Paper Bag Quilt #3

This is Evelyn’s Paper Bag quilt and was a guild project from two years ago were we exchanged 3” squares of fabric and collected them in a paper bag.  This is the first time I have used a panto on this pattern and I was really pleased with how it looks.  Evelyn asked for masculine quilting and since I usually quilt feathers and wreaths when I custom quilt this pattern I thought I would try a panto. 

The panto is called Mimosa, the batting is Dream Blend and I used White So Fine thread on top and Navy Bottom Line in the bobbin.  The backing was a Navy Batik and I could have used white thread on top and backing but if I can get the tension on my machine just right I will try my best to match the thread with the backing fabric.  

International Round Robin

Back in September I asked Lori and Desley if they wanted to participate in a Round Robin.  They thought it was a great idea and we thought it would even be better if we had another quilter so Desley asked her friend Bronwyn to join in. So we had two participants in Canada and two in Australia!     I got busy writing up the instructions and we all had a 12 1/2” block ( non-directional) made by Dec 1.  Here are the blocks we all created.   Mine is the picture above and I used fabrics that Desley sent me last year.

This one is Lori’s and she used some of her hand dyed fabrics.

 

This one is Bronwyn's and she used teal and purple for her block.

 

And last but not least Desley’s block and she fussy cut her center and used very traditional fabrics….not something I have a lot of in my stash!

So we mailed our blocks across the ocean.   Desley got Lori’s, I got Desley’s, Bronwyn got mine and Lori got Bronwyn’s block.  The only instruction was to add a simple border, no appliqué.

Here are the results of that round.

I managed to find three fabrics in my stash that worked well with Desley’s block. Whew!  I added three small borders with diagonal squares in the corner.

Lori added a pretty teal border to Bronwyn’s block and used a HST design in the corners.

  

Desley added small squares and put it on point.

 

Bronwyn added flying geese and corner pinwheels to my block.

We just exchanged our blocks again on March 1 and I now have Bronwyn’s, Lori has Desley’s, Desley has mine and Bronwyn has Lori’s block.  This round the instruction is to put it on point and either appliqué or piece a design in the corner triangles. I call this the ‘Wow Factor’ round.

Now for our Highway 10 Designs news….we have our Lug Nuts pattern available in paper now!  They arrived on Friday, just in time for my day trip down to Swan River with a few quilting friends to shop at Fabriculous!   I meet up with Lori and a few of her quilting friends and we had a great time taking over the shop.  It was one of the coldest days this winter ( –45’c windchill) but that didn’t stop us from the 370km trip! 

Third Time Around

This is Wendy’s Third Time Around quilt.  The pattern is designed by A Quilters Dream and is fat quarter friendly .  Wendy is new to quilting and has become totally addicted, she also didn’t start with a beginner pattern either!  She did a great job with her piecing and fabric choices.    This is a large King size quilt and I used Quilters Dream Blend batting, brown Lava thread and Plush pantograph.

Leftovers

 

So what do you do with those leftover pieces from a quilt you just finished?  Pitch them like me or save them and be inspired to make a new quilt like Robin!   This quilt is made with the leftover strip set ends from when Robin made our Pedal to the Metal quilt that we used on our pattern cover.   Now you don’t end up with enough ends to make a whole quilt, only 28 – 5”pieces, but that was enough to get Robin thinking of making another quilt.  She purchased more fabric and pieced more strip sets to make this quilt.  She brought her end pieces to a guild meeting this summer and we played with different block layouts and helped her come up with this design.  It is 4 strip set ends pin-wheeled around a center square. It has an organized random look!

I used the panto Joust, a greenish beige So Fine Thread and Robin brought Hobbs batting.

I has been pretty windy this week and I had to abandon the idea of getting pictures of her quilt on Wednesday as this was all I could get!  Thursday was more successful and calmer day!   As I type this it is –32’c with a –45’c windchill this Friday morning!!

This was the original quilt that Robin made that we used on our pattern cover.

Fluffy Modern!

 

One of the displays at our guild Quilt Show this spring will be a Paint Chip Challenge.  We had guild members pick a paint chip sample out of a bag, no peeking, and they have to make a quilted item using those colors.  We want this to be fun so just have the public vote for their favourites instead of judging.   So the quilt above is Lynn’s Paint Chip Challenge baby quilt.  As you can see she got a green paint sample and when I saw her sample card she did a great job matching the colors.   My paint chip I picked was brown and gold!  I have no clue what I’m going to make but I better figure it out soon as our show is at the end of April!  I’ve seen a lot of the members projects and they are fantastic so it will be a great display for the public.

I wanted to show you the before picture of this quilt as Lynn felt the quilting really transformed it.

Lynn wanted Dream Puff batting and light quilting so it stays soft and cuddly.  She came up with her own design for this quilt and after some discussion we came up with a quilting plan.  CC’s in the green fabrics, large swirls in the white.    I call this Fluffy Modern!   Most modern quilts use flat batting with simple or heavy quilting but I really like how this looks with some much soft texture, perfect for a baby quilt.  The backing is a white Minkie Dots so that ups the fluffy factor!

Hope this inspires our guild members to get there Paint Chip Challenges done, it has inspired me!

Star Fling

 

This is one of our guild comfort quilt and the pattern is called Star Fling by Terry Atkinson.   We asked our members to make a block using a light beige background and a bright fabric for the stars.  It turned out great and I would highly recommend this pattern to any guild as it is very forgiving as the star points don’t reach the edge of the block.  So if you need to do a little trimming to get all the blocks the same size your not going to cut off any points! 

I used the Curlz panto, light beige So Fine thread and the guild gave me Hobbs batting.  The backing is a bright blue flannel so I will make a great comfort quilt for someone in need.

Still getting cold temperatures up here,  lows of –30’c at night and highs only reaching –18’c  if were lucky.   BRRR!

Autumn Table Runner

 

I don’t get a lot of small projects to quilt for others as I do encourage my local quilters to quilt those themselves to keep up their quilting skills.  But I won’t turn them away as they are fun to custom quilt and are quick to do!   This is Phyl’s Autumn table runner and she used a great colourful leaf print fabric as the focus.

I started by quilting the straight lines in the outer border and left the space in the center until the end.  I knew I wanted to match the design to what I used in the center but I had not decided what I was going to quilt in the background yet.  I then SID all the star blocks and found a few small stencils to use in the center of the stars and transferred the designs using my Pounce pad.   Then I CC’s the points in the stars to soften the design and tie it in with the curves in the stencil motifs.  I added the curl design in the back ground and then added that into the center of the outer border to finish that design.

I used So Fine beige thread on top and So Fine brown on the backing.

I’m glad Phyl chose a solid brown backing as it really shows off the quilting designs nicely.  It was also very windy out and the small quilt keep flipping over on me!

Fat Quarter Breeze Quilt

This is Robin’s Fat Quarter Breeze quilt and the pattern is from the Spring 2009 magazine Love of Quilting, the Easy Quilts edition.  She used beautiful teal and purple batiks and a purple Stonehenge backing.    The panto is Whirlygig and the batting is Dream Blend.

I thought I would put Robin to work this time so I could get a full shot of her quilt.   She and a few other quilting  friends were going to visit another one of our quilting friends, my neighbour Marg.   I’m lucky to have a lot of quilters in our little cottage community.   I told her I would drop the quilt off and take a few pictures of her quilt off Margs deck while I was there.    I was warned to bring ‘big boots’ and after my experience over at Phyls I knew I would be pushing snow to get out into the yard.   Worth the boots full of snow as it is nice to get a picture of the quilt with it’s maker.

My friends were having fun watching me blaze a trail in thigh deep snow and took pictures of me while I was taking picture of the quilt !   The husky is a neighbours dog and she was helping me pack the trail as it looked like fun to her.  She wanted to play but I didn’t want to stay out too long as it was chilly and my pants were covered in snow!   The things I do to get a good picture for my blog! 

 

Three Six Nine Quilt

 

Here is another one of Phyl’s quilts, this one is called Three Six Nine by The Quilt Company.  I don’t know the fabric line but the colors and prints have a South-western feel.    I chose Happy Times for the panto, a gold coloured So Fine thread and Dream Blend batting.

A few days ago I saw one of the neighbourhood dogs walking with a white rabbit in her mouth!  I haven’t noticed any rabbit trails in my yard since then so I think my bunny is gone!  :(    There has also been lots of activity along our shoreline, I think the dogs have been chasing another rabbit or marten.