Monday, December 4, 2017

Week 4 BBOJ Update

I spent all week working on making the rainbow border strips. They aren't difficult, but there's lots of little seams & it seems to take forever!

My goals for this coming week are to 1) get the striped & white border made and sewn on, and 2) get the rainbow border strips sewn into the 4 border units & hopefully get them sewn on. I'm not sure if that is too ambitious. We'll see.

Sincerely hoping to avoid the mistake I made in the rainbow last time.


Monday, November 27, 2017

Week 3 BBOJ Update

Here's where I am after 3weeks on the white version of Brilliant Beauties of Joy.

Wish I had taken more in progress photos.

Working on the rainbow border now. I hope to avoid the mistake I made last time.

I'm loving it so far.



Tuesday, November 21, 2017

White Brilliant Beauties of Joy

I mentioned that I'd like to make the Brilliant Beauties of Joy (BBOJ) quilt again right away, so I am!

I was looking through the "Made By You" section on the Be Colourful website http://www.becolourful.com/made-by-you.html

The BBOJ that I just finished was the third I've made with a black background, so I was a bit bored of black. One person on the Made By You page had made the quilt with a white back ground. It was gorgeous. Another person had omitted every other colour in the arcs to make them appear more "spikey". Also gorgeous.

Why not combine the two elements that I like?

Here's the centre of my white-spikey BBOJ. I am in love!

With the exception of three colours and the white, I had enough fabric to make this one! Here's a gratuitous picture of fabric!


Friday, November 17, 2017

Brilliant Beauties of Joy Top Complete!!!

Yeah!!! My Brillant Beauties of Joy top is complete!!!

This is a pattern by Jacqueline de Jonge of Be Colourful.

I bought all the fabric, but was so intimidated that I didn't start the pattern for 10 months!

Once I did start, though, I had a ball!!! I liked it so much I think I'll make it again.

Here are the pictures. I made a mistake in making the rainbow border:(. The instructions were clear, but I didn't think I needed to read them (that always gets me into trouble). I decided that attempting to fix them was too risky and left it as it was.

This is by far the most complex quilt I've made and I'm very proud of the results!















Thursday, October 5, 2017

Brilliant Beauties of Joy Update

I'm having a great time making this quilt, Brilliant Beauties of Joy", by Jacqueline de Jonge. This will be my third of hers. 

Have you ever been sad to complete a quilt top? Like the sense of loss when you're finished a good book? I'm going to be sad to see this one finished - that's how much I'm enjoying making it. 

I made a significant mistake in assembling my rainbow border units. So significant that it can't be corrected at this stage. Whoops! But I love it anyways & could stare at it all day! 


Sunday, September 24, 2017

Day Dream Quilt

This is my entry for Amy's Creative Side blog festival.
http://www.amyscreativeside.com/bloggers-quilt-festival/

This is "Day Dream", a Jacqueline de Jonge Craftsy course. I should rename mine "I can't believe I did this"!

Jacqueline's Craftsy course was amazing! She walks you through everything step-by-step and even says sweet things like "I know you can do this".

I never would have thought I'd be able to make a quilt like this and I'm so glad I did.

I would highly recommend the course to anyone who has admired her quilts as I have. I learned lots!

I had this one professionally quilted. The first time I've ever done that. So happy I did.





Thursday, August 17, 2017

Plow Day - Jane Deere Quilt

This quilt has been finished for a while, but never made it to my blog.

Here is my pink version of Lori Holt's (Bee In My Bonnet) Plow Day - or as I call mine "Jane Deere Quilt".

The plow is made of a thousand pieces but went together extremely well.

Thank you, Lori for creating a such a fun pattern! I love mine!

I added Prairie Points to mine and used flannel (as usual) on the back.




Thursday, August 3, 2017

Finished Whimsical Garden Quilt

YEAH! It's finished! And I love it!

This is a Piece O' Cake design that I *think * is called Whimsical  Garden.

I made this top in 2014 and just quilted it late last week.

When I made it, I thought it would be a good idea to put the year on the quilt top. And it was a good idea... if it hadn't taken me 3 years to get it finished. Yikes!

Otherwise, I am totally in love with it.


Here is a close-up of the block with the year. Whoops! If I put the year on a quilt top in the future, I won't wait 3 years to finish it.



The quilting is a standard meander. I could have done something more elaborate, but I just wanted to get it done.



Here is the back (flannel, as usual) and binding. I was very, very relieved that I still had some of the blue for the binding in my stash 3 years later.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Scrappy Irish Chain Top Complete




After I finished Day Dream (more on that later), I was in no rush to start another complex quilt. So, I spent the winter cutting up all my drawers of scraps into 5", 4.5". 2.5", 2" and 1.5" squares. It took FOREVER!

I was going to a quilt retreat, but didn't want to spend money on fabric for a quilt, so I grabbed my 1.5" squares to make this scrappy Irish Chain. I had not idea it would take as long as it took. The blocks with the 49 squares took an hour each! I'm glad I stuck with it, though, as I am thrilled with the results.




Here is a close-up of the top and the quilting. I did my standard "loop-de-loop" quilting.
















Here is the back.






 A close-up of the binding.


















And my faithful quilt tester, Mackie Moo.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

O Canada Quilt Complete

Its been ages since I posted. I keep sewing and quilting; just not posting :(

Here is my finished O Canada quilt. I'm delighted with it. It's super happy with all the bright colours. Made entirely from my stash, which makes me even happier.

The pattern is by Cheryl Arkison and is available here : http://www.cherylarkison.com/diningroomempire/2013/06/oh-canada-pattern-release.html

I quilted it using Glide thread in the same faint pink as Aloha Pink Lady. This colour blends so well with the white background pieces. I'm still over-the-moon with the performance of the Glide and will continue to use it on everything. For the actual quilting, I did my favourite, a loop-de-loop.

Flannel on the back, as always, to make it cozy.

Friday, January 13, 2017

Quilt Retreat Placemat

Two things happened during my last retreat; the gals were talking about how great Glide thread was, and; I was the only one there without a personal placemat for meals. What's a quilter to do? Make a placemat to using scraps AND test out the thread.

It turns out I love Glide thread as much as my other quilt friends do. I did have some breakage, but I love the shiny look of it. And it was extremely affordable. I paid $16 for 5000 meters.

I will defineley use it again and again!






Sunday, January 8, 2017

Aloha, Pink Lady Quilted!

Aloha, Pink Lady became a completed quilt on December 23!

I used soft pink Glide thread and loved how it performed. I'm a Glide convert now.

Generally, I use flannel for the back of quilts, but this wonderful pink batik was on sale. In real life it's positively gorgeous & I'm over the moon with my choice.

The quilting was not without its challenges, though. I loaded the back on horizontally and not vertically so I ran out of backing 12" shy. I had to take the unfinished quilt off the frame, cut the excess from the sides, sew them together and then sew that Frankenstein piece back onto the almost finished quilt back. It was tricky and I was devastated about ruining a quilt top that was pieced perfectly. But, I kept going and guess what? You can't even see the piece I added and the quilt is gorgeous! I'm in love!

The black polka dot binging with the pink just "wowed" me. This may be the start of a pink and black phase in my quilting.  I liked it so much I made my DIL a Christmas stocking in the same colour way.