Dreaming of Summer

I am dreaming of summer but first we have to get some Spring here.  On May the second we had about 20 cm of heavy, wet snow.  It is all gone now since the temperature reached 10 C today with some sun.  I am trying to get in the mood by making a few quilted items.

A nice wall hanging that I hung on my door

to help bring Spring to my home.

It was a free BOM from Country Junktion. 

It is still available here.but now you have to

pay for it,

I also made a larger wall hanging for my front foyer.  It is from Fons and Porter.

It helps me think of Summer,

when we will have flowers blooming in our garden.

This is called Cabin By The Lake.

It is a panel from Henry Glass.

The pattern can be found here.

I made it smaller than the original pattern and changed a few of the fabrics since I wasn't able to get all of them that were used

 in the pattern.

Peggy.

Visiting old Friends

I am in Ingersoll being nurse, maid and cook while Lynda has her surgery and I saw a few old friends. These aren't your usual old friends. Only a few people have these kinds of old friends.

I made the beige and brown quilt in 2008; it is the size of a lap quilt. I spent last night sewing the binding onto the red and blue rooster quilt while I relaxed in front of the television.

Peggy

The Placemat Fiasco

We are in the middle of a severe snow storm which is not natural for April in the area of the country that I live in.  We were unable to open either of the doors in our home because there was so much snow.  We have had at least 25 cm, if not more with winds gusting to 50 km per hour which also left huge drifts in the driveway This was our third major snowstorm in April this year.

You can see how deep the snow is and that it was one third up over the bottom of the side door.

This meant that we had a quiet day at home so I spent it in my sewing room sewing up a storm.

The placemat fiasco all began at Christmas when for some reason I counted incorrectly how many people I was having for Christmas dinner.  I had decided not to use Christmas designs or fabric this year so I set about to make placemats and a table runner for my dinner table.  I thought I was having 10 people for dinner and made 10 placemats but because I can't seem to count I was one short.  There were 11 at the table.  Right then and there I decided to make 2 more placemats so that I would have an even dozen and hopefully that would be enough placemats. 

I now have a dozen of these.  This pattern is called Fine Dining.

I also made another purse using a pattern that I used before from my new magazine.  This pattern is called Sweet Pleat.

I made this with upholstery fabric.  The strips in the middle are assorted pieces of upholstery fabric sewn together to make the pleat.

Peggy.

Donations

Meals on Wheels needs more placemats so I decided to use up some of my stash.  I took a 12 1/2 inch lantern block and added 3 inch strips to the sides and and an inch strip to the top and bottom.  I was lucky to have some oriental fabric for these.  This makes a great placemat.  I think just about any 12 1/2 inch block could be used.

I hope they give these to a husband and wife.

I finished my quilts from the quilt bee.  I did just a light quilting on them using a serpentine stitch.

A Baby Quilt

A Wheelchair Quilt.

Peggy.

This is a test

I am writing this post to see if I can blog from my iPad. I will try to post a picture. I hope this works.

 

 

Well it worked, posting from my iPad, but the picture was very big so I made it smaller.  I took the picture with my iPad.  It is just a test to see if I can do it while I am away on a trip or visiting family.

 

Peggy. 

Placemat Work In Progress

Meals on Wheels needs placemats so I thought I would use up some of my stash and cut up a few kits so that I can work on them in between other things.

I made myself 4 placemats out of this fabric.

It is so pretty and looks like spring.

Some placemats for fall.

This fabric is really different, 

blue and green together.

I will post pictures when they are finished and ready for delivery.

Peggy

Purse Number Three

Spring is in the air, well at least it was a week or so ago, and I seem to be making purses these days.  I had finished this one a week or so ago but I put the zipper in backwards.  I carry my purse on my left shoulder so I like the zipper to open at the front when I have it on my shoulder.  I used the purse once and just couldn't make it work for me so I ripped the zipper out and finally put it back in tonight.  

I designed this purse myself using some of the bags that I had made in the past for inspiration, adding a little bit here and a little bit there.  It has lots of pockets and since I got a new iPhone I made one of the pockets at the front of the bag the right size to drop it into.

You can see there is still a little bit of snow on the ground.

It is starting to melt and when it does I won't miss it.

The fabric is from Henry Glass called Bee Happy.

I thought it was great for a new summer bag.

Peggy

In Duluth

We took a short trip to Duluth MN for a bit of R & R.  YKW and I are just relaxing before going out for dinner.  I bought a few pieces of fabric but didn't break the bank this time.  Heading home tomorrow. 
Peggy

Two New Bags

It is over a year ago now that my youngest sister was married in Lake Tahoe and I purchased the pattern and fabric for the latest bag I made.  It is called Carmel from A Quilter's Dream.  It is made from 6 fat quarters with very little left over.  I added more pockets then the pattern called for; that is the usual thing I do.  I always need lots of pockets.

Carmel from A Quilter's Dream

I also made another bag from a pattern that I found in a new book called Bags, Pillows and Pincushions Volume Two.  It is called Sweet Pleat and can also be found here.

Sweet Pleat

The fabric is "Bee Happy" from Henry Glass.

Peggy

Two More Finishes

I have been trying to get my last year's Block of the Months sewn together and quilted and have succeeded in getting one more finished.

This is from Cranton Village Quilt Works.

The camera doesn't do the colours justice because the   quilt is brighter than this picture.

It finished at 60 x 60 inches, a little bigger than I like to quilt but I am quite happy with it.

Jackie Kunkle from Cranton Village had different quilters design each block.

This BOM is still available on the website if you are interested in making it.

Click on the button on the right hand side that says

"Blogger Block of the Month" 

I also finished a table runner for my daughter and forgot to give it to her last week when the whole family was over for a visit.

This pattern is called "Cotton Reels" and is a 

Pieced Tree pattern.

We picked up the pattern and kit at a small quilt shop

in Beaver Bay Minnesota.

They always have great kits put together and it makes quilting so much fun

because you don't have to pick out the fabric

it is all done for you.

Peggy

Quilt Bee

Our local Quilt Bee was a great success.  It was on a smaller scale then last year but we still had a great turn out and lots of quilts were put together.  The committee had made quilt kits so it was easy to pick one up and then sit and sew it together.

I tried to show the group without faces.

Two of the finished quilts.

Work in progress.

Just a few of the quilts that were put together that day.

We are going to have some beautiful quilts to donate when everything is finished.

Peggy.

THE WEARIN' OF THE GREEN

I have been busy, busy lately and as the song goes I sometimes think "busy doin' nothing working the whole day through".  Some days just seem to slip by without me knowing where they went.  St. Patrick's day is coming soon and I wanted to finish my Irish Quilt Block of the Month and a new table runner.  

McCall's Irish Quilt BOM.

I can't really call it by that name because I didn't do all of the blocks that were posted by that website.  Some I didn't like and they also took too long to publish the next block.  I always thought that a BOM was one block every month but it wasn't that way with this BOM, so I added some of my own blocks to it.

There are 3 blocks that are my own additions.  Flying over the Emerald Isle is the middle block on the top row, and the first block in the third row is an Irish Chain block.  Then I also added the first block on the bottom row.

I wanted a simple table runner so I used a 12" Irish Chain block but when they were put together they formed a different pattern.  Isn't that always the way.  Better luck next time if I every try it again.

This wall hanging is taken from the Irish BOM.  A friend thought it might look neat as a whole quilt and I just had to try it.  I thought it made a great wall hanging for March.  I used 9 blocks and it came out at 36 x 36.  

Peggy

Red and Blue Roosters

I started this quilt after Christmas but I never do one project at a time so I finally got it finished.  There were a few challenges with it.

Some of the blocks gave me a bit of trouble because there were 25 of them and I think that that is the most blocks that I have put into a quilt and I didn't pay enough attention to each one.  I fixed them and all are okay.

I ran out of red border fabric but got that figured out with the help of some guild members.  It was a fun quilt to make because Lynda always gives me carte blanche when I am making something for her.  I made the quilt top and will mail it to her so that she can get it quilted where she lives.  It will be cheaper to mail it then a quilted quilt.  It is 60 x 80 inches.  I also bought the backing fabric. I was able to get extra wide fabric to make it easier, instead of having to sew the backing together to fit the quilt.

Lynda likes roosters, that is why there are 10 roosters in the quilt.  She purchased the fabric in England when we were there in 2011.  The small flowers were also part of the rooster fabric and I fussy cut 200 of them  to fit into the pattern.

You can see the snow on the deck. 

Thanks to YKW for shovelling off the

foot of snow so that I could 

hang the quilt to take the picture.

I also made a label for the quilt.

I called this quilt Red and Blue Roosters.

I am going to use Heat and Bond to stick the label to

the quilt and then it will be quilted into 

the quilt by the Longarm Quilter.

Peggy

The Lost Has Been Found

I can't say how happy I am that my lost quilt top has been found.  Words just cannot describe the feeling I have now that I know that it is quilted and ready to go to someone. The guild member that took it home brought it back to guild on Monday night all quilted and even put the binding on it.  I didn't see it but other members did.  I called the chairman of the Donation Quilt Committee and she described it to me and it is my lost quilt.  It warms my heart to know that someone will be using it to keep warm on a cool night when they are in the hospital or one of the Homes for the Aged here in town.

Flying Geese Quilt.

Peggy

I Guess I Just Need a Little More Experience

I went to Quilt Guild tonight and told my problem of running out of fabric to a few of my friends and I couldn't believe what happened.  Linda G came up with the brilliant idea of trimming the side borders so that I will have enough length for the top and bottom borders.  

Why didn't I think of that. 

 I guess it is because she has been quilting for many more years than me and is even in the Hall of Fame.  I guess I just need a little more experience.

Tomorrow I am trimming the side borders down a half and inch. 

Peggy.

OH NO.........I ran out of fabric !!!

I have one more border to put on this quilt and I have run out of fabric.  The quilt is my own design and I did all the calculations using my app on my Ipad from Robert Kaufman fabrics called "The Quilter's Little Helper".    It told me that I needed 7 strips for the third border and I am an inch short.  I guess my sewing is a bit off somewhere.  So I am off to find more fabric tomorrow.  I also wanted to do the binding in red so I hope there is at least 1 metre in the store.

If I can't find the fabric I think I will put a new seam

on to the sides of the quilt to shorten 

the width and hopefully

that will make up for the 1 inch that I am 

short on the top and the bottom.

Peggy

Placemat Therapy

It turned out that last Tuesday, Joyce and I were both making placemats.  It was good to get out and get together for some quilting.  There have been a few things going on in my life lately but since this is not about my personal life, suffice to say the day was great therapy.

Joyce bought this beautiful fabric a while ago just because she liked it.  

I think we all do that at some point.

She had to find something to go with it, and there is 

hint of purple in the main fabric and it turned out

to be a good choice.

She is making 8 of these.

I don't think the picture does the fabric justice though.

I found the deer fabric tucked away in a drawer and thought it was time to do something

with it.  I think I bought this about 3 years ago.

 I was going to cut off the rocking horse but then the deer picture would

be too small, so I decided to leave it on and just add some green holly fabric that I also

had on hand.

I was able to make 4 of these.

This Santa fabric was left over from last year.  I didn't have any blue that would go with

it so I decided to use red since that is for Christmas anyway.

I had enough fabric to make 6 of these 

Santa placemats.

These may go to the Guild booth 

at the quilt show 

in April.  

I haven't quite decided yet.

Peggy.

It isn't a Quilt Unless........

I figure it isn't a quilt unless you have at least one wonky block that has to be fixed.  I don't know how this one slipped through but then I made 25 blocks all the same so I just assumed that all was fine.

Not only are some of the flower blocks scant and almost missing but when the two blocks are together I have 2 blue flowers and 2 red flowers side by side.  That hasn't happened anywhere else in the quilt.

Something went wrong somewhere.

I was hoping that I just had to take out the few flowers, fussy cut 4 more and then sew them back in.  I know now why my blog has it's title.

I thought this was going to be an easy thing to fix.  It took me close to an hour to get them back in so that the block looks good and the blue and red flowers are in the right places.  Some days things just don't go as planned.

All fixed and ready to be sewn into the quilt top.

Peggy.

Apple Avenue Quilts Block of the Month

I finished my Apple Avenue Quilts Block of the Month and it is ready to be posted.  I should have taken better care of how I made the blocks each month and what fabrics and colours I used because when it was finished I didn't like the way it looked when I arranged it by the months.  Each block represents a month of the year so I scattered the blocks and liked the layout better.

 On the upper left corner is January depicted by a snowflake and February is the heart block but I think they look better separated with the green shamrocks for March in the middle.

April starts the next row then June in the middle and then pink tulips for May. 

On the lower right is the July block and it should be an American flag, but since I am a Canadian I put a red maple leaf on a white background waving in a blue sky as the star points and background.

It measures 52 x 66.  One down and 8 to go.

Peggy

Wild in the Wilderness Part 2

Almost a year ago now I purchased 2 panels of 
Wild in the Wilderness. I made the first one into a wall hanging for my son's birthday and yesterday I finished the second one making it into a quilt for YKW. Both the border prints are animal footprints that are very appropriate for this quilt. When I quilted it I did some thread painting and also tried to make the mountain come to life a little.

Wild in the Wilderness

You can just make out YKW's slippers on the bottom of the photo.  There is a lot of snow on our deck right now so I am unable to go outside to hang the quilt for picture taking.  We had no snow until a few weeks ago and then we got slammed.

Maria finished her Max & Whiskers quilt for her grandson for Christmas.  She added a piano key border to the top and bottom to make it bigger and put cornerstones with the families initials.  Ryan has to try to make words from all the letters and is rewarded when he finds new words.  She used Max & Whiskers flannelette for the backing.

Max & Whiskers

Peggy.