This Week!

Is going to be a whirlwind!

Here's what is coming up:

1.  The Benartex Blog Hop featuring Wonderlust by Paula Nadelstern starts today with an interview with Paula and closer look at these fabulous fabrics, and runs this week with projects using this incredibly gorgeous fabric. This is fabric I want to lick, quite literally. My turn is Wednesday.

2.  Thursday is the opening day to sign up for the New Quilt Bloggers Hop, and, as you may recall, I agreed to be one of the four co-hosts...who knew all these events would come together this week! If your quilt blog is more than 2 months, but less than 3 years old, then I would strongly encourage you to sign up for this enriching experience. It sounds cliché, but it truly changed my life, not just my quilt blog life, but also my quilting life, and unexpectedly and most rewardingly, my IRL friends life. 😊

3.  Thursday was scheduled to be Throwback Thursday, a linky I am hosting where we photograph and tell the story, because every quilt has one, behind quilts from our quilty past, pre-blogging ones. If you want to revisit an old blog post, then Val at Val's Quilting Studio has a great linky party called Tuesday Archives, for that. Because Thursday is the opening of the NQBH, I am moving TBT, Throwback Thursday, to Friday this month.

4.  Thursday was also my planned date (without properly consulting my planner, I have since realized), to begin the second annual 30 Quilt Designs Challenge. Like how could three major events all fall on the same day?! So this is being started on Saturday, Feb. 3! Instead of ending April 15, it will now end April 17. That allows 10.5 weeks so roughly three designs per week, a nice pace. There are prizes!

I am excited to announce that Melody, owner of The Red Hen Shop, who sponsored the challenge last year; such a lovely surprise for her to email me about it, is again sponsoring this year's challenge. She is offering three prizes which will be drawn around the 10, 20, and final 30 designs marks. The first two are $15 gift certificates and the grand prize is a $50 gift certificate! Sweet! Melody's brick and mortar store is in Iowa, USA.

I am also excited that I have a second sponsor for this year's challenge. Darla at Clinton Modern Creative a Saskatchewan, Canada, online store, contacted me about being a sponsor for the New Quilt Bloggers Hop. I later asked her if she'd like to sponsor this challenge as well, and she said yes! Cool!

She'll be offering a $25 prize as another one of the grand prize draws. I'll post more details about the stores and about the challenge which runs on Instagram on Saturday when the challenge begins, but basically it's where you design a block or a quilt, (if it's a block then you put a few together so we see what a quilt may look like). You add it to the hashtag which I'll set up for this year's challenge, on Instagram. More details, as I said, on Saturday.

I hope you'll check out these two fabulous stores, and maybe show them some quilty love; note that I am not affiliated with either.

5. I finally hit upon a project for the RSC2018 Challenge with Angela at soscrappy. My 2.5" squares tray has been getting rather full, so I wanted to do something with those. I saw Ariane's quilt top all finished on Instagram and knew that was IT! Between piecing my project for Wonderlust, I made my two January blocks.

6. One other note is a follow-up to a previous announcement about Postcard from Sweden, which begins February 14. I am blown away by the interest that has ensued! I got an email from Tayva at StitchStashDiva, saying she'd tracked me down, because she'd sold five kits for the quilt that day alone, so she knew someone must be hosting a QAL. 😀 Well, I am ecstatic to announce that I am now going to have a grand prize for this QAL!! She is offering a quilt backing and binding set to one lucky winner of a finished quilt, free shipping! I am tickled all kinds of pink, well all those in the Postcard quilt for sure!! If you are now caving, and thinking of joining in, go here to snag a kit from Tayva's shop. The price is just excellent, and note that you'll qualify for free shipping if your order is $60 or over... I know, I'm a baaaad enabler... If her kits run out, I got several half yard cuts from Missouri Star (no affiliation) and split them with my good friend Helen of Midget Gem Quilts. They arrived very quickly too.

All right that's it for today. I apologize in advance, but I will not be on top of responding to comments unless it is of a more urgent nature, as I have the Wonderlust quilt to finish and write up for Wednesday.😉 As Beth says, I am crushing on these fabrics, hard, and hoping to do them justice. I am also crushing on having all these wonderful sponsors, woo hoo!

Linking up with
soscrappy
Cooking Up Quilts

Coins of the Atocha

One of my goals for this year was to submit a quilt design to a magazine.  Well I did.  In fact, it was the first design I created for the #30quiltdesignschallenge2017 that I, along with Lisa of Sunlight in Winter Quilts, hosted on Instagram from Jan. 2 - March 15.  I submitted it to Modern By the Yard, Benartex's e-zine.  It was accepted!  Not only was it a 2017 goal; it also became a Q1 FAL goal.

I am so very happy that my first published pattern is in a 100% environmentally friendly e-zine! Not one tree was killed, YESSS! AND the magazine is free.  Just head over to Sew In Love With Fabric where you can click the link in the sidebar and view it on your computer, or download it and view it at your own pace.

So!  This quilt comes with a story.  Do any of my quilts ever not? 😉 Refill your coffee or tea, and read on.  This fabric is deserving of a little of your time...it is every bit as vibrant, if not more, than what you see above! And such a unique pattern.

It started with this January 2 design, my first, as I mentioned, in the design challenge, that I called "Plus Surrounded".

Lisa Ruble, the editor of the e-zine, really liked it and asked it I could make it a rectangular quilt, and send it to her by the second week of February.  A little over a month to make a quilt?  No problem.  Meanwhile, Lisa and I had already talked about a totally different project, my Freefall Quilt Along, which I was planning to start about the third week of January and have it end on the Spring Equinox.  I decided it might be prudent to move the QAL.  Thus was born the idea of starting the QAL on March 20.  You can see the first post with the fabric requirements for that entirely separate quilt project here.

Back to Coins of the Atocha!  Lisa recommended two different fabric lines, and I chose this one, Masterpiece Mixers by Kanvas Studio.

Don't you want to, oh, I don't know, bite into one or all of these?!

The drama started when a couple of weeks went by and my fabric had not arrived.  I contacted Lisa and she did some investigating...the warehouse somehow misplaced the order and it hadn't been filled.  Lisa was wonderful and said no problem, we can put it in the next issue.  But I was pumped!  Well, I said to Lisa, I work well under pressure, so yes, I believe I can still meet the deadline.  That photo above is of the fabric just after it arrived on February 1.  I had already written up instructions to make my design so I set to work.

More drama ensued when I felt that the blue I had chosen for one of the 'surrounds' around the plus wasn't quite right.  I was drawn more to the aquamarine I had chosen for the backing.

Left to right:  the two blocks together; a couple of original choice blue surround, pretty good; a couple of blocks with the aquamarine, better

Both blues would have been fine, but I felt the aquamarine kept pace with the fuchsia's and golden's intensity.  So I started cutting like a whirling dervish:

...all the while thinking, hmm, backing...plan B...think!

This pattern sews up like a dream, and in no time at all I had a flimsy:

Now to make a backing.  Did you notice the borders on the fabric?  Cool, right?!  However, I didn't incorporate the tassel-like borders on the fabrics within the blocks as that pattern was quite different than the bubbles pattern of the rest of the fabric.  Inspiration struck along with a long-held love of interesting quilt backs, and this happened:

Yes!!  Borders in the centre, borders on both long edges--love!  Test block with lighter blue incorporated as well, woo hoo!

And now for the quilting!  If you know me, you know how I love to free-motion quilt.  A LOT.  Time was of the essence, so I reined myself in and here are the two designs I quilted in the plus

It was at this point that my good friend Julie, at Pink Doxies, coined (lolol) the name of the quilt.  I must admit I had never heard of the Coins of the Atocha, so I had to look it up.  Fascinating stuff!  Go here to read about it!  Basically:  1622.  Spanish galleon loaded with treasure.  Hurricane in the Florida Keys.  Struck a reef.  Sunk.  Undiscovered until July 1985.  Well, I am in Florida for the winter, check.  These vibrant tropical colours abound.  Add the bubbles or round motifs in the fabric, the 1" diameter pebbles in the pluses, and yep!  That is the name of this quilt.

Bella loved the quilt--when does she not love a new or in-progress quilt?!

Ain't movin' Sandra, nope. You can drape, push that quilt on me and I'm staying put.  Right here.

And relatively soon, it was done quilting.

Grabbed it off the Bernina, trimmed edges, and threw it on the cement driveway in the setting sun's rays to catch the quilting.  I did a water ripples back and forth in the 'surround' part of the pluses.  Then I did X's through the white squares as I outlined the four 45-degree angles of the block edges.  It gives the quilt an almost on-point look.

Here are all the threads I used.  I love 'em all, as does my beloved Bernina.  I pieced it with the Gütermann 100% cotton, and quilted with Sulky rayons, Aurifil 100% cotton, Mettler 100% cotton.

Here is the finished quilt, which is named "On the Plus Side" in the magazine.  I love that it ahs three names, all great ones don't you think?

A shot of the quilting.  Not quite in a tree but against one, a palm tree, of course!

The back:

That was February 12, the day I mailed it.  I think that may be a record for me for making a quilt from start to finish!   The drama did not stop there.  I mailed the quilt up to Lisa in Michigan.  Tracking showed it to be delivered on the Wednesday.  No quilt showed up, and Lisa even met her post-lady at the mailbox.  Naturally, I freaked when she emailed me...About an hour later she emailed me back: her post-lady had returned; the package had fallen behind her seat so she hadn't seen it until later in her route!  HUGE sigh of relief, from Florida to Michigan.  This quilt definitely has that Spanish 'flair' for drama, si?!

To add to the under-the-gun drama of this quilt, I only found out that I had to write a post about it this morning.  On today of all days...we will be on the road somewhere in northern Florida by the time this post goes live.  Today was the day before departure when there is not a minute to spare.  However, we, meaning I, have been very organized this year, and so I am finishing this up right before heading to bed.  Hmm, a really organized quilter should have had it written up a month ago ready for when the magazine would be published....ah well, all good. 

I will add the usual Quilt Stats once I have ... ha...A. access to wifi and B.  some time!   Meanwhile I am going to be floating above the SUV as we drive, knowing that I have been published!

Just click the cover below to view or download your copy!

Hop on over to Sew In Love With Fabric and check out the other gorgeous projects!

Do remember two things:
First, Angela Walter's show, Midnight Quilter, is coming back in a few days! Check out her announcement here.  Second, while you're there, you may want to hop over to the Craftsy site (affiliate link) for a sweet sale on supplies this weekend! Have fun shopping -- I will, sniff, miss this one.

Linking Up with:
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Busy Hands Quilts
TGIFF at The Carpenter's Daughter Who Quilts
Cut and Alter for Q1 FAL Link Up

Caw-mon Ground and Musings

Got up just ahead of the sun this morning despite some odd sleeping patterns yet again (enter menopause fun and games once more--it's bad enough that oddball things plague me during the day, well not plague maybe, but bug from time to time, but now nighttime is messed up too? Like what's with this...) where was I, oh yeah, got up, and felt compelled to do my meditation (wish I did this every morning, as it is truly a magnificent in a profoundly quiet way, to start my day) and after meditating, felt strongly compelled to draw/design.  This happened:

"Caw-mon" Ground for #30quiltdesignschallenge2017

As I said on Instagram, maybe it was my love of the number 3, triangles, pyramids, birds, meditation, sitting cross-legged, a dream last night of a Canada goose in the corner of our yard here in Florida, wow, I could see it, a still sentinel in black, grey and white, the feeling of a benevolent higher power, and of spring in the air, thoughts of heading north, seeing Abigail's rainbow stars, having done and so enjoyed Ruth's Rainbow Rose QAL, playing weekly with rainbow colours, in particular the migrating geese project #2, but I felt/saw so strongly a triangle image and a need to somehow translate this triangle image into a quilt.  After I posted the image to Instagram, I realized the (duh) significance of designing in rainbow colours today, one day after Pink Shirt Day.  Thank you to my sister Linda for reminding me; now that I am out of teaching, some of these significant days we always celebrated. escape me.  It originated in Canada, where a young teen was bullied because he wore a pink shirt to school.  I am so glad that a group of this young gay man's friends not only stood up for him, and against homophobic bullying, but did it LOUD.  And LOOK where a small group's actions can go!  How I wish we could show FREELY show, our tolerance of all peoples, (and all pibbles).

Sitting cross-legged on the floor for a 12-minute meditation.  Bella loves it as much as I do; without fail coming gently onto my lap, kissing my fingertips, which elicits a bit of a scratch of her chin, followed by a gentle pad/knead of my thigh and then a settling, purring contentedly almost the entire time.  Of course, she needs to strike a pose when the bell/gong sounds to end the meditation and I start to move a bit.

Speaking of quilt alongs, I myself have one that is going to start on the Spring Equinox, Monday, March 20, called Free Fall.  It's the wallhanging size of Windfall, and I have lined up some pretty terrific prizes for those who wish to join me and finish their wallhanging.  More details to come, but I am excited!  For now Bella is reposing on the stack of lush fabrics from Paintbrush Studio that I am using.  They are my main sponsor. 😀

There has been a LOT of sewing going on this month, some of which you see here, a total of four, no five projects, some big, some medium, some small, that I can't talk about.  Yet.  Some has involved February's colour, sea green, teal, aqua, aquamarine, known by many names and hues:

Ah aquamarine!  And Kaffe Fassett...

I've committed to another leader/ender project since the migrating geese strip for February is complete, and my Scrap Vortex is uh, in a vortex still...

Aqua corner triangles in...

or purple corner triangles in....

This quilt, "'X' Marks the Block" (I love witty quilt names) was designed by Teresa at Fabric Therapy. I saw it on Pinterest, and tracked it down to the original designer.  Originally I was going to do it totally scrappy, as she does, but after my like/love/hate/dislike/meh feelings on my Scrap Vortex, I realize that I like and need more order with my scrap quilting.  Could I do the opposing corners in one colour family?  I could!

And thus RSC2017 Project #3 is born.  I am leaving a few blocks each month with a blank corner section, ready for the next month's colour strips to be added.  Not sure how this will all play out, but that is the fun and the liberation of working with one's scraps!  Patience, a bit of a 'what if' attitude of experimentation, and beautiful things happen.

Patience, focus, intensity, Naala has it all.  Yet happily all the geckos are still alive and well despite her attempts to catch one!

Much more of those three qualities are apparent in this week's amazing, not taking no for an answer, 150 Canadian Women project.  Pat Sloan interviewed Kat on her podcast on Monday! Here is the link in case you missed it.  Here are this week's blocks:

Oops.  Ha, not really.  Here is the result of some more patience and hard work done by my intrepid MacGyver who has really beautified our house front this year.  One of his Bird of Paradise plants bloomed yesterday! It is unbelievable.  I've seen several over the years of coming to Florida, but to have one right here and gaze at its wondrous intense colours, is so surreal for me.  As is having my very own jasmine plants whose scent floats in in the early mornings.  Okay closer look at those three blocks:

43 - Alexandrine Gibb: an athlete and an advocate for women's sports organizations, helped to establish the Women's Amateur Athletic Federation of Canada; 44 - Marilyn Grace Bell di Lascio: still alive today, she was the first woman to swim the width of Lake Ontario, a distance of 51.5 km/ 32 miles, and the next year she was the youngest person ever to swim The English Channel; 45 - Eliza Maria Jones (née Harvey): "earned international acclaim for her herd of cattle and bestselling butter" now you see why I put the cow 2.5" square in the centre, although her cows were not Holsteins but Jersey. She was nationally known and respected for her cattle and horse-breeding expertise.

I was tickled pink (ha!) when I found that just about 2.5" square in my tiny-scraps basket.  I love that I've randomly thrown in little pnemonic devices like this to help me remember a block's significance. (Remember the checkered fabric for the racer? The deep red/purple for Viola?) Eliza regularly entertained Sir John A. MacDonald at her farm table! He was Canada's first Prime Minister, elected in...? you got it, 1867! 150 years ago this year.

All right off to work.  Yep, on the Free Fall Quilt Along. 

Linking up with
Sew Fresh Quilts
My Quilt Infatuation

Oh! Remember my own linky is this Saturday, for any DrEAMi! projects you may have made during February. If you missed the last one in January, here is the link.  Have you ever been a victim of one of those Drop Everything And Make it 'gotta-make-it-and-right-now' experiences? This is the party for you!

Migrating Geese in Aqua

Pieced mainly as a leader/ender project, here is row 2 for the RSC2017 Migrating Geese quilt, my project #2.

Scraps of the size required, 5 7/8" squares, are not easy to come by when you do not have a lot of aqua scraps, period.  Therefore, three of the triangles were cut as half triangles of that size square.  There's a bit of the Meadow Mystery in this strip, a bit of a fabric my sister Wendy gave me from her first cruise to the Caribbean, a bit of Tula, a bit of the quilt that occupied the first 12 days of February, about which I have only hinted, and a very old marbled piece from a Magic Tiles quilt, etc...

Honestly, she has new quilt on the floor radar!

I am going to have to organize these strips a bit because I was thinking it would be fun to have one row of geese migrating north and the other south because, well, obviously, that is what geese do.  However, I do not want the triangles lining up, so I have to make sure to start adjacent rows with a triangle on the opposing side.  One row will begin with a triangle on the right, the other row with a triangle on the left.  Confused?  I know what I mean and that is all that counts, right?!

Feeling pretty blue...

I listened, twice, to "Canada's Storyteller:  A Tribute to Stuart McLean" on my CBC app while I pieced this row amongst my other projects over the past couple of days.  I am still choked up about Suart's death; how could he go in two months after announcing he was taking a little break to pursue a second, different treatment for his melanoma after the first one wasn't successful?  And only 68.  I used his stories with my grade 7 English Language Arts (ELA--English teachers, like quilters, love their acronyms) and my grade 9 Honours ELA classes.  The listening tests I made up for "Toilet Training the Cat" and "Christmas Presents" are still used at the junior high where I taught.  It was a wonderful connection with students who were familiar with the Dave and Morley stories and whose families listened regularly to "The Vinyl Cafe" on CBC Radio 2 at 9 am on Saturdays, repeated on Sundays at noon on CBC Radio 1.  I enjoyed the musician guests, many up and coming ones that Stuart would highlight; I loved the Arthur Awards, and lamented with my mum that there will be no more, and my eyes brim with tears as I type this.  For those who don't know, the Arthur Awards were given to people who did random acts of kindness, nominated by a recipient or observer of that kindness.  Those shows, usually featuring 3 recipients, made my rose-coloured glasses view of the world glow hot flamingo-pinky-orange.  Such wonderful persons from coast to coast in Canada.  Stuart LOVED his country and illuminated, but in a quiet non-boastful way, through humour and poignancy, what it means to be Canadian.  I am saddened that within a little over three months we have lost two icons of Canadian culture, Leonard Cohen and Stuart McLean.  Yet I am grateful, so grateful, for such a wealth of a legacy that they leave behind, and so very very thankful that I was able to see both of these talented creative souls in concert.

A little aqua crept in to my Honey Pot Bee blocks for the month of February.  Here we have Star Kisses and Quilter's Pantry Block.

And here are all the blocks so far.  Not really a fan yet, to be honest, but time will tell.  I keep wanting to add a print, but the challenge (to myself) is to do this entirely of solids.

We are beginning week 8 of the #30quiltdesignschallenge.  As of the writing of this post, there are 122 designs in the hashtag pool!  This challenge, to create 30 quilt designs, ends on March 15, so we still have nearly another month.  Here are my latest two, which, I realize, incorporate their fair share of aqua!

Trunk Road was sketched on the way to yoga (don't worry; I wasn't driving), just an image I had in my head of the Canadian Rockies.  I'd finished Merle's Door the previous day, and because so much of the book takes place in Wyoming and the US Rockies, and I was still living in the book in my head, specifically in the Rockies.  I wondered vaguely if I could create a landscape scene using only squares and HSTs...not bad!  This comes from travelling the Forestry Trunk Road in Alberta, basically from the Alberta/Montana border to just north of Hinton, Alberta.  We spent many a happy camping trip over many years of trips here.  This scene is from my mental image of a spot in the southern Alberta end of the Trunk Road, wheatfield or perhaps hay stubble in the foreground, foothills rising beyond and the Rockies towering beneath a blue Alberta sky, Ian Tyson's "This Is My Sky" playing in my head.

Two Point Five, a reference to the 2.5" strips I would use to make this block, is playing around with the Quilter's Pantry block I created for my jar.  Note that I put the lime green strips I thought to make version B easier to piece, on the wrong sides of the block!  I've been intrigued with playing with plaid, so I think the woven look to this stems from that.  So far both attempts to create an overall plaid design quilt have been epic fails, ha!
Linking up with
soscrappy

Updates: 150 Canadian Women and Quilt Challenge

#30quiltdesignschallenge2017

(I know, two posts in one day? Like what's with that? This was the planned one; the Q1FAL list had to get whipped up and posted in time for the deadline.)
There were 32 designs in the challenge on Instagram as of 7 pm Friday night, January 13.  That is fantastic!

I had www.tintup.com choose the winners and they were:
1.  $15 gift certificate to The Red Hen Shop

•  Leanne at Devoted Quilter

2.  fabric from moi

• Abigail at Cut & Alter

3.  fabric from Lisa at Sunlight in Winter Quilts

• Cindy at Stitchin At Home

Thank you so much everyone who has joined Lisa and me in this design adventure.  Here are the ones I have entered so far:

The challenge continues until March 15 remember, so there is lots of time to hop in the pool with the rest of us.  Bi-weekly prizes of $15 gift cards are ongoing and Lisa and I will add a prize too here and there.

Guess what arrived today in my mail?!

EEEEP!!  I am both excited and a tad nervous at having this (again) in my hands.  I had EQ4 years ago when we had our first computer, a PC Seanix.  Have we come a long way baby!  However, think: exhilarating, time-eating, and frustrating all in one?  Now I played a bit over the past few days with Quiltography, an app for iPad which is pretty darn cool and at $13 a bargain for your dollars.  EQ7 I bought with some money my mum gave me for Christmas.  She is influencing my life a fair bit at the moment: I brought down with me a few of the books she has given me over the years, have read two, The Camel Bookmobile and Beatrice and Virgil, and am currently reading and thoroughly enjoying, A Walk Across France.  Thank you Mum!!  There also just may be some fabric bits 'n bobs working their way into a quilt in celebration (belated, sigh) of your auspicious 80th birthday...  Anyhow, onwards and upwards to the designing end of quilting.

Scraps Upon Scraps :  150 Canadian Women project

May I just say I am in LOVE with this ongoing (for a year!) project?  I am in LOVE with what I am learning about my country's kick-ass, bold, and quietly brave women.  Why is this not taught more in our school curriculum?  Right...we learn about Louis Riel, but not about his mother or his grandmother and their contributions and brave accomplishments.  That's wrong!  Anyhow, thank you Next Step Quilt Design, specifically Kat, for this project.

Sidenote: heard that Hayley Wickenheiser has just announced her retirement as of yesterday, Jan. 13.  Five-time Olympic gold medalist, she has done INCREDIBLE things for women's hockey.  And, at age 38, she said she doesn't want to put off going to medical school any longer!  Love her, hope there's a block for her, but if not, remind me to make on as a tribute to her, okay?

Here are this week's three blocks:

#25 Madeleine Parent - she studied sociology at McGill University and fought for the underdog, fighting against horrific working conditions,  a 55-hour work week and child labour in Quebec's cotton and woolen mills; #26 Thérèse Casgrain - she is the epitome of the Japanese proverb "Fall 7 times get up 8" because she ran in politics 9 times unsuccessfully, BUT she ended up being elected as the first woman leader of the NDP, a national party; #27 Dame Emma Albani - first Canadian woman to become an international celebrity; performed at Covent Garden for 24 years running; a favourite of Queen Victoria, she sang at her funeral.

Just wow.  Again.  I used French text in the background for Thérèse, and for Emma, red fabric with crowns because of Queen Victoria, and stars because of her global stardom.  Here is the collection of 27 so far.  Love!

I have a plan for the sashing pieces that is pretty exciting!  Once I have my hands on my fabric, I will reveal my plan.  I think the additions of pinks here and there is brilliant, and I am using low volume backgrounds from whites to creams to a bit of greys.  At this point I am just loving the way all these scraps play together.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I am not loving so much the way my scrap vomit vortex fabric scraps are playing ...uh, together?  Please help:

These were just thrown up willy-nilly on the design wall.  I kind of like the diagonal line happening from the lower left...

I am at pretty big and medium slabs now.  These are about half of the lot.  Put 'em together as is or try to make them into a standard size, say 12X18" and contain some of the chaos by sashing the blocks?  Right now it's uncontrolled chaos which is kind of compelling but kind of nauseating to me.  Having never done this sort of thing I need opinions and suggestions please.  It's going to be a good size, or perhaps even two medium sized quilts?  and the scraps have not gone down a whit, but seem to have increased...wabbits....

Jingle

So did you know that Henry Glass + Kate Spain = baby! Of the ornament kind that is. 😉

Guess I'm still not quite done with Christmas.  This is due in part to procrastination as well as to the win from Henry Glass Fabrics right before Christmas.  You can see the fabrics here.  Funny, one of the little Kleenex pack covers I made and showed in that post is going to the same person as this ornament is!

This is a paper-pieced little pattern from Lori's Country Cottage I got, oh about a century ago. Ha! Maybe about 1/5 of a century ago? Yee-ikes!  How it ended up in with my stuff to take to Florida i have NO clue, but it did, and it grew up from paper to finished quilted ornament. Magic!

Here is the flimsy. At 3.5" square with 3 sections, it gave me a full-quilt-size of trouble.  Trying to line up the angles of the green and the side seams...let's just say I did a whole lotta rippin'.  I settled for this in the end.  Along with Kate Spain's 'Jingle' fabric scraps, I used a scrap of lime from Paintbrush Studio's 2015 new block bloghop fabric. My block is in the very first Quilter's Planner, Nov. 21 week. The stocking cuff is a scrap from a little pillow, Bundle Up!, I made with fabric from a quilt shop I visited while at the Sisters Quilt Show in Oregon!

I quilted it with Sulky Holoshimmer in gold. Wonderful thread for wonderful fabrics.  The back is another print in the Shelly Comiskey "Kringle Krossing" line.

Couldn't get much more perfect a backing!

Here is a closeup, trying to catch the elusive shimmer and sparkle.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Paper pieced single block freebie from Lori's Country Cottage
Size: 3.5" square
Fabric:  scraps and leftovers, except for the stockings Henry Glass Fabrics "Kringle Krossing"
Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 100% cotton scrap
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads:  pieced with Gütermann; quilted with Essential from Connecting Threads and Sulky Holoshimmer in gold 145-6003

I finished my homework for the 150 Canadian Women from Next Step Quilt Designs

From top left, #22 Kate Rice, pioneering prospector, miner and a most notable woman geologist, this gal was not afraid to be alone in the wilderness for extended periods of time, think entire northern Canadian winter?? She ended up living on an island named after her, out in a lake, which is why I used a red with bits of blue in it; #23 Marie-Anne (née Gaboury) Lagemodière - so cool because the Faculté St-Jean, U of Alberta, where I did a major chunk of my schooling is on the Rue Marie-Anne Gaboury in Edmonton. She was the mother of the first legitimate white child, a daughter, born in the Canadian West, she was also the grandmother of Louis Riel; #24 Elsie Knott, another 'kickass' Canadian woman, she drove a school bus along with several other menial jobs including sewing quilts, to support her family. At age 30, she became Chief Elsie Knott of the Ojibway, a respected leader.

I chose that coral pink for Chief Elsie Knott because upon spying it, I thought of Indian beads and dreamcatchers.  For Marie-Anne, grandmother of the famous and infamous Louis Riel, I had to use the maple leaves fabric scraps in the Windfall line.  Can you tell I am enjoying this quilt along?!

One last very exciting announcement!!! Drum ROLLLL!  I have a sponsor for

(and I made a button!) Next I have to remember how to turn it into one for my sidebar...

Presenting...

Melody has had The Red Hen Shop on Etsy since 2013.  She stocks a wide variety of fabric, which includes some older ones you might not find anywhere else.  Click the link or the image to check out her shop!  We are doing four bi-weekly draws for prizes, and besides Lisa and my offerings, there will be a $15 gift certificate for a lucky winner.  And then there is the grand prize for all who complete 30 designs by March 15, a $50 gift certificate!

Although I won't be posting every one of my 30 designs here on the blog, here is #2.  Had a little issues with colouring order...made good use of my eraser!  All good.

Push 'n Pull or Aurora

I've been fascinated with 60° triangles, since my first Stack 'n Whack quilts.  When I first played with this idea, I saw it as either scrappy strings or improv slabs cut into 60° triangles.  When I played with shading, I thought I could try to bring out the hexagons formed by 6 triangles... I included a third colourway of blues, and then realized I needed to separate them so coloured in the solid greys.  Still not sure it works; maybe need the white strip across the bottom side of each triangle?  When I saw the thumbnail of that photo, I was struck by a similarity to the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, something I dearly miss from when we lived just outside of Edmonton, Alberta. I do feel very privileged to have seen them so many many times, dancing across the northerly heavens with their spiderwebs of greenish/goldish/blueish effervescence.

Now I'm taking my effervescent little person off to plan for a couple more exciting announcements coming up very shortly on the blog!
Linking up with
Sew Fresh Quilts
(looks like I'm not the only one still playing with Christmas fabric, check out Lorna's new QAL!!)
My Quilt Infatuation
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
and with
Mrs Sew and Sow for Scraptastic Tuesday

30 Quilt Designs Challenge 2017

Announcing!  Last year Rachel at Stitched in Color started a 30 Days of Quilt Design Challenge which ran from August 5 to Oct. 31.  Sadly, I missed out on it, but thought it such a great idea.  With 2017 shaping up to be more of a year of design, I thought well, why not just do this on my own?  And The Universe said, "Uh, no..."   Shortly thereafter, in conversation with Lisa at Sunlight in Winter Quilts, I brought this up and she said she'd love to do it with me, because she, too, just hadn't been able to join in last year.

So here we go!  If anyone would like to join in, feel free!  I don't have a sponsor (yet...but you never know) but I do have a couple of prizes for certain milestones, for example, 10th design.  I've been saving selvages for a while now since I saw some people like to make things with them!  So this is one prize:

Another is these two fat quarters:

Of course, the best prize is the designs that are yours and yours alone, and that you've challenged yourself, and realized growth. 💖

Here's what I envision:

Who:  Anyone!

What:

• Design a quilt block or an entire quilt.  If you draw a quilt block, maybe put a few together to see what an overall pattern might look like.  Add some colour.  Just as Rachel said in her challenge, you can use non-original blocks, but re-invent them by changing up colour or value, or put two non-original different ones together and see what magic can occur!
• You may submit hand-drawn designs or digital designs.  Personally I find there is something relaxing and Zen-like in getting out the old Crayola pencil crayons and notebook...
• No construction directions needed.
• The goal is to create 30 quilt designs by March 15.

Where:

• Take a photo of your design, number it, and post it on Instagram using the following hashtag:

#30quiltdesignschallenge2017

• Please tag each photo @mmmquilts and @sunlightinwinterquilts so we can see your designs!
• Be sure to number each design.
• To be eligible for prizes, be sure to follow both @mmmquilts and @sunlightinwinterquilts

When:  Today, January 2 - March 15, 2017

Why:  Because...as Henri Matisse said, "Creativity takes courage."  And, as Helen Keller said, "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all."

Here is my Design #1

What a surprise when I thought, 'What if I put sashing between the blocks?' and then saw half-blocks, and then thought, 'Hmm, need to add a third colour...I wonder...'  I like!

Linking up with
Patchwork Times
Cooking Up Quilts

Note: If you have any questions, or I've not thought of something, don't hesitate to shoot me an email, (click View my Complete Profile or use: ephdra at gmail dot com) or ask in the comments below. Be sure to leave your email address if you are a no-reply so I can respond!