2024 – myrtBquilting

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.

2024/04/10: scrappy Community Quilt. 53″ x 71.5″.

Stitching but not blogging…

2024/04/11
Oh how time flies! It seems I have time to stitch but not to blog. So let’s see what’s been happening since my last post ……..

Pre-Christmas
I machine embroidered some new Christmas cards. I was so excited because our local Staples had black card stock on hand so the metallic thread displayed beautifully on it. They’re so easy to do and I even re-purposed some paper bags to make enveloped for them. How environmentally friendly is that lol.

2023/11/06 – machine embroidered Christmas cards, metallic thread

Post Christmas
I started off the new year with a little machine embroidery play. We keep a toy box in our living room for the days we’re fortunate enough to have young guests visit. Once in awhile we update the contents and I found a delightful *Free* design collection on Kreative Kiwi to use to create a new object for it. This 6″ x 6″ polyester stuffed block is light as a feather and won’t hurt a thing if it’s tossed around and won’t get hurt if it’s sat upon.

2024/01/06: machine embroidered zoo animals on a 6″ x 6″ denim block stuffed with polyester stuffing.

Next up were some quilt tops…… one of our Guild members has fabulous scraps; she works in quality fabrics and beautiful colours so in a weak moment I told her I’d be happy to take a bag full of her scraps. Well…..she brought me a large, bottomless plastic grocery bags of scraps. As I was sorting and cutting the scraps to size I would pull out a handful, sort and cut them, pull out another handful, sort and cut them…..and again….and again…. and each time the bag would still be full! That was in January and it’s now April and I’ve made four quilt tops from that grocery bag of scraps and I still have some left! I have a baby quilt (mostly my scraps) and one of the tops sandwiched and quilted so far and am working on the other three. They will all go to the Guild’s Community Quilt program so it’s a very worthwhile endeavour. Here are the first two completed ones; more to come. They’re both pieced by me and free motion quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen using mostly Glide thread. The scrappy puppies were inspired by a Facebook post by Debbie Buskirk in the group ScrappyGirlsClub. The edge to edge motif on the other quilt is inspired by StitchedBySusan.

At the same time, interspersed with these scrappy Community Quilts, I’ve been quilting some fabulous quilt tops that one of my talented sisters-in-law (yes I’m lucky to have more than one sister-in-law who quilts!) sent home with me on our last visit in Alberta. But they deserve their own post …… so keep watching….

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