Thursday, December 23, 2010

A Friday Finish!

Ok, so it's not Friday just yet, and it's only a top....but still, it's a finish!!! Actually, I guess this will be my last finish of 2010 :(

It won't go down in history as my favourite quilt top, but I sure like it better than I did a couple of weeks ago. Each piece of the Sugar Pop line by Moda is in the top.

Its 45" X 77", which I find a little long, so I may trim the length back - we'll see.

I don't think I'll add a border.

One blogger described her quilt as "Fungly", which I think is a combo of Fun and Ugly. That might be a good name for this one!

Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

On Point #2

A friend encouraged me to continue on with this quilt. I am liking it better now that it is sewn together. This is part 1 of 3 that needs to make this quilt. More to come!



















Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

White Christmas

Do you have a favourite quilt designer? Apparently, I do!


I was looking for Australian Patchwork and Quilting Magazine at my local bookstore. They didn't have it, but they did have Austalian Quilter's Companion, a magazine I was not familiar with. I picked it up, thumbed through it and came across the picture below. It was love at first sight! After I gazed at it for a good long time, I searched the page for the designer's name. Well, wouldn't you know it, the designer is Kellie Wilsohn, the designer of the Meg's Garden quilt I replicated and the author of the Don't Look Now blog! Kellie is also the designer of the Joseph's Coat quilt that I am (trying) to make. I guess I am just drawn to Kellie's patterns! I just might have to drop everything and begin working on this beauty (titled White Christmas) immediately! I already have some plans to Melanie-ize it! It won't be ready for this Christmas, but that's ok!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Pretty or Hideous?


Sugar Pop fabrics... Hope that it will start looking nicer as the pieces are sewn together. That has happened to me before. Fingers crossed.


Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Wow! It Actually Worked!!!

A friend of mine recently commented that I don't seem to be as "enamoured" with the Joseph's Coat quilt as I was with the Meg's Garden quilt. It's true. When I was working on the Meg's Garden quilt, it was all I could think, speak and dream about it.

By contrast, I've been feeling rather "meh" about the Joseph's Coat quilt. My friend's comment made me think about why. I think there are two real reasons.

First, I am not crazy about the fabric. I was always intending to use the black background, but I was originally going to use batiks for the pedals. At the last minute changed my mind to these "Quilter's Candy" fabrics. These fabrics are fine, but I think my heart is with the batiks.

The second and strongest cause of my ambivalence occurred when I realized that getting all these points to match up was going to be tough! I am a pretty precise quilter, but I have given up prefectionism in my quilting (thank gawd!). Having said that, the prospect of doing all this work only to find out that the points do not and will not match up...well, the very thought was enough to dampen my enthusiasm.

I am thrilled to report that my concerns were unfounded! I pushed through my ambivalence and hesitation and finished the first 14 "blocks". This meant that I could begin sewing together rows 1 & 2 and could see how well they were going to fit together. And it worked!!!! SO FAR, ALL THE POINTS MATCH UP! YEAH! The picture below shows the first 3 "blocks" of row 1 and the first 2 "blocks" of row 2.




















Here you see where 2 of the "blocks" come together. Or can you???
















I am machine appliquing the pedals on using an invisible thread. I love the results.

Now onto the other 35 blocks!


Happy Quilting!

Melanie





Monday, November 8, 2010

It's a Good Thing...

... that I like mundane, repetative tasks!

Here I am about half way through finished making the leaves. Seriously, I enjoyed doing it!


















I have been going through glue like crazy! First, I started out with Fabric Glue Stitch (the middle one), but I ran through it too quick. Then, I switched to the Fons & Potter (the long skinny one). Highly recommend the Fons & Potter! But I ran through that one too quickly as well. So, I switched to Liquid Stitch. Seems to be working well.

















Here are some block showing how the quilt will look. Definitely outside of my comfort-zone colour-wise. But, I am interested to see how it comes together!





Friday, October 29, 2010

Blogger’s Quilt Festival – Fall 2010


Amy at Amy's Creative Side is hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival again.



I was himming and hawing about whether my Meg's Garden quilt was good enough to enter. However, the the give-a-ways offered by the sponsors are just too good to pass up, so I am entering it! I will let you be the judge of how it stands up in comparison to the other quilts on display.


The story behind the quilt? Well, I have been quilting for about 10 years now. My favourite quilts were always the applique quilts, but I suffered from the "I could never do that" affliction. One day, I saw the Meg's Garden Pattern designed by Kellie at Don't Look Now. Well, I was bound and determined to try it!


I modified the size of the quilt to make it larger as I intend to use the quilt regularly.


I machine appliqued the flowers, butterflies, and ladybugs on and then machine quilted the final product.


We were asked what we love about the quilt that we are submitting to the Blog Festival. I do not want to sound boastful, but there is so so much I love about this quilt:


1) I love that I conquered my mental block around applique. I will not be afraid to try another applique quilt in the future!


2) I love the colours of this quilt! They were completely outside of my comfort zone when I started the quilt, but now I love bright colours!


3) I love the size of the quilt. I made it big, so it is long enough for me to wrap my feet into AND pull up around my shoulders at the same time


4) I love the flannel on the back of the quilt. I have decided that all future quilts will have flannel backs. The colour of the back is great, too! A confetti-like polka dot in pinks, purples and light greens! I had some material from the front left over so I appliqued my initial onto the back. I might do that on all my quilts from now on as a signature item.


5) I'm not the world's greatest machine quilter, but when this was done and I stepped back, I was struck by how even the quilting appeared. Like a gift from the quilting gods!


6) Finally, I love the binding. I had originally put a hot pink on and was shocked to see that it washed out the colours within the top! So, off came that binding and on went a pink that was within the top already. Even though changing the binding meant unsewing the original binding by hand, it was 100% the right decision!


Here are the pictures of the quilt.
Thanks so much for stopping by!


Melanie









































Sunday, October 24, 2010

Boxed Squares Quilt Finished!!!

This is a personal record, three quilts finished in one month!

One of the blogs that I read every day is Mary' Blog. She has a site with her own patterns (http://www.maryquilts.com/boxed-squares/). The one below is called Boxed Squares. It is froma Jelly Roll and it was a delight to make. It would make an excellent "quilt in a weekend" project. It is lap size, so it was a dream to quilt! I would definitely make this one again.

















Here is the back.
















And the binding.















The next quilt will be a Joseph's Coat from the Don't Look Now blog. It will look like this:

















Here are the colours....I am undecided whether I like them or not.
















Like I said, I'm not sure. I will make a couple of blocks up to see how they look.

Until then,
Ciao!
Melanie

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Meg's Garden - Complete!!!

IT'S FINISHED!!!!

Lot's of pictures to share! I can not believe that after 4 months it's finished!




















































































And just because I couldn't resist, a picture of my new pot lights in my living room! LOVE THEM!








Sunday, October 3, 2010

Guess What I Have???

A completed quilt top!!! Yahoo! After 3.5 months, the top is finally completed! While I loved doing it, I have never spent so much time on a quilt top before!
















After taking the above photo, I realized it was hard to see the progress, so here is the back.















I was so excited about finally being finished, I went ahead and pieced the back. It is flannel in a polka dot confettli print! I had some fabric leftover, so added an applique "m" (my initial) and a flower.
















Now, all that is left to do is to sandwich and quilt it.

I have spent so much time on this quilt, I am going to be a little lost when I finish it :(

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Finally! A Friday Finish!!!

This is a quilt from Atkinson Designs Happy Hour Book.

The quilt top has been done for over a year, but I just recently had a chance to quilt and bind it.

I love everything about this quilt! I love the colours, the design and the size!






























I really love the polka dot border and the blue inner border and binding!















Here is the backing and binding. Not everyone's cup of tea, I'm sure, but I LOVE it!!!






























“Go” AccuQuilt Giveaway!!

Wow!  Jane's Fabrics and Quilts is giving away a “Go” AccuQuilt!  Check it out!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Friday, September 10, 2010

Been Having Way TOO Much Fun to Update the Blog!

Hi There,

I have been having way too much fun with this quilt to update the blog! I have been top stitching the flowers on like crazy and loving it!

This is a picture of the back that was taken a couple of weeks ago. It shows the stitching better than the front does. Now about 80% of the stitching is done. Yahoo!






















Here is a picture of the stitching. If you are really my friend, you will not look too closely!




















I realized that I had a hole in the quilt top! Yikes! What to do? Put another flower on!!!! Perfect solution to my problem.