Sisters Quilt Finished

A few weeks ago I finally put the last stitches in the binding on a quilt that I've been working on for a very long time; in fact, I can't even remember when I started it (could be 15 years ago?).  My sister Eva and I thought it would be fun to make the exact same quilt together.  Sewing the top didn't take all that long, but then life got in the way and we both forgot about them in the busyness of life.  She dug it out again two years ago when she came over to work on a number of projects.  You can read about that here.  I just noticed the date on that post was Oct, 2014.
 

This is the stage they were at two years ago; mine is on the left, Eva's on the right

Here it is, finally finished - it even has a label :-)

I hand quilted this quilt in the ditch, but it seemed to need more so I quilted lines in white strips and about an inch and a half apart along the borders and circles in the dark green squares.

By the time I finished this quilt, I had nothing in the stash anymore for binding!  My tastes have definitely changed for the more colourful in the last dozen years.  I dug through my stash of Kona cottons and found a FQ of the perfect blue and green and just managed to get the binding out of that.  I still really like this quilt and it's hanging over my Mom's little chair in my living room...a perfect little quilt to put over your lap while reading a good book on a snowy day like today!

Christmas table runner and pillow

A couple of days before my friend Els went back to Holland, we visited Cherished Pieces in Tillsonburg together.  It is one of our favourite quilt shops in this area :-).  Els bought a charm pack of winter fabrics featuring cardinals.  We rooted around on the internet to find a pattern for them. We came across sotak. (the same site where the instructions for zippered pillows comes from).  She had a free tutorial for a modern table runner using 2" squares.  We cut the charm pack in half twice to make 2 1/2" squares and adapted the background size to fit.  

That triggered a memory that I had some Christmas mini charm packs (candy) in my stash somewhere.  I found them and had two packs (you need 52 or so squares).  There was also a lovely Christmas tree print which worked great for the back. I searched around in my solids and found this lovely Pepper Cory shot cotton in a shimmery grey. (click on the photos to enlarge them for a better view)

The finished runner

Close up of the fabrics and quilting lines (the white trees on red in the lower left is also the backing fabric). I quilted it 1/2" apart.  The pattern said 1/4", but since this was larger, I think 1/2" was perfect.

Binding was also done in the red and white trees.

The completed runner on the design wall

I had auditioned a white with red snowmen fabric for the background of the table runner, but figured it would be a little busy.  But, the leftover squares were still on it and I needed a handmade gift for a Ladies Conference I attended last weekend.  And, I really did want to try quilting 1/4" lines as I love the texture.  I had just enough little squares left to make a 20" pillow.

Love the way the pillow turned out with the 1/4" lines.  It was a lot of sewing, but worth it.

I used a turqouise Aurafil thread from a little thread set given to me by my friend Lynn last year for Christmas.

I found these Basic grey snowmen in my stash which went perfectly.  Of course it got a zippered closure as well :-).

Landscapes - the Next Step

The first landscape piece I made in our second class was inspired by a calendar photo.  It always amazes me how each project I tackle teaches me lots of new things.  With this piece, I ended up with too much contrast between the purple and yellow and it looked more like a couple of evil eyes than streaks of sunshine peeking through the purple clouds.  I'm thinking perhaps the purple should have been a softer shade?  So, this is turning into my practise piece :-). (Click on the photos for a larger view - sorry about the small captions - blogger is not letting me enlarge it for some reason!) 
 

This is the original calendar photo that inspired my landscape

The "evil eyes"

amazing how much nicer it looks with a mat

I got very brave and added the thread painted trees with black So Fine thread from Superior.  It's a 50 weight thread and doesn't fill in the trees very quickly.  Perhaps I will try a thicker thread next time?
 

two trees added

with two more trees added and framed with another thrift shop frame

It also did not eliminate the 'evil eye' syndrome LOL.  I'm thinking of adding a lighter charcoal/grey thread to one side of the thicker tree branches as suggested by a few friends.  But, of course I'm suffering from "paralysis by analysis" as Lori Kennedy of the Inbox Jaunt likes to label it!!  Do I leave it or keep going and possibly wreck it? I do like the way the trees turned out.  Any advice is welcome :-). 

More Landscapes from our classes

More landscapes......some more photos of the landscapes we worked on including the first class in June....the mat was just used to temporarily frame it.  It's just amazing to see how the mat or frame transforms the piece from a messy mish mash of strips to a beautiful scene :-).  (Click on the photo to enlarge for a better view.)

Alice's landscape

Julie's landscape

Marg's landscape

Mary's landscape with a frame from the thrift shop

Sharon's landscape in a thrift shop frame