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.

Scattered Flowers Postage Stamp Baby Quilt

Subtitled:  Spring Has Arrived Here....Turned Out it Was Only a Quilt

I've been piecing this baby quilt out of leftover fabrics from the grandmother's flower garden quilt I'm working on.  All the squares that don't have 6 matching pieces for flower petals or are in the same pale green that my background colours are for that quilt got tossed in a big ziploc and emerged as this baby quilt.  (Plus some yardage of a blue flowered print from 3 Sisters Shangri-la)

Since I was finishing this quilt during (another) snowstorm (the kind, incidentally, we have been getting about every few days since October 26, 2013.....) It is my only Spring. I will hold it, I will hug it, and I will love it. And then, if Spring every comes here for real, I will sell it in my Etsy shop :)

Pieced in Aurifil 50 wt in white and quilted in ivory. The backing is a textured solid in Tapioca from Pink Castle Fabric (not sure of the manufacturer) and the binding is from 3 Sister's line Paris Flea Market. Size is 36.5" by 43.5".   Did you know Spring could be so soft and crinkle-icious?!

Paris Quilt

Paris Quilt, a photo by CoraQuilts~Carla on Flickr.

My quilt I made to remember our trip this past fall to Paris is complete! Come and visit my Paris Quilt set on my Flickr photostream to see pictures of it!

 

French General Hourglass Quilt

Just had to share this one, because I love it so!  My hubby said that it was his favourite one I've made so far!  A great compliment, don't you think?

I decided to try out some of my fancy stitches on my machine with this one.  I think it may have been better to add these stitches just to the quilt top before I layered it, but instead I used the stitches for quilting. I love the vintage look of these feminine stitches (and I must make use of more things on my fancy machine than just the straight stitch, good grief!)

I don't know, they look great, just maybe a bit stiff?  All in all, it is a soft and snuggly quilt.  I'll try it the other way next time and let you know.  It does make a pretty look to the quilting from the back!

Anyways, I used a tutorial from Diary of A Quilter's site, here, to make the blocks.  They came out rather lumpy and bumpy when I made them.  Not sure why.  But they still look great and the quilt is so satisfying and textured, so I love it.

Quilt Stats:

Size: 48" by 62"
Top Fabrics: Rural Jardin by French General for Moda
Binding: (Yardage "inherited" from my Mom) English Essentials by the Woodrow Studio, London, England
Backing: Recycled white sheet
Batting: Pieced from Hobbs 80/20 leftovers

Rural Jardin Stars Done!

I finished binding this last night with Kona Cotton Solid in China Red. Washed it up and dried it this morning and convinced my biggest boy to come out and photograph it with me!

The pattern is of my own design, using a pattern for a sawtooth star. I made the pinwheels with my scraps from the sawtooth stars. I used up a jelly roll and most of a charm pack, plus about half a yard of the blue yardage from the same line. All these fabrics but the binding come from Moda's designers French General and their line Rural Jardin. Completed size is 70 inches by 70 inches.

This quilt is going to my friend this Friday when I visit her for the weekend. When I told her I wanted to make her a quilt and showed her some pictures in a few pattern books I had, she asked for a traditional quilt that will stand the test of time in deep blues and reds. Hope this fits the bill!

Binding Rural Jardin Stars Quilt

Up late tonight to finish binding my Rural Jardin Stars quilt:


Some pictures will follow when the quilt is washed and dried, at least by Thursday!

Rural Jardin Stars Quilt

I have been so in love with this quilt since I first laid eyes on the fabric. It's been one of the ones that is taking me the longest to finish. The top was finished last fall. Perhaps I want to keep it around as long as I can since it is intended to give to a friend.

My dear friend lives about 4 hours away and invited me to come visit next weekend! It's the first time I will see her since I finished the quilt top, and the second time I'll see her since I told her I was making her a quilt. How can I come empty handed? I definitely want to give it to her in person.

So today I got a backing at my local quilt shop and cleared the living room floor to baste it. (And caress it...) Then stare at it and try to decide how to quilt it!

I'm taking a break and resting my aching shoulders now while I blog. Here is a picture of what I decided to do. Something different again for me, and I really like it! Here's a peek:


I'm quilting "in the ditch" around each star. Tedious and tiring wrestling it on my little machine (the quilt is 70 inches by 70 inches) but really fun. Wish me luck to get it done by Friday!!

Some Daylight Photos of La Petite Ecole Quilt

See post below for more information on this quilt.

La Petite Ecole Quilt Quilted

I finished quilting and binding yesterday and pulled it out of the dryer tonight, hence the dark picture. But I love it's crinkliness! I quilted a quarter inch away from each side of each seam and I love how it makes each little square puff up in the middle. Especially the ones with little pictures. Like this bug my littlest son loves to find in the quilt (while I was quilting it, while I was binding it... He'd crawl on me and look for the pictures!)



I used a recycled flannel sheet for batting and some wide flannel from my LQS for the backing. It is nice and drapey and snuggly!

A Happy Weekend

I got started on THREE quilts this weekend! So happy!! This is the only top that is near finished though. I had to share it!!





Made with a jelly roll of La Petite Ecole from French General/Moda and some Essex Linen in Natural. The pattern is "Daisy Chain" from one of the Jelly Roll Quilts pattern books by the Lintotts.

Rural Jardin Pillow

Made with some scraps of Rural Jardin to audition a pattern for a possible king size quilt. This is using a pattern from American Patchwork and Quilting magazine by Lissa Alexander called Granny Squares. (October 2010). Lissa used honey bun strips (1 1/2 inches), but I used leftover jelly roll strips, so my squares are 2 inches finished, rather than 1.