FINISHED!

I FINALLY finished my Disappearing 9-Patch variation quilt! Just before my mother passed away, she blessed each of us with a cheque - we were to use it for something that would remind us of her. My first thought was of mom's giving - she graciously and generously gave of her time and talents. I have a few quilts that will be going to new homes sometime soon, but I needed to quilt them before I could give them away. I'm having more and more trouble trying to quilt anything larger than a table runner on my Janome, so I checked out "the competition" - and I found a great offer from Pfaff. Pfaff is celebrating their 150th anniversary this year, and have brought out 2 special models. I bought the Expression 150, and initiated it on this quilt. I had seen pictures of a spiky quilt pattern that alternates from "up and down" to "side to side" as you progress from one block to the next, and I used it for my first quilting project. I'm pretty happy with the results! (I even made and applied a quilt label!) The quilt was completed in time to present to the new owners of the quilt - the family that our son is living with. They have been over-the-top with their generosity - giving our son a place to live while he did his internship; he's still living with them 7 months later! Also, they sent all sorts of edible goodies after mom's death - and Rachel knows how to prepare food! Our son had been asked to preach in his "home" church today; he invited us to share the experience with him, so we did! It also gave us the perfect opportunity to hand over the quilt to the Guthrie family! Have a quick peek at the completed project:(a general pic of the quilt, and then a closer look at the quilting)

Another start!

Yes, I do have finishes too - it's just that there seem to be so many more starts.... and I sometimes forget to post the completed quilt. I'll try to change that. A while back, as I was reading the blog of another quilter*, I realized that some of the things she was chatting about sounded VERY familiar. I contacted her, and sure enough - Cathy lives in the city nearest me, and we have a LOT in common! Trying to make a long story short, we agreed to meet one day; we did, and hit it off almost immediately. Four hours passed VERY quickly; at the end of the afternoon, Cathy proposed we get together for a sewing day - so, this past Tuesday, I ventured into the city, and spent a very enjoyable few hours sewing with her! I thought that it would probably be easier to take a new quilting project with me; so, I gathered up my my new Schnibbles pattern; the 2 Vintage Modern layer cakes called for in the pattern; I cut them, and my B/G fabric as directed, and headed off. I managed to get most of the 9-patch blocks put together, pressed, and ready to add the triangles. Needless to say, Cathy and I spent a fair bit of time chatting too, but we each managed to achieve a fair bit of our projects.

Yesterday, I started adding the top and bottom triangles, and am now working on adding the side triangles. A bit of a trim will be needed, and then the fun of laying these big blocks out will begin!

Check back here soon - I just might have some surprises to show you! *I'd include the link to Cathy's blog, but I still can't figure out how to do it. Where are my kids when I need them? LOL

...and it's finished!

I was hoping to get the quilt top done today, and I managed to accomplish that goal! Thanks to my hubby, who cooked dinner for us so that I could stay at the machine... I'm not sure where I'm going to go with it from here - I have a lot of the cream blocks yet, so I may cut them in half and sew them together to make a frame around the quilt. If there are enough of them, I may just leave them whole. Of course, I'll have to find them back first! At any rate, I'm sure you're anxiously awaiting the pic, and here it is:

How can it be July 14th already??

Boy, time flies when you're having fun, doesn't it?! It even seems to fly when you aren't having fun - ask me how I know... Yesterday was Friday Night Sew-In night - and I was ready for it! I haven't had a chance to do any sewing this week, and I had a quilt project that I was excited about working on. I found a tutorial online for a disappearing 9-patch variation: http://mypatchwork.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/disappearing-9-patch-variation-block-with-charm-squares/ and I had 3 charm packs of Reunion by Sweetwater to use for the blocks, along with a cream-coloured Kona fabric. I got a fair bit accomplished; the blocks are all assembled and pressed, and I laid them out on the floor to figure out the placement. The problem that you run into when doing scrappy blocks is the final layout - you "can't" have two similar blocks beside each other, and, when there is a definite "up" and "down" to some of the blocks, you can't just turn them 180°...

I thought I finally had the blocks ready to sew - I picked up 2 at a time, sewed them together, picked up the next two - you get the picture. I had 4 of the 5 rows assembled - and then I found 2 blocks sewn together that should NOT be beside each other. How did I not see that when I laid them out? The fact that it was after midnight might have something to do with it... So, that was the end of that! I don't know if I have to re-do just that row, or if a bigger tear-out is the answer - but I have all afternoon to sort that out. Hope everyone else that signed up for the sew-in had a better evening than mine ended up being!

My Father's Day card for dad...just a bit belatedly!

For those of you who don't know my dad, he made a living for himself and his family as a carpenter. He's also an avid gardener, and he loves trees - both as part of God's creation, and also as a source for the lumber for the many houses he's built and renovated over the last 30 or more years. He takes great delight in being able to share where each tree on his property came from - and there have been a few unusual ones. Father's Day 2012 - a little bittersweet - the first day to "celebrate" dad after mom's death. It was tough, and he shed more than a few tears... Now to the card - I had JUST bought Tim Holtz' woodgrain embossing folder, and I knew it would be perfect for this card. I ran a Close to Cocoa panel through the Cuttlebug with the emb. folder. I love the look it gives! Dad's eyesight is failing somewhat too, so having the raised pattern was an added bonus. I also picked up a simple tree stamp at Michael's a while back, and I stamped it onto a piece of patterned brown DP, and the leafy "canopy" onto a few pieces of green DP. I paper-pieced the green DP onto the trees I'd also cut, and popped the "leaves" up with pop-dots. I also used the pop-dots to lift the trees up off the surface of the card, partly to help dad distinguish the different browns - maybe next year I'll choose a different colour combinations ;-). I stamped the sentiment on green C/S. The card was a big hit! Here's the finished card:

Not the most productive evening!

I had such grand plans for last night's Friday Night Sew-In - start sewing early, and sew late. That should have given me at least 6 or 7 hours to sew, right? There's a saying about the "best laid plans of mice and men...", and that sure seemed to be the case last night! First up, I wanted to make a few coasters for a dear friend's special birthday. Her kitchen has an apple theme, and she loves chocolate; I couldn't choose which to go with, so I planned to make 2 sets. Oh, did I tell you that I broke the guide off my 1/4" foot the last time I did some sewing? Yeah... So, last week I finally got into the city so I could buy a replacement. Got it in place and ready to sew - and immediately broke a needle. Replaced the needle, checked my settings - oh look, I had the needle in the wrong position (no wonder the needle broke); change that, try again, break another needle... This isn't the kind of fun I was hoping to have. Turns out that the new foot isn't exactly like the old one, and the needle will ALWAYS hit the foot... so, a trip into the city again is in order. SO... put the old foot back on, and hope I can get a true 1/4" seam without the guide. The coasters turned out well, and I don't think that the quilt police will be around to check out my seams! Turns out that my next job didn't need that foot - I finally got some of the centers done for my Scrappy (Dresden) Plate Club quilt that I started back in January - and then I had to check out how well they looked, so I assembled some of the plates as well - and then I realized that it was WELL after midnight, and time to head to bed. I got a pic of my efforts - the coaster sets are at the top left, completed plates are on the right side, and a few of the centers ready to attach to the plates are bottom left. At this rate, I just might have this quilt finished by next summer! Thanks for checking in on me!

It's been a while...

I haven't been here in a while - unfortunately, I don't have much new to share either, apart from a few cards. My mother passed away 2 1/2 weeks ago after a 10 month battle with cancer, and we needed a LOT of thank-you cards for the people that took part in her memorial service or made charitable donations in her name, and especially for all the different nurses, personal support workers and therapists that enabled her to stay at home until the end. We were SO blessed to be able to provide most of her care, with the support of various organizations. My 3 sisters and I took care of sending out the Thank-you cards - and I'm so glad that I had a tiny card stash! I made both of these cards at workshops - and I usually debate whether or not to put a sentiment on it, or leave it bare until I know what I need the card for. That wasn't an option with the green and yellow card - I didn't have any of the necesary items to create the sentiment section at home. We used a few punches for the flower elements and Smooch for the gold for the letters. The butterfly card just seemed like a thank-you card when I made it - so that's what the sentiment said. We "inked up" the stamp with Versamark and then dabbed the blue and pink inks over top, before stamping it onto the cardstock - then it got a sprinkling of embossing powder, a shot of heat applied, and voila! a bright and sort-of sparkly butterfly. An embossing folder gave some dimension to the center panel, and a border punch added interest as well. I'm hoping to make a dent in my overflowing to-do quilt projects tomorrow night - it's FNSI again!