That terrible yellow quilt.

Okay, so I decided to make a modern-looking quilt.  You know, the kind with white in it.  I don't normally use white.  But this time, I thought I would make something that actually photographed well.  You see, I like to make quilts with little contrast, scrappy style.  This type of quilt, while looking gorgeous in real life, and being absolutely snuggly to live with, often doesn't photograph well.  Okay, so it might photograph well if I would work on my photography skills, or get some better equipment, or take a photo when the moon and sun are out at the same time while squirrels dance around (or some other thing that needs to happen in order to get the perfect shot), but I have trouble getting a good picture sometimes.

I decide to make a yellow a white quilt.  I love yellow and it's my son's favourite colour, always has been.  When he was 2 he was angry because he wished the whole world were yellow!  Moreover, yellow and white would make a beautiful, fresh-looking quilt that would photograph well.

Now, when you look at the photos, you will see that, indeed, it did photograph pretty well.  Again, if I would take more time to set up the shot and stage it better, it would be better.  But, hey, I'm pretty happy I actually got the quilt and the camera in the same spot to even take the pictures, so I'm happy enough.

But getting to these good photos was a long road.  Suffice it to say that I made every mistake possible while making this quilt:  I didn't measure the white strips so it turned out wonky and I didn't press the yellow strips inward (because that was more difficult and I got lazy) so the seams show a bit through the white (remember, I don't usually use white and so, I don't usually have this problem).  

This quilt was hanging on my banister rail for months, quietly telling me that even though it wasn't perfect, it deserved to be quilted.  I kept answering that I wasn't so sure.  Maybe I shouldn't bother throwing good fabric after bad by adding batting and backing and all that time and effort to quilt it if it wasn't going to be presentable anyway.

But this past Thursday, my husband and son went to the movies and left me alone for the afternoon.  (What?  Alone time?  What do I do with that?  We homeschool and my husband works from home 2 days a week so I'm never alone.)  My husband says, "You should do something fun with that time."  Yes, he is good to me.  I decided to quilt the terrible yellow quilt, as I had come to call it.

How could I have known it would turn out so well?  I guess I have to chalk it up to using white.

Oh, and if you ever need an all-over free motion quilting pattern, this one is super easy, super fast, and super pretty!  Just do a teardrop, echo it a few times, then do a wavy line around it, echo that a few times, and move on.  If you ever quilt yourself in a corner (no, I *never* do that), put another teardrop there, echo it, and make your way out around the waves to a clear spot.  Easy peasy  :)

Piles and Piles of Magazines

Those who know me well know that I have been decluttering my house for over ten years now.  When my son (now 11) was a baby, I joined Flylady (www.flylady.net) - I can honestly say that Flylady changed my life!  All those things that naturally organized people know about how to keep a house clear of stuff, I don't.  I am naturally a bit messy and I love collecting things that I know I can make into something else someday - I know I'm not alone  ;)

So, as I was cleaning a bit in my sewing room, I glanced over at my bookshelf and saw stacks of magazines - magazines that I bought and looked at and then promptly put in with the others in the stacks.  Granted, I occasionally take a few out, re-read a few articles, and I might even bookmark a quilt or two that I would like to make someday (again with that word!), but for the most part, they just sit on the shelves looking pretty (and they do look pretty!).

But, let's face it, I have been quilting for 22 years now (33 if you count the little doll quilt I made with my grandmother when I was 8), and I really don't need basic quilt-making directions anymore, and I can usually figure out the math on basic, geometric quilt patterns (I love making quilts with squares and rectangles mostly anyway).  So, I don't need piles and piles of magazines laying around.  Add Pinterst to the mix, and I don't often even look at magazines for inspiration anymore.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I will still buy magazines when they catch my eye.  And a friend recently gave me the premiere issue of Quilty and I quite like it - and it's going in the keep pile  :)  I am actually keeping many of the more recent magazines.  But that still left a pile of older magazines that I didn't want anymore.  I really didn't want to recycle them - heck, they cost close to $10 each (and no, I refuse to do the math that would tell me exactly how much I have spent on magazines in the past 20 years!).  I could freecycle them or donate them to the local seniors' centre and I know they would be enjoyed by others.

 

But they are my magazines and what I really felt like doing with them was crafting!  Free craft supplies are always a good thing.  So, off to YouTube to find what I could make with magazines.

I discovered magazine reeds!  And I'm completely, totally addicted.  You see craft magazines (there were also some scrapbooking magazines in there) have wonderful colours in them that make great reeds.  After having our flooring in the first floor done this spring, I was loathe to put back up the boring art I had on the walls before.  I needed something new.  I though, why couldn't I make something, for free, and hang it up?

  So, I started rolling the pages.  It actually took a long time.  But, oh, how fun!  My son started making some, too, and we spent a rainy Friday afternoon quite nicely in the sewing room, rolling paper.

Arrange them in a pleasing order, add some ribbon, and, voila!, free wall art!

Of course, some of the pages aren't very exciting at all, with all that print - so I collaged.  The background on this one is just columns of print from the magazines, and then I cut circles from some scrapbooking paper (yet another craft supply I have far too much of!) and collaged them on, too.  Then I took a black permanent fine-liner and doodled a bit - super fun!

Really, what more can I ask of my magazines?  I enjoyed them for what they were, then I enjoyed them again for what I could make with them, and now I can enjoy them on the wall.  Life really doesn't get much better than cut and paste, does it?   ;)

New Scrappy Baby Quilt

I made these blocks awhile ago, using squares from my scrap bins. I really had intended to make many more of them and then sew them all together without sashing. I don't usually sash or border my quilts but this time I decided that I just wanted to get the top done so I could move on to the quilting part!




I am still trying to fix my longarm, sigh. It's been a lemon from the start but last year I had two machinists that I know (two different people) take a look at my machine and they both said the same thing. They said my machine was a bad design and it was inevitable that it would become damaged in the way that it has. But, one of them managed to fix the primary problem so I could at least quilt a few things. yay!


I was, however, still getting alot of thread breakage. So, I went through all the thread guides to check for burrs, and sure enough, there was a burr on one of the final thread guides. So, I tried skipping this particular guide, and voila! I was able to quilt the rest of this quilt without any breakage! I am so happy I could throw a party!


So, this is the final quilt. It still feels like cheating when I take a few blocks and sash and border them into a larger quilt - it feels like I was lazy and just didn't feel like making more blocks (and this is true, in this case :) ). But the result is good and it will make a sweet little gift for a baby who is on her way!

And now that my longarm seems to be working for the moment, I can't wait to finish up another top and quilt it up! I think I see more sashing and borders in my future ;)

Leanne's Quilt

Our family has had a bit of a rough 2011. In the spring my Mum fought breast cancer and kicked its butt! Her latest tests showed her to be cancer free!! We are so grateful for that, that she will be with us for a long time to come - we love her so.

But, just as my Mum was finishing up her treatments, my sister was diagnosed with a pituitary tumour. I am ever thankful to live in Canada, with universal health care, or our family would be bankrupt by now for sure. My sister saw her specialist within a few months and was scheduled for her surgery within a month of that. Her surgery went well and she is now spending time at home recovering. We always joke that we are twins, only five years apart so I'm not kidding when I say I don't know what I'd do without her. I can only thank the universe for allowing her to still be with us.

When I found out Leanne would be having neurosurgery, I kind of lost it for awhile. You see, our Dad fought a brave battle against his brain tumour and finally succumbed to it in 1994. So, needless to say, our family doesn't like the "C" word, and we couldn't believe we were dealing with another brain tumour, especially. I couldn't stand the thought of my beautiful baby sister undergoing brain surgery.

And even though she already has quilts made by me, I just had to make her another one. Not because *she* needed another one, but because I needed to make her one.

I started making her one with coordinating fabrics in yellow, brown, and cream, thinking it would match her decor. Just as I was prepping the fabrics, I was talking to her on the phone and she said, "You know, I hate that all my stuff is brown!" I thought, oh no, now what? I didn't want to buy more fabric, and anyway, scrappy quilts are my favourite so I made this:


Every quilter has fabrics that they love so much, they don't want to cut into them. This quilt is full of those fabrics! I pulled out all my beloved prints and a few sort-of neutrals to balance them out and started cutting.

I've wanted to make this quilt pattern for awhile so I'm happy I finally did :) And who better to make it for than my sister!

Of course, we wish her full and speedy recovery and want her to know how much we love her!

I love you forever, Leannabelle.

My very thoughtful husband decided to take our son to the movies today and give me a little quilting time - over 4 hours of quilting time, actually! Although I completely love having Cade home for the summer and spending so much fun time with him at the beach, kite flying, and bike riding, about mid-summer I start to wish for time to myself. I am definitely a person who requires some "me time" :)

The other day, I was commisioned by a friend to make a doll quilt for a mutual friend. I knew this would be a quick and easy project so I said yes. The person asking me to do this wasn't fussy about colour but said the recipient might like pink so I went into my stash and found all this coordinating fabric in pinks and greens.

I thought it would be perfect as the quilt is for a recently refinished antique doll cradle and I felt these muted colours would suit it perfectly. And so, here are the photos of the finished quilt. I have a red patio umbrella over my table so it distorts the colours a bit, making all the fabric look a little more pink that it actually looks in real life :)









(oops! lens cap snuck into the photo!)














(closeup of the fabrics)














(closeup of the quilting)












(closeup of the backing)

New Pattern - The story behind the hats.

If you're anything like me, you like to start on winter projects in the summer. That way, they're finished by the time you actually need them.

Each fall, my quilt and craft club donates hats, scarves, slippers, and mittens to the local food bank, to be distributed to families in the Christmas hampers that are given out in December. We usually end up making about 100 items to donate, which I think is pretty good as normally there are only 3 of us who actively make things for this particular charity (we're a small crafting group of 8-10 women).

This year, I designed, and now have published, the hat patterns I used for the hats I donated to the food bank and also for the chemo unit in the hospital where my Mum underwent treatment.

In September 2010, my Mum was diagnosed with breast cancer and was in need of hats when she lost her hair. I designed these three hats for her. I also made many for donation to the chemo unit at the hospital where my Mum was receiving treatment. My Mum is now finished her treatment and is doing well - I'm so proud of her! In June 2011, after my Mum finished her treatments, my sister was diagnosed with a pituitary tumour, and is now about to begin treatment. Please join me in sending positive energy her way, in whatever form you like, to help her on her journey to health.

About the hats:

The Barbara Hat: a very thick and warm rib for our cold Canadian winters, with a tweed look; named after my dear, brave Mum, as this one was her favourite.

The Cindy Hat: a more delicate rib of medium warmth.

The Leanne Hat: the most lightweight of the three hats, with a ribbed contrast-colour band; named after my dear, sweet sister, who is now fighting her own brave battle.

I hope you enjoy making these hats for yourself, your family, a friend, or for donation!

One Last Project Linus Quilt

Since tonight is our local quilt & craft club night's annual Project Linus blanket collection, I thought I would finish up this little baby quilt that I've had the top finished for awhile. So easy and fun to make and I'm happy to say that Lucy (my longarm) cooperated for this one, for the most part :) The bird fabric is my favourite fabric in the whole quilt, and really, it was the reason I made this quilt. I've been wanting to make a pink/yellow/orange quilt for some time now and when I saw that bird fabric, I had to use it! I bought a lovely 1/4 yard bundle from Down Shadow Lane on Etsy - the service was great and the fabric fantastic so I know I will be ordering from them again.

I think I have 5 or 6 blankets to donate this time to Project Linus. I'm hoping for more this next year, now that Lucy is working again. I am also hoping to make more boy blankets this year as I'm sure most of my donations are for girls this time. I really try hard to make them even, but, my being a girl means I tend to gravitate toward flowers and stuff ;)

But, I have a wonderful boy of my own and I know firsthand how difficult it is to get nice boyish things, and I am promising myself right now that I will make some really great boyish blankets this year!