Marco Polo Quilt Guild Show

I went to the opening of the Marco Polo Quilt Guild Show at the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John, NB last night. I thought it was just a night to browse the quilts and have a sneak peek before the show opened to the public today.

My friend Tanya and I went. When we arrived no one was around and I thought that maybe the time had been changed. (When I dropped off my quilts on Sunday the time had been changed for set-up and no one let me know, so I figured it had happened again.)

Anyway, it turned out that everyone was in a theatre room for the awards announcement. I didn't realise there was an actual presentation; I had thought that the ribbons were simply placed on the quilts and people were given a program with the winners list ...

So it was cool to see the ribbons given out. It really added an element of excitement to the whole thing.
Sue McEachern who is in the KVQG with me won big. See the four ribbons on her quilt -- including Best of Show. Sue is a talented, kind and generous quilter who has volunteered to give me some tips on free-motion quilting should I ever dive in ...

And it was really fun that I was there, because my lighthouse quilt won 1st place in the Large Contemporary category. Thanks to Tanya for taking this picture. (I quickly checked that the quilt police weren't around before not just touching, but grabbing my quilt).

The show is on until Sunday and I will be going back tomorrow with my family. I hope to get lots of pictures to post here. I was so, so impressed with all the fabulous stuff at the show!

Happy Quilting!

Love-Serendipity-Family Selvage Quilt

I've posted about this quilt several times while I was working on it, so there's not a lot left to say other than: YAY! It's done to quilt top form. (Click any photo to enlarge if you wish)

This quilt was not without its frustrations.
Let me see ... there were the two whole sections that I decided not to use, the time my daughter used the permanent laundry marker I use to mark my guide lines under the selvages to add a few doodles of her own (thankfully only on a border piece that wasn't yet sewn on), my iron water staining some of the fabric, sewing one piece of border in with the seams on the wrong side ... just trying to present an honest picture of my process here ;-)
I think I love this quilt, but I'm not 100% sure. I love all the individual elements of it, but as a whole I just don't know if I'm as convinced. The layout is very different from anything else I've done. I do absolutely, for sure, love the red with the white of the selvages.
The red is Kona Rich Red and it is fabulous.

This quilt is for the KVQG quilt show in the fall. The quilt show theme is Serendipity.
You can see my little selvage family there. That's my favourite part. And I haven't forgotten that I said I would post a tutorial for the selvage stick people ... coming soon.

I haven't decided on the quilting of this yet. I will be sending it out (it's huge, my six foot tall husband is standing on a dining room chair to hold it up). I would love to have it done in invisible thread, but that caused major problems last time, so we'll see.

My selvage fascination continues as I have a couple more selvage projects to start soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm linking up to Made by You Monday... and of course Fabric Tuesday over at Quiltstory.

Just Some Quilty Scraps ...

Scraps of information that is, about what's going on as I quietly quilt away in Quispamsis. First off, I often get questions about the name "Quispamsis" and whether or not it's a real place. Well, it is, and I am just a lucky quilter who lives in a qu place. Quispamsis, New Brunswick, Canada is a beautiful town and I am so happy that my children are growing up here. The name comes from the Maliseet language and means "little lake in the woods." We have a small lake in the middle of town. If you're interested in more information about Quispamsis, the town's site is here.

Now, about the picture above. I've been quilting away on my daughter's birthday quilt. I've made several mistakes including my signature mistake of having the backing fold over without noticing and stitching it down where it shouldn't be. Oh well. I've seam ripped four or five quilting lines, but overall I'm happy with how it is turning out. As you can see in the picture, I still just use my regular machine foot for quilting.

Here's a rare pic of me, but I really wanted to show how loaded down I was before the guild meeting last night. I have the His and Hers Quilt for Show and Tell (I should have the pattern done and posted here by the weekend), the five neonatal quilts for the hospital to drop off, a big bag of miscellaneous fabric bits for the 'bring and buy' (yard sale), plus my usual small stuff in the bag. And as you can see I'm wearing my selvage nametag. This is a picture of the KVQG raffle quilt for this year. I took this picture last night at the meeting. It is called Sunshine and Lollipops. I love the colours and love that it seems to have the perfect balance between traditional piecing and more modern lines/colours. It is huge too. I can take absolutely no credit for this beauty as I had nothing to do with the making of this quilt, but I wanted to show it here because the ladies in the guild who did work on it did such a fabulous job. I've mentioned here before that my son loves geography and maps, so you will understand why I recently bought the fabric above. And more Ghastlies ... And some monsters which will be going into my Halloween stash. I kind of have an idea brewing about an all-Halloween themed I-Spy Quilt ... hmmmmmmm ... Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Quilting!

Green and Blue Times Two

So, I kind of had to make a little neonatal version of my son's blue and green birthday quilt. I wanted to make a little donation quilt that a new baby's father would like (as well as the mom) -- something cute but definitely boyish.
I think this one fits. There are golf motifs in there, and soccer, and an airplane and a moose and deer.

I practised my quilting on this by adding some extra diagonal lines. I just eyeballed them, rather than marking, but it went pretty well.
Here's the back.

We went back to the qplex for the pics, but the wind was just not helping us out at all. In this pic you can see that the building is still under construction, but getting closer to being finished all the time!

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I think this is likely my last neonatal quilt for this year. I have five now, three for girls and two for boys. I really enjoyed making these! And please forgive me if this is too corny, but it's true: when I was done this little blue and green quilt and was showing it to my three-year-old daughter, she took it from me and hugged it. She said she was putting a special hug in it for the little baby. (I tell my kids that I put hugs in the quilts I make for them, so when they are cuddled in them it is like having a hug from me). Awwww.
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I'm linking up with Sew and Tell Friday. Just click the button below if you'd like to see lots of other great finishes from other quilty sorts!

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Mendocino and FMF Neonatal Quilt

I think I have a new favourite neonatal quilt. I just love how this little strip quilt turned out. I hope it brightens a new mother's day! I used some Heather Ross Mendocino paired with a bit of Flea Market Fancy.
It measures 20 by 24 inches, which is the measurement for these little donation quilts that is specified by our guild. I cut the strips from fat quarters and there was very little waste (cutting the 20 inch strips from the 22 inch side of the FQ).

It is bound in the yellow seed fabric from the Flea Market Fancy line.
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I quilted it with wavy lines in a pale yellow thread. Per usual, I just used the regular foot on my machine. I don't have a walking foot. The wavy line is a stitch on the machine, not my handiwork. I just try to hold the fabric flat and straight as the machine goes along. ;-)

The backing is also the yellow seeds from the FMF line.

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This quilt was fast and fun to make. Our guild is gathering these little neonatal quilts to donate to the regional hospital at the end of April and I think I may have to make another one or two before then. I like this strip quilt version just as much as the little patchwork ones I made, so I may have to try another strip one.

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Happy Quilting! And you may wish to stop by Fabric Tuesday over at Quilt Story ...

Selvage Quilting Update

It's Work in Progress Wednesday, so I thought I'd show what I've been up to on the Selvage Heart Quilt. The last time I showed the pieces above they were just blocks I believe, but here they are pieced together ... and guess what, being 100% honest, I don't like them.
I like the idea of them, but it is how they actually turned out that I'm not in LOVE with. The pink background bothers me, but more than that, in the word above, there is too much empty space between the L and the heart representing the O. I also don't like how skinny the bottom of the V is.

The 2011 is nice, except for the pink. So we'll see what becomes of these. They may get incorporated in the quilt in some different form, or they may go in the reject pile.

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Anyway, that's it for the posts on this quilt, until probably September. As I think I mentioned before, I am making this quilt for our guild show so I probably should keep the rest of what is happening to it as a surprise until then ... but, in the meantime, speaking of both selvages and our guild ...

We had a guild meeting last night and look what I was given! A selvage mountain! Thank you so much Nancy!

For a size comparison, see the car! I will be starting in with these if I can grab a few minutes later today. I've been wanting to make a nice straight ahead simple selvage quilt (no snowman faces, no latticing, no fancy borders) and these are perfect. I will have more than enough selvages for a whole quilt even though I am planning to use mostly just the colour window dots on this next quilt.

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Happy Quilting!

Weekend Roundup and Giveaway Winner

I thought I'd start with a quilting progress photo even though I didn't sew much at all this weekend. In the pic you can see what I did with those little 3 inch selvage blocks. They are now a part of the quilt I'm calling "Love Serendipity Family" (to fit with the theme of the KVQG show this year). It will still be quite a while until this quilt is done, but I'm happy with the progress so far.

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This is where I was instead of in front of the sewing machine ...

The beach!

See our bathing suits? My husband makes fun of my giant coat and calls me The Michelin Man, but I LOVE my coat -- it has down in it and I tell you I just don't get cold. Snow, ice, ocean breeze, bring it on! We were at the beach looking for sea glass which is a family hobby.

On another note, I've written before about the fun of having a quilt blog and all the nice people you "meet." One my of blogging buddies is Shelley of Red Quilts. She lives in New Brunswick too, but we have yet to cross paths in person. However, she left me a little goodie bag at the LQS when she was recently down in this area for a quilting retreat. In the bag was the fabric above -- I guarantee that pink and red Farmer's Market and those dinos won't escape my rotary cutter for long.

She also saved this pile of selvages for me. Is it wrong that I was as happy about the selvages as the fabric?

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Now, without further ado, the Giveaway Winner, selected by Random Draw using Random. Org is #82 halfstitched. Congrats! It was so great to read all the comments. You guys are hilarious. Honestly, I was cracking up.

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Happy Valentine's Day! And come back next time to find out what kindergarten, a quilt, a kiss and a raccoon all have in common.

I Heart Selvage Quilting: Progress

I've made a bit more progress on my latest selvage quilt. This is the center section. I would say it's currently about 45 inches square. I am slowly working along on it. As much as I enjoy the challenge and creativity involved in selvage quilting, there is definitely some tedium involved. As in, the tedious sewing of all those lattice strips. I LOVE the result, but it took a little while for sure.
Here's a close up of some of the latticing. That Amy Butler Love selvage is perfect. I am fortunate to have several more to use. (They were sent to me)
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I decided to put the lattice sections on to make it look like an old-fashioned Valentine.

For a laugh, I thought I'd show the back of the lattice section. As you can see I'm not keeping up on trimming all my threads like I am supposed to be doing. Also, I want to point out a little bit of poor planning (or I guess, creative afterthought?) on my part. See the seams under the latticing? I put the lattice on after I had pieced together the whole heart. It would have been better to just make the lattice on plain fabric then piece it in after. Oh well, such is the peril/fun of making the design up as I go.
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Speaking of design, I have decided that this is going to be a quilt for our local quilt show in the fall. I really want to be sure to participate as I am a member of the guild now. Well, this year's theme is Serendipity. It is a very wide-open challenging theme. But anyway, I am thinking Love-Serendipity-Family as my interpretation and that is the direction I am going in with this quilt. It will still take a while to make, and I will still be going on it after Valentine's Day, but at least when it's done I will have a show quilt. I am very early on this, but I am expecting a wonderful, exciting year that will get busier and busier as it goes on, so it will be good to get this done to quilt top form. Then of course quilting ... ????

Here are some little 3 inch squares I have ready for elsewhere in the quilt.
Here's a long shot. Thanks so much to everyone who suggested I put up a design wall. Mine is just a piece of fabric that a friend gave me (I'm not even sure what it is, it seems like some sort of jersey knit stuff). It's cool though, as long as the quilting fabric isn't too big or heavy it just clings to the "wall" without even pinning.

And finally, the other night a friend and I had a little SNIC (Sewing Night in Canada, ha!). She wanted to make a pillowcase so I made one too. I made this little Valentine's one for my daughter's bed.

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Happy Weekend!

Handsome in Blue Neonatal Quilt

A few posts ago I showed a little Pretty in Pink Neonatal Quilt, so now here is my Handsome in Blue version. Both are to donate to the local hospital. The guild I belong to is gathering the quilts in April but I wanted to be sure I had a chance to get a couple done so I did them now.

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I made a quilt to represent each of my children -- a girl and a boy. I will say that these little quilts were so easy and fun to make though, I may end up getting another couple done before the April deadline, we'll see.

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That's my son holding up the quilt above. Today was our third(!) school cancellation due to weather since school started again on January 11. So I guess my son decided that no school must mean that it's crazy sock day at our house. He is wearing one of my husband's socks and one of mine ...

Anyway, back to the quilt, I think my favourite squares are the little bugs. That is maybe an Alexander Henry fabric? I bought it when I was on vacation in Maine last summer. I bought an FQ for a friend who collects bug fabric, and I'm so glad I decided to get one for myself too.

The backing is a Rainbow Garden print from Prints Charming. It is so soft. I love the Rainbow Garden line and have a few other prints from it. I also used this same backing fabric on my Selvage Snowman quilt (which is at the long-arm quilters now!)
Here are the little pink and blue versions together. Each is just 20 by 24 inches. The squares are 4 inches each finished.
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Happy Quilting!

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And some linky fun ...