Happy Valentine's Day!

Dont you love it when something happens with the perfect timing, without planing. I finished this little table topper yesterday and put it on the kitchen table. (I know, it looks like it is bed size). Thought it looked great, like it was saying that spring is on its way even if it was in the minus high teens yesterday.

I got up this morning and realized it was Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's to me! Perfect timing.!

The quilt design is called "Lolly Pop Chain". So fun to do. You can find it on Leah's site. When her page comes up click on 'find a design' or type name of design in search box. She has over 365 designs! Also she shares almost everything you could ever want to know about FMQ.

I had a bit of a challenge finding something to use for the binding. I have this habit of planning tops but not backing and binding. So as I chip away at my pile of WIP there is a mad scramble to find something suitable. I had used most of the extra fabric that matches the top for the backing. I used three different pieces. Something I dont often do but liked how it turned out. It is a good way to use some of your stash. I did find one small piece, though, in the back of my fabric cupboard. It was a match and there was just enough.  

Hope everyone's Valentine's Day is full of chocolate, love and then chocolate!

Keep an eye open for today's blessings!

D

Fun and easy.......

........and beautiful. I have blogged about this quilt before. It was not complete then but it is now finished. It is  hard to see but I used left over fabric for the binding.

It  is a great quilt for the beginner or for someone who has been quilting for awhile, and has lots of scraps. A young women I know has just started one. She has done lots of sewing but this is her first quilt! So exciting. I think she is hooked.

Also wanted to share a couple of pictures of a quilt that I quilted, but my daughter Janine pieced the top. This was one of her first attempts at quilting when she was in her teens. (She is now in her twenties and is into anything to do with fiber). She wanted to quilt it herself  but wanted it for her apartment so we decided I would quilt it so she could enjoy it. I wish the colours turned out better, but you get the idea.

Some of the quilting; I used an over all "plume" design. Not really feathers, but bits of feathers.

And last but not least, I cant resist showing pictures of one of the things I have on the go right now. It is of course scrappy, but selectively so. By that I mean I am using similar colours but using different fabrics to represent those colours, if that makes sense. You can get the pattern here. She has made it a print able one!

Thanks for sitting with me awhile. Hope there is a little time in your life for a "scrap" of creativity.

Keep an eye out for today's blessings.

D

I am back!

Have a new computer so the whole blogging thing, no I guess it was getting my pictures on this computer that seemed daunting. Anyways that is done. I have even figured out how to order prints online!

This is a quilt that I did for my nephew. He gave it as a gift to his sweet heart.
Here, I have it laying on my deck ready to spray baste.

Here it is with the binding:

And a couple of close ups of the quilting:
Front

and back

I loved this pattern. It was pieced like a log cabin, but it is the block orientation that makes it unique. It was also the first time I put a block "on point". I would love to make another one at some point. The colour possibilities are endless and it would work with scraps nicely too.


Until next time!

Watch out for todays blessings.

D

Has it really been

...........3 months since my last post?! So much happens in three months, I am just going to jump in.

Want to share some pics of the crocheted mats that I have made. They are made from crocheting three strands of 100% wool together. I used a light medium and dark strand but the possibilities are endless. I chained approx. 52 stitches. I used three skeins of each colour which makes a mat 2 feet by 3 feet. The mats are thick and chunky. The picture below shows four different colour ways. .

Here is a close up of the crochet stitch I used. A half double crochet stitch.

The blue one I used mainly scraps. The other two were done with the same three colours, through out, like the one pictured below.

I got the wool from  a little shop not far from where I live. Lismore Sheep Farm www.lismoresheepfarmwoolshop.com They have many different colours and they will mail to anywhere. All the info is on their site.

Good to be blogging again.

Watch out for todays blessings.

D

Practice.......

 Makes perfect. Well maybe not perfect, but in the  FMQ case it does improve your skill.

This quilt top has been completed for awhile. Probably three years or so. I am sad to say it has been pinned across a closet opening. It is hand appliqued. I wanted it to look like picures on a wall, which I think it does.

A couple of close ups.

So....... I have be practicing FMQ designs to put in the background of the appliques. Trying mostly Leah Day's designs. Here are a few practice squares to see what might work. I havent really decided. Probably figure it out as I go along.

I am anxious to start so there wont be much more practicing, I dont think. So fun to have something different to tackle.

Watch out for todays bleessings!

D

Yikes......

I am always amazed at how long it has been since my last post. Time does really fly by.  How much I blog is not an indication of how much I think about quilting. I have read the new Sampler mag from cover to cover. It so much fun to get a look at quilt shops and see some of what is going on out there. Also I have recently bought fabric for a quilt I am making as a request from someone. I have favorite blogs that I visit often. Maybe because blogging is fairly new to me I have the "finished project as worthy blog stuff" stuck in my head even though my favorite blogs have a bit of "life" thrown in. I know that when I began blogging it was away to journal about what I am working on. I believe that the process is just as important as the finished project. That is the way life is. Process.

On that note, I am posting pics of a strip quilt I am working on. How I have loved this process. It is such a fun quilt to do. I had some fat quarters picked out in the begining and on the advice of a friend I started adding fabrics of diiferent colours from my stash, bought a few more that I thought would make it zing.



I have to say that these are not the colours I usually choose. But so much fun! I have three more rows left to sew on. Have all of the blocks made, 80 in total. Dont think I will add borders, just put on a binding made from left overs. How to quilt it mmmmm........dont know yet. Thinking, dreaming, imagining, all part of the process.

Watch out for todays blessings!!!!

D

Look who's coming to dinner.......ah I mean breakfast.

Chester my brother's family cat! We thought he had disappeared. My brother and fam are traveling and after they left, the cat was not seen around their house. It has been 2 months! I opened the door this morning and there he was. So amazing. When I opened the door in he came. He is a bit thinner but looks in good shape. All I had to give him was a bit of left over steak, which he gobbled up I might add.

Makes me wonder where he was all this time. He never was a very affectionate cat to other than his family but boy he is cuddly now. Currently (as I type) he is curled up asleep on the mat he is sitting on in the picture.

Oh yes, want to post a picture of the little quilty that I fiished this week. It is 20" by 20". Small quilts are fun to do. I got to practise a bit of free motion which is my favorite thing. I love how the none quilted sections (green and small  lighter purple batik squares and triangles) kind of puffed out around the quilted sections. It gave a bit of dimension to the quilt. I usually try and quilt something in all of the sections but this works too.



Cats and quilting, a good combo for a blog dont you think?

Watch out for todays blessings!

D