3rd UFO finish for 2013!! "SPRING GARDEN"

It feels so great to finally have this quilt finished.

It has a long story and it goes something like this:

This quilt began its life as a mystery quilt off of Bonnie Hunter's website, quiltville.com.  I have loved my journey with Bonnie.  Learning to steer away from the matchy matchy style of EXPENSIVE quilting and using what I have on hand to make scrap quilts has been a very liberating and fulfilling experience.  Thank you Bonnie for opening my eyes!  Some of my more interesting scrap quilts have much more character than those I've created from purpose-bought yardage alone.  Our quilting ancestors knew a thing or two!!

Anyway, this is Bonnie's pattern called ROLL ROLL COTTON BOLL (see her button bottom right column of my blog).  It uses strings pieced onto foundation paper and Bonnie encouraged us to 'throw it all in there'.  In mine is everything (except Y2K prints which I never owned - this is an inside joke because she has tons of Y2K fabric that she cuts up and puts in many of her quilts).  If the colour was neutral it didn't matter what the subject of the fabric was.  I have polka dots next to kiddie prints, next to batiks, etc.  I know!!! Liberated or what!!??  Anyway, this quilt and I have a story to tell as it hasn't been without its trauma.

The foundation paper I used for the string triangles was Ricky Tims' washable foundation paper.  It's wonderful stuff and I would use it again in a heartbeat.  But I did something very stupid.  After finishing all of the string blocks, I wanted to soak off the washable foundation but we were due to a funeral so I decided...wait for it....to put it in the washing machine on 'delicate'.  I thought the gentle agitation of the machine would just loosen off the foundation paper.  BIG MISTAKE!  You're probably rolling your eyes and thinking 'what were you thinking?'.  I know.  It looked like someone had emptied a whole Kleenex box into the washing machine.  The floor to the laundry looked like we were flying above the clouds.  And yes, I put them in the dryer and then had to iron them to make them behave enough to be pieced into the quilt.  Trauma #1.

Then I happily started piecing my string blocks together with the pieced blocks but put it away for whatever reason that I cannot remember at the moment.  But what I do remember is our decision to list our house for sale and the mad packing up we did to stage the house.  Into a moving box it went and I lost control.  I had people helping pack (mostly our kids and their friends) and most of my sewing stuff went into the garage but I lost track of what went where.

It was time for my annual November retreat and I really wanted to pick up where I left off and finish this quilt.  I started packing up my projects and looked in all of those garage boxes for my half-finished quilt.  Nowhere to be found.  Oh no!!!  Did it go to the thrift store by accident??  Remember we were staging and decluttering and I figured the worst had happened.  All those bazillion half square triangles that became the frame of those blocks and all those string blocks had left me forever.  Waaaaaahhhhh!!   But off I went to my retreat pining away for my Roll Roll Cotton Boll but managing to find something else to do.

Well, almost a year later I was looking in a hall closet into a box that I thought came from one of the kids' rooms when what did I see?  "SEWING ROOM".  I think I sucked all the air out of the room as I gasped.  Could it be??  YES!!!!!  There it was, safe and sound!  I am pretty sure I jumped up and down that day that the lost quilt had been found.  We were reunited once again.  The quilt WOULD be finished!  I was overjoyed.  And then it was time for another November retreat.  And of course, what did I take with me to finish ??  Yup.  My Roll Roll Cotton Boll quilt.  I got it to the stage of getting the borders on which you can read in this post.  I've just recently finished the sewing the binding on and this quilt will now share the spotlight with this quilt which has until today been living in the Queen suite of our B&B.

They will both be used on this bed.  I find it's just nice to switch up the look from time to time.  You will see that we've also done a bit of a makeover on this room, getting rid of the dated brass bed and adding the wooden DIY headboard that my DH created from an idea on Pinterest.

Anyway, I told you it was a quilt with a story.  It was worth every single frustration along the way.  I've named the quilt "My Spring Garden".  Roll Roll Cotton Boll makes total sense for those who live in North Carolina where Bonnie is from.  But for those who live in Canada and have rarely seen Cotton fields, this name made more sense for my quilt.

This has been an unusually long post for me so with that I'll sign off for now.  Thanks for listening to my quilt story.

Until next time,
Mavis

Clutter busting start

I figured rather than stashing this away in a bag that I would load it for quilting. This is the 4th quilt in this pattern that I've quilted. We are sending 5 of these to Romania to the Brasov Children's Hospital. Almost done!!

Well the ironing board has one less thing on it. Moving forward with the sewing room clutter. Love this feeling!

Mavis

Sunny Saturday...

The sun is shining in my neck of the woods and I think that it's a great day to get the leash, the dog and her sweater and hit the pavement for a walk with my friend.

Later I plan to spend some time tidying up the plant pots outside the front door.  After that, I'm hoping I'll still have some energy to tidy up my sewing room.  My DH said the other day, giggling as he entered my sewing room...sure is getting cluttered in here.

Can't deny it.   When it gets this bad, it sucks any creative urges down the drain.  See for yourself!  If Bonnie Hunter can show you her messy studio, then I'll do the same.  I'll show the 'after' picture too.  But before I can sew with a clean conscience, this mess has to be addressed!

So, check back later.  Let's see how far I get today.

Until next time,
Mavis

Amish Block Party quilt finished!!

Yippee!!  This is my second finish for 2013.  I posted the story behind this quilt here.  And tonight I finished writing up the first draft of the pattern.  I'll be uploading it to Craftsy soon so you can purchase it there by download.  You can also purchase by emailing me.  Price will be available soon.

I quilted the black areas with a medium spaced meandering stitch.  I stitched in the ditch for the hexagons so that every diamond and the setting triangles are outlined plus they have one quilted line in between the purple and the black rows in the diamonds/triangles.  I used my Janome 6500 for all the quilting.  For batting I used Warm & Natural.  I have two reasons why it's not overly quilted.  Firstly, experience tells me that if you quilt too densely with Warm & Natural, it doesn't drape very nicely.  My DH also suggested minimal quilting so as not to take away from the striking design.  I backed it in a soft charcoal flannel, also at the wish of my DH, who happens to also be the recipient of this quilt. 

You see, it's just the right size for the bed in his camper van.  Pictured here is the beloved "White Wonder".  Isn't she pretty?  This home away from home has been a part of many a camping trip of my DH and his best friend (not to mention our honeymoon).  They have been venturing out to the woods together for at least 30 years and they have it down to a fine science (from the solar shower to their gourmet camping dinners).  You can't see in this picture his buddy's rig but between them, I don't think they suffer too much at the hand of mother nature.   You also can't really see it too well in this photo but the interior of the White Wonder is teak and the bench seat, which you can almost see, folds out flat to become a bed.  DH did the work himself many years ago (like before we were married which will be 25 years this August!).  Add to her beauty the Porsche engine in her belly and this baby is a camping dream machine.  And since these guys go out in October, not in the heat of the summer, the flannel should keep him warm.  They are usually chasing fall colours and they always come home with tons of beautiful photographs. Maybe if I ask nicely he'll take my quilt on a photo shoot in the woods.  :o)

I'm very pleased that one of my quilts will be accompanying DH on his next trip out to the woods.  And for me, now I'll move on to the next UFO.  I'm not sure which one will call to me the loudest but I'm quite sure I will figure out which one is next.

Until next time,

Mavis

Baby Quilt UFO finished

This quilt is called "Crocodile Teeth" and it's for a baby in my church named Levi. It's a Moda bakeshop pattern for charm squares.

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/03/pinwheel-baby-quilt.html

I quilted it with an all over meander stitch on my Janome 6500 and B-Line quilting frame.  This was started last summer and is my first UFO done for 2013.

Quilt Top Finish!!

This one is an original design and will be a pattern for sale as soon as I finish writing it up:

 

 

I'm calling it "Amish Block Party".

My husband suggested I create an optical illusion quilt and printed out an image of the tumbling block in gray tones.  I started playing in EQ7 and this was the result.  I originally thought it would be a small wall hanging but it's not quite queen sized but would definitely fit a double bed.  My husband suggested it would be a great quilt for his camper van.  Great idea !!  It was his idea for the quilt so it will be a perfect man quilt for the man van when he goes camping with his buddy.  Tomorrow I will be on the hunt for a dark charcoal backing.  That's what he wants; and that's what he'll get.

2013 is my 'skill building' year so in this one I had plenty of practice doing Y seams. I can't say I've 'mastered' them but I'm a lot better than I was before I started.  Anyway, I will now write up the pattern and list it on my etsy site.  I'll put a link in my blog once it's done.

Until next time,

Mavis

Testing uploading a picture for my blog via iPhone.

This quilt has been finished and donated to the Investor's Group Alzheimer Walk happening this Sunday. U hope it raises some money for this worthy cause.