A quilt top in progress....

Hi everyone!

I haven't been blogging much this month.

I've been super busy.

Today, I finally got to do some sewing!

I stared this morning to make a quilt for my daughters school teacher.

She's had the same teacher for the last two years,

and she just loves her.

She wanted me to make her a quilt.

I figured a lap quilt would be a nice gift.

I was inspired by these two quilts.

You can see them here and here.

I liked the idea of using narrow 1 inch strips with larger squares and rectangles.

My squares are 5 inches square and the rectangles are 5" x 10".

I've got 36 blocks made and part of the quilt top sewn together.

I'm using a fat quarter bundle of Heirloom by Joel Dewberry.

I've had this in my stash for a while.

This is a layer cake friendly pattern using my dimensions.

The colors in these photo's aren't true.

But it was dark when I took these.

I hope to have this top done tomorrow.

I'm running short of time.

Schools out next week.

Hugs

A zigzag quilt in progress....

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all well.

I've been working on a new project.

I'm making a zigzag baby quilt for a baby shower gift.

Of coarse I've waited until the last minute to make this quilt.

Sometimes, I work better under pressure.

That's my story anyways. LOL!!!!

This quilt is for a baby boy.

I picked all the fabric from my stash.

I was glad to have enough variety to make a controlled scrappy quilt.

I have 3 rows done and hope to get 3 more done soon.

I need to buy more white fabric.

I used up all the solid white that I have.

Hugs

21 blocks....

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well.

I've been working on my Rocky Road to Kansas Quilt.

At first it was going to be a lap quilt made up of twelve blocks.

But, as I kept looking at my huge scrap pile,

I though to myself.....

why don't I just keep making these blocks until I have enough for a queen size bed quilt.

I certainly have enough scraps available.

I have 21 blocks completed.

I had to buy a different background fabric because I didn't have enough of the original.

When I went to buy more they didn't have any left.

So I bought some of a similar colour.

I think I will use a few different background fabrics to add some interest.

Well, I hope you all have a great day.

Hugs 

I got some blocks done...

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all doing well.

Today is a day off for me.

So, I did a bit of sewing.

I have not been feeling very well.

So, it's a good thing I was able to stay home.

I finished five out of the six blocks I was working on for my Rocky Road to Kansas quilt.

I have eleven done all together.

I was hoping to get all twelve done today.

But, I think I've reached my limit.

I'm going to rest now.

I hope you like them.

Hugs

I've been on a blog holiday!!!

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well.

I have been taking a break from blogging.

It's summer......

and I have been spending time with my family.

I did do some sewing.

I forgot to take pictures of a few items that I made.

But I do have pictures of a UFO that I made some progress on.

I was cleaning my sewing area,  and found my 4 patches for the border of my 

Sew Modern Bee quilt.

This quilt started 13 months ago 

with my fabric being sent out to the lovely ladies of the Sew Modern Bee.

This quilt has been a struggle for me.

I'm definitely more a traditional quilter, than a modern quilter.

I love modern quilts, I just don't succeed that well at making them myself.

So, I managed to finish the border on this quilt and the

top is now done.

Yeah!!!!

Progress......gotta love progress!!!

I also wanted to share with all the Canadians out there looking to save some money on everyday products.

I'm sure many of you watched that Extreme Coupon show on TLC.

Well, we don't get many coupons in Canada.

There are websites though that will send Canadians coupons in the mail.

I decided that I would request some for myself.

I got some in the mail and waited for the products to go on sale in the local flyers.

Then, BAM.......I dropped my coupons. LOL!!!!

I saved $32.00 on just the products below.

So, combining my coupons with the sales already on was a big savings.

Here are some of the sites I got the coupons from:

http://smartcanucks.ca/

http://save.ca/

http://brandsaver.ca/en_ca/

So, if you feel like saving a bit of money, do a google search for Canadian Coupons.

Anyways,

Have a great day.
I will try to blog more.

Hugs

Spring Tulips!!!

I was in the mood to make something for spring.

I had been going through my old magazines and found this cute little paper pieced block.

It came from this issue.

It was printed in May 1995.

I bought this magazine at an estate sale last spring.

Twelve magazines for $1.00.

This is what the pattern looks like.

It was to make a vest. 

But I'm not into vests.

A mini quilt is more my taste.

This is a fun little block to make.

I really had fun working on it.

Now I just have to make the scrappy border.

I hope you like it!!

Hugs

B-Sew Cute's blocks started

Hi everyone, I just wanted to share with you the blocks that B-Sew Cute is sewing for the "Between Charming Friends Quilt Along". She has the first 12 blocks done. Now she just has to finish the 16 patch blocks. She has got them partially done. We just have to cut the strips down and sew the 16 patches together. I haven't started mine yet. I had to help B-Sew Cute with hers. She does all the sewing. I do all the cutting and ironing. She's only 10 yrs old. I'm still a little leary of letting her use the rotary cutter. So this is truly a Mother/Daughter project. I had to work today, and will be working tomorrow. I plan to work on my blocks on Friday. I'll see you then.

Hugs

Ariane

The BCF Quilt-along update!

Hi everyone! I finally got my fabric cut for the Between Charming Friends Quilt-Along. I was waiting for our background fabric to come in the mail. It finally arrived today. So, I got my fabric cut and also B-Sew Cute's fabric cut. Hopefully tonight we will be able to get started on the sewing and catch up.

Here is B-Sew Cute's cut fabric. She chose Aqua SKU# 9900-34 from Moda's Bella Solids collection as her background color. I just love it. I think it will look great with her "Sweet" Charm packs.

Here is my fabric all cut up. I used White as my background fabric. I decided to use the red polkadot from the Make Life collection for the binding though instead of the white. I think polkadot's look so great as the binding. And it will co-odinate great with my Make Life charm packs.

I also received more blocks in the mail today for my Month of the Sew Modern Bee.

I've received 9 blocks so far. I just love them. This is my first Bee, and I'm loving it. I also love the fact that it's all Canadian girls and we don't have to worry about customs. The shipping is so much cheaper too.

Here are my blocks so far.....

I will be putting sashing in between these blocks. I think they look great. Can't wait to receive the rest of my blocks.

I hope you all have a great day.

Hugs

Ariane

More Jack-the-pulpit blocks completed

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a good day. Today I worked on the quilt I'm making for my girlfriend who is getting married in July. I'm kind of falling behind on this project. So, I've decided to put it ahead of the other projects and get these blocks done. I have to make 20 of the Jack-the-pulpit blocks for the center of the quilt. They will all have sashing between them. Then I have to make a flying geese border. The Jack-the-pulpit block takes quite a bit of time to make. Almost 1 hour per block. I'm usually able to find a method to spead up the process for my quilts. But this one is slow and steady. I think it's because it is partly paper pieced. Today I finished 5 blocks. So now I have 10 blocks done. Only 10 more to go. I really love the way they look. I will keep working on these this week. I hope to be able to have the center of the top done by the end of the weekend. Then I'll be able to make the flying geese blocks. I hope you all have a good night.

Hugs

Ariane

Progress on my February Schnibbles quilt: Sundays Best

I hope you have been having a nice weekend.

I am off this weekend.

I did a bit of sewing last night and this evening on my Sundays Best quilt.

 I am making a larger version of this pattern.

 I have the center panel of the quilt done.

 It is 54 inches square at the moment.

I am thinking of adding two more rows to this quilt.

That way it would fit on a twin bed.

This quilt would go well in the boys room.

I used my stash to make it. It a scrappy quilt.

I love that style of quilt.

Especially for an everyday quilt.

What do you think?

A few works in progress....

The last couple of days, I have done a little bit of sewing on different projects. I finished the Woodland Bloom Quilt top for my daughters room. This is a queen size quilt. It measure 99 inches by 80 inches. This is the biggest quilt top I have ever made. I am a bit scared to quilt this monster on my little domestic machine. But I will get it done.

The next project I have been working on is my hexagon star quilt. I have not worked on this quilt in quite a while. This top is all hand pieced. It will also be a queen size quilt. I have 9 more rows to do. I have about 60 stars made that just need to have the white border put on. I do love this one. I did not iron it before I took the picture. So it looks a bit shabby.

Tonight I decided to play a bit with my little 1 1/2 inch half square triangles that I had leftover from one of my quilts. I made a tiny little zig zag block. Isn`t it cute? The finished squares are 1 inch.

Well, I did not finish anything. But I did get some work done. I am working all weekend. So, I am only going to get a bit done. I hope you all have a nice weekend.

Ariane :o)

A great day and a redo

Hi Everyone! I had a wonderful day today.

I spent the day with my sister's family.

We all went skating on a pond at a local conservation area.

Then, we took a walk in the woods. It was nice and sunny and cold.

 But there was no wind. It was great to get some fresh air.

Then we all went back to my sister's house to have hot chocolate and some lunch.

My sister's husband loves to bake.

So he got the kids to help him make some old fashioned home made donuts.

Hmmmmm!!!! They were so good.

We also played some games with the kids.

 I really needed to have a fun day like that, with no pressure.

It was a lovely day.

(Above: This is my woodland bloom quilt top as of today.)

Tonight, I worked on one of my Woodland Bloom quilt.

 This is one of the UFO's I was commited to finish this year.

I had made a quilt top with this fabric last year and I hated it.

I just couldn't work on it to finish it. It wasn't well put together.

It was just a mess in my opinion. So last week I took it apart.

Tonight I worked on getting the center panel of the quilt done.

 So now I just have to figure out what kind of border to use.

This is going to be a queen size quilt.

 My daughter has a double bed in her room and I like the quilt to hang down low.

So I hope you like the changes.

I like it a lot better now and I can't wait to be done.

(Above: This is the before shot of my Woodland Bloom quilt. I hated this one.)

Thanks to all of you who sent me well wishes the last couple of days.

 I was feeling really down. But things were much better today.

I have three more days off work. Yeah!!

I will be spending some really nice time with the kids.

They were so great today. I got lots of hugs.

So I'm going to keep taking it easy and doing some sewing.

Just enjoying every day.

Hugs Ariane

Motivation to finish projects.....

Hi everyone, I hope you are well!! I've been working on so many swaps and little projects lately that I haven't worked on some of the projects that I've started a while back. I know that I'm not the only one with UFO's. It's one of the side affects of becoming addicted to quilting and fabric. You just always want to start something new. Well, I sent out my last swap of the year. I've been really good and didn't sign up to any more swaps so that I can work on some of my projects. I've done 8 swaps this year. I think that's pretty good. So, here's the list of projects that I need to finish.

1. Schnibbles Cindy Lou Who Quilt - needs to be quilted
2. Woodland Bloom Quilt - need to finish the border then quilt it
3. Hexagon Star Quilt - hand piecing this top, have 6 rows of 17 stars done, 9 rows of 17 to go
4. Rocky Road to Kansas Quilt - 6 blocks done, 6 blocks to make
5. Shabby Roses BOM - 4 blocks done, 8 left to do
6. 9-patch Quilt Along - Not very far along, need to work on this one
7. Sister's Quilt - need to sew the blocks together to finish the top

Now, my "I want to make" list is much longer .  But I"m trying to not think of those too much. I'm going to try to work on these projects this month. I'm still going to make the Schnibbles quilt if I get the pattern on time. But I really do want to get some of these done. Let's see if I can get some of these projects done. Even if I get only one totally done and some progress on others, I'll be happy. But I'm really going to try hard not to start any new projects. That's going to be really hard. Well I hope you all have a great night.

Edited to add....... Well, since I plan to work on all these projects, I might as well join the "Joy of New Year Challenge" by Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio. I'm going to try to get as many of these projects done before the New Year. So let's get to work!!!!

Hugs Ariane

A sneak peak of my finished placemat!!

Hi everyone! Today, I did a little bit of sewing. I finished the placemat I have been working on for my first Flickr swap called the Placemat Quilt Swap.

 I really enjoyed working on this placemat. I was able to finish it today, but I can't show you the finished product because I want to keep it a surprise for my swap partner.

I know she checks my blog. So I'm just going to show you a sneak peak. I just have a few more items to finish then I can send out the package in the mail.

I also want to thank everyone who has been commenting on my favorite quilt for the Quilt Festival. It's been a lot of fun reading all your wonderful comments.

 I've made it through the first one hundred blog in Amy's list. There are so many wonderful participants. It's been so much fun and inspirational looking at all those quilts.

 If you haven't been to Amy's Blog aka Park City Girl, you need to go now and check out the fall festival entries. It's just amazing.

Happy Stitching Everyone!!

Ariane

I got the center panel done!

This morning I had a little bit of time after the kids went to school to do some sewing. I finished the center panel of my Winter White quilt. I hope you like it. It's not perfect. I do struggle with flying geese blocks. But I still think it looks pretty good. I'm still learning. I didn't use a charm pack to make this top. The local stores don't sell many charm packs. Since I bought so many fat quarters, I had a pretty good selection of different fabrics. So I just went through my stash and used fabric that I already had. Now I just have to do the borders. I may do it a bit differently than the pattern. I don't really want to have to go buy a bigger piece of fabric to finish the border. I want to use what I already have. So you will just have to wait and see what I come up with.

Take care!!!

Hugs Ariane :o)

The start of my Winter White Schnibbles quilt top

Well, I'm participating in the "Year of Schnibbles" and the Winter White pattern was the pattern that was chosen for the month of September. Unfortunately, I couldn't get this pattern locally and had to order it online. You know how the mail can be sometimes. Often you get your order really quick and then other times it takes forever. Well....this was one of those times. I just got my pattern in the mail yesterday. I received it at 11:30 am and then had to leave for work. When I got home I was way too tired to work on it. So this morning I got up early and made all the flying geese blocks. But then I had to go to work again. So tonight when I got home, I made three blocks out of the nine. I'm too tired to do anymore. They are not perfect but I still really like them.

It's past midnight now. I have to go to bed, because I have to get up early with the kids. It's always busy. I hope you are all well. Take care!!!

Hugs Ariane :o)

In the Good Ol' Summer Time Mini Quilt in progress.....

Hi everyone, I finally had the day off work. It was a nice day today. I really enjoyed being outside. I did work on the mini quilt I'm doing for the Good Ol' Summertime Mini Quilt Swap. I'm finished the top and just need to put the batting and backing on. Then, I'll be able to quilt it. I'm going to free motion quilt it kind of like how it's done on the Don't look Now Blog. I hope it turns out. This is going to be my first try doing it this way. The colors in this quilt are not exactly in my comfort zone. But my partner likes batiks and bright colors....so I hope she will like it. My husband says it kind of looks dreary. I hope not....maybe when I have all the quilting in it will make it look better. I plan to add a lot of detail with the quilting in the flower, etc. I'm going to buy some nice embroidery threads to quilt it. Give it a bit of shine with the nice threads. I hope it works. I want to have this done by the end of the weekend, so that I don't have it weighing on my minds as the deadline approaches.

I went and bought a few Schnibles patterns today. Since I joined A Year of Schnibbles. I really like these patterns. My favorite of these three is the Hot Cross. My daughter wants to try this one too. Maybe we can work on this together. I helped her make an apron today. We didn't use a pattern but I turned out cute. I still need to help her put pockets on it. I'll show you that tomorrow. Well, I hope you all have a great day.

Happy Stitching!

Ariane :o)

Sneak Peak of my Paper Bag Swap!

Hi everyone, I hope you had a good day. I worked a bit on my paper bag swap item today. I can only show you a little bit of it. I want to surprise my partner. This has been the most difficult of swaps for me. It's a lot harder for me to work with fabrics and trim chosen by someone else and just create something. I'm really enjoying it though. I think my partner will like what I send her. I have until the end of the month to finish. I got a lot accomplished on it today. So, I'm just going to keep at it. That's all for today.

Happy Stitching!!

Ariane :o)

I'm back with lots of goodies!!!

Hi everyone, I'm back from my Mom's. It was great to go there and relax. It's so peaceful there. I got to spend a lot of time outside. The weather was so nice. Not hot, but sunny and breazy. I sat on the swings and spent some time hand piecing some of my hexagon star quilt blocks. I'm completely done 4 rows. I have another 60 stars put together. I just need to add the white border around them. I'm doing well, considering I've been working on other projects and I took almost a whole week off sewing last week. I just wasn't well enough to do it. The picture above is of my four rows. It is very colourful. I love it. It's a slow process to hand piece all those stars. But it is very relaxing and rewarding. I went to Fabricland on Friday with my Mom in Sudbury, Ontario. They were having a 50% off sale for sewing club members, which I am. I bought 17.5 metres of fabric. I know, that's a lot. I got it for $5.oo a metre. I couldn't resist. I bought up to 3 metres of some of the fabrics. My daughter loves the colors. I plan to make a simple quilt for her double bed with it and a few pieces of summer clothing for my daughter and I. The red and white fabric I bought to eventually make a red and white quilt. Red is my favorite color. So I can't wait to have collected enough variety of fabrics to make it.

On Saturday, My parents and my family decided to go to some yard sales. The Anglican Church in the town they live in was having there annual church yard sale. This is a huge event in town. The deals are amazing. My parents got a lot of stuff. I bought a few things. I bought 2 pillow cases, some christmas fabric, 4 old magazines, and a Mary Englebreits book with a bunch of pictures of quilts. I thought it would inspire me. All this cost me $1.00. You can't beat that. Well, I have more pictures to share but I'll keep them for tomorrow. I hope you all have a nice day!!

Happy Stitching!!

Ariane :o)

Whirlygiggles quilt center done and a Giveaway!!

Hi everyone, today I had the day off work. I decided to start a baby quilt that I was asked to make. I could choose any pattern I wanted. It just had to be for a little girl. Now, I only have the center panel done. I have to put a few borders around it. I think it looks nice. It was my first time trying this pattern. I used this tutorial for the GreetingArts blog. It was very easy. I will have to make it again, but for myself. I do want to put some appliques in the border to give the quilt a bit more personality. I didn't use pastel colors because I like to have a bit warmer colors. I like the fabric I chose. What do you think? Is this a nice pattern for a baby quilt? I'm a bit nervous, since I was asked to make this by a friend of mine and I want to be sure that he likes it. He actually asked me to make two baby quilts. One for his daughter who just turned one and one for the boy his wife is about to have at the end of the month. I need another quilters opinion on this one. I'm not a professional quilter, so its not perfect. What do you think??

Also there is a wonderful giveaway at Tattered Threads & Willing Hands. She is celebrating her Blog-A-Versary!! You have to go check it out.

Ariane :o)