Felicity Quilts

Friday Felicities

2012-01-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

The thing that is making me happy today is that I can make things that are both pretty and functional.

Take, for example, my new Nook. I am really enjoying it, and one of the main things that made me so excited to get one was not that I could use it to borrow eBooks from the library (though that is fabulous). It was that I could use some precious and special fabric to make a case for it. Seriously!

Tonight, I set about doing just that. I loosely followed this helpful tutorial. I say "loosely" because I didn't use minky, and I used fusible fleece to pad both the inner and outer fabrics.

Ta daaaah!

The outer fabric is some beautiful Far Far Away II that I received as an extra in a swap. I used some Mendocino for the lining.

Cute, isn't it? TOO BAD IT'S TOO SMALL FOR MY NOOK! Not. Even. Joking. I measured the freaking thing and added an inch to the width and height to determine the size of my fabric cuts. I guess with the fluffy fleece, the zipper closure and whatnot, that wasn't enough.

Thank goodness I still have enough of both fabrics to try this again. Another time. *sob*

Have a great weekend!

WIP Wednesday

2012-01-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

I kind of really love WIP Wednesdays - I always get so inspired when I see everyone's projects!

Finishes

Hmmm. Not much, actually - just the bee block.

Progress

I started a Layer Cake version of Easy Going Modern using a Terrain Layer Cake. So far, so good - I love chain piecing! I also love a lot of these prints.

One exception to the "so far so good" - I've never used a Layer Cake before and the only charm pack I've ever used, I chopped up for my Kona Solids Challenge quilt. Are the cuts always this off? The white rectangles are cut 10" long, and Layer Cakes are supposed to be 10" squares. I have found there to be a significant variation. Just me?

Some Progress

Kaleidoscope benefited from some Leaders/Enders action so I'm slowly getting it pieced. No photos yet.

No Progress
Rainbow I Spy
Habitat Challenge Pillow Covers
Heather R memory quilt
Charity Quilt
New Wave
Bee quilt (Jewel Squares)
Bee quilt (Circle of Geese)

This Week's Stats
Completed Projects - 1
New Projects - 0
Currently in Progress - 10

Linking up to Lee's and Monika's!

A Bee Block

2012-01-24T17:30:00.000-08:00

I'm in just one Bee this year. January's blocks are being made for Lynne of Lily's Quilts using her own LynneBobSquarePants tutorial.

The piecing gods weren't happy with me this weekend when I was trying to put this together. I took out one seam no fewer than 3 times! But in the end, I am happy with the block (more than I can say for my rather fuzzy photo - I clearly should be using my tripod). The solid is Kona Charcoal - an absolutely gorgeous alternative to black, which I find can be too stark against brights.

Answer: 54

2012-01-21T16:28:00.000-08:00

Question: how many corners did I have to deal with when binding these six placemats? (Edited - should be 48 because 6x8 (2 mitres per corner for putting binding on then stitching down) =48. I am SMRT, I am!).

They are for my Mom. I'd hoped to get them done before Christmas but you know what they say about good intentions! Luckily, she is my Mom and has to love me no matter what.

The main placemat fabrics are by Lonni Rossi, and they've been curing in my stash for at least 5 years. The fabric I used for binding and a couple of the backs is also from the stash - Heavy Metal by Ro Gregg for Northcott (a Canadian fabric company). My Mom loves sparkles and gold and whatnot so I thought she'd appreciate these fabrics. They're also dark colours for hiding stains - an important feature in placemats, in my opinion.

Get set for a lot of photos - I would've made a mosaic but they create square images, and that would not have worked with these rectangular placemats!

All the fronts:

A couple backs:

And a few quilting closeups:

(Front/Back/Quilting photos for each placemat are in my Flickr stream.)

Fun fact: each placemat is quilted differently, as much for FMQ practice as to make the quilting match the design.

Another fun fact: every single one of these designs was created with units that look like this:

They're strip-pieced using two 2½" strips sewn together, then cut into 4½" units. There are tons of ways to arrange the units - a great idea for any leftover jelly roll strips you might have floating around!

I'll be linking up to {sew} modern monday and manic mondays, and probably Fabric Tuesday and others as the week goes on. All those links are over on my right hand sidebar if you want to link up too (you totally should!).

Friday Felicities: Resolved to Sew

2012-01-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

Have you seen the fabulous prizes up for grabs over at Very Berry Handmade's 2012 Resolve to Sew Giveaway?

Go ahead and check them out here!

I'm pretty sure I mentioned it in my 2012 Quilty Goals post, but in 2012, I resolve to sew for ME! Well, not *just* me; my family and friends too. I'm saying no more often, and it feels pretty great.

Easy Going Modern (plus the pillow) is a gift for friends, and the alternate version I'm working on is a gift for my niece. Placemats I've been meaning to make for my Mom for ages are now finished.

Felicity = happy.

Have a great weekend!

WIP Wednesday

2012-01-18T20:50:00.000-08:00

I do think WIP Wednesday is such a lovely way to celebrate the middle of the week. It's all downhill from here until Friday (as it were).

Finishes

Mom's placemats are finito! Thanks to the VMQG's UFO Challenge for this month, I had the incentive I needed to stitch down the bindings and just finish these already. They'll get their own post at some point (hey, I bound *6* placemats - I'm going to be boring you with the details!) but here's one to give you an idea:

Bonus Project for my Patchwork Posse workshop:

New Projects This Week

I had so much fun with Easy Going Modern, I am making another version. Stay tuned!

No Progress
Rainbow I Spy
Habitat Challenge Pillow Covers
Heather R memory quilt
Charity Quilt
Kaleidoscope (turning this into a leaders/enders project)
New Wave
Bee quilt (Jewel Squares)
Bee quilt (Circle of Geese)

This Week's Stats
Completed Projects - 2 (but only 1 was on the project list!)
New Projects - 1 (whoops)
Currently in Progress - 10

Linking up to Lee and Monika's Wednesday linkies.

Friday Felicities (Now With 100% More Tutorial!)

2012-01-12T22:31:00.000-08:00

Something that makes me extra happy - a SuperFelicity if you will - is when I am vindicated in my refusal to throw away an object that I "might need one day." I know, I know: that way lies Hoarders.

But believe me when I say I am MUCH better about this because I just don't have anywhere to put much in our urban townhouse.

While I was trying to decide how to quilt Easy Going Modern, I had a brainwave so huge that when I tried it and it worked, I ran into the room where my husband was minding his own business and announced: "I????? Am BRILLIANT!!!!" and ran out again.

So you know those not-easily-recycled vinyl bags that sheets and other bedding-type products come packaged in? They often have handles and zips, and they just seem like they could be really useful for something. I do use them to keep WIPs and other projects organized, but I have way more vinyl bags than I have WIPs (so, a LOT of vinyl bags), and the bags are often impractically large.

But I kept 'em and now I know how to use 'em. Read on, friends.

It's not a secret but you may not know that I find choosing the quilting design for my quilts to be the very hardest part of a project. I'm terrified that I'm going to "wreck" the quilt with a poor choice of quilting design either because it's wrong for the quilt or wrong for me (i.e. something I can't execute well enough). I'm often paralysed by this indecision and then rush through the quilting to "get it over with."

But no more of that! I can now try out how my quilting design is going to look before lovingly ~~shoving~~ inserting my quilt into my machine's tiny harp and starting to stitch.

Tutorial: Auditioning Quilting Designs

What You'll Need:

Printed photo of your quilt, enlarged to fit at least an 8½"x10" sheet of paper (I printed mine to fit a Legal size page - 8½"x14")
Vinyl bag (should have one clear side (no snaps, zips, stickers) that is at least an inch bigger all around than your quilt photo)
Scissors (not your fabric shears - what you'd use to cut paper with)
Clip board long enough to accommodate the entire photo of your quilt OR masking/painter's tape
Waterproof marker in a colour that contrasts with your quilt's colours (I used one of my daughter's - you can get fancier ones like this)
Piece of batting, paper towel or rag, dampened with water

How To:

1. Cut a rectangle out of the vinyl bag that is slightly bigger all around than your quilt photo. No photo of this step as it is pretty much impossible to meaningfully photograph a square of clear vinyl.

2. Layer the vinyl over the quilt photo and insert into the clipboard. Alternatively, you could tape down the photo on a hard surface and tape the vinyl over top.

3. Start doodling! Use your marker to draw the design "on" the quilt.

Hmm... maybe some wavy lines?

4. Wipe off.

5. Repeat until you find a design you like. Here are a couple others I auditioned for Easy Going Modern.

Too hard to do on my machine

Too linear

6. Happily quilt your quilt!

If you were really ambitious, you could piece together the vinyl to create an auditioning film large enough to cover your whole quilt top (or part of it) and doodle right on your actual quilt. RISKS to this method include, but are not limited to, accidentally writing on your quilt top, rubbing the icky cloth full of ink on your quilt top, dropping the pen on your quilt top etc. etc. See a theme here? On the upside, I guess you'd have an opportunity to test how washable the markers really are!

Happy Weekend!

WIP Wednesday

2012-01-10T23:30:00.000-08:00

Finishes

Easy Going Modern is my big finish of last week. Still loving it!

Working on the workshop part of it now - writing the pattern and directions. Holy moly what a lot of time that's taking. And not least because in order to describe my piecing technique, I had to make a small-scale mock-up of the quilt because the actual blocks are way too big to photograph in process.

My Patchwork Posse workshop goes from February 2 through 15th - click here to register!

Week 2 of WIP reporting and I'm already off-list. Whoops! Anyway, I made a gift bag for a VERY belated Christmas gift using Jeni's now-famous tutorial.

In fact, I liked the tutorial so much (and I am so very lazy and didn't want to have to figure out how to size it up or down), I went ahead and did something I rarely do anymore: I bought the pattern. It's an instant PDF download and it is delightful. Best $6.50 I've spent in a while.

New Projects

None this week.

No Progress
Mom's placemats (but I did enter the project in VMQG's UFO Challenge!)
Rainbow I Spy
Habitat Challenge Pillow Covers
Heather R memory quilt
Charity Quilt
Kaleidoscope (turning this into a leaders/enders project)
New Wave
Bee quilt (Jewel Squares)
Bee quilt (Circle of Geese)

This Week's Stats
Completed Projects - 1 planned, 1 unauthorized
New Projects - 0
Currently in Progress - 9

Linking up at Lee's and TNATN!

Easy Going Modern - a Finish and a Workshop

2012-01-08T16:03:00.000-08:00

Finally! I have finished my sample, so I can share my exciting project with you all!

Introducing my first finish of 2012, Easy Going Modern.

It's on the roster over at Patchwork Posse as a Workshop beginning February 2nd. Included in the $8 workshop cost is exclusive access to the pattern during the workshop, as well as support from me in the discussion forums, which are available only to workshop participants. I'll be including a Layer Cake variation as well as a bonus project for using scraps to make a pillow cover.

Exciting, eh??

Easy Going Modern is a nice lap size quilt - 56" x 78" or so - perfect for snuggling on the couch. I quilted it with a really quick and easy wavy line that I did with my walking foot. Thread is Aurifil 50wt in a subtly variegated yellow.

This whole project is quick and easy - fabulous for a beginner, or for a more experienced quilter to whip up in a weekend. The back's layout mimics the front, but in larger scale:

My daughter gives it a big smile, and I'm absolutely thrilled with it, too.

I used Kona solids for the front: Carribbean, Curry and White. The back is Kona White and a print that is perfect for this quilt's recipients. It's bound in Kona White as well.

I'm happily linking up to Manic Monday, Sew Modern Monday and Fabric Tuesday (buttons over on my sidebar). Edited to add that I am also linking over at Quilt Matters' TGIFF linky.

EDITED again to add: I've been featured on Modern Day Quilts! Woot! Thank you, Heather!

Friday Felicities

2012-01-05T22:17:00.000-08:00

A couple of happy things today.

To kick things off, I celebrated my second "blogiversary" this week! I know it's cliché to say it but I truly cannot believe two whole years have passed since I started blogging. I love what it has brought to me, both personally (friends I never would've met otherwise) and for my quilting (my skills have been stretched every which way and I couldn't be happier). So thank you!

Secondly, I am delighted to tell you that I'll be participating in Sarah of FairyFace Designs' {Sew} Get Started Beginner Sewing Tutorials series that goes through May of 2012. In Sarah's words: "This series of tutorials is aimed at people who want to learn to sew and to make beautiful things with gorgeous, modern fabrics - who are new to sewing or who sewed in school but haven't done anything since." If you're not new to sewing, there are still going to be tons of things to do and learn. Stop by Sarah's blog to check it out - she's launching with a giveaway!

My turn doesn't come up til April, but there's LOTS for you to do and see between now and then. Click on the button here or on my sidebar to go and check it out anytime. Better yet, subscribe to Sarah's blog to get the updates as they happen!

My tutorial will show you in more detail how to make the round wonky potholders I made for the swap that I participated in late last year. You'll learn about foundation paper piecing, appliqué using fusible interfacing, bias binding and more!

Have a great weekend!

WIP Wednesday

2012-01-04T13:28:00.000-08:00

I am taking a while to get back into the groove of things after the holidays – how about you? I think that WIP Wednesday is a great place to start my routine again, however.

I’m going to try a new format for my WIP Wednesday posts to see how I like it. So going by the list over on my sidebar there, this is where I’m at:

New projects:

Super exciting secret project. I’m thiiiiis close to being ready to share. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek of the basted project, all ready for me to get quilting. I had grand plans to spend the evening quilting last night but they were foiled by a not-sleepy-because-of-a-late-nap 4-year-old. She was back at school today, so I have high hopes for Mama time this evening.

Progress:

Mom’s placemats. They’re all quilted, and the binding is attached. Just have to stitch it down using the machine. Those suckers are taking a lot longer than I expected!

No progress:
Rainbow I Spy
Habitat Challenge Pillow Covers
Heather R memory quilt
Charity Quilt
Kaleidoscope (turning this into a leaders/enders project)
New Wave
Bee quilt (Jewel Squares)
Bee quilt (Circle of Geese)

This week’s stats:
Completed Projects - 0
New Projects – 1
Currently In Progress - 10

2011: Another Year In Review

2011-12-29T13:54:00.000-08:00

I hope you had the kind of holiday that you were hoping for - we sure did. Christmas was peaceful and joyous, and the days leading up to it were lovely too. Here's my sweetie on Christmas morning surveying what Santa brought. (Aside: in an uncharacteristically brilliant and forward-thinking move, we had Santa be in charge of filling the stocking with mostly useful stuff like socks and toothbrushes, plus one small fun/toy thing thereby leaving all the credit for the most awesome stuff - now and in the future - for us.). She's wearing a fabulous nightgown made by my Mom - totally took me back to the ones she used to make me and my sisters for Christmas.

As I was mentally composing this post, I thought to myself, 'well this is going to be short, boring one - I didn't really get anything done!' But after assembling my mosaic of quilty finishes, I forced myself to take that back - what I didn't get done was most of the projects on my 2011 Quilty Goals List. Instead, I did other stuff, which is 100% A-okay. Life is what happens while you're waiting for other things or whatever that saying is, right?

Here is my Quilt Life of 2011:

Not too shabby if I do say so myself! The projects weren't large, but they were appropriately plentiful for this quilter who works full time outside the home and who occasionally has to give the other members of her household some quality "face time."

But wait! There's more! The above is in addition to the sewing I did for Bees as well as other sewing projects like teacher bags, swap extras, hallowe'en costumes, etc.

Not too shabby indeed.

What is 2012 going to bring? Let's have a look at 2011's list and update it:

1. Sewing Machine Cover. The original one turned into my confetti mini and I haven't gotten around to making myself one yet. Maybe this year but I'm not going to make it an official 2012 goal.
2. Rainbow I-Spy. Carrying this one forward to 2012 but probably later in the year. Every now and again, poor G asks whether it's finished and I always have the same answer: "not yet."
3. ~~Fresh Air Charm Quilt.~~ Dunzo! Became the placemats that we use every day - I love them!
4. New Wave. Fabric is all cut, and I even started the backing. 2012 goal.
5. Traffic Jam/Zig Zag. 2012 goal - can be substituted for any charity quilt.
6. Friend's daughter's memory quilt. 2012 goal.
7. Bees. Kept up with them and have only one for 2012.
8. ~~DQS 10~~ - Done!
9. ~~Lily's Quilts QAL.~~ Done!
10. ~~Supernova QAL.~~ Done!

In view of the foregoing, I am declaring 2012 the year of sewing for ME! Not necessarily things for me to keep, but things (quilts, mostly) that I want to make for others in my life. Those quilty goals include:

1. Rainbow I Spy for G.
2. New Wave for niece.
3. Traffic Jam/Zig Zag or other charity quilt.
4. Heather R. memory quilt.

plus:

5. Habitat pillow covers for sister.
6. Placemats for Mom.
7. My own bee quilts (3, once I have my month in Stash Trad).
8. Kaleidoscope QAL quilt.
9. Super exciting project that I will reveal very soon.

I daresay that list should keep me (mostly) out of trouble.

Done With Trees For A While

2011-12-13T22:20:00.000-08:00

I made a third three quilt, this time as a commission (my first! woot!). A good friend and her sister wanted me to make a family tree quilt for their folks.

It's very similar to the preschool tree quilts, except I quilted the names in the leaves. I'm very pleased with how it turned out!

A closeup of a couple of the leaves. I mixed the names up on the tree rather than having each sibling's family on its own branch but I used the same leaf fabric for each family.

I hope my friends' parents love it! I'm done with this design for a while, though.

Speaking of families, my daughter's birthday weekend was very successful. Everyone had fun at her pool party, and we had some lovely family time with Grandma on her actual birthday (Sunday). Here is the birthday girl making an expression that belies her enjoyment of the gorgeous handmade birthday crown I ordered from Maureen.

Friday Felicities #18

2011-12-09T18:40:00.001-08:00

Oh I'm late with this one. I blame it on the fact that I have had the last couple of days off (using up my very generous holiday allotment) and kind of lost track of what day of the week it was. That, or the wine. Doesn't really matter which.

Anyhoo, my felicity is that a certain little penguin is turning FOUR years old this weekend. I truly can't believe it's been 4 whole years since that time in 2007 I spent 12 hours in labour and was rewarded with a hilarious and beautiful and smart (oh my goodness so smart lord help me) little girl.

I am starting to feel overwhelmed by holiday stuff so my posting will be sporadic over the next while. I do have a guest posting gig and something exciting happening in the new year, and I will definitely be here to let you know about those. I also have another finish to share. But otherwise, I wish you and yours the happiest of holidays, and the merriest of New Years!

Lapel Stick Giveaway Winners

2011-12-05T21:08:00.001-08:00

Random.org has spoken! The winners of a tube of Lapel Stick are:

Heather, who wants a sewing machine, and Patti!

I've emailed the winners; thanks for playing!

The Felicities Keep On Coming!

2011-12-04T20:27:00.001-08:00

There has been an embarrassment of riches in the Felicity department this week!

First, I received my swap package from the VMQG-FVMQG potholder swap. Am I the only swapper who gets so wrapped up in what I'm making and sending that I sort of forget that I'm going to get something in return? Because I totally do.

Boy howdy did I get something in return. Look at these beauties!

You can't see the detail all that well in the photos but I have to tell you, these miniature works of art are beautifully made - from the teeny hand stitches on the binding to the perfect mitered corners, they're just perfect. And this interlocking wonky star pattern is one of my favourites. Nicely done on the swap stalking, Eryn!

And a bonus gift! A set of 8 gorgeous Christmas coasters!

Thank you, thank you Eryn - I absolutely ADORE what you made me.

But wait, there's more! This past week, The Girl Who Quilts awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award. Thank you, Nikki! You should really go check out her stuff; she's awesome.

You're supposed to share 7 things about yourself so here goes:
1. This year marked the 20th anniversary of my move from Toronto to Vancouver. I've now lived here *nearly* as long as I lived in Toronto.
2. Paying job: banker. Commercial loan-approver to be specific.
3. Considered going by my middle name when I started High School because I feared Felicity was too "different." I longed to have a normal name like everyone else. Very glad I didn't bother - Felicity fits!
4. I have never felt or looked better than I did during the 38.5 weeks I was pregnant.
5. My current favourite TV show is Castle.
6. I love bagpipe music. (No, seriously. I do!)
7. I have no canine teeth - they were extracted to make room for my other (enormous) teeth when I got braces in Grade 5.

And last but certainly not least, I attended a very cool craft show today and scored one of these lovelies:

(Photo courtesy Green Couch Designs on Flickr)

If that's not enough cure for the Sunday Night Blues, I don't know what is!

Friday Felicities #17 - A Giveaway!

2011-12-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

What's making me happy today is that the fine folks at Lapel Stick have contacted me to offer two of my readers one Lapel Stick each! Christmas is coming early!

Here is a review I did of Lapel Stick earlier this year - I really like this product. It goes on much smoother than a regular glue stick and works wonderfully.

Wanna win one? Just leave a comment here (one per reader, please!) and make sure I have a way to contact you. Let's make it fun - what's at the top of your holiday wish list?

Giveaway will close on Monday, December 5th at 9pm Pacific Time, and winners will be chosen by the Random Number Generator.

Have a great weekend!

Giveaway closed and winners chosen! Thanks for entering!

Preschool Quilts! Are! Finished!

2011-11-28T15:07:00.001-08:00

Dunzo! Finis! Hooray!

I could not be more happy with how these quilties turned out, not to mention the fact that they're done two and a half weeks ahead of time.

These are for a live-auction fundraiser for my little girl's preschool. There is a Kindergarten group, and a morning and afternoon preschool class. Usually each one has its own item to auction off. So Mother of the Year here volunteered to make a quilt for each group, with the kids' participation.

While I loved what Angela did here, I figured that might be a wee bit too advanced for 3 to 5 year olds, and settled on having them write their names on a leaf to add to their class's quilt. I helped the littler ones if they needed it, either by writing their name for them altogether, or by adding their name where what they'd written was a bit tough to decipher.

Everything was adhered using Heat n Bond light, which, when you use as much of the stuff as I did, really gums up the machine needle and causes the bobbin thread a fair bit of consternation. But I persevered, and I love how they turned out.

Kindergarten quilt - a garden for the kindergartens! 42" x 49" - a large wall-hanging or a small coverlet.

Detail shot of the cuteness (all the bugs were fussy-cut from a scrap without a selvage so I have no clue who made it).

Here's what the back looks like:

Morning Class quilt, which finished at 42"x54":

Detail shots:

Back (fabulous IKEA fabric!):

Afternoon Class quilt, which finished at 42"x53":

Some more details:

Back (more fabulous IKEA fabric):

Clever readers may have noticed that the two AM/PM preschool quilts are a diptych - here they are side by side.

Waaay more photos (yes, there are, in fact, more) may be found in my Flickr photostream, and I am linking up all over the darn place with these lovely finishes, including Finish It Up Friday at crazy mom quilts and these other places:

Friday Felicities #16

2011-11-25T21:09:00.001-08:00

Today, what's making me happy is....knowing when to give up.

I have a WIP/UFO that has been haunting me. In 2007, I took a class with Judy Niemeyer. Her foundation paper-pieced quilts are absolutely incredible, and I wanted to learn how to make one. My guild hosted a weekend workshop and I signed up.

We had a choice of three patterns and this is the one I chose (the "easiest"!):

There was a boatload of precutting so that we could spend our time in the workshop learning Judy's piecing technique - one I use to this day, so that's good.

Here's what I accomplished in a full 2-day workshop.

Yeah. One complete block (top left), three outside units and two inside units. (Whilst rummaging through the box that houses this project, I also found an additional 4 outside units in progress, with 4 pieces left to add on each one, which makes me feel a little less terrible about my productivity.) Aaaaaaand that's it! Now in my feeble defense, within 6 or so weeks of the class, I did give birth to my little girl. But I truly have not touched this project since.

And do you know what? I'm not going to! Well, to be specific, I'm not going to finish making this whole quilt. I will commit to finishing the four blocks shown above as a housewarming wallhanging/table topper for my lovely Dad. But the rest? I'm letting go.

The colours aren't really "me" anymore. I went with what was in my stash, hence the switch between the dark background/light flowers and no batiks, and I won't LOVE the finished product.

Thank goodness I was too lazy to cut all of the pieces for all of the blocks, so I can salvage the fabric scraps for future projects, or to give to someone whose palette they suit better than mine. In any case, I don't feel one bit bad about letting this project go - I learned valuable skills in the workshop, had fun with my guild buddies, and spent an entire weekend quilting. I'd say that's a success, wouldn't you?

Have a great weekend! I hope to have some finishes to share this coming week so stay tuned.

Friday Felicities #15

2011-11-18T21:09:00.001-08:00

This FF post is the Late Edition! But no less full of happy.

What has made me happy today is that we have a "sister" Modern Quilt Guild - the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild. "Greater Vancouver" covers a pretty significant area, and people who live in the suburbs to the east of Vancouver found it really challenging to make it to the VMQG meetings. So they started their own Modern Guild!

We are winding up our very first inter-guild activity: a potholder swap. VMQG members received the name of a FVMQG member (and vice versa). We had a very short questionnaire to complete to give our partner some ideas of our tastes and preferences. Our potholders need to be in the mail by the 30th of November.

Mine have been done for a while (what is with me these days, finishing stuff before deadlines??) and I was waiting to show them off at the VMQG meeting last night. Now I can mail them to my lovely partner.

A bit of process for those who are interested....I knew I wanted to do a wheel with wonky/uneven segments. I traced a mixing bowl, and then drew randomly-sized pie pieces. Using that as a foundation, I used my scraps sewed down each segment in turn. I pieced a couple of the segments using some strips to amp up the Scrappy. I got a little flummoxed at the last segment, but managed to figure it out/fudge it. I realized after piecing BOTH potholders that I should have made two half-circles and sewed them together. Next time!

The centre circle, I made using this fabulous tutorial by Krista - Poppyprint. After fusing it on, I zigzagged around the outside to secure it.

I consulted a few different online tutorials and ended up choosing to line the potholders with one layer each of: Insul-Brite, canvas and Warm and Natural 100% cotton batting. Backing and binding (bias, of course, for these circles!) are from a thrifted IKEA duvet cover. Quilting was in grey, in a spiral pattern, simply using the outside of my walking foot to keep the lines more or less even.

I'm really, really pleased with how they turned out, and I hope my partner is too.

Have a great weekend!

Edited: I'm linking up to Sew Modern Monday and Manic Mondays at SewHappyGeek (see right sidebar for buttons).

WIP Wednesday/Retreat Report

2011-11-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

Warning! Long post ahead!

I'm back home and, having gone to sleep at about 8pm last night, I am nearly caught up on the sleep I *didn't* get on the weekend.

Friends, it was absolutely fabulous. From 3pm Friday until 2pm Monday, all I had to think about was quilting. No meals to make, no cellphone reception, nothing but eating, chatting and quilting. Lots and lots of quilting. Also, chatting. And laughing.

Krista did a wonderful job of planning - the location was wonderful (snow on Saturday that we watched fall as we sat cosily sewing away in the great hall) and the food was delicious. Here's what the work room looked like - LOTS of activity, eh? Those windows let in so much lovely natural light, and the view was marvelous - when I raised my head from my work, I could see the trees and Loon Lake. Gorgeous!

Here's my work area, with one of the preschool quilts in progress (and a bag of delicious chocolate-covered pretzels in the background):

Speaking of the preschool quilts, here's my "what I planned/hoped to do vs. what I actually got done" list and it's not half bad if I do say so myself!

Preschool quilts. I wanted to get all 3 basted and quilted. GOAL EXCEEDED! Not only are all three quilts quilted, but I cut the bindings for all 3 and two of them are sewn on. Here's a peek of the quilting on one of the tree quilts. VERY happy with how these have turned out.

Stash Trad block. Goal met - the block is dunzo:

Habitat Challenge. Wanted to get all 4 pillow covers made. HAHAHA. Annnywayyyyyy, I got one more pieced, and the fourth cut out/planned. Not bad. This happened late in the retreat and I forgot to photograph my progress. Below is a photo I took just now - didn't even press the darn thing for you. This is likely not going to be done in time for the VMQG meeting on Thursday. Ah well. I'll bring what I've got.

Commission Quilt. Wanted to get the top done at least, and only managed to get the tree cut out and fused. Not too shabby.

Mom's placemats. Didn't get worked on at all. But with all the progress I made on the quilts, I will have these done for Christmas no problem.

And finally, I used up more of my luck by winning one of the door prizes - a copy of Modern Blocks, which I got signed by one of the designers, Krista of Spotted Stones. I've got it sitting on the back of one of the quilts, with the World's Most Perfect Backing Fabric (from IKEA).

Krista and another Flickr friend, also named Krista (!!) came from far away to spend the weekend, making it all the more enjoyable. I also want to shout out to my work space partner and roommate Sindy, who introduced me to the wonderfulness that is chocolate-covered pretzels. Dang those are yummy.

Linking up with Lee and Monika again!

Friday Felicities #14

2011-11-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me this week that while I didn't start this blog for external validation, that certainly is a pleasant byproduct. More than pleasant, actually - the feedback I get from comments is another way I connect with likeminded quilters and crafters and it's really lovely. So if you follow, read and/or comment - thank you! You really are a felicity in my life!

My Friday Felicities post today is a comment-related PSA for bloggers using the Blogger platform.

Have you been getting fewer comments lately, or more Anonymous comments where the commenter said they couldn't use their Google profile to leave a comment, or emails from readers telling you they can't comment? If the answer is yes and you're wondering how to fix that, read on!

Are your Blogger settings for Comments are set to have comments embedded at the bottom of your posts like so:

Then readers who upgraded to Internet Explorer 7 or beyond can't comment using their Google IDs. They get in an endless loop of being asked to login, and the login doesn't seem to want to "take". I don't know why; the Google wasn't much help on it.

There's a simple workaround, however. Tell your readers to use Chrome or Firefox! Just kidding. You're going to need to switch from a comment form embedded at the bottom of your post to one that is in a popup window or its own separate page:

1. Go to your Blogger dashboard.
2. Click on Settings.
3. Click on Comments.
4. In the section called Comment Form Placement, select one of the other two options for comment format: full page, or a pop-up box. Either one works. Note that if you are using the new Blogger interface for managing your account, the comment form placement options aren't available (or if they are available, I was unsuccessful at determining where to find them).

Here's a screencap of my dashboard with some illustrative colour highlights.

I figured some (most? all?) bloggers out there love comments as much as I do, and want to remove any barriers there may be to getting those comments. Hope this little PSA/tutorial helped!

Have a great weekend!

WIP Wednesday

2011-11-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

I feel like this place has been a bit boring lately - I have actually not been doing all that much sewing lately. Not sure why - kid was a little sick, and there was Hallowe'en and what not. But I am going on retreat allll this coming long weekend PLUS Monday so that is definitely happy-making for me!

For now, though, here we go (with some notes since this is doubling as a Retreat To Do List):

AM/PM/Kindergarten Preschool Quilts: Tops all finished, waiting to be basted and quilted on retreat. Retreat project.

VMQG/FVMQG Potholder Swap: Project status is complete but I don't want to show them until the package has been sent to my secret partner, so here's a tiny sneak peek. I know, right? BORING! (Is that why I lost a follower, I wonder? [sad face])

Habitat Challenge Project: In progress. Another retreat project. Here's where I am at with it.

Did you notice that I am a rebel? I broke the no fabric besides solids rule with some near-solids. Spoiler alert: these are going to be cushion covers for my sister and brother-in-law so I took some liberties with the fabric constraints. I've got two other cushion covers to make and I'll be using a different design - a new favourite I found in blogland:

Source: oneshabbychick.typepad.com on Pinterest

Stash Trad Bee: I've pulled the fabrics to make a yellow version of this block. If I don't get it done in the next couple of nights, it'll be another retreat project. Nice that I can give it to Krista in person!

Source: flickr.com via Felicity on Pinterest

(Edited to clarify that the one above was not made by me, but by Lynne of Lily's Quilts).

Commission Quilt: A family tree quilt in the same style as the preschool tree quilts. In progress, another retreat project.

Mom's Placemats: Also hoping to finish these on retreat.

I implore you to go visit Lee and Monika for some far more exciting WIP Wednesday updates!

Friday Felicities #13

2011-11-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Today's Friday Felicities post goes out to my fellow Quilt Bee participants from the past year. I was in three bees throughout the last year, and each one was different.

Sew & Bee Happy was a 12 month sew-from-your-stash bee. The queen bee for the month specified the style of block she wanted, as well as what colours to use. We then sewed 'em up and sent 'em off.

Sew Buzzy was also a 12-month bee, but I joined when they lost a member a few months after the start. In this bee, we sent our fellow bees the fabric to make the blocks for our month.

The Maple Leaf Bee 2 had a similar format to Sew Buzzy, but there were only 6 members and we each made 2 blocks per month.

With the three bees behind me, I have concluded the following: three bees are too many; I prefer bees where I sew my stash - less postage costs! Here's a mosaic of the bee blocks I made in the latter half of my Bee year:

So I am down to just one for the upcoming year - Stash Trad. We sew traditional blocks from our stash in the colourway requested by that month's queen. October was the first month, and I made the Cracker Scraps block for Angela.

November's block looks very interesting - lots of HSTs in a beautiful Pine Tree block for Krista.

I will say that the experience of being in a bee can be really great - learning new skills, sewing with other people's fabric, making blocks you wouldn't normally have ever tried. If you've got any questions about online quilt bees, drop me a line or ask it in the comments and I'll answer as best I can.

Have a great weekend!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival: In a (Solid) Pickle

2011-11-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome if you're visiting for the first time from Amy's wonderful Bloggers' Quilt Festival! Feel free to say a while and have a look around.

I'm not blogging a new quilt for BQF this time, unfortunately. But I am blogging a favourite.

I made this mini quilt for the For the Love of Solids Modern Swap on Flickr. There's a longer process post here if you'd like lots of detail. But the short of it is that the block is a Pickle Dish, hence the quilt's name. I found the inspiration in a Kaffe Fasset book - Quilt Romance. The inspiration quilt was done in patterned fabric, but as soon as I saw the block I knew that's what I wanted to make for my partner.

The quilting was a challenge to figure out - I was leaning toward free-motion somethingorother, but my quilty friends helped and I went in a totally different direction. What a great decision! I love how the quilting makes the block look spiky and adds a New York Beauty-esque layer to the overall look.

I hope you enjoyed my quilt and please be sure to visit the other fantabulous creations that are being shared in the Festival (500 as I write this post!).

Penguin!

2011-10-31T19:44:00.000-07:00

By popular demand, I give you....PENGUIN!

Here's a better view of the tail:

As I said on Facebook - I'm guessing the ratio of hours spent making this to minutes spent trick or treating is approximately 1.5:1.

Worth every one - she loved it and looked fabulous!

Linking up to Manic Monday over at SewHappyGeek.

Friday Felicities #12

2011-10-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

What's making me happy today is that today is my birthday! Today's Friday Felicities post goes out to my parents.

I credit my Mom and Dad for the fact that I am one of those people who loooooves their birthday. In a family with five children, the opportunities for each of us to be celebrated individually were limited, but our birthday was certainly one of those times.

In my family, your birthday day was all about you, beginning with breakfast, when the Birthday Celebrant's place was set with Mom's "good" china and Waterford crystal.

There was also a Kellogg's Fun Pak awaiting the Birthday Girl/Boy's first choice of "cold" cereal - a big treat since we ate hot cereal every week day. I wasn't (and still am not) a fan of the super-sugary cereals, so my foks always got me the non-sugary version of the Fun Pak that included Rice Krispies and Special K.

Since finding out about this tradition, my lovely friend Anne has provided me with a Snak Pak on each of my birthdays since we've met, which is going on 17 years.

We were invited to not only produce a Birthday List of the gifts we wanted, but we got to choose the menu for our birthday meal. We never got all those presents, obviously, but we did always get our special meal. Depending on the request, the whole family got to enjoy the meal choice (pork chops and scalloped potatoes, my menu for at least 5 years running), or the Birthday Celebrant got their own special meal (my brothers often chose steak). I always had pumpkin pie as my dessert.

Over dinner, my Mom would recount the story of the day we were born ("X years ago today...."), and the highlights for each person were always the same (mine involved a 95-year-old lady cab driver; my brother's, Mom's erroneous assumption that labour pains were indigestion from the hot dog she ate that day).

So there you have it - the story of why I love my birthday and why I am happy (ha! pun intended) today.

Have a great weekend, (even if yours isn't going to include birthday cake like mine is).

Featured on Amy's Creative Side!

2011-10-27T09:14:00.000-07:00

Hello, friends! I'm featured today over at Amy's Creative Side - Amy is the Mama of Bloggers' Quilt Festival (2011 Fall Festival starts tomorrow!) and someone lovely suggested me as a Featured Blogger.

So go check it out!

Thank you, Amy for featuring me.

WIP Wednesday

2011-10-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Yay for productivity!

Preschool Quilts: Tops are done and ready to be quilted! Hooray!

Icky nighttime photos - sorry!

VMQG-FVMQG potholder swap: I had a brainwave and came home and did some sewing. Here's a sneak peek of what I got done...

Hallowe'en Costume: Done - very successfully! - and photos will be shared on the 31st.

Habitat challenge project: I'm a gal with a plan. Stay tuned!

Linking up in the usual spots with Lee and Monika!

Gee's Bend Quilters Lecture

2011-10-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

I am so very happy that I had the opportunity to attend a talk given by three Gee's Bend Quilters and Matt Arnett. Matt and his dad are art historians and are credited with "discovering" the quilts of Gee's Bend.

Matt described some of the history of Gee's Bend, the extreme poverty of that former slave trading post (though official records confirming that are unsurprisingly unavailable), and the first exhibits. He then introduced the quilters, Revil Mosley, China Pettway and Louisiana Bendolph, and they each spoke in turn. Before they spoke, though, China and Revil sang a beautiful gospel/spiritual song and indeed there was a lot more song throughout the evening.

Each woman represented a generation, and each shared stories of her past, all of which included very rough times, hunger, cold, racism, and faith. The deep and abiding faith, particularly of Revil and China was front and centre and extremely genuine. That was definitely a memorable part of the talk.

There were photos of quilts, and some photos of the Gee's Bend community. There were also many stories and photos of the first Gee's Bend exhibit.

The audience was able to ask questions, and there was a great question about how these women's husbands and sons felt about them leaving Gee's Bend for the tours and these lectures. The response was interesting - that the support of husbands definitely ranged from "not at all" to "extremely" and Matt made an extremely interesting point about how the financial gain from the sale of their quilts has caused some imbalance in some households where one quilt might sell for more than that quilter's husband makes in a year.

China told a story of her brother making her a pair of shoes from a pasteboard box, and her family using quilts to insulate the walls against the winter cold. Revil took up the microphone right after that and commented that at least the windows in China's house had windowpanes - her family home didn't!

Louisiana, who was born in 1960, experienced an effectively segregated school system insofar as that part of Alabama didn't have desegregated schools until the 1970s - well after Brown vs. The Board of Education had changed the law. Incredible.

Even after all that's changed in Gee's Bend since the world discovered it just over 10 years ago, the quiltmakers there continue to make quilts to be used, to keep their families warm. The art of these quilts persists but it is absolutely inseparable from their utility. When someone asked a question about design decisions, Matt related a story about how it took him a long time to really get the quilters to acknowledge that they were producing art and not "just" quilts for use - finally one quilter answered his question about why she didn't just use one piece of orange in that one spot but rather cut it up and put it in various places and she responded something like, "Well, I wanted it to look good!"

The talk was inspiring and I had tears in my eyes more than once. I was completely star struck and could barely croak out a "thank you" when I went to the table to meet the quilters. I do hope this video gives you a little taste of the personality of these awesome women (l-r as the video begins) China, Revil and Louisiana.

Go here to learn more about these fabulous quilts and quilters - even a google search of "quilts of Gee's Bend" comes up with so much great stuff!

Friday Felicities #11

2011-10-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

Today's felicity is that I will be attending a lecture this evening by some quilters of Gee's Bend. I am so excited. Here are some images of Gee's Bend quilts to take you into the weekend. Enjoy!

Source: google.com via Barbara on Pinterest

Source: google.com via kira on Pinterest

Source: None via Tonya on Pinterest

"Strips and Strings" by Mary Lee Bendolph of Gee's Bend, 2003

Source: guildess.wordpress.com via Jackie on Pinterest

WIP Wednesday

2011-10-18T23:02:00.000-07:00

Had a productive week! Let's recap my massive and scary to-do list, concentrating on those things with October due dates (I'll worry about November's stuff next week):

AM/PM pre-school quilts: The tops were blogged here, and since then I've been to the class, had the kids put their name on a leaf, and on a strip of fabric for the label. Very good progress!
Mom's placemats: Only two of six are pieced. Strips pieced and segments cut for another 2. I'm okay with that because now that I showed them to the preschool classes, they're a December project.
Hallowe'en costume: Progress! I plan to add some "wings" along the arms. But oh my goodness. That fun fur? Sheds. A LOT. Amy warned me but I'd already bought the fabric. Ugh. The stuff is in my nose, on my carpet and all over my cutting mat.

Butterick P448

Cute story: we've been reading quite a bit about penguins lately, and when I was chatting with The Child about the costume, she announced she wanted it to include "an egg in my brood patch." On the off chance you haven't been studying penguins lately like we have, it's a pocket of sorts where an Emperor Penguin keeps its egg warm, just above its feet. I told her the costume didn't include a brood patch and then - get this - she brightly suggested that she wanted an egg stuck to her foot. As you do when you are a penguin. Obviously. Hilarious. Of course I said okay to that. I now have to make an egg-shaped something to attach to the bottom of one leg of this costume.

Stash Trad Bee: Dunzo!

Feeling quite satisfied with myself, I am. Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and The Needle And Thread Network.

What I Did on my Day Retreat

2011-10-16T21:59:00.000-07:00

I felt great all day at the retreat and got a ton of stuff accomplished. On previous retreats, I felt really burned out by around 8:00pm. Yesterday, I made a conscious effort not to drink too much coffee, and - ironically - it worked!

First up, Cracker ~~Snaps~~Scraps for Angela, who had the kick-off month in my one and only bee for this year: Stash Trad. I pulled a typical Felicity and made a cutting error when I was preparing the pieces to take to the retreat the night before. Luckily, I had brought the extra triangles, but it meant that I had to repeat a fabric, which I hadn't wanted to do. And during construction, I of course managed to place some strips going in the wrong direction, even with a photo to guide me. Ugh. Luckily, I only had to pick out two seams. Could've been worse:

The tutorial to make this block is here if you're interested

Next, I turned my attention to the preschool quilts, and added some flowers to the tree quilts at my daughter's insistence. The news that I was only planning to put flowers on the Kindergarten quilt was not well-received to put it mildly! No photos yet...still in progress.

To help show the children the stages of a quilt's construction, I will bring a new WIP with me to show them: some placemats I'm making my Mom for Christmas. One's pieced:

...and one's quilted.

Speaking of quilting, check out what ELSE I got up to:

First feathers!

Feathers, plus!

My lovely fellow VMQG member Janet does exquisite feathers in her quilting (among other exquisite designs - please check out her blog and Flickr!), and I asked her to give me a lesson while we were on retreat together. She gave me a few pointers, a couple of quilt sandwiches and I got to work. I have conquered my feather insecurity! I know they're not perfect, but I was so so pleased with my progress in such a short time that I'm completely determined to keep practicing so I can get better. Thank you, Janet!

Hooray for lovely day retreats, and my lovely husband, who wrangled The Child all day while I was quilting away.

Friday Felicities #10

2011-10-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

What's making me happy today is...something that doesn't start with F! Amazing!

Today's felicity is that I will be going on a quilt retreat tomorrow! I'll be sewing my little brains out from 9 am until 10 pm at a gorgeous locale just 45 minutes from the city, together with fellow members of the VMQG *and* FVMQG. Sqeeeeeee! I am very, very excited!

Have you ever been on a quilt retreat? They're usually weekend-long things, and you stay at a hotel or a B&B or a church-affiliated retreat centre. This concept of Krista's is very cool in that you don't have to commit to a full weekend OR stay overnight, which is especially helpful to those of us with smaller kiddos.

A retreat is a chance to work on whatever you want uninterrupted except by chatting, checking out others' work, chatting, eating (someone else cooks!) etc. etc. - just you and your sewing machine. In other words, quilter-style bliss. If you ever have the opportunity to go on a retreat, TAKE IT. You won't regret it.

I'll be working on - what else? - those 3 preschool fundraiser quilts I committed to. I am surprisingly ahead of the game on this project (I know, who are you and what have you done with our President? says the Last Minute Club). I've got one top just about done - the details such as the bird's beak and legs, as well as the sun's rays, and the flowers' leaves etc. will be filled in with that scribbly appliqué technique:

As I was naming the image file to save it, I realized Kindergarten means children's garden! Yay, me!

And another one underway:

The AM and PM preschool class quilts will be mirror-images and together will form a full tree, diptych-style!

I'm having a lot of fun with these quilts - they are designs I've had floating in my head for a while, so I'm delighted to be able to let them out.

Have a great weekend!

Wonder Wheel

2011-10-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

This quilt was a long time in the making! I joined the Big Fat Dresden Quilt Along over at Lily's Quilts back in March (gah!), got the top done in relatively good time. Then I got distracted by other things (ooh, shiny!), basted it, and then it stalled again.

I began to feel like I was drowning in WIPs, yet I was (happily) starting yet more projects, and it was stressing me out. Plus I didn't know how I wanted to quilt it. More stress. This hobby isn't supposed to be a source of stress!

So I just went ahead and finished it. Of course, it took like two evenings to quilt. Isn't that always the way? We think a project or task is going to be yooooooge and it isn't.

Three cheers for Wonder Wheel!

Hip, hip, hooray!

Hip, hip, hooray!

Hip, hip hooray!

The Child "helping" with the photo shoot.

Details:

Size: about 35" square
Pattern: Dresden Quilt Along, Lily's Quilts
Quilting: straight line with walking foot using 28 wt dark brown Aurifil thread.
Fabric: mostly Wonderland by MoMo for Moda, with a couple of extra prints thrown in to round it out. The solids are Robert Kaufman Quilters Linen in (I think) Chocolate for the centre circle and around the Dresden Wheel, and Kona Coffee for the borders and binding.

I still adore Wonderland, and I've got some more to play with (but maybe not til the new year, says the woman with a massive To Do list). In any case, this one's staying with us!

Linking up everywhere I can again - {Sew} Modern Mondays (on the 17th), Manic Mondays, Fabric Tuesday (links all over there on my sidebar), and a new linky party over at pieceful life for little quilts on Mondays, the works!

Friday Felicities #9

2011-10-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

Short and sweet for today's edition of Friday Felicities.

It's our 11th wedding anniversary today, and the 13th anniversary of our first date. Kevin and I will be raising a glass or two tonight.

I hope you have a great weekend, too!

WIP Wednesday

2011-10-04T21:48:00.000-07:00

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

I had two finishes last week. One, you've seen

..and one, you'll have to wait for. ;)

I am in full pre-school quilt mode now. I have three quilts to make - one for each of the morning and afternoon preschool classes, and one for the Kindergartners (the "Lunch Bunch" because they are at school all day). In my old age, I am actually beginning to learn NOT to bite off more than I can chew. That ripping sound you heard was the tear in the space-time continuum.

The quilts need to be completely done for the mid-December fundraiser, so I scaled back the design as well as the level of involvement from the kids, and here's what the Lunch Bunch quilt is going to look like:

I sew better than I draw, obviously!

When I go to the class, I'll have the quilt tops nearly done, so there will be some up front work, but I'd rather get it done early (do I have to turn in my Last Minute Club membership card?). Then when I'm in the class, the kids can choose a (pre-cut? we'll see) critter to represent them, and write their name on it with fabric markers.

I LOVE the fabric-pulling part of planning a quilt, don't you? I pulled these to start:

Greens for the stems and leaves, and the bottom row for the flowers and critters. The background is a cool word fabric I found in my stash (these quilts will be 100% stash quilts - yay me!) - can you see the alphabets on it? I thought that was a good thematic choice especially since it looks like the sky. I might still use that yellow on the far left of the bottom stack for a happy sun in the top corner. Depends how the mood moves me.

Other projects on the go:

October

AM/PM pre-school quilts: fabric pull imminent. I want all three quilt tops ready to go by the time I visit the class on October 17th.
Mom's placemats. I'll be using them to show the preschool kids how a quilt is made so the 6 of them need to be in varying stages of completion. October 17th.
Hallowe'en costume: The Child wants to be "a bird" - specifically, a penguin chick. Yes, chick. I talked her up to an actual penguin. Due October 31st.
Stash Trad Bee: October is the first month! I pulled fabrics (fun!) for Angela's gigantic Cracker Scraps (I keep wanting to call it Cracker Snaps?) block. In this bee, we sew from our stash, which saves a lot on postage. I like it! Must be in the mail by October 31st.

November

VMQG's Habitat Challenge, due November 17th. I've got a plan.
VMQG Potholder Swap with Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild, due November 30th.
Stash Trad Block. For Krista. Due the 30th.

December

Commission Quilt (family tree): will use the same design that I use for the AM/PM quilts (SMRT, that's me!). Due December 7th.
All 3 Preschool quilts 100% done by December 15th.
Placemats for my Mom. December 15th.
Memory Quilt for friend's daughter. Would like to get this done by Christmas. Might be too ambitious.

That seems like a lot, I know, but I have two (count 'em) TWO quilt retreats between now and then, one of which is 4 glorious days long. I'm feeling good about my chances.

Linking up to Lee's and TNATN!

How Quilters Show Gratitude

2011-10-01T15:01:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure I'm not alone when I say that when someone does something nice for me, my immediate reaction is to want to thank them with a quilt. I don't always follow through, mind you, but the thought nearly always occurs to me.

My friend Cindy bestowed a random act of kindness on me not too long ago - I made a cheeky comment about some long-forgotten (and therefore out of print) fabric she had unearthed in one of the fabric ~~hiding~~ storage places in her home. Along the lines of "I'd be happy to take care of that Layer Cake for you har dee har har." And wouldn't you know, a package arrived on my doorstep not long thereafter containing the LC. I was so blown away by her thoughtfulness and kindness, I knew I would HAVE to thank her with a quilt.

It took me a little while, but the idea for the design finally came to me.

I started with this:

and created this:

I'm pretty chuffed with how it turned out. Quilting was - as always - a stumper, but I took my cue from what I did with my Kona Solids Challenge quilt, and quilted the image of a sun within the words. This is the "secret project" on which I used the Aurifil 12/2 wool thread. It's a bit fuzzy but I loved what the pale yellow brings to the quilt.

The sun was quilted with my walking foot; I just wiggled the quilt to make the wavy sun rays. The circles in the border were done free-motion using Aurifil 50/2 thread in a pale cream.

I kept this quilt's back completely plain, except for the label.

Cindy received this today, so now I can blog about it! I think she likes it, don't you? Actually, I'm not sure who's more excited for her to have received it, me or Cindy!

Never, ever doubt that the friends you meet in the online quilting community aren't "real" - they very much are.

I'll link up to {Sew} Modern Monday and Manic Mondays this week! And maybe even Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday too! Plus, it's Fresh Sewing Day over at Lily's Quilts, and Mini Quilt Monday at Fresh Lemons! This quilt is gonna be making the rounds, people!

Friday Felicities #8 - Flickr

2011-09-29T21:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, now this is getting ridiculous. Another F-themed felicity for a Friday! I swear I'm not doing this on purpose.

As I finish up the three online bees I was involved in during 2010/2011 and prepare to begin one more (just one this time), I'd like to take a moment to talk about Flickr.

In its simplest form, Flickr is an online photo storage website. You upload your photos, group them into sets based on your own criteria, and you can even order prints and make photo books. You can send links to your photos to friends and family. If you have a blog, you can copy and paste the html code you need to put a photo from your Flickr photostream into your blog.

But it's so, so, SO much more than that! It's also a community composed of Groups that you can join and to which you can add your photos. Some groups are more passive, and are mainly about the photos, such as Simply Solid Quilts. Others are more active, like the groups dedicated to swaps (doll quilts, potholders, holiday tree ornaments, mini quilts, pouches, handmade home decor items....the list goes on!), and in addition to photos you can find lively discussion threads.

If you're looking to participate in a private fabric swap (see my tutorial about that), Flickr is a great place to find someone to swap with. Do you have a quilt top and need some suggestions for quilting it? Try How Should I Quilt This? or check out the many beautiful examples of modern quilting stitches in this group, or this one. Quilt-Alongs run by bloggers usually have a Flickr Group where you can post your progress at each step, and ask questions in the discussion forums.

Coming full circle to my online quilting bees - they're all through Flickr! You can make your own group with your own rules, or you can join a bee that's looking for participants (Quilting Bee Blocks is the go-to place to find bees that need members). Here's my final block for Sew & Bee Happy, for Molly. I loved making this wonky multi-star block.

I know I've barely scratched the Flickr surface, but I hope that's enough to make you at least want to check it out if you aren't already a seasoned Flickr-er.

Have a great weekend!

WIP Wednesday

2011-09-27T22:24:00.000-07:00

In which I show you a whole lotta nuthin'! Not a great way to welcome all my new followers from my Ellison Lane feature last week. It'll get better, don't worry. :)

A FINISH

I was a busy beaver this week, and finished up that secret project I mentioned before. As of today, it's on its way to a recipient who has no idea about it. So all I can show you is this little teaser:

When it gets to where it is going, I'll do a full reveal, I promise. Trust me, you'll like it! :)

A NEAR FINISH

Remember this top?

I'm thiiiiiis close to having the binding sewn down on good ol Wonder Wheel! Yay! It sat basted for a long time while I pondered how I wanted to quilt it, and I'm really pleased with what I decided to do. Stay tuned.

OTHER STUFF THAT GOT WORKED ON

A bee block (the last one for Sew & Bee Happy - has it been a year already?!). Still in mid-completion. Also in "mid-completion"? My own blocks from this bee! ARGH!

ABOUT TO BECOME WIPs

After my bee blocks are done, I will be turning my full attention to the Preschool quilts. I've got a plan for each of them, and I'm very excited. More on those soon too.

I'm sorry this is such a lousy update - I swear I'll make it up to you!

Go check out people who were way more productive than I over at Lee's, okay?

Aurifil Giveaway Winners

2011-09-25T23:11:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a great response! Thanks for the kind words about my projects - I appreciate them all!

Mr. Random did his thing, and the 5 winning comments have been picked.

First up:

And that belongs to:

Second winning comment is:

And that is:

Third winning number:

Who's 94? That's:

Winning giveaway comment number four:

Here we are:

And the final winning comment is:

And that is...

Winners have been contacted. Thanks for playing!

I'm Featured!

2011-09-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Looking for the Aurifil giveaway? Click here.

Friends, I'm so excited - Jennifer over at Ellison Lane Quilts is featuring me today in her Saturday Spotlight! Come by and visit, and you'll discover some answers to questions about me that you never even knew you had!

Thank you so much for inviting me to be on Saturday Spotlight, Jennifer!

Friday Felicities #7 - Fall Giveaway sponsored by Aurifil!

2011-09-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I love LOVE Fall. The crisp air, the freshly-picked crisp apples, the pumpkin pie...Oh! And sweaters, boots, jeans, scarves....the leaves turning colour...yeah, I love me some Fall. That today is the first day of Fall is very felicitous for me.

To celebrate, let's have a giveaway! The fine folks at Aurifil sent me a wonderful package of threads to use, and some to give away!

I use Aurifil 100% cotton thread nearly exclusively these days. Bernie is a bit of a princess when it comes to what she likes to be threaded with, and nearly anything other than Aurifil causes a lot of complaining of the mechanical variety.

Aurifil 50/2 (50 means the weight of the thread, the higher the number, the lighter the thread; 2 means 2-ply) on the orange spool is my favourite for piecing. It's thin (so it doesn't mess with my ¼" seams), and virtually lint-free (so I don't have to brush out my machine as frequently). I sometimes use 50wt for quilting if I am quilting in the ditch or I don't want it to be too prominent, examples of both are here in this mug rug:

Aurifil 40/2 on the green spool is a great choice for quilting, including free-motion. It is smooth like buttah, I tell you, and it has quite a lovely sheen to it. Here are a couple of closeups of quilting done with 40/2 thread in a lovely aqua (colour 5006):

1. dqs10 quilting in progress, 2. Supernova quilting closeup

Aurifil 28/2 on the grey spool is another great quilting weight. I used this slightly heavier weight to quilt my For The Love of Solids pouch here:

I also used it to do the scribbly stitching on this mug rug:

Aurifil also makes a 12/2 weight (red spool) which can be used for hand-quilting (like perle cotton), and I've used the 100% wool thread in that weight to do some NON free-motion quilting. The FMQ tended to break that thread. (No photos of that project because it's a secret!)

So! Here's the fun part! I've got 5 sample packs of Aurifil thread to give away to 5 lucky readers! Just leave a comment before 10 pm Pacific time on Sunday, September 25th, and Mr. Random.org will choose the winners soon thereafter. Good luck! Oh, and please make sure I have a way of contacting you!

Giveaway closed; winners have been chosen. Thanks for entering!

Lucky Me!

2011-09-20T22:11:00.000-07:00

Seriously. Lucky me! I received this wonderful, beautiful, perfect swap package from Sarah of FairyFace Designs. These treasures flew all the way from Ireland and arrived in my mailbox today.

In her lovely process post, Sarah described her inspiration for this quilt as well as the process which took her way outside her comfort zone. I said in my swap questionnaire that I loved improv stuff, and grey, and monochromatic colour schemes with a pop of contrast. Boy, did she nail it or what? I mean, look at that quilting! Just like what I did on the pouch I made my partner! And can you believe she's never done improv letters before? That Q is fantastic! I love the punch of colour that the pink adds to this beauty, especially as the dot on the i.

Oh but that wasn't all, friends - look at the incredible stitching on this beautiful mug rug:

The whole package also included some fabric, some wooden buttons and some lovely postcards of Ireland. THANK YOU, SARAH!!

Enabling

2011-09-19T19:31:00.000-07:00

My High School BFF owns a quilt shop - cool eh?

Sew Sisters is having their annual Birthday Sale starting right now for online shoppers through to Midnight Tuesday night. 29% off all fabric (including $6.99/m clearance fabric!), all notions, all books and all kits! Flat rate shipping too - $9.99 in Canada and $12.99 to USA.

Judy stocks some Kona Solids, as well as some great colourways of Metro Living! And the Clearance Section always has some cool stuff.

So go help Judy celebrate her 29th (?) birthday! To my fabric-loving friends, I say only this: YOU'RE WELCOME!

(I'm not paid to advertise for Judy - I'm just a happy customer and a looooong time friend).

Friday Felicities #6

2011-09-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of felicitous things today, friends!

1. My partner in the For the Love of Solids (FTLOS) received the package I sent and she is really happy with it! And that makes me happy. Here's the front of the pouch I made her. When I decided to put her initials on it, I was amused to see what they were, considering I'm a Canadian, eh?

Elaine says she calls it her "Canadian/Initial pouch"

2. My local Modern Quilt Guild, the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild, met last night and I always, always come home from the meetings with my mind brimming with ideas and inspiration. There's a challenge, a potholder swap (with our neighbouring guild the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild) (ignore what I said about no more swaps, mmmkay? A couple potholders are not a big deal), and so many lovely quilts in Show and Tell each month. Seriously, I usually have trouble sleeping that night because I'm busy planning quilts. At this rate, I am going to have to live until I'm about 150 to get all my wish-list projects done.

Have a great weekend - be sure to stop by next week for a nice giveaway. Better yet, become a follower or subscribe to my RSS feed (HOW FANCY AM I???) so you know when I update the blog!

WIP Wednesday

2011-09-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

Whew, it's been a while since I've had a WIP Wednesday report! Let's remedy that right now.

MADE MAJOR PROGRESS ON (i.e. COMPLETED)...

My FTLOS swap items - mini quilt and pouch.

That was a whirlwind of activity starting right after we got home from our trip until last week when it all went in the mail to my partner. Then I made an overdue Bee block.

NEXT, I GOT WORKING ON...

A secret project. It's a surprise, so I don't want to reveal too much. Here's a wee glimpse:

OTHER PROJECTS ABOUT TO REQUIRE ATTENTION

My quilty ADD is kicking into gear. I am in contact with my daughter's preschool about doing a presentation on quilts, and working with the children to make not one, not two, but THREE fundraiser quilts. They're going to be fairly simple in design/construction (inspired by this project), and they will be large-ish wallhangings, so they won't take too too long. (Famous last words).

Oh! And! Because I'm not quite busy enough (hahaha) I have my first commission! I'll be making a family tree quilt for a friend to gift to her parents. I need to sketch a few ideas, have her choose one then give a quote. It's a Christmas gift but I definitely don't want to leave it too late. Especially since the preschool quilts will likely be needed for the wintertime fundraiser.

4 quilts before early December. Totally doable, right?

STUFF THAT I HAVEN'T WORKED ON IN A WHILE...
(...and likely won't be working on until the new year)....

All my other projects! But you know what? That's okay! I love having lots of projects on the go. Plus, I'm done with swaps for 2011. I'm also down to one Bee, so that's pretty manageable too. I'm actually very excited about the next couple of months.

I do hope you'll come back to see how I am progressing - there's an opportunity to win some lovely giveaway goodies in it for you!

Linking up to Lee's as usual, and Monika's for the first time.

For the Love of Solids Swap - extras

2011-09-11T17:16:00.000-07:00

In addition to the "large item" we make for our partners, we are asked to include a "small item." I decided to make my partner a pouch.

I already had some blue zippers on hand, so the pouch was built around that feature.

This is the BACK of the pouch; the front has my partner's initials on it so it has to stay secret for now. I forgot to measure it, but it's pretty roomy. Probably about 8"x10" or so?

The outer colours are little subdued (Kona Medium Gray and I think Kona Caribbean for the blue bit), so I went wild with the inside:

[Somewhat off-topic, but that colour red (Kona Chinese Red) reminds me of the first bedding I bought for myself after moving out on my own for grad school. It was from IKEA - a royal blue paisley duvet cover with accents of all kinds of jewel tones (hello, 1993!!), and a sheet set in that dark red. I felt *very* grown-up and not a little naughty with my red sheets.]

Okay! Back to the pouch! I quilted it with some gorgeous 28 wt Aurifil thread in random straight lines that remind me of shattered glass.

I also included a FQ of the Kona Chinese Red, and sent off my package to faraway places last Thursday. I hope it arrives safe. And soon!

Linking up to Sew Modern Monday and Manic Monday at SewHappyGeek.

Friday Felicities #5 - For the Love of Solids

2011-09-08T22:35:00.000-07:00

Felicitous news, Followers! This Friday's Felicity is that I have a FINISH to share! (Aside: why do so many of my Friday Felicities involve the letter F? Such fortuitous alliteration!!)

I swore off swaps and bees.....and promptly joined a swap and a bee. Whoops. Anyway, this swap was really interesting - all solids! My collection of solid fabrics isn't that impressive (mostly limited to white, off-white and 3 shades of grey) but thank goodness I'd just put in an order with Brenda from Pink Castle Fabrics for a rainbow of Bella Solids (Moda). Pretty!

I browsed my secret partner's favourites, and it looked like she'd enjoy a New York Beauty mini quilt. I mulled and mulled. And mulled some more. Printed out a foundation piecing template. Mulled it over some more. Then, inspiration struck when I was leafing through a Kaffe Fassett book at the library and I switched courses slightly to a pickledish quilt.

The mini quilt came together quickly after that. I foundation pieced some arcs.

Then I needed to choose a background, and ended up with door #1: Kona Coal.

Then I had a quilt top in need of quilting.

I asked for -- and got -- some great advice from my Flickr posse and here's the final result. May I introduce, "In a (Solid) Pickle."

The centre really isn't that floofy - it's from being folded up and I photographed it at work (on the shipping deadline day) so no pressing available.

Looks kind of New York Beauty-ish, doesn't it?

It's 20½" square and I am really proud of it!

I used 5 different colours of thread to quilt this. Grey for the echo quilting, and then a different colour in each of the 4 different arcs. You can see the colours a little more clearly in this photo:

And the quilting on the front, in detail:

All in all, a solid (geddit? HAHA I crack myself up) effort, I'd say. I hope my partner agrees!

One more photo? OKAY!

There is another little goodie that was in the package; I'll blog about that in a couple of days. Patience, my lovelies! Have a great weekend!

Making Progress

2011-09-04T22:54:00.000-07:00

I'm still on holidays from work and The Child has been having afternoon naps which means one thing: sew, sew, sew!

That's a good thing, since President of the Last Minute Club here was (is?) late with August's blocks for Sew & Bee Happy. Henny asked for a wonky log cabin in orange, turquoise, white and grey.

She commented on the floral batik when I used it in a different block for this bee so I knew I *had* to include it for hers. Now the block is on its way to Indonesia! Isn't this online community awesome? I made a block for someone in INDONESIA, people!

In order to really cement my title as Prez of the aforementioned Last Minute Club, I am staring down a deadline for the For the Love of Solids swap. September 8th is the last day I can ship. In my own defense, I was mulling over my plan, and mentally designing my "big item" - a mini quilt - over the last couple of weeks.

I was thinking I'd do some New York Beauty blocks, but when I saw this Pickledish quilt in Kaffe Fassett's Quilt Romance book, I knew I'd found my design. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and those middle ellipses are behaving a bit better now that I've removed the foundation piecing papers. Now onto the quilting!

This swap requires you to send a small item in addition to the large one, so I decided to make my partner a pouch using this hilarious tutorial. I surprised myself by making a practice one - I've never sewn a pouch before (though I've read many tutorials with great interest) and it's just like me to barrel ahead and go for it. Anyway, I'm glad I did - it made sewing up the one for my partner slightly less stressful. Here's the practice one; I will wait til my partner receives her actual one before posting photos as it has some identifying characteristics on it (like her initials) and this is a secret swap.

I am happy with my work! And I am linking up to Sew Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations, and Manic Mondays at SewHappyGeek!

Friday Felicities #4

2011-09-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

What's making me happy on this Friday is that I am a Bag Lady! Yes, you read right: a Bag Lady.

I've got a tutorial posted over at OCD: Obsessive Crafting Disorder for making this simple lined tote.

Bonus: there's a giveaway! See you there!

What I've Been Up To - By The Numbers

2011-08-30T23:29:00.000-07:00

7750: number of kilometres flown in the company of a 3½ year old (thank heavens for personal in-flight entertainment!)
10: days spent with my family
50: games of Boggle lost to my sister
6: cousins whom G was able to visit with again
4: siblings I adore and miss terribly
3: full books read (including Divergent by Veronica Roth - did you love The Hunger Games? You'll love this too!)
1: hurricane (!!!)
542: unread items in my Google Reader (I'm tempted to mark all as read and start over fresh)
0: minutes spent sewing

I had a great time, but I'm so happy to be home. It's a busy, busy week ahead. I have a plan for my For The Love of Solids swap project(s), and fabric has been cut. I gotta get sewing - shipping deadline looms.

I'm also participating in Bag Lady Week over at OCD: Obsessive Crafting Disorder. You read Kristie's blog, right? Good! Because she's awesome. And not just because she is a fellow Canadian! She makes beautiful quilts and knits some great stuff too. Also: hilarious child-related posts.

My tutorial (and giveaway) for a tote bag will be featured this Friday. Please do stop by and check it out!

Friday Felicities #3

2011-08-19T04:30:00.000-07:00

Hello, friends!

This week's Friday Felicities features fabric (and alliteration!):

Such a felicitous rainbow of colour! They're Moda Bella Solids from the lovely Brenda at Pink Castle Fabrics, and they're going to be turned into something fun for my secret partner in the For the Love of Solids swap on Flickr.

Holiday Sewing

2011-08-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

No, not THAT holiday - don't panic! I mean *my* holiday! I'm now off work until after Labour Day. Imagine me doing the Snoopy Happy Dance. YAAAAAAY!

I was a somewhat delinquent Bee member this month. Well, make that *last* month - I only just finished off two blocks for the last month of Maple Leaf Bee 2. Which was July. Brenda asked us to make some wonky star blocks and sent a whole bunch of fun scraps to work with. These come together fairly quickly because there's really no measuring other than the background squares. (We used this tutorial.)

First block:

Second block:

Both blocks:

We're going on a little sojourn back East to visit with my family, and I thought G would like to have her own little backpack to carry things on the plane. Using this tutorial, I whipped one up. My grommet tool didn't work at.all. for punching the hole in the fabric so that was annoying but luckily, I have a surgically-sharp seam ripper that did the trick lickety split.

Back (all fabric chosen by G):

Front:

Linking up over at Canoe Ridge Creations for {Sew} Modern Monday!

Friday Felicities #2

2011-08-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

Today's Friday Felicities post is about Pinterest.

Pinterest is an online pinboard where you can save photos and links from the web that you want to share or return to later. I use it in two ways:

Collecting and classifying online tutorials that I want to use or refer to later. I used to do this via bookmarks on my browser, but when I would look for the bookmark later, I ended up having to click through a bunch before I found the one I wanted. With Pinterest, I can "pin" the tutorial to my Tutorials board and have the photo there to remind me!
Collecting inspiration, be it for quilting, my personal style revolution (more about that in a later post), or anything else my heart desires.

Like Twitter, you can follow other people, and they can follow you. What you pin gets shared with those following you and/or the board you pin it to.

Are you thinking, "Another online timewaster? I need that like a hole in the head!"? Well hear me out! It's like Flickr Favourites but for the whole web. AND you can categorize stuff so you can find it later. AND you can search for photos of things like colour combinations, shoes, hats, home decor etc. etc. etc.

You can also browse other peoples' boards for inspiration and discovery.

Wanna check it out? Here's where you can see my pinterest boards. If you want an invitation (I think it's still invite-only), email me at felicity DOT quilts AT gmail DOT com and I'll flip you one.

Playmat for PKU

2011-08-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

I mentioned earlier that a friend from prenatal class has a little girl with PKU, and CanPKU is having its annual fundraiser in September.

I made this playmat as an auction item and I'm so pleased with how it turned out! It was super fast to put together and the black and white fabrics were fun to use.

The whites look wonky here; there isn't *that* much variation in the white backrounds

Closeup of the "Play." and quilting detail. I used my Bernina wave stitch and red thread (Aurifil - my one true thread love) and I am very happy with it - I got tons of great suggestions when I asked for help but I chose the easiest/quickest option, natch. By the way, did you know that there's a Flickr group devoted to getting quilting advice? Everyone there is great - I highly recommend it.

Styled at the local playground - fitting, no?

The back and binding is just a red/white fabric from my stash. Actually, this whole quilt is a stash quilt - yay, me!

Speaking of the binding - which is attached by machine - I followed this tutorial and used fusible thread to fuse the binding down to keep it in place while I sewed it. I know others use basting glue for that purpose, and I was ~~maybe~~ likely doing it wrong, but it didn't hold as well for me. My only problem was that I think I scorched the back a wee bit while pressing down the binding. Hopefully that will wash out (she says anxiously).

Linking up (late) to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story!

New Feature: Friday Felicities

2011-08-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

As you may or may not know, the dictionary definition of felicity is happiness or bliss, or a cause or source of happiness. There are lots of things that are felicities for me - and every Friday, I'll be sharing one with you!

Let's kick off this Friday Felicities with some more alliteration - I'm thrilled that I have been featured on Follower Friday over at GenX Quilters! Go check it out!

Thank you, AnneMarie, for featuring me!

How Should I Quilt This?

2011-07-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

Man oh man, does Summer do a number on my desire to sew or what? Very low productivity happening in these parts.

I managed to get this top together tonight and couldn't wait until the daytime to take a photo and ask your advice. It's the playmat for donation to a fundraiser for CanPKU. I love to make baby quilts using black, white and red - it is a stimulating colour combo that is great for the wee ones and it's wonderfully unisex to boot. Everyone wins!

So. How would you quilt this? Off the top of my head I can think of about a half-dozen options. I'd love to hear what you think, and of course I'm open to suggestions that I haven't mentioned/thought of. My initial ideas are, in no particular order:

1. straight vertical lines; 2. straight horizontal lines; 3. wavy vertical lines; 4. wavy horizontal lines; 5. crosshatch on the diagonal; 6. all-over meander/stipple; 7. different motif in each strip.

To assist you, I offer the following additional information:

1. I plan to use red thread; 2. I like a quick finish; 3. I am rather lazy.

Okay, have at 'er. Whaddaya think, dear readers?

Update (with Bonus Shoe Shot)

2011-07-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

Full disclosure: I didn't sew at all this weekend! Friday, I took the kiddo to see her first movie in the theatre, Winnie the Pooh. It got 5 stars in the newspaper review and the reviewer gushed about how it was classic Disney yadda yadda. Well, Lil' (li'l? whatever) G doesn't get much screen time unless you count watching videos of herself on the computer but I figured how could you go wrong with Winnie? I'll tell you how you can go wrong with Winnie. One word: DISNEY.

Ah, Disney and your need to include at least one terrifying (for children) sequence in every blessed movie you make. I guess my little one's extra sensitive or something but really....the sequence with the imaginary creature called a Backson (Owl read a note from Christopher Robin incorrectly - it actually said "Back soon")? Really upset her. As in, wailing at full voice ("whisper" is not in a 3.5 year old's lexicon), "I WANT TO LEAVE THIS PLACE. I DON'T LIKE THE BACKSON." Et cetera. I managed to calm her by whispering that it was imaginary etc. but yeah...I give the experience 6/10. Oh, and? If you've got a young, impressionable child, don't get there in time for the previews. Puss 'n Boots (from Shrek) has his own movie. That one elicited, "WHY IS THERE SO MUCH BUMPING???" when Puss kept swinging off roofs and whacking stuff. Sigh. I sure hope she's not scarred for life. Let's put it this way: we won't be watching Bambi anytime soon.

On a happier note, I will leave you with a couple of photos taken at our most recent VMQG meeting where I showed my Kona Solids Challenge quilt. Whilst wearing turquoise shoes! And not properly sucking in my tum!

Bottom tum lump is not mine - it's my (made by me) skirt's egregious waistband

WiP Wednesday - Now With 100% More Mojo

2011-07-20T21:11:00.000-07:00

Thank you to whomever sent my mojo back home - I did get a few things done recently.

MADE PROGRESS ON....

Some Bee blocks. This one for Jenny in Sew Buzzy was what sent my mojo packing. I know that because as soon as I finished it, I felt loads better. I keep letting Mr. Procrastination take charge, which leads to my feeling guilty, which leads to more procrastination. You get the picture.

Anyhoodle, this little house block is meant to resemble mine, per Jenny's request. (We live in a townhouse, not a strangely-shaped tall home.) We don't have a dog, but I just couldn't resist that pooch and he definitely needed to be fussy cut, don't you think?

And Gwen from Sew & Bee Happy requested some scrappy crazy log cabins (tutorial here) in either browns, greens or yellows. For some reason, I have trouble with scrappy randomness so this block was challenging for me. I think Gwen's quilt is going to be pretty cool, and this block is a fabulous choice for a Bee where members sew from their stash (as is the case for our bee) - it's going to be so fabulously scrappy!

MADE NO PROGRESS ON...

Everything else. Kaleidoscope QAL pieces are still just pieces. Truth be told, this quilt is going to have to go on the back burner. It's definitely going to get made, but not right now.

NEW PROJECTS BECAUSE I JUST CAN'T HELP MYSELF...

For the Love of Solids [a modern swap]. What can I say? Despite telling myself (and others!) that I was taking a break from swaps, I couldn't resist the Siren Song of the Solids. I blogged my inspiration mosaic last week; now I'm excitedly awaiting my partner information.

Donation/fundraiser quilt. A family we met in prenatal class has a little girl with PKU - a very rare condition that essentially means that her body cannot metabolize protein. Her mom is working tirelessly with the organization CanPKU whose mission is "to improve the lives of people with PKU and allied disorders and the lives of their families." So I committed to making a doll quilt for their fundraiser auction in September. Except it's not going to be a doll quilt - I got a brilliant idea for a play-mat and I'm going with that. Stay tuned!

Linking up to Lee's WiP Wednesday linky!

If You Happen To Run Across My Mojo....

2011-07-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

could you please let it know that I miss it and want it to come back home right away?

I completely lost momentum by not keeping up with my daily sewing routine! I mean, there was a reason (yay family visits!!), but still....I am finding it hard to get back to things.

Hopefully, joining a Flickr Swap will help. For The Love Of Solids [a modern swap] is being organized by Elizabeth of Don't Call Me Betsy and Megan of Canoe Ridge Creations. I am very very excited about it, which you might perhaps tell from my 1,000 (v. slight exaggeration)- photo inspiration mosaic!

1. Green and Red Split Log Cabin Quilt, 2. "what's for breakfast" quilt detail WIP, 3. Mod Mood Quilt, Summer 2010, 4. Squares quilt, 5. the big orange wall quilt, 6. Strings Attached, 7. blue quilt progress, 8. seaglass quilt top, 9. Paul's Gee's Bend-inspired quilt, 10. "Untitled 2011", 11. 3bluebrown, 12. Sidewalk Quilt, 13. My quilt is done!, 14. Oct/08 for Tungsten, 15. Random squares mug rug, 16. Basketweave quilt in green and yellow, 17. Almost there, 18. Finished Mug Rug, 19. Nicey Jane mug rug, 20. A Day at the Aquarium Front, 21. Mosaic Quilts together, 22. Sewing Machine Cover - zoomed in, 23. heaven and earth , 24. Urban Home Goods swap package, 25. UHG swap big item, 26. sewingmachinecover6, 27. "Classic Simplicity", 28. A year in scraps..., 29. [Trudy Too] Finished, 30. Tilt, 31. Color Study: Wave ~ 2003, 32. Color Study: Strip 2 ~ 2003, 33. Girl and Boy Twin size Quilts, 34. flickr.com/photos/38984834@N06/5201627434/, 35. Color Study: Log Cabin 2 ~ 2007, 36. Trudy's Arse Kicking Quilt [Finished!]

Yeah, just a bit chuffed over here. I am really digging the improv/Gee's Bend-type stuff these days, obviously. I am so looking forward to getting my partner info and beginning my stalk-a-thon. If you're interested (come and play with us!!!), I think there are a few more spots - the signups are first come, first serve and are limited to 100. Do check it out!

FelBobSquarePants

2011-07-07T21:47:00.000-07:00

This gorgeous block was designed by my friend Lynne, who is both hilarious and madly talented. Seriously, madly talented. I implore you to visit her blog. You will be inspired! Sabah in my Sew & Bee Happy bee is making a red/white star quilt (fabulous idea!), and gave us some suggestions of the types of star blocks she liked, and Lynne's LynneBobSquarePants was one of them.

There's a kind of cute story behind the name: Lynne wasn't sure if there was already a block like this out there named something else, but decided that until she found one, she'd call her creation LynneBobSquarePants. She gave lovely directions for making our own so behold, FelBobSquarePants!

I'll be offline for a few days - my Mama, my sister, and niece are visiting all the way from "back East" as we Vancouverites call anything East of the Rockies. Woo hoo! I will leave you with a photo of one of my all-time favourite flowers. There is an apartment building on the way between our place and the grocery store that has the most lovely hydrangea bushes out front. I happened to have my camera with me the other day so I snapped a shot. Pretty, eh?

See you in a few!

That Double Latte at 3:30 pm = Bad Idea Jeans

2011-07-05T00:40:00.001-07:00

Still awake. 12:37 am. Tomorrow's going to suuuuuck.

What doesn't suck? That I have a great head start on a quilt for our bed, and that I (think) I still have a couple more blocks to come. Yay, bees!

The fabric is mostly Spa by Rosemarie Lavin, with Kona White. The blue wavy print is by Anna Griffin, but I got it on the sale table at my LQS and don't remember the name of the collection.

WiP Wednesday!

2011-06-28T23:34:00.000-07:00

Hooray for WIP Wednesdays! Especially WIP Wednesdays where I've got something to report!

MADE MAJOR PROGRESS ON...

Some bee blocks. This cute squished 9-patch is for Shayla in Sew Buzzy. The last block of the Bee! Shayla said we could leave the block untrimmed so I did.

I'm also working on Sabah's June block for Sew & Bee Happy. She is making a red and white quilt and we got to choose what block to make - fun, huh? I chose Lynne Bob Square Pants. It's all HSTs - I'm trying to get over my aversion to trimming these things. I think I've found a solution: Thangles! I'm not affiliated with Thangles in any way other than as a happy user.

Thangles let you piece HSTs in strips, and because you're using paper to stabilize that bias seam, the HSTs hold their shape very nicely and no trimming is required. You do have to remove the papers but that is okay by me. This block is scrappy, so I cut the papers into 1- and 2- HST sets, matched them up with scraps and went to town. Here's where I am in the block construction process (with a little help from my friend, and a couple of my own bee blocks in the background):

Not sure what that face is about: trimming HSTs maybe? :)

MADE SOME PROGRESS ON...

Finally, I'm busy doing my cutting for the Kaleidoscope Quilt Along. I finally zeroed in on a fabric choice, inspired by the towels in our master bathroom, of all things. Surely I'm not the only one for whom everything is a potential quilt? Didn't think so.

You know what else I'm doing? I feel particularly brilliant to have thought of this: while I cut strips for the Kaleidoscope, I'm cutting some extra strips to make a charity quilt! It'll be a simple strip quilt using WOF strips but it will be so nice to have them (mostly) all cut and ready to go! Yay me!

WISHED I'D WORKED ON...

My Wonder Wheel. It's been basted for ages, but I just haven't gotten to quilt it yet. Soon, I hope. I also hope this washes out (imagine me making a frowny face):

I'm linking up over at Lee's. I love seeing what everyone's working on, don't you?

Tote Bags for Teachers

2011-06-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

School's out for summer! If you could clue me in on where exactly that whole year went, I'd be most grateful. It seems like only yesterday my little boogaloo was heading off to her first day at preschool!

I had other plans for teacher gifts, but I was forced to admit that this tutorial got the better of me. In my own defense, I persevered through the wallet construction and only gave up once I saw that the actual tote bag was only going to be about 12" by 12" or so. I'd already cut the fabric to make the tote bags and I was so annoyed that I hadn't paid attention to that detail, I just up and quit. Perserverance, thy name is not Felicity. And I'm okay with that!

Here's what I actually did end up making, using an existing shopping bag as a model for making those side gussets.

Ms Cindy's Bag - IKEA home dec on the outside, vintage sheet on the inside:

Ms. Chris's bag - upcycled IKEA duvet cover outside, quilting cotton inside. I should've interfaced it for stability. Oh well.

Ms Beverly's bag - quilting cotton inside and out:

Each bag is approximately 16" tall by 19" wide. Ish. I wasn't very exact in my measurements. Now that those duties are discharged, I am turning to other duties: my bee blocks. Canada Post's postal strike totally sapped my mojo and I'm really behind on one block and nearly behind on a few more.

Linking up again to Sew Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations, Manic Monday at Sew Happy Geek, and Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story (see the buttons on my sidebar over there on the right).

Helen Keller Wisdom (My Kona Solids Challenge Quilt)

2011-06-19T23:30:00.000-07:00

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow."

Isn't that a terrifically positive message? Whenever I am asked what my favourite quote is, I always share this one. I love Keller's turn of phrase as well as the very important message, so I never miss an opportunity to share it with others.

When the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild got its hands on some Kona Solids Charm Packs in the dark colourway, the challenge was issued to make a quilt that featured them. I initially thought of a stacked coin layout, but then this idea just popped into my head, and I'm so glad I followed my gut. Because I. Love. This. Quilt.

I started by separating the yellow/orange charms and the dark grey/black charms to use for the letters in the words "sunshine" and "shadow", then just cut the other charms in the order in which they came, mostly using one charm per letter. All the charms were used on the front of the quilt, and the background is Kona Medium Grey. This quilt measures 46" x 41".

I free-pieced the letters, using a few Flickr favourites as inspiration. You'll see that not many letters got done the same way twice (I think there are 5 different "e" variations), but I like that about this quilt. Everything was pretty outside the box, for me at least.

I quilted it in concentric circles beginning around the first letters in the word "sunshine" - I felt like that part of that word was really key to the whole thing, which is why that word is placed on its own. The first three circles are quilted in yellow rayon thread, and the rest were done in a dark grey 50 wt thread to give texture without distracting from the charms.

I did pretty well with positioning that little pieced bit so that the circles surrounded it, didn't I? Kind of pleased with myself on that one. True confession: I had four rows of stitching done before I realized I'd started in the wrong spot (a little farther to the right). I debated about ripping it out, but I decided it meant a lot to me to try to get it positioned exactly right, so I unquilted those bits, and I'm glad I did. It would've bugged me forever.

I used the no-show binding again and I must say I really do love how it looks. So tidy and neat. And it seems to get done more quickly than regular binding.

I was choked that a work function conflicted with the VMQG meeting where the guild's challenge quilts were shared, but I will bring it to next month's meeting anyway.

I've a friend who's going through a difficult time, so I will be gifting this to her. It was so fun to make, and while the free-pieced letters were time-consuming, they were a LOT of fun. You should try it!

Linking this up to {Sew} Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations and Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story!

Keeping My Promise

2011-06-17T22:52:00.000-07:00

When I first revealed my Oceanic Supernova quilt, I mentioned that I'd followed Kati's Slash and Sew tutorial for the back. I promised a process post, and a process post ye shall have!

I wrote in my last post on quilt backs that my process for pieced backs involves randomly piecing stuff until what I have is big enough to fit the quilt. I start with something - a one-metre cut of fabric, some scraps, whatever - and then attempt to figure out how much I have to expand/piece together to make it measure to the desired size. Any extra "interesting" bits are most commonly the result of measuring what I *think* is the final backing and realizing it needs an extra bunch of inches in width or length (or both). That phenomenon happened with this quilt back, as well. Measure twice and cut once, folks.

This photo summarizes my "process" for piecing the back of Supernova:

I started by stacking the big scraps in two vertical columns, more or less trying to alternate lighter and darker values (photo 1). Then I stitched the scraps together, and sliced a piece off each column (photo 2). I played around with the arrangement of the new columns - some skinny, some wider (photo 3). As you can see from the final arrangement (photo 4), I added some more yardage of solid blue (Kona Caribbean, I believe), rotated a skinny+wide column pair and when the backing STILL wasn't big enough, I added in the orange Heather Ross Giant Octopi print. Serendipity, I say - I love the splash of orange on the back.

Quilt Backs

2011-06-13T15:56:00.000-07:00

Rebecca over at Chasing Cottons is having a fun linky - quilt backs! While I do love the back I made for my Kona Challenge quilt, that quilt's not quite done so...here are a few others I've made over the years. My pieced backings rarely involve anything other than random piecing until it reaches the size it needs to be.

1. MT Swap Quilt - back, 2. Connor's Cars - back, 3. Emerald Rose - back, 4. Oceanic Supernova Back

Fun, huh? Go check out the linky to others' awesome backs!

Confetti Quilt

2011-06-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

For a 19"x20" project, this sure took me a long time! But I'm so pleased with the results.

Confetti Quilt! Is! Finished!

Here is the main process post, but to sum it up quickly, I couldn't bear to ditch the teeny tiny scraps that were left over from making my Modify Tradition swap quilt. They were truly only shards but Anna Maria Horner's Bohemian line is just beautiful, so I kept them, intending to sew them into a sewing machine cover in the style of Lady Havartine's Confetti. The final product wasn't big enough to cover my machine. But it sure looks nice on my office Wall O' Quilts, doesn't it?

l-r: the quilt I received in the Modify Tradition Swap, Confetti Quilt, and a random mugrug I made

Some detail of the quilting, for which I used a variety of DMC and Coates embroidery flosses:

What's that? You'd like to see an artsier Full Frontal photo? Okay!

And the back? I used this tutorial to create a no-show binding. I quite like the effect, and it's SUPER easy to do.

I love this little mini, I truly do. And no, my sewing machine still doesn't have a (nice) cover. It's on the list!

Linking up to both {Sew} Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations, and Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday.

Baby's Got Back

2011-06-10T21:54:00.000-07:00

The Kona Solids Challenge Quilt is backed and in the process of being quilted! To tide you over, here's a shot of the back. I love it so much, I am thinking of making a whole quilt just like this.

The whole thing, with my helper standing alongside:

And a closeup of the improv-pieced bit. I just used some leftover random scraps, sewed and trimmed. The grey is Kona Medium Gray, which I puffy-heart LOVE.

A Little of This and a Little of That

2011-06-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

I went to another lovely day retreat with Krista, and spent most of the time working on my Kona Solids Challenge quilt. I am delighted to report that the top is all pieced and trimmed. Now onto the basting (boo! my least favourite part!) and quilting (yay!). So I'm going to keep that one under my hat until it's all done.

I did do some other sewing, and got a few things done.

Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild is participating in the Mini Maker Faire happening in Vancouver in a couple of weeks. Our booth is going to include an interactive design wall featuring half-square triangles (HSTs). Each member was asked to make some to contribute. Here are mine:

Solids! I was working on my Kona Solids Challenge quilt at the same time

Then I finished another quick job - one last placemat that was sitting around in my "to do" pile, awaiting a final bit of fabric and finishing. Happy to have that done.

Finally, we lost a member of one of my bees, and rather than replace her and add a month onto the bee, we all stepped up to make extra blocks for those who were short the one from the departing member. I made another one of these cute Patchwork Square in a Square blocks for Hannah:

I'm IN!

2011-06-03T13:39:00.000-07:00

Because I'm *still* kicking myself for not joining in her last quilt-along, I have said YES! to Elizabeth's newest QAL over at Don't Call Me Betsy.

Truthfully, kaleidoscope quilts have intimidated me because they seem complicated, what with all those dang seams meeting up in the centre and bias seams and strangely-angled triangles and what not and oh man as I write that out I realize those excuses are just plain silly. SILLY, I say! I need to get over my Quilter's Impostor Syndrome, stat!

This QAL is billed as being beginner-friendly, and looking at the block Elizabeth posted here, I totally agree (and again ask myself what the L my PROBLEM is with DOUBTING my Quilty Awesomeness), so if you've been waffling about joining, stop it! Come and join in the fun!

I think I'm going to go scrappy but with a controlled colour palette for this quilt. I think. Ask me tomorrow; I'll probably have changed my mind. Choosing fabric is by far my most favourite part of planning a quilt so I tend to stretch out the experience as long as possible. Whatever I choose, it will be from ye olde stash. Because said stash is quite significant, and I've concluded that - for me - fabrics are best enjoyed sewn up into something, even if that something is given away, which this quilt will be.

Confetti Quilt Progress

2011-05-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

The Dad visit is going nicely. G is having tons of fun bossing Papa John around. I'm particularly happy to see the sun after the rainy days - including HAIL!! the other day. As anticipated, I'm making progress on the hand quilting of the Confetti Quilt. I've been putting all those great threads to good use:

The stitch length could be more even, but I kind of like the wonkiness; it kind of matches the slight wonk of the fabric bits I'm using.

In which I share some Random Thoughts, an Update, and Something Funny My Kid Said

2011-05-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Random thoughts:

Blogger isn't letting me leave any comments on anyone's blog, so I can read and enjoy but I can't let you know I've read and enjoyed. Boo!
As of last night, the Vancouver Canucks will be playing for the Stanley Cup (hockey) - that's suuuper exciting for this city. When I stood on our upper deck last night, I could hear the cheering crowds by GM Place - it was fabulous!
Slight problem re: Stanley Cup. It may very well be a Boston/Vancouver final. My husband's a Boston fan (since the days of Bobby Orr), and my daughter is a Vancouver fan. Drama!

Update:

My Dad arrives for a week-long visit today, so I'm going to be scarce for that time. I've basted the Confetti Quilt so it's ready to be hand quilted during our many hours of sitting-down/chatting time.

The Funny Thing My Kid Said:

The scene begins with G ~~ripping~~ emitting a little fart (or as well call it, a toot).

Daddy: G______, what do you say when you toot?
G: WHO CUT THE CHEESE??
Daddy (stifling laughter): I think you mean, "Excuse me."
G: Excuse me, who cut the cheese?

In conclusion, fart jokes: never not funny. See you in a week or so.

Still Alive, Just Busy

2011-05-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

Most of my stitching has been on my Kona Challenge quilt and I can't show it yet. Soon, I promise!

But, I also finished up this VERY late Bee Block for Vicky. She is doing a whole quilt of bookshelf blocks. So cool! She asked us to embroider (brave woman) and here's what I produced:

She had asked us our favourite books in a variety of categories, and is making blocks in each of the various categories (children's books, cook books, etc.). My block was cookbooks - she asked us to include the initials of the person who suggested the book, along with its title.

The green thread doesn't show up well in these photos, but I assure you, it looks nice. Here's a closer view:

The carrot wasn't done by me (obv. - look how awesome it is!).

So happy to have that one done because I was feeling terrible about how late it was. And now that the Canada Post strike isn't looming, I'm going to be brave and send out my bee blocks.

WiP Wednesday

2011-05-17T22:38:00.000-07:00

Wednesday again? Time sure does fly! Here's where I stand on my projects on the go:

FINISHED...

Supernova!

Some bee blocks for Vivian in the Maple Leaf Bee:

The fun fabrics are from the Feelin' Groovy line - Viv is making a quilt for her 10-year-old daughter and it's going to be fabulous!

MADE MAJOR PROGRESS ON....

My Solids Challenge quilt for Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. I don't want to give too much away before the final reveal, so here's a sneak peek:

STILL WORKING ON....

Vicky's Sew Buzzy Block which is really very late. :(

ABOUT TO GET STARTED ON....

Hand quilting the Confetti Mini Quilt. Check out the embroidery floss I've got at the ready - nice, eh?

Please do visit Lee's to see what everyone else is up to!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival - Spring 2011

2011-05-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again! Amy Ellis, of Amy's Creative Side, is hosting the Bloggers' Quilt Festival. Scheduled to coincide with Quilt Market, it's a fabulous opportunity to see many (MANY) beautiful quilts as bloggers from all over the world link up and share a quilt. It's an online show featuring hundreds and hundreds of beautiful quilts (301 and counting as I write this post).

I had a tough time deciding which quilt to enter into the Festival this time around. I narrowed it down to two, and decided to feature my most recent finish, Oceanic Supernova. I made it during a Quilt Along hosted by Lee at Freshly Pieced. For those who don't know, a Quilt Along is hosted by a blogger who posts instructions on a regular basis over a certain period and you make the quilt along with other readers who have joined in. It's wonderful to share camaraderie and questions about the pattern, and to see how others are progressing.

Even though it's my favourite quilt, I hesitated because it's my most recent finish and I only *just* blogged about it. Oh well - regular followers, you get to see it again!

For this quilt, which measures around 63"x63" (hasn't been washed yet), I used a pre-selected Fat Quarter bundle of Kona solids called Poseidon. Lots of greens, teals, blues and other oceany colours. The background is Kona White and I love how it makes the other colours pop. Instead of a solid centre, I chose to use some prints from the Mendocino line by Heather Ross. I love the little zing of colour, and the fact that the fabrics stay with the "ocean" theme.

The back is a little zanier than the front but I love it, too.

Quilted in straight lines ¼" away from the main seams, this quilt is going to stay with us. I'm so proud of it, and I had an absolute blast making it.

I hope you enjoyed your visit here! Happy Bloggers' Quilt Festival!

Oceanic Supernova

2011-05-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

So many thanks go to Lee at Freshly Pieced for sharing her wonderful pattern Supernova via a quilt along. I had a blast watching this quilt come together, and I am absolutely thrilled with the result.

And so, without further ado, I present to you Oceanic Supernova:

I elected to follow one of Lee's many helpful suggested quilting strategies (which she generously mocked up for us), and quilted ¼" outside the main pieced lines in the pattern. This quilt is staying with us (yay!) and my husband prefers less quilting to more. Fine with (lazy) me!! I used a 30wt thread by Aurifil in a light blue, and it worked beautifully, in my opinion. Just enough contrast against the white background, as well as the various colours of the quilt.

Here, you can see the colour of the thread a little better:

And here is the back:

It's pieced together fairly randomly using the larger scraps from the quilt top - which started as a Fat Quarter bundle of Kona Solids called Poseidon - together with some yardage of Kona Caribbean (the big blocks of blue/green) and some strips of the Giant Octopi print I used for the centre square of the centre block on the front. I loosely followed Kati's Slash and Sew method, and I've got a process post about that in the works. I quite like the final product!

For now, though, I am delighted that I kept up with this quilt along and finished in time to be eligible to win a FQ bundle of Castle Peeps! Next up on the list is my Kona Charm Challenge for which I have both a plan AND (now) an opening in my schedule. Hooray!

This is a big finish for me, so those of you who join up to {Sew} Modern Mondays, Fabric Tuesday and WIP Wednesday are gonna be seeing a lot of Oceanic Supernova!

WIP Wednesday

2011-05-03T23:03:00.000-07:00

I had some time off work last week and it was glorious! Time with the family, time to sew (thank you, preschool!), time to go to a quilt show, etc.

MADE PROGRESS ON....

Still working furiously on the Supernova quilt. There's a bundle of Castle Peeps on the line as an incentive to get the quilt-along finished. I adore that line, so I'm definitely on track. I've assemble a backing,

basted,

and quilted Supernova!

Here is what the quilting looks like closer up:

The quilt is trimmed, and the binding is made. Just have to attach it, make a label and wash it. I realized I have to have this done by the weekend because I'll be away at a conference for work during the early part of next week.

I posted about my bee blocks already, so that's the week.

No progress on anything else, but I am really excited to see Supernova almost done.

Lee at Freshly Pieced hosts the WIP Wednesday link-up - it's well worth checking out!

April Bee Blocks and a Very Valuable Tip

2011-04-30T23:39:00.000-07:00

I told you I was President of the Last Minute Club!

Spent time making my Supernova backing, and then basting it (that gets its own post), but it's patiently waiting, all rolled up, while I finish up some Bee blocks today. Tomorrow will be a quilting extravaganza!

These two stacked strips blocks are for Valerie in The Maple Leaf Bee. I love LOVED making these!

I've been admiring those strip-type blocks and quilts for a long time but I hesitated to try one because I could never manage to do strip piecing in a way that didn't have all kinds of (unintentional) wonkiness in the finished product. Like I even have trouble strip piecing!! I *always* have to cut and sew more strips than directed, because inevitably one or more bits of my strips are way too far off to be useable.

But! And here's my VERY VALUABLE TIP. After following Lee's recommendation for pressing the bias seams in the Supernova without steam, I found that all my seams were much straighter. The lightbulb over my head flickered a bit, and I tried the hot dry iron technique with the stacked strips blocks. And it totally worked! Too bad I was too clueless to have used it for these two blocks, which aren't truly as wavy and wonky in real life as they appear here, but they did give me some challenges (believe it or not - only straight seams!!).

The block directly above is actually for May, but I was using the same technique and most of the same fabrics (scrappy blues) so I made both at once. I am feeling quite smug about being ahead of the game in one bee at least. It's offset by my being late with another. But in my defense, the fabric (thank you, Canada Post, she says sarcastically) didn't arrive til the 15th.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend! I spent today at swimming lessons for the kid then she and I went on an adventure to a quilt show. Fun!!

WIP Wednesday Under The Wire

2011-04-27T22:56:00.000-07:00

It's still Wednesday here in the Pacific Time zone!

Went away for a few days over Easter, so no sewing time. Lots of wine-drinking time, though so I'll call it a wash. A delicious winey wash.

MADE SOME PROGRESS ON...

Wonder Wheel! I ran out of the Quilter's Linen and I discovered that Kona Coffee looks pretty much the same so I used that for the outer border. I didn't measure the top very well when I was cutting my outer borders and managed to cut the last two pieces about 3/4" short. Yes, that's the primal scream you heard the other night.

But here's how I fixed it - the little pieced rectangles of scraps! Someone else far more creative than I did it in their quilt-along blocks (I can't seem to find the photo right now) so I copied. That's an example of how to make a cutting error work in your favour!

There's still some floofy jazz going on around the circle but I plan to quilt it out then ignore it if it doesn't disappear.

MADE A TEENSY BIT OF PROGRES ON...

Supernova - backing in progress

NO PROGRESS ON...

Everything else. I have some bee blocks requiring my attention. Good thing I have three days off work!

Did you check out what everyone else was doing over at Lee's?

Giveaway Winner and Supernova Full Frontal

2011-04-25T21:42:00.000-07:00

First things first: the giveaway winner! Thank you for your lovely comments, everyone, and for all your support. It means a LOT.

The winner of the 3 half-metres of Mendocino fabric is:

And who is commenter 51? Kristie!!

Kristie is a fellow Canadian and wouldn't you agree that her proposition is kind of awesome (she had me at "wine")? I do believe there is still snow where she is so I think I'm just going to take a chance on Canada Post. Congratulations, Kristie!!

And the title of the post promised a Supernova Full Frontal (^TM Krista who was also the photographer).

Isn't Lee's pattern wonderful?? I did find out that I inadvertently rotated one of the blocks' subunits, but it still looks nice. That, and the fact that it looks fabulous no matter what fabric people have used, is the mark of a great design in my humble opinion. Thanks, Lee!

And thanks again to you all for reading, following, commenting, and participating. You make this fun.

xoxo

126 Followers + 20,000 Hits!

2011-04-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

To quote pretty much every character in the Keanu Reeves oeuvre: Whoa!

I have reached two big milestones in the last little while. I have 126 lovely followers via that Google Friends dealio (technical term) AND 20,000 hits on the blog since it started. Dudes. Seriously....TWENTY THOUSAND! Check it out:

I think this calls for a wee celebration, don't you? And how do we quilters celebrate? Say it with me now: Giveaway!

Yes, my lovelies, I will be giving away a half-metre of each of these three Mendocino prints. If my research is correct, they are, left to right: Seahorses in Copper, Giant Octopi in Dark and Giant Octopi in Orange.

I just noticed the dearth of actual octopi in my photo of the Octopi fabric. They're there, I promise.

How do you enter?

Easy peasy: leave a comment - if you want to follow, that's awesome and would make me really happy, but it's not a prerequisite. Truthfully, I'd rather you were here because you like the blog, not because you were forced to be, know what I mean?

But having said that, and since this giveaway celebrates my blog "hits," you can get a second entry if you've snagged my button (told you I'd make it worth your while). Please make sure your second entry/comment mentions that so I can check up on you (says the rule-follower).

The giveaway is open to everyone, but be forewarned that I am not Canada Post''s biggest fan, so I will be giving them as little money as possible. That means cheap - and therefore slower - postage. Especially (ironically) for Canadians. Have I mentioned my loathing of Canada Post?

I'll be on a bloggy break for Easter, so let's keep this giveaway open until Easter Monday at 9:00pm Pacific. Please make sure I can contact you if your entry is chosen. If I can't, I will choose someone else. Thanks!

Comments closed and winner chosen!

WIP Wednesday

2011-04-20T23:18:00.000-07:00

Getting this post in under the wire for Lee's linky party:

MADE MAJOR PROGRESS ON...

Sew Fresh Fabrics Scrap Bee block (finished).

Supernova! The top is all pieced!

I am getting a full frontal of it tomorrow (Thursday) when I bring the quilt top to the VMQG meeting. Tonight, I am getting a head start on the back, I think. Or maybe I will work on...

Wonder Wheel!

This is where it sat this morning. I'm thinking of two rows of the skinny border. In any case, I need some more brown for the outer border - I don't have enough of the Quilters Linen to make it and no other brown in my stash works. My lovely Kona Colour Card tells me that Coffee is the shade I need to purchase at Spool of Thread. The sewing lounge hosts the VMQG meetings AND has all 200+ colours of Kona available. And they also got a shipment of Ruby Star Rising. *bliss*

MADE NO PROGRESS ON...
Everything else.

OTHER PROJECTS/TO-DOs ON THE GO

Sew Buzzy block for Vicky - a bookshelf block that looks really fun.
Sew & Bee Happy block for Hannah - scrappy blues and greys. Scraps have been pulled, just need to be cut and pieced.
Maple Leaf Bee block for Valerie - orange and Kona Coal in a fab stacked strips formation.

Lots to do, but it keeps me out of trouble. More or less.

My Sewing Space and a Bee Block

2011-04-18T22:55:00.000-07:00

I took a break from my Supernova piecing (subject of a later post) to make my block for the Sew Fresh Fabrics Scrap Bee.

Xs and Os for Sew Fresh Fabrics Scrap Bee

Have you heard of it? Sign up and when it's your group's turn, Peg and Becca send you a scrap package. Make your block then keep the rest. Sweet deal, eh? The block I made is going to be part of a quilt for the Hope and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS. Go here for the details.

My sewing space was looking particularly "typical" today so I snapped a photo. The space doesn't have any windows but to the left is an area that is open to the upper floor and the skylight which lets in some nice natural light during the daytime.

I'll be back soon with a completed quilt top, I hope.

Been Shoppin'

2011-04-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

I did go on a Fabric Diet for the first 8 weeks of the year.

Then I binged. All of this loveliness has been acquired in the last 6 weeks. Gulp. I'd better get sewing!

Just general stashing, and it was mostly on sale. But hey, check out that photo on the bottom left. Notice anything about the bottom two fabrics? Heather Ross, anyone? Mendocino Octopi, anyone? You may want to keep checking in during the next week to 10 days. Just saying.

Oh! And! Did you see my fancy schmancy new button over there on the right? Feel free to grab it!

Fancy Schmancy

2011-04-15T12:40:00.000-07:00

I decided to take a break from sewing last night because I've been going at it pretty hard these last few nights trying to get cuaght up on my Supernova quilt. It's coming together really nicely, though - four blocks pieced and 4 others laid out.

And now the fancy part - I've been farting around with the blog design and I got it in my head that maybe I could make myself a blog button. And I did! (This tutorial worked best for me). What do you think? Yes? No? If you like it, grab it!

As a little incentive to grab the button, I will tell you that I have plans to make it worth your while to do so. If you know what I mean. And I think you do.

Blog Redesign = Some Glitches

2011-04-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

So I spent some time rearranging stuff on the blog last night and today (lunch), and it's still a work in progress.

I have made a new banner for my header but I am having a HECK of a time getting it to appear the way I want. If it's the correct width, then it's all fuzzy. If it's not fuzzy, then it's the wrong size. So if the banner appears, disappears and then appears again in a slightly different way, that's just me fiddling.

Sigh. Please bear with me while I attempt to use my Google-fu and figure it out.

Oh, Happy Day!

2011-04-08T23:08:00.000-07:00

I had the happiest of experiences last night when I got home from work and this fantabulous doll quilt was waiting for me. I had to run and hang it up right away so that's why it's still got the fold marks in it, and you can see the low-rent curtain rod I scooped from the quilt that had previously hung there.

Suzanne, my partner, makes wonderful, wonderful things and I am so very lucky that she made some of them for me.

This quilt's name is Happy Squares ^FQ. I love the play on my name in a couple of places: happy (felicity means happiness), and the FQ is for Felicity Quilts (which Suzanne says is what she called me to herself as she made the quilt). FQ also means Fat Quarter, which is also very happy for us fabric ~~hoarders~~ ~~collectors~~ lovahs.

Check out the closeup (this is Suzanne's photo):

Where to begin? The off-centred colour squares....the grey....the linen...the stitching (including some gorgeous hand stitching in the coloured squares). The binding!

But wait, there was more! "Extras"! It's always nice to receive some extra little goodies and Suzanne spoiled me there, too.

A beautiful needle book (which I've already loaded up), a sweet pincushion and a FQ of Far Far Away 2. The French accents on the needle book and pin cushion are particularly special to me (did you know I did my undergraduate degree in French Linguistics?).

All in all, a MOST successful swap thanks to Suzanne. I truly, truly love all of my things, but I especially love that I got to "meet" Suzanne and get to know her work because of it.

Me = happy.

Just Quilting Along...

2011-04-04T22:29:00.000-07:00

I have an ambivalent relationship with Quilt Alongs. I love, love, love the camaraderie and - in one notable case (you know who you are, Lynne) - the ~~naughty~~ ~~rude~~ ~~silly~~ hilarious discussions in the Flickr groups. I also like a deadline because it keeps me on track. The flip side of that same deadline coin is the pressure. Oh lordy the pressure. I can't always keep up! And it bugs me!

Having said that, I appear to be on track for one QAL, and behind (so far) in another. Batting .500 - not too terrible, right?

ON TRACK:

The Dresden Quilt Along! I'm pleased to report that I fixed this mess - those puckers just would not press out:

And it now looks much more respectable - the circle is actually round now (insert eyeroll).

BEHIND:

I'm puttering along with the Supernova Quilt Along. I love love love how the blocks are shaping up and I am so so happy with my fabric choices! It took me a loooong time to plan and cut the blocks, but I'm there, and I've pieced two (of nine) blocks' worth of sub-units. I should be able to be closer to done by the time next week's instructions are posted.

It's not much, but it's something - I'm linking to Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday.

2011 Quilty Goals: Q1 Check-in

2011-04-04T00:09:00.000-07:00

Back in December, Elizabeth at Don't Call Me Betsy created a link-up for those of us who love to make lists. Here we are at the first check-in!

1. Sewing machine cover. This is now a mini quilt because it ended up too small to cover the machine. I'll be hand quilting it at some point. Hopefully this millennium.

2. Rainbow I Spy (That Girl, That Quilt Along). Still stalled, but at least I've got two more rows made since I put it on the list (the orange borders are all on).

3. Fresh Air Charm Quilt. Finished into placemats that look great in our Dining Room!

4. New Wave Quilt. Fabrics are all cut, but that's where it has stalled. I did get started on the back, however:

5. Traffic Jam Quilt. No progress.

6. Heather R keepsake quilt. Design and fabrics chosen.

7. Bees. I'm up to date! Here are some of the blocks I've made, together with a photo of the strips I sent out to my two bees for March.

Why I haven't made as much progress as I would have liked on the list:

8. Doll Quilt Swap 10. I completed my quilt and sent it off, and I'm still waiting on mine.

9. Lily's Quilts Dresden Quilt Along. Put a F8 bundle of Wonderland to good use...

10. Freshly Pieced Supernova Quilt Along.

And that's not a bad thing - I had fun making my DQS10 quilt, and I am loving both of the QALs. Just keeping myself busy is all. Separate progress post to come!

Featured!

2011-03-30T21:45:00.000-07:00

Wow! Exciting news! My DQS10 quilt AND my Fabric Swapping Tutorial were featured on Craft Gossip!

Here's a direct link to the DQS post, and here's the fabric swap post. As if that weren't enough, the fabric swap post got picked up here as well. I am so tickled!

DQS10 Complete!

2011-03-28T23:11:00.000-07:00

There must be some kind of disruption in the Space - Time continuum because I, President of the Last Minute Club, have finished my DQS10 quilt and have it all set to mail - self-serve postage label affixed, even!! - TWO DAYS before the deadline.

I'm so very, very pleased with how this turned out.

Here's my process. I had envisioned a sampler in the ROYGBV progression:

Then I pulled fabrics:

You'll notice I didn't use all of them, nor did I follow my original plan of using some black/white fabrics.

Then I began piecing blocks:

I decided on a final arrangement - with a surprise centre block - and asked for feedback on the sashing, thinking only of the blue option.

I got some GREAT advice and chose the Kona Medium Grey for a very skinny sashing (thank you Sonja for the great photo!!):

Quilted it all up. I used my walking foot and just used the seams as my guide. I marked the green block only so that I could follow those curves. Here it is, front:

Back (yes the label is on sideways - sue me):

Closeup of my favourite block:

And the label, using the logo for this round of the swap:

I'm so happy with this finish, I'm linking up all over the freaking blogosphere! Get ready, One Thing One Week at Amy's Creative Side, {Sew} Modern Mondays at Canoe Ridge Creations, and Tuesday Fabric Story - you're all getting Felicity-bombed this week!

VMQG Kaufman Challenge

2011-03-25T18:40:00.000-07:00

Ask and ye shall receive. Our guild's intrepid Executive inquired whether Canadian guilds would be eligible for Kaufman's solids challenge. And happily, they are!

A bunch of Robert Kaufman Kona Solids charm packs in the dark colourway made their way to us last meeting. I haven't yet seen any guilds use the darks - most seem to have chosen the bright or dusty palettes - and so I agree with Kaelin (our Prez) who said she thinks our quilts are going to be fabulously different as a result.

Isn't this a gorgeous set of colours?

Whereas other guilds have specified guidelines like No Prints Allowed, our guild chose to leave the challenge pretty open. The only requirement of the VMQG challenge is that the fabrics in the charm pack should be the focus of the quilt.

My initial thoughts were a stacked coin-style quilt (like this or this) because charms tend to lend themselves to being put in stacks. Then an idea came to me. I won't tell you exactly what it is (yet), but I will give you the following three cryptic hints:

Kona Medium Grey;
Helen Keller;
I will be using each and every charm in the design.

I'm so excited!! After I finish the DQS10 quilt (this weekend, gods willing) and get caught up on my two quilt alongs, I will start on this project. The deadline is our June meeting - not that far away!!

WIP Wednesday - Making Progress

2011-03-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

It's that time again! WIP Wednesday is here and I have a few things to report.

MADE MAJOR PROGRESS ON....

The DQS10 quilt. Now all of the blocks have been stitched in the ditch all around, four of the nine are quilted, one of nine is marked and I have a vague plan for the others.

I kept the quilting pretty simple and conservative, and used my walking foot. Mainly because I terrified of mucking the whole thing up by getting too fancy with the free motion. So far, so good!

MADE SOME PROGRESS ON...

A delinquent Bee block, and a test for one of the two QAL (Quilt-Along)s I joined.

MADE NO PROGRESS ON....

The New Wave quilt (other than making a block that will be incorporated into the backing) and everything else on my WIP and WIMM lists over there on the right hand side.

BUT THAT SURE DIDN'T STOP ME FROM ADDING THE FOLLOWING PROJECTS TO THE LIST...

Robert Kaufman-sponsored Challenge for the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. This one deserves its own post - stay tuned!

See what everyone else is up to this Wednesday over at Lee's! It's a great link-up. Seriously. Go. Now.

Got Some Sewing Done

2011-03-20T22:35:00.000-07:00

I didn't participate in the Friday Night Sew In because I was too dang tired. I usually sew for an hour or more each night after I put my daughter to bed in any case, but I've learned to listen to my body. If I try to sew when I'm too tired, I make lots of silly errors and it ends up at best a waste of time, and at worst, a disaster.

So when I found myself starting to brush my kid's teeth with a toothbrush covered in diaper cream (seriously) (I've got the Mother of the Year trophy allll sewn up, don't it?) I decided it would be prudent not to come anywhere near machinery of any kind. I read my fantastic book instead.

I did get some sewing done at other points over the weekend, and here are the fruits of my labour:

That is a test block for Lynne's quilt along over at Lily's Quilts (interested? see the button on my sidebar). I love love love how quickly this comes together, and how big the block ends up. I'll use this on the back of the New Wave Quilt. I haven't given up on it, it's just gone onto the back burner. I refuse to admit that it's a UFO. Even though I keep putting projects ahead of it on the to-do list.

One of the reasons I'm behind on everything (other than the forementioned re-prioritizing of shiny new projects over old ones...) is that I'm now in three bees! Note to self: Self, that's too many. One of the many pluses of being in a bee is that you get to ~~fondle~~ work with other people's fabric. I was sorely tempted to "forget" send back the extra fabric that I got sent to make this string block. I've never seen most of them before and I love ALL of them!

And I basted my DQS10 quilt. Trying not to freak out about how to quilt it. Or rather, trying to stop fretting that attempting to do some interesting free motion quilting in each block is going to wreck it.

Slowly, slowly, I'm getting there. Goal for this week: quilt the doll quilt. Full stop.

Lining up to Amy's One Thing One Week challenge!

Lapel Stick Giveaway Winners

2011-03-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

Check it out! Mr. Random Number Generator chose entries 2 and 3, who are:

A.J.

and Mimi

I've contacted you by email, winners. Thanks, everyone, for entering!

To Sash Or Not To Sash, That Is The Question

2011-03-14T23:04:00.000-07:00

With apologies to Bill S. for the title, I have a dilemna (sic - my friend Anne and I always purposely mispronounce certain words, and dilemma/'dilemna' is one of them).

Sashing?

Or no sashing?

If I chose sashing, it would be narrow (say 3/4" finished) - Dear Jane style. The centre block is a surprise for no other reason than I love surprises (well, good ones anyway). For what it's worth, I'm leaning toward sashing. I think the blocks need a little breathing room around them.

Also (again): quilting suggestions? I have lovely lovely thread that matches the background blue. Stippling or something all-over doesn't seem right. A simple something in each block is what is currently speaking to me.

Thoughts?

Edited: Flickr peeps FTW! I had a few suggestions for skinny sashing in a contrasting colour (such as black or grey) - I am using Kona Medium Gray and it looks FABOO!

Quilt Alongs

2011-03-13T22:25:00.000-07:00

Despite the fact that I still haven't even finished half of this quilt along, I've gone and joined two more.

What can I say? I'm very susceptible to peer pressure. (Thank goodness that high school foray into smoking didn't quite catch on!)

Come play with me?

Product Review: Lapel Stick

2011-03-11T22:05:00.000-08:00

A little while ago, the nice people at Lapel Stick contacted me and offered to send along a sample of their product for me to review on my blog (HOW FANCY AM I????). I agreed, and gave it a try.

First, I should describe it. It's glue stick for fabric. Non toxic, non staining and water soluble. Sounds good to me!

I used Lapel Stick a few different ways.

1. To repair a fallen hem on my pants. I was all ready to leave for work and my daughter, ever the observant child, noted that my pants hem was down. I was seriously late already, so I thought of the Lapel Stick on my sewing table.

Before (if toes freak you out, avert your eyes and scroll down!):

After:

Lapel stick kept my hem up all day until I could get home and put my pants in ~~that pile of stuff that never gets looked at~~ my "fixit" pile. Thumbs up.

2. To secure the first bit of fabric on a foundation paper piecing block. Sorry no photo of this process, but I can tell you that it worked beautifully. It's not a goopy product the way other glue sticks can be, so it held the fabric nicely but not so much that I couldn't pull the paper off cleanly afterwards. Thumbs up.

3. To avoid having to use pins when attaching some casing to the neck of the smocks I made recently.

This one didn't work out so well - the length of casing was about 35" and by the time I'd gotten to the end, the Lapel Stick I had applied at the beginning was dry and didn't stick. Thumbs down, but that was a lot to ask of the product, I think.

I planned to give it a try with appliqué, but that project keeps getting pushed down the list and I really wanted to get this review done, so I'll do a follow-up on that. I anticipate that it's going to work well, though, based on what I've seen so far.

In conclusion, I really like the product and I think it's a great addition to a sewing room for projects, or a desk drawer for hem emergencies. A bonus is that 30 cents from each sale is donated to Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation!

Another bonus? A giveaway! Lapel Stick sent me two samples to give away to readers! To enter the draw, comment on this post sometime before Tuesday, March 15th at 9 o'clock pm Pacific time, and I'll use Random.org to choose the two winners soon thereafter.

Fine print:

one entry per person;
international entries welcome but please know that I will totally cheap out on the postage and choose the least costly (and likely slowest) option offered by Canada Post;
make sure I can contact you - if your Blogger profile (and email) isn't public and you haven't provided me an email address, I'll just go ahead and pick someone else's name right away.

Good luck!!

EDITED: Comments closed. Winner announced here.