myrtBquilting

Not only quilting…..

Another passion of mine, and one in which I don’t indulge much since quilting seems to have taken over my time, is machine embroidery. There are still times though when I incorporate embroidery in a project and this is one.

Hubby asked me to make covers for a couple of pieces of his woodworking shop equipment that he doesn’t use frequently; he hopes to reduce the amount of dust that collects on them. My job was the easy one as he designed and provided me with the patterns and on one of our trips to the Island we picked up the nylon fabric and the piping for it. He’s hoping that the nylon fabric will shed most of the dust that settles on everything in the shop…….my experience is that dust sticks to EVERY surface no matter how slippery it is but we’ll see how this works out..lol.

In his pre-retirement life there was a lady on his staff who was skilled in graphic design and he had her design a logo for his joe handyman custom woodwork™ hobby. Now for those of you who know my DH doesn’t that look just like him? I love it. Several years ago I digitized the logo and this seemed an ideal project on which to use it.

Not a quilting project

My mother taught me to sew when I was pretty young and for years my stitching consisted of clothing, crafts and home dec. As I neared retirement I started quilting and after retirement it took over, although I haven’t totally given up the other projects.
So…..last winter I started addressing the scraps & some of the mystery ‘why did I buy that fat quarter’ pieces in my stash. I’m determined to keep emptying tubs so yesterday I dove really deep into the UFO collection and came up with this. In the late 80s when my son was little he wanted a Care Bear (he’s now in his 40s ). After cutting out all the little pieces of fake fur I started to realize what many people before me did; fake fur can be a b*#% with which to work. So there it sat in pieces for 30+ years……until yesterday. My question now – do I send it to my son for Christmas?
My takeaway from this project? I’ll never work with fake fur again!! The scraps are in the bag destined for pet bed makers. And now I must go vacuum my sewing machine and everything in the work area that’s now covered in fake fur fluff….
Happy stitching friends whatever your project is!

No end to scraps…

Sparrow Quilt Co’s 50 Blocks in 50 Weeks really inspired me to deal with some of my scrap overload. I’ve made two quilts now from most of the blocks (48) and the remaining ones will go toward additional Community quilts. Our Guild does a Block of the Month project of blocks this size so they’ll just be added to the pile.
In order to assure this wavy quilting design gets added to my muscle memory bank I repeated it on this quilt, same as the last one. I really love it for the undulating wave effect and it just might become my new favourite….at least until I find a new favourite lol.
I used Glide thread on the top, magna glide in the bobbin and the HQ Wave B ruler and quilted it on my Sweet Sixteen. Fleece backing again!

Wavy, Wavy

I finished quilting, laundering and blocking one of the scrappy quilts that I pieced using some of the blocks from Sparrow Quilt Co’s 50 Blocks in 50 Weeks series. I’ve long admired Anita Shackleford’s Modern Curves pantograph and wanted to do something similar using a ruler, so I purchased Handi Quilter’s Wave B ruler and played with that. I love, love, love the optical illusion of undulating waves created!

I backed this quilt with fleece. First time ever doing that and now I’ll do it again for sure; it’s so soft and cuddly I hate to give it up! It will go to the Guild to which I belong, Timberlane Quilters’ Guild, and be donated to someone in need in our community.

The quilt measures 52.5″ x 80″.

Scraps, scraps & more scraps

Quilting goes by the wayside every summer as yard and garden work assume priority and this past one was the same. But in September I start getting the urge to put the garden to bed and start quilting again. I’m running a little late tho!
I’ve been trying to deal with the scraps that have accumulated over the years since I last made an attempt to deal with them. They multiply in the closet, right? I started last fall with Sparrow Quilt Co.’s 50 Blocks in 50 Weeks series and completed the blocks in May, but there they are on my design wall still waiting……… They will both eventually be Community Quilts, but they need sashing…. and sandwiching… and quilting.

And then there are the placemats I’ve been intending to make to coordinate with the tablerunner I completed in 2017 for Canada’s 150th birthday…. oh happy day I finally made them! More scraps used up. I even rounded the edges of two of them to fit the table.

And this time I’ve even started crumb quilting and I’m determined to make blocks as the scraps accumulate…. hahahahaha. I think I need to buy brighter fabrics don’t I?

And not only do I collect fabric scraps, I have an entire box of yarn scraps (I know that sounds bad but I used to have almost two boxes!). They also multiply in the box. But this last time when I finished knitting a pair of socks for myself I immediately knit up the leftover into a pair of kids socks. I haven’t decided if they’ll get gifted or donated…. The yarn is Estelle Yarns Sock Twins Mouline.

So that’s my scrap adventures to date this fall; more to come!

The end in sight ….

Whew, I worked my way through the stack of community quilts; nine quilts quilted in a month! That’s definitely a record for me. To streamline the process I used the same overall design in each one, Angela Walters’ Swirl Hook. I love it. Five of the quilts were made of good quality flannel and were so soft & cuddly with which to work. And no, I didn’t piece any of these.

While we are still in isolation mode because of COVID-19 none of our quilts can be distributed to the community but we have a large supply ready once restrictions relax.

I’ve been rushing to get these done by the end of the month because my folding layout/cutting tables I need for each quilt are set up in the spare bedroom that has a Murphy bed and we have a guest arriving this weekend who will be using that room for an indefinite amount of time. The tables have to go! I just made it in time!

I don’t think there will be much quilting going on for awhile lol. Here are the last of them:

2020/04/30-TQG-06
2020/04/30-TQG-06
2020/04/30-TQG-02
2020/04/30-TQG-02
2020/04/30-TQG-05
2020/04/30-TQG-05
2020/04/30-TQG-04
2020/04/30-TQG-04

Git ‘r done..’

I finished quilting two more of the Guild’s community quilts today; I love seeing the stack of finished ones grow. Angela Walters‘ swirl hook is so perfect for an all-over design on scrappy quilts I think and gives them beautiful texture. These two are just more of the same…happy day!

2020/04/20 – The front. Another TQG community quilt.
2020/04/20 the back.
2020/04/20 – The front. Another TQG community quilt.
2020/04/20 – The back.

Isewlation quilting

I injured one knee recently so that’s limited my ability to do much yard work and has given me a perfect excuse to be in the house quilting. Although with the outside temperatures in the high teens Celsius I’m not sure why I want to do that!
These two quilts I just finished were pieced by a couple of our ‘Scrap Queen’ ladies in our Guild who produce some real beauties. I’m a fan of Angela Walters of Quilting is My Therapy and the motif I used on both quilts is her swirl hook. It’s fast, it’s easy and the texture it creates is beautiful. I used Glide khaki thread on the top and magnaglide in the bobbin. The hand guided free motion quilting is done on my Sweet Sixteen.

2020/04/18 – 46″ x 54″ The front
2020/04/18 – 46″ x 54″ The back.
2020/04/18 – 59″ x 72″ The front.
2020/04/18 – 59″ x 72″ The back.

COVID-19 quilting

Well, the world is a different place since my last post. Practising social distancing and self isolation has provided the opportunity for almost unlimited gardening and quilting time! Fortunately all is well in our home as I hope it is in yours.

A couple of months ago at one of our stitching days our Guild President pulled out a box of beautiful quality flannel (donated to us) from our storage cabinet, bundled it and handed it out to us with ‘orders’ to get busy! So we did! I’ve seen a few turn up in our Facebook group and now I’ve finally finished one. What a pleasure to work with such good fabric!

Many of us stitched up our fabric bundles using patterns from one of the 3-Yard pattern books by Fabric Cafe. If you haven’t seen their books yet you should! The patterns are great for those one yard purchases we’ve all made on an impulse buy. They have some free patterns to try. They all measure approximately 49″ x 59″.

The pattern for this one is ‘Brick Street’ from Fast & Fun 3-Yard Quilts by Fabric Cafe. Template & ruler work overall and Glide Cool Grey 3 thread used with magna-glide in the bobbin. It measures 47″ x 56.5″ after laundering.

2020/04/03 – 47″ x 56.5″
2020/04/03 – 47″ x 56.5″

More community quilting..

Our Guild provides quilts to those in need in the community. We do it through various organizations: Family & Social Services, Grace House (transitional housing), Oncology Dept. at the Hospital just to name a few. We have also given to those who have suffered illness or lost their home & belongings to fire. I think we’re on track to have made and donated about 100 quilts in the past year; not bad for a membership that numbers in the low 70s! Our members are generous with both their time and fabric.

I and several others quilt some of the quilts for those whose first love is just piecing. This last one is a sampler block quilt (beautifully pieced by Barb M, one of our most prolific quilters) which provided me the opportunity to play; a different design in each block! I’m not very good yet at creating secondary designs so that was my focus in this project. I am incredibly slow; I keep hoping my speed will improve as I practice but I’m not optimistic!

The backing for this quilt was a tiny, tiny check that made my eyes go crazy if I had to look at it for long (as I did when I had to ‘unsew’ a motif or two -oops!) but once it was quilted it didn’t look so bad lol.