I finished a bit of hand stitching

Hi everyone, 

I finished hand stitching the last two blocks for A Blackbird Gathering by Cheri Payne. 

Here's block 4

And here's block 5

Now I just need to wait for the finishing details to be released by Cheri.
 
 

My Blackbirds quilt is finished!

Hi everyone!!

I have another finish!

Yep! I finished by Blackbird quilt designed by Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts. 

I took a workshop with her at the beginning of the month. It was a lot of fun. 

I'm so glad I got it done before the month  is over. It feels really great. 

I quilted it on my Gracie frame using my old kenmore machine. It was a challenge since it was my first time. But I kept the quilting simple with straight and curvy lines across the top. 

I used a soft polka dot flannel on the back, that I purchased at one of my local quilt shops. I pieced the batting from leftovers I had. The binding was made from two of the blacks that I used for the birds. 

All in all, I'm really happy with it. The quilting is not my best. But it's still super cute, I hope you like it!!

 Linking to:
Let's make a baby quilt 
Can I get a Whoop Whoop!
Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts
Finish or Not Friday

A Blackbird Gathering quilt top and my new quilting frame

Hi everyone,

I've been pretty productive lately. 

Today, I got block #4 and #5 of the Blackbird Gathering quilt designed by Cheri Payne prepped for hand stitching. 

I also made the log cabin blocks that are part of the pattern. I made them in the style of courthouse steps instead. I got the top all sewn together. 

I love how is turning out. 

I'll stitch the last two blocks, then I'll be able to quilt it. 

In other news, I bought a second hand Gracie quilting frame. 

It's the first version of this frame. 

I finally set it up in my sewing room today. I had to rearrange all my stuff to make it fit. I haven't tried it yet. But hopefully I'll be able to try it out soon. 

Right now it's great to hang Quilts in progress. I hope you all had a great weekend.

My scrappy medallion quilt - round 1 done

So here it is. 

The first round of my scrappy medallion quilt is done. 

Now to come up with the second round. 

 

Scrappy Medallion Quilt Along.....join me!!

Hi everyone, 

I was doing some mindless sewing a few nights ago. I grabbed my cut 1 1/2 inch blocks and sorted them by colour. Then I started sewing them into 16-patch blocks .

These blocks are only 4 1/2 inches, and will finish at 4 inches. 

I was trying to think about how I was going to use these blocks. I thought maybe I should use them in a medallion quilt. My quilt guild is making medallion quilts this year for our BOM. We all design our own. So I thought I might as well make one too. 

So, I'll share my process on my blog here. If you want to join me and make a similar quilt that would be great. 

This is going to be a rainbow coloured scrappy medallion quilt. 

I'm going to use only scraps. 

Some of my scraps are pre cut to 1 1/2 inch squares and strips, 2 1/2 inch squares and strips, plus organized by colour. 

This is what I have up to now.

The Maple leaf blocks are made up of 2.5 inch blocks and HST's.

WARNING!!!!
I'm going to assume that whoever follows along has done a lot of quilting already.
That's why they have so many scraps.
So, I'm not going to go into major detail about the construction.

For the maple leaf blocks, select four colours that you want to use for the leaf.
I chose green, orange, red and brown.
I also chose to use a medium blue for the backgrounds of the leaves.
From my scraps I cut:
 3 - 2.5 inch blocks of the chosen colour
I used the easy angle ruler to make my HST's from 2.5 inch fabric strips.
I made 4 hst's for each maple leaf.
If you don't have the easy angle ruler, cut 2 -  2 7/8th squares, one from your coloured fabric and one background fabric and lay them facing together.
Cut them on the diagonal and sew a 1/4 seam on the diagonal line.
I press my seams open on hst's
For the stem, I cut a 3 inch square of background fabric and cut it diagonal.
I also cut a 0.75x5 inch strip out of the leaf colour fabric.
I sewed the strip to the diagonal seam of the cut 3 inch triangle, iron the seam and sew the other triangle on to the strip, iron the seam and trim square to 2.5 inches.
Your maple leaf block should be 6.5 inches.

For the 16-patch blocks, I used 1.5 inch squares. I sewed them together into four patches, then those 4-patch together to make 16-patch blocks.
These are made mostly of 16 different fabrics.
Some of my blocks have repeat fabrics because I don't have a lot of that colour in my stash.
I have 8 colours of 16-patch blocks.
They are black, brown, green, blue, yellow, orange, red, and purple.
I have made one of most of the colours except the purple.
I'm working on it though.
You will need two 16-patch blocks of each of the above colours.

Now, lets say you don't keep scraps that are 1.5 inches because you find that too small.
That's okay. Just make 4 patch blocks in the above  colours using 2.5 inch squares.

They need to be 4.5 inches in size.

I hope you understand my instructions. Lol! 

I also hope you join in sewing along with me. I'm designing the quilt as I go. So when I get to the next step I'll post it here on my blog. Have fun!!

My blackbirds quilt

Today, I worked on my blackbirds quilt designed by Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts. 

I have the top almost done. 

I only need to add the borders. 

I think it's so cute. 

I work the next two days. Hopefully I can finish it up on the weekend. 

It's done!! Yeah!

My hexagon star quilt is done and on my bed.

I'm so excited. I started this project in February 2009. I took many long breaks from it because life got complicated at times, especially when my husband had his motorcycle accident. 

This quilt was hand pieced the old fashion way. I used a cardboard template and traced it on my material and cut it out with a sizzor. The original pattern was too small for our big mattress so I had to make a lot more stars and add a border. The original pattern didn't have a border. 

When the top was done, I noticed it was not flat. There was no way I was taking it apart. So, I just basted it the best I could and quilted it. The quilting really helped flatten it. There are puckers and I went off my lines here and there. I did quilt it on my kenmore machine that's about 50 yrs old. It was not easy to quilt as it's 92 inches by 115 inches.

I love it! 

It's totally my style. 

Scrappy!! 

Imperfectly perfect! 

I hope you like it too!

Hey, I finally have a quilt for my own bed!! Yeah!!

 

My flock of birds is growing

Hi everyone, 

I needed to do some sewing today. 

You know......get away to my sewing machine to relieve stress! 

Yep! It was one of those days! 

Thank God for sewing!

I continued to work on my Black birds quilt designed by Lorna of https://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com/p/welcome.html?m=1

I have half the birds done. 

It's getting there. 

I find these birds are so cute! 

I'll keep plugging away at them!!
 

I'm done the quilting!

Hi everyone, 

I finally finished quilting my hexagon star quilt! Yeah!!!!!

I only have the binding left to do. 

I'm so excited!!! 

 

Free motion quilting and a workshop!

Hi everyone, 

I'm still trying to finish quilting my hexagon star quilt. I quilted all the white part, all the borders, and now I'm quilting the stars. I have about 1/3 of the stars quilted. I've spent about 25 hours quilting it already. It is a big quilt and there's a lot of quilting to do. I'm loving it though. I'm so glad I'm keeping this one for myself. It will be beautiful when it is all done. 

I also attended a workshop and trunk show last week.

Lorna from Sew Fresh Quilts, came to our guild and gave an amazing trunk show. 

Her quilts are so fun, and beautifully made.

I bought 6 of her patterns. 

I just couldn't resist. Haha!

The following day, I took a workshop with her. 

We had a choice of 6 patterns to make, and I chose the black birds quilt. 

I made 8 blocks during the workshop. 

They are so adorable. Lorna was very helpful with all the students. She's a great teacher and I would recommend you taking a workshop with her if you get the chance. 

I've made a few more bird blocks since the workshop, but I'm trying to finish quilting my hexagon star quilt. So most of my time has been devoted to that. 

I hope all the Canadians had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. 

I know I did!! 

Free motion quilting..

I decided to free motion quilt my hexagon star quilt instead of hand quilting it.

I just find hand quilting takes too long.

I've been working on this quilt long enough and I want to get it done.

I love free motion quilting.

Unfortunately, I don't have a long arm, or mid arm.

My regular sewing machine, an Elna Lotus that my mom gave me is great for piecing, and mending clothing.  But it is terrible for free motion quilting.

I tried it, then I tried my vintage singer, and then I finally asked my Mother-in-law if I could borrow her vintage kenmore sewing machine. 

I've used it before for free motion quilting.

It works beautifully.

I don't have a big quilting bed to sit it in, so that's a bit harder.

But, It has perfect tension, the thread doesn't break every two seconds, it has a super strong motor.

I wish I had a better set up, but, that's life right.

It's getting done, and that makes me happy. 

I'm linking with Sew Fresh Quilts
https://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com/2016/10/lets-bee-social-145.html?m=1

I have a finished flimsy!!!

Hi everyone,

I have finally finished my hexagon star quilt top!

Yeah!!!

I've been working on this quilt since February 2009.

It is all hand pieced.

This quilt is being made for my own bed.

It's big!! 92 x 115 inches

It's not perfect. But that's perfect for me. Ha!!!

 

It's super wrinkly in this photo.

That's okay though.

I need to make a backing for it.

Then, I will start hand quilting it.

I hope you like it!!