Some tablerunners

January and February have been busy months with trying to catch up on some UFO's (unfinished objects :-).  Table runners have been a great way to try out some fun new quilting techniques.  I purchased Jacquie Gering's book, Modern Quilts, and have been having fun experimenting with some of the ideas in the book and from her blog.  Here is the snowman table runner I made probably two years ago and finally got it on my table 10 days before Spring LOL.  At least it will be ready for next year for the whole winter season.  It goes well with the knitted snowmen my daughter in law made me for Christmas:

 

Aren't these snowmen cute?




 the quilting

 These tablerunners are very quick with a border print and a 60 degree ruler:

I made a narrow table runner with the matching snowman fabric for the china cabinet in our kitchen.  The snowmen look great there as well :-)

I did some straight line quilting along the sides of this runner:

The cabinet was made by my friend's father and we stained it and applied the varathane and handles to match the kitchen cabinets.

My collection of Dutch and English coffee/tea and related tins are displayed on the top

I inherited my Mom's dishes after she passed away last year and they look very nice in this cabinet

The teapot and cream and sugar are my favourite:

Don't the snowmen look happy?  The left snowman lost her hat on the way to the photo session :-)

I also finished a table runner for fall, so I'm ahead.  This was done with Cheryl Phillips ruler and a Kaffe Fasset fabric.  

 It's a little hard to see on the photo, but I quilted lines about 1/4" apart in the floral areas echoing the curved insets.  On the brown part, I quilted lines back and forth which was a lot of quilting, but gave it a really neat texture (if you click on the photo, it will enlarge to see the quilting better):

I took a class awhile ago on the folded log cabin.  this was a fun project as well and will be the fall runner for the cabinet above.  I feel so organized :-) to be ready for fall LOL

Closeups of the blocks:

 

I guess I'd better get moving and make some Spring table runners!

Doll bed and quilt

The elementary school where my grandkids go, has a fundraising auction each year.  Quite a few of the girls have American Girl dolls.  My two oldest granddaughters both have a doll and my son, Tim made beds for each of the girls for Christmas.  He decided to make one for the auction as well.  My daughter in law, Jannyne, made the sheets and pillows and asked me to make a little quilt for it.  What fun!

The sheets and little pillowcase :-)

The little pinwheels are made from the cut-off triangles from my Bonnie Hunter Easy Street Mystery Quilt.

Jannyne made some cute throw pillows for the bed as well

My AG doll, Kit is trying the bed out and she says it's very comfortable :-)

I am making a matching girl's pillow case yet. I will add photos when it is done. 

Doll quilts

Two of my granddaughters received a doll bed last year for Christmas.  I ran out of time to make the little quilts for the beds so this year I made up for that and they both got a quilt for their baby dolls.  Here is the doll bed and diaper bag made last year for Charity:

Here is the quilt I made this year to match the doll bed.  I can't seem to find a picture of the completed quilt!  It's hard to see from the photo, but a friend made Glenda Spencer's mystery quilt last year and she was going to throw all the triangle cut offs away from her snowball blocks. I sewed them together as leader/enders (Bonnie Hunter style) and had almost enough for 9 little star blocks. I just had to add four corners to one block. Great for a doll quilt :-).

 This is Katie's doll bed and diaper bag made last year

 

 I had ordered Jacquie Gering's Book on Modern Quilts and this idea was in there for quilting...worked perfectly for this little quilt :-)

 Again, no photo of the finished quilt but this is the fabric I used for the binding:

Another granddaughter, Leah got an American Girl doll for her birthday in May and her Dad made her a bed for Christmas.  I was asked to contribute the quilt for the bed.  Of course!  Every AG doll needs her own quilt eh?  I did a mini hexagon quilt and quilted it with organic quilting inspired also by Jacquie Gering.

 The backing fabric was purchased by my daughter in law, who made the sheets and pillows for the bed.

For now, all the granddaughters' dolls have quilts :-).  Grandma can take a wee break.

the Indian Orange Peel - Progress!!!

I finally got working on the Indian Orange Peel quilt again.  I needed some time to put the sheet of pinned units on my cutting table and get them all organized and labeled properly and choose colours for the border units.  Last Saturday, one of my local Quilt guilds held a sewing day in a Church hall and that gave me the incentive to get organized.  I spent the day Friday happily rooting through my Kaffe Fasset stash and got all the fabrics chosen and pinned to each paper unit.  So nice to get that done.  Now I can grab a unit or two and paper piece in between other projects. I have three rows of the center all sewn together and the paper picked out...two more rows to go.  Here is the quilt on my cutting table with all the fabrics laid out for the border units: 

 I took my Featherweight along to the work day and gave it some exercise :-).  

 

The first three units completed

 

More completed units...those inner border units were a challenge to paper piece, but after doing a few and trying a few different ways, it went faster:

 

All the inner border pieces are done...onward ho to the outer pieces

 

The bucket of pieces with fabrics chosen and pinned on, ready to sew at a moment's notice :-)

 

Sewing those units together could be a real challenge!!

East Street top done

Put the last stitches into the Easy Street mystery quilt from Bonnie Hunter over at Quiltville.com tonight...wow a lot of sewing!!  I enjoyed working on this quilt and am very happy with the finished top.  It actually fits generously on my guest bed.  Looking forward to having it quilted and put on the bed.  I may have to paint the room to match the quilt :-).

Here are the blocks on my design wall before the top was sewn together:

Christmas 2012

Just downloaded some random pictures from my camera from the Christmas vacation.  We had a great relaxed Christmas just hanging out and visiting with family and friends and sewing and puttering and eating some yummy food :-).

My daughter went to visit her friend in Australia in November and they hit the quilt shop to buy me a Christmas gift...how fun is that?  Check out these lovely Australian fabrics plus some blueberries because Amanda just had to take them home!  Wonder why she isn't a quilter yet...fabrics are talking to her LOL.

 Australian fabrics

They also raided their friend's stash for an old Australian fabric

 We finished the traditional 1000 piece Sugar bush puzzle that has a price tag of $2.98 on it!!  Can't remember when we got it, but probably in the 1980's.  Our tradition was always to do this puzzle in December and we've revived that tradition again this year.  There are five pieces missing.

 There were 5 pieces missing!

Bought these handy sorting trays before Christmas so I could get my cookie sheets back :-)

 We did this puzzle next and it only took us an evening and an afternoon and have since completed another puzzle.

 Our Christmas tree this year...not a designer tree, but lots and lots of memories including the old lights that we bought at a boxing day sale before we got married!!

 We had a folded foil star for several years and then I made this star soon after I started quilting in 1989.  I should have added the date to the back of this star

We did not have snow for Christmas but a couple days later we had our White after Christmas :-)

The lighted village

 The Christmas quilt comes out every year.  This was my very first internet exchange organized by a Dutch lady and administered by a relative of hers in the States.  We had to make and sign 64 rail fence blocks with a Christmas greeting

 My block

done in 1997

Block from Australia

Block from the Netherlands

After Christmas, The Marsh Store in Coldstream has their 30% off sale...these lovely fabrics came home with me

Snowmen for Christmas!

Check out the cool snowmen/ladies I got for Christmas :-)

Aren't they the cutest??  I had admired them at my daughter in law's house and she knit like a mad lady to get a whole set done for me for Christmas...they still felt warm when I opened them LOL!  Thanks Heather.  I LOVE my snowman family!!