International Quilting Day

If you need a better excuse to spend the day in your sewing room ...here it is!!Today is a day of everything quilty!! I have many small projects that need to be tended to today. I have two guild meetings this coming week and need to have supplies ready to build blocks on Tuesday and then on Wednesday we have a charity workshop. Also at this guild we took January and February off so this is our first month back since before Christmas. So there will be lots to catch up on and with myself being 1/4 of the program committee.....I have some things to get ready for that evening including a sample for a class I am teaching in May.So today I will be searching through my stash and trying to find just he right fabric for that sample.

almost to the halfway point

These are two blocks I worked on yesterday. Hearts is BOM for February and the umbrella is for April's block(need to applique it yet).
The house is quiet with DH and dog gone to the huntcamp for get ready for maple syrup season. So I have the whole day to pet fabric, select what I want to work with and get busy. There is always that quilt in the frame that needs more stitches too. I am getting closer to the middle. You can check out here when I started a month ago,compared to what it looks like now.

katnap quilt by Quiltmaker Magazine.

Last weekend I gifted this quilt(on the left) to a little cutie pie named Wynter. She was almost a month old and I even got to hold her. This quilt was made when it first appeared in Quiltmaker magazine in 2003. I just had to wait for the perfect little one to come along that it was meant for. I loved this pattern so much I made it years later with Pooh characters.

Trunk Show

Ruthanne's quilt

brighter one

Last evening Ruthanne Drenth and myself were asked to do a showing of our work over the years, our favorite quilts and what has made us the quilters we are. Although we both have been quilting for well over 25 years...our work I felt was somewhat different. Ruthanne talked about the courses and classes she has taken over the years while I was (in the early years) self taught. I was young and no way could afford the classes or the good cotton fabric. In more recent years I have participated in classes offered at the guilds I belong to. Ruthanne has many award winning quilts and has participated in juried shows. I keep pretty much to my local guild shows and my ribbons include 1st place hand quilting award from  the Sudbury Quilts on the Rocks and a 2nd place ribbon in North Bay Quilts by the Bay show for machine quilting.
It is always a fun night to see other quilters and their stash of quilts. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Ruthanne herself.
I was going to do an all UFO show but decided to add in a few earlier quilts that were actually finished.

10+year old UFO of mine

Simon Says I taught at guild

My version of Bonnie Hunter's En Provence

my most recent finish

SURPRISE! They thought they were done!

 Never be afraid to show your work, be proud of it. I love doing trunk shows and show and tell!!!

Winning ways

It has been a busy week in my life. I have been helping around my mom's house. We put down new flooring and cleaned out years of things that have been stored for too long. It was a purging and cleaning week.  My only solace after all that is coming home to my quilting frame and finding some time to stitch away and relax. Almost ready to roll it once more. Most don't understand but with each roll, you are that much closer to the finish line.
Yesterday was a great day. We had a class going at guild and if you wanted to come and work on your UFOs you were welcome to. So I spent the day getting caught up on some sewing and enjoying the company of other guild members. I came home to supper ready by DH with the only downfall being I had to do dishes...which wasn't that bad. Then I settled into facebook to see what had been happening. WOW to my surprise I had a message waiting for me from Flare Fabrics(an Ontario fabric store) I had won a weekly contest they have. I will be receiving one meter of plaid fabric from their February TFIF contest. So I guess you can win at these online contests...but it rarely happens to me!!!
Also today I have to get some quilts together for a trunk show I am giving tomorrow night at a guild in North Bay that I was a member of until this year. I have decided to step back for  a bit and concentrate on the two other guilds I belong too along with trying to finish all those projects I have. So my trunk so might be a bit different than  the usually one. I will post more about it later this week as I have readers who belong to the guild and I don't want to spoil the surprise!!! wink wink!

outside our back door

So with pictures of quilting to show(I like to include pics in my blog) I decided to take some outdoors today.

looking down and out toward the street

Our little creek in the backyard is open and flowing and with the -28 degree Celcius days we have had the ice is building and making the water level rise....it has covered our bridge out back which is normally 5-7 feet above the water. We are expecting some warmer days to come so that should help...just hoping for no flooding of our yard or street.  Our little creek can be dangerous but it can also be very pretty and soothing to watch. The trees all around it are frosted up this morning and glistening in the sunlight(which is very hard to capture on the camera) so you will have to take my word on that.
I will also be checking in with Kathy and seeing what everyone is slow stitching on this Sunday. I will be sitting at the frame soon and taking breaks to do some housework and give my back a break!

Have a great week everyone!

And I was doing so well!

my colours for Metro Rings

I managed to stay healthy all winter and then WHAM!!!A dilly of a head cold took over. I would just like that jack hammer in my head to stop. But the show must go on and so it did. Yesterday I was the teacher of another curved ruler class at our guild called Metro Rings. We have bought the ruler and we are making good use of it at our guild. How many times do you buy a ruler for a class and never use it again. We are trying to avoid it with this one. Although I must say the Sew Kind of Wonderful company is staying on top of their patterns. I am not sure this is a good thing or not. From the time I bought my ruler and pattern(within the last two years) till now....they have added lines to the ruler and have added measurements to the patterns to make them easier. This is a good thing, don't get me wrong but as a teacher working from her pattern...it can be a bit frustrating.
Regardless my 7 students did very well and by the end of the day many had 4 full blocks done. They were well on their way and could finish the others at home.

upper left that edge has been rolled.

embroidery up close-amazing

From machine work to hand work. The hand quilting is coming along on this quilt. I have rolled it once already. To put this in perspective...the side of the quilt I rolled is almost 9 feet long and I reached out almost 12". All done in less than 4 days. Not sure I can keep up this pace and I know once I get to the embroidery it will slow down for sure.
This is going to be a few months project so I will slowly add details about it as I go. You can look back a few posts here so see where I started

Today I am hoping to put a few stitches in the quilt and join everyone who pops over to Kathy's blog for slow stitching Sunday. Other than that the house needs a vacuuming and laundry is being done. That is about all the energy I have.

Once upon a time....

not a great pic but trust me there will be more

.....there was a quilt that had been stored away for many years. The lady who owns it decided it needed to be finished and looked into getting it quilted. She contacted a friend of mine who has a long arm machine. My friend, after seeing the quilt commented that she thought it should be hand quilted, but the owner didn't know anyone who did that...but my friend did!!! So one day the lady took the quilt to my friend's house, They took photos and emailed them to me. While I was looking at them, we were talking over the phone too. I asked questions, they asked questions and answers were discussed. After a few days, the lady said "yes", she would like me to do the quilting.

After much pondering, delaying, procrastinating and some special order of a batting, I have begun!!!

close up of the side.edge 

This past week the silk batting that I am going to use came in at my little quilt store and yesterday I started marking up the quilt top. It is an embroidered top so I will be doing some outlining but mostly it will be cross hatching on the whole top. There is also a large pillow sham type piece that is to be quilted at the same time. I am using plain white cotton on the back.

This will be my project for the next few months, so this is just the start of many blog posts about it.

In the sewing room things are piling up too. I have been trying to get projects finished and out the door. I have a pile of charity quilts that need to go to guild to be distributed, a couple of quilts that are in various stages of completion  and then there is all the work I have been doing for my class on Saturday.
OMG...could this girl have any more on her plate....I think I need a platter or a large tray!!!!
Popping in to see what everyone is up to over at Kathy's blog and her slow stitching day. I have been up since 6am cooking breakfast at our carnival, so this evening will be a lazy one.

Hurry up and wait!

Metro Rings

That seems to be the theme of the week. Hurry get all that snow cleaned up before more falls! Hurry get your pieces and steps ready for your class so you know what you are teaching...and wait for the classs day to arrive! Hurry and get that quilt marked but the special batting isn't in yet. Oh well 2 out of three ain't bad...haven't marked the quilt yet.

edit pic to less blurry

In a couple weeks I will be teaching another class using the Sew Kind of Wonderful curved ruler. We will be making Metro Rings. It is similar looking to the double wedding ring. So I am trying to get three jobs done in one quilt. Teach the class, make a quilt big enough for my bed and use a colour scheme that I have wanted to try for awhile. If the first few blocks are any indication...I am well on my way!
This week I have also been putting the final embroidery stitches in my snowman quilt. I have to "fly stitch" on all the seam lines between the blocks. I thought this was crazy but it really does add something to the overall effect.                                                    

brighter pic on the snowy background

dark pic shows hearts

Also this week I finished this baby quilt. I had done some machine quilting on it but wanted to add the hearts with hand quilting. It becomes another quilt for my charity pile which is growing!
While DH and the pooch are away for the weekend I have lots of quiet time to get things done so I better get at it or they will be home before I know it!
I will be joining my friend Kathy and doing some slow stitching later today. I should have something to do while watching QuiltCam with Bonnie Hunter which is later this afternoon.
Have a great week everyone!

UFO day

It continues to be winter here with more snow falling and freezing rain threatening tonight.That's okay because I have lots to do and keep me busy.
Yesterday we had a UFO day at our guild. Seven ladies came out in the beautiful snowy weather and we worked on projects of our own. I took a couple thinking I would get at least one done and work on the second but maybe a little too much chatting was happening.

my winter wonderland

I got my embroidered blocks together and also sewed together the outer borders which are patchwork blocks. The rest had to wait till I got home because I needed an inner border which I neglected to take with me. So last night that was sewn on. Now I have a bit more embroidery to do on the seam lines of the blocks and then I can finish putting this top together.
I want to hand quilt it so it is going to go on the waiting list for a bit.

So my list of things to do is growing even though I am getting quilts finished.

 Yesterday I was reminded(not that I forgot) that a class that I am teaching is coming up at the end of the month. Hmmm....think I should maybe work on my sample and block steps. Guess that will happen later this week.
Enjoy your mid week!