Oh Canada!

Without a doubt our national anthem will be ringing out from coast to coast to coast today as we celebrate an extremely hot Canada Day; we're looking forward to enjoying fireworks over the Ottawa River this evening.

I always like to see if I can showcase a little red and white stitching in honour of our national celebrations and this year it's a selection of the scrappy nine-patch blocks that I am hand piecing.

They aren't pure red and white, but close enough to count.

I'm trying to force myself to create combinations that are a little outside of my wheelhouse.

This is my inspiration. It's from Linda at Koka Quilts and I was really taken with the border of larger blocks inserted amongst all of those scrappy nine-patches; mine would measure 3" finished. Subtle, yet effective. She has such a fun sensibility to her quilts!

I've got about two dozen nine-patches made right now and think I need about that many again to make a QFS flimsy approximately 48" x 64". I'm planning for 30 blocks in the centre (she has 25) so I will need to adjust my math to make things work. I might also switch up that border with a single wild blue/green print that I have but I'll play with that once things get to the wall.

Happy Canada Day everyone!...M

I Spy Flimsy

It didn't take very long for our quilters at the church to get the I Spy flimsy for Poppy's new little brother-to-be together (see my last post for details).

Once we landed on the pattern everyone just made up a bundle of blocks using whatever fabrics they had and there were lots to choose from. We used 42 in this one and there are 30 leftovers, so I suspect that we'll make a few more blocks and then have ourselves a second flimsy to quilt.

The blocks are all so different, and SO cute!

Some really adorable prints for little ones out there, aren't there?

Here's a little behind-the-scenes snippet for you...the kitchen island in the church hall is ideal for cutting our batting/trimming up quilts and also proved to be ideal for testing a layout. After this photo was taken, we received two more bundles of blocks so a few changes were made to integrate something from every quilter. All of the extras have become the start of the next one....M

Plucky Little Polka Dots

We had a busy weekend but I still managed to get a binding made and attached to a little girl's quilt. 

Her mom is expecting their second child in about 6 - 7 weeks. Apparently Poppy, the little girl, isn't very keen on having a baby brother (actually, after having mom and dad to herself for 6 years she doesn't feel that a baby girl is necessary either...) so our quilters thought a new quilt might help ease the transition to 'big sister'.

Jan made this one from coordinated jelly roll remnants before she moved and we've just recently finished quilting it, so I brought it home to find, make and attach a binding. 

There's lots of sweet bunnies, trees, ducks, flowers, and piglets to help capture her attention.

I landed on this tiny turquoise polka dot which goes equally well with both the front and the blue and turquoise plaid flannel backing. Hopefully it will work its magic and help make the transition to big sister just a little more manageable.

We're also making an I Spy quilt for baby, the beginnings of which I will share shortly....M

Getting Close to Arkansas

Slow and steady is getting me closer to having the blocks for Arkansas Crossroads completed - just three more to go.

I've run hot and cold on this one but the more blocks I make, the more I like it. It's taking me about half an hour to make a block so I'm finding bits of time to run downstairs for to keep the progress going. When I have all of the blocks together everything will get a good press.

Each of the white and grey blocks are made with stitch-and-flip corners and when I stitch them I automatically stitch a second line to create a bonus/remnant HST.

Hence the wee mountain of small grey and white HSTs growing near my machine. Heaven knows what I will use them for but I just can't bear to toss them....M