Back to the Indian Orange Peel

Two more units for the Indian Orange Peel 
 Three more units to go and the paper piecing is done!
Assembly is next

Lydia and Matthias' quilt and another UFO finished!

Once upon a time, way back when, I participated in a fall exchange with my Hearts and Hands Quilt group.  I got as far as pinning my quilt together, but could not get it quilted before the deadline at our September 2009 meeting.  It has been sitting in my basket ready to quilt at a moment's notice.  We received an invitation to a wedding of a young friend, who has moved to PEI.  The wedding was in PEI, but they traveled East and had a reception here. I was contemplating what kind of quilt to make for them, when I came across this quilt which I thought would suit Lydia's tastes very well.  How handy was that to have it all pinned and ready to roll?  I machine quilted it and found some red solid in my stash that matched the red piping and it was actually finished 2 days before the wedding :-).

The fnished quilt

I quilted straight lines about 5/8" apart in the dark sections and leaves in the light rows

closeup of the leaves and lines

Appliqued oak leaves

The center got some loops 

It was very nice to get another UFO out of the basket and put to good use.

Justin and Olivia's quilt

My nephew Justin got married in July to Olivia.  I had four different fabrics and had her pick the one she liked best.  I did a One Block Wonder quilt for them and had a great time making it. (Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the original fabric.) Have I mentioned lately that those OBW's are addicting?  I have at least 15 different fabrics that could work for this pattern :-).  I had to test sew the six Featherweights that Jake serviced and this project provided lots of testing for them. 

it was a lot of fun playing with the layout of the blocks and adding the cubes

closeup of cubes and border

Finished quilt

the backing was found in the sale bin and matched perfectly

tried out a new quilting design for this quilt using Angela Walters' great book, "Free-Motion Quilting - 28 Designs Step by Step".

feathers quilted in the border

quilt outside on a sunny day

.....surfacing

It's been awhile since I posted!  This is not because I haven't been sewing, but I've been too busy to get my act together to write a coherent post LOL.  We have been working hard on sewing machines and updating the for sale blog, cleaning up machines and testing them.  And, I have a new ceiling in my basement!  We built the house four years ago, but had to save up a few pennies to put a drop ceiling in this large room.  We found a great deal on tile and fluorescent fixtures this summer and it was time to get it in.

(click on the photos to enlarge)

putting in the frame

lots of figuring around the angles

ceiling in

this took a little thinking

this treadle machine is just like the one I learned to sew on - it now serves as our coffee table

we added lots of daylight tubes

I found "create" at an antique shop

my black Singer 301 in a trapezoid cabinet - I finished the topper from leftover hexagon blocks

some toys on the ledge

the six Singer Featherweights we serviced and tested this summer ready to find new homes :-)

all my rulers are sorted and organized again - on the wall is my selvage cube quilt

I opened up my Singer 403 in the curved front cabinet and did some sewing on it last week.  Love that machine!

This area needs to be dealt with yet!! LOL  I have to sort my book shelves first to make space.  Hopefully, I will have time this summer.

Sorting and organizing a sewing room is an ongoing, never ending process, but it's always fun to root through and find things you've forgotten about.  Now I need a few weeks of UFO retreats to make headway on the stuff I found :-).

Giraffes for Jasmine

My niece, Jasmine is expecting a baby and a shower was held for her on Saturday.  I was told she was going to do her baby room in giraffes.  The next day I was at Cherished Pieces and saw a bolt of this awesome fabric sitting on the floor!  Wow, that had to come home with me :-).  I purchased enough for at least three baby quilts.

I had picked up a pattern called Ring Toss by Swirly Girls awhile ago and figured this was the perfect quilt to make.  I found batiks to match the colours and a background which looks like giraffe spots and used the giraffe fabric on the back so I wouldn't have to cut them apart.   The pattern calls for 5 FQ's, but I had 10 colours.  I used the Creative Grids Circle Savvy Ruler which works very quickly. 

Since I was on a deadline, I quilted organic lines in the border and I really like the way that turned out.  I was thinking circles, but couldn't up the courage quite yet :-).

I quilted the center of each circle with a King Tut variegated thread and the rest with a lovely light orange Magnifico from Superior Threads purchased from Anita Zobens of Cotton Mill Thread works.

 I found the binding at Seven Sisters quilt shop and when I got home, realized it was from the Dr. Suess line!  No wonder I liked it :-).

  
Since I had cut out double the circles, I made two tops at a time using a solid Kona Cotton for the center.  I hope to do some modernish quilting in this one.

 

I was at Hyggeligt Quilt shop a few months ago and saw a little quilt done with the cut outs of circles on solids.  I'm thinking of experimenting with a layout on either black or white background.  I'm leaning toward the black at the moment but the white looks very fresh.  That would make a really fun modernish quilt.

Easy Street Mystery Quilt

The Easy Street mystery quilt from Bonnie Hunter has been completed for a few weeks.  This past week, it was hung at the Gwillimbury quilt show and I finally had a chance to take a picture of the whole quilt.  Here is it hanging in the show (see earlier post for a link to the venue where the show was held).

Since this was such a large quilt, I had Amy Van Gurp do the quilting on her long arm machine. 

She did a lovely job quilting it with a variegated King Tut thread.

Amy used the King Tut thread on the back as well which really showed off the quilting.  The back was pieced with strips of the fabrics used in the quilt. I will have to add a photo of that later.

 

Quilt show in Gwillimbury

My friend Lynn's quilt guild held a quilt show for members and friends so she asked me lend her a couple of quilts to hang.  My Kaffe Fasset bordered diamonds quilts went to the show and it looked very nice at the Sharon Temple, a national historical site.  The building is from 1832!  A very interesting building with lots of large windows.  Here is my KF quilt hanging in the show:

Check out the stairs to the next floor in the temple!

 

The stairs are very steep - you can see why they are blocked :-)