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″2024/04/26: Scrappy community quilt pieced and custom hand guided quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen. 56″ x 70″2024/04/26: Scrappy community quilt pieced and custom hand guided quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen. 56″ x 70″
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″2024/02/19: pieced by my sister-in-law and free motion quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen.
45.5″ x 63″2024/02/19: pieced by my sister-in-law and free motion quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen. This is the back.
45.5″ x 63″2024/02/19: pieced by my sister-in-law and free motion quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen. This is the back.
45.5″ x 63″2024/02/19: quilt blocks won at Hands Across the Water (HAW) & sister-in-law assembled for me.
36″ x 49″
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″2024/03/30: pieced by my sister-in-law and free motion quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen.
51″ x 75.5″2024/03/17: pieced by my sister-in-law and free motion quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen.
43.5″ x 50.5″2024/03/17: pieced by my sister-in-law and free motion quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen.
43.5″ x 50.5″
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″.2024/04/10: scrappy Community Quilt. 53″ x 71.5″.
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 thread2023/11/06 – inside of machine embroidered Christmas cards, Christmas wrap covers the stitches.2023/11/06 – machine embroidered Christmas cards, metallic thread, envelopes made from repurposed paper bags.
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.
2024/01/23: scrappy puppies. 27″ x 43″2024/04/10: scrappy Community Quilt. 53″ x 71.5″.2024/04/10: scrappy Community Quilt. 53″ x 71.5″.
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….
A couple of our Guild members curated some of the fabric that had been gifted to the Guild and bundled much of it into packages of three one yard cuts each of coordinating fabrics, perfect for making quilts using one of Fabric Cafe’s free 3 Yard Quilt patterns. This quilt is made using the EZ Patch 3 Yard Quilt Pattern offered free a few years ago. It was quick & easy to put together and took only about two hours to quilt; it couldn’t get any simpler than that! We’ll keep it for our Community Quilt display at the Quilt Show in March and the Guild display at our local Mall prior to the Quilt Show then it will be off to fill a local need. Pieced and quilted by me.
2023/02/25 – Community Quilt 43.25″ x 57.5″2023/02/25 – Community Quilt 43.25″ x 57.5″
2022/05/06 As all quilters know, scraps breed uncontrollably and have to be dealt with periodically. Many of my scraps are 2.5″ wide leftovers from binding or of a size that can be cut to 2.5″ in width, the same as a jelly roll. Inspired by a beautiful new pattern by Donna Jordan of Jordan Fabrics, Scrap Strips Diamond Trip, found in the free patterns section of their website, I pulled out what I had of the right dimension, cut a few more and went to work. Her instructions and measurements are always perfect and this is one quilt that stitches together quickly. And when it came to quilting it, the dimensions were perfect for using Handi Quilter’swave B template (I bought mine on amazon.ca). I love the optical illusion this quilting design creates!
Custom quilted by me on my HQ sweet sixteen using Glide thread (khaki) and my HQ wave B template. The wavy quilting is inspired Anita Shackleford’s Modern Curves pantograph. The quilt dimensions are 47″ x 63″.
So why is my scrap bin just as full as ever? Could it be because a quilty friend was happy to contribute some of her oh so perfect scraps so I could make another one of these? Sigh……
20220505-TQG Community Quilt.
47″ x 63″2022/05/05-TQG Community Quilt. Wave ruler work.
47″ x 63″2022/05/05-TQG Community Quilt. Wave ruler work.
47″ x 63″
I love it when I get such a beautiful top from one of our Guild members to quilt! I love both the colours and the design……so I played. Lots of ruler work on this one; some in the sashing and in the outer border I used the HQ 6″ Swag Templates as well as straight line ruler work. Wavy FMQ that framed circles in the French braid section completed the job.
Then I moved on to the next two tops; both are on the small side so it didn’t take long to complete them. The winter themed panel got FMQ’d; I thought it needed more than an all over design. The lovely scrappy sampler got the swirl that adds such beautiful texture. All done community quilts for awhile!
2022/01/20 Community quilt 46″ x 59″2022/01/20 Community quilt 46″ x 59″2022/01/20 Community quilt 46 x 59″2022/01/20 Community quilt 54″ x 60″2022/01/20 Community quilt 54″ x 60″
2022/01/20
This past week I devoted to quilting a couple of community quilts for our Guild. I did not piece either of the quilts shown here; other talented members of our Guild did that. These are two of the four I took when we had our workshop last November, and one of the reasons I took these for me to quilt is that they came with binding. By the time I’m finished quilting (and sometimes piecing) a quilt, I’m ready to be done with it, but there’s always the hunt for appropriate binding fabric (in the case of community quilts) and cutting, joining and pressing the strips. I’m so happy when one of our wonderful members has done that job for me!
What is my favourite binding method you ask? It’s Donna Jordan’s Quick Method. I make a couple of modifications; I usually cut my binding at 2.25″ wide instead of 2.5″ and I use my walking foot with the SID (Stitch in the Ditch) sole plate. Easy peasy; works every time.
All the free motion and ruler quilting is hand guided by me on my Sweet Sixteen. I used primarily Wonderfil invisifil on the basket quilt as top thread and the beautiful Glide thread everywhere else. I used either Superior Bottom Line or magna glide in the bobbin depending on the colour I needed.
2021/12/19 The members of our Guild make excellent use of scraps. A perfect example is this one; a scrappy nine patch that was a pleasure to quilt. Again, I just quilted this one, did not piece it – the last one before Christmas! Hand guided quilting with my HQ Sweet Sixteen, Glide thread on top and filtec bobbin thread in the bobbin, Angela Walter’s swirl hook again for the quilting design!
I’ve begun to add links to the tips, tricks and tutorials that I’ve found very helpful on my quilting/machine embroidery journey. You can reach them from the home page, or click here. The list will grow!
myrtBquilting 