Morning Star

I've developed a very bad habit of taking lots of photos of my friends quilts and leaving them to languish on my phone. I love scrolling through then periodically but they won't easily be shared that way! Case in point, this sweet star quilt that Anne finished up last year using remnants of the Snow Goose that she started in 2019. I'm calling it Morning Star.

Her Snow Goose palate was centred on rich teal and gold with softer blue accents.

Its leftovers have since found their way into this cozy little lap quilt. It's amazing, all she did was strip out the golds and it has such a different look.

Using the Nine-Patch blocks that anchored the corners on Snow Goose, she created these tiny star blocks. It was a peaceful hand stitching project.

The snowy blue and white backing and tumbling snowflake panto keep everything quite soft and dreamy. 

This is just one of many quilty treasures stored on my phone. I'll make a point of catching you up on some of the others over the next little while....M

Sunday is for Visiting

I have many wonderful memories of Sundays when we were growing up. It was a quieter day - the one day of the week that the shops weren't open - and we often went visiting or would have company in to catch up on life and have some fun. As I quilt Minnie and come across fabrics that I had forgotten about, I feel that I'm enjoying a visit with so many dear friends - all those precious bits that came together in my hexies.

Tiny remnants take me back to exactly where they came from or what they represent, like the soft blue-grey floral hexies that run across the top of this diamond. I was thrilled when Jane gave me a 1.5" strip of it to include in my quilt. Ah, the joy of someone else's stash!

Or this red and white diamond that I stitched on Canada Day several years ago.

I'm loving the texture that is beginning to appear. It makes me want to quilt all day long just to see the next large diamond emerge....M 

Halo's Making Me Happy

My incentive plan to hand quilt on Minnie only after I do a bit of work on Halo is paying off. Look at what's on my sewing table!

For the first time in I don't know how long, there is actual white space starting to appear on the design wall.

Border strips are being added and blocks are being sewn together. It's very surreal.

Every glimpse I get of this quilt as it finally gets closer to completion is such a treat. Just absolutely love the combination of all of those different fabrics. I don't think I have ever made a quilt quite this scrappy, but it's hitting all the right high notes.

I cut all of the border pieces except for the four corner blocks. Those cherries in the upper right corner is one of the pieces that I want for a corner, but do you think that I can find it? Can't possibly be because of my 'piling system'. I'll just keep going; it's got to be in there somewhere....M 

Lookout

As the calendar was turning over to 2024, Roberta was busy working on a sweet little quilt for her five year-old nephew, Arlo. 

It too has plenty of trees so it gave her good practice for when she moved on to Holiday Forest.

It's called Lookout (which I, tech genius that I am, keep calling Outlook 😶). An Elizabeth Hartman pattern, there are lots of chunky trees and a few sweet critters scattered throughout.

Originally, she was going to make it a crib sized but upsized it to a twin, which was a great idea - he'll get lots of use out of it and will totally love going to bed with all his furry friends for a few years to come. Isn't it adorable?

The pattern showed it quilted with a woodgrain panto and she decided to follow suit. Not sure how well you can see it in the photo, but it was ideal.

Much of the assembly was done under Miss Ivy's watchful eye, who relied heavily on her friend Norman for advice. Here they are looking out from under the Christmas tree. What a team!...M

The Carrot

Knowing how fickle I can be, I didn't want Halo's border to be left in the dust now that I'm hand quilting Minnie. So as a bit of an incentive I committed to assembling at least four border pieces each day before I could pick up my hand quilting. I mean, I'm so close and I just don't want things to stall again.

It's paid off. Pretty soon it was time to start working on the last edge. 

My design wall was already too small for the quilt so I had been placing the pie-shaped pieces along the top edge as well as I could without having them fall to the floor. It sits about four inches below the ceiling and there is no design wall space to work with, so it was time to get a little creative.

Rather than testing the placement of each border piece as I went, I laid out all of the elongated pieces that I was going to use in order.

Then, as they were assembled I gently folded each piece into a loose pile and sat it atop the design wall. They look like pigeons perched under an overpass. You can barely see the pieces, but at least I know what I'm to sew where.

And ta da - my persistence has paid off! With the exception of the four corner pieces, all of the edge pieces are now assembled so it's time to start sewing this beauty together....M

Minnie's Time Has Come

Not 15 minutes after resolutely vowing to keep my head down and stick with the border pieces for Halo until they were all finished, I walked by the bag that Minnie has been sitting in for ages (well over a year) - beautifully basted and ready to be hand quilted. She's been stuck in limbo because I was struggling with how to quilt her. On a whim, I pulled it out of the bag to take another look. 

Within minutes of it tumbling to the floor I'd decided on a plan. So she's in the frame and I am thrilled.

These hexies finish of at about an inch across so I'm running most of my stitching right down their centres to get a good long run. It's going to generate a very nice double diamond pattern around the large four-diamond hexies, in the end.

Happiness like this calls for a brand new roll of painter's tape to help with my markings 😉, and what a difference it makes. When I quilted Candied Hexagons, the roll that I was using must have been old because there was very little oomph left to it, making it tough to follow a clean line at times.

Love the way these two intersecting lines produce a sweet little diamond. 

I am stitching very close to the little blossoms at the centre of each small diamond to give them a little more profile. It's a nice contrast to the linear quilting patterns that surround them.

After having trouble landing on a hand stitching project this winter my problem is now happily resolved....M