Merry Christmas

With just a couple days to go before Christmas I am still busy with last minute gifts and preparations.....but, the house is decorated and the trees are up.  I am looking forward to celebrating a wonderful Christmas with my family and I want to wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season.

one finished - another one started

The fall quilt I started in October is finished.  Well, at least its a finished quilt top - the quilting can be done later.

A great scrappy quilt by Jo Morton was featured on the cover of American Patchwork and Quilting (Dec.2010). It was a lot of fun pulling fabric from my boxes of scraps and cutting the 1" strips for this quilt. Each of the Courthouse Steps blocks in only 5" so there is a long way to go before this is a full size quit, but my plan is to keep the two baskets of strips beside my sewing machine and stitch together a couple of blocks whenever I have a moment to sit and sew.

Blogger's Quilt Festival - 2010

Another Blogger's Quilt Festival and I am very happy to be participating for a third time.

The quilt I am sharing is one I made a couple years ago and, just last month, gave as a gift to Sarah's mother-in-law when she returned home from an unexpected hospital stay.  The pattern is by The Pattern Basket.  I modified it slightly from the original by adding some extra small flowers and a scrappy border.  The quilt was machine pieced and quilted on a long-arm machine.

The back was also pieced from left-over fabric used on the front.

Winter already?

This weekend at the cottage in Val David it looked like this....

more like Christmas than Halloween.

Fall Inspired

I know I haven't posted anything here for months, but the summer was busy and new puppy Oliver has taken up a lot of my time. I haven't been blogging but I haven't been quilting either.  Now that we are well into fall and Oliver has settled down a bit I am finding more time to quilt and am happily spending time in my sewing room again. Fall has been lovely this year.  Many warm, sunny days, cool nights and beautiful colors.

When I found layer cakes of "Awesome" by Sandy Gervais at the local quilt shop a couple of weeks ago, I was inspired.  I bought two layer cakes, added a few matching fat quarters from my stash and started to design a new fall quilt.

I decided to make dresden plate blocks (thought the fan shapes in these fall colours look like turkey feathers). The wedges are sewn together into groups of four and appliqued on to background squares.

The dresden plate blocks are combined with these on point blocks.

Together the blocks look like this.......a work in progress on my design wall.  Maybe some  more applique and a pieced border.  I have promised myself  this quilt top will be finished before fall turns to winter.

Introducing...."Oliver"

Oliver is our new 4-month old Yorkshire Terrier puppy.   He is the most adorable little boy.  He weighs just under 5 lbs right now - small but full of energy.

We brought him home from the breeder on Saturday so he is still adjusting to life with us.  Oliver and big sister Sophie are quickly becoming best friends with Sophie even willing to share her favourite ball.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I am very happy to be participating again in Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy's Creative Side.  This is such a great way for blogging quilters to showcase their quilts - thanks Amy.

My entry is this New York Beauty quilt I made in 2003 using as many brights and floral fabrics as I could find. The blocks were paper-pieced and the quilt was quilted on a long-arm machine.  This quilt is special to me because my husband says of all the quilts I have made this is his favourite.

I used a large bright multi-floral print for the backing.  The sleeve sewn onto the back is because this quilt once hung on display in a local quilt shop - that also makes it kinda special to me.

I'm off now to check out the hundreds of other quilts on display at Bloggers Quilt Festival.

a visting raccoon

These pictures were taken through one of our upstairs windows....and that shadow in the center is a raccoon!  We noticed him sleeping in the tree in front of our house when we got home from work today.

It was difficult to get a good picture of him through the leaves and he wasn't doing much but sleeping.  When he did wake up for a bit and I was able to get this picture of him giving himself a bath.

It surprises me to know this raccoon spent the day sleeping in the tree in our front yard.  He's cute but I do hope he is just passing by and doesn't intend to take up residence here.

a quilt show, a new rabbit and dinner with my family

Yesterday was a lovely Mother's Day for me - I got to enjoy a quilt show, a new rabbit and dinner with my family.

The trip to a local quilt show resulted in this fabric stash purchase.  No plans for any of it yet, but I love the colors and prints in this fabric line.

Jim bought this adorable stone rabbit for the garden.  The rabbit is currently residing in a corner of the living room by the stairs as I can't quite yet bring myself to put him outside. 

A warmer day would have meant something on the bbq for dinner, but it was too cold and windy yesterday for that.  Instead Jim cooked a roast beef in the oven with potatoes and veggies.  Sarah and David were both here for dinner ..... I love it when our kids come over to visit.

Backyard Bees

David took these pictures of the bees in his backyard this afternoon.  Spring is so pretty!

New Project - a Spring Quilt

Nine blocks of the flying geese quilt are pieced together and the backing sections are ready to be assembled......but that's been put aside now for another day.  I am ready to start something new! 

In the April 2010 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting is a pattern call "Flying into Spring" by Eleanor Burns. I like the layout of the quilt  - Flying Geese (again?) with applique flowers and vines - but I'm going to make it in these pinks, yellows and greens from my stash.  I love this colour combination. I'll probably modify the size a bit too - I'd like the quilt to be slightly wider than the pattern.  I'm also thinking about including a few more applique shapes.

I didn't have enough yardage of the small floral print for the background or the large floral print for the backing so I've ordered more from Shabby Fabrics.  While I wait for that package to arrive I've started on the applique shapes.  There are lots of them to make so this part of the project will keep me busy for a while.

Flying Geese - Progress

This is a week off work for me so today has been a full day in my sewing room.  I'm making great progress on the flying geese quilt - six blocks completed so far.  But I don't think I can stay focused on this project much longer.  There are so many other quilts I want to make.  My plan now is to complete three more blocks and finish this as a large table topper.

Ted was supervising my efforts this morning, as always.  I don't think he liked it much when I used the camera flash to take this shot....closed his eyes just at the right moment.

Almost Easter

It's been way too long since I last posted on my blog - but the truth is I haven't been in my sewing room for the past couple of months. Life changes got in the way and I just didn't feel like sewing. That does happen sometimes.

Now I'm feeling back on track though and have been busy in my sewing room today. I finished another large flying geese block and lots of flying geese strips are sewn together ready to be assembled into more blocks.

With Easter just around the corner, I've been out shopping for new rabbits to add to my collection and brought this very handsome rabbit home.

I also worked on this new look for my blog. I've been looking for a new background for a while and finally found one I loved on Scrappin' Blogs . There are some very pretty backgrounds on this site.

Although Ted won't readily admit it, I think he likes rabbits too ;) - curled up with that old bunny I made years ago.

Flying Geese - Finished Block

I completed one block today.... only 15 more to go!

Instead of using the paper piecing templates given in Fons & Porter's magazine to make the flying geese blocks, I used the "Quilt in a Day" small flying geese ruler. It's a super easy and fast way to make the flying geese, but then they finished slightly larger than those in the magazine pattern. My finished complete block measures 22.5", so my finished quilt will be larger too at 90" square.

Flying Geese

Progress on my first quilt of 2010.....

I've made lots of these flying geese blocks and I'm excited about the way I see this quilt coming together.

Of course, while I was laying out the flying geese to sew into sections, Ted decided I needed a little help. If he gives me some space I should have a couple of full quilt blocks done this weekend.


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