February OMG

     It's time to come up with a goal for February.  I've decided to keep things low key this month.  February is a short month and I'm going to Quilt Con (yay) which makes it even shorter.  I've also got some advance sewing to do for a workshop I'm taking. So instead of trying to complete a quilt, I've decided to focus on catching up with my quilt alongs.  
    I'll have a Stash Bee Block to make and at least a couple of blocks for the Honey Pot Bee, but the specific goal I've settled on for February is to get my Meadow Mystery Quilt top sewn together.  I still have to put January's blocks together before I can do that but I think it's doable.  Here are the strip setts for January's blocks.

      

     I finished my January goal but unfortunately I missed the link up for setting January's goal.  Guess what!  Patty at Elm Street Quilts now has a sign up to receive notice when the link up opens up.  I signed up for that as I obviously need it.

I'm heading over to the link up now.  Do you have a Goal for February?

Allison Glass Quilt Finish!

     I did it!  I finished my Allison Glass Challenge quilt .  I haven't posted for a while because this quilt is pretty much all I've done quilting wise besides sorting through fabric and then cutting fabric for my local guild.  But I've got it done and here it is.

      I took the quilt out to the front porch to take some photos.  After two weeks of no snow and very grey skies, mother nature decided to bring back winter  with some snow.  It's still pretty grey though so I had to brighten the photos.

     My Allison Glass fabric is from the "Hand Made" collection.  It's been in my stash for a couple of years and it was high time I used it.  I was really happy when Yvonne of Quilting Jet Girl decided to hold an Allison Glass Challenge and  link up and challenged us to make something with our Allison Glass fabrics.  Because the fabrics in this collection are fairly large scale I decided to use simple 15" square plus blocks to show them off.   The background fabric is a Kafe Fasset Shot Cotton. It looks yellow on many computers but it's really a yellow/green. The backing is an Amy Butler fabric Dew which is part of the Forest Line, if I'm reading my selvedge correctly.

     I used my walking foot to quilt organic wavy lines, lengthwise down the quilt.  The batting is a very thin cotton, thinner than I would like.  My local quilt shop recently closed (insert sad face here) and I am still figuring out the battings at the alternative shop across town.  It's not a exactly a quilt shop.  It's more of a cheap junk shop that also sells tons of fabric some of which is quilting fabric.  The material is not well organized and there is little in the way of customer service, but they do have some good fabric and I managed to find my backing fabric there.  

     
      This finish is my first finish of the 2017 FAL first quarter.  The original list is here and the button is in the side bar.  It's also my OMG for January but I missed the deadline for posting the initial goal.  I'm linking it up with Yvonne (Quilting Jet Girl) for the Allison Glass Challenge link up.  I'll also link up with Beth at Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday because this quilt has been my main crush for a while, and with Finish it Up Friday which is hosted at Summer Lee Quilts this week.  Now if only we would get some sun.

A Weekend Trip

    

  On Friday I boarded a Greyhound bus to Toronto at 7:55 in the morning.  You see Bernie from Needle and Foot was there celebrating her son's wedding and we arranged to meet each other!  Leaving so early in the morning I forgot to bring my camera so no smiling photos of us, but there are some awesome photos of the wedding on instagram.  We met in her hotel lobby and headed to a nearby coffee shop where we chatted for oh about an hour and a half about our families, our quilting plans, how we got into blogging.....  What fun to meet another quilt blogging friend in person.

     It was a beautiful day and after Bernie went back to her family I walked around the city for a bit and then I went to the Textile Museum which is one of my favourite places in Toronto.  There were a couple of exhibits of woven textiles on display.  One display  was a on the works of weaver Sheila Hicks. I found her works to be very beautiful and inspirational.  There was also lot's of inspiration to be found during the walk, in building design and furniture in shop windows. I have to say I'm finding the 2017  30 quilt design challenge to be a lot of fun.  I'm starting to see designs everywhere and learning how to take the things I see and shift them into something I could possibly make into a quilt.  I also find using coloured pencils to be very relaxing in the evening.

     I stayed with my daughter overnight and Dwight came in to meet us for brunch in the morning.  We went to a lovely little cafe called Cocoa Latte and from there we went to the local food market at the Wychwood Barns.  Before we drove home Dwight and I visited my aunt and brought her a wing backed chair that he found for her.  She is still doing fairly well and we are hoping that she can stay in her apartment for as long as possible.

     I spent the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday working on my Allison Glass quilt.  I managed to finish all the blocks and now I am putting the quilt top together.  I'm hoping to quilt it by the end of the month, but I do need to find a backing fabric and some batting as well. Are you working on an Allison Glass project for the challenge link up.  I'm really pleased that Yvonne decided to host this challenge as it encouraged me to actually make something with the "Hand Made" fabric that has been in my stash for quite some time. I'm linking up with Beth at Main Crush Monday and with Lorna at Let's Bee Social as well.

Quilting, Politics and Inspiration

     Last week I had a visit with my local M.P. He represents my area federally for those of you in the U.S.A. who may not know what I'm talking about. I was visiting him on behalf of my work to talk to him about proposed changes in legislation that would affect us.  Despite the fact that I had met him before (he shops in our store) I was very nervous about this.

     So what does a quilter do in the morning before she has to meet with her M.P.  She sews of course.  I found making the Stash Bee Hive 3 Bear Paw blocks for Tracy really helped to calm me down.  Deep breathing and meditation was also very useful.

     The meeting went very well and was actually quite interesting.  I had to wait for a while before the meeting and I had quite a bit of time to look at this.

     Of course I asked for a copy and I've had some fun using the flags as inspiration for quilt designs for the 2017 30 quilt design challenge which you can read more about here.
Here are two designs I've come up with so far.

   This is a block design.  There are four of them in the photo and it's pretty much identical toe the Carignan Saliere flag except I changed the crosses from white to yellow.

     This is a full quilt design and it's based roughly on the Bearn flag.

     I've been enjoying the quilt design challenge.  I'm trying to approach it one design at a time, putting my emphasis more on the here and now, rather than the big number.  I'm linking up with Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social.  Now she is quite the designer.

2017 First Quarter List

     Last week was a busy week for me.  So busy that I forgot to link up a goal for One Monthly Goal. Oh well I haven't missed the deadline for the First Quarter of the 2017 Finish Along.

1.  I'll be making one or two quilts out of this fabric.  

Yvonne of Quilting Jet Girl is hosting an Allison Glass Challenge with a link up at the end of the month.  My One Monthly Goal for January is to finish at least one Allison Glass quilt.  I'm working on a simple plus pattern so I think I can get this done in time for the link up.  But I do need to buy some backing fabric

2.    This one is back on the list.   There's a lot to be done here.  Make more blocks to start...but I like it so I'll try to do it.

3.  It would be nice to finish my 2016 Stash Bee Quilt.

   4.  The Snowflake Shimmer Quilt Top (Quilting Jet Girl Design) is waiting to be quilted.

5.  As does this blast from the past.  This is the second quilt top I  made and it's time I quilted it.  It will be good to practice some fmq on.  I think it will look fabulous on that chair which is leather and freezing in the winter.  It needs something to warm it up.

6.   My aunt would really like a tea cozy and as I can't seem to find one of the sort she would like in the shops...I've decided to make her one and maybe I'll make one for me as well.  I'm thinking these one offs of Japanese fabric might make a good cozy.

7.  I've also got plans to make a donation quilt with these fabrics along with some others.

     Well I think that's given me enough to pick and choose from for the first quarter.  I'm linking up with Leanne from She Can Quilt and with Beth at Cooking Up Quilts. What's on your first quarter list?

Creativity Takes Courage

      Ever since I participated in the 2015 Fabric Quilt block challenge and blog hop I've wanted to design more quilts.  I included quilt design in my goals for 2016 and again in 2017.  The problem is  I have trouble getting around to it.  So when Sandra at Musings of a Menopausal Melon mentioned she wanted to work on a 30 quilt design challenge this winter I offered to do it along with her. It's modelled on the 2016 challenge by Rachel of Stitched in Color. We're inviting anyone who wants to, to join us in this project.  Here's how it works.  I copied this from Sandra's post:

Who:  Anyone!

What: 

• Design a quilt block or an entire quilt.  If you draw a quilt block, maybe put a few together to see what an overall pattern might look like.  Add some colour.  Just as Rachel said in her challenge, you can use non-original blocks, but re-invent them by changing up colour or value, or put two non-original different ones together and see what magic can occur!
• You may submit hand-drawn designs or digital designs.  Personally I find there is something relaxing and Zen-like in getting out the old Crayola pencil crayons and notebook...
• No construction directions needed.
• The goal is to create 30 quilt designs by March 15.

Where:

• Take a photo of your design, number it, and post it on Instagram using the following hashtag:

#30quiltdesignschallenge2017

• Please tag each photo @mmmquilts and @sunlightinwinterquilts so we can see your designs!
• Be sure to number each design.
• To be eligible for prizes, be sure to follow both @mmmquilts and @sunlightinwinterquilts

When:  Today, January 2 - March 15, 2017

Why:  Because as Matisse Says "Creativity Takes Courage" 

and as Helen Keller says"Life is either a daring adventure, or 

nothing at all"


    There will be prizes but we are still working out the details on these.  For now Sandra has offered a couple of prizes on her blog and I'm throwing in  one or two of my own.  A charm pack of rainbow coloured charms I'll cut from my stash and as I'm working on a couple of quilts with my "Handmade" fabrics by Allison Glass, I'll make up a charm pack from those as well. Here's a selection of my Handmade stash:

     Here's my first design which I'm calling Pipe Dream.  It's made of two blocks that I've randomly put together.

          A couple of folks have joined us already.  I hope you will too. I'm linking up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social.   






    

The Best of 2016

     Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs is holding a best of 2016 link up where quilters can share their best blog posts or their best quilts or what ever they please.  I've been thinking about what I would like to share with you and I've decide to share my 5 favourite finishes of the year.  These are the quilts that I like the best and that I had the most fun working on.

     The first finish is this group quilt.  The blocks were made by the members of the small modern group in my local quilt guild.  You can read about this quilt here.  We didn't know this at the time but the pattern for the pick up sticks block was originally from a book by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, so my apologies for not crediting them in earlier posts. If you happen to know which book it's in please let me know and I will credit it. I added the beautiful blue sashing and quilted the quilt.

         I really enjoy improv and I had a lot of fun making this mini quilt from Score 1 of the Improv Handbook For Modern Quilters.   You can read about it here.  I made the quilt for the Toronto Modern Guild's display at Quilt Canada and it hung with the other challenge quilts.  Debbie of A Quilter's Table included this quilt in her newsletter The Scrap Basket in April 2016 so that was a fun bonus for me.

        This next mini quilt is probably the one I had the most fun with!  To make it I put fabric squares into a bag and randomly pulled them out in pairs to make 1/2 square triangles.  You can read about the process here.   I absolutely love how this quilt turned out, and I really should get it up on the wall in the sewing room.

     I like quilting along with others and I participated in 3 online quilt alongs last year and I managed to get one all quilted up.  I really enjoyed quilting along with Ruth on the Rainbow Rose quilt which she designed for the Modern Quilters Ireland.  Ruth shared a lot of information about colour theory and the resulting quilt is very beautiful.  You can read about this quilt here.

     This brings me to favourite finish number 5 for 2016 and the reason that this post is so late.  I finished this quilt  named "When Charlotte Burst Into the World"  yesterday and you can read about it here.  I enjoyed every part of the process in making this quilt  from designing the block to deciding on layout , to figuring out how to quilt it and finally to stretching my free motion skills once again.

          2016 was a wonderful year of quilting for me.  I received a great deal of enjoyment from  playing around with colour, improv and design and I'm planning to continue that in 2017.  I also worked on improving my quilting skills.  This is an interesting process because it requires me to accept where I'm at skill wise and to let go of my desire to be perfect. That's always a challenge for me.  I'm adding this post to the Best of 2016 link up, and as it's January 1st I'm wishing you all a Happy New Year!