Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day from our Canadian cabin in the woods, all my crazy Canuck kids and my latest Canada inspired quilt.

I made this with a maple leaf quilt block pattern that finished at 9" square, a bundle of fat eighths of Crazy for Red by Minick & Simpson, a few fat quarters from Midwinter Reds (also Minick & Simpson) and some red French General pieces.

It finished at about 63" square and I bound it with Kona cotton solid in Chinese Red.  The quilting I did on my home machine using Aurifil 50 wt in 2325, which blended nicely with the taupes in this colour palette.

William Morris Trees of Life Quilt

Here is my hand quilted William Morris Trees of Life quilt.  Finally done!  

This quilt is special for many reasons.  Shall I tell you a few?  Way back in 2012, I went to Paris with my husband and two oldest sons.  It was an amazing, amazing trip.

Before we left, I, of course looked up whether there were any quilt shops in Paris I could get to.  I was very excited to find one called Le Rouvray just a few blocks from our apartment (which was fabulously also a few blocks from Notre Dame Cathedral - oh my goodness, I loved it).  THEN, on my birthday just a few weeks before we left, my sister in law gave me the book you can read a bit about on the Le Rouvray website (it is now out of print).

When I got to Paris, I saw the shop had this fabulous antique quilt hanging up made with Tree of Life blocks.  There was a pattern for a similar quilt was included in my book and since I had several William Morris fat quarters (I was thinking about his Tree of Life tapestries...) It came together.

Then I decided to hand quilt it.  Well, that took a long time, but I enjoyed every minute.

Sadly, Le Rouvray is now closed.  But here is a picture I took of the outside of the shop.  You can just see the Tree of Life quilt that inspired me through the window.

QUILT STATS:

Dimensions: 53" by 67"

Fabrics: Various fat quarters of William Morris reproductions by Fabric Freedom, blue Strawberry Thief print by Barbara Brackman from her line A Morris Tapestry. Bella Snow.

Batting: Warm & Natural

Thread: Aurifil 50 wt for piecing, Gutermann hand quilting thread for quilting in Ivory.

Binding: In the Beginning, by Jason Yenter

Backing: Eiffel Tower by Michael Miller (wide width, no seams!)

Origins Quilt

I've noticed a couple of things as I'm teaching myself to hand quilt.  Like the appearance of my stitches.  In general, I am pleased as they are neat and even.  But when I look at pictures of antique quilts, the stitches appear (1) tinier and (2) smaller, hahaha!  Like just a dot!  The way my stitches look with this thinner hand quilting thread better suits perle cotton, I think, as the stitches look a little big to me (see the close up).

A question: how many stitches per inch do people generally get hand quilting?  Mine are about 9 stitches per inch in this quilt.  Which calculates out to..... about 27, 216 stitches!  (378 squares, 8 inches of stitching per square and 9 stitches per inch?  Correct me if I am wrong!)

Quilt Stats:

Print Fabrics: Origins by Basic Grey for Moda

Solid Fabric: Kona cotton solid in Ivory (?)

Thread: Gutermann Hand Quilting thread 100% cotton in Ivory

Batting: Warm & Natural

Backing: cut from a 100% cotton Ikea duvet cover

Dimensions: 50" by 58"

S'more Love Camper Quilt

Before one leaves on another an epic camping trip... one needs a new camper quilt for one's RV.  Naturally.

This simple, easy to piece, easy to quilt and "perfect to showcase a fun fabric" pattern, is what I made this year for our camper quilt.  It is called Easy Bricks, by Amy Smart at Diary of a Quilter, and can by found on the Moda Bake Shop site.

I used a layer cake of S'more Love by Cosmo Cricket for Moda.  I took out a lot of the lighter prints which ended up in this baby quilt:

I replaced the lighter S'more Love prints with darker prints that coordinated from my collection.  (As Amy did in the pattern, using 2 layer cakes and reserving the light prints for a different project.)

I pieced it and quilted it up on my machine using a white Aurifil 50 wt. and it is ready to go for our annual September RV adventure!

Quilt Stats

Pattern: Easy Bricks by Amy Smart at Diary of a Quilter (found at Moda Bake Shop)

Print Fabrics: S'more Love, Cosmo Cricket for Moda (used for top, backing and binding) and other various prints

Background fabric: Kona cotton solid (in Oyster, I think?)

Thread: Aurifil 50 wt, white

Batting: Warm & Natural

Dimensions: 60" by 81"

Completed August 2014

The Lush Uptown Quilt

The first thing one realizes after getting sucked into the siren song of this super cool, modern and unique fabric line is how difficult it is to find a good quilt pattern to do it justice!

I think I found it in Thimbleblossoms' Red Velvet pattern.  The perfect pattern to let you show off those big beautiful deer and trees and chrysanthemums....but not too modern where you are just looking at giant squares, or squares in a square.  

I did leave out several prints (some smaller scale and the paint by number birds), as I want those large scale deer and the fall foliage to shine.  And I ended up going with a sampler bundle of shot cottons for the star points instead of what I originally imagined incorporating some of the smaller scale prints for.  I think the colours and the added depth of the shot cottons is spot on for this quilt.

I pieced it with my usual Aurifil 50 wt in 2325, and I also machine quilted it with the same threads, but used a light grey on the top thread and 2325 in the bobbin.

Oh, and you may have noticed I orientated the deer to be looking at you when the quilt is what you might consider horizontal, rather than vertical.  That's because it is going to hang on the back of my couch :).

Thanks for coming by to look!

Quilt Stats

Pattern: Red Velvet by Thimbleblossoms

Dimensions: 66" by 59"

Main fabric: Lush Uptown by Moda

Backing: Turquoise sheet from Ikea

Batting: Warm & Natural

Thread:  Aurifil 50 wt

Completed August 4, 2014

Baby Quilts for Boys!

It started with the plus quilt on the left and ended with the charm quilt on the right... a commission to make a blue and green quilt for a baby boy coming (hope they aren't mad I added gold....)

 

Some wavy line quilting in my usual Aurifil (50 wt in light grey) using a stretched out zig zaggy stitch and my walking foot, plus some scrap-alicious binding...

And then I was reminded of another baby quilt I meant to make!  Some leftover squares from the quilt above (and some others) went so nicely with a few light squares I had left from a S'More Love layer cake from Moda.

This simple quilt needed a little something special in the quilting department, so I happily chose hand quilting.  Not a hard sell to me these days!

Some random lines in colourful perle no. 8 cottons and Aurfil 12 wt. cottons and we are good to go.  (Haha, get it? Go camping?)  Oh, and some wood grain print binding?  Yes, please!

So squishy, so fun to do, so satisfying.... hand quilting.  Try it!

Quilt Stats:

Baby Boy Plus Quilt

Finished dimensions:  29.5" by 38.5"

Fabric: various

Backing: Riley Blake flannel from Hooty Hoot

Binding: various

Batting: Warm & Natural

Thread: Aurifil 50 wt. in light grey

S'more Love Baby Quilt

Finished dimensions:  25" by 34"

Fabric: S'more Love by Moda and various

Backing: Riley Blake flannel from Hooty Hoot

Binding: Faux Bois in Tan by Patty Sloniger

Batting: Warm & Natural

Thread: various colours of Aurifil 12 wt and DMC perle 8.

Sister's Paint Box Quilt

A year ago I bought two jelly rolls at a quilt show, one was Metropolitan Fair by Barbara Brackman and the other was Paint Box by Edyta Sitar for Laundry Basket Quilts.  When I got them home and unrolled them (no, I cannot leave them all nicely packaged, I must inspect) I noticed how nicely they matched!

So they sat, and I waited until a jelly roll quilt pattern fell into my brain. And I thought Sister's Choice might be a good choice, as it has that traditional feel that the fabrics did to me. But the patterns I looked at would require some messing around with cutting. But then I found Miss Bonnie Hunter's pattern. All 2.5 inch squares and rectangles. Perfect!!

 My star points are all pretty scrappy, and I wanted to use the low volume prints, which there were plenty of, for the background instead of a solid (which is also what Bonnie did). It worked perfectly and I had enough stripe-y jelly roll strips left from Metropolitan Fair to make the binding!

Some yardage of a matching dusty blue Robyn Pandolph print in my stash became the backing.   Now I have a quilt that actually matches my house too. Most of the brighter, more modern quilts I've made don't actually co-ordinate with my living room which is more traditional colours. (Not that it stops me from strewing bright quilts all over it!)

Final Stats

Dimensions: 46" by 65" 

Fabric: Metropolitan Fair and Paint Box (both by Moda) 

Thread: Aurifil in the most typical (and boring? haha) Sand colour (2325) for both piecing and quilting 

Backing: Bed of Roses by Robyn Pandolph for Moda 

Batting: a recycled flannel sheet 

Completed March 2014

A Jelly Roll Quilt!

I finally finished off this quilt what's been hanging around for a year or so!

I love Lauren and Jessi Jung, the pair that designed this fabric line (called Flora) for Moda. One of my all time favourite lines of theirs is Hideaway, it's so cute. Here is a quilt I made with a bunch from that line last year (don't you love those little swiss houses?):

This one I just finished is made with a jelly roll in a very simple pattern that goes together fast. I just sewed groups of 4 jelly roll strips together, cut those strip sets into squares, arranged, and sewed together with the two borders. The quilting took me the longest (no, that's not right...just deciding what to do with the jelly roll first, and deciding how to quilt it came in a close second for longest stage!)

I decided on an all over free motion swirly, whirly... umm... loopy design. I did feel a little out of control at times, not quite sure which way I was going, and do I now swirl right...or left?? Oh well, I love it anyways. And it turned out much softer than I expected, even with the stitches crossing over themselves so many times. I do love a drape-y quilt.

The backing is half of an Ikea duvet cover I ripped apart. I bound it in some more Flora, a lovely binding print with all those little leaves. As usual, I pieced and quilted it all with Aurifil in a 50 wt., this time in an Ivory.

The final dimensions are 56" by 71", a great size from just one jelly roll plus about a yard and a half for the borders.

Maybe you even have time to whip one up for a Christmas gift!  Here is one I made from this same pattern, last year at Christmas, in a Reunion from Sweetwater jelly roll: