Rainbow Starflower Quilt

Back in 2010, when I had just discovered the amazing Blogging world; I stumbled upon all these wonderful Quilting Blogs. Several I read daily, some I read weekly. But one has helped me with detailed and patient tutorials.... 

and that site is Ellison Lane, by Jennifer Mathis.

As a beginner; her tutorials are so clearly written, and easy to understand, I was inspired and encouraged. 

And THIS block, in particular, caught my attention.

I love bright colours. I love rainbows, I love stars. I love it all!!

And so I went and bought the required fabrics, and hoarded them. Looked at them, kept them in my sewing cabinet top drawer. To make "one day".

One Day.

Well finally, having the time now to devote to full time sewing, I have been able to make "One Day" happen.

This quilt is going to be a Anniversary gift for the ever-patient, thread-covered-but-loves-me-anyway Mr. J. (But hey; he gets to be the recipe taster, so it's not all bad!)

Here is the process; I encourage YOU to be inspired and make YOUR "One Day' happen!

Moda Cotton & Moda Bella Solids in convenient Charm Packs made this even easier.

Getting the layout right was a bit of a challenge at first; but you get the hang of it!

Again the layout helped a LOT with this part; lining up the centre blocks.

Getting all the matched up blocks ready for chain-piecing.

VERY important to remember to snip off the little corners! Dont' skip this step!

Lined up again; getting ready to sew all the blocks together. I will point out here that I wanted a queen sized quilt; so I used the full five inch blocks so make the finished block about 16.5 inches.

And finished block! Corner blocks need to be trimmed down slightly. But after pressing all the points matched up! I was very happy.....but oh yes, there was much ripping of seams and redoing with several of the blocks.

Measure, measure measure!

Adding the borders, corners and sashing. I wanted the BG to be dark, like the night sky. :)

Borders added! Kona Ash, Kona Charcoal squares and sashing.

Of course, NO quilt top is completed until Muffin has inspected and cleared it.

Muffin Approved!

Yes, needs a final pressing but  other than that,  all done!

I will finish this after Thanksgiving (which is Columbus Day for my American Friends) and will have it on our bed for our Anniversary in November. :)

**Note: While THIS quilt is Not For Sale; you can always custom order this in Twin/Queen sized. Please Email for a quote. Different backgrounds, star fabrics, you name it.

Happy New Year, and Chicken Soup!

Okay so I know it's not exactly NEW Year's anymore but...hey, we're only ten days in, so it's still pretty new.

It's been a crazy couple of months here - with holidays, ice storms, snow storms, working retail, then WOOHOO getting a icky yucky cold. I hate being sick. Who doesn't!

A few quilt finishes for gifts - one super bright Holiday theme for my Mom; to brighten up her room. Institutions are so drab and grey ( and don't even ask about the smell....ack) so I found  some super bright cheery Christmasy type fabric and did a quick Bricks and Sticks....

 

Before trimming and binding. Just the top.

She really liked it. So did I actually. :)

One quilt was a finish from the summertime; for one of J's sisters; it's super cute and

it's done up of various vintage fabrics I've salvaged and a charm pack of Ruby & Opal. It's Vintage Chic and I used the ever faithful Disappearing 9 Patch.

The last quilt I haven't quite finished yet....um....It's cut, the blocks assembled, it just needs to be sewn together into a top. I found this super awesome Autism Awareness fabric (a cause near and dear to our family) and am making two quilts; one for Sister #2 to keep, and one to donate to auction off for Autism Awareness later next year.

I shall leave you all with a recipe for some seriously kick ass chicken soup. I made a pot and ate a pot in like, three days. (Not the pot. I ate the soup. The pot is fine.)

Kick Ass Soup You Can Make Even When You Feel Like Death Warmed Over

6 qt Stock Pot

4 stalks of celery,  chopped

half bag of baby carrots, chopped

one large onion, chopped

6-10 cloves of garlic, chopped up

1 box chicken stock, 

4 cups water

1 chicken bouillon

2 boneless chicken breasts, chunked/filleted

black peppercorns

bay leaf

powdered ginger

fresh thyme (or dried)

Chop all veggies and set aside. 

Put chicken in pot & add stock; bring to a boil, cover.

At a rolling boil add all veggies and spices.

After 15 mins at rolling boil, top up with bouillon and water.

Reduce heat and simmer for 30 mins.

After 30 mins, skim off any fat.

use a slotted spoon to pull up pieces of chicken and shred replace into pot.

Let simmer for another 20 mins or so ...then enjoy!

New in Shop!

 

 

Here's some pics of what's new in my Etsy shop!

 

 

 

 

 

Candy Kisses Throw Pillows!

This is the back. :)

Double/Full Quilt Top *WIP not in shop yet*

Festive Fun!

Lions and Tigers and Monkeys baby quilt

Under the Sea Baby Quilt

Twin with Drape or Full no drape Irish Chain

Moda Pastel Brights Windows Quilt

It's not a Quilt

But; I made this!

I don't know where the idea came from but suddenly, I needed to make this.

 

 

I used my phone to take this pic; not the greatest quality. But it really is super cute.

It's scrap fabric used as matting around a page I pulled from a magazine.

The black frame isn't the best for it, but it's what I had around....whaddaya think? 

Am I on to something? Feel free to take this idea and run with it!

And I did do work on quilts yesterday, really I did!

 - I had to take apart the shiny block quilt and re-pin baste it, the backing fabric was caught on a pin and had folded wonky. 

- I also cut and pieced a million (or so it seemed) 9inch 9 patch squares for my adapted Hawaii Sunset quilt; and um, didn't do anything on the G&P Teenager's Quilt.

But the absolute BEST part of the day was finding a solid dark wood (not sure what kind) old entertainment unit that was PERFECT for all my winter sweaters and stuff. I was looking for vintage material at the BEST thrift store ever and found this Unit for THIRTY DOLLARS!!!!!!

It was a bit stressful getting it up the stairs but we did it!

Okay. Going back down to the Quilt Cave. Got some work to do!

WIP Wednesday

Well this week flew by.
But today, I was VERY productive. RiDiCuLoUsLy productive.

 

All tested for Snuggleability and Comforbleness

ALL quilts carefully inspected by #12 and #7

I finished finished finished a Fabulous 9 Patch/Rail Fence Hybrid that is a special order for someone for Christmas whom I cannot mention...heh.... but it shall be shipped out tomoro.

I also finished FINISHED! My Pink Stripes Reversible lap quilt for ME yaY! (even though, it's gonna be taken over by the cat, this I know already) and the pics are below!

I couldn't bring myself to cut up this beautfiul fabric

The Amazing colours pop out at you, so rich!

And the fabrics go in an almost perfect way!

I also cut and started piecing a Christmas order  quilt for a special young lady, this one is going quick and I love the purples and greens, pics to come later tonite. I'm having fun with this one; it's an improv'd pattern and I'm gonna mess around some more with HST's later...see what happens....

I have a go see tonite for a possible order and so will finish my WIP Wed post later....

***LATER ****


Yay! Looks like I have a definate order for a Baby Luv Quilt - one where I'm gonna use bits from the kids' baby clothes and blankies into a wonderful keepsake quilt. I'm excited!

So here's the progress report for this week:

Custom order #2 - FINISHED!
Pink Stripe UFO for me - FINISHED!


Christmas custom Order #1 -  - Twin Size -cut out, partially pieced
Christmas custom  Order #2 King Size - On order, no work done yet
UFO Rail Fence - still glaring at me, sighing, from the treadmill
Two planned gifts for Christmas, to be cut and done
Two gifts for Christmas - one partially cut, one still in fabric-y piles
UFO Baby quilt for Etsy store - cut, needs to be pieced
Pink Cheater Baby quilt for Etsy - needs to be fixed and re-done in parts

And tons of more projects in my head......can't wait to get through them all!
I'm gonna go eat some Oatmeal Raisin Cookies that I made. They're ok. They're not the best...but hey, they're COOKIES!!!

It's Wednesday...AGAIN!

Oh dear. Where did the week go????

Well I sorta know where it went; my days were spent working on Freds' Mom's Quilt; or (FMQ) and nights were rehearsing the Haunted Hayride show over at the Pioneer Village in the Big City nearby. (I have mentioned that I'm a performer, yes?)
The show opened last weekend; and the rehearsals were pretty hectic. The show itself takes place at various stages around the village and it's of course, all outdoors. Mostly the weather co-operated but we did have one absolutely miserable night in the pouring (and I mean, pouring!) rain. The event is rain or shine; and it's pretty cool if I do say so myself.
here's the link to it: The Cultured Criminal Haunted Hayride . I play the Florence Birchall; the wife of the accused murderer. It's a true story that happened around here back in 1890. Super sensational for the time.

Yesterday I took a break from quilting, in fact, I only did a bit of quilting all weekend; working a bit on another commissioned quilt; in blues and whites. I actually have to do a bit more work on it; some of the blues I picked when all laid out didn't quite fit my image, or go completely so I'm now reworking a few 9 patches and making brand new ones as well. It's a simply 9 patch and rail fence quilt but the dark blues and crisp whites really make it special. I think I might edge it in red as well, and really make it pop!~
I also found this tutorial on paper pieces Star Blocks over at Fresh Lemon Quilts; and think I might be adding one or two of those into this quilt.  We'll see how into paper piecing I get..... but I love love love that Star block.

I digress - I took the break from quilting yesterday - because I needed to find a 70's costume for the murder mystery I'm working tonite. Big hair and blue eye shadow with an orange and brown pucci-esque print dress. That's more of a shirt but that's why God created Spanx. Heh.

It's cold in here...maybe I should go get a quilt to snuggle under.....

I almost forgot...WIP Wednesdays

A few other quilting blogs I read (okay stop laughing) that are pretty great reads and fab inspiration - they do this thing called "Work In Progress (WIP) Wednesdays". And I think it's a great idea.

So here's my list of WIPS:
Finish Fred's Mom's Quilt - finish stippling, neaten and bind.

Finish cutting and start to sew D's quilt.
Decide on a pattern and cut K's quilt.
Finish cutting L's quilt. Pattern is decided.
*Actually I'm doing two of L's quilt as they are both awesome patterns and I know two ppl who will love them.
Sew flannelette baby blanket I cut out for Etsy.

And I have one pending order for a king sized quilt; biggest one yet. I think I will send that one out to be quilted; I can do the top no problem but that might be a bit too much for my little Brother sewing machine. I will have to source some local quilting spots.


I'm waiting for a fabric that I ordered online to arrive this week so I can keep working on my Christmas quilts for my family; I have to do Dad's still and one for my other brother; and I know there's a couple that will still come up.

OH and I'd like to finish the two I started for ME at some point. Laugh. Funny how they all got bumped down the list!


SO I have a list of things to do. Not too bad. And in a fit of pique today while fighting with my machine I reorganzied the Quilt Cave. It's a bit more accessible; tomoro I shall finish sorting my fabrics into drawers and actually get stuff off the floor. Eeesh. I may pop over to the storage unit as I *know* I have a gorgeous sky blue cotton somewhere that I can't find. (I may have used it for packing when I moved; that's how I used a lot of my fabric to justify keeping it all...used it for packing around things like lamps, pictures, etc. So just have to find it. No sense in having great fabric if you can't find it to use it.)
Oh I also found a great chunk of muslin that I'm gonna use to make a string/crazy quilt. Yay!

AND something else I forgot! It was Thanksgiving last week; I did a lasagne with some of the sauce I made back in August; and it turned out excellently. I coulda used more cheese, but hey. Everything is better with cheese.

It's bedtime....I promised I wouldn't stay up late...uh oh. I'm in trouble now!

I blame the cat.

Quilt for Fred's Mom ... PT 2

Or, A Frustrating Day of Sewing

GRRRRRRRRR.....

Is there ANYTHING more frustrating than the simplest of things that will NOT work right?? GRRRRR.

The last two days were a sewing trial....a nightmare.

The completed quilt top had 'bubbles' in it. So.......I wanted to fix them, of course.

6 HOURS LATER....after ripping and reripping and resetting and resetting and ironing and re ironing and( GRRRR A TEMPER TANTRUM which involved jumping up and down and much flailing) having to rebuilt two blocks and reposition...the simplest of simple layouts was done. Sort of. There was still a bubble.

I think that there is such a thing as being Too Picky; and that that might be the case yesterday. Today was a new day.

I fixed the last square and all was well. The borders were reattached and ironed.
 I brought the quilt upstairs to begin the sandwiching of the backing & batting. In the middle I had it all laid out, taped down and ready to roll up and head downstairs to begin the quilting process.

I had gone into the kitchen to help Ma with something and then returned back to the living room where

MY QUILT WAS RUNNING UP THE STAIRS.........GAH!!!! 

My mother's cat had  somehow gotten underneath my quilt sandwich and had pulled it free of the tape. He had freaked himself out because he couldn't see and started to run amuck in my quilt. GRRRR. He made it up the stairs and got himself free; and I got the quilt back downstairs, retaped it and pin basted it. THEN I rolled it up and headed backdownstairs to quilt it.

AND for some reason....the stupid machine decided today was the day to give me more grief than was really necessary over tension. Sigh> The eyelashing under the quilt was OFF the Freakin' charts. 

BUT....I got it worked out. AND I got to watch "State Fair' and "South Pacific" today.

But most importantly....The Quilt is quilted. YAY! And later I have to quilt in the borders, neaten the edges, bind it and VOILA! Zee quilt vill be done. Woot!

.............then..........start on ANOTHER commissioned quilt which is a SURPRISE for someone who I can't mention! Just in case. *grin*.

 Here's the Quilt; the block pattern was "springtime".