Houses and Trees

 

 

 

Our Guild challenge for 2020 was Houses and Trees.  I made this little wallhanging with blocks from both Camille Roskelley's Dwell  and Amanda Jean Nyberg's Bright Birch trees.    

There are 16 in our guild and we meet in each others houses (normally), so 16 houses, one for each of us.

 Unfortunately we had to do our January exchange online, but we had a fun zoom party and enjoyed seeing everyones creations.

 Kerri made this one that I received.  I love it, and it hangs above my desk.

 

Deborahs Daisies

 

Deborah brought this lovely, cheery daisy quilt, which was just what was needed to put some sunshine into my January.   This quilt got some light-medium custom quilting to help keep the Daisy blocks as the focus. 

Curls in the backgrounds (whimsically flight paths for the bees and butterflies), stitching around the petals and the centers

and some ribbon candy in the borders

Deborah found a great backing for this quilt too--so spring-y

Leafy Rails

 

Gail made this batik rails quilt.  There were lots of leaves in the fabrics, so I did a large leafy E2E design on her quilt. 

Dawns Ladybug Quilt

 

Dawn brought me this quilt to finish for her--there are ladybugs in the fabric, otherwise I might have called it a hexies or windmill quilt.   I did E&3 Edge to edge across the quilt, with some Continuous Curves in the hexagons--so much work had gone into hand-piecing those, they deserved some extra attention. 

Dawn put a lovely red fireside fleece on the back--it makes a very cozy quilt.

Angela's Stars

 

Angela made these cute dotted stars for her Granddaughter.   The quilt was a kit from, I think, Connecting Threads.

Because of the dots I used a loops meander as my freehand Edge to Edge design. 

Reports are the granddaughter loves her quilt! 

Technicolor Dream Quilt

 Hello, yes I am still here, and still quilting.   I am amazed I went 8 months between blog posts, but it has been both a busy 8 months and a slow 8 months.   I think what has kept me from blogging was lots of time at the computer doing other things, and I really didn't want to spend any extra time at the computer.  Also, I know now, my hard drive was gradually slowing, making everything take too long (it was rather like the fable of the frog in the slowly heating pot....I really didn't realize how bad it was until I finally got to use a different computer).  So....I am now using a new improved hard drive and have some time to catch up...

This was the Summer Sampler 2019, and I had to make it because of the setting blocks...aren't these circles fantastic?    I had participated in the Summer Sampler 2020 last summer (top complete but still to be quilted) and then saw the SS2019 and decided I would make it for my daughter.

 

SS19 was labeled as a skillbuilder, and it sure delivered on that!  my first y-seams

lots of curves

diamonds

some really tiny paper piecing

some improv piecing

Each block was designed by a different designer, so lots of different styles and skills to learn from.  It was (mostly) fun!   And then I custom quilted it, which was also really fun. Another great thing about these summer samplers are the facebook groups that go with, full of really supportive and positive posts.  They were exactly what was needed during pandemic and not being able to sew in person with my friends and guilds.

I had planned this to be a Christmas gift, but the quilting wasn't done by then, so it was still on the frame when my daughter came home for Christmas (luckily University students were allowed home for the holidays, so we had our kids even if no extended family) and so I had her name it for me.  Technicolor Dream Quilt!  what a perfect name!  She was surprised to get the label as a Christmas gift.

it was finished and ready to go home with her when she returned to her university house after Christmas break.

I had added 4 blocks from SS20 to make it a square quilt vs the rectangle quilt as designed.  I am currently working on SS21.

Simply Dashing

 

My oldest has made her first quilt!!   She wanted to make a quilt for a dear friend, and I thought Simply Dashing by Highway 10 Designs  was the perfect pattern for a first quilt, and with these fabrics.  

Freehand quilting design is Effervescent by, you guessed it,  Christina Cameli     The first time I did this design I strayed from her design (didn't look back at my reference before I started)  and didn't go  through the bubbles, so thought I'd try it again.  I really like this one. 

 

The first requirement my daughter had when she wanted to make a quilt was a minkee back.   This is a beautiful wine burgundy that photoed a little pinker than reality.   Now she just needs to get the binding stitched so she can gift it.   I finished all my hand-stitching and had more zoom meetings so I did the hand-stitching on this too. Hopefully she'll be back next university break to make her second quilt. 

Journey2Nebula part 2 Rock Candy, Candy Dish, Gazebo, Jawbreaker, and a few others

 Back in November I posted the first part of my Journey2Nebula, hosted by Julie Herman of JayBird Quilts

 The Journey Continued.  First up, Rock Candy, which I finished as a table topper, as the pattern suggests. 

Candy Dish

and Gazebo.  Gazebo is supposed to be a hexagonal table topper, but I squared it off and made a pillow cover.   It was my least favorite, I think because of my fabric choices.   I was getting to the very bottom of my fabrics by this point.   And then I quilted it!  Now its my FAVORITE!! 

I haven't done the final two patterns in the Journey yet, I probably will some day.

I enjoyed these little projects very much--I think having some thing small and FINISHED on a regular basis was great.   I loved it so much I made multiples.

More Jawbreakers

These projects all used remnants (they were too big to be called scraps) from prior quilts, smaller chunks of batting, and remnants from backings....the only yardage harmed in the making of all of these was a length of IKEA muslin used as backing to quilt the tops.

and some more Candy Dish, this time with bigger pieces to make a 26" pillow.  I love having a big pillow like this for reading in bed--now that I have progressive lenses lying down to read just doesn't work well.  My sister reports that her new pillow has vastly improved reading in bed for her too :) 

 and then I was on a roll and made a few more pillows, just squares

I bet you can guess what everyone got for Christmas??  

And here's a "class photo" of most of the projects together....like any class photo, some were missing that day :P

 

Puddle Jumping 2

 

This is the 2nd Puddle Jumping quilt I made--pattern by Camille Roskelley  

And the fabric is Violet Craft's Betty's Luncheonette--except for the green sashing and borders. 

This quilt is my nieces grad quilt, and matches my daughters Puddle Jumping which you can see here.

These cousins are very close, despite living far apart, and so I wanted them to have "same but different" quilts.  I mixed and matched the prints, so they have fabrics from each others quilts.  

I have long wanted to try freehand clamshells as a quilting design, and, once again, Christina Cameli had a  design in her book to try.  I LOVE the texture I got on this quilt.   I will use this again. 

Horse Abstractions

 When I first saw Violet Craft's Horse/Unicorn Abstractions pattern I knew I had to make it. 

I bought the fabrics in the summer of 2019 at Nuts for Bolts near Sylvan Lake Alberta.   There's a delightful mix of solids and textures, with a grunge background.  

This photo is a little funny--the perspective is off and the legs look really short.  But it shows the quilting really well.  I just had fun with the background--freehand straight(ish) lines, and some ribbon candy and s-curved lines thrown in here and there.  

Here's a better shot of the whole thing, once I had a quilt holder.   I added to the width and length of the quilt with extra background--now it's big enough to be considered a twin, or as a topper on a double bed.    I wish you could touch it--the some of the fabrics are textured, and then all the texture the quilting adds....

And for extra tactile pleasure, a minkee backing from Maple Leaf Quilting.  I'm a big fan of the 90" minkee backings.