Some Quilts of 2012

Some Quilts of 2012, a photo by CoraQuilts~Carla on Flickr.

1. Woodland Tumblers With Binding, 2. La Petite Ecole, 3. Hope Valley Log Cabin Quilt, 4. Rural Jardin Stars Quilt, 5. Fandango Charming Stars, 6. Fox Trails Quilt, 7. Ruby Pinwheels, 8. A La Maison Nine Patch - Now with texture!, 9. Owls and Trucks for Oliver, 10. Curious Nature Crosses, Woods, 11. Curious Nature Crosses: Water, 12. French General Hourglass Quilt, 13. On a Whim Quilt, 14. Triangles with Gayle AKA Anna Maria Horner Quilt, 15. Sparkle Punch Baby Quilt, 16. Scoot HST Baby Quilt, 17. Chrysalis Baby Quilt, 18. Minecraft Creeper Quilt, 19. Verna Granny Square Baby Quilt, 20. Shoo Fly Baby Quilts, 21. Coming Home to the Woods of Switzerland for Christmas Quilt!, 22. Wee Woodland Baby Quilt, 23. Ten Little Things Baby Quilt, 24. Blue Pool Quilt Finished!, 25. Ten Little Things Strip Quilt, 26. American Jane Quilt, 27. Hideaway Folk Family Quilt, 28. Spinning Friendship Stars Baby Girl Quilt, 29. Chicopee Trails Quilt, 30. Anna Maria Horner Triangles Baby Quilt, 31. Reunion Jelly Roll Rail Quilt, 32. Fox Trails Baby Quilt, 33. Granny Square Baby Quilt, 34. Central Park ZigZag Baby Quilt, 35. Little Apples ZigZag Quilt with Border

 I'm playing with Big Huge Lab's Mosaic Maker today. Last night I organized my Quilts I've Made boards on Pinterest and am just in general recording quilt making from my last two years. These are some, but not all from 2012. I've counted over 50 quilts I finished over the past year!!!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Part 2

Yay!  I was nominated in the Favorite Quilt Photographer category!!  Here is the blog post to vote for your favourites at Amy's Creative Side.  Scroll on down to Favorite Quilt Photographer and just click on my name!  Thanks so much to everyone who nominated me... meaning US!  Thanks again to my son who took the pictures.  Do you think he'll let me keep the Bella bundle if I win?  Hope so.

If you missed my entry to the Quilt Festival, look at this link!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I'm excited to be taking part in the Blogger's Quilt Festival for the first time!  Amy Ellis over at Amy's Creative Side has been organizing this for a few years now as a way for quilters on the internet to share their quilts and creativity with each other all in one place!  Head on over and scroll down to see all the lovely quilts and then click on through to see the maker's lovely blog and the story of the quilt.  Great fun, indeed.  Well, without further ado, here is my entry:

I call it Chicopee Trails. The pattern is from Pat and Nicky Lintott's book, Antique to Heirloom Jelly Roll Quilts, and the quilt in the book is called "North by Northwest" I made the quilt a different size and added two borders, but this is pretty much it.

 

The fabric I chose is from Denyse Schmidt's latest fabric line, Chicopee. (Learning the name of this line sent my husband into frequent renditions of the main character of a movie from back in the 90s) Anyways, many, many, many half square triangles later (who am I kidding? I was sick of making HSTs, and decided to add the borders to reduce the number I needed to get the size decent enough to cover a person!)

 

The background is fabric is Caroline Chambray. It has a lovely texture, a little bit like linen but not as much. The secret to the texture is different threads in the warp versus the weft, like shot cotton. I love linen in quilts but wanted to try something different. I'll probably use it again!

  

I used other Denyse Schmidt fabrics to finish off this quilt. I had a lovely stash of some Katy Jump Rope I geeked out about finding earlier this year on a trip to Hawaii. Yes, I bought all they had left on the bolt! It became the backing to this quilt, and some stripe-y Hope Valley was with orange, purple and fuchsia waiting in my stash became binding!

  

I used a piece of batting from a huge section my hubby bought me for my birthday. (Wasn't that a great idea?) He splurged and got Warm and Natural from our local quilt shop. I haven't used it for a long time, I've been buying online and trying to save pennies, but I must say I love that batting. It washes up so soft. Then I stippled it all over with Aurifil thread in 2325.

  

After washing and drying, it came out at 48" by 68". I am really in love with this quilt and sure hope you like it too! Thanks to all of those who are sharing their quilts with Amy and the rest of us. Can't wait to curl up with all of those lovely images and stories and look at them ALL!!

  

Special thanks to my 14 year old son Ethan, who took these photos of my quilt. We chose to take the pictures at Rocky Mountain National Historic Site. The name of the quilt pattern, "North by Northwest" reminded me of the trappers and traders who travelled deep into the Canadian Wilderness, looking for a Northwest Passage to the sea. Their efforts led to the establishment of fur-trading forts which later became towns and are an important part of our history.

 

We are fortunate to have archeaological remains of one of these forts nearby our home. Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site is the location of a succession of forts established by the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company starting in 1799. (And it's also kind of fun, because my husband works there and I got to go with him to work to take these pictures!)

Speaking of my husband, he sweetly came outside our house yesterday to try and help me take pictures of this quilt. Unfortunately, none of them I liked except for one:

  

Here he is resting is arms after holding them straight up with the quilt for like 15 minutes straight while I tried to get a shot! God bless him :)

ETA:  Oops, almost forgot the stats Amy asked for!

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats

Finished quilt measures : 48″x 68″

Special techniques used : half square triangles

Quilted by : Me!

Best Category : Favourite Throw Quilt, Favourite Home Machine Quilted Quilt, Favourite Quilt Photographer
Entry # 389

The Duelling Quilts

A continuation of this post, now they are finished! I love the bright colours. Both quilts make me so happy!

 

Minecrafting Crafting

Just wanted to share a few of the things my boys and I have been crafting lately for the love of the game Minecraft :) My Creeper Quilted Pillow:

 My eldest's first try using a wood burning kit. I'd say he has a bit of talent with that burning pen!

 

He has always been quite an artist with a pencil and paper. My second son is a gifted graphic artist. I am so proud of their work, and they have even developed their own successful online business using their gifts. It is incidentally also related to Minecraft!! You can check it out at Fin's Graphic Design.  My eldest is the pencil and paper guy, and the younger renders it all into Photoshop and is the online guy.  Since most of my readership is probably moms like me, this might be a link you'll want to pass on to your kids or grandkids!

A Most Excellent Weekend Part 2

Remember this post? Gayle and her family returned to us this weekend and we managed to take some pictures of us together with our finished quilts!

 

Of course we did some sewing together this weekend too!

 

Gayle started her own hexies (tee-hee! I got her addicted too!) and I worked on mine. Another fantastic weekend with my quilty friend!

A Quick Update

I just wanted to pop in and share two quilt tops that I finished in the past couple of days!

 And this one!

 

Click on the pictures for more information. I am too lazy today to write it out here! Or you can check my new page at Threadbias! There is info about my quilt projects there and you should join too! It is super fun!

Simple Table Runner

Just a simple table runner to share today! This I made from a charm pack of Antique Fair from Moda I picked up at my LQS. The pattern is not original (nor difficult) and I used a picture I found online of a table runner. I also made this one the same way. Easy, peasy and quick, yet satisfying. And oh so fun to free motion quilt without the usual weight of an entire bed quilt like I'm usually doing!

This was a birthday present for my mom. I picked up the charm pack since the country colours made me think of her!

Finally, a Kitty Approved Quilt

My sweet kitty cat has finally shown up in a picture of a quilt for me.  You see, she is mostly an outdoor kitty, as my hubby is allergic to her.  So she is often out having adventures when I am photographing my quilts.  But today she graced me with her elegant presence.

She is a remarkable little kitty. She actually came with our house. True story. You see, we moved a house to our acreage and renovated it. She was with it, all the way down the road, for a 5 hour drive!

 Oh, and the Blue Pool Quilt is finished!

 

 Here is the back:

 

Blue Pool Quilt Top

Blue Pool Quilt Top, a photo by CoraQuilts ~ MrsCarla on Flickr.

I finished the borders on this quilt top today! I call it Blue Pool, since I gathered most of these fabrics last winter in Hawaii. If you've been to Maui, you may have visited the Blue Pool, a lovely freshwater pool beneath a waterfall just yards from the ocean. I made this quilt to remind me of our magical time there!

The borders are from Kate Spain's line Terrain, which goes so beautifully I think, and also speaks to me of Hawaii with its flowers and foliage and blue waters.

   

Quilts in Action

I am pleased and honoured to introduce to you the recipients of the "Shoo-Fly" Baby Quilts I made last month!  Here is a picture they sent to us from the hospital, thoughtfully including the quilts.

These twin baby boys were born yesterday, July 31st!  They are healthy and beautiful and would you just look at their mommy :)  She looks great too, wouldn't you say, for just having delivered over 15 pounds of baby!?

I was honoured again to make these little guys' acquaintance on their way home from the hospital today.  They peed on my couched and baptized my quilts with their wee leaky selves and I got to change a meconium teeny weeny bum and it was awesome!

Here is one of the little men (and since this is a quilt blog, that's my swoon quilt he peed on just before this picture was taken!  Love.)

Just thought you'd like to see some quilts in action rather than staged for a change.  Till next time!

Etsy Shop Update

I added a couple of quilts to my etsy shop

So far, I have sold one since I opened at the beginning of the month.  And another quilt I pulled from the shop to donate to a fundraising auction in our community.

A Christmas in July Post

Well, I sure would like to be posting more, but I'm not. Hmm, I really don't have anything to say about that. Maybe I'm doing other things. Anyways, here is a quilt I just finished. It is all washed, dried and crinkly goodness (pictures are pre-wash...couldn't wait, it was going to rain) and I love it. I began with this one last year at Christmas time, but didn't finish. I DID finish this quilt last Christmas though:

So now, I have one for each couch. Yippee!

And I must say, I didn't think I would come to the day, but I have, and I love free motion quilting a stipple. I didn't realize from pictures on the internet what a lovely texture a stippled cotton quilt has. And I have actually never touched one in real life until when I made my own.  Isn't that crazy?  What a strange world the internet makes.

 

Here are the stats for this quilt:

Size: 50" x 67"
Pattern: "Coming Home" from Camille Roskelley's book, Simplify (adapted, enlarged)
Fabric: charms from Moda's lines, Swiss Holiday and Woodland Holiday, Bella Snow
Binding: Lilac Hill by Moda
Backing: Flannel from LQS
Batting: Hobbs Cotton Wait!  I used an "upcycled" flannel sheet for this one!  I love doing this.   My mom finds them at the thrift store she works at for super cheap!  I love the texture and the thin, drapy-ness.

Shoo Fly Baby Quilts

I love traditional quilt blocks!  Here are the result of playing with Shoo Fly Blocks.   They are so easy and fun to make.

These baby quilts are for a set of twins whose gender is unknown to the parents as of yet.  I used a fat quarter bundle of So Sophie by Riley Blake and made 4 blocks with each print, 2 being the inverse of the other 2.  This way, one quilt has darks for the "background" and the other uses the lights.  A bit like twins maybe?  Different but alike?   The backing on each quilt is a soft white sheet.

Anyways, I loved being able to make a stripey binding, my favourite kind, on these little quilts, and the free motion stippling makes them so crinkly soft.  I would have loved to keep them and cuddle them, but they were happily passed on to the valiant and strong mama who is carrying these two little precious people so well.

Verna Granny Square Baby Quilt

Verna quilt is washed and crinkly and listed in my shop!

Verna Granny Squares Baby Quilt

Finally finished this quilt!  I have been really enjoying free motion quilting lately.  Especially since I discovered that I can do it without using the foot pedal on my machine!  I was sitting there quilting a couple of weeks ago, thinking "the only thing that would make this better is if I could put my feet up!"  And then I realized that I could :)  My Bernina with the Stitch Regulator lets you press the reverse button and the FMQ starts up.  You just press it again to stop it.  Now I can quilt with my feet up!  I actually find it more relaxing on my shoulders and arms as well!  Yay!!

Minecraft Creeper Quilt Finished!

And listed for sale in my Etsy shop!
SOLD

The top is made from Kona cottons in 8 shades of green and grey plus black.  The backing is black poly fleece and it is quilted along the seams "in the ditch" with cotton thread, except for insides of the black sections.  This way, there is a creeper image on the back as well!

Etsy Shop Open!

I have added some inventory to my Etsy shop! Come take a look. I will be adding more quilts during the summer. Watch for my Minecraft Creeper quilts for sale soon! Here are a few of the baby quilts available right now: