Quilting | Quilting Helps you Quit Smoking!

I have finished the Wild Child quilt top.The others wait their turn in various locations around the quilt room where I hide out from sheer terror. I sandwich, I thread the machine, and go.

I am holding my breath, trying to breath through this underlying sense of panic because I quit smoking last Thursday.  The uncertainty of a new to me quilt pattern is edging up that panic.

I pieced a backing for this wild child quilt top that I designed during mmmquilts 30 quilt design challenge. I wanted an all over design and thought an all over wood grain pattern would match the feel of this quilt.

I used Angela Walters video below to get started then I was off, focusing on trying to keep the lines the same distance apart, not bunching up the backing, and making the motif smooth.





I put my head down and focused! the next time I looked up was an hour later! yes! I beat it that time, now I wait for the next wave of withdrawal to come.

My husband and I quit smoking two years ago and took the habit back up when we were selling, renovating, buying, moving, getting married and honeymooning this summer. We were super stressed and it was the only way we knew how to cope with that much stress.

I spent the entire weekend in my sewing room avoiding my dear husband as we were both on edge and felt like picking on each other. I survived by having the quilting challenges to work with.

The all over wood grain is starting to come together and I think it just might turn out great.


Until next time, stay resolute!

Sarah

Linking to  oh Scrap , Move it Forward Monday  , Monday Making  and Main Crush Monday 

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 | 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 | 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 | AHIQ Playing With Scale

Hi All, I have joined the 30 quilt designs by April challenge by mmmquilts! it really helped me get my ideas for the AHIQ playing with scale quilt moving along.

I have created several of the elements I want to put together in this quilt. I am getting pretty nervous to see if they do go together 

I knew what I wanted to do (mostly) and I had some bits started so I put them together in design entry #1

This past weekend I cut and sewed neutrals for the background with some vertical diamonds. And I resized all of the extra hexies to 3" hexies for the skirt. It was too hard to combine different sizes of hexies, that's an EPP game I am not ready to play yet.  

I can't wait to show you all of the pieces together. I think the next step will be drafting a paper pattern for the dress and body and hair. Hello, pencil and scotch tape!

Until next time stay hopeful my friends,

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 | 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