Granddaughters

Here I am with four of my five granddaughters. How lucky am I!!

Sacha's Quilt

 

Sacha and I have been working on this quilt for her bed. It is about 53x75 but we are thinking we'll add another row to the side and bottom to make it large enough  for a double bed. That means we'll have to invest in a few more purple fabrics. Sigh.

Cooling neckerchiefs

I have been making these cooling scarves lately.  The little bio gel beads grow to the size of marbles when soaked for a few hours. I then insert them into the neckerchief which you can wrap around your neck to keep cool. I tried the wrist bands this morning.  We'll see who they fit.

I may have enough blocks pieced together for this quilt. I'm not sure about  the final arrangement. I could have the light borders in the middle and dark toward the edges or vice versa. Right now it is totally random except that I tried to have light against dark and no matching middle touching. It will probably be about a double bed size, although I have lots of fabric left so you never know.

Progress

The photo is kind  of dark but you get the idea. I'll post a better one when I can take a picture in daylight.

This morning I pulled out my Kaffe Fasset fabrics and started playing around with them. I only have three of them but there are a lot of possibilities with just the three. I may look for a few more to add variety. I decided that large pieces would showcase the beautiful big designs.

My friend, Harold, thought I should make a piece that says "Take this job and shove it, I quilt", from the song.  I thought it sounded too negative but my son, Sandy thought "You can't fire me, I quit" was better. Then Lori said it would sound better without the You.  I agreed. Three less letters and no Y! My friend, Jenn gave me the border fabric some time ago and it is just perfect for these words.  How can  you go wrong with friends like that!

Life!

These two pieces are on my design wall waiting to be quilted. I thought the one on the left lacked contrast so I made the brighter one on the right.  The orange and blue have enough contrast to dazzle the eyes when seen in a good light.
I had a wonderful Canada Day attending our traditional family gathering that has been going on for well over 50 years. Did you know that it never rains on July 1 around here? The party is always outside and has never yet been cancelled because of rain.

This and That

These two wall hangings are both sold but I thought a picture on the wall would give an idea of the size.  I may have to make another one for myself.

I finally got this one quilted and luckily didn't have to turn it on the frame. The binding is leftovers from many quilts so it is as colorful as the rest of the quilt. Now to get at hand sewing the binding down. That's going to take me awhile.

Second Perfect

I am half done quilting this one. The next decision will  be what colour the binding should be. Most commenters on Facebook like blue the best, although red has been suggested so I might audition that if I have the right shade in my stash.

Perfect x 2

I liked the first piece  so well that I thought I'd make a second one. I had no more of the fabric with the dancing girls so I chose a different group of colours altogether.  I am putting an orange binding on the first one.  I will make the border a bit bigger on the second one and probably put a narrow blue border between the yellow background and the outer border.

Perfect

I started this one today.  Right now I am  wondering if it should say "You are perfect just as you are".
Then the problem becomes how  to balance out the lines.  Should just go after perfect or on the last line. Or should there be just two rows of words, making the whole thing longer and narrower?  I'll play around with it a bit tomorrow and see what looks good.
This one was quite easy since there are so many a's and e's, which are exactly the same and quite easy to do. There are also several o's and u's also easy. The only difficult letters are the y's.  No M,N or W makes piecing easier.

Birthday Treats

This is my birthday treat to myself. My friend, Tanis, and I made a bit of a road trip to Kickass Country Store  in Plumas, MB. They have fantastic fabrics there and it took a real act of will to come home with only this much. The bright red/purple/gray one in the top row is Kaffe Fasset and the far left top one is backing for my big scrap quilt. Hopefully, I bought enough this time.

Calm

All pinned and ready to quilt. This one I'll do on my regular machine because it's quite small and I want to go around the letters.  I won't be very calm by the time I've done that...

Calm

I started these words yesterday. I have some fabric with sunflowers on it that might do for the border. One thing I have discovered in making all these letters is that e and a are identical, as are n and u, and m and w. It goes a lot faster if I make all 6 es and as at once. And the same for all the other duplicate letters.

As Ye Sew

This is how I spent my morning.  When I start a traditional quilt I just have to take some time off to do letters or something pattern-free. I will probably insert a narrow border between the green and the spool fabric.  I also want to include an actual seam ripper, either horizontally below "shall" or vertically at the end of "sew".

My next one is going to say "Keep calm and make stuff". I'm not sure which combination of fabrics I'll use. I love both of them.  Maybe I'll end up making two of them.

I bought a huge piece of backing fabric for the big scrap quilt because I didn't want any seams on the back. I got it all squared off and then hung it over the quilting frame to check that it was large enough. Wouldn't you know it. It's about three inches too short!

I haven't decided whether I'll buy a different, bigger backing or add a colored strip somewhere in the middle of this one. I would  have to go back to Mayville, ND to get more of the same fabric. Hmmm...maybe that's not such a bad idea. 

Another oops  is the big dusty footprint on the black fabric. I just swept out the studio this morning too. Go figure.

New Starts

I am working on two quilts  right now not counting the one that is on the quilting frame and the one that is lined up waiting for the frame.  This one is a rail fence that I'm  working on with my friend Brenda. She's getting some sewing and pressing lessons at the same time. It's going to be a beauty.

This is a Hunter's Star using the Rapid Fire Hunter's Star ruler.  It fits together so perfectly using that ruler and much of it is chain pieced so it goes really fast.

I just heard from the gallery that more people are asking about word quilts so I may have to start a new one of those. I could probably sell more of the BREATHE banners too but I'm not sure how many of those I want to make.

Dull Blades

 

Has anyone used either of these rotary blade sharpeners? I have two other kinds, neither of which work very well.  These are relatively expensive and have received mixed reviews on any site I've checked. I'd love the bottom one if it works because you don't have to remove the blade from the handle. I find the blades I've bought recently have dull spots when they come out of the box or else get dull very quickly. I have a drawer full of dull blades so it would be nice if one of these sharpeners actually worked.   I also heard once that there was a sharpening service somewhere but have lost the address.

After I took this picture I added 6 inch black borders to make it king size. Now I just have to quilt it. It is the biggest quilt I have ever made. The only part that is not scraps is the black part. I did have to buy backing too.

Sewing Cabinet

This is my new sewing cabinet in it's smallest form. I am waiting for the drawers to go on the left and the insert

Here it is expanded for when I want to sew big quilts.   It takes up a lot of space this way but is great for sewing large items.