PQ 16.1 - Cradled

I always look forward to the start of Project Quilting. It helps make January less unbearable. January has long been a hard month for me: spring and summer seem so far away and it is dark and cold. Letting my creativity bloom is a balm for my winter-weary soul. And let's just pause for a moment because seriously, winter in this furthest south part of Canada, Sandra, is pretty mild really. For example, I was looking for a photo last week and came across one of a wild crocus I'd taken on February 26 last year, so that's only six weeks away. I told the trees that same week on Lake Erie's shore at the end of the common path for lake access in my cul-de-sac to hold on, just six more weeks.

When Tricia of @quiltchicken put out the first prompt, Mythical Creatures, I was immediately excited. I have loved magic and witches my entire life, and fantasy is a genre I still love. I let that prompt percolate in my brain for Sunday and Monday, since I was deep into mountains and aurora borealis on my cousin's quilt, and found it difficult to just drop that train of thought/stitching.

Postcard From Sweden Quilt Finish

I am so happy that the sun was shining and the wind wasn't too crazy to take this beauty off the design wall where she was being blocked,

and on a little trip to Windsor for a glamour photo shoot. The Canadian Coast Guard ship was docked at the riverfront, and boy, did it make for a great photo.

I am also pleased that I got it done with a couple of days to spare before the linkup opens for the final parade of finishes! That linkup is tomorrow, but I did have the quilt done on the weekend. However, it was horrible weather: gale force winds on Saturday and January weather on Sunday! Today Spring is back, 13C and sunny, so I am a happy camper.

A Cover for Billie

I have needed to make one for my Featherweights since I got them. Yes, them. I wanted one for a number of years, and somehow when I finally seriously searched one out, I ended up buying four(!) vintage Singer machines, two of which are Featherweights. This one is a 1947, named Billie, 'born' in New Jersey, US, bought in Belle River, ON. The other is a 1951, Tillie, 'born' in Clydebank, Kilbowie, Scotland, bought in Tillsonburg the day before I got Billie. I take turns sewing with them: one will be out for a couple of months, the other sitting in her hard case, waiting for her turn. Yes, I should sell one, but I love them both. Anyhow. The Project Quilting 13.5 challenge was Rhythm and Repetition, and this cover is the result of that prompt.

I've had the vintage machines fabric for a few years, so it feels good to put the half yard to its intended use!

Mr. Whiskers Project Quilting 12.4

This is my quilt which, sadly, annoyingly, my own fault-ingly, missed the deadline by eight hours.

Sorry, crazy windy today, so it's a bit of a wonky look!

No matter. It is done, and I absolutely love it. 

It was a literal DrEAMi, (I did nothing but madly sew on this all weekend) because as I have been ahem, known to do before, I left it until the last minute.

On Point

Here it is! My December challenge for Island Batik, my last challenge as ambassador, is done! I've named it On Point. You know how I love double entendres.

As I said in the process post, this is the first quilt where I've actually designed a portion of it because I want to showcase the quilting I know I'm going to do there. I wanted to do ribbon candy there and thought the strips of aqua and flame would show it off perfectly. The pearls row finishes off this section to perfection (though they are definitely not perfect!) adding to the meaning of the quilt's name. The quilting becomes a part of the piecing. I love it. And wee-ooh wee-ooh, but didn't HandiQuilter talk about this very phenomenon in their newsletter?! This was after I'd  made this section, so imagine my surprise!

The Final Season

Welcome to my stop on the Island Batik blog hop! I've been dropping hints and showing some peeks at my tree blocks, some partially done, and one, the winter one, complete. They were quite the hit, and I can honestly admit I loved making them, and love how they turned out. I wanted my audience to see them and love them too.

However, I did want to convey a pretty strong message about my beloved trees, both the fabric and the sentient ones.

Avril Has a Jacket

Long overdue is a proper cover for Avril, my longarm, but she will wait no more.

This is my project for October's challenge, thread painting.

All of the fabrics except for the lining fabric were supplied by Island Batik. The gorgeous threads were supplied by Aurifil, except for the grey which is my own purchase, the batting by Hobbs Batting, and the machine needles by Schmetz Needles. Our challenge was to enhance our quilting or shade areas of quilt for effect, add shapes or dimension. Several months ago we had to pick six spools of thread to coordinate with the line we'd been given for this challenge. Mine was Nouveau Soul by Kathy Engle, some of which you saw last month in my Back at Ya backpack. We'd been given the same line to make our bag.

It's in the Bag Blog Hop: Back At Ya Backpack

Today is my day to present the bag I made for the Island Batik blog hop.

I chose to make the backpack 'Back At Ya 2.1'. It's a smaller sized backpack, and the perfect size for me. I was given four pieces from Island Batik's new line Nouveau Soul with which to make the bag. Read on to find out how you could win some of this gorgeous line of fabric for yourself!

Okay I just have to stop right here and say, Nouveau Soul was made for Sandra!! I have said several times how DO they do this, as in choosing the perfect fabrics, colours, but this one? A name with a French word in it, uh bonjour, c'est moi, Sandra, professeur de français, and Soul just makes me think yoga...

All the notions required to make the bag, along with the pattern itself, were supplied by By Annie, the threads by Aurifil, except for a couple that are my own purchases, and the machine needles by Schmetz Needles, except for the jeans needle which I purchased some time ago. 

Well I just had to take my backpack out into the neighbourhood for a test run!

Lee & Maria's On-Farm Market, just 0.5 km from home

I've carried many a bag of produce and other groceries home from here, (ouch my cramping fingers) so having a backpack in which to put my purchases is now a welcome addition to my homemade bags collection.

How about a little closer look?

Annie chose well! Do you see the Art Nouveau styled tulips? Love!

A Positive Spin

Finally, after a lost day due to a migraine, and a chopped up weekend due to adulting and gorgeous weather that I didn't want to totally miss out on, A Positive Spin is done!

Another name popped in my head when I set up this shot (yay for a timer on my phone camera, as I am behind the quilt and the camera!) 'Twisting by the Pool".

This is my August challenge quilt for  Island Batik. They supplied the fabric, Hobbs Batting supplied the batting, Aurifil the thread for the entire project, Studio 180 Designs supplied the ruler, and Schmetz Needles supplied the needle I used to piece the quilt!

This was a bit different of a challenge in that I didn't get to decide what fabric to use; I was given a 10" stack of William's Garden, yardage of a dark purple Basic, and a light purple, Bubbles, along with a Deb Tucker tool. I added in Island Batik's white solid.

Grace Once Again

For the month of June, we have a 'free' challenge, meaning we can make whatever we want. I knew I'd work with the Faded Blue Jeans line by Kathy Engle, and make a quilt. I wasn't sure what, exactly. You can read the background about the quilt and see the flimsy in this post, so I won't repeat myself.

I got the quilt quilted on the weekend and bound on Monday. I took it to Seacliff Beach after supper for some evening light on it against Lake Erie.

I love how it turned out.

Centred Pattern Release and You Got This!

I am so pleased to release the quilt pattern for Centred, available as of today in my Etsy shop, Sandra Jane Quilts. I am doubly pleased to present the second version of my pattern, which I have named "You Got This".

This is the quilt I made during my Centred QAL.

It is hard to let this one go, as I love this multi-coloured version so much! However, thanks to a recent story on our local CBC Windsor News, I became aware of Launch Pad Recovery Center and its work with recovering addicts. I am so in awe of people who have chosen to beat their addiction problems which are often, but not always, caused by mental health issues. I love this part of their mandate: "Our holistic approach allows healing of the Mind, Body and Spirit."

Storm at Sea Finish

Finally, half a month late, my One Die Wonder Challenge for Island Batik is done!

Rather fitting to show a Storm at Sea quilt as we have been in a wet, gloppy snowstorm all day here, and it was snowing when I walked down to the lake edge for the photo shoot. So yes, there are a few white blurs on the photo, and now you know what they are! Yesterday was April, today is February. Springtime in Canada, eh?

Holiday House

This is my first project for the December challenge with Island Batik. We were to incorporate 3D elements into our project. As you know, I love depth perception, shadows and layers in quilting, so to say I was excited about this challenge is a bit of an understatement! Truth tea: I have exactly six project ideas for the challenge... Here is the first:

It's my House Block pattern (see sidebar link to it) with a 6" presents block on the side! All of the fabrics were supplied by Island Batik.  Hobbs Batting supplied the 100% wool batting (which I originally used in my suitcases quilt Oh! The Places You'll Go!) and Aurifil supplied most of the thread I used in the project. Some of the threads and the embellishments are my own.

Bear Paw Dance Finish

I was a few days late for the finish of this quilt, as it was our Island Batik September challenge, and now it's taken a few more days to get a post together, because my daughter and darling grandson have been here visiting from Alberta. You may have seen the finish post on Instagram, where he not only was a most capable quilt holder, but also a pretty amazing quilt photographer to boot!

Here is my spin on the traditional Bear Paw block, which I've named Bear Paw Dance, because I've 'blown apart' the block and I have the paws waltzing around the centre four blocks! This is one of the quilts on my Q3FAL list which is here.

Beat the Heat! Island Batik Blog Hop - Ripples

Welcome to my stop on the Island Batik Blog Hop where we are showcasing Spring 2019 collections. I got the fantabulous Electric Desert by Jackie Kunkel collection.

Isn't it divine? For the challenge we had to create a lap size or larger quilt, using as many of the fabrics in our line as possible. I used every single one of these 31 chops! I knew I wanted a modern style of quilt, but as per usual, I waffled on what design to do: invent a fresh one (started to sketch out some basic blocks to use my AccuQuilt Go! dies), then thought I could do my own design that was recently published in an ezine, and actually started cutting the 2.5" strips for it with that fabulous die, and then, I opened a recently purchased book that I just love, and want to make every quilt in it, The Quilter's Negative Space Handbook, by Sylvia Schaefer. You know when the universe aligns and you just feel it deep in your heart, your solar plexus your mind, your third eye and you hear the choir voices soar? Yeah, that all happened....it was heat all right, of the This is the one! kind.

A quilt in a tree, Lake Erie in the background...pretty much all you need to know about me in one photo.

Night Watch

I am on a roll! Two challenge pieces done well ahead of time! This month the challenge came from Aurifil, "to use any fabric art/non-traditional quilting/sewing/thread-painting technique using three Aurifil thread weights." We were to include three photos of how weights were used. Photos is never a problem for me! 

All of the fabrics, threads, and batting were provided to me by Island Batik, Aurifil and Hobbs, respectively. Allow me to walk you through the process that ended with this not-square, not round, not oval quilt.

Pastel Froth

Well look at me: it's not the last day of the month, or the first day of a new one, and my challenge is done! It was actually done a couple days ago, but A. rain all day yesterday, and B. sore finger from hand-stitching the facing meant I took breaks. This was an interesting challenge again this year: I made myself try this Texture Magic I've had for a few years with all the fabric to make the original project, but have kept putting it off. It also made me sit down and just do it: a faced binding. Yeah, I've quilted for over 20 years but have never finished a quilt in this way.

You know the saying about the biggest or hardest part of trying something new is the first step? I know that for a fact! Yet every time I do 'just do it' whether it's going for something scary in yoga like drop backs or going off on a travel adventure, or trying something new in my quilting/sewing life, I am always the richer for it, and the rush I get from facing the fears and conquering them is wonderful. Why don't you come on in and see what I made, or if you've been watching the progress on Instagram, then see how it all turned out?

Luminous Layers

Well, I missed the deadline by hours, missed the sunshine we had this morning, but I am still very happy to have a finish to share. A deadline I did not miss is the Q2FAL, as this is one of the quilts on my list. This is the May challenge for Island Batik, who supplied all the gorgeous fabrics; 'Twilight Chic" is the line I used. This month is also focusing on Hobbs Batting, who supplied several packages of batting for us.

You may have read the finished flimsy post, which is here, but I will tell you again that this is a quilt I designed during the 30 Quilt Designs Challenge that I hosted again this year, (three years running now!). I will also tell you, though most of my readers know by now, that I love star quilts. I started to design this from the outside, working my way in towards the centre.

Black is always hard to get the light on the right angle to show the quilting, but despite the lack of sun this afternoon, and literally a half hour before severe thunderstorms hit, I managed to get a few shots that show the quilting. This one also shows the colours very well!

Pasque Star Finish

You may wonder why I call this Pasque Star. I wanted a reference to the pink, and yeah, I know pasque flowers are more of a soft purple, but pasque is a reference to Pâques, which is Easter in French, I made this quilt around Easter, it's Spring, and it just reminds me of those soft, early prairie crocus, as they are also called. (photo from Canadian Wildlife Federation)

I used to grow them in my garden in Alberta. Sadly I am too far south now in Canada for them to grow here, though here we have wild violets galore and snowdrops in early spring!

Here it is on that perfect fence for hanging small quilts, in front of our barberry that's leafing out so nicely!
Note that Island Batik supplied all the fabric for this quilt, Hobbs Batting supplied the batting, and Aurifil supplied the thread. And! The quilt was made with the AccuQuilt Go! Cube 8" dies and 2.5" strip die, both supplied by AccuQuilt!

Cheerio! Finished!

A few hours past the end of March, but worth it in my humble opinion. This is the March challenge for Island Batik, who provided all the INTENSE, incredible, delicious (I want to sing loudly all of that) fabrics for this project. Aurifil provided some of the threads, some are my own purchases, and Hobbs Batting supplied the batting. We were to reimagine a vintage block or quilt in a modern way.

This is one of the projects on my Q1FAL List which you can find here. I named it "Cheerio!" because it's an English expression of greeting, and this quilt is so warm and bright, I immediately think that; in fact, I can hear it in my head, with an English accent of course! Also the block is sort of a round 'o', and makes me think of the American cereal, Cheerios! So a double entendre, which I love.