Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

I hope you are all well.

I wanted to end my year with an update

on my Old Tobacco Road quilt, designed by Bonnie K. Hunter.

I have the quilt top completed!!

Yeah!!

I actually have it sandwiched and I started hand quilting it.

I don't have a picture of that yet.

It's going to take me a little while to finish the quilting as this is a large quilt.

It measures 91 inches by 101 inches right now.

It will fit perfectly on my oldest sons bed.

He loves it too.

I love the border on this quilt.

It really pops!

I'm so glad that I got back into quilting this year.

I did get some of my ufo's done.

Plus I got a chance to work on some new projects.

I hope that 2016 is even more productive for me.

I look forward to seeing all the projects out there in blogland.

Happy New Year to everyone!!

Hugs

Ariane

Old Tobacco Road progress....

I've been gradually working at finishing my Old Tobacco Road quilt, designed by Bonnie K. Hunter. I've really enjoyed working on this quilt and have made a good dent on my 2 inch scrap squares and strips. 

This pictures shows the Center part done. I'm working on the flying geese border. I only have 20 flying geese left to sew. Then I will sew the border together. 

I hope you like it!!!

Hugs

Ariane

A boxy pouch Christmas gift and some fabric for me!!!

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all doing well.

I made another pouch the other day.

This one is also a gift for Christmas.

Thankfully the recipient doesn't follow my blog.

This is for an 18 year old boy/young man.

He loves superman, or any DC comic.

So, I used that as the basis for my pouch.

Here it is.

I used the boxy pouch tutorial by Pink Stitches found here.

It's an excellent tutorial.

It was my first time trying it out and it went together no problem.

The Superman symbol that I paper pieced was a free pattern found 

on the Fandom in Stitches blog here.

I hadn't paper pieced in a really long time. 

It's was a bit intimidating for me, but it worked out so well.

I'm really pleased with it.

I know he is going to love it.

I will fill this pouch with toiletries for him as part of the gift.

Here is the picture showing the interior fabric.

All this fabric is from my stash.

With all the sales on this past weekend,

I just couldn't pass some of them up.

One store in particular, Mad About Patchwork, had a huge selection of fabric on sale.

A lot of this fabric has been out for a while, 

but since I just got back into quilting this fall, I never had any of it in my stash.

I couldn't pass up the deals.

So, I kind of went crazy with the shopping.

I bought 35 half yard cuts of fabric.

I know, it's a lot! lol!!!

But I love it all.

Since the price of fabric is going up here in Canada,

I gotta take advantage of all the deals I can get.

It's not as affordable to order from the US anymore since the Canadian dollar is so low again.

And plus, I love supporting the Canadian Shops.

Too many are closing their doors.

It's so sad.

This will fill some colour gaps in my stash too.

So excited about it.

I have more fabric coming soon too.

I know......I'm really spoiled.

Hugs

A little open-wide pouch

Hi everyone,

Tonight I decided to make a small Christmas gift.

I'd been meaning to try out Noodlehead's Open-Wide pouch tutorial for a while.

I thought it would make a great gift.

So, this is my first time making this pattern.

I played around with my 1.5 inch scraps and came up with the idea for the front of the bag.

I think it looks cute.

The little squares finish at 1 inch.

I like the stem and leaves going up the side.

They were fun to make.

Here's a few more pictures.

All the fabric came from my stash.

This is the perfect size for a make-up bag.

I will try making a few of the larger sizes.

This is the smallest size in her tutorial.

I hope you like it.

Hugs

What I'm working on......

Hi everyone,

I hope you are having a good week.

It's been a really busy week for me, and I've been fighting a bad cold too.

I'm in good spirits though, as I've been able to do some sewing.

My oldest son turned 20 this week.

Crazy!!!! I know!!!

We had a nice dinner to celebrate!

But back to sewing.

I'm working on a new project.

It's the Old Tobacco Road Mystery Quilt by Bonnie K. Hunter found here.

In September, I had gotten back to my sewing and started cutting my scraps up into usable sizes.

Then, one night I started sewing up four patches with my 2 inch squares as shown here.

Well, I started looking for patterns to use them up.

And that's how I decided on this quilt.

Here is my progress....

As you can see, I'm progressing very well.

I have 12 rows sewn together.

The rest of the rows are just on the floor ready to be sewn on.

But, do to this cold I'm fighting, I can only work on it in little bits.

I'm really excited about how its coming together. 

I hope you like it.

Hugs

A mini bear paw finished quilt!

 I have another little finished quilt.

This little quilt top was put together in March 2011.

You can find the original post here.

I decided to use this little quilt top to practice some free motion quilting. 

It's not the best. I should have used different colours of thread.

But, it's really cute and I hung it up on my sewing room wall.

The blocks are just 6 inches.

I also started making blocks for the Farmer's Wife 1930's sampler quilt.

These are my first 4 blocks.

I'm going to try to work on these blocks over the next year.

I hope you had a good weekend.

Hugs

Another finished little quilt!

Hi everyone,

I'm very excited to have another finished quilt to report.

It's my 16 patch star quilt.

I just love this little baby quilt.

It's all made from scraps in my stash.

I just did some straight line quilting on this quilt. 

I used a really cute flannel for the back.

Isn't it adorable?

It's one of my favorite quilts that I made.

It was easy and quick.

It was very windy when I took these pictures.

I'm entering this quilt in the Blogger's Quilt Festival,

in the 

ROYGBIV Quilts Category

I hope you all like it!

Hugs

Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2015

Hi everyone,

I decided to enter the Blogger's Quilt Festival this fall.

I'm entering the Scrappy Quilt Category.

Here's my Rocky Road to Kansas Quilt.

It's a large lap size quilt.

I quilted it myself on my domestic sewing machine. 

It's made with strings from my stash.

I started this quilt February 2009 and finished it October 20, 2015.

I hope you like it!

Make sure to visit the other quilts shown in the show.

Hugs

My "Rocky Road to Kansas Quilt" is finished!!!

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all doing well.

Yesterday, we had the Canadian Federal Elections.

I managed to finish quilting this quilt and get the binding on it.

I sewed the binding down while watching the results last night.

The broadcast ended around 1:00 am. 

Just enough time to get the binding all stitched.

So, now this quilt is finally done.

My husband held it up for me to take a picture.

It was very windy though.

I love the way it turned out.

It will make a great lap quilt to cuddle with.

I hope you like it!

Hugs

My 16-patch star quilt progress!

Hi everyone,

I've been making more 16-patch star blocks from my scraps.

I decided to turn these blocks into a baby quilt.

 I have the center of the quilt done.

I still have to put the border on, but I love the way its looking.

I hope you like it!

Hugs

My triangle mini quilt

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all having a good day.

I have been going through my scraps the last few weeks, trying to get them cut to usable sizes and sorted. I came across a little bag of hst's that were left over from this quilt that I had made for my brothers new baby.

I decided to just go ahead and sew them together.

I made this cute little wall hanging quilt with them.

Its pretty nice to get these pieces used up.

 The half square triangles finished at 1 inch.

This little quilt is 11 inches wide X 12 inches long.

I hope you like it.

Hugs

Making some scrappy blocks!

Hi everyone, 

Last night I took some time out to be in my sewing room. It was late and I was tired. So I just started pulling fabric pieces out my scrap bin and ironed them to prepare for cutting. I cut 2.5 inch, 2 inch, and 1.5 inch strips. The smaller pieces were cut into squares. Then the really small pieces were put in my a box for little projects. I don't throw out any fabric. 

After doing a bunch of cutting, I got the inch to start piecing. I decided to take my 2 inch blocks and make 4 patches. I made 37 4 patch blocks with them. 

Then I decided to piece two more 16-patch star blocks. I made a brown one and a green one. I added those to the ones I already made. 2.5 inch squares were used to make these.

I love these blocks. I will turn these into a baby quilt I think, once I have enough. 

I'm glad to be back to quilting. I really did miss it a lot.

Hugs

Ariane

A dart quilt donation

Hi everyone,

I actually did some quilting this week.

I know!!! Pretty unbelievable with my recent track record.

Anyways, my inlaws asked me if I could make a quilt to donate to their dart league.

They wanted to use it as a prize in a fundraiser.

I decided to use string blocks that I made in 2011.

These were put together to make the main body of the quilt.

Then I designed some appliqued blocks for a top border with a darts theme.

This was done using fusible web applique.

I did some really simple line quilting in the string blocks, then some meandering free motion quilting in the top of the quilt. I also did some free motion quilting in the borders.

This wasn't my most successful quilt. My border is a bit wonky.

Oh well, this is the first quilt I've completed in almost 3 years.

So, I'd say I did okay.

I really had a good time working on it.

I think I might get back into making some quilts.

This quilt finished at 48 inches X 69 inches.

It was all done using fabric from my stash.

I hope you like it!!

Hugs

The Mississippi Ave Top

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I've blogged.

We moved to a new house a few months ago, and I just finally got my sewing room set up.

I decided that I wanted to try my hand at garment sewing.

I bought the Mississippi Ave Dress and Top pattern by Sew House Seven. It's a really great pattern. I'm new to garment sewing. I've been a quilter for a while but sewing clothing has really intimidated me. But, I wanted to give it a shot. 

I decided to make my muslin with a cotton lawn I've had in my stash for about 3 years. I bought it from Fabricland when they had a sale by one metre, get two free.

The pattern went together really well. I didn't have any difficulty following the instructions. I did grade the pattern from a 14 at the bust to an 18 at the waist. It worked out perfectly. 

The only thing I didn't do on this pattern is the shoulder ties. I liked it better without them. 

She really loved this top and wore it today when we went shopping.

It looked great with a pair of denim capri's.

I plan to make a dress with this pattern now that I know that she likes it.

I'm so glad that this is a wearable muslim. 

See you soon.

Ariane

Millefiori quilt-a-long, rosette #1 in progress

Hi everyone,

We are doing a bunch of spring cleaning in our house. So I haven't done a ton of sewing. But, I did get hooked to the Millefiori quilt-a-long hosted by Katja. Her web site is katjasquiltshoppe.com

I bought her book "The New Hexagon" at my local quilt shop and decided to join in the fun. 

I'm still working on rosette #1, but I like how it's going. 

What do you think? I hope you like it!!!

Pink scrappy placemat

Hi everyone, 

Today, I was sewing up a few more 3.5 inch pink blocks. I made a few more maverick stars, 9 patch and  a few shoo fly blocks. I decided to use them all in a placemat. I really needed new placemats, so this was a good way to start.

It had been almost 2 years since I did any free motion quilting. This was a great way to practice and see how my sewing machine managed it. My mom gave me my sewing machine last summer and this was the first time I tried free motion quilting with it.

I really like my placemat. It's completely made up of scraps from my scrap bin, including the backing and binding. Yeah for scrap busting. And it counts as a finish!!! Yeah!!! That's ever better.

My quilt top is done!

So, I managed to get my Rocky Road to Kansas quilt top done. I added a very scrappy string border to it! It really makes for a bright quilt. But I like it! 

This is a terrible picture because it was night time and the lighting in my house is not the best. I feel good about using all those scraps of fabric. Barely made a dent in my scrap bin, but that's okay. 

February's pink scrappy blocks

Hi everyone,

I decided to join in the RSC15.
aka... The rainbow scrap challenge 2015
Found here.

Since I'm a month behind,
I'm making blue and pink blocks this month.
This is what I have made so far.

A scrappy log cabin block @ 9.5 inches

A talkin' turkey block, pattern by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.com

Some mini maverick star blocks and 9 patch blocks that are 3.5 inches

And some 16 patch maverick star blocks. 

I'm having a ton of fun making these blocks. 

It's fun going thru my scraps and using them up. This is the perfect new project for me.

Working on a scrappy border

I've been working on making a scrappy border for my Rocky Road to Kansas quilt. It's a string border.

I have this huge bin full of scraps. As I'm making these borders, I'm also cutting my scraps using Bonnie Hunter's Scrap User's System. You can find it on her website quiltville.com 

This is no small task. I've been working all day at it, and it doesn't look like I've used any scraps from my bin. It's crazy!!! This is what the border looks like.

It really fits well with this quilt. I have one long side done. And quite a bit of the other long side done. I hope to have this top done by the end of the weekend. But no promises!!