900 Tiny Pieces or My Sore Back!

Voting has begun at the Bloggers Quilt festival. You can find my quilt, #63 at this link http://amyscreativeside.com/2013/10/25/bloggers-quilt-festival-wall-hanging-quilts-2/
If you like please vote for me. There are loads of wonderful quilts in several categories.

"Fabricville is having a quilting contest" I said.
"I should enter"
"What shall I make" I said.
"Ooh, how about that software that turns photos into pixelated images. Wouldn't that be keen" I said.

I found the software for transferring a photo into a quilt pattern here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/quilts/patchwork

"I know the perfect photo" I said.
It was a photo I took this summer while visiting my daughter in Ontario. Beautiful Georgian Bay photographed from Flower Pot Island. I ran it through the program, printed out the pattern and the instructions. Easy Peasy, right?

Contest rules: Quilt size 24 inches square and 75% of the fabric must be purchased at Fabricville.
"I'm off to Fabricville"I said.
What fun!

Now the norm for this piecing method is to buy lightweight fusible interfacing that is marked with a grid. Problem? The interfacing is gridded in one inch increments. There are 30 squares in the pattern, my quilt has to be 24 inches square to qualify.


"That's not gonna work". I said
"Where's my calculator!"
"I'll just mark the grid lines myself" I said.
So I marked off a 1.25 inch grid for one quarter of the photo, that's 225 1.25 inch squares.
"I'll just try that part first" I said.

"I should organize the fabric. Assign each one a letter according to the pattern" I said
Press, fold, slice into 1.25 inch strips. Cut those strips into 1.25 inch squares. 900 1.25 inch squares! "Oh, my aching back. I need to get a higher cutting table!" I said
To avoid confusion, I put all those little postage stamp sized pieces into compartmentalized boxes, the kind you put embroidery floss in. (Oh, you know what I'm like!)

Now in the pattern some of the squares are actually half square triangles. Nothing like complicating things!
"I'll piece them first" I said "That way I won't have to run back and forth to the machine"

Sewing 1.25 inch squares diagonally was challenging for me and for my machine. One row of the pattern at a time, chain piece the squares, slice off half and press into a square.

"Ok, that part's done, now onto the puzzle!" I said

Following the pattern graph place the squares and half square triangles onto the fusible interfacing one square at a time. Press occasionally and before a breeze or a cat rearranges the pattern! That took an entire afternoon (for one quarter of a two foot square wallhanging)

"Thank goodness I only did a quarter of it!" I said


Experience, AND the fact that the pieces were organized and ready to go meant that section two went faster, BUT, the HORROR, it's not the same size.
"Why are you smaller?" I said "Rats!"
It seems my seams or my grid had varied in size.
 "Quick! To the seam ripper!" I said

Okay, corrections made. Seams match now, barely. Section two sewed to section one. Phew!

"Ok" I said "I"m not doing the bottom in two sections!" "Bad enough that I'll have to attach the bottom to the top when I'm done"

Lesson learned? DO NOT do this in sections!

On to the bottom.
"Now this part should go super fast" I said. And I was right! There were only slight alterations required before attaching bottom to top.

"Now, how will I quilt this thing?" I said

I've been following Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting blogs and have been inspired by her quilting videos.

"Let's have a peek" I said "At all 450 patterns?" "Why not?" I said

I quilted the sky in blue with swirly Vincent Van Gogh style thingies, and the branches and leaves in grey and green. The design for the water was influenced by Leah's design #281 Calm Sea from this blog : freemotionquilting.blogspot.ca

Rocks and pebbles got quilted in grey based on Leah's design called Pebbles in a Stream #25.

Finally, I bound the wallhanging in solid black to frame it. It it was ready to be photographed and posted to the Fabricville contest website at www.Fabricville.com


Here's the finished product:

"That's it" I said "I gotta go" I said

"I have an appointment .....with the chiropractor!"





Since I completed the quilt this week, I'm also submitting this to Amy's Creative Side Blogger’s Quilt Festival :: Fall 2013!

Choosing a new sewing machine is harder than....

I found a new machine. Stay tuned for my new blog entitled "My new Baby"

I love my Bernina but it's 12 years old and, well, it's starting to have issues. Most recently it either refused to start or it kept going when I took my foot off the pedal. Go! Go! Stop! Stop! OMG Stop! I'm sure you can imagine my frustration!

I took the poor thing in and she has been repaired. Works like a charm now but, you know, it's time.

So I begin my search for a new machine and I would love your input.

I was thinking of another Bernina but my local Bernina dealer went out of business.

I looked at the Elna Excellence 740 the other day. Looks like a nice machine. It has a knee lifter for the presser foot, an extra long throat, an extension table, a drop-in bobbin and the thread cutter and automatic threader that I\ve always wanted. It also has a ton of embroidery stitches and a fancy built-in walking foot.

I've also seen good reviews of Pffaf and Janome as well especially for speed (number of stitches per minute) but haven't seen the machines yet.

Now Amy, author of the blog Amy's Creative Side is hosting a The Bloggers Quilt Festival. And Baby Lock is sponsoring a raffle of a machine just like Amy's! What luck. I would love a Melody sewing machine like Amy's. That would be fabulous and solve my what machine to buy dilemma.


Love to hear your comments!

UFO # 3

I finally finished another UFO! I planned to finish it during the summer and technically summer ended September 22nd. I finished it yesterday. Close enough, I'm taking it!

I started this quilt many years ago because I wanted to make a flannel quilt. Flannel is expensive so I bought the best I could afford but in the end I wasn't crazy about the colours which probably explains why I almost finished it and then quit. Another issue was the lack of space to assemble quilt sandwiches! Who has a space big enough to lay out a full size quilt?

Well I solved the space problem. Now the hubster and I go to the local seniors club where they have terrific big tables! We can spread out a multitude of quilts and baste away! Heaven!

We took the opportunity to baste a second quilt for the grandson so it was a two-fer weekend. Two quilts quilted and bound in one weekend. Yay!

And now for some photos:

Maybel helping with the quilting!

Adding the binding

Final result. Nice and cozy.

Cars quilt for our grandson

Quilted with Cars!

And actual little cars!

 

 

So that was my weekend. Quilting and binding. Two quilts out of the closet and on the bed! It feels great! Yay me!

Pets on Quilts - Update - Time to vote

Voting ends Saturday August 24th!

Time for some shameless promotion! Contest has closed to entries and now it's time to vote!

And our Stella is #49 LOL

Here's the link:



 
on www.lilypadquilting.blogspot.ca I knew I had to write this blog and submit an entry. I'm a quilter and I love cats (and dogs too, of course)
I quilt a lot for family and friends and I make cozy cat quilts for friends of @StellaMaybel

This is Stella "helping" me with a quilting project .

Do you think she did a great job? I was pleased with the result. Couldn't have done it without her!

Maybel did add her personal touch as well, but she doesn't want to any credit.

      

Stella is also helping me

with a "Cars" quilt

Now back to the cat quilts:

Meet Mr. Diesel, Don and Molly 

 These lucky friends of Stella and Maybel are loving their cat quilts from www.etsy.com/shop/pieceandtranquilty

Now I hesitate to use the term life changing but Don used to sleep on the tea towel directly behind him on the bed. You just know his awesome novelty themed cat quilt has improved his lifestyle.

Finally, just try to imagine this cutie lying directly on the carpet. What a sad picture that must have made. Oh, and that cat quilt coordinates nicely with the staff's wall to wall!

There are some great sponsors and prizes for this contest and an opportunity to get extra entries by checking out this link: 

You Show Me Yours I'll Show You Mine

I read with interest The Sassy Quilter's blog about her fabric stash. It's linked to this blog
by Sarah@SarahQuilts 

http://sarahquilts.com/2013/08/01/theory-thursday-you-show-me-yours-ill-show-you-mine-linky-party/#comments

So I thought I would share my stash and sewing room too!
When I retired earlier this year I bought two white cabinets on sale at Canadian Tire and, as you can see this one is just about bursting. I actually have a pile of fat quarters in the washing machine at this moment. I hope I can squeeze them in!
The top shelf is mostly cat novelty prints for my Etsy shop cat quilts www.Etsy.com/shop/pieceandtranquilty
The bottom shelf is miscellaneous novelty prints for kids ISpy quilts.
And the rest is mostly fat quarters and quilt backings.
Oh, and that multi-coloured drawer unit? It holds precuts and charm squares and has scissors, pens and rulers on top.

Then we have cabinet #2, filled with projects in progress and UFO's:



That's it for the stash. Here are a couple of photos of the rest of my sewing room which used to be a bedroom:

Sewing and ironing area conveniently placed.

Cutting and sewing stations with a cat napping spot right in the middle! Lots of lighting as you can see. Working for years in a fluorescent lit office has me hooked on bright lighting.

And finally a temporary design wall with latest project. I'm still trying to come up with an idea for a permanent design wall. No walls left in this room.....hmmm, maybe the other spare room?

Anyway, that's my space. Go ahead and show yours to Sarah and The Sassy Quilter. We'd all love to see where you work!

UFO #2 Part deux - Just Finish It!

UFO #2 is completed, labeled and delivered to it's new home. It is now known as "Belinda's Buds" after a very special cat that once belonged to a very special family. This quilt took a long time to complete mainly due to lack of time (okay, procrastination!) but it was also due to some doubts and insecurities. Why do we let these feelings slow us down? The final result was surprisingly satisfying.

Moral of the story? Just finish it!

So, as promised, a photo of the finished quilt:

And a couple of detail shots:

So, on to UFO #3 of 13......well I do have a couple of other priorities this week, and next week is busy......  Fall is closing in, can I finish them all this summer? How many UFO's do you have? Do you have a completion plan? I would love to hear your UFO stories.

Summer Road Trip!

Hubby and I just got back from a 12 day road trip, new camper in tow. We drove from our home in southwestern Quebec through eastern and central Ontario to cottage country. We visited family, camped, hiked, cruised, duck and rabbit watched and discovered several terrific little quilt shops. It seems Ontarians (or is it Ontarioites?) are big on quilting! A happy discovery!

Heading west on the 401 our first stop was Presqu'ile Provincial Park,

right on Lake Ontario and 5 minutes from Brighton, Ontario.

Lake Ontario from Presqu'ile Provincial Park

Nice campground, beautiful scenery, and lo and behold, The Robbins Nest, a great little quilt store. And there I was in need of purple fabric. Coincidence? It really was. Not sure DH was buying it.
This shop is also participating in the annual 401 quilt run October 1 - 31st, hmmm. Another road trip? Who knows?

I found a few fat quarters of purple fabric that are perfect for my quilt guild summer challenge:

Next stop, Indian Lake Campground in Brampton, billed as the closest campground to downtown TO. It was close for sure and not exactly wilderness but it was very neat and clean. After cocktails with family, including Don the cat (who loved his new cat quilt) we had a wonderful dinner at the Mandarin Buffet (Oh boy, what a spread!) Then we relaxed and had a laugh or two at a local pub. We were even chauffeured to and from the campsite. How nice!

 

                                                    Don, the cat trying out his new cat quilt!

The next day we were off to Owen Sound to visit and do some camping with children (2 out of 5) and grandchildren (2 out of 5) I like to keep things even, LOL. And,  of course Molly, the cat! Musn't forget Molly!

 

What a fabulous area. Every time we went out we "bumped into" a quilt store.

Now don't get me wrong we saw some amazing scenery too.

Owen Sound is a beautiful town and the Bruce Peninsula is stunning.

                                         Rising of the Moon - Owen Sound

Flower Pot Island - Georgian Bay

And then there were the fabric shops!

First stop: The Fabric Center, a friendly shop in Owen Sound where I indulged my love of cat novelty fabric. After all,  I do use a lot making cat quilts for www.etsy.com/shop/pieceandtranquilty :

Next stop Wiarton, Ontario, home of Wiarton Willie, our country's famous groundhog! We went on a 3K hike in Wiarton, not my usual form of activity but very rewarding to see the ruins of a stone house, an incredible view from the lookout and an interesting local legend.

But best of all in Wiarton: Mothers Fabric, where I made another addition to my fabric stash. A bit more purple and another cat print:

Another day, off to Lion's Head for an afternoon at the beach and a stop at Greig's Fabric, a cute quilt shop and another purchase:

Back in Owen Sound the local Fabricland was a good source of fabric and supplies for a budding quilter. And I couldn't resist just a couple more pieces to add to my collection. Well everything still fit into the car at least!

We were reluctant to pack up and go before at least one more quilting session which resulted in a beautiful first quilting effort by my daughter! Isn't that a great start?

The weather cooperated on the way home so we took a little side trip to Saranac Lake, New York.

It's nice to be retired and able to do things spur of the moment. 

 Camp fire in Buck Pond State Park. You can almost here the crackle!

And what did we find there?......You guessed it, another quilt shop. Brand new, Piece by Piece Studio and Quilt Shop opened on July 1st this year. How lucky was that? And they had some nice prints and a great polka dot extra wide quilt back fabric on sale for 5.25/yard. Well I couldn't leave that behind now could I? I'll take 3 yards please!

Oops, I forgot the ducks and rabbits! We saw plenty of those as well. Even some that swam right up to us.

Ducks at Lion's Head

Canada Geese at Indian Lake Campground

 

Feeding the ducks at the beach - Lion's Head

Backyard rabbits in Owen Sound

 

We had a wonderful trip! It was great getting together with family we don't get to see very often and to share the quilting bug with them too! I sure hope it's catching!