Quilting and other Things

Its been a very productive month in my quilting world.  I did get out to the long arm studio and got the first half of my quilt done.  Decided to do match stick quilting in the background and circles in the design part.  The match stick quilting is done but it was getting on and I was getting very tired so I'll take the quilt back next month to finish.  Should be faster (I hope).  The threads are all buried for the background.  I do need to clear the cutting table, trim the excess batting and mark the general outline of what I want to quilt in the middle.   I joined an Out of the Box class.  Our first month was to play with any form of log cabin blocks in our favourite colour.  These are my left over half log cabin blocks from Longtime Gone.  I replaced them with different variations.  These got sewn together, cut like a disappearing 4 patch and the middle sections switched around and re-sewn.  Some of the seams were inter...

Three Goals this month 1.  Quilt my Abstraction quilt.  I have an appointment shortly to go quilt it.  The store has re-opened after the lockdown and I'll head over to quilt it.  Looking forward to that. 2. Complete the aqua / Teal blocks for my rainbow scrappy quilt.  I've cut all the components and sewn the smallest four patches.  They are ready to be ender and leaders over the month to turn into triple four patch blocks.  I have 10 prepared.  I think that will be enough. I ended up pulling out my 3 in 1 colour tool, finding the blue/green pages and as I pulled potential fabrics from the blue and green buckets held them against the card.  A lot of the fabric did come from the buckets but some came from the shelf.  If it came from the shelf, I looked for pieces that I had already cut into so that it stays scrappy not only in colour but in using up the left over fabrics.  So far none of the buckets look that much emptier.  3. I...

After several years of watching people make Rainbow Scrap quilts, I decided to join in this year.  A friend had shown a couple of quilts she made with triple four patches which I really liked.  So I dug into the white and red scrap boxes.  There are 13 completed blocks and one smaller 4 patch square.  The 13th didn't fit on the cutting mat when I laid them out.   A lot of this actually did come from the scrap boxes.  A few of the larger red squares came from the red shelf although mostly from pieces that had already been used.  They started as an ender and leader as I was stitching my Panel One Block Wonder.  This evening, I sat down and completed the blocks.  I may cut the extra little squares to finish up the block with one corner made. Linking up with Scrap Happy's Rainbow Saturday 

Its has been a very successful month for quilting.  The Moondance top is finished :) and I'll get the binding made this weekend.  I'm starting to think about how to quilt it and which top to work on next.  I have a few smaller items on this years UFO list so will probably choose one of those. I made such good progress on this in January because I went with four friends to a quilt retreat for a week.  Our lockdown rules limit indoor gatherings to five.  It was such a wonderful time to get a way and be with friends and do something I love.  I also got a lesson on how to make a journal with reclaimed paper which was fun. Late last year I ordered 7 fat quarters from Spoonflower to make a panel One Block Wonder.  I used a digital art piece I created last year called Tempest in a Teacup.   I had used the design helper to choose which piece might work well as a One Block Wonder.   I was amazed at how fast the order came.  From the gui...

 Over the last 18 months I've been learning to create digital art using photoshop.  A lot of what I've been learning is based on Sebastian Michael's courses on My Photo Artistic Life   Its been a lot of fun.  This month, one of the lessons asked us to think about our artistic journey over the last year and how we have grown and how we have approached living a life that embrace being an artist and celebrating our creativity.  Then to create a piece of digital art about that journey.   This piece was my answer to that exercise: If you look carefully, there are three models.  The one furthest back is hiding behind the wall and peeking out.  Not sure if she wants to share her creations or not.  The one in the middle is out in the open but still a bit afraid and still hiding a bit.  The one in front is embracing her creativity and sending out creative beams, ready to share her work.   I definitely started out last year being th...

Happy New Year! Hard to believe it's January again. Last year we were in Lockdown and today we went back to a modified stage 2 lockdown. Pools :( and gyms are closed. So are libraries, museums, theatres, zoos, concerts and indoor dining at restaurants. Bible study is moving back to zoom which means some of our remote friends from last year will join us again :) It's also canceled one of my volunteer days. The other day is to make Covid test kits and that isn't canceled. The cancellations means more time for stitching and playing in photoshop.   I'm busy trying to get all the appliqué done on the pillow row of my Moondance quilt (pattern by Beth Ferrier of Applewood Farms). The body now has its four patches sewn into pairs and where an appliqué goes over the seam, it's pinned in place to continue stitching. I'm hoping to get all the appliqué done this month but think I might need a bit of next month.  If I can finish the pillow top and the other pieces ...

 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...