myrtBquilting

First Community Quilt of the new year

2026/01/11

A couple of months ago a Guild friend passed along to me a panel & backing that had been given to her to make a community quilt. In the back of my mind I thought it would be a perfect candidate on which to practice E2E (edge to edge) quilting using my embroidery/sewing machine and the magnetic hoop I purchased way back in September and have not used for E2E yet. The panel isn’t too big (42.5″ x 42.25″) so wouldn’t require an overwhelming number of rehoopings.

That, of course, required a trip down the rabbit hold finding & viewing YouTube tutorials (there are many helpful ones) and finding the right digital design with which to quilt it. I had no idea there were so many available for embroidery machines! urban elemenz has a huge selection of free ones of various sizes (I downloaded most of them…for future projects you know..lol) and decided upon Bean Sprout.

I like this method and would use it again on smaller projects. It’s certainly not as easy as using a pantograph with a long arm, but works nicely if you don’t want to FMQ a quilt. The more I practice, the faster it will go! The magnetic hoop is what makes this work!

Here’s the beautiful African animal themed panel with a fleece backing that’s perfectly suited to it! The quilt measures 42.5″ w x 42.25″ long and I can imagine some child loving to snuggle under it.

E2E quilted on my Bernina 790 Crystal Edition using the 210mm x 400mm (8.25″ x 15.75″) magnetic embroidery hoop and urban elemenz Bean Sprout digital design.

2026/01/10 – Community Quilt
42.5″w x 42.25″l

One last community quilt for 2025…

…and some last minute Christmas projects

2025/12/31

I kept all of my sewing/embroidery/quilting machines very busy in December………and forgot to take photos of some of the projects. The final quilting project of the year is a quilt assembled from blocks I won at HAW (Hands Across the Water – an annual gathering of quilters from several guilds in our general geographic region) in 2024. Because I recently purchased a magnetic hoop for my Bernina 790, I’ve been wanting to try it out and this quilt gave me the opportunity. The hoop was definitely worth getting and with having a Bernina discount and a gift card I didn’t cringe too much at the price lol.

2025/12/31 – Community quilt
FMQ and embroidered motif
48.5″ x 60″

O the weather outside is frightful…..

Because scraps breed in the closets in this house, I seem to have a never ending supply with which to create scrappy community quilts. This latest one was inspired by a post in the Scrappy Girls Club Facebook group by Betty Buttega.

2025/12/08

Environment Canada tells us we’re experiencing an ‘atmospheric river’, which really means very windy with lots of rain; there’s a high stream advisory in place right now. I know after being out running errands earlier this morning that I’d much rather be inside, even tho it’s relatively warm – +8.9C. So….quilting time…or machine embroidery time…definitely not outdoors time!

Most of the scraps that went into this one were my own, but a few came to me via the Guild. I prewash all my own fabrics, but it’s not always practical to wash gifted scraps. Usually, that’s OK, but NOT THIS TIME! I usually wash any quilts I make before they go out into the community and that’s for two reasons: 1. They have spray adhesive in them and I have no idea if the quilt is going to someone with allergies or sensitivities and it’s best the quilt is squeaky clean (altho I’ve never heard a quilt squeak lol). And 2. What if any of the fabrics bleed when washed? It’s better I find out than the recipient.

And so this time, that’s exactly what happened. That purple print (not my fabric!) bled. I even used colour catchers in the wash, but obviously not enough. So there it is, soaking in the bathtub in a mixture of hot water and Dawn dish soap. And yes, that really does the trick; I’ve had to do that once before. See the pale mauve water? I highly recommend Susie Quilts tutorial if you have this misfortune befall you.

2025/12/08 – Soaking the quilt after colour bleed…Sigh….

In any case, here’s what the quilt looks like when it’s dry and no colour bleed and ready to go to someone in need in our community. Pieced on my little Husqvarna H/Class and custom ruler quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen. It’s approximated 56″ x 72″.

2025/12/07 Another scrappy Community quilt done.
Pieced and free motion quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen.

And just to have a little fun, here’s a little machine embroidery ITH (in the hoop) 8″ x 8″ trivet I whipped up yesterday just for fun. It’s a free design from Jeanine Babich Designs, comes in two sizes, and can be found here: https://janinebabichdesigns.com/product/snowman-trivet/

2025/12/07 – Trivet
A free design available here: https://janinebabichdesigns.com/product/snowman-trivet/

14+ quilting hours and almost 170,000 stitches later……

It’s done! This fabulous quilt top was donated to the Guild (maker unknown) to be quilted and become one of our Community quilts. It’s obviously a Judy Niemeyer pattern and what’s also obvious is the amount of work that went into it!
I couldn’t resist custom quilting it; for all the work that went into piecing it, it begged for special attention. It took longer that I anticipated (like that’s never happened before lol) but I attribute that to the many (many, many) thread colour changes. Now that it’s done, I almost hate to turn it in to our Community Quilt Coordinator!

2025/11/14 – Community Quilt
Donor unknown, custom quilted by me.
59.5″ x 78.5″

My sister in law took her lovely Almost Houndstooth quilt home with her and bound and washed it; I love the crinkly texture of a quilt once it’s washed.

2025/11/14 – Pieced by Marj B from the pattern Almost Houndstooth and custom quilted by me.

What’s under my needle today?

2025/11/01

It’s been awhile since I posted anything but summer is a slow (or non-existent) time for quilting for me. But here we are in late Autumn and I’m now neglecting most other activities except quilting!

A few weeks ago I picked up a couple of the Guild’s sandwiched community quilts to quilt. They were both folded with the backing facing out so I had no idea what I was getting. What a shock when I discovered one of them was a very colourful quilt from a Judy Niemeyer pattern! I’ve not quilted one of those before and I’m having a difficult time resisting quilting it to death, but I hope to do it justice without spending too much time on it! I have no idea who made either of the quilts I picked up but they’re both lovely.

Finished Projects

The other community quilt is done, laundered and ready to go to our Community Quilt coordinator for distribution to those in need in our community. We have many talented quilters in our Guild and it’s always a treat to quilt something they’ve pieced.

One of my sisters-in-law trusted me with one of her quilts last fall and it took me until this fall to quilt it! It’s from a pattern, Almost Houndstooth, that she’s pieced more than once and she always does a lovely job. This one took awhile to speak to me, but when I knew they were coming for a visit I made is speak a little faster! I’m waiting now for a photo of it once she has time to bind it. All the time I was quilting it I thought of it as the batman quilt; I wonder why?!! lol.

Marj’s quilt – pieced by her and custom quilted by me.

And, of course, there’s always a machine embroidery project either underway or finished. My daughter and I both needed new mini oven mitts and when Kreative Kiwi posted this pattern for $1 that was the incentive I needed to make some for us.

What’s next?

I purchased a magnetic hoop earlier this Fall for my Bernina 790 plus that I haven’t played with yet. I’m yearning to experiment with E to E quilting with it…..

And I have have two beautiful quilt patterns just begging to be started….. and Christmas is coming……

Quilt show and coasters and bibs and scrappy quilts and more …..

I should be gardening this morning, but it’s raining….

Where did the time go since our Guild’s quilt show in March? If you haven’t already checked that out, be sure to click the link and have a look at the fabulous entries by our members. I entered several items this year but my favourite was, of course, another HST quilt. This one was totally scrappy as is much of what I make these days. Other than the white, the fabrics are almost all from a friend who is only too happy to give her scraps to me and I’m too foolish to say no! She has such good taste in fabrics and colours that her scraps are a total joy with which to work. Thanks Kathy! Pieced by me and custom machine quilted (straight lines and feathers) on my Sweet Sixteen (8 million+ stitches on it and counting!). And if you come to stay with us, you’ll likely be sleeping under it.
Size: 78.5″ x 92″.

Once the quilt show was over with, I could move on to other tasks. A friend asked me to make some novelty machine embroidered coasters so on a welcome change from quilting, I whipped these up. I haven’t heard yet what the reaction was to the last one lol. Machine embroidered ITH (In The Hoop) on my Bernina 790 Plus and custom designed by me.

And then the mini oven mitts…..I tried a new design and enlisted my daughter to test them. We are both going hmmmmmm…shouldn’t they be a little smaller? And the answer is yes, but I haven’t had time to modify and make the second pair; other more fun projects have preempted that one. In the meantime, my old ones are almost falling apart…..

And then there are the bibs…..full body ones. I’ve been making bibs from this pattern for at least 20 years. The pattern is “Overall Bib” by Pieceful Expressions and is still available online. I prefer to make them with flannel on one side and rip stop nylon on the reverse side so moisture doesn’t soak through onto baby’s clothes. Moms love them. And even tho the pattern calls for a Velcro closure at the neckline I was soon advised (probably by the first recipient) that that didn’t work well as once the child was old enough a good tug would result in the bib coming right off! The closures of choice are either buttons/buttonholes or heavy duty snaps. Ha, ha! let them try to get that undone! I like a button the best as Mom can reposition it to control the size of the neck opening. Never let it be said I can’t outsmart a baby!

These bibs are for a charming little man who is almost 10 months old and I’m told he is always happy. Mom loves anything dinosaur themed so when I spotted this fabric at a sale, I knew it had to be mine even if it meant begging a quilting friend to put it in my hands instead of hers. Lucky for me, she could be coaxed. There are two sizes here, 12 months and 18 months, and he shouldn’t outgrow them for a little while.

And now for the last two quilts…… If one of my sisters-in-law is reading this, she’ll be wondering ‘but what about my quilt???’. Last fall she gave me one to be quilted and what with the quilt show and some of these other fun projects, I just haven’t worked my way around to it. And I did have to leave it on the table for awhile waiting for it to ‘speak’ to me……lol. But now it’s next; I promise!

Our Guild provides quilts to people in need in our community. As examples, some go to Oncology at our hospital and others may go to fire victims. Annually, we have a quilt sandwiching bee where we assemble the tops, batting and backing and our Community Quilt Coordinator hands them out to members who quilt them. Well, we just had one of those sessions and I took a couple of the quilts, one I’d made and one another member pieced, and I just finished quilting them. Our supply of Community Quilts has run low so this will help top it up. Both were custom free motion quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen.

And now the sun is shining and yard/garden work is calling me!

Scrappy makes me happy!

2025/03/05
So what’s under my needle today? Feathers and straight lines in another scrappy quilt, of course. Today’s is another HST quilt, and I’m madly quilting it so it will be ready to hang in our Guild’s biannual quilt show. Setup day is March 21st so my deadline is the 20th. Can I do it? I hope so!
The second quilt is another scrappy one and I ruler quilted it with my favourite wave design, done with the HQ Wave B ruler. I love the wave illusion created with that ruler.
Both quilts are made primarily with scraps given to me by one of our generous Guild members. It’s fun to work with someone else’s scraps but really… don’t I have enough of my own???

Both quilts are pieced by me and free motion and ruler custom quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen sit down mid arm. The arrow quilt is quilted with the most beautiful variegated deep purple thread I found at Quilt Canada in Edmonton this past summer and I’m still wondering why I didn’t buy more at the time…

Where to begin?

2024/11/17

I haven’t posted in months! I take the summer off and direct my efforts to yard & garden work and travelling in our motor home but once September rolls around I get the urge to give that up & head back to the sewing room.

So…. this spring I bought a new sewing/embroidery machine, a Bernina 790+ Crystal Edition, and haven’t been playing with it nearly enough. Last week I watched a Facebook live presentation from Sweet Pea embroidery and the freebie released that day was this adorable little stuffie, the Tiny Teddy Bear. I started out making one (it’s gifted already)….and another…..and so on for a total of five so far. Just in the last five minutes I’ve committed to making another one; where will it end? lol. The design comes in 4″, 5″ and 6″ sizes; these are all 6″.

I have also been quilting…one of my very talented quilting friends pieced a beautiful scrappy HST quilt in soft pastels. Because she liked one I had previously quilted, she trusted me to quilt hers too. I free motion custom quilted it on my Sweet Sixteen using Glide thread.

That beautiful batik quilt was pieced by another of our talented Guild members and I free motioned, machine quilted an overall design on it and sent it off to our Community Quilt coordinator for distribution. Love those batiks!

I’ve been working on another HST quilt of my own and just finished pressing 400+ HSTs today! Now for some work on the design wall……

20241101 – beautiful scrappy HST quilt pieced by a friend who trusted me to free motion custom quilt it for her. 63.5″ x 75″

Before that, I was busy making burp cloths and bibs for a lovely young couple who welcomed their first child. A young mom can’t have too many burp cloths right? This simple and easy to make pattern came from Shabby Fabrics and the instructions can be found on YouTube.

I acquired the Overall Bib pattern created by Beverly Gunson for Pieceful Expressions probably 20+ years ago and I’ve lost track of how many I’ve made since then. I make them with rip-stop nylon backing which largely prevents moisture from seeping through onto baby’s clothing so they don’t need a change of clothes after every meal! It’s a great pattern that comes in sizes XS to XL (6-30 months) and after I’ve gifted one I’m usually asked for more. I’ve learned from the moms that the Velcro neck fastener is only good for the six month old babies; after that they are strong enough to just pull them off lol. Any ones I make now for 12 months & older have either a button or snap closure; much more secure! The pattern seems to be only available on Etsy or eBay now.

2024/10/16 – Burp pads & full body bib for a delightful addition to a friend’s family.

And lastly, a little more machine embroidery; a coaster for friend celebrating a significant birthday. I custom designed it in Embrilliance software using a generic coaster design and native Embrilliance fonts.

2024/09/28 – Coaster. Custom machine embroidered for a friend’s birthday.

Another scrappy quilt

2024/04/27
A friend from Guild gave me a bag (a BIG bag!) of her beautiful scraps and I’ve made a total of four quilt tops from those scraps with a few left over. I contributed the white fabric to this one but the rest are all hers. This is the second one I’ve got quilted; still two more to go!

I love HSTs and the many ways they can be arranged to make very pleasing designs. This is a favourite of mine and it’s the second quilt I’ve made using this design. This one too will be given away ( to Community quilts) and I realized when DH commented to me that he especially likes it too that eventually I will have to make a third and keep it for ourselves this time!

It’s hand guided free motion and ruler quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen and I used Wonderfil invisifil thread in the ruler quilted areas and Glide thread to stitch the feathers. I didn’t use a pattern as such but drew inspiration from the many HST quilt examples found on Pinterest of which this is one. This one consists of 3″ finished HSTs. The finished size is 56″ x 70″.

2024/04/26: Scrappy community quilt pieced and custom hand guided quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen. 56″ x 70″

Our own mini quilt retreat …

2024/04/11
When we were in Alberta last fall one of my very talented quilter sisters-in-law sent home with me not one but three of her quilt tops (with batting, backing, thread AND binding) and told me I could quilt them however I wanted. That made me practically drool with anticipation! After being away for over three months last summer and Christmas coming on, I knew I wouldn’t have time to quilt them until the new year. They kept calling to me and finally in March, after working on several Community Quilts, I started quilting them. Oh what glorious fun and no restraints!
And better yet, part way through the first quilt she came for a visit, so we had our own little quilt retreat right here. I think DH spent a lot of time in his shop lol. While I was FMQing her quilt, she tackled a project for me. At our Guild’s Hands Across the Water multi-Guild event last fall most of the attendees brought a challenge block (or more than one) they had constructed. Draws were held and I was the lucky winner of a set of blocks. I turned them over to my sister-in-law who dug through my stash and found the perfect sashing for them and stitched them all together for me into a fabulous little thoroughly modern quilt that will eventually go to our Guild’s Community Quilt supply.

2024/02/19: pieced by my sister-in-law and free motion quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen. 45.5″ x 63″

After my sister-in-law left, I just kept on quilting. I finished quilting her other two quilts and enjoyed the freedom of being able to custom quilt anything I want! Two of her quilts were backed with the most beautiful pink suede flannel which showed off the stitching better than the front. Once done the quilting, I bound two of the three quilts, leaving room for labels.

2024/03/30: pieced by my sister-in-law and free motion quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen. 51″ x 75.5″

Then once done with hers, I continued on with Community Quilts and sandwiched one of four tops that have been sitting, waiting in my closet. No custom quilting on this one; just an edge to edge design inspired by StitchedBySusan that I love for the texture it creates and the speed with which I can get a quilt done utilizing it! This one was also pieced by me and free motion quilted on my Sweet Sixteen. The design was inspired by this YouTube video tutorial: such a simple quilt by Beth Shibley of My Sewing Room. Easy peasy and so well suited to scrappy quilting.

And that brings me up to date! There are three more scrappy tops waiting……and I hope to get them sandwiched and quilted before serious yard & garden work gets started……it could happen…. The next three tops (as is this one) are made with scraps generously donated by one of our Guild members.

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Finished Projects

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