usual over Christmas. This is my Christmas ABC quilt.  The top has been waiting for borders since just before the pandemic.  I was able to find a border material I like for this earlier this summer so I'd also like to get the border on this one and make the binding.   Linking up with Patty's One Monthly Goal   Come see what others are working on....

 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. ...

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 quil...

 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 ca...

 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 m...

 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 an...

 How can it already be the end of August!  It must be.  We celebrated my sister's birthday recently and I'm seeing back to school posts from my US cousins.   The binding did get added to my Longtime Gone quilt so its now ready to go on the bed as soon as we have some cooler weather.   I'm so pleased with how this turned out.  The binding is also a variety of blues from the quilt.  I tried to use mostly the mediums and darks but had to add the odd lighter one to get enough length. I also got all the flower petals and leaves traced for my Moondance Quilt.  There are 43 flowers to be appliqued on the quilt.  The centre of each flower has a little star shape with a small circle in the centre.  So I spent a few zoom calls appliquing all the centres into the traced star shapes. During Monday's Sewing session, I got the first of the 43 flower units appliqued to a background square.  The first leaves are pinned in place for the se...

 I forgot to come back and post about July.  I did get the courthouse steps top quilted and bound.  Its quilted using a pantograph called Kiss.  I've used it several times in the past and really like it.  I thought familiar motions would be useful the first time using the long arm since October 2019.  I had planned to donate the quilt and still need to follow up to see if they still want it.  I did most of the hand stitching on the binding while on zoom calls.  It was nice to have the computer table support the quilt instead of my lap since the days I worked on it were warm ones. Yesterday I took my Longtime Gone quilt to the longarm studio and quilted it.  I had thought about using Kiss again (I really do like that pantogram) but then Tracey showed me another called Paisley Park which has a similar feel but is a bit denser and would be good with all the small pieces in Longtime Gone.  I'm so happy she showed me that one.  We looked...

 I have an appointment to go quilt a top this week.  I'm going to take the court house steps top I finished last year at the guild retreat a month before the first lockdown.  I plan an all over design.  I'm looking forward to finishing this top.  When I first finished the top, the plan was to donate it.  I'll have to re-contact the group to see if they will still accept it.  I'm not sure how rules have changed this year.  I'm looking forward to getting this one quilted. I've been working on prepping the applique pieces for my Moondance quilt.  The wings and bodies for the dragonflies are all prepped.  Now I need to prep the flower bundles.  Ideally I'll get all of the flower bundles prepped but getting half done would be good. The applique goes into the blank squares and overlaps some seams so it will be easier to applique if I add what I can prior to stitching.  I think I have a plan for the applique and assembly but need to ...