Monday gathering, not sewing

Yesterday was Monday Sewing. However, from my point of view -- it was more like Monday searching. 

I don't know how many times I went on a quest to find something for someone. I'm not sure if this was the first thing or not, but we got to chatting about the Piecemaker Calendars. I'm missing ONE -- the very first one that came out in 1988. Hmm --- the collective group has spotted it on eBay. But do I want to pay $40 US for it?? OK -- so I caved and sent an OFFER to the seller. Let's see what she says. 

We learned several things about our phones, and I got to test one of them out while I was having lunch. Did you know that if your phone is set properly and you get a call you do not want to answer, all you have to do is flip your phone over, and the call stops ringing! That works amazing; UNLESS you have earbuds connected, and it kept asking me to use voice control the call  -- IGNORE or ANSWER! My earbuds can connect to multiple devices at the same time. That means if I'm connected to the laptop and the phone rings, the phone takes priority. AHA  -- that's good to know. 

Gosh, I think we learned one other thing, but I've already forgotten it. NO WAIT -- I know what it was. Tracking my steps with my phone. And then to sync it with my Fitbit. Now, why would I want to do that? Well, I got to the gym yesterday and realized that the Fitbit was still on the charger. DARN!!! I missed those steps walking from the far end of the parking lot to the gym. Oh well -- I still did 12.2 KM yesterday without the ones from the morning gym. I can live with that. 

My FitBit does not track my cycle distance, but I get about .5 KM from the movement of my hands and stretching. So it doesn't affect the over total at all. 

See how smart we are all going to be? I swear that I've learned so much from my sewing groups, and a lot of it is NOT related to sewing!

Then it was time to start searching for stuff for people. And soon, the bottom of the stairs looked like this. 

The mess at the bottom of the stairs

Tubs of fabric were pulled from under the long arm. Someone was looking for a northern-themed panel for a quilt. Not only did I have a panel with a polar bear on it, but I also had an entire quilt MADE and ready to be quilted. The panel was in the boxes under the long arm. 

I used my handy list of quilts in the "to be quilted" pile, and within seconds, I had my hands on the quilt. 

My master list of "to be quilted"

It's an adorable quilt -- it was a free download at Northcott, but I suspect the free pattern is now gone off their site. Who cares if that panel is still available? - the quilt can be made with any panel. Nope -- I just checked, and it's gone.  

Flannel polar bear panel quilt

And there's the cute backing fabric. Of course, the binding is made, and we're going to chat later today to see where to go. But I suspect that I just got rid of a quilt from that pile -- after I quilt it, of course! 

The backing fabric

So if ever you are looking for a particular theme or a particular color or style of quilt, I may already have one and might just be willing to part with it!

While I was in the stack of quilts, I took a picture of another quilt that I needed for someone else. This is the 4th of July by Judy Niemeyer. Why? Because we found a pack of the foundation papers on sale for $10, and I made someone buy it. I promised to dig out the pattern, and she can have the pattern -- I'm done with it! 

Here's that quilt. 

4th of July quilt by Judy Niemeyer

I made mine with bright batiks, which is precisely what she wants to use. It's a gorgeous quilt!!

Detail of the 4th of July quilt

And let's not forget the trip down memory lane when someone asks for some bits of Crimplene (or Fortrel) fabric to repair a quilt. I know -- the first thought that comes to mind is why would you need to fix a quilt made with that fabric? It didn't wear -- it got caught on a nail. For those that don't know -- both of those names are BRAND NAMES for basically a double-knit fabric. 

I was happy to dig out that tub of fabrics and find something that would work. The squares are cut and will go in the mail later today. Why do I have a tub of Fortrel? Because it belonged to my mom and I really want to make a quilt from it. Why? Because Victoria Finlay Wolfe has one her grandma made, and I like Victoria! I'm weird like that!

WAIT --- some of the fabric is already cut into squares, which would be the PERFECT project for the serger!!! I may have to dig that tub back out TODAY!!!

A tub of Fortrel bits

And yes -- I did get some work done -- not much, but some! It's all in fun, and I'm pretty happy to oblige!

I'm working on my scrappy green quilt, which I need to get done for the weekend. It's my UFO, and I'm not done. But I'm happy with how the blocks are going together, as those points are pretty sharp!

Sharp points on my scrappy hexagon quilt

 

Not bad, considering I didn't pin anything! I hate pinning and avoid it like the plague UNLESS it's to pin a border. I didn't even pin the LONG strips in my BOHO heart quilt the other day, but I MADE those things match. I'm also using a sewing machine with a built-in walking foot, and that does help enormously with things not stretching. 

I managed to get a few more hourglass units sewn, pressed, and trimmed. 

Hourglass units 

None of them finished at 5", so I'm still missing NINE before I can start piecing my scrap quilt. 

And a few sets of half square triangles got completed and ready to sew the second seam. 

Ready for the next set of seams

We also chatted about the flooring for our sewing rooms. Gosh -- I hate dusting and sweeping floors in general, but I'm forever running the Swifter over the floor in Studio B. It gives me great pleasure to capture those dust bunnies as they attempt to escape. I moved this cabinet this morning and expected to see great giant dust bunnies, and nope -- NO bunnies. That's because I was in there with the Swifter last week.

No dust bunnies are safe in my studio

This is a vinyl floor, and I have zero regrets about having that installed. I love it. If you can -- this is an excellent alternative to carpet. I can't imagine having carpet in the sewing room, and that would be a HUGE dust collector and challenging to keep clean. 

And if you were astute -- you would notice that the top of the baseboard does need a good wipedown! I didn't do that!

Well, it's going to be a bit warmer today than it was yesterday. That was a bit nippy. DH went downtown yesterday and decided to walk OUTSIDE from the train station to the office. NO hat, and probably no scarf. He said his brain froze, and I believe it. I tried to walk the girls in the SUN, and you could feel the temperature difference between the sun and the shade. 

Since I wasn't too productive yesterday, I have a LOT of work to do today. There are no imminent deadlines, but the weekend will be here before I know it, and I have classes to prep for. I've got THREE presentations this week, and one of them is in French, so I need to brush up on serger terms. But I like busy days -- I must NOT turn on the laptop to watch the baking show. DO NOT turn on the computer! 

Anyway -- -on that note, I'm out of here. Lots to do and so little time to get it all done. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Free patterns

Phew - it's been a couple of whirlwind weeks. Yesterday was a totally crazy day as we had a full house for Sit n Sew. On top of that, we had our UFO meeting and almost everyone came! Just wasn't enough Sundays in the month to do them on different days! How crazy is that? Oh, and one person came to pick up her quilt. We need a revolving door!

A lot of stuff that's been happening in the last two weeks has either involved travel or full days. This week is the same thing although there is a bit of slack today and tomorrow. Then three full days of meetings. Gosh - it's like I'm working full time! Not really, but it makes me wonder how people do it sometimes. And my weekends are as full as my weeks.

But not to worry, after this week, while the weeks are busy, the days are not completely full. Yeah!!!  I'm behind on my decluttering and especially my paperwork. But that's OK - let's just get those invoices and expenses taken care of and the rest can wait!

There are some tricksters amongst the sewing ladies. At one point when we were upstairs with the UFO meeting, there were a couple of loud laughs downstairs. We all thought that they were having way too much fun without us. I said that I was the only one in both, but I forgot about Liz and Ronda. Turns out those big uproars of laughter were staged! Oh my - we got such a chuckle out of that.

I have loads of pictures to post, but I just can't wrap my head around that this morning. I'm going to give you some links to keep you busy.

Why would I do that? Because as I'm flipping around the internet and I find a link that I think you would like, I keep the window open. Let's just say that there's a LOT of windows open and I need to start addressing them. Some of them are for me alone and some are for you.

Here's one that I think is pretty cool.

It's a link to a whole pile of free patterns. Someone compiled this list of free patterns and tutorials. If you scroll on this link, you'll find one of my patterns in there. You're looking for this quilt. This one is posted on the Northcott website. It's made from the Canadian Provincial panels that they printed several years ago. I LOVE this quilt.

Coast to Coast to Coast

There are FIVE pages of pictures and links to tutorials, videos, or patterns. YIKES!!! I only scrolled through page 3 (Thanks to Jane for the heads up!). I see several that I would be quite interested in. I'm NOT printing any pattern. I might bookmark one or two of the most interesting ones. You can switch to a new page at the bottom of the link.

So - take some time to scroll through those pages. While there are lots of interesting things, you already have a lot on your plate - right?? So pick one or two of your absolute favorites. Bookmark the page and then come back tomorrow to see if you really, really want to make that project.

OH MY -- I started back on page one. I don't have time to check through the entire 5 pages at the moment. It's Monday Sewing and I do need to get myself organized for that. NO - I'm organized, I just need to walk the girls before I leave.

For some reason, I'm reading less and less of my favorite action/murder/mystery books. After finishing The Winemaker's Wife (Kristin Harmel) last night, I need a break. It was an interesting story with a twist right at the end - well, I should have seen it coming. But it took place during WWII and it was sad and very frustrating. The characters were extremely frustrating and why did they act the way they did? It doesn't make sense. My current audiobook is a story about women living in Afghanistan - A house without windows by Nadia Hashimi. Yep - time to get back to something "light" like a good murder mystery.

OK - I figure there is enough on that link of free patterns to keep you busy this morning.

Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!!!

English paper piecing

While I didn't get everything done yesterday that I had hoped (I was hoping to have another customer quilt quilted), I'm still on track. It's going to be heads-down for the next couple of weeks until that long arm goes in for servicing. Then I can have three to four weeks of doing nothing! As if!

I did get that huge customer quilt completed the day before.

Customer quilt - DONE

 I still need to trim it, but as I have three in total for the same customer, I'll wait and trim later this week.

I got one of my quilts quilted as well. It's for a magazine so I can't share it with you. But here's something that I learned. I have figured out why modern quilts do NOT have borders. As I was prepping to quilt this quilt (it has a border, but is modern), I was contemplating how to quilt the borders. And then it dawned on me - the modern quilter's didn't want to deal with the dilemma of quilting a border, so they didn't add one! Seriously?  Yep - I think those borderless quilts are as simple as that!!

Anyway, since the border was the same size as the blocks in the quilt, I decided to carry the pattern into the border and quilt the border as if it were a continuation of the blocks. While that's all good in theory, I had to do a fair bit of ripping until I could get the pattern established. Let's just say that I was having a serious spatial moment to get that thing quilted. But I tried something new and I LOVE it. As I was quilting that one - no I didn't have a chance to think about anything else as I quilted that one. It required too much concentration!

That leaves 11 quilts before the long arm goes in for servicing. Five need to have custom quilting so that will be a wee bit of a challenge and two - well four still have to be made. But we are NOT going to go there. Like I said - it's going to be heads-down for the next three weeks. Not all are due right away, but since I can't quilt them without the long arm - well I could quilt them on the domestic machine and I will if I have to. Not the customer ones but my own.

More patterns got finalized yesterday and I believe they are on the Northcott website. You have to check out this new collection which is coming soon. It's called Sleepy Sloth and is absolutely ADORABLE.   Here is the picture of the quilt I designed for it.

Hanging Out

You can check out the fabric collection at Northcott's webpage. The collection ships in March and once it ships, you can use the product finder to locate a shop near you that purchased the collection. The free pattern should be available for download now.

And for my American friends, there is another free download using Northcott's latest Stars and Stripes collection. Oh, shoot - I don't see the pattern on the website yet. I'll post that when I see the link.

Here are my blocks for the National Quilter's Circle Block Challenge. I took a picture yesterday morning and then realized that one block was still hanging on the wall. Of course, it was after I had packed everything up!!! So I had to lay the blocks out again. There isn't really a rhyme nor reason to the color scheme. I'm thinking some interesting quilting can be done in these large (16") blocks!!

Blocks for the National Quilter's Circle Block Challenge

Then it was on to finishing up some items. Well, one. I got the binding on this table runner.

Sewing the binding on a table runner

 This makes finish Number ELEVEN for the year.

Table runner

 That table runner is a free pattern designed by me. It's on the Northcott website and looks totally different from the original.

The table runner was delivered last night. I purchased the fabric at Oh Look Fabric (the new quilt store in Milton) and it will be a potential class in the upcoming future. So watch for that. If you're not on the mailing list, you should get yourself on the list. If you look at that link above, you'll see the latest fabrics she has in the store. They are distinctly Canadian and SUPER CUTE.  I should have bought some last night, but I didn't think. Now I want some!!!!  Help!!!

Last night, we had our first class at Oh Look Fabric. I was supposed to put it on my blog, but I was so wrapped up in quilting, that I forgot to post the information. The topic? English Paper Piecing and you can see the ladies hard at work making their hexagons.

Making hexagons

 And when the evening was over, we had a nice selection of flowers. They did amazingly well and those stitches are very invisible. Kudos to everyone for a great job!!!

Finished hexagon "flowers"

This is such a relaxing technique. It takes very little to carry around a pouch of hexagons, scissors, and thread. Technically there isn't really any prep work. I really need to work on these - I have an audio book I want to finish so I'm going to put them together by my chair and see what I can get done.


I did finish my Anne Perry novel. Boy - that was quite a story and that's all I'm going to say, but I'm anxious to read the next one. But I'm going to try a different author. At the moment, I'm reading about the movie Thelma and Louise. I never saw that movie, but now I want to. Got to find it somewhere - I'm sure it's on the internet.

Speaking of that - oh shoot - I have to find the pictures of M in her first TV show. I saw them this morning and now I can't find them. Perhaps she can send them to me via e-mail so I can post tomorrow.

And now I have to run. I'm teaching two classes today. I'm all prepped or as prepped as I'm going to be!

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!

A cover girl - almost!

The days are starting to blur together.  Get up, cut fabric, sew fabric. Go to work - cut fabric. Go home. Cut fabric, sew fabric! 

I'm almost, but not quite done with all the cutting.  I think I have at least one more good solid day of cutting and then a LOT of pressing and a LOT of sewing and some quilting.  I find cutting is very relaxing and I could cut all day!  Which under the circumstances is a good thing. 

However last night when I was cutting, my mind wasn't there.  I cut this bigger piece so I could get TWO squares that measure 6 ½" square.  Well, as you can see below, the ruler shows the first 6 ½" square.  I don't think there is enough to the right to cut one more 6 ½" square.  DUH!!!

Oops - not big enough to cut TWO 6 ½" squares

However, that was the very first piece and I learned. The rest is cut and ready to sew.  I didn't cut the sashing yet. I'll leave that for tonight. Look at these jewel tone fabrics.  They are to DIE FOR!!!!   They're from Northcott's Essence collection. The fabrics are available now.  Check out the product finder on that link (top right-hand corner) to find a shop near you!  And if you want to make the quilt that I'm making, it's one of my free patterns.  Hit the FREE PATTERNS link on the right sidebar (one more NEW thing about the blog) and look for Jeweled Tiles!

Quilt blocks - cut and ready to sew

And then I got an envelope in the mail last night.  Part of me feels a bit guilty saying this, but what the heck. If we don't promote ourselves, who will?   So in the envelope was a magazine. Actually two magazines. And in the magazine was another one of MY quilts!  How super exciting is that!   I'm going to be posting them all soon with pictures of the quilts so you can see them. 

Now if you look really really closely at the top left hand of the cover, there is a part of my quilt!
My goal is to make the cover and more than just a wee circle at the top!  I want the full deal!  If we don't have goals, they will never happen!

McCall's Quick Quilts - December/January 2018

This is not likely on the newstands just yet, but wait for it!   And yes - there are more quilts coming.  I'm not sure how many, as I've totally lost count!   I'm about to get into a heavy design session - well as soon as Market is over.

I was all up to date on hand stitching quilt sleeves on and bindings all sewn on by machine when I received a quilt yesterday for display with NO sleeve on it!   Seriously people - how the heck do you expect me to hang a quilt without a sleeve? I shall be having a little chat with some designers after Market. The sleeve is made and I have a meeting this morning so I'll be hand stitching in the meeting. 

On that note, I've got more cutting and sewing to do today. Another super exciting day!

Have a super day!

Ciao!

Motivational Monday - on Tuesday again!

I missed a day of blogging!  I couldn't help it.  There was much to be done and zero time for blogging.

Well - guess what?   I had all those deadlines?  And I MADE THEM ALL!!!   Wait a minute!  There is one more - tonight at midnight, but the quilt is done. The binding is ALMOST hand stitched in place. All that remains is to take three photos and submit. How hard can that be?  I hope to do that before noon today in the event there is a glitch!   How the heck did all that happen?

This has NEVER happened before.  I'm super excited about it.  And I attribute it all to having a list, setting the priorities and then buckling down.    The next deadline is two weeks away and I hope to sneak in a couple of my UFOs in the meantime.

I have to share this story with you about this last project.  Unfortunately I can't share the project with you yet.  It's for a challenge.  I had a year to do the quilt, but nothing was coming to me about the design. Zero inspiration. Then as the deadline approached, it was on my mind more and more.

I like to read and somewhere I read a quote that happened to fit into this theme. As I was quilting another urgent quilt, I got to thinking about the project again and that quote came to mind. STOP the long arm.  A teeny bit of research and my mind was racing again with design inspirations.

A shout out to a Facebook group for desperately needed fabric (which I received in short order from Shelley) and I was good to go.  I had TWO different techniques in mind.  More thoughts - choose one, then the one, then back to the other one. I waffled several times as to whether I would actually get going on this.

Sunday dawned glorious and sunny.  Hmm -  I could ride my bike, but then a darn dog hit me and knocked me down in the dark park and my knee - well it didn't feel so good.  I stayed home and started to work on this project.  Yes - that was this past Sunday - a mere two days ago!   I'm so glad that the dog made the decision for me.   I wasn't sure how to proceed with project, but after digging out a book, the author said "don't hesitate, just go for it and soon you'll be enjoying yourself".  So that's what I did!   It really and truly was so much fun.  And as one problem arose, I quickly problem solved and moved on. It was almost effortless.

I'm not sure how but I finished the top on Sunday night.  Remember it's only little - 20 inches square.  Then last night, I did some last minute prep work on the top, loaded it on the long arm. Very tentatively started to quilt it and then went for the gusto and got it quilted and trimmed last night.

I have to say that this project is one that I'm really excited about. The colors excite me, the message excites me, the end result excites me.  If the quilt doesn't get accepted into the challenge, I couldn't care less, although I would be very happy.  I'm going to hang it up in my office after I take pictures.

So what did I learn from this?   I learned a new technique, I learned a new style, but more important, I think this helped me to grow as an artist. Both on the long arm and in design. There was a lot of finagling to get the final design in a logical pattern.  I've always said in all my lectures that the only projects that have pushed me are the challenges.  I can practically piece with my eyes shut.  I need a challenge to make my mind grow.  The challenges do it.  They are my most special quilts of anything I've ever done.

Bottom line - if you have a chance to work on a challenge  (and by challenge, I mean a quilt that has to meet certain guidelines - use a specific fabric, or be a certain size or have a specific theme),  then I would most certainly do that.

I remember standing in my lecture at Quilt Canada and saying that I had TWO challenges that had to be done by August 1. I remember saying that the only person I would disappoint if they didn't get done would be myself.  That thought kept running through my head for the last 6 weeks.  And you know what - I succeeded.   I'm thrilled beyond words!!!!!   Just getting them done and being happy with them is satisfaction enough.

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures today to share with you.  The backing of the challenge is awesome. I used a teal blue thread on a BLACK background.  Oh boy --- it looks GORGEOUS.  The back is almost as nice as the front.  Time to crank out those contrasting threads and quilt, quilt, quilt!

I do have something to share with you today though.  And that is a new free download.  This is a super cute messenger bag that I designed and wrote the pattern for.   Follow that link or go to the Resource section on Northcott's website.

Messenger Bag

I've tested that pattern and reread it a thousand times.  Hopefully it makes sense to you as well. The fabric is from the Pony Express collection which is available in the US and will be shipping to all shops in December.  However in September, there is a shop hop in the 8 states through which the Pony Express trail went.  Check that out here.  There are super cute collector pins as well.   HOWEVER, the bag can be made from any fabric and I want to remake it now in something else.  I love the bag - it's so darn practical - no hands!!!!

The bag has pockets on the inside as well and let's not forget that plasticore bag bottom!

OK -- got to run.

Have a super day!!!!!


Ciao!

Published! Again!

I'm going to sound like a broken record! But another one of my quilts is published in McCall's Quilting.  This is the September/October 2017 issue that should be hitting newsstands any day.  

McCall's Quilting - September/October 2017

Oh my - I even got my picture in this one!

Yep - that`s me!

Of course, I`m not going to show you the quilt. Nope - you have to run to the newsstand and buy your own copy so you can make the quilt.  While I love the version that I made, I see the editors messed around with the design and came up with other possibilities which I LOVE.  Now I have to make another one!  Never mind that I have TWO more quilts that have to be in the US by next Thursday. It`s going to be a busy weekend.



And my mind is racing with more designs. The more I design, the more ideas that are flowing.  I love being able to unleash the creativity that is bursting through the brain cells in my head. None of them are rocket science designs - I don`t have time for that. Although I do have some ideas for more complicated quilts - I'll work on those later. For now, I'm having way too much fun.

And if you want a free download, check out this link for Flight of Fancy by Northcott. Here's a link to the collection which makes me want a piece of all of it.  It's absolutely gorgeous and comes in three colorways. The free pattern is one that I designed (it's very very simple).

I have three amazing projects to show you when the QUILTsocial posts go live in a couple of weeks.  I think I mentioned that I chat about how my brain works when designing - it's pretty wacky, but loads of fun.

I did get my new tire installed on the car yesterday so I'm good to go for another couple of years.

I worked from home one day this past week. I had patterns to write and got two completed. I spent the rest of the day sorting out paper that I seem to carry back and forth to work each day and never touch. The kitchen counters were empty (as they almost always are) and I sorted and spread everything out. A pile for this, a pile for that. Toss that piece of paper and so it went for an hour or so.  Sticky notes, paper clips and before I knew it - I was organised.  Now why don't I keep my stuff like that?   Going forward I'm going to. For one thing, the mess didn't seem so big or messy when it was sorted.  Now I assign myself tasks each day and I'm working through and soon I'll be so far ahead of myself. Well, that's the plan!

And on that note, I'm out of here.  Got my assignments for the day and hopefully I can stick to them. And I'm hardly carrying anything to and from work. I take only what I need. What a concept that is!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!