Quilting | Gearing up for EPP

I cant stop quilting!! Help! now I know what people are talking about when they say they have an addiction to quilting. I am heading to England for 3 weeks and I absolutely need something to take with me to work on.

 I have been working on this box jewels block that was inspired by this Bonnie Hunters 2018 Leaders and Enders Challenge. It has made me appreciate working with small pieces and has got me thinking about EPP.

I made one in the style of the QAL but I didn't like how it was coming together, I guess it didn't fit with my fabric style.

I went back to the traditional Jewl Box Stars Block and like it much better, so much that I am keeping this quilt for sure! Yep all to myself. Selfish I know!!

My first try with EPP was the never failing hexie. The #FAM was driving across the prairies and I insisted that we stopped at a quilt shop in Saskatoon.  We stopped at periwinkle quilting shop.This quilt shop is just darling! I basically walked in and said that I had no idea what I was doing, but I wanted to try EPP for the car ride. The lovely owner put some needles, scissors, thread and templates in my hand. All I had to do was pick out some fabric! yay! that's the best part!

I looked up the airplane rules for the scissors and have cut out my templates. I am going to try the traditional Patchwork of Crosses and Jen Kingwell's Daisy Do Quilt 

Daisy Do - Jen Kingwell 

Tales of cloth -PoTC

Wish me luck!

I am linking to:



Until next time, stay fussy

Sarah

Quilting | Threads

SO, I dont know a lot about thread. Period. So, I have gone and done some research. Where is the best place to start? the fat quarter shop! They should have a good selection right?

I learned that there was a 12 weight labeled finishing thread.
There is an 80 weight labeled applique
and there is a 50 weight. (which I am not sure what it is for yet).

Hand quilters use 8 weight . Is this perle cotton?

Then there is the 6 strand embroidery floss that doesn't have a weight, but I am assuming it is like the regular embroidery floss that shows up everywhich way.

Now the yardage of thread seems to be important too from a value and "distance or time on the machine" perspective?

I found out that it actually it correlates to a size of spool - the big ones and the little ones - duh why didn't I clue in to that?

There seems to be packaged in packs, cases, single, bundled with fat quarters and in "a box"  phew. If you are not overwhelmed yet I sure am.

All of my thread is thrifted except for a couple of cones and small spools (like 2).  I am curious as to how one finds out which weight each of the spools are?

I am finding that the thread makes more of a difference than the needle when I start to have trouble with my stitches. What about yours?

I really want to start hand quilting some quilts. I am pretty sure I have a large quilting needle somewhere. I cant wait to show you all an update!

Linking with Finished or not Friday because I am definitely not finished learning about threads!

Until next time
Stay Smooth

Sarah

Quilting | Lovely For the Set of Three

Hello Everyone. It is after the summer and it seems to be "back to it" after the summer boom. If the seasons and their various levels of busyness were described in economic terms then the summer would be a boom and the winter a recession (where we get cozy and use everything we gathered in the boom)

This summer was a busy one for sure! we renovated our house, sold said house, bought a larger house, planned a wedding and got married at the larger house aannnd now we are heading to the UK in two weeks.

I have managed to carve out time to get in the sewing room, I now have a sewing room!!! i am soooo loving it so far!


I have almost finished up the piecing for this quilt for a client. it is the first in a series of three. The three do not look alike one being a swoon quilt and the other a bird quilt.

The lady I am making the quilts for made me some hand made cold pressed custom scented soaps. soooo yummy. every time i shower it smells milky and real, not chemicalyy and perfumy! thank you Rebecca!

 This weekend is harvesting the garden before we go to England! Linking to Finished or not Fridays , Off the Wall Friday , and Can I get a Whoop Whoop  , Needle and Thread Thursday


Until next time,

Stay lovely

Sarah

Quilting | Wild Child

I am starting a new Quilt!

I love working with clients; they inspire me to do things I would not initially consider doing. Because the Mnoster Mash and the Flying Geese both left my sewing room this week, I felt like I could take on something new.






















I have taken on the 30 quilt designs challenge in 2018 It prompted me to plan this one out a little bit. I usually draw out my designs like this early in the quilt stage. Sometimes after large pieces of it have been completed and sometimes before the fabric pull. In this case, It was done after the fabric pull but before any sewing began.

This bear panel is the top part of a larger panel that I think I am going to cut in half to be able to make the quilt more scrappy. It is so beautiful though.

   

I wanted to find some more animals to go with the bear motif. I saw these darling wolves! I have a thing for wolves right now, but it is true I cannot deny it. This year being the year of the dog I think it is entirely en vogue! 

I think I will fussy cut some of these pretty darlings into some squares. 

This is the beginning of something pretty cool I think! I am really starting to love the quilts I make. I might have to make one for myself soon.

Until next time my friends,

Stay Wild!


Sarah


Linking to

Quilting | Over the Rainbow "There's no place like home"

I am quilting on the Over the Rainbow Quilt!. I needed something that would be good for solid squares, something that could be done in a row, and something fun and cute that would challenge me. I hit my Pinterest FMQ board to see what types of ideas I had stored there my Alice in Wonderland-like rabbit hole search landed me at Lori Kennedy's Inbox Jaunt blog  I scrolled down all the impossibly cute designs and said yes to the first one that squeaked "do it!"

This is what happened after!

Pretty cute hey! This quilt is for a lovely lady in Kansas! how appropriate!

In other news, I have a position on the board of my local rug hooking guild as outreach coordinator. Because I had no idea what I was supposed to do I attended a local Focus on the Fiber Arts Anual General Meeting. After learning about budgets, grants, and events, there was a needlework class!  I did a pretty crappy job I am NOT good at needlework. I am not even going to show you a picture! lol. 

I was so stressed out with needlework which is strange because I love EPP and hand sewing. The above picture is an English Paper Piecing project I picked up on a road trip across the prairies in October to keep me busy. I won't give up on needlepoint totally.... but I am confident that I can cross it off the list for now. 

Until next time, Stay cute my friends! hehe

Sarah

Linking with Moving it Forward Monday at Em's Scrap Bag

and Monday Making 

Quilting | Monster Mash is Done!

I was working in the lab late one night
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight

For my monster from his slab began to rise
And suddenly to my surprise

I did the mash! I did the monster mash!




The lil monster mash (I call it)







This cute scrappy quilt was sent off this week to a little girl in South Carolina :) on a Simbi trade. I can't bear to sell my quilts yet. They take so much time and thought I would never recover my effort. It feels better to give them away and count them as part of my creative process.












There are so many pieces of different textiles in this quilt. Some are designer fat quarters, some African prints, leftover pieces of clothing, pillowcases, I even see one of my old favorite shirts in there. (the blue pink and grey plaid)

In on of Kaja's latest blog posts (Partial Seams for Total Satisfaction) she talked about being so impatient for the quilt to come together there were pieces missing from the top. In the top right-hand picture, I was so impatient to do some quilting on the top that I left out a few pieces until the very end as well. I wonder how many of us do this? lol!

 I bound this with a 5" folded machine stitched binding. I quilted it with an x through each 3.5" square (3" finished)




I used a batting that was fluffy! this thing is cuddly! I really loved having this on my lap while I was quilting it.




The backing is an upcycled duvet cover and it had a rip in it! I put the cutest 6X6 castle patch on it from STOF  fabric sweet princess line. I didn't take a picture of it, which makes it a bit of a little treasure.






I can't believe that this started as a couple of scraps and a request. I love the productive magic that comes from quilting from scraps. I pride myself on making something from nothing; my husband recently declared to me "you know what is cool hun, we are makers! we make things that weren't there before, and that is amazing. I am proud to be that"

So am I my love, so am I.

Until next time, stay magical my friends


Sarah




Linking up to finished or not Friday

Quilting | Geese and Snow

Hello friends, over the weekend my fiance and I went up to our cabin. We try and make the two-hour jaunt most weekends. The cabin has power but no running water or gas, except for the gas stove which is hooked up to a large propane bottle outside. 

I mostly stayed inside and used my mother in laws old sewing machine to do some quilting on the Monster Mash, and the Geese Quilts.  I also used my ball winder to untangle the ungodly mess of yarn barf I have up at the cabin in my stash. 

 

I thought that it would be nice to take some pictures of the quilts up there but the light wasn't quite bright enough, the snow, however, was a delightful show. 

The Geese quilt is under the needle in my city sewing room now that we are back in the city for the week. I wonder if it will be done for the Friday finishes!?! that would be fun. 

Until the next time we can get up there, I will dream and remember the cozy time I spend at our getaway.

Until next time my friends, stay cozy or cool, whichever.

Sarah

Linkning to Monday Making, Oh Scrap and Moving it Forward Monday  ; Em's Scrap Bag

Quilting | The Best Thrift Fabric Sale

The best fabric sale ever is coming up again and I debate in my mind, do I need more fabric? hahahahahahahahaaaa (maniacal laugh)



 I was so thrilled with the fabric I found at the church sale in 2017. Each piece of fabric is measured, folded and tagged with bands for sale. If you didn't grab it and put it in your garbage bag while you were looking at it it would be gone as soon as you moved along. There were hundreds of people that attended! It was really fun!

I was feeling guilty about going to the sale this year until I started looking at these pictures and started realizing how much of my fabric I actually used up!

  

The pieces above were two dollars all together! These went into the flying geese quilt and the Cabin quilt.

I haven't used any of the above wool and heavier fabrics. I am working on a big dog bed for the big brown dog. Having these fabrics in my stash enabled me to "go for it" even if I ended up using a couple of other upholstery pieces I had.




The country tomato picknick summer blanket is a dream coming.



And a rug hooking kit! can you believe it! so lovely! I took this out of the hoop rolled it up and added it to my rug hooking stash



These are some knits that are in my stash now.



This upholstery fabric is probably destined for the cabin.



All of this thread cost a dollar fifty or something nuts like that, I have used up all of the yellow and red cones along with various little spools. I am now working my way through the pink, blue, and brown cones.



I think I will go again. I really dig upcycling deeply. I wonder how I would track how much yardage I used in 2017?  I guess I could just measure it... I try not to measure my art though. That settles it! I will go and get materials for my art without worry.

Linking up to Main Crush Monday

Until next time friends, stay Arty.

Sarah