Stonehenge reveal - April

I will be SO GLAD when the Mississauga Quilt Show is OVER. Let me rephrase that - I will be glad when the set up starts. That means I can STOP working on my quilts!!!!!    Got two more labels stitched on last night and madly working on getting the last quilt quilted. Don't ask, but it is going great - I am liking what is happening with the quilting and let's keep our fingers crossed that everything will get done. One more label to stitch, two sleeves to pin on (got one started) and then to finish quilting the quilt that is on the machine, trim it, bind it, put a sleeve on it and a label by 9 AM TOMORROW. Yes - work is NEVER DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!



BUT - with the quilt I put the label on last night - I have ONE MORE FINISHED project. That is exciting stuff!!!!!!!!!!!




Yesterday was our Stonehenge class at Ruti's. There were a few people missing and people already had their blocks stitched together so we didn't have a look at those. But these are the loose blocks that came in..............

Jewel tone blocks

Earth tones - block 9

Earth tones - block 10

Jewel tones - block 10

Jewel tones - block 9

Different colour way

Another colour way

And the third different colouring

More jewel tone blocks

All of them are great looking blocks and would be neat to see a quilt made from each of these blocks!!!!!

Then it was back home to quilt. Madly throwing different threads on the machine (thank goodness - the tension is working PERFECTLY) and trying to NOT remove the embellishments from the piece. A little unnerving to quilt AROUND the beads instead of removing them, but it worked like a CHARM - despite the crunch crunch noise every once in a while, but NONE of them broke. I WILL NOT post pictures of the quilt until AFTER the show (yes - Linda - that means - I think I will MAKE IT!!!! - Thanks for having faith in me!!!!!!!!!!)   BUT you will want to see this quilt. It was made MANY years ago and after MUCH nagging from the participants (it is a group row quilt), I am getting it done. It is cute - it is fun - you will LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Last night, I had to laugh as I surveyed my studio - it looks like a disaster hit!!!!!!!!!!!

Machines still sitting in the MIDDLE of the floor

Haven't unpacked the bag from the machine quilting class a couple of weeks ago and the cutting table is PRETTY FULL

Haven't even unpacked the suitcase from the trunk show a couple of weeks ago

More stuff on the floor

Just TOSS those quilts out of the way - no time to be neat

And this is just one BIG DUMPING ground for the moment!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hopefully after tonight, things will calm down (somewhat - I still have TWO urgent quilts to get done next week), but there will be a bit more flexibility which will allow me to do some tidying!!!!!!!!!!!!


On that note - I am BACK on the machine. I hope to be done by lunch.  By the way - I went to the gym this morning and got rid of my stress. I feel great.


Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Under repair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry I missed a couple of days. I was at a quilting retreat and well - I just wasn't in the mood to blog!!!   And what happens at retreat - stays at retreat??????   (I will post a few pictures) OK - so I was too busy having fun, sewing, laughing, eating, that I had NO TIME to blog!!!  YES - that is my story and I'm sticking to it!!!!


So if you remember last week or the week before, I posted pictures of a quilt gone WRONG. BIG TIME WRONG and this quilt is supposed to be in the upcoming Mississauga Quilt Show (more on that in a minute) - THIS COMING WEEKEND.

I thought I could just post a note and say "How to NOT quilt a quilt", but then my brain kicked in and said I could NOT display this quilt the way it was looking.

It might not look too bad here, but it was BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

While others were stitching down bindings, embroidering or just other hand work, I had my seam ripper out and I managed to get all the borders unripped. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Just having that task done made me think I might actually get this quilt done in time for the show.

Came home from the retreat and on Sunday night, I got out my Mega quilter. Installed it in the cabinet and quilted those borders with the THIN poly batting that I took out of that quilt I pulled apart last week.

Requilting the borders on the domestic machine

Something I don't do often - quilt on the domestic machine. Took me a few minutes to get myself back in the saddle on that method  - it has been a while since I used this machine.

I stippled the border - something that I don't like to do, but I needed something loose (although quilting, loose and me - do NOT work together) so this border is quilted a bit more densely than the center.

BUT I got it quilted

Here are the borders redone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The binding is back ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And last night, I managed to get the binding completely hand stitched down and the label is ON. It just needs a sleeve pinned on and it will be ready. How did that happen?????


I still have three more labels to stitch on, one more sleeve to pin on and then an ENTIRE quilt that needs to be quilted, bound, sleeve and label. I know I know - why am I doing everything at the last minute?????   Well - let's just say that I will be a bit busy over the next couple of days. YES - the quilts have to be delivered at 9 AM on Thursday AM. Not a lot of time, considering, I have to teach Stonehenge today, have my jacket class tonight and booked a facial for tomorrow. Oh well - what gets done - will get done. Pins and fusible tape are wonderful tools for the time challenged quilter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HEY - since the sleeve on that hand quilted quilt is TEMPORARY, I guess this means that I FINISHED A PROJECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!      YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Now about that quilt show....................


Mississauga Quilter's Guild
DATE: Friday, April 19 (from 10 AM - 6 PM)
            Saturday, April 20 (from 10 AM - 4 PM)


LOCATION: Burnhamthorpe Community Centre, 1500 Gulleden Drive
Cost: $6.00

There is a merchants mall, boutique, tea room, quilts - LOTS of quilts on display.

Mississauga Quilt Guild    (there is a link to a map on the web page)


There are FIVE quilts of mine - you have seen them on the blog, BUT they have never been part of a trunk show (some may have seen them in my studio). so YOU better get out to the quilt show.



Bring your cameras so you can take pictures. Get ideas for quilting, for colour, for designs. It is THE place to get great ideas - I expect to see all of you there (OK - some of you are far away), but those close by - come on out!!!!!!!!!!!!    I will be there on Friday from 10 - 2 - so come out and say HI!!!!!!!!!!!!!


On that note - I MUST get back to work.


Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Digging for treasures!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was busy working on the custom quilt yesterday. While I am working, I can hear Sparky doing something. Something that didn't sound right. I stopped to investigate and this is what I found..............

She was MOVING furniture. These rolling carts under my cutting table had her stumped. She managed to push the one is as far as it would go, but couldn't lever the one on her left out. And what was she digging for????   There was a piece of carrot (the dog treats) that somehow got stuck in behind the cabinets. 

I moved the cabinet out so she could get right in there. She was happy!!!!!!

I must say that I am making GOOD progress on the quilt despite the fact that I had Pat here for her second lesson on EQ7 - she is going to be a pro now!!!!   And playing chauffeur to Berke and M (although Berke did get my bike rake and tires in proper order) so that was worth it.

Also went to my jacket class last night where I worked a bit on my jacket, but mostly on my dress. Yes - still THAT dress. I am almost finished. A couple of seams and the lining will be in - then the facing and hem and we are DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Hope to take both on the retreat to get as much done as I can. There are TWO classes left in the jacket class and I really want to have both done by then.


On that note - I am out of here to get more quilting done. Didn't get a chance to do any more ripping and well - I may have to break down and do that little bit of quilting at the retreat which won't be a problem.


Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RIP RIP RIP

And that does NOT mean Rest in Peace!!!!!!!   It means - get the stitch ripper out and RIP RIP RIP............


I decided that I CANNOT live with that border the way it looked so I decided to rip it out. OH GOD - what have I done?????????   I was already tight for time and now I have complicated things. WHY OH WHY do I do this to myself?????   I must say as I started to rip this morning, the thought crossed my mind to call Jane and withdraw the quilt from the show. Oh - she would be mad. And I would be disappointed. While this quilt could go into another quilt show - the blocks in it were won from the Mississauga Quilt Guild so it makes sense that it go into that show. ACK - OK - so I am just not going to think about it. Just get doing!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ripping out the quilt!!!!    I managed to get 1/4 of the quilt apart this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On top of all these quilts that need to be done, I have to get my latest article ready for the magazine.   Here is a "behind the scenes" photo of me preparing the quilts for a photo shoot!!!!   M was on the ladder taking the pictures!!!!!!!!!!   This is for those people who ask "what do you do with all your quilts?"  Well I try to keep them all out - or as many as I can.

Behind the scenes!!!!!!!!

Got the HUGE customer quilt DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!   Not just a quilt - but KING SIZED. 

Detail of the quilting

Now for some reason, the customer decided to take the extra blocks (or made extra blocks) and appliqued them to the backing so she could have a reversible quilt. If you plan on doing this - PLEASE PLEASE - think twice. You see that some of the blocks are NOT completely flat. This resulted in tucks on the back that COULD NOT be avoided. While the tucks were not nearly as bad as I envisioned, I still wouldn't recommend this. The machine did catch on a couple of blocks, it was heavy to quilt through (although the long arm had virtually no problem), but it can cause tension issues.

A block appliqued to the backing of a quilt

The backing AFTER the quilting

The Tim's line

 Yesterday was Monday Motivators. For many years, Jackie has faithfully got to Tim's at lunch time. I had to laugh yesterday because there was a LINE to get their order into Jackie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



On that note - I am going to attempt to get a custom quilt done by WEDNESDAY night. Not my strength (speed custom quilting), and I still have to get this other one ripped out and hopefully requilted BEFORE I leave for the retreat. And I DO NOT do well without sleep at my age!!!!!!!!!!!!


Wish me luck!!!!!!!!!!!



Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


PS - Susan - thanks for the tip. Susan recommended getting a journal at the dollar store INSTEAD of buying the SMASH brand journal at Micheal;s. Yes - a lot less money. Well - I have decided to make a SMALL stash of creative tools (Sharpie pen, glue stick and coloured pencils) and a small journal to play with on the trip.

After this crunch is over with the quilts, I am sitting down to think over what to bring on the trip. I'll do it category by category. We've got cycling stuff, camping stuff, electronic stuff, things to do and regular clothes. And I want to be as minimal as possible. I'll take you through the entire process, but right now - I've got a date with a quilting machine.

Ronda is a BAD influence!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is all HER fault!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK - so I have to STOP listening to Ronda. She has become a  BAD influence on me.

When she last came to my house for sit n sew, she brought something very cute with her, AND I wanted the SAME thing. I had no idea what I would do with those cute little things and I resisted buying any of them.

This is MODA candy (little packs of fabric already cut into 2.5" squares)

The fabric line she has was SNAP POP which is cute and bright and I WANT WANT WANT.

SNAP POP line


When I was at the guild, the other night, I saw a quilt in the show n tell that will be perfect for this, but of course, one has to make a quilt that is a decent size.

I called the store that Ronda bought these from and ordered a "few" of the Moda candy bundles and a few other things. Ronda is going to pick it up for me on the way to the retreat this coming week. Then I got online and ordered yardage to make the borders for the quilts. Yes - there is an S at the end of quilts. DAMN HER!!!!!!


Then last night she texted me about the SMASH journals. Are you familiar with the SMASH journals????

Basically a journal that you put stuff in.   

Of course, you can buy all kinds of accessory stuff to put in the journal. 

You see - I wanted mine to be an inspiration journal and I have started with ONE item. 

I have several other articles to add to it.

If you are not familiar with them - have a look at this.................


Smash Journals


I JUST LOVE this stuff and wish I had more time to do it.

Of course - I could always take a Sharpie and draw on the inside walls of my tent like the cavemen used to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ronda suggested that I take one with me on my trip!!!!   Hmmmmmm - I am trying to downsize what I take on the trip, but it would be a neat idea.


Then I got to thinking - on previous trips, I read or chatted or blogged when we were in camp, but that was THREE weeks. That is a vacation. This is ELEVEN weeks - I am going to need some form of creative outlet or I am going to FREAK out. So if I take the journal (we have mail stops) - will you all send me stuff that I can put in my journal?????   I'm thinking bits of advice, pictures of anything, inspiration, cards, etc.

I have been contemplating taking some embroidery. It is small and if I choose wisely, it would be easy with just ONE colour of thread. So if I do - what should I take?????   This redwork one with small easy blocks to do??????????????

Christmas redwork

Already have 1/3 of the blocks done (they look plain, because I am adding bling after it is together)

Or should I take my BIG project - Snow days??????

Decisions - decision. But I think I had better take something because without a creative outlet, I might go crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Then I bought a magazine yesterday and was looking through it for the Photography apps that you can use on your iPad or smartphone.

Article on photo apps

Open this and read it!!!!!!   OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is so true. I was at an event on New Year's Day and everyone was taking pictures with their cell phones, NOT a camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I cannot take pictures on my phone. Well I can, but I don't like to. Too many steps to get to the camera. BUT I am contemplating NOT taking my BIG camera.

Have a look....................

Here is my big camera and that other camera is a BRAND NEW camera (just took it out of the box this morning) that I bought a while back as a spare. Now there is a HUGE difference between the two. And if I am worried, I can always take a spare camera (another small one that uses the same batteries AND cards as the little Sony). This picture above was taken with my cell phone and sent to my computer. Not bad picture at all!!!!!!

OH - the dilemmas of what to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    I am going to have to pack very carefully - if I take TWO cameras that use the same charger - less cords and chargers to worry about. I am going to have to start laying everything out and see what I am going to take for each category. ACK - why can't someone just make all the decisions for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   If I go that light - I might not even need my pack on the front of the bike. OH GOD - I will feel naked as I ride!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I am just going to blame it all on RONDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   It is all her fault!!!!!!!!!


While out yesterday getting zippers at Fabricland for M, I saw these two fabrics which I just had to have. Don't worry - both were on sale.

Scrabble fabric - bought enough for a backing. 

And this - well I bought yards of this years ago and made a couple of stack n whacks with it. I don't think I had any left for the backing - so this will go in the backing of one of them. Yes - the quilt is still not quite done. One of them is, but the second one is NOT.

On that note - I am out of here. I have a customer quilt to get done TODAY and to get to my class.


Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID......................................

Well good morning everyone!!!   Ever had one of those days when you have done something so stupid that you can't even get mad at yourself because it was SO STUPID. Yup - yesterday was one of those days and I can only equate the entire episode to having completely LOST my brain. The end result is VERY embarrassing and I am going to share with you because it is a GOOD LEARNING experience.

I am a bit tired of learning experiences though. You know how your teenager tells you (or implies) that THEY know everything????   Well how come I am still making mistakes??????


Before I get to my mistake - let me show you what happened in M's life yesterday. She had to be downtown for an outdoor shoot - photo shoot that is........................

One of the pictures from the shoot. So she isn't making tons of money doing this, but she is happy. HEY - she sounds JUST LIKE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I picked her up from the GO train and then I was gone to the gallery for the afternoon. When I got home - she had a surprise for me.

She made apple crisp. It was very GOOD, not as sweet as I would have liked, but it was good. We did buy a little tub of vanilla ice cream to have with it!!!!

Then she was off to do some sewing on the muslin for her grad dress (which I thought fit very nicely, but she wants it tighter!!!!) ................ She was inserting an invisible zipper and OH DEAR - thank god mom has spare parts for the sewing machine.

AH - that zipper foot was on BACKWARDS and the needle had no where to go, but break and in the process, it broke the little gizmo that holds the foot. If I would have had not spare - I would be SCREWED. The broken little gizmo is in my IMMEDIATE pile of TO DO so I can get a replacement. Heck - I might get a couple of replacements!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Just in case!!!!!)   (I hope they have them in stock) My machine is now pretty much an antique (OK - so not that old, but by today's standards - it is old. Almost 15 years!!!!!!!)

I was out at the gallery volunteering yesterday. It was a bit of a crazy day - seemed like there were people coming and going - some of them were old neighbours of the location, some were visitors and some were there to work on the labyrinth that they are building in a nearby field. BUT I managed to get this done.............

Somewhere along the way, I acquired this hand appliqued quilt. Now the workmanship is NOT that great, nor is the fabric, but it is pretty. I know - NOT MY STYLE, but everyone should have a couple of old fashioned pretty quilts in their collection. 

The quilt was tied, the batting was too small and the front and back were whip stitched together. 

In a matter of minutes, I had that quilt in THREE pieces. And (this is IMPORTANT) - I was thinking - I could have just used this batting in my quilt that I am currently working on (more on that in a moment)

Folded up and ready to be dealt with. I am bartering some services for someone to hand quilt it  - might need new backing and the batting is just too small for the quilt. 

OK - so I know you are dieing to know what I did yesterday that was so stupid.

Let's start by having a look at this.................

Remember this picture from yesterday?   I had this nice quilt that I had added borders on and I was going to quilt those borders. 

The quilt loaded and ready to receive the first piece of batting

Fold back the border

Add the batting

Flip the border back and pin

In the process of quilting

Repeat on the bottom

Take it off - that is pretty heavy quilting compared to the rest of the quilt, but it doesn't look too bad. 

So I proceed to turn the quilt to do the top and bottom borders. Then I take the quilt off and place it on the machine. OH MY GOD - WHAT HAPPENED????????

The BUBBLE quilt

While it is a tad hard to tell the extent of the mess - this quilt has a HUGE bubble in the center of it. Once the last of the borders were done, they shrank right up and created a HUGE mess.

NOW WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO???????   This quilt is supposed to be in the Mississauga Quilt Show starting April 19. That means it has to be there on April 18 to hang. And in between, I have a couple more quilts to get done. OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


What happened?????   Well - I knew the batting I was using was a tad heavier than what was in the quilt.

Batting used - 

After zipping out to do groceries with M and then stopping at Tim's because I wanted a hot chocolate to console myself. NOPE - she conned me into ordering a green tea!!!!!!!!!!!!   Kids - too darn healthy if you ask me!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Anyway my brain is going  a mile a minute - what to do with the quilt? If I call Jane to pull the quilt - she will kill me. I will be disappointed because this was a block of the month that I won at the guild.

I decided to put the quilt in the show AS IS and I will put a note on it to explain what happened. I trimmed the quilt, made the binding and put it on.

Then I went to bed and all night, I am sure my brain was fighting me about this quilt. What to do - what to do?????    BUT this morning, I decided that even though it is going to be a HELLISH job - I am RIPPING out that stitching and will replace the batting (perhaps with that that I pulled from the applique quilt) and redo the border.


Now if one were to READ THE DAMN LABEL that came with the batting, one would IMMEDIATELY see that there was going to be a problem......................

Can you read that?????   FOR BEST RESULTS - Quilt FOUR OR FIVE inches apart. NOT ONE INCH. 

So why did I choose this batting and that type of quilting????

I hate polyester, but since the rest of the quilt was polyester - I had to go with poly.
I choose this particular bat because it was EXACTLY the size that I needed (oh boy - that's a VERY GOOD reason to choose a particular TYPE of batting).
I gave NO consideration to the fact that it was HIGH loft and the batting in the quilt was NOT.
I gave no consideration to the fact that this bat was VERY DENSE while that in the quilt was NOT.
 I was going to do something loose for the quilting design, but I figured that was copping out.
I choose that style of quilting because TWO inches apart wouldn't work - one direction of the quilt was 57 inches.



What is all the more embarrassing about this is that I SHOULD KNOW BETTER. I teach machine quilting, but honestly, I was so focused on getting the quilt done and it appeared to be OK after I took it off the machine to turn it that I kept going. DRAT DRAT DRAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    Let's just say that I will NEVER make this same mistake again.

Thank goodness the border is very big so once it gets requilted, it will have to be retrimmed a bit.

OH WHAT A DOLT I AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Let that be a lesson to M and all the other teens out there. Doesn't matter how old you are, or what your experience level is or how confident you feel in your workmanship - you can STILL SCREW UP from making a bad decision!!!!!!!!!!!!!


OK - I am laughing about this - I think it is hysterical. I think I AM hysterical which is why it isn't bothering me!!!!!!!!!!!   Wish me luck as I get that silly thing ripped out and requilted and the binding back on BEFORE Thursday AM. Never mind that I have TWO customer quilts to do as well.


On that note - I am out of here - I think I have a few things to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Oh yeah - want to guess what I am teaching this afternoon?????   Machine quilting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I think I might take the quilt to show them what can happen if they don't read the label!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!