Sewing themed I spy Quilt

I started this quilt in 2005 while working at the Quilt Rack in Ancaster. We taught an I spy quilt class at the shop and I was inspired to make myself one with my collection of sewing themed prints that you just have to pick up, but don't know what you are actually going to do with them :-). I had collected these prints for quite a few years had plenty to make this quilt. The squares are 6" finished with 1" black sashings. The border fabrics have metallic little swirls on them which resemble the decals on the antique sewing machines. The quilt blocks are layed out in a colour wash effect from the lightest at the top left to the darkest at the bottom right. I finally finished the quilt last week for a presentation my husband and I did on our antique sewing machines and quilts for the London Friendship Quilt Guild where I am a member. The quilt was pieced and quilted on my trusty Singer 15-88 treadle sewing machine.

Top right corner of the quilt:

Bottom, left corner of the quilt showing the quilting on the border. I used variegated gold/brown thread from King Tut:

Quilting in the blocks and the first row of quilting in the border:

Polka Dot baby quilt for my great nephew

My niece had the cutest little baby boy a few weeks ago and this afternoon we had a shower for him. This is the quilt I made for baby Noah. I was involved with a polka dot exchange on the internet and with a cyber friend from New Brunswick. I used some of my polka dot collection for this quilt. It's a pattern from a Fons & Porter magazine from a few years back.


The background was quilted with a light blue variegated thread with little loopies.

The quilting inside the circles. I quilted this quilt with my vintage Bernina 807 minimatic and my trusty Singer 15-88 treadle.

"Leftovers" quilt for fundraising auction

Sorry that I haven't posted anything on my blog lately! I actually have had this quilt finished for a month! But, we are packing to move in 5 weeks so I haven't had much of a chance to blog. I have been busy with some UFO's as well in between the packing...amazing what you find hidden :-). This quilt was made with 'leftovers' from a class I was teaching "Learning to Listen to your Quilt Speak". We made a table topper...well, I ended up making four because I wanted to try out different settings and fabrics! So, of course, I had leftovers of the fabrics used in the quilt. I also found some scrap bags with some of the same fabrics (some Amy Butler and quite a few Joel Dewberry prints). This pattern was in the Quick Quilts magazine Issue #96 and the name of it is "Modern Spirit in Squares" by Caren Zimmerman. It is a very quick and easy quilt with no borders. Great for leftover large print squares. Here is the finished quilt:

It was quilted allover with a meandering stitch with turquoise and brown quilting thread from King Tut. I was very excited to find that thread at the Marsh Store in Coldstream...perfect for this quilt.


A couple of closeup pictures of the quilting and fabrics:


This quilt went to a fund raising auction at the Christian High School where my husband teaches. I hope to get some more pictures up soon.

A Quilt for Kit!!

On Friday afternoon, I picked up Fons & Porter's new magazine, "Easy Quilts". I browsed through the contents page to see if there was anything interesting and spotted this photo:


The magazine just had to come home after that! The doll pictured is "Kit" from the American Girl Collection of historical dolls. I have had this doll for about 8 or 9 years and have never made her a quilt yet!! So, Friday night, I abandoned working dutifully on another UFO and decided to make this little quilt for my doll.
By 10:30, I put the last stitch into the binding, so it's not a UFO!! Doesn't she look happy with her new quilt?

I used fabrics from the "XOXO The Cat" by Wendy Slotboom for In The Beginning fabrics. I had a collection of FQ's from that line (the yellow is a 30's repro print). What fun to make a little quilt in one evening. I sewed the entire quilt on my trusty Singer 15-88 treadle. I'm sure Kit's Mom would have sewn on a treadle sewing machine back in 1934 :-).


I am working on my UFO's again :-).

J 11 Twin Sister

I prepped this block way before Christmas and finally finished it this week. J 11 Twin Sister is appliqued using the back basting method.

Opinions needed :-).....updates at bottom

I have a dilemna with a quilt I'm working on for a charity project with one of my quilt groups. I found this huge piece of cheerful pansy fabric at a yard sale last summer and thought to use this for my borders. I decided to use Bonnie Hunter's Boxy Stars pattern which I had already used to make a quilt before. These are the fabrics I chose to do the stars and the white with a little tiny red bud is the background. I added a gold for the center:


I found this wonderful wide pink flannelette for the backing:

Now the problem is, the pansies don't really seem to work for a border??? Or will they??? (Just to clarify...there is no sashing between these blocks yet...that white is just my design wall :-).

This is the first quilt I did with this pattern. So, can I get away with the pansies border? If so, what colour sashing and what colour corner stones? The background of the pansies fabric is navy blue.

My theory is that maybe I should have mixed purple and navy in with the green and red? Maybe it would have worked then? I also need to make sure this thing won't look like Christmas! I can use any other colour for the border instead of the pansies, but since that was my focus fabric, I'd really like to use it :-). But, I won't be offended if you all think I should put the pansies out of my head and use something else LOL. Thanks for any advice you can give!

First idea is in....purple sashing with gold corner stars. I only have two purples in my stash! The light one would be enough for sashings and the darker one might just be enough for dark purple corner stones?


Closer up of the purple sashing (I could put another narrow border around the whole quilt before the borders...gold?):


I sewed all the four patch units together today and cut some purple sashing of the proper width and also found some cool dark purple with gold hearts on it for the corner stones. I'm liking it more and more! I like the gold between the border and purple sashings as well, but only have a little bit of that left :-(.

Close up:
Don't know if you can see this very well, but at the bottom is a different gold print which I have in my stash. It is not as bright as the corner stones, but there would be lots there for a 2" border around the whole quilt between the pansy border. If you click on the picture, it should enlarge and may give a better view. Or should I look for a brighter gold for the border or go with something totally different?

Thanks to Cyn's comment, I cut some 2 1/2" squares for the cornerstones from the pansy fabric. I didn't fussy cut them because they are very large, but just let the print fall wherever. I'm liking that a LOT! That really seems to tie everything together. I also cut a couple 2 1/2" strips of the background fabric of the stars and put that along the outside for an additional narrow border. I'm liking that too.

If you click on this picture, it should enlarge so you can see the light narrow border a bit better:

I tried the yellow border just to see what it would look like, but it looks dirty compared to the lovely gold in the centers of the star blocks. I think the decisions have been made unless I get real opposition to the above picture :-).

Doll hat

My poor doll doesn't have any clothes yet. I just don't get around to making her a little sleeper. Someday! My friend Joan knits little hats and sells them on her blog. I ordered one for my baby (doll :-) and it fits perfectly. Now I really should make my poor baby some clothes! At least her head's warm now and I can always wrap her up in a quilt.


Here is the back of the hat: