My Design Wall

A good part of God's Green Earth has been lounging on my design wall for who knows how long now and I've enjoyed having it to look at while I worked on other things. About two thirds of the blocks were up on the wall and I had a pile of what I thought were the remaining bowtie blocks ready to go, but I was procrastinating. I really liked the colour layout that I had and was afraid that if I started messing with it I would ruin things.

Eventually sanity returned and I just went ahead and started laying down the rest of the blocks, and it came together surprisingly well (imagine that!). What I did realize was that instead of having to rearrange everything I was going to need to make more bowties - it just wasn't wide enough. Things got a little interesting as laid out the full length of it too - my ceiling is very low so there were two rows that ended up on the 'design floor'.

Anyway, I cut another two columns worth (28 blocks) and got  to work. I wasn't so keen on having to make more blocks - you know how it is when you think that you are finished - but it really didn't take that long to cut them out and I was able to integrate more of my favourite fabrics into the mix.

I finished the last of them at our girls weekend and have now started sewing it together. There was the inevitable final tweaking of block placements but I have to say that I am smitten! I am so anxious to see the end result....M

Freezing Rain

It's another stormy day here, and by all accounts going to get worse (it's freezing rain this time rather than a ton of snow). Our street is a skating rink, the perfect excuse to sit in by the fire and stitch. Minnie will keep me company as I continue trying to get the outside border of hexies on more of my hexie diamonds.

There might be a little cutting in the forecast as well. This mauve is slated for one of my hexie borders and I am anxious to see it in situ.

Stay warm and dry everyone!....M

p.s. It is Jane's birthday today and we were to get together for brunch but we'll do that when things clear up. For our girls weekend I had made a cake to celebrate her big day...

... she was both tickled and a little anxious to dig in 😄.

It's Never Too Early For Christmas

Jane and Linda were at the quilt retreat too and spent much of their time working on a new collaborative effort - a quilt for Linda's little grandson. His birthday is in December so they are making him a Christmas quilt. How fun is that?

This is the pattern that served as their inspiration (it was in a post from Lori at Humble Quilts a few years back) but after making a sample house block that they had drafted they decided that it was just toooo big (I think it was a 10" block), and I think that they were right.

After a few tweaks and remeasures and another sample block they came up with this cozy little cabin design; they are 6" wide and 7" tall.

There will be several more cabins in each row than are in the inspiration quilt and a funky little Christmas tree added to each row as well. I have only seen the tree inspiration at this point but am dying to see all of the cabins and trees together.

Their border print for the bottom is more blue than red but will go perfectly with the fabrics that they have chosen, particularly because they are making the sky in their blocks from a variety of blues instead of the cream that was shown in the quilt above.

By the end of the weekend they had all of the cabins cut out and several together. I have it on good authority that all of the cabins are now assembled.

It is going to be so stinkin' cute! I can't wait to see all of the elements come together on this one. Lucky little fellow!....M

Snow Day

We had what the weatherman described as the biggest storm of the season this week with more than a foot of snow landing on top of what we already had in a 24-hour period and once again the snowbanks are so high that we have a hard time seeing the street from our house. There have been lots of  'snow days' for the children this winter - 'tis the season. What better time to share Betty's beautiful white quilt with you, affectionately known as the MOB (Mother of the Bride) quilt because she hand stitched it in the months before and after her daughter Julia's wedding.

She brought it to our girls weekend and the oohs and aaahs could not be restrained. It is the perfect marriage of colour and texture.

All of those little blocks of white-on-white, with the occasional bits of vintage embroidery tucked in here and there, meld together for a truly spectacular finish.

There are lots of spots for your eye to rest and admire the bit of colour and various bit of lace and embroidery. It leaves your mind to wander and imagine what part of a larger whole each of these strips or blocks were originally.

And in the corners she brilliantly incorporated four different pieces of lace. It is a work of art.

It is amazing how texture and subtle variances in white tones do all the talking in this quilt - no need to incorporate any other colours at all. Just lovely.....M

My Happy Little Valentines

I continue to see red these days but it's not all been from the fabric bins. To put it mildly, we have had a heck of a time with our Internet and phone service, which explains my long hiatus from blogland. We thought everything had finally settled yesterday but alas, that was not to be. I'm trying not to take a fit but it's getting harder and harder. Regardless, while I have connectivity I'm going to share my Valentines with you.

These are the result of all that scrap sewing that you saw the last time and lots of fun to make.

I started with a tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew  and went from there, backing and binding them all with the same red dot, very appropriately named Kiss Dot. The hearts were 5" and the potholders finished off at about 7 1/2".

Unfortunately, it wasn't until I had them mostly together that I realized that maybe not all of the scraps had been pre-washed. I had made 13 blocks and at one point toyed with making a baby quilt, but I just couldn't risk all of that white background turning pink in the wash because you know if its a baby quilt it is going to need to be washed. I did wash the backing but still have my fingers crossed that nothing runs when they get laundered.

The gals got together for some quilting therapy last weekend (more to come on that) so everyone got a pair to take home. They were met with squeals of delight, so I'm thinking that's a good thing. It's an idea I got from Sandy last summer when she said she was making potholders for her girls get together. So everyone was happy - I got to play with my scraps and the gals got a little treat. Hope that there are Valentine treats this week for you, too. Happy Valentine's Day!....M