Bloggers' Quilt Festival - Cows Quilt

This is my second entry in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival 2017 held at Amy's Creative Side. My first entry is here.

I named this one for the phrase I can still hear clearly in my head from many many early mornings when I'd sleep out at my grandma's farm, and also at my aunt's, "C' Boss!" calling in the cows to be milked.  The C is pronounced "cuh", short for 'come'. "Boss" is short for Bossy, a common cow's name.

Bloggers' Quilt Festival Radiance

I checked the time left: 1 h 33m to add a link...
YIKES!!

After I got home from teaching yoga, I decided to 'just sew a little first' ...
Famous last words.
Anyhow here is Radiance, a quilt I made for nephew #2, Aidan. It's on its way out to Alberta as I type.

This is Quilting Jet Girl Yvonne's Triangle Transparency pattern, done in oranges, Aidan's favourite colour.
You can read about the flimsy here.

At 60" square, I decided it wouldn't quite work for a tall young man to keep both his chest and his tootsies toasty warm on cold Alberta evenings while watching TV, or, if he chose to use it on his bed, I wanted it the length of the bed.  So I added the migrating geese to opposite ends and we now have a 60X72" quilt.

I had fun with the quilting.  His big brother's quilt had a little more involved piecing with simple meander quilting, so since this was simple piecing, I thought I'd punch it up with some custom quilting.  Here you see the wavy lines behind those, "Are they streaming south, or are they streaming north?" migrating geese. Answer: one way at the top of the quilt, the other direction at the bottom, so there!

I contrasted all the angles with swirls in the outer border of the four centre blocks, and did alternating line-style quilting motifs with curvy-style motifs in each of the other three 'rounds' of the block.

In the centre I did some radiating lines...radiating, radiance, Aidan, wow see the unplanned anagrams-type playing with names?

It ended up making a pretty cool almost circular pattern in the very centre of the quilt.

The back is rather manly:

I know it will be used and loved in the new home Aidan has recently built.

If you'd like to see more photos and read more about this quilt, click here for the finish post.

AND...if you'd like to see more beautiful, incredible quilts, you may want to grab a cup of coffee or tea, maybe a glass of wine, or maybe something cool on which to sip if you're on the eastern side of North America, 😎 and head over to Amy's Creative Side.

Now let's see if I can proof this, publish it, link it and write the other one up this quickly for a second entry!

Bloggers Quilt Festival ROYGBIV

I nearly missed the festival this year, but have decided at the 11th hour, to put in a quilt.  This is Rainbow Kitty Rows, my quilt for the Modern Quilters Ireland Rainbow Rose QAL that Ruth of Charly & Ben's Crafty Corner designed this past summer.  It is going in the ROYGBIV category in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival hosted by Amy at Amy's Creative Side.

This is made from all scraps and stash.  The rainbow kitty fabric is Laurel Burch, left over from my Merry Catmas quilt.

Those rainbow arching kitties in their haphazard rows are on the back too.

I had lots of fun quilting this one and I am so pleased with how it turned out.

Pre-binding, and pre-washing, but the light was really good here to show off the quilting definition.

I used Aurifil variegated in the star and the carpenter's wheel star surround, and Isacord white in the Kona Snow background.  I'm pleased that the effect of the quilted 'frames' is how I envisioned, that the pieced block sections float and the quilted frames weave underneath.

I did lots of micro or matchstick quilting behind the ghost geese to flatten them down but so worth it.  I was also surprisingly pleased by the wavy quilting I did in the carpenter's wheel star surround.

I also like this flimsy shot:

You can read more about the quilt here.  It hangs by my longarm on the wall, a great colourwheel to have as a reference as well as a great boost to my spirit that I did that!  On Avril!

Under our Pee Gee Hydrangea trees, which are still blooming like crazy two months later, as it's been so warm. I have a bouquet of them sitting on my counter as I type this!

Hope you'll hop over to the festival and take a look at all the wonderful creations, truly inspiring and good food for your creative soul.  Voting begins this week; click here for the Viewers' Choice voting form.

Bloggers' Quilt Festival Small Quilt

Twice a year, Amy at Amy's Creative Side hosts this spectacular online show for the bloggers left behind when the Quilt Show happens in Houston.


This is my second entry into the festival.  This is Jack and Friends For Brady, and I'm entering it into the Small Quilt category.  Clicking on that link will take you to the page where you will find all the quilts entered into this category. 

Bloggers' Quilt Festival Modern Quilt

I always love seeing all the entries and eye candy in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival that Amy at Amys' Creative Side so kindly hosts during Quilt Market.  It's a roundup of the latest and greatest finishes bloggers have created.  She offers some incredible prizes in each of the categories as well.  Quilty loveliness no matter which way you slice it, right?

I am entering Parisville Weave into the Modern Quilt category.  I finished this quilt at the very end of August. I've petted, cuddled, and slept many a night under this quilt; it brings me great joy! It measures approximately 75X87".

I really need to find a better way to display large quilts.  My husband is so cooperative, but for the larger ones, his armspan doesn't quite do the quilt justice. Still, I was able to get some great shots.

One of my neighbours was gracious enough to let me shoot some photos from his walkout-basement home so I could get a full-on shot.

I really went to town on the quilting on this one.

I quilted it on my Avanté, using ruler work for the dot to dot designs and free-motion quilted for all the others.  There is a little Angela, a little Christina, and a little Kathleen here.

I fell in love with the aqua and red colour combination when I saw the quilt, and decided to purchase the kit.  I quilted it almost entirely with Isacord threads, and a variegated Coats and Clark one for the Christina Cameli meander.

This is a pattern and kit from Quilt Sampler Fall 2011 magazine.  It is mainly Tula Pink's Parisville line of fabrics but there are some Art Gallery fabrics in it as well, and Kona solid for the side setting triangles.

Here is the back, backing I picked up from Fat Quarter Shop in their sale section.

For more information on the construction you can go here, and for more photos and detail of this quilt you can go here.

Voting begins in two days.  Thanks so much to Amy for organizing this and for everyone who does take the time to enter.  It's a fun and inspiring celebration. :-)

Bloggers' Quilt Festival - Spring 2015 - Entry #2

I am happy to share with you my choice for my second entry into the Blogger's Quilt Festival! Although I have had just a small amount of time to glance through some of the entries, I am just so impressed and inspired by what quilters around the world are doing every minute of every day, 24/7!  It's a feast for the eyes, a massage for the spirit, a flame to ignite creativity...and it's F. R. E. E. !!!  Thank you Amy!

Although the main voting begins May 22, you can now vote for your 3 favourite quilts in the Viewers' Choice.  Go here to vote.  Anyone with an email address can vote for the favourite three within the entire festival.

So without further ado, here is my second entry, my Seashell Runner.  I am entering it into Small Quilts.  It is too big perimeter-wise for the mini quilts category, and I already put a quilt into Art Quilts, and I'm not sure whether this really is an art quilt...maybe they need a runners category, right?!

I bought the pattern several years ago in Florida at a quilt shop.  I wanted something designed by a local, and I'd planned to make it for the condo we owned at that time in Florida.  I picked up several fat quarters of batiks I thought would work.

And there it sat, in a drawer, for several years.

This winter, I took it down to Florida once again (yep, it went down...and back north last winter, not gonna lie) and put it on my Q1 FAL list.

And got it done!  Here is the back:

All the satin-stitching and quilting detail looks pretty cool.

I was so pleasantly surprised that it fits absolutely perfectly on the coffee table in our house we now own in Florida.  Love that.

I brought it back north for show 'n tell at my Kingsville guild meeting, and was even more happy to find that it fits here on our coffee table!  We live on Lake Erie, so the shells theme works here too, maybe not so much the sharks' teeth and starfish, but that's okay.

It's pretty unique as far as quilted runners go; each shell or shark's tooth is made individually and then all the shells, starfish and sharks' teeth are tacked together.  You can read more about the process here and here, and the finish here.

One more detail shot:

You can find this quilt in the Small Quilts category.  Remember that the thumbnails change places each time you visit a page, so you have to hunt through all the tantalizing pics to find the one you want.  Good strategy for more than one reason, wink.

Voting starts May 22, but you can vote now for Viewers' Choice - pick your fave three quilts!  It is so interesting (and a vortex to be sure, but a good vortex) to go and see all the many many entries.  And thank you so very much to Amy at Amy's Creative Side for organizing this twice yearly event--she's been doing this since 2009!!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival - Spring 2015 - Entry #1

Good thing I have good friends like Judy who cue me in to the happenings in quilting blogland. Otherwise I'd remain under my rock, that, or find out about things too late.

So I did know about Spring Quilt Market in Minneapolis May 15-17; I've really enjoyed reading all about the prep work that goes into making a booth for the show in Carrie Nelson's posts for Moda Fabrics.  Well, Amy at Amy's Creative Side holds a Bloggers' Quilt Festival for those of us who can't attend market, so that we get some eye candy and inspiration, fun and friends to help quell the emotions of wishing we were there!  I just found out on her festival page that she has been doing this since 2009, twice each year! Wow.  I've entered twice before and each time encounter new blogs and many many creative people.

My first entry is Gears for My Gearhead, a suggestion by Judy.  I would not have even thought of it!  I am entering it into the Art Quilt category. Here is the original finish post and here is the construction post.

Bloggers' Quilt Festival Entry #2

Well, jeez Louise, I do have another entry for the festival.

It's Watercolour Steps, and I'm entering her into the Scrappy Category in Amy's Fall Edition of the festival.  You can read more about the quilt here.

Took this picture this morning so it's an outside full shot, not in the sun, but sorry, no "hu-mon", as my friend Jude says, to do the honours of holding it up, so I had to make do with what I had, which was the outside clock Joe and Jude designed and Joe made.

Interesting how when you revisit a quilt, you see new things.  My first entry for the Fall festival has a "first" in it:  the first use of a straight-edge blue ruler, the same that Angela Walters uses (I saw it in one of her Craftsy classes, asked her what it was and she told me, such a cool feature on Craftsy to be able to ask your instructor questions, AND get them answered pretty quickly).  So I bought one, as I couldn't figure out how I would ever get good enough to stitch straight lines on my longarm!  This one gave me lots of practice.

This lap quilt also has a "first":  my first experience pattern-testing for another blogger-friend.  I really enjoyed the experience!

It is Star Steps, by Joanne of Canuck Quilter.  This pattern, and several other designs of hers, are available in her Craftsy store.  She designed a baby quilt, so when I tested the pattern, I thought I'd get my Laura Boehnke on (American Patchwork & Quilting readers get that) and give it a different feel.  So I went with adult feel (no surprise there) but kept the gradations of colour idea, and took them to florals, wondering if I really did have a variety of florals that would read one particular colour...and I did! Here you can see a pink row, a green row and a purple row.

Straight lines in the pale rails, double line in one, single in the alternate ones

Front, back, binding, and border fabric all visible

Hard to tell, but I did a loopy flower in the floral areas, and feathers in the borders

The back:

I did a Dot to Dot Angela Walters-style in the star

So this, my friends, is why quilters NEED a large and accommodating stash!  That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Hop on over to the festivities at Amy's Creative Side and check out, as they say, all the eye candy.  Love these shows where you can "chill" in your pjs, cup of java in hand, and study quilts to your heart's content.

Speaking of hopping, look who hopped onto our front porch yesterday:

By my husband's foot, size 10!

Papa Praying Mantis.  I did not know they changed colours...is it a Fall thing?  Or a camouflage thing?  Or a different species?  The others I've seen were all brilliant green.

Bloggers' Quilt Festival - Fall Entry #1

 

I might have two.  I nearly had none, but Judy of Quilt Paradigm reminded me of this fresh breath of summer quilt I made (summer lost now!) and I thought, well, why not.  Just as I say when I teach yoga, "Thank you for coming; without you there would be no class,"  without quilts entered, there would be no festival.

Besides, I didn't get my snowflake done yesterday for Joanne's linky in her Snowalong, so I have to post something as it's been a few days--!




So here is my first entry, Summer Breeze.

You can read about the quilt here and here.

It's Angela Walters' fabric, mainly from her Textures line with a couple from Legacy.  The white is Kona in snow.  The pattern is Off Track by Cluck Cluck Sew.

I used several of her quilting motifs and principles from her book as well as her Craftsy classes.  This was the first quilt where I used my blue ruler to quilt straight lines, and it was a learning experience.  Had a little accident, but all is good.

I did swirls in all the solid white areas.

It crinkled up wonderfully.  I love how the seams just disappeared once it was quilted.

It's a great lap quilt!  I'm entering it into the Modern Quilts Category.  Hop on over to Amy's Fall Bloggers' Quilt Festival for some amazing inspiration and to vote for your favourite one!

You win some; you lose some

Last night I checked the Bloggers' Quilt Festival, and was both sad as well as happy.  Sad, because I did not win, but happy because Seaside Rose came in 19th out of 107 quilts in that category(!!), and Hidden in Plaid Sight came in tied for 24/25th place out of 95!  Thank you to all my friends and family who took the time to read the posts about my two quilts, as well as to go on the site and vote.  I got many wonderful emails of kind words that, as I said to my brother, mean as much, if not more than your votes did. 

Yesterday I plugged away on the handquilting of my runner that I have until oh, sometime this evening to link up for Melissa's Lovely Year of Finishes.  Somehow think that's going to be another "lose some" as I highly doubt I can finish it, but I will try.

Last night I opted for a beach evening instead of handquilting.  "There is nothing so wrong with the world that gazing at water won't fix." Think I need to work that into a quilt.  My own saying, just came out of my mouth in a conversation.

Looking south towards Pelee Island, 17 miles away on the horizon

We are doing this every Friday evening again this summer, the neighbours who live on our lane, that is: head down to our beach, which is at the end of the "keyhole" lane, lawn chairs and beverage in hand, to visit and to enjoy the sun setting, the birds, and the sound of the waves.  The waves were so gentle last night, just an occasional lapping sound. 

View towards the west

Unlike earlier this week, when the waves were quite strong from the east, stirring up a lot of sand.  Rocco had to be hosed down pretty thoroughly after his swim!

Is that a cigar in his mouth?!

Nope, it's a stick; we lost his brand new toy when it sunk after I threw it when he wasn't watching where. . . but I got it back last night, six days later, washed up on the beach!

On Thursday, we heard, before we saw, the carp swimming out of the lake up into Mill Creek to spawn.  Rocco was pretty intrigued, as was I.

Mill Creek where it empties into Lake Erie - lots of carp visible

This goes on over several days; they were there again this morning, along with what looked like several Koi and some Bass.  They appear to try to jump onto the banks, splashing, swimming over each other, milling and swarming around in masses.  Carp are BIG fish too!

Well, better get at that runner. . . and the Christmas scrap quilt, which is 1/4 quilted. . . and the charity bags (I'm making two) which I got cut out. . .

And another one down...

in the hand-quilted tablerunner I'm trying to get finished for Melissa's A Lovely Year of Finishes.  I took this picture outside yesterday afternoon so it is in much better lighting than last night's.  I have 3 star blocks in this runner, and I've finished quilting two.

This is the centre star block, a star in a star--is it called Rising Star?

So this afternoon, another absolutely picture-perfect day of clear blue skies and warm smiling sun, I sat outside and quilted this last block so I could get another daytime picture.

I'm pretty sure this is called Evening Star

The "rays" that I quilted in the ivory triangles just happened.  I'd thought about maybe doing a small triangle inside that triangle, but worried I wouldn't get them all the same size, or perfectly centred.  So I thought, why not just split the triangle in 3, doing 3 lines of quilting, and after I'd got the first 2 done in the centre block, I saw that it looked like rays!  Love it.

So, just the outside border to do now, and I think I'm going to do a simple cable there as the fabric is just so wonderful that I don't want to detract from it.  I actually cannot believe I can see the light at the end of the tunnel to finishing this runner after leaving it sit for so many, many years.  And, it comes as a bit of a shock, but I really love hand-quilting, outside of my very sore left hand pointer and third finger...  However, diaper rash cream to the rescue!

Yep, it's been 25+ years since I've needed it for my babies, but I still buy my fave brand, Penaten, for burns, blisters, splits in fingers or toes, rough calluses, and now, for my two fingers, and it's eased the "ouch" remarkably well already.

What else was I doing this weekend?

I've had this quilt from Sarah's post of Confessions of A Fabric Addict, one of the first quilt blogs I followed with Bloglovin' about Hands2Help on my brain all weekend, so last night, I dug through my almost non-existent greys, and started cutting 4 1/2" squares.  I plan to do another using 6 1/2" squares for a baby quilt.  This first one could be a small baby quilt or a wallhanging.  I plan to give it to our Guild's Boutique for the fundraiser at our quilt show this September.  The best part?  It's all from my scraps and stash!  Love that.

Here it is on the design wall tonight:

I'd hoped to get it pieced before I posted this, but life has happened since supper. . .   I've got the first two columns pieced à la my "Book It!" method.  I'm hoping to link up with Sarah if I'm not too late, for my first linky to her "Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?"


Remember to visit The Bloggers' Quilt Festival!  I have two quilts entered there for the first time.  I'm really starting to have my eyes opened by this huge world of Quilting Blogland, and I'm just loving it!!  So much to do, so many like-minded supportive people, and SO MANY ideas!!!  My two quilts are Seaside Rose, entered into the Large Quilts Category....

Seaside Rose was posted about here and here and here and here, good grief, and here!  She was a lengthy, but oh-so-worth-it creation.

and Hidden in Plaid Sight, entered into the Original Design Category.  There are 650 quilts in all of the categories, and there are some absolutely stunning beauties.
Hidden in Plaid Sight was posted about here and here!

Click the "here" links to read about the two quilts.  The first "here" is the contest entry post that summarizes the quilt.  Click the hot-linked categories in the paragraph above to go directly to the voting page.  You might have to scroll through the many(and get side-tracked!!)  beautiful quilts entered.