Impulse Binding

There were several blue bindings already prepped so I thought that my choice for Ocean Waves was going to be fairly easy, but somehow they seemed just a little off.

Most of the backing is a pretty blue and white print so why not just wrap it around and use it? Meh. Just didn't seem to have enough weight to it compared to the prints throughout the quilt. It needed something a little more.

Then there was this one. I've got tons of it and have been looking for a good home for it. Not bad, but it just felt a little on the dark side. 

Out of nowhere, the one in the top image appeared and I really liked it. Decision made. 

And then, as I was sitting down to start attaching it, I came across another one that was hiding in the wings. Suddenly the plan changed and I was off to the races.

I didn't know if I'd have enough but I was already resolved to mix two, maybe three, bindings because of all of the blues used in the quilt so I was good with however much it gave me. No need to worry. There was enough for the entire quilt and still a little left over!

So it's clipped and the hand stitching has begun...M

A Sea of Blue

This Ocean Waves is the second 'blue' quilt that I had quilted last fall. It was one of those forever projects but now that it's close to being finished I can't wait to get it on a bed.

It's all hand stitched so it took me ages to finish the flimsy. My niece Julia was convinced that it would never be a quilt 😏.

I found a receipt for the yellow strawberry fabric showing that it was purchased in 2001, so that's a hint as to how long it's been kicking around.  Check out the price - three metres for $27! Now you pay almost that for one metre.

I'm not sure why I waited so long to get it quilted because it has been together for some time, occupying a spot on the back of the chair outside the sewing room. When I gave it a good pressing before sending it off to Roberta I noticed that there was a seam that needed a little tending to, but other than that it was ready to go.

Picking a panto for this one was a little tricky because I wanted something that would work with all of those small HSTs and I love the one that I found. There's lots of texture without overtaking the pattern; I'll show you more of it once I have it bound.

There are several blue bindings kicking around so I'm going to start with one and if I run out I will add a second. It's so scrappy that a scrappy border will work just fine....M

Cozy Country Cousin

I've been holding out on you. In the last few months of last year I had a push on to move a few more flimsies to the finish line and Country Cousin was one of them. It's been finished for so long that I almost forgot about sharing it.

It's a very traditional quilt, reminiscent of something you'd find in your grandmother's closet, and it is totally inviting.

Lots of scrappy blues and neutrals play together.

And then there's the occasional hit of either pink, green or yellow, just for a little interest.

For the border, I inserted a narrow strip of pink and white pindots and I like how it worked.

It's bound with the same fabric as the outer border so that it didn't fight with that pink strip. I had a lot of the border print left over so once the binding was made I cut the rest of it up into binding for future projects because it's been around for quite some time and I was getting tired of seeing it in the stash. The leafy panto gave it a lovely texture.

Roberta had a terrific backing fabric that finished it off beautifully - a large floral print in the softest shell colour. It's a bit tough to photograph, but the pink picks up the pinks in the border on the front so nicely.

I've got another blue quilt to share as well, this one with yellow, but it's still waiting to be bound. Maybe next time....M

Sew Slowly

Just a little over a week ago COVID finally caught up with me. It was inevitable I guess, but not in the least bit welcome. Needless to say, it's been a pretty low energy several days so my plans for Halo never did hit the ground, but occasionally I have picked up Anna Levens.

I haven't worked on this quilt for several months; it was folded up before the holidays and is only resurfacing now to work it's healing powers.

My hexies are basted on an as needed basis and I am amazed that my funky little paper clip is still in the bin after all this time. I use it to secure the fabric to my paper...

and keep it in place until I finish basting the entire thing. It makes all the difference in keeping things secure and minimizing slippage.

I'd hardly say that I made huge progress, but I have managed to finish assembling a row of hexies and getting it attached to one of the sides, which feels good....M

Crawling Out of the Rabbit Hole

Despite my intention to put the little three-inch hearts to one side and move on, I stayed stuck in the rabbit hole of little pieces just a little bit longer.

Actually, long enough to make another baker's dozen.

I kept finding little pink scraps and cutting them up, so of course I just had to see what they look like worked into a heart.

Still very stinkin' cute! But it's time to crawl out of this rabbit hole and move on. This time I'm serious. I think 😉.

I have my heart set on getting Halo off the design wall where it has lived for heaven knows how long now. All of the blocks are finally together, with the exception of the edge pieces. I cut just a few and laid them alongside the blocks but it just wasn't working for me. 

After mulling things for a while I realized that the bottom test piece was too dark; if I continued with shades like this it was going to have a distinct piano key feel, taking away from the circles. Not.

I want subtle with a just a little variation in tone between the pieces to help those circles shine, so I culled my initial fabric selection so that it was much more low volume. Much better....M

My Funny Little Valentine

It's always fun to seek out a new heart to sew to celebrate Valentine's Day and this year I landed on these little 3" sweeties. They are SO cute!

I found them in a Stash Bandit blog post from a few years ago. Assembly is really easy - most of my time was spent digging for scraps and cutting.

I found that for the final seam (the one that runs down the centre of the heart) it's best to start at the top of the heart and work down rather than working from the bottom up so that you get good seam matches. 

I also alternated the direction that the seams at the bottom of the heart were pressed - one to the inside of the heart and one to the outside - so that I could nest them, and it worked really nicely. 

They are really, really cute together. I mean, they're 3 inches! It didn't take much time to get a group of them made and when I saw them all together I thought that including a little envelope block might be fun too. Sweet.

This is just a little diversionary rabbit hole that I've fallen into and I will put them away now. I've got a baker's dozen prepped and can't help but think that it could be a great follow-up to Little Trees. The scrappier it got, the better it would be. 

Happy Valentine's Day!....M

Unbearably Cute

Sandy loves hand quilting and was moving along quite nicely with the hexie quilt I showed you the last time so she was getting ready to machine quilt her little fish, but just like that it was put on the back burner and she headed off to make some pinwheels for a baby quilt (squirrels will do that to you). 

Her first batch was a little too subdued for her liking so a quick trip to the fabric store was in order. The parents weren't sure if they were waiting for a boy or a girl so primary colours (and lots of polka dots!) seemed like a good way to go. Waaaaaay better.

The colours make her happy and they are perfect for a wee one. 

A white border was added and then a piano key border made of the polka dot fabrics.

And she found this absolutely adorable animal backing; I believe that there was going to be a return trip to the fabric shop for more.

And no, you're not seeing double. She loves the pattern so she figured why not make two since all of the math was already done.

Unfortunately, she didn't catch a glitch until she looked at her photos - she had attached the last border backwards so the pattern was messed up - which meant that there was a little blue smoke in the air and some quality time spent with Jack (the Ripper). But she managed to get it all sorted before heading off to bed one night so she was able to sleep easy 😉.

The first one is already bound with this fun and funky little stripe and on it's way to the new mom-and-dad-to-be.

And all of the bits for the second one are on hangers and ready for quilting. There seems to be a “Baby Boom” going on in her circle so you never know when the next one is on its way. Sandy's thinking that baby quilts might now be her favourite thing to make.....M  

Hexie Heaven

Why baste just one quilt when you can do two? After Sandy had finished basting what I am calling Under the Sea she wasted no time moving along and putting Hexie Heaven on the basting table, another colourful beauty. Look at all of those hexies; a girl after my own heart.

During the last year, when she wasn't stitching little fish she's been busy turning her Kaffe jelly rolls into hexies - so colourful! She scored a terrific deal on three of them a while back and managed to find the last one, called Parakeet, online, so that made her really happy.

This project went with her to the lovely island of Male in the Maldives for a dive trip. All of that time in the air resulted in lots of progress. 

While on a stopover in Abu Dhabi she noticed that there was no shortage of hexie inspiration. Just look at that ceiling!

It's a mosaic tile structure; just look at all of the tiny pieces!

The backing is a Kaffe as well, this gorgeous Millefiore print in rich blues, the perfect foil for all those lovely hexies on the front. Luv.

Here's a better shot of the entire top.

She is hand quilting this one, wanting to keep the pattern simple and also maintain the outline of the flowers. There's still some thinking to be done regarding how to quilt the border. She seems to remember seeing a hexie quilt where they’d somehow managed to quilt it looking like lattice work, which sounds lovely, so I suspect that there will be a deep dive into Pinterest one of these days to see if she can find that again. In the meantime, she's enjoying all of those lovely hexie flowers....M