Merry Christmas

Getting ready for tomorrow night  - wrapping gifts and baking lasagna  - and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cookies

I made Christmas Cookies today.  My Mom made these every year at Christmas when I was growing up and when my children were growing up too.  Everybody loves these cookies and how could you not love them  - there is one pound of butter in the recipe and a little shot of rum!

Bernina Quilt Frame

Last week I brought home the three boxes that contained my new Bernina Quilt Frame.  It wasn't very hard to put together, but it took my husband and I five hours to finish.  The frame is set up in the new room in our basement.  (Sydney is there inspecting our work)

I've got an old quilt top loaded on and my sewing machine in place - ready to go. Since I won't mind if there are mistakes on this quilt I chose it for my first attempt at quilting on the frame.  There is probably going to be a big learning curve but I am excited at the idea of finishing bigger quilts myself.

So here is a photo of my first bit of quilting - simple stippling which doesn't look too bad and a couple of disastrous attempts at a flower design.  I definitely need lots of practice.

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Fall 2011

I am very happy to join Blogger's Quilt Festival- Fall 2011 and to show you my "Every Bunny Loves a Garden" Quilt.

The quilt was finished a few years ago. It was fun to design and I love the two little bunnies - they are my favourite part of this quilt.

On the back I tried to use up as much of the blue and yellow fabric as possible.

Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks to Amy for once again hosting Blogger's Quilt Festival.

Machine Embroidery Quilting

I've been busy using the embroidery module on my sewing machine to finish this quilt. 

After pin basting, I hooped a section and let the machine do its work.  It takes about 5 minutes to embroider that little design.

Not quite finished yet, but here is how it looks so far.......

Sophie's knees

Sophie had surgery this morning to repair a torn ligament in her left knee and is resting comfortably back at home tonight.  No gory photos - just lots of hope for a good recovery and long walks in Sophie's future.

In July she had the same surgery to repair her right knee.  Poor girl hasn't been having a very nice time lately, but with both knees now fixed and some physiotherapy at the vet's she should be walking well again in a couple of months.

A New Design

This weekend I've started a new design.  Super scrappy quilts are always my favorite, so for this one I started with a small fq bundle of Old Primrose Inn and pulled together as many coordinating prints as I could find in my stash.  Its a long way from a finished quilt top - but here are a couple photos of a work in progress.

Quilted

Two of my quilts are are back from being sent out for quilting.

One is the Pinwheels quilt I recently finished and the other is a quilt top I finished back in 2009.

Now to find time to put on the binding.......

Pinwheels Progress

I am making some progress on the pinwheels quilt.  All the blocks are done and I am sewing on the setting triangle sections.  For now, I've chosen this fabric for the border.....I love the flowers and I think the colours blend well with the rest of the fabrics I have used in the quilt.

Happy New Year

What a great way to start the new year - I spent the day in my sewing room!

I got this wonderful Christmas present from my husband.  The Accuquilt Studio Fabric Cutter - and I love it. One of the basic shapes that came with Accuquilt Studio is this triangle die.  The corners are cut so there are no dog-ears to trim when the triangles are pieced together.  How great is that?  I was careful with pressing and folding my fabric before cutting so there was minimum fabric wasted.

I've been cutting triangles and piecing pinwheel blocks all day and my sewing room now looks like this...

This is going to be another scrappy quilt.  I'm using this selection of Thimbleberries fabric plus other coordinating fabrics from my stash.

I hope you all had a wonderful start to the new year and best wishes for 2011.