My Sunburst story

In February of 2004 I saw an antique quilt that I absolutely loved. The next month the same quilt showed up in a quilting magazine, Fons and Porters Love of Quilting....

I couldn't believe it....the quilt that I couldn't get out of my head appearing there a short time later!...what's a girl to do but rush out and buy the fabric and get at it, right!?

So that's what I did. I hand-pieced the nine Sunburst blocks. I think it's probably the easiest way to get good results on this block. They worked up beautifully. That's where the project came to a screeching halt!.....for ten long years!

Now, flip ahead to the present time. One of the guilds I go to has a member who started up a great challenge for the guild. We are to list five of our UFO's  and she allots points we can earn depending on how much work is involved to finish each quilt (up to 10 points per quilt). She has split the guild into teams, so as we finish UFO's on our list we earn points for our team.

I took this quilt to my retreat in January to work on the nine-patches needed to finish this up. That's all that's been waiting to do all these years, after hand-piecing the blocks....just some nine-patches!

Sunburst is on my list. The end of the competition is next Tuesday. I am a few days late on starting to quilt this on the longarm, but still achievable....maybe.

I am doing the stitch-in-the-ditch work first, which is working up surprisingly fast....

I still love this quilt....the colours, the blocks, everything!

But, wouldn't you know it....the best laid plans go awry. I have a family emergency that will take me up to Waterloo this morning. Hopefully, everything will be ok. The question is, do I simplify my plans for the quilting of this quilt for the sake of the team....or quilt it how I've imagined?

Have a great day!

Peaceful stitches

I haven't had a lot of time to devote to sitting down to post on my blog lately....it seems there are not enough hours in the day lately for all that needs doing.

I do still take time for myself early in the morning to do a bit of hand-stitching....I like that it's the one constant in life that I can depend on!

I started a new block in my "Life is Beautiful". It's embroidered using variegated floss, which is lovely. Recently, on Kathy's blog at Kathy's Quilts, she was trying to use the floss in a manner which accentuated parts of the block, so I thought I'd give it a try. I used some of the brighter strands in the middle of the roses, etc. Not sure if it's too noticeable but here's a picture...

I think I'll do this a little more in future blocks....but sparingly since I do love the randomness of the variegation also!

This morning I also finished up another Flower Garden block and I really like this one! It's one of the larger blocks and was fun to do....but they are all fun blocks! Maybe this week I'll get all the blocks up on the design wall to see how things are progressing.

It's been a disruptive couple of weeks. We are going thru' a bathroom renovation, so the house is a mess and seems filthy with dust. That's ok, though, it's coming along nicely and will soon be done. We'll be doing some of the finishing up stuff ourselves....to save money but also because I enjoy the painting, etc. I let my daughter pick the paint colour and I have to say it's a little scary!, but I'll go with it.....it's only paint!

I love the floor and vanity. No countertop yet, but here's how it's looking at the moment....

The walls are quite damaged from the removal of the chair-rail and I'm a bit anxious on how that's going to look in then end.

Check in on Kathy's Quilts to see what others are working on today. Kathy has an especially beautiful post today on a beading class she took this week!

Have a great day!

Neutrals

After a beautiful, sunny weekend we are in for a few April showers today....not bad for a Monday!

I have a lot on the go today...another quilt to mount on the longarm, bathroom reno proceeding (hopefully done by the end of the week!).....but I will be taking a break for the season's first pedicure....yay for sandals weather!

I'm trying to take part in a new "linky" called "WIPs Be Gone". It's one that celebrates progress on one's "work in progress".

 This has prompted me to put blocks up on the design wall of a group exchange I'm involved in called Nature's Neutrals. I haven't actually seen these up on the wall before, so this was a great opportunity to take a look at how the project is progressing. I love it! This week I need to get caught up on this month's blocks.

 Now that I see these blocks in a picture, I can see how viewing the blocks like this will help in the end when it comes to moving blocks around to be more pleasing. Cool!

Click on the WIPs Be Gone button over to the right to check on Angie at A Quilting Reader's Garden to see what other people are working on!

Have a great day!

It's Sunday, time to relax!

What a beautiful weekend! I just love to be able to sit in my backyard and enjoy all of it.....the birds, the dogs playing with each other and digging in the dirt!

Of course, I started my day with a little stitching time. Usually I am quite satisfied with my work...I can't say I'm terribly picky. It's not often I do any ripping out of stitches. I think last week I may have shared one of my latest Flower Garden blocks. This is part of it, anyway....

I have to say that I'm fairly new at working with Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I think I'm still learning on how best to use them. With this "flower", I don't think there is enough contrast in the fabrics. It was a finicky block, using reverse applique, but I had to do it over....I just wasn't happy with it. So frogging it was...rip it, rip it!

Here's the fabrics I thought I'd try instead...

But then again...

Yes, that's it! I was inspired by my friend, T.A.'s, use of yellow in one of her Flower Garden blocks!

Here is the block, I'm glad I made the change....

For all that I don't like to question my choices and do something over again, sometimes it's worth it.

I haven't worked on Urban Owls for a little while....I think I've been a bit intimidated by the next blocks! This week I dove in and tried one out. Here is Urban Owls so far...

The next block is one I haven't seen before, but, going by the blurb in the instructions, it seems it may be a popular block in Australia. It's called "Queen of the May" and it was partially pieced by sewing machine and partly by hand. This picture shows it almost finished. I've pinned it to the design wall onto what will be the background. Now I just need to repeat the block using different fabrics. It is not a hard block but takes a bit of time....I like it!

Check out Kathy's blog at Kathy's Quilts , for another a look at what other quilters are working on today!

The dogs had a lot of fun in this weather this weekend and here is poor Cooper at the end of the day Saturday, all tuckered out!

Looks like it's going to be another beautiful, sunny day.....perfect for a drive this afternoon to Quilt Junction in Waterford to check out Lana's Anniversary sale!


Have a great day!

Good riddance!

Good riddance to the old, avocado green bathtub that would never look clean no matter what I used on it!!!

I won't even show a picture of the before because I hated that tub so much, but here is how the tub area looks now....

Soon there will be a beautiful walk-in shower here....can't wait! I've been wanting one since my son's wedding in Dominican and the hotel had lovely big walk-in showers!

Back to work for me now....just wanted to write a short post on my excitement on tossing that old tub out the door!

Have a great Spring day!

Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home

With the weather warming up, it seems like nature is waking up. In our house we definitely see in this in the number of Asian lady beetles!

I googled them and found out I was using the preferred method of removing them from my home....the vacuum!


My sleeps have been so disrupted the last few days and it turned out to be an early morning applique session today. Not complaining, after all it is one of my favourite times of day!

I put the last couple of stitches into a little flower on my Auntie Green's Garden....time to do the prep work for the lower left quadrant of this section.

I think I'll get right at the next step of this piece since I'm looking forward to what is appliqued after that!

Here is how it looks now....

After that last little flower was on I switched up and did a bit of reverse applique on my next Flower Garden block. I don't know if these pictures will show well but I wanted to demonstrate how I deal with pieces occcasionally.

Usually I will use tiny applique pins to hold the pieces in place as I'm appliqueing. Once in a while I feel it's worth the couple of minutes to actually baste the pieces in place. This is especially nice when dealing with a lot of vines.

In the borders of my Stars and Sprigs by Kim McLean, there were probably yards of vine. I basted them all down first so I didn't have to deal with the many pins that would have been needed.

This saves getting poked by the wee pins, and the possibility of losing some for grandchildren and puppies to step on!

Here is the piece I started on this morning. There is one piece of the purple fabric basted underneath the actual flower fabric. I have basted it all together to make it easier to work with.

Hmm, maybe hard to see, but there are five petal-shaped holes cut into the pink fabric.

Here is a picture of the flower, all reverse-appliqued and ready to applique as one piece to the block....

Now, I feel like making my morning applique last all day and keep working on this block! This quilt has been a fun one to work on so far.

This week on the longarm I did custom work on a small wall-hanging that will be displayed in a long-term care facility. It was so pretty with the embroidered birds and butterflies! I was asked to echo the butterflies and do some feathers in the border, the rest was up to me to "play" with! Here's a few photos....

Have a visit with Kathy's blog at Kathy's Quilts to read about her Ricky Tims experience and to see what everyone else is working on her Slow Sunday Stitching post!

Have a great day!

Garam Masala

First off, an update on yesterday's post.....shoe shopping was very successful!! A special thanks to my personal shoppers, J & C....and a little girl who's eyes opened wide at the sight of all the shoes.....lol, another shoe-lover is born!

Lunch at Twisted Lemon was lovely, as always. The flavours they come up with are phenomenal, I always find myself sitting there with my eyes closed just savouring the mixture of flavours. Yesterday's soup of the day was Garam Masala. I love ordering a soup of the day, and I have to admit that I couldn't resist this one for the simple fact that it's one of those words that I just love to say out loud....Garam Masala.

Somewhere else I may not have ordered this soup. It's made with butternut squash and eggplant and, of course, Garam Masala. I think up to now in my life I've avoided eggplant, just the thought turns me off, but I do find myself going out of my comfort zone at Twisted Lemon, and I haven't been disappointed yet.

This morning I completed another block from Life is Beautiful...

....and I'll try to prepare another one today.

I attended a meeting at the Brant Heritage Guild last night as I was tagging along with a good friend who was presenting her trunk show. What a nice bunch of ladies and, I must say, what a great trunk show....seems like my friend is comfortable in relating her quilting journey as she did such a professional talk!

Came home to quite a thunderstorm afterwards. It was Cooper's first one and I must say it was a little comical watching his reaction!

Have a great day!

April showers.....and shopping for shoes!

A rainy April day in store for us here but the day is brightened by the thought of an outing this morning on the search for wedding shoes!

It's actually going to be quite a busy day and I'll squeeze in a much delayed and anticipated lunch with my daughter at Twisted Lemon. Anyone who hasn't tried this lovely little restaurant in the bustling town of Cayuga should consider giving it a try.

On another culinary note, I tried making up a recipe for chicken wings in the ActiFry last night. We always like our wings done in the "hairdryer" but I wanted to try to get a gooey wing. I didn't get the results I wanted, but they were still tasty! Also, the sauce I made up made quite a mess of the ActiFry, so I think I'll give this a pass for future wings.

I had a lot of fun working yesterday on a small custom quilt. There were lovely embroidered bird blocks that made me think of Spring!

Have to run and get ready for shoe shopping. I'll leave you with a little dose of cuteness...

Have a great day.....from Cooper and me!

Pretty Bobbins

A little while ago I started following a blog by Gemma at Pretty Bobbins. You can check her blog out HERE.

A couple of weeks ago Gemma was looking for pattern testers for her paper-pieced block, Star Gazing. It's a 15" finished block. I contacted her and said I'd like to be a pattern tester, I'd never done anything like that before although one of my friends has recently had a lot of fun being part of something like this!

She asked what my experience is with paper-pieceing. I consider myself intermediate. I know how to do it, I know it's the perfect technique for certain quilts....I just find it hard to wrap my poor brain around it sometimes! Once in a while I just have to put it away because it's just not happening on a given day.

Well, I got at the pattern on the weekend. I had no troubles with the pattern, except a mistake I made all on my own, lol. At one point, I was so conderned with colour placement, that I totally forgot to pay attention to the order in which the fabrics were added to the piece. Soon enough it became evident that things weren't looking quite right....easily fixed with the seam ripper!

Here's a picture of all the components  done and ready to sew together....

...and here it is, all done....

It worked out great! It's a large enough block to make into a pillow, but it should also create some great secondary designs if repeated in a quilt. I think I'll try it again in a more "controlled" way....using all the same blues, reds, etc., to see how it looks.  This one was scrappy, which what I like to do a lot of times in my quilts.

Have a great day!

Happy Easter!

At least I think it's Easter....a friend just wished me Merry Christmas, says it may as well be Christmas with the pretty snowfall we're experiencing today!

I think it will be a quiet day with a bit of stitching on my applique project this afternoon, Auntie Green's Garden....

I've been working on the upper left corner this week. It's looking a bit pink to me, I'll have to watch out for that when I move onto the lower left corner.

Check over at Kathy's Quilts to see what others are working on today!

I'm looking forward to the coming "quilty" week. I have a guild meeting in Hagersville on Monday evening, guild meeting on Tuesday afternoon in Vittoria and a possible quilty outing Thursday evening.....how lucky to spend time with people that love quilting as I do!

I actually didn't have my usual morning routine of applique and coffee this morning. We used a Wagjag coupon to have a night away at a lovely hotel in Niagara last night. Part of the deal included a discount at their fine-dining restaurant, a coupon for the spa, etc. I took advantage of it and got a great massage.....wish it was in the budget to do this on a regular basis!

We also went to a couple of wineries while we were in the neighbourhood. We had never been to Crown Bench Estates before and were impressed with their ice wines. We actually bought a couple. One of them is combining the sweetness of ice wine with five different types of hot peppers....they named it Hot Ice......

I'll just say that this is very unique and soooo good! They also had one that was infused with chocolate that was excellent. I think we'll definitely be back there when we have our visitors here for the wedding in July.

I think Cooper forgives us for being away for the night, he was all wiggles when we got in!

Have a great day!

Happy April!

Saying that's April really makes it feel like Spring to me. Winter is nice, but by this time of year I'm looking forward to playing in the garden!

I started my day early with a bit of reverse applique, which I don't seem to do very often but it gives a nice effect.

Here is a piece in progress...

....and appliqued to Auntie Green's Garden....

So, with reverse applique the centre of this "bud" is recessed, not appliqued on top of the green fabric. It's a nice way to give a piece dimension, especially when doing windows on an appliqued house.

Lately, a friend of mine had lots of fun being a pattern-tester for a magazine. When I read on a blog I read, Pretty Bobbins, that Gemma needed volunteers to test her paper-pieced block pattern, I thought "why not?"!

Gemma is encouraging sharing the process on our blogs, so I will! Paper-piecing is not my strong suit, so perhaps that makes me a good tester, lol. I'll have fun picking out fabrics because I'm sure a lot of the other testers will be using Australian-type fabrics, so I will try to use something different.

Well, I'd better head up to the sewing room. I want to have a productive morning so I can go out to play with my girlfriends this afternoon!

Have a great day!