A totally different project!

 I stepped out of my comfort zone last week and tackled a cover for my new to me Kitchen Aid mixer that my husband found for me at a yard this spring when I was visiting a friend :-).  My old trusty mixer that I bought at an auction years and years ago died and could not be fixed anymore.  My friend Audrey and I did the July shop hop in Southern Ontario together over two days and I saw a By Annie pattern for this cover.  I finally tackled it with my friend Joan coming over to give me tips and encourage me to stick to it ☺.  It was quite a challenge, but came together very nicely.

Lots of pockets in the cover and soft and stable inside.

I added a vinyl mesh pocket instead of the stretchy mesh as I had this in the house.

I didn't put in the zippered pockets and handle on the top.  The beaters are stored in the pockets.

 

A Comfort Quilt

 I finally got to blogging again!  I finished a comfort quilt from a work day at my small quilt guild, Hearts and Hands of Elgin County, challenged us to use one of the three yard patterns from the popular books.  We usually use 1 1/4 yards to make them a bit larger.  These quilts are donated to the local hospital where the chemo patients get to choose one from a variety of quilts.  They bring a lot of comfort at a stressful time. 

I chose these three prints (they are more pink than the photo shows!).  I couldn't find a three yard quilt pattern to use as I didn't want to cut that beautiful floral fabric too small so used it as a focus print and just added borders.

                               

I used my new Juki machine to quilt it with funky flowers.

The back is actually a light blue!

 

This picture at our guild meeting shows the back colour a lot better.

The front with the binding added.

Two Wedding Quilts and a Baby Quilt

FIRST WEDDING QUILT  

In the last couple of months, I've finished two wedding quilts and a baby quilt.  Veronica and Logan received a bright scrappy quilt that is called "Shattered Angles" and was designed by Susan Purney Mark.  I was signed up to take a workshop with her years ago when I was a member of the London Friendship Guild.  Fortunately I bought the book from her at our meeting Thursday evening as the next morning we had a major snowstorm and I couldn't make it in!  I followed the instructions in the book and started on it.  Years later, I finished the top and found backing for it and it sat in a basket for a few more years.  It is finally finished :-).

(Click on the photos to enlarge) 

The finished quilt.

A better photo of the colours.  Here you can also see the quilting by Chris Bogart.

The backing was an older Kaffe Fassett print which matched nicely.

 

 

 

ANOTHER WEDDING QUILT 

The next quilt was for Shaylynn and Caleb who got married a week later!  Shaylynn works in a flower shop so I thought perhaps flowers and maybe houses.  I played around with some patterns and settled on tulips and houses.

I used some fun prints for the doors and the houses were all done in black and grey prints.

I had just enough pink to add a few pink tulips among the yellow ones.

Here you can see the lovely butterfly quilting that my friend Chris Bogart used to quilt it.

The finished quilt

I had this grey fabric which worked great for the backing.  

 

 

 

 

 BABY QUILT

I made this baby quilt for the daughter of a friend of mine who had her first baby recently.  The pattern is "Ring Toss" by Swirly Girls.

  

I quilted this one myself with little loops around the rings

and some back and forth lines in the borders

I chose the colours for the rings from this giraffe fabric and it was bound with a grey binding.

Two quilts for Christmas!

I have greatly neglected my blog lately!  I found this draft from a long time ago!  Better get it posted.  For Christmas I actually did a lot of sewing.  I made this One Block Wonder quilt for my son Eric who loves trains.  It was actually finished a couple of months before Christmas. 

(Click on the photos to enlarge) 

This is the finished quilt.  I bought 7 of the train panels and layered 6 of them on top of each other to cut out the hexagons.  

I placed the 7th panel into the quilt and arranged the hexies around it.

Here you can see the swirly quilting that it's quilted with.  My long arm quilter, Chris Bogart, lives right across the street from me so it is very handy to get my quilts quilted quickly 😀.  She suggested the swirly quilting to look like smoke from the engine.

It was difficult to arrange the orange hexagons so they wouldn't look out of place.  A friend suggested making a star and replacing one of the triangles in the surrounding hexagons with one of the pieces.  I love how that turned out.  

The original panel

The rest of the orange hexagons were formed from the train wheels at the bottom of the panel and my husband suggested making those a track for the hexagons.

Another closeup of the quilting.

 This is the second quilt I made for my Eric's fiance, Alisen.  I consulted with him on the colours.  The pattern is "Suburbs" by Cluck Cluck Sew.

I had fun choosing fabrics for the houses, doors and trees

Chris Bogart did the quilting on this one as well and suggested a snowflake and swirl pattern for the snow.

The quilting looks great on the sky as well.

I fussy cut some of the fabrics for the doors and houses.

Love the winter foxes on this house.

 

A couple of random projects

A vinyl project pouch for a member of our small quilt guild's bazaar at her Church.  We were allowed to use her Church for sewing comfort quilts so we made donations for them to put out at the bazaar.  The colours are off on the photo; teal and yellow.

The back of the pouch from a mini charm pack.

I also finished off some selvage hotpads and a Valentine's one for the bazaar.

A comfort quilt for our local hospital's chemo unit finished. 

Quilting by Chris Bogart.

 

Busy Summer

 It's been a busy summer around here and I've been in the garage testing sewing machines and servicing them as well!  So I've been away from blogging for a bit.  And because quilting a quilt in the garage is more difficult to do and keep clean, I've been doing a lot of piecing and not finishing anything as yet.  With the cooler weather happening, I will need to set a few days aside to quilt some of my finished tops!

I have been making steady progress on the Positivities Quilt which is a Sew a long with Rachel Hauser of Stitched with Color.  Here are a few photos of some of the parts on my design wall.  Another installment will be sent soon so I can work on the next pieces.

More and more pieces finished and on the wall.  The background is a navy blue, but tends to look black in the photos.

The fabrics in the larger squares might be switched yet if needed when the rest of the pieces are finished

Some fun techniques are used in this quilt.

 

Another Senior's quilt

 I finally got another quilt finished for one of the seniors in our Church.  She loves flowers and her granddaughter said bright would be good ☺.  It was fun cutting out my scraps of Kaffe Fasset fabrics into squares and arranging them.  It's definitely a happy quilt.  We had a lovely visit as well.

Squares were cut 6 1/2" and the smaller squares 3 1/2"

It was quilted by my long arm quilter, Chris Bogart who lives right across the street from me.

The quilting design was a swirly one which worked well for the florals.

 

Finished quilt