Quilting | Grannies Around the World

I made this quilt for my mom for Christmas. I have started many things for family members and not always gotten them finished. This one I crammed until Christmas Eve!

This is the first time I have tried anything fancy for a quilting motif. It is not an all over design and the batting is fairly puffy so I didn't want to quilt too dense. This quilt is wondrously heavy and snuggly at the same time. :) 

I was laughing with a new friend I made at my first quilt guild meeting, about being so bone tired and bleary-eyed trying to meet a deadline and how we keep going. Perseverance my friends, that is the stuff that quilters are made of.

My mom  helped me choose the sashing fabric and the widths for this quilt. I spent a lot of my childhood in my mom's sewing room playing with scraps of fabric and rummaging and admiring her stash.

I am pretty grateful to of had that experience and I will always cherish the 70's inspired fabrics and caftans that I subsequently stole and ruined as a teenager.


I owe my mom some crochet shawls too that I wore everywhere as an "outspoken fashion plate teen" I used to wear the craziest of stuff!


Where are all the freaks? Where are all my fearless brothers and sisters?






No matter; I am tamer but still not trusted to dress myself to "fit in" I do get the "you are wearing that?" or the "you cant come with me if you are wearing that!".

I think that shall be my new aim. more of that.

Here is a song that really perked me up today on CBC Radio Two this morning. I am going to try and keep this jive mojo through the day to inspire me.

Until next time friends, stay fearless.



Sarah




Linking to the following linky parties that are super fun!

Finish it up Friday    and:

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 | 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 | AHIQ Challenge #29

I want to get in the game for Kaja's Improv Challange #29 so I have added it to my FAL list as # 6. This is a quilt I started last year but I got stuck and lost direction.

Can you see what I mean?




I'm trying and I almost see something coming together but it needs more elements...















My Inspirations when I began this piece are Global-Punk Circus with a sheen? yes, no? da? oui? hai!:











I love restrictions as they force my creativity, In the AHIQ Challange #29 the theme chosen was scale and I immediately thought of this piece I gaped at in awe a couple of years ago.




(I pinned this from  Pinterest. I am not sure who the creator is of it and if anyone knows please let me know as it is brilliant!)

Kaja does a great job of artfully choosing a direction that requires thought and creativity. I can't wait for this piece to come together and I look forward to sharing its progress!

Until then my friends stay inspired,

Sarah

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

Quilting | The Cabin Blanket

Hi, I finished a quilt. The name changed, the design changed, the purpose changed.... sigh, ART. It is now simple pretty and useful. How wonderful is that!

The cabin blanket that was I making a lot of scrappy HST's for; It is finished! This thing was going to be a duvet cover!?!! what was I thinking?! hahaha you can read about in the link above.

I was not sure If I was going to make it with a symmetrical border or not. I decided not and I worked fantastically! This snuggly cutie has been claimed by my fiance. lol. The blanket and me I guess.

It is so soft and snuggly

It has simple quilting that shows on the back and I love this one more than I planned. Most of the fabrics are from my mom's friend and the annual church fabric sale. 

 It has truly grown on me. Its funny how quilts do that



Linked to em's scrapbag http://emsscrapbag.blogspot.ca/

Quilting | AHIQ Improv Challenge

Hi, I have made a fabric pull for the AHIQ two block challenge! Kaja from sew slowly is hosting the challenge on her blog page here



Some of these fabrics have come from the epic church sale and some from the free store. There are a couple of licenced prints in here too that I aquired on a low willpower day.

I am trying to use all up-cycled and re-purposed materials in my quilts. For new fabrics I have been emailing the retail stores to see if they have an ethical purchasing policy or offer organic fabrics. I have not had any luck so far, mind you I have been looking at the normal retail stores.

Next, I need to choose a block or two. The above are some upcycled orphan blocks that were given to me by my mom's friend Pam. I have been meaning to write a post of all of the lovely material that she has given me and pieces of hers that show up in my quilts. I have been waiting for the Sunday Stash by Molli Sparkles to show it off. Next weekend my friends, I will post that one next weekend.




For the AIHQ I am thinking a pinwheel, log cabin and some applique... we shall see what happens!

 I also really want to try a drunkards path block lol, so It may turn out completely different than the original plan!

 I am looking forward to this challenge! Thank you for hosting it Kaja

Until later my friends, Stay up-cycled !

Sarah