Quilt Chick Chat...

I got the Electric Quilt Program for Christmas

2007-01-01T15:57:00.001-07:00

What a wonderful gift. Thank you x 1000 to my wonderful hubby. So far I've drafted one quilt which I am absolutely positively going to start working on right away. It's a sampler quilt with a really really cool layout. And, it's easy to do and a great way to use up fabric bits.

Since it's that time of year, I thought I'd share my resolutions with everyone. As you can see I am really into self torture. Once I write something down there is no going back. So here they are in no particular order.

My quilting resolutions are:

To finish at least one of the "tops" I have stored in the top drawer of my fabric dresser before I go hog wild making new ones - or alternatively find another quilter somewhere who might be interested in swapping tops for quilting... might be kinda fun.
To learn new techniques and if possible find time somewhere to take a quilting class or two.
To choose one local quilt guild, become a member, and go to the meetings regularly
To write in my quilt blog more often.
Tidy up my fabric stash (it's more like a big pile than a stash).

My personal resolutions are:

To be a better friend to my friends - that means remembering birthday cards, special events and to pick up the telephone once in a while to catch up with them more often in 2007.
To be thankful every day for my multiple blessings and not get caught up in the daily dramas of those around me. (Mostly my own - I will not be a drama queen this year.)
To spend more time with my family - even those far away.
To go home to Prince Edward Island for a longer visit this year and to actually spend some time looking for some property close to my mother's home. (And to go visit my sisters in northern Manitoba, Ontario and Newfoundland.)
To improve my writing skills and possibly to do something about that novel that is hovering in the back of my mind wanting to get out. (I dare not write that one down more specifically just yet). Yikes it keeps wanting to be written down and acted upon, but that is a retirement project, not a New Year's Resolution.

My work resolutions are:

To win my arbitration case and get my old job back. (Someday I'll write all about the day the sky opened and I got fired for refusing to quit writing in my "Running Blog") - but perhaps I shouldn't write anything at all, because isn't that the reason I got fired in the first place? Woe is me, my life is very complex...but interesting.
To do the best I can at my current job every day and to assist my new bosses by offering my ideals and work experience in an open, friendly way. I have to be careful not to love this job so much because it's just temporary until I get my other job back.
To continue to maintain open trusting relationships with those I left behind the day I got fired.

My fitness resolutions are:

To run my second marathon this year - either the Deadwood Marathon in June or the Prince Edward Island Marathon in the fall.
To run two half-marathons this year - perhaps the Red Deer Half Marathon in May and the Melissa's 22 k run in Banff, Alberta in September.
To remember that I run for fun and fitness. I will not push myself to break records (or even maintain records I set years ago) or be angry with myself when I don't do as well as I think I can.
To take up Adventure Running or Trail Running this year and compete in weekly 5 km events in the spring/fall season in the beautiful Edmonton river valley.
To go bike riding with my husband after work whenever we get a chance.
To be thankful that I do have a strong healthy body and not do all that careless stuff like overeating or undereating or unhealthy eatig, etc. etc etc.
and as per every year since I turned 25, I will not obsess about my weight and my aging skin etc. etc etc.

Hmm, that should probably keep me focused for quite a while. I'll let you know next year how many I managed to keep. And, for the record....I did keep all but one of my resolutions from last year...and I blame Menopause and personal contentment for the difficulty I had in maintaining my weight. heh,heh,heh,

Oh yeah - I've posted by quilt of the month for January, 2007 - Do you like it? This quilt is called Another Dimension because there are no triangle squares in it at all. The star points are all folded squares and have dimension to them. It's all hand quilted of course and as you can see is one that my cat "Fat Eddy" believes I made for him personally.

December - can you believe it already?

2006-12-03T07:23:00.000-07:00

Notice the new quilt of the month. This is one of my all time favorites. I think its truly beautiful. And, it's all handquilted which was very easy because there was no marking involved. Check it out.

This quilt is also very dear to my heart because it travelled with me to PEI in March when I went home to visit my parents a couple months before my dad passed away. I was handquilting it then, and like to think that caught up in its stitches are the conversations Dad and I shared during those last few days before he was hospitalized for the last time. This quilt is bursting with love of family and is a perfect choice for my Christmas month quilt.

Can you believe it's December. Here in Alberta we're having an old fashioned winter. Tons and Tons of snow on the ground, in the driveway, on my jeep, etc. Cold, cold, cold, already. I'm sure glad I'm in my lovely warm house, snuggled up with my hubby, my cat, my dog and my quilts. Some days we need to stop and remember how lucky we really are.

Upstairs project done....

2006-11-26T08:40:00.000-07:00

This week I finished my upstairs project and will post pics of it when I get a chance to download the pictures from the camera. It turned out quite well. I ended up doing a fairly unimaginative outside border treatment. I took two inch strips of fabric from the body of the quilt, folded them over and attached them as a piping to the outside border. Piping brings the quilt together simply and acts as a good break between the centre and the outside border (which turned out to be green...I'm not sure why. You'll see in a few days.

I continue to work on the downstairs project....it's almost never-ending. I must remember not to take on such a large hand-quilting project again for a while. I'm now at that stage where I just want it to be over with. The centre is all finished (except for me having to check it closely to see if there are any spots I missed....there always are a few) and two of the outside borders are done. I'm working my way along the outside edge and should be finished by the end of the week. That means I'll probably be able to bind it by mid-December. (A whole month behind schedule....I blame my eyes and my under finger for acting up..) It's spectacular in real life, hope the pictures hold up.

What does this quilt need? (Other than to be finished)

2006-11-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

It's really really early on Sunday morning and I'm trying to decide whether to go for a run this morning or not. Well actually I'm trying to decide whether to head to the gym and do some speed work inside or suck it up and run outside. So while that decision is percolating in my head, I thought I'd put up a picture of my current upstairs project. It's still on the design wall, so obviously is nowhere near done, but I thought perhaps if anyone was reading this, they could give me some ideas. I think the quilt is fine, just not really interesting and am looking for ideas to pump it up a bit.

This was my very first attempt at diamonds and the quilt did go together really well. As you can see, again, it's very scrappy and as always, it seems like I don't have enough fabric to make the borders all the same. Note to Self....always buy more than you think you'll need. You'll use it somewhere.

Best laid plans and lotsa options

2006-11-06T06:21:00.000-07:00

Another weekend over and another quilt project update

Upstairs project.

My current upstairs project - Diamondworks - is almost finished. I'm very proud of myself for getting this far with diamonds. Working on this smallish quilt has made me realize yet again that like everything else in life you just have to keep going, whatever you're doing always gets easier as you get more practice. So, another lesson re-learned.

I'll post a picture as soon as I get the borders figured out and on. Is there anyone else out there like me who thinks of quilt tops in stages? This is how it seems to work out for me...

1) planning the centre,
2) building the center,
4) planning the borders and
5) building the borders.

Only then do I know how the quilt will actually look. Don't get me wrong, I always plan the whole thing on paper (my favorite part), then I start working and all that flies out the window. I don't think I have one quilt that looks the same at the end of the process as I planned it on paper. I definitely need to get a designer program for my computer so I can check out more options before I start.

Downstairs project...

It's fabulous. The centre is almost quilted, just a little bit in one corner left to do. I started working on the borders yesterday in one section, just to get a sense of how that'll look and I've decided how to hand quilt the outer border. I'm very excited about finishing this... think I'll be ready to bind it the first week in December. (I was quite lazy last week, and didn't get much of it done, so I've revised my estimated finish date.)

2006-10-31T22:01:00.000-07:00

Because I'm getting ready to post a picture of my November quilt of the month, I'm moving my October quilt over here and will tell everyone a bit of its story.

This is one of the very first quilts I ever made and was it ever a learning experience. I made it (the top) several (5 or 6) years ago before I was into handquilting, so it is long arm quilted by a lady near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I mailed it to her and a month or so later, she sent it back to me finished. It was so beautiful I cried when I saw it. She did an absolutely marvelous job and was very kind to me and didn't give me heck about loose threads, uneven stitching, etc. She gets all the credit for making this quilt look as good as it does.

I chose the blocks randomly from one of about 5 quilt magazines that I owned at the time. Then, because I didn't have a stash of fabric at the time I went to my local Walmart and purchased about 10 yards of various fabrics (some polyester, some cotton) and about 3 yards of black fabric with teapots on it for the borders between the blocks and for the binding. I didn't wash the fabric because I was so eager to start making the quilt. I just jumped into the process and kind of made everything up as I went along. I did have a cutting mat and a Fiskars cutter and a couple of rulers but that was all I had for tools.

You know I did almost everything wrong when putting this quilt together, and when I look at it, I am absolutely gobsmacked that it went together at all. But it did and I'm still loving it. If my sister in law Bernadette hadn't begged for it, it'd still be in my cupboard of "keepers" and finished quilts. And just so you know, I'm still using little bits of the fabric I purchased for this quilt. I hate to throw good stuff out but I'm sure getting tired of some of that nasty blue polyester stuff. Look for it in the November quilt.

Update on the upstairs project. It is going well, all the blocks are together and only two rows left to sew together. This is my first "diamond" quilt and I'm quite pleased with it. Not too sure about the colours I picked, but oh well.

Update on the downstairs project. It's going well, I'm giving my under finger a rest tonight. I'm on track to have this one finished by mid-November and then I'll be able to start the next one.

This weekend I'm going to take pictures of some of my UFO's. I feel so sorry for them. Will they ever make it to the downstairs TV watching chair. Stay tuned.

Steps along the way.

2006-10-21T15:33:00.000-06:00

Today I finished my current "upstairs project" quilt top. Now all I have to do is finish my downstairs project and I'll be ready to take the upstairs quilt downstairs for handquilting.

These are pics I took this afternoon to show some of the details of the top. It is a scrap project of my own design. I didn't think I had enough fabric for the borders, so I decided to make do, rather than go spend more money on fabric. So officially the 100% wool suiting that I bought, took home and boiled was the only new fabric I used. And that was only little bits in the flower pot appliques.

If you look closely you'll see that each of the four outside borders is a different colour, 1 each of black, green, brown and red. The black and brown fabric are also used in the blocks, but the green and red are pieces left over from other projects. The inside narrow border is made of left over strips of fabric from the blocks. The corners are mitred to make the border fit together better. The white fabrics are all different as well and so is the way each white block is put together. This will be a very easy top to handquilt. Right now my plan is to stitch 1/4 each from each seam and put x's in the black centre blocks. That may change though by the time I get ready to work on it.

Speaking of that...
Here's a picture to show where I'm at with my downstairs project.

I'm using white quilting thread and am doing some very basic outline stitching 1/4" from the seams. The diamonds are popping out quite nicely, although you can't really sit this here. The back of this quilt is white flannel with blue roses on it. It's actually turning out to be a very lovely quilt. I'm glad I finally brought it downstairs to work on. The top has been finished for about a year and it came very close to being one of those UFO's. I was never sure the top was completely finished until I got around to putting the blue star border on the very outside. Then, I was satisfied.

Nothing ventured...

2006-10-20T07:03:00.000-06:00

I just bought the December "American Patchwork & Quilting Magazine". As far as I'm concerned, that and Fons and Porter's are the best magazines out there. They seem to always have something for me in them.

There is a photo in it of my next project. I'll try to scan it into my computer and post it here later this weekend. I've never done a project that's cut on the bias because I'm terrified of stretching the blocks out of shape. O well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Upstairs Project:

I'm working away hard on my upstairs project. I've got two of the outside borders on it. You'll see in the final pic. Inside borders are scraps of the block fabric and outside borders are pieces of block fabric and also some new fabraics because I don't have large enough piesces of fabric in colours I want to use.

Downstairs Project:

Also coming along great. I'm really pleased how fast the hand quilting is coming along. But...there is still a ton of it to do.

Project updates...

2006-10-18T06:27:00.000-06:00

This is just a little short post to keep myself up to date on where I am with my projects on October 18, 2006.

Design Wall: A picture is worth a thousand words.
I've finished putting together the centre and now I'm looking at border options. Right now I'm considering a pink striped 2 inch inner border and a 6 inch outer border using some of the fabrics inside the quilt. The picture shows just the centre and 1 of the applique flower pots.

Downstairs Project:

No picture yet, but the centre is almost half quilted. Under finger is in bad shape, but still I'm quite pleased with how its turning out. Especially since there is absolutely no marking on this quilt at all. It's all my eye telling me where to stick the needle next.

A really really bright baby quilt.

2006-10-12T21:20:00.000-06:00

What you see here is a picture of a baby quilt that I just finished making for my friend Donna's daughter's first baby. The quilt is called "Love Bugs and Hugs" The baby will be a girl and everyone is very excited about her January, 2007 arrival. Donna chose the pattern and I chose the fabrics. Naturally I made some minor changes to the pattern... changed the block size just a bit and used hearts for the chenille pieces instead of the flower shapes on the pattern. It just made sense to me to do that because it used less of those costly chenille by the inch packages and was even easier.

If you've never tried chenille by the inch...do so...it's fabulously fool proof... by 11 year old grandaughter made some of the blocks and you know she did a wonderful job.

All in all this quilt was a bit expensive. I used more expensive fabrics than I normally would and lets face it fabric and embellishments are cost prohibitive for most of us. I'm sure the quilt would have looked just as good in a pastel version, or flannel with boiled wool applique (also very little work for great effect.)

I started this quilt in early September and pieced the top over a two week period. It was ready for handquilting by the middle of September and I gave it to the expectant grandmother just before our Canadian Thanksgiving (October 9).

So what do you think..? I like it a lot.

I'm getting ready to start posting pictures soon.

2006-10-11T06:38:00.000-06:00

The reason for this blog is to show some of my quilts on the internet. So, as soon as I get a chance I will be posting quilt pictures from my album. I do need to spend a little time getting the pics organized, then they will be up.

Upstairs project....

Currently on my design wall, I have a courthouse steps (log cabin) quilt underway. It is finished to the stage where I'm doing some wool applique on the white border. This is a quilt pattern that I made up as I went along, but closely based on patterns that I've seen in quiltshops but could never afford to buy.

Downstairs project....

On my tv watching chair is a big blue quilt that I designed based on a book I got for Christmas called "Hunter Star Quilts and Beyond" by Jan Krentz. It is a big (Huge) project for handquilting and I've had to take a few hours off to give my "under" finger a break.

That's it for today.