Journey 2 Nebula part 3

 I finished a few more projects on the Journey2Nebula sew along that Jaybirds quilts was hosting online this Fall.  These little projects were a lot of fun.  Here is the Gazebo pattern which I did in some Christmas scraps I had in my stash.  I dug out my Westalee foot and ruler to quilt some straight lines in it.

 

As I was sorting through my "to quilt" basket, I came across this Rock Candy topper that's been in the basket for a few years.  I got it quilted as well.  Another item of the UFO list ☺.

 

 

Shattered angles UFO top finished

 This quilt top was finally finished this afternoon!  It was started in a class with Susan Purney Mark.  She came to speak to our guild at the London Friendship Quilt Guild in March of 2011!  I was signed up for the workshop the day after and purchased the book at the guild meeting fortunately.  We woke up to snowstorm the next day and only three people living close to the venue were even able to make it.  I did take the day (with my newly purchased book) and followed the directions to work on it that day.  I blogged that sewing day here.  It ended up being put into a box and I came across it this summer and decided to get it finished.  I'm very happy with the way it turned out. It did use up a lot of scraps.

Now to quilt it or get it quilted so it will truly be finished ☺.

Finished quilt top

 

Journey 2 Nebula - part 2

 Last week I had a chance to catch up on some machine quilting and tackled three table toppers I had made for the Journey2Nebula stitch along with Jaybird quilts online.  This pattern is called Rock Candy.  It was fun to do some nice quilting on these with the solids I used for two of the toppers.  I found a charm pack with these suede looking solids which I picked up years ago and separated them into the cool and the warm colours and got two toppers out of them.

The diamonds for the Canada themed topper were cut out years ago and never actually sewn together.  The brown stonehenge worked well for the borders and black for the binding and it's done.  You can't really see the quilting too much on this one with the busy and textured fabrics so I kept that one fairly simple.  And when I was sorting my "to quilt" projects last week, I came across a Christmas one I had done a few years ago as well.  It's all layered and ready to quilt.  Why couldn't that one show up a little earlier? ☺It might not end up being quilted til next year.  (Click on the photo for a larger view.)

 

Tablerunner update

 In June 2019, I finished this table runner. I was happy with it, but it always felt like it wasn't quite what I had in mind originally and it looked like it needed a bit more quilting.  I came across it this week and finally had a brainstorm to add some more quilting with a green thread and maybe a gold?  I added the green rows and that was exactly what I had in mind!  Finished finally!  Here are a few pictures of the added green straight quilting lines.  This really is a matchstick quilting project!!

green rows added - there are white rows of straight line quilting between each of the coloured rows

The original quilting

With the added green stitches

It looks great on my kitchen table with a bowl of fall gourds

Another long overdue project finished :-)

 I worked in a quilt shop in Hamilton for almost two years when my husband went back to University to obtain a teaching degree. One of the classes taught was a quilt as you go table topper.  Backing and batting were cut a little larger than the finished size and then a center square chosen.  Each border was added and stitched through the batting and backing forming the quilting as if it was stitched in the ditch.  I made this topper as a Christmas gift for my Mom.  After she passed away, I got it back and thought it needed a little more quilting.  I quilted a design in the center and then got sidetracked and did not get it finished.  A few years ago I did the outside border and one other border.  This year I finally finished all the borders.  It is a great memory of my Mom as well as of my time working at this quilt shop ☺.  (Click on the photo to enlarge.)

I used a stencil to draw a motif in the center block and filled it in with lines.

Straight lines in the green borders and the red border has snowflakes which are hard to see on the busy fabric

The outside border got some feathers and the white border some simple loops

 

Livingroom Furniture

This was a very fun pattern that I picked up at Smith Owen Quilt shop in Grand Rapids, MI when I went on a trip for three days to the big Quilt Show in August 2018.  The pattern is a "Get Cozy Mini" from Pen + Paper Patterns .  The shop had a little bundle of F8ths available.  I finally got a chance to make this at a virtual retreat with our small quilt guild (hosted on a face book group).  I wanted something "fun" to work on, not something I had to finish ☺.  It is approximately the same size as the popular Row by Row quilts so it will get a turn to hang on the hanger which I bought at the show as well.

 

Living room furniture

I love the funky sofa fabric and the quilt ladder

very retro pattern

Journey2Nebula

 I've been participating in a stitch along with Jaybird quilts called "Journey2Nebula".  It's supposed to be practice for doing the Nebula quilt, which I will likely not be doing as I still have too many ufo's.  But, I had a bunch of the patterns she was going to work with plus a few half started and half finished projects, so I decided to jump onboard and get a few of these projects finished.  The first one was easy as I already had the top completed ☺.  I quilted it and gifted it for someone's cottage.  I just completed the pillow with the Lucky Charm pattern today. 

Finished runner

I used the leftovers of the fabrics for the back

Quilted with simple straight lines

Lucky Charm was the the next pattern and I made this with a charm pack called Farm Fresh

I made this one into a pillow

I found this apple print in my stash which works perfectly for the back and added a covered zipper closure as per the S.O.T.A.K. website instructions.  I love the professional look it adds to my pillows ☺.

I used up all the rest of the charm squares to make this little table topper.  There was just enough apple fabric to piece for the backing.  It is quilted in diagonal lines with turquoise thread.

 

Postage Stamp challenge quilt

The Hearts and Hands quilt guild that I belong to makes comfort quilts for the chemo unit at our local hospital.  Someone donated a quilt to the cause which had 2332 little 1" finished squares in it.  On a whim, our chair challenged our members to make a quilt with at least that number of 1" squares in it and the challenge was due in January of 2020.  An amazing number of members jumped in and got busy ☺.  I decided to use Bonnie Hunter's trip around the world pattern and used 1 1/2" strips that I have been collecting for a long time.  It was a lot of fun making units that made up 1/4 of a block.  I added sashings and used more 1" blocks to make 4 patch corner blocks, since I didn't have quite enough.  After I had the top finished, there was one 1/4 block that really was too light so I made one more and replaced it.  I used the light block to make the label on the back which totaled 2440 squares. 

Since this quilt is going in the stack of lap quilts for my grand kids to choose from for their grade 12 graduation, I used a Science print for the backing.  And, I used my Westalee circle rulers to quilt circles in each square.  That worked very nicely.  I found the perfect striped binding fabric in my stash and had just enough to finish it.

(Click on the photo for a larger view.) 

Finished quilt

Circle quilting

Found a striped binding fabric

Science themed backing

label

 

A very old UFO completed

On Sept. 16, 2013, I took a class with the London Friendship Quilter's Guild with Becky Goldsmith.  The class was on her method of applique.  I learned a lot in this class and I finished the applique a few years after the class! I finally came across it last month and decided while I had it in my hands, I'd finish it!  I just did a simple stitch in the ditch and then 1/4" from the edge of the house and tree and also in the borders.  Fortunately I still had some of the exact grey in my stash and I used that for the binding.  I will hang it in my sewing room.

 

 

Eleanor's JK quilt

A few weeks ago, my granddaughter Eleanor came over to choose her I spy squares for her very own quilt for going to JK this fall.  We had a lovely day with her.  She was very excited to choose the squares.  She chose lots of food squares and some that were from quilts made for her brothers and sisters.  She even included work boots for Daddy ☺

Busy choosing the squares and putting them on the design wall

This girl knows exactly what she wants!  She walked right up to my fabric stash and chose the owls for the back and the purple for the sashings!

The finished quilt

I quilted it with a funky flower

The back of the quilt

 

Psalms Quilt finish

In 2007, I came across a quilt designed by Carol Honderich that combined a Bible study with quilt blocks.  The website is no longer active, but googling brings up references on Pinterest and Instagram. I am not on either of these sites so cannot verify this.  

Carol designed a quilt block for each lesson in Nancy Leigh DeMoss's Bible study called,  "A 30 day Walk with God through the Psalms".  I purchased the quilt patterns and each week some thoughts were posted with some tips.  I printed these out and put everything in a binder.  There was an option for a pieced block or an applique block for each lesson.  I decided to do the pieced blocks by hand as Linda Franz  had visited my quilt guild and had inspired me to try hand piecing.  It was an amazing experience to do the study and then hand piece the blocks while thinking about the lessons. 

The blocks sat in my binder for many years over our move to the new house and I could not decide how to set it.  I had some ideas here, but I really wanted to label the references somehow but hand embroidering them would probably never get them finished ☺.  A friend of mine, Deb Dees makes labels for our comfort quilts on her embroidery machine and one day the light bulb went on and I got her to embroider the references onto black cotton.  We chose gold thread and that turned out great.  I appliqued a tree of life, as per my idea in 2008! and finally got the top sewn together in February.  It took awhile to decide how to quilt it.  I finally quilted the sashings in the ditch and then did something in each individual block.  I am very happy to have finished this long time UFO! (Click on the individual photos for a larger view.)

The finished quilt

Tree of life applique with close stipple quilting in the background

some of the individual blocks

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I did run across the street to my friend Chris' place for lots of ideas on how to quilt the individual blocks.  She is a long arm quilter and it was great to brainstorm some tough blocks. 
 

I found a leftover of another backing and had to piece it to make it fit, but the design worked out quite nicely.