It's Not All Christmas

It might be called the Holly Bazaar, and it definitely has a Christmas theme, but the gals who run the craft table also welcome items that can be used year round rather than just during the holiday season, so I like to try and ensure that they get a bit of variety.

Several years ago I made journal covers and a set of placemats for the bazaar, so I got to rummaging in my batik stash (it's actually just a tray of fabrics that I have somehow kept to a manageable level).

As I was playing with a few ideas I came across several strip sets, remnants from a project I had tried and abandoned.

Leaf-shaped potholders, to be exact. My sister, Dori, had made a lovely pair so I decided to give them a try. I wasn't as taken with mine as I was with hers so they never got bound, left to a life of limbo in the batik cubby.

Anyway, back the the remnants. There were four strips, which was perfect, so I trimmed them to a three-inch width and tucked them into a blue floral batik. Too easy!

A little straight-line quilting and I had a set of placemats ready to bind. I've just put the last stitches in the binding - a creamy beige - so there's now a set of four to add to the Holly Bazaar goodie pile.

The backing is a mottled tan with several colours running through it which works well with the binding and I think they could easily be used either side up. The photo is a tad on the dark side but the print is warm shades of brown.

In addition, I've got the last five I'll Be Gnome for Christmas potholders prepped and will spend the day hand stitching them down because there's no time to dilly dally.

Roberta has already quilted all of the goodies that I dropped off for her last weekend so this bundle of joy is now waiting for bindings. Not surprisingly, she has done just a superb job on them; I'll have more to share as they reach the finish line. Who knows? I might even decide to bind those leaf potholders and see if they appeal to anyone....M  

Little Books All In A Row

Well, production for this year's supply of Holly Bazaar journal covers is now complete, and I couldn't be happier. I wanted to have half a dozen made and I've got that plus, at the suggestion of one of the organizers, I made two slightly larger ones to fit the church bibles, so 8 in total. Here are the 6 smaller ones.

I just love them all. I particularly like the play of the random rows of quilting overtop the equally random fabric strips. Here, for your viewing pleasure, a little eye candy:

In my frenzy I completely forgot that I had started this one, so one more to make, but not until after the bazaar.

And here's the makings of a second one (it's like a drug - once you get started they become addictive - you just keep looking for new fabric combinations!).

The place is a bit of disaster during production because there are so many fabrics out, but it's half the fun of it. Now to finish up my little birdies and do some baking...M

More Fun With Journal Covers

After preparing several covers so that I could quilt them in a batch I have to say that I still wasn't totally comfortable with the fusible batting - I was attempting to get it to adhere to only one layer rather than sandwich it - but that connection wasn't great and it made turning things right side out a little tricky, so I decided to improvise and see what would happen.

I found a piece of very lightweight cotton and sandwiched the batting between the pieced cover and it, and then quilted everything before sewing the front and lining together; it worked much better than joining the cover and lining and they quiling & topstitching. It gives the cover a bit more structure because there are now three layers of fabric involved but the covers on this first batch of journal are not that firm so its all for the best.

My machine is older and has never been that precise at topstitching, especially through several layers, so I wasn't liking the finish that I was getting by topstitching everything at the end. I also didn't care to have the few stitches at the start and end of each quilting line showing, so now I quilt it first, sew front and lining together and then hand stitch the sleeves/foldover to the cover with a ladder stitch so there is no topstitching and all the starts and stops are hidden; its a much nicer finish.







This is the thread that I'm using to quilt all of the, a lovely variegated blue/green. I have TONS of it so either I start working onlarger quilted projects or I really go big with the production of the journal covers! The transition in colour creates interesting light in the pieces, giving them more even more dimension...M

Fun With Journal Covers

I've gotten back into the swing of things with the journal covers - I find your head needs to be in the right frame of mind to do them. Like anything else, I guess. After my 'blue phase' I thought I'd venture into the reds and browns and at the end of it all I honestly can't pick a favourite.

Here's the second blue/green combo that I made - I don't think that I've shown you that one yet.

The red one is just spectacularly rich with the deeper burgundy accent and then the blues & greens thrown in.

And the brown/taupe combo turned out to be so warm. I really wasn't convinced that I was going to like this combo at all when I started to cut, but once again I was proven wrong.

It's been so much fun creating new points of interest for each one. There are five ready to quilt now and that always takes them to a completely different level so I'll be back with pics of the finished product.

Have I mentioned how much fun these are to make?...M

Sweet Surprise

I love being able to surprise someone, I mean really surprise them, and today I got to do just that.

A few months ago my good friend Jean sent through an email asking if I had any quilts for sale - she has a very special niece getting married in October and was looking for a gift. I was at a bit of a loss at first because, while I have lots of quilt tops to be quilted, I hadn't really made any of them with the intention of letting them go. One thing lead to another and I eventually suggested that she might like the Neighbour's Fence quilts or, if I really got my act together, I could try and make a new one.

The long and the short of it is that she really liked the batiks and, after a few more notes back and forth decided to take BOTH of them! You could have blown me over with a feather. I was totally not expecting this. The only condition was that they would need to be machine quilted because at the rate I quilt her poor niece would be celebrating her 50th anniversary before she received her gift.

Linda S had mentioned a gal that she has used for machine quilting, and when Linda M seconded the motion I gave her a call. Her name is Roberta Krueger, her studio is called Cocoa and Quilts, and not only does she do fantastic work she was more than accommodating with my deadline.






The larger of the two has a red backing and the second is backed in a green batik. They are each quilted with a pantograph, but in different patterns. I really liked them before I had them quilted but I totally love them now.

They are both bound in the same green that is just a tad lighter than the green border and I think they turned out really nicely. For a while there I could have been crowned Queen of The Binding because it seemed like that was all that I was doing, but that's a good thing because to me it means that lots is getting finished off.

So today I had lunch with Jean and a few other friends that I've known of for years and arranged for the handoff. She thought that I was just going to have the wedding quilt ready but I had managed to get them both quilted and bound (aren't I the coy one?). I wanted to surprise her with two because the second one is an anniversary gift to Jean from her husband, so that deserves a little surprise, don't you think?

I'll miss them because they have been kicking around the sewing room for about 8 years now - crazy how the time flies - but it's nice to know that they are off to good homes. And I have more of the black & white stripe for the border trim so I've already started looking at new batiks...

Happy Anniversary, Jean!

Havin' Waaaaaay Too Much Fun!

It's been play time with the batik scraps lately to make more journal covers for the Holly Bazaar and I am having tons of fun. The process is so free. I love watching how the addition of each strip changes the look and feel of the entire piece. It is so engrossing that I find myself lying in bed at night planning different designs/strip combinations. Maybe I should get a life.

It is amazing to me how each each one develops its own personality and I love how the pops of colour against the more muted backgrounds come into play.

No rules - anything goes - fun, fun, fun.

I've got two more covers ready to assemble and quilt...

...similar, but different (actually, this one is upside down). The colours still look a little muted, especially on this one, but they are nice and rich.

I made this little wonky Log Cabin block - it's about 3" x 4" and will incorporate it into the next one, but I'm also thinking that a predominantly red design needs to be tried.

And speaking of needing to be tried, I found this recipe for Upside Down Nectarine Chiffon Cake while browsing the other day and it just looked too good not to try - especially since the fruit is fresh and in season. This isn't the site that I found it on but the directions and photos are good and I couldn't find the page that I worked from originally, so here you go.





It's a recipe from Dorie Greenspan, the author of the book Baking With Julia, and it's delicious, but not the fastest cake to make - maybe the second time around you'd have a better sense of the process and it would go a little quicker. I baked mine for a full hour rather than the time it suggested and it could probably have used another 5 minutes. It is a light lemon chiffon cake with a toasted almond and oatmeal streusel filling, and carmelized nectarines and got rave reviews from the Official Cookie Tester, even without the suggested whipped cream or ice cream...M

Holly Bazaar Test Drive

Journal cover

This is what I was in the middle of when I decided to make my latest baby quilt. Every year as we approach September I start thinking about what I can make for the Holly Bazaar at our church which lands around the first week of November. I'm always finishing things for it at the last minute regardless of how early I start, but I do like to feel that I have some measure of control by starting things a few months out.











Anyway, quite a while back I saw this tutorial that Wanda had posted for making quilted journal covers so I went out and bought a few little notebooks and waited for the inspiration to hit. She uses a lot of large Kaffe prints and batiks and I wanted to try it with the leftover batiks from my Neighbour's Fence quilts. So, as I was busy cutting blocks for my Flying Geese I decided to switch over and try making one of these (does it sound like I have a hard time focusing?).

I have to say that I am quite pleased with my first effort. It did include using a fusible batting, which I wasn't too keen on as I don't have much luck with them, but I did okay. Sometimes Wanda machine quilts them and sometimes she doesn't but I like the look of the quilted ones and I was still a little paranoid about the batting moving around so I quilted mine too. I started quilting in the seams but prefer the look of the thread cutting through the fabric and the randomness of the stitching rows. I had picked up a really lovely varegated green/blue/beige thread when I thought I might actually machine quilt Neighbour's Fence myself (not!) so I used that and it was perfect.

This is the full cover, front and back.















The books are spiral bound and about 6" x 8"; I'm going to check the dollar store for a less expensive one - I think these were about $8 each. Regardless, they feel really nice in your hand. I mentioned that I was making these to the gals that organize the bazaar and they suggested making a few that would fit a bible, so I think I'll try a few of those as well, maybe in more traditional prints. Oh, the options!...M.

Songs From The Big Chair

Remember the Tears For Fears album from 1985, Songs From The Big Chair? Well, lately I'm feeling like I'm doing my own song from the big chair. When I had pulled out the Spring Garden top a while back I thought it would be a relatively quick finish. But then I started sewing the pinwheels by hand and that has slowed things considerably, so with my machine back home it prompted me to take another look at the chair where my projects are piled and I pulled out two batik tops that were close to being finished (the chair really isn't that big, the pile was just really high!).

Actually, when I looked closer I realized that one top was finished and the second just needed the borders, so that was incentive to get it done and move a little more off the list. I also thought that the quilts were the same size but that wasn't right either (there's that selective memory, again). I think when I started buying fabric for this one I got carried away and had bought so much that there was enough to make two, so I did. There are still leftovers so maybe I'll do the baby quilt version as well.







The pattern is from Time To Quilt by Anne Moscicki and is call The Neighbour's Fence because it is a modified Rail Fence, with one block of two strips and one of three. The book is designed around planning quilt retreats so the patterns can easily be made by a group or individually and it has the added bonus of having great recipes interspersed throughout.

I have to admit that I haven't yet tried any of the recipes but now that I see the book again I think that Auntie's Chocolate Cake with Mocha Walnut Frosting deserves a try.

You can see an alternative colour palette on the left page but I don't think that it was nearly as appealing as the bright batiks. The pattern also had stars randomly appliqued throughout but I opted to go without the stars.








The Neighbour's Fence

I've used the same border fabric for both quilts - a gorgeous deep green with just a hint of fuscia berries throughout - with orange corners on one and red corners on the larger one. Maybe I should have looked at the book again before I sewed on that last border because the red really appeals to me as well and I have enough red for a border. Oh well.










Don't you just love that black and white stripe in there with all of those rich colours? Unfortunately the green is coming up really flat, but it is really quite stunning.

Dreyfuss napping with quilt

Mom also made this quilt several years ago as a Christmas gift for Mike & Lili's dog, Dreyfuss, and he still loves it. Here he is in Helsinki in 2009 after an exhausting week at the cottage and you can see a hint of his quilt in the background. She used bright calicos rather than batiks and he really seemed to like it....M