Handpiecing Fun

 A few years ago, I attended a class at Hyggeligt in St. Mary's on hand piecing.  I had actually done quite a bit of hand piecing but a bunch of friends wanted to learn and I was interested in getting the templates and you always learn different techniques by taking a class.  The project we were doing requires only two templates.  I grabbed a few fabrics and we worked on the center part and Chantal suggested the black with purple polka dots for the next round.  I had the green in my stash, but it didn't look finished after that so I added the stars around it.  These were the greens I had in my stash.  They are a little subdued for my liking, but then it sat for quite awhile because it still didn't look finished and I didn't have anymore purple.  Awhile ago I found more purple in a basket and was able to get another round on with some more polka dots.  I then decided it would be a lovely small project to hand quilt and that took awhile as well.  I put the last stitches in it last weekend. 

The finished table topper

close up of the quilting

I quilted circles in the center and in each of the stars

I found this piece of fabric in a bag of Kaffe scraps at my quilt guild's rummage sale a few years ago.  Perfect for the backing

 

 

 

Frosty Table runner Sew Along

 Some of my friends talked me into joining Border Creek Station's sew along for a table runner called Frosty.  But, I'm happy to report that it's all finished and not in the UFO pile.  I guess with that kind of record, I can do a few new projects in between ☺!  A couple times a week a new clue was posted and it was manageable to keep up.  The units are small so precision was required!  It was a fun project. 

The finished runner on my kitchen table

Lots of little units in those small stars!

I chose blue and white so it looks frosty.

This star finishes at 4 1/2"

The backing wasn't the best, but it was in my stash so used it up.  I quilted it with straight lines approx. 1/2" apart which gives it a modern look.

 

Hotpad finishes

 A few weeks ago, I finished off some hot pads that have been lurking in my 'to quilt' basket for many years!  They are leftover blocks from other projects and make great hostess gifts (for when we are allowed to go out again ☺).  The larger mat was an attempt to use up some stitch and flip squares that were left over from a workshop I took in 2014 with Jacqui Gering.  I have finished a top using these units which I have to blog yet (it's being hand quilted).  I made this into a candle mat or table centerpiece, but I have lots of the units left and may make more of them into round potholders eventually.  These little projects were great practice for free motion and straight line quilting.

 

This table runner was also finally finished.  It was a class sample for a technique of sewing hexagon shapes with strips and I have made a number of samples and had lots of leftovers for hot pads.  I used a magnifico gold thread to free motion quilt this one for some sparkle.
 

 

 

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

 

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.

 

Table runners

I found some pictures on my camera of some table runners I finished in October!  It's about time to post them.  I still have a stack of runners to quilt in a basket in a corner.  Once I start quilting one, I usually do a few at at time ☺. (Click on the photos to enlarge.)

I received a kit from a friend of mine and put it together a couple of years ago.  It's so nice to have it finally quilted.  It's very spring like.

I quilted it on my Bernina 830 vintage machine with echoed swirls all over which suited it.

The backing was included in the kit as well.

This was a sample for a class to try out a pattern.

Backing for the fall table topper

This little mat was a little gift at a booth at Quilt Canada a few years ago.  We received a few 5" squares with a link for a pattern on the internet.  I quilted it with interlocking squares.

Backing for the little mat.

One Block Wonder table runners

Finally finished the binding on the last of a set of four table toppers/runners this morning.  This was my first attempt at a using 6 panels for a OBW.  I bought this panel in a very good clearance, but there were only 6 panels so I could not keep one intact to incorporate into a lap quilt.  So, I decided to make table runners with them, grouping the blocks into like colours.   

(Click on the photos to enlarge for a better view.)

the original panel

I added triangles between the blocks which really shows the design in each block ☺

quilting in the center

corners were quilted with straight lines

This layout was set with a lime green shot cotton.  This resulted in a totally different look!

quilting in the center

funky feathers in the border

I had enough random rust coloured blocks left to space them symmetrically and added a thanksgiving print for the border.

this one is quilted with straight lines in the border and 'orange peel' quilting in the blocks

I was going to throw these out as they were quite boring, but the Dutch frugality wouldn't let me LOL.  It turned out very nice with the dark red setting triangles and borders.  Every block was used up in the runners ☺.

quilting

the orange peel quilting in the blocks works very well for OBW blocks.

Happy to check four more UFO's off the list!