HELP WANTED :)

I'm getting into a rut, resorting to stippling most of my finishes.  I do love to hand quilt also, but would like to finish this quilt faster than that.  I would love to get some suggestions on how to quilt this sampler.

Should I do each block differently?   I'm using my home machine , Janome Memory Craft 9000, and have been feeling pretty confident doing some different fmq  .....  

The "grand-puppy" checking it out 

Isn't he adorable?  

Back to the issue ... any suggestions for quilting this project would be appreciated.

A Belated Housewarming / Wedding Gift

My niece, Holly, and her husband, Adam, were married a few years before I started quilting, so they never received a quilt as a gift. Two of her siblings have been married since then and both were given quilts ... so I was feeling a bit guilty.

They live in a log cabin home, so fitting that this is a variation on the log cabin square.

I found the pattern in "Simply Fat Quarters" last summer, finally started it in January, and gave it away last weekend.  We are in Ontario and they are in Ohio ....  usually only seeing eachother about twice a year.

I stippled the whole thing and put on a scrappy binding.  For the first time I did the binding by machine  .... certainly much faster but I did miss admiring the finished  quilt while hand sewing.

On to the next project  :)

Just For Fun

I've been trying out new blocks from the book "Shape Workshop for Quilters"  from Fat Quarterly. I've been forcing myself to try some new techniques.  Here are my first attempts at machine applique .... I love it, the process and the result .   I sure hope I feel the same after trying paper piecing !!

More applique, and patchwork ... such fun !

HSTs are not my favorite to make but I do like the block.

 

My blocks so far ... 12 of hopefully 30.

 

I'm excited to gift this one to a special relative :)

 

 

Happy Weekend Everyone !!!!

Baby Granny Square Quilt

 

 

 

The top is made up of only scraps and stash, I did buy some material for the backing.

 

I had great intentions of making a granny square quilt for our bed, I was sooo excited !  Well, reality set in and I realized it would take a while, so for a quick fix I went for a baby quilt instead.  Now I am ready for the next baby girl ... not that anyone I know is expecting, but I'm ready :)

 

 

I machine stippled the white background and hand quilted the squares and purple border.  I love hand quilting, for me it's very de-stressing.  The original plan was to hand quilt the background as well, but I couldn't decide how .... so I did the fmq instead and I really like the look.

 

 

 

 

 

No name yet for this one, not till there is a baby to gift it to.

 

Here's a peek at my next project:

 

 

Wishing all my fellow quilters an amazing weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

A little wall hanging I made to practice working with curves. 

 

I also practiced some more with my free motion quilting. 

 

All in all I'm happy with how it turned out.  The sides are not laying as flat as I would like, but I can live with that :)  





"THE BOLD TRAVELER"

 

The planning of the quilt was a bit of a challenge .... no pattern, just a bag of material from Brittnei's (my granddaughter) travels and a request to make a quilt.   

All quilted and bound ready for a wash and dry before Christmas .   Actually 3 or 4 washes with lots of Colour Catchers.  I don't usually prewash my material, but these I had.  Even with prewashing the material, the colour catchers still picked up more bleeding from the finished quilt. 

 

Most of the quilting is fmq,  with a bit of hand quilting .

 

Our "bold traveler" at the young age of 25 is probably the most well travelled person I know.

Britt has already been to China, India, Africa, Haiti as well as many locations closer to home in Canada and the States.

Brittnei modeling the quilt with my son Josh.



 



"ON THE BRIGHT SIDE"

 

 

 

My first patchwork quilt ... thanks Amanda Jean for the inspiration!

 

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. If I had it to do over again I would pick different colours for the backing and binding.

 

 

All the material is from my scraps and stash.  For the backing I bought some orange polka dot flannel. 

 

Normally I use a cotton batting, but on this one I  tried a polyester ..... I definitely prefer the feel of cotton.

 

Right now I am working on hand quilting a baby quilt that I used a 80/20 batting on.  So far I like the feel of it ... I'll see how it feels once it's washed and dried.

 

Finished size: 76 x80