OMG Times Three

1. OMG

One Monthly Goal

I did not get my 150 Canadian Women top to the flimsy stage last month so I am moving it on over to this month. It's a pretty huge goal, but I did move it along by getting all 150 sashing 1.5X6.5" strips attached.

Stacked all in one pile, they'd equal 8" high of blocks!

I've since realized that we are not doing a 10X15 block layout, which would have created a rather long skinny quilt, but a 12X13 block layout. That means I need 156 blocks, so I have to make six more. Kat suggests just plain red 6.5" squares, or a maple leaf... I have a few ideas, just need to get them into the fabric. I also bought a half metre of "With Glowing Hearts" from my LQS that is a plaid-looking fabric with red maple leaves that are 1" square on it! Perfect for the cornerstones.

2.  OMG

Ontario-inspired Maker who is German
Her name is Claudia, and she lives in Germany. She reads my blog, every post! Awww.  Earlier this year, in April to be exact, she was in Florida for some time. Well, she decided to do my Freefall QAL which was running on the blog around that time. She says the fabrics she chose were inspired by the previous October's trip to Toronto, which sits on Lake Ontario:

She was visiting a neighbour's daughter, who has married a Canadian and lives in Toronto.  She writes:

It was such a nice time last year in October, with all this sunshine, it was warm and all this wonderful colors around us. Great. I am sure we will be visit this area again sometimes.

I am so awed and grateful that she DID my QAL, (I have another in the works, yep, another shadow quilt! for Spring 2018 in the works), that she took the time to write to me to tell me and send me these photos, that she was in Florida (you may recall we spend a few months there in the winter), and that she was inspired by one of our Great Lakes' Fall colours. How absolutely wonderful is all that?  Wonderful, glorious, is her rendition of Freefall:

Rich lush batiks! In lush Florida too!

Look at the quilting!

Close-up of the quilting and the batiks--yum!

Thank you Claudia, from the bottom of my heart!

3. OMG

Over the Moon Girl

My daughter Dayna and her boyfriend Tyler spent American Thanksgiving weekend in Chicago. Their first day there, he dropped to one knee by Lake Michigan...

Yup, he's now her fiancé.😃 And I am One 'Maman' Grinning with happiness for them. It does my heart good to see my daughter literally brimming with joy, hear the excitement and happiness in Tyler's voice and on his face as he told us what he was going to do and asked for our blessing, and then get the call/FaceTime of utter elation and tears of happiness from her after he proposed. Next year is looking to be filled with much joy!

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts

Windblown Cushion Cover

This little gem of a cushion or pillow cover was on my Q1 FAL list.  Oh well, the point is it's done, right? And I just love it! So summery.

I had plans to drive to my beloved Lakeside Park to do the photo shoot, but then I thought hmm, maybe there's a spot in our yard, rounded the back of the deck and spied this!  Like you'd think I had totally planned it, down to putting the begonia there.  Nope.  But I'll take it!

You saw the flimsy in my previous post.  This cushion is based on my Freefall and Windfall quilt pattern, but uses only four blocks of the half and half kind. There were a few choices I had to arrange the four...

It was hard to decide!  In the end I thought floating them on a large pinwheel would add to the twirling effect. I got the top together, complete with mitred corners, and called it a night.  Went upstairs the next morning to layer it and figure out a quilting plan...

Someone had laid claim to it! The cheek! If you look closely at the upper left corner by the migrating geese strips, you will see her very own perch, one of several, I might add, by a window, complete with her very own handmade by yours truly, cushion. She likes the new stuff.  Without fail.

Some of the quilting plan came to me no problem:

Loving the sheen of the Sulky white rayon.

The lines in the white areas in opposite directions I thought would look kind of cool.  Then I did flowing lines on the diagonal in the leaves themselves.  Finally the turquoise sections...hmmm. I was stumped for a bit, so I pulled out my trusty plexiglass and dry erase markers, brilliant idea of my friend Tish, and drew out a couple of thoughts:

What? No feathers? Maybe dot to dot then...meh...the continuous curve appealed to me.

Found some matching rayon thread by Gütermann, and off I went, just eye-balling the curves.  I went with three straight lines centred in the borders, and called it a night.

Managed to capture a quick shot of the back as the sun was setting.

Just as I was dropping off to sleep, zing! Into my head popped the idea, (but of course, Sandra!) of doing a flanged binding. Yes! So I did.

Perfect choice!

Here is the back, an envelope style, but I don't double the fabric layers.  I wouldn't have had enough fabric anyhow, ha!

I remembered to sew on my mmm! quilts label from Ikaprint AS I was sewing on the binding:

When I stitched down the flange, I used the turquoise rayon on the top.  I am not a fan of the line of stitching you get on the back when doing binding this way, although I sure am a fan of the look and the speed. I thought the white cotton Gütermann would show more on the back...what are the chances I'd have a salmon/rose colour to put in the bobbin... Chances were great! I stocked up on quite a variety of colours of Essential thread at one of Connecting Threads' sales. That is an affiliate link, so it is also my duty to let you know that clicking it will take you to the thread sale currently on (25% off so that means US$2.09 for a 1200 yard spool of 100% cotton, terrific thread) and I might mention that all their batting is 30% off as well. That's when I usually pick up a few packages of Hobbs, the brand they carry. Anyhow, threads:

You actually do get a bit of an idea of the sheen the rayon threads give in that photo.

In retrospect, I think a circle quilting motif would have been better for the spinning effect.  That thought struck me this morning when I went to do the binding, and I saw the finished cover sitting on my sewing table.  Maybe there's another one of these in my future!

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Windblown, original design
Size:  after quilting 18.25"
Fabric: Recollection by Katarina Rocella (how I love her work) for Art Gallery Fabrics, Stof Fabrics in turquoise, Kona Snow
Batting: Warm n Natural
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads:  pieced with Gütermann; quilted with Sulky rayon, Gütermann rayon

Once I release the pattern, which will hopefully be in July, I will include instructions for making this pillow as well as both sizes of quilts.  If you haven't seen all the beautiful renditions of Freefall, go back one post or click here, and follow the links to gorgeous takes on my design!  If you fell behind in the QAL, you have until Sunday afternoon, 4 pm EST to link up your flimsy or your finished quilt to be eligible for some pretty sweet prizes. And if this is the first time seeing my Freefall pattern, all the steps to make the quilt are in the Freefall tab up top, and all the steps are available as free PDFs in my Craftsy store. 😊

Speaking of Sunday, and Craftsy, all things sweet, Craftsy is having a Supplies Sale from now until Sunday.  This is when I have scored some pretty sweet deals on kits and on fabric and yarns.  As always, thank you so much if you click through on my links to either Craftsy or Connecting Threads.

Linking up
Crazy Mom Quilts
TGIFF at Cut & Alter
Busy Hands Quilts

Freefall Quilt Along Step 5

Woo hoo!  We are HERE!  Some of you are all, 'been there done that' because you've got your tops all sewn up, but here is the official final step to assemble the 25 blocks into a flimsy along with some quilting ideas.

Here is Freefall, in flimsy form.  Tish based her colouring page on this layout, which is also downloadable from my Craftsy store (affiliate link) for free.

I stand before you to say do not follow this layout to a 'T'.  Yup.  I've said this in several places here on the blog and in the PDFs to note where three of my leaves point together.  Not good because there are so many seams coming together there and it makes for a bit of a lump when you quilt over that area.

Here is the Windfall layout as a flimsy:

Complete with a Bella bum.

You can tilt your leaves any which way you like, even the H1-3 leaves can be in various places as long as the shadow leaf 45-degree lines are correct.

Moral of the story: don't be seamy, be free, and tilt away! 😁

As for assembly, you may want to try my 'Book It' method, which I almost always use for assembling quilt tops. Basically you sew the quilt blocks in columns, chaining each column together as you sew pairs together.  This quilt has an odd number grid, so you'd have two columns of 'books' and then one column of singles.  I learned this way back when I did colourwash quilts and I had many 2" blocks to keep in exact orientation.

Quilting

I don't know about you, but every since I bought my first quilt magazine, or quilt book, and came to the 'Quilting' part of a quilt pattern, I got supremely upset and disappointed to read the phrase, "Quilt as desired."  I get a little happier when I read these days, "Sandra quilted flowing lines with echoes, and swirls in the background.  She quilted straight lines across the shadow leaf, treating it as a separate entity from the background, and ignoring the leaves that fall on it. She also quilted some ghost leaves in the background areas."

I get really ecstatic when I get a drawn diagram or a photo that shows the quilting!

And when I get closeups to study.

This was after the shadow leaf had all the straight lines quilted. And okay full disclosure: I had no clue was not totally sure what I was going to do in the background!

Freefall was quilted on my Bernina.

I went with quite large swirls, 3/8-1/2" spacing, echoes and of course a ghost leaf

Windfall was quilted on Avril, my HandiQuilter Avanté.

Windfall got a border of ribbon candy around the shadow leaf after I did several straight-line echoes of the shadow leaf

Each leaf that was in the background got its own design.

Feathers, with contrasting thread

Leaf veins with matching thread

More leaf veins

And some got dot to dot work and elongated figure eight and continuous curves.

Threads

Freefall was done entirely with one colour of thread, probably my favourite one for blending in with multiple fabric colours, Aurifil 2600.

Like my Bernina, Avril likes pretty much any thread I've used on her, from cotton to polyester to rayon, various brands and weights.
For Windfall, I used Essential cotton, Isacord polyester, Floriani rayon and Aurifil cotton.

So there.  I hope I've made you ecstatic, and given you ideas. This quilt is quite a graphic design, so you could do straight lines across the entire top; alternatively, you could do wavy 'organic' lines across its top.  I wanted to define the shadow leaf from the background when I planned my quilting.  You can use whatever threads you and your machine prefer.

You have exactly one month, that is until June 15, what would have been my dad's 91st birthday, to get your quilts assembled into tops if you haven't already done so, and then quilted up and bound ready for the final parade and prizes!  To see a list of the prizes, go here and here and here.
There are 4 fabric prizes, a copy of the book Crafted Appliqué, and 8 pattern prizes!

Again, I cannot say it enough: THANK YOU!! 😘😘😘😘😘😘😍😍 for taking a chance on a blogger doing her first quilt along, to my sponsors for being so agreeable to offer prizes, and to my followers for quilting along with me...even though, sadly, I did not quilt along on a third version - YET - with you due to IRL circumstances.  It means so much that you've done this, and I hope you've had fun and that you are pleased with your quilts! I know I am blown away (ha, pun not originally intended) by the beautiful falling leaves quilts I've been seeing!  I cannot WAIT for the parade in a month!  If you fell behind, not to worry (ha, been there done that, am there NOW with my own damn QAL oops, haha) you have a full month to get it together for the parade and be eligible for prizes.

Linking up
Cooking Up Quilts

Freefall Link Up #4

Wow!  It's here!  Have you managed to get all 20 of your blocks done?  Now's the time to show them off! I have one to show you that is destined to become a cushion cover.

I see Miss Bella was parking her butt on it...maybe she's dropping hints/furballs to claim it for her own!

Puh-LEEZE remember my tip that I've mentioned more than once that if you cannot wait and have to sew your top together, you avoid that place in the layout, and in my Freefall quilt, though not in my Windfall quilt, where I have 3 leaf points pointing together.  Yikes, it was too many seams there, nasty.  So tip them alternate ways than mine! Be free! Be less seamy, lol.

Freefall Quilt Along Step 4

There are three different styles of leaves that float on half-background, half-shadow leaf fabric.  Of course, you could choose to make all six the same; just know that you might have to cut more of either the background or shadow leaf fabric.

H1 Leaves
The first ones I've labelled H1.  Half and half (background and shadow leaf) is where the H comes from.  We will make two of these.

Note:  To avoid confusion between leaf fabric and shadow leaf fabric, I will refer to the shadow leaf fabric as green, which my big shadow leaf is.

Freefall Quilt Along Step 3 Construction of 6 Leaf Blocks

In this step we will be creating the leaves that float on the background fabric, as well as the shadow leaf point.  There are six leaves that float on the background.  

Gather your leaf pieces that are going to float on the background that you set aside from Cutting Step 1, along with the background pieces.  You will still have several pieces left after this week's work; we will use them in Step 4.  Just as in Step 2, you will have one 2 3/4" X 3 3/4" rectangle left over; do not cut this into side triangles yet.  

Freefall Link Up #2

Hope Spring is springing up everywhere in your corner of the northern hemisphere! Daffodils are blooming all over: they are in the lawns, under trees, along ditches, really quite glorious, not just in flowerbeds as they do in Alberta. My mum used to describe this custom in England, which we thought was rather odd, since no one does this in Alberta, but then I saw them exactly as she'd described, all over France.  Golden showers of Forsythia I spot as well, must get one if there isn't one here at the new place... Nope haven't even had time to inspect the wares of the garden of the family who lived here all but 5 of its 70 years.

So I hope you have had time to sew up the first 8 leaf blocks.  I have been remiss in my Instagram surfing, so I apologize if I haven't commented and liked your photo if you've posted there.  As long as you tag me, mmmquilts, I should find you, and remember to hashtag freefallqal I will find you.

There are some gorgeous fabric pulls out there!  I've got almost all my fabric home now, but no, it is not out of all the totes; I haven't even unpacked the Florida sewing stuff yet, sniff.  Hopefully soon I can start my second Freefall quilt.

Step 3 will be out on Monday, April 17, and this link up will remain open through Sunday evening.

Freefall Quilt Along Step 2 Construction of 8 Leaf Blocks

Welcome back!  We are ready to sew, right?  This week we are making the eight leaf blocks that float on the shadow leaf block.  Does that sound confusing or what?  Not to worry, this first step is easy-peasy.  You need your Ziploc baggie of leaf pieces that float on the Shadow Leaf and your stack of pieces that you cut in Step 1 for the Shadow Leaf.  Here's what we are making:

My Shadow Leaf is green and these are the eight prints I am floating on it.

Freefall Finish

This seems rather anti-climactic since you've seen the flimsy and a lot of the components on both the 'paperless' paper-piecing post (how's THAT for alliteration, unintended to boot?!) and the Cutting post, and then as featured on Paintbrush Studio Fabric's blog, and beyond, eeek, like Aurifil and Pinterest omg...but all that aside, presenting Freefall!

This was one of my Q1 FAL goals, and I'm so happy that I can check it off as done!  My list is here.

This is the wallhanging size of the big quilt I made, Windfall, which was done with Paintbrush Studio Fabrics as well, in the Windfall line.  I don't think I could pick my favourite as I adore both of these lines so much.  We are doing the wallhanging as a quilt along, and it is not too late to join in if you haven't heard about it or have been sitting on the fence!  Steps are coming out bi-weekly, quite do-able IMHO. Click the Freefall Quilt Along tab at the top and you will see what's what so far.

Freefall Link Up #1

Well, that's really good isn't it?  First Quilt Along, and what does she do? Forgets to do the first link up post and schedule it!  Oops...😖😧

I do have a pretty good excuse.  Really.  I was on the road (still am).  Perhaps gabbing my head off with the likes of Tish and/or Julie when I should've been writing.  Forgive me?

I also have no cutting of the quilt I plan to make along with you because the fabric is buried somewhere in a tote in the SUV.😬  In the meantime, here is what I had at this point for Freefall:

Freefall Quilt Along - Step 1 - Cutting

Welcome to the first installment of our Freefall wallhanging QAL!  I am so pleased that you are here.  Happy Spring Equinox, First Day of Spring, if you are in the Northern Hemisphere, Happy Autumnal Equinox, First Day of Autumn, to those n the Southern Hemisphere.  Who knew quilting would have me using so much geography and math!

I am even more pleased to announce that I have got yet another prize for finished flimsies or quilts!  Lara of Buzzin' Bumble has offered a copy of her book Crafted Appliqué (that takes you to her book on Amazon; I'm not an affiliate, just a great book and technique to check out) to one lucky winner!

Freefall QAL - Fabric Requirements

In order for you to begin planning for the start of our Freefall quilt along on March 20, here are the quilt stats, photo of the flimsy, fabric tips and requirements.  This quilt could most likely be done entirely from your scraps and stash; you could even go super-scrappy with the background fabric as long as the fabrics all read one value, probably light if your leaf is a medium or a dark.  I would recommend keeping the shadow leaf all one fabric.

Quilt Stats:

Finished quilt: 38" square
Finished block:  7.5" 
Number of blocks: 25 total.  20 of these blocks are small leaves, 3 blocks make the big shadow leaf's point and there are 2 blocks that are plain.
*The quilt has no borders; you are welcome to add some if you like, but there is no yardage for this in the requirements.
Steps:  will be released bi-weekly with a full month allowed to quilt your top.

We will be making a wallhanging in Spring colours.  Of course, you may make yours in Fall colours if you wish and get a jump on Fall.  You could go totally modern and wild!  Maybe totally scrappy.  Patriotic for Canada's birthday!

Fun and poignant anecdote:  When I was planning out the dates for this QAL, I realized I should allow a full month for participants to finish up flimsies and hopefully quilt their quilts.  The final step will be given May 15, so that meant June 15 is the final reveal and parade of quilts.  June 15.  This is an auspicious day for me, because it was my dad's birthday.  He would have been 91.  Each year, he would flip ahead in our family calendar on the wall and write on the square for that date, "Birthday of a famous Canadian."  All us kids would love it, my mum giving a wry grin and eye roll with an, "Eee, I don't know."  Yet it made an impression on me. He was a very proud Canadian.  Birthdays were special days, happy days, a reason to celebrate.  So I feel he's had a hand in this, my first QAL  Thus, our parade of quilts will be held on the birthday of that famous Canadian. 😄

Fabric Tips

Think of this quilt as having three colour 'families': 

• the background (BG) fabric--mine is the mottled pink/yellow/turquoise
• the big shadow leaf fabric--mine is the green.
• the various leaf colours

The photo below shows how I laid out my fabrics.  I had 18 colours altogether; because there are 20 leaves, I cut two leaves out of two of the fabrics.

The fabrics (two are missing in this photo oops) on the far left float on the green big shadow leaf.  The fabrics on the far right float on the background fabric.  Those in the middle will float on half background/half shadow leaf blocks, so that is why I laid them over both green and BG fabrics.

Fabric Requirements

Background Fabric:   3/4 yard
Shadow Leaf Fabric:  3/4 yard
**Remember that you want good contrast between these two fabrics.  Also note that these yardages are minimal and won't leave much left over; if you prefer to allow extra for error or to add to your stash/scraps, then getting a yard of each will be more than plenty.

Individual Leaves:  There are 20.  Each leaf can be made from scraps; you only need an approximately 7" x 11" scrap for each leaf.  If you prefer yardage or precuts, either 1/8 yard or a fat eighth is enough for two leaves, so you would require 10 fat eighths, but if you want all 20 leaves different, then you need 20 fat eighths, since that is the smallest amount one can buy.  You could also use a layer cake, which is a stack of 10" squares.

So gather your fabrics and I will see you here on Monday for Step 1 Cutting! I have started a hashtag on Instagram, so feel free to post your fabric pull there:  #freefallqal  To see the original quilt, in Fall colours, Windfall, click here.

Any questions, just ask in the comments or email me. 

I am super duper happy that I have three more wonderful sponsors.  Three more prizes! 

First is Cindy of Stitchin At Home who contacted me to offer a copy of her just-released pattern, God's Eye, which is available in her  Craftsy store. I met Cindy in the New Bloggers Hop in 2015.  It was such fun to discover another quilt blogger who lives only a couple of hours away from me, also in a little town, also on Lake Erie!  Cindy and I have cooked up a few things together over the past couple of years.  She has quite a few patterns in her store, lots of freebies...

Second, I also am so pleased to announce another fabric gift certificate! This one is from Fat Quarter Shop, probably the first online shop I patronized regularly, and still do!

They have the BEST Flash sales which have had me cave on many occasions...and of course one adds more yardage because well, it would be rude not to right?  They are generously offering a $25 gift certificate to one winner.  They just might have a Riley Blake roly poly on for 70% off today, March 14, only...

Third is another Canuck, my good friend Joanne of Canuck Quilter Designs.  Joanne and I have been friends for a couple of years now too; I've pattern-tested for her a few times (fantastic designs btw) and participated in her Snow Along two years ago.  She is offering a free PDF pattern (check out all her beautiful designs here) from her Craftsy shop.

 This brings the prizes total to 12!  Woo hoo!

Linking up:
Freemotion by the River
Sew Fresh Quilts
Quilt Fabrication

Freefall Spring Quilt Along

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My first QAL is going to begin on the Spring Equinox, Monday, March 20!  Do you remember Windfall, the quilt I made for the Autumn Abundance Blog Hop for Paintbrush Studio Fabrics that Bernie of Needle and Foot hosted?  There was a lot of interest in me hosting a QAL for the quilt, so I am so pleased to go on this next venture with Freefall!  This is a Spring quilt, and in a smaller size, finishing at 38" so very do-able with yardage that won't break the bank. You could even use scraps.

Paper-Piecing Without Sewing Through Paper

Like how? Huh? I know. I first learned of this technique from Joanne at Canuck Quilter Designs.  It has made me quite like paper-piecing ever since!  **Note! This tutorial will be needed for my upcoming Freefall QAL which begins on the Spring Equinox.  When is that? Monday, March 20 at 6:28 am EST.  If you want to try this method with minimal fabric to make the leaf point or just to make some cool triangles in a square blocks, here is what you do to get a 3" finished block as shown.

The worst parts of pp, for me have always been cutting the pieces of fabric big enough to cover the section I'm working on, (read waste), and then not so much though, the tearing off of the paper, because that is kind of satisfying in a way, much like popping the bubbles on bubblewrap! However, picking out all the little bits trapped in the stitches? Not a fan.😣

This method gets rids of both of those issues, and allows you to reuse multiple times the paper template.  You can use freezer paper if you like, as Joanne does, because a touch of the iron will adhere it to your fabric.  Alternately, you can use graph paper as I did, and use a dab of a gluestick to hold the first piece of fabric to the back of the graph paper.  I've done both; the only difference is that with graph paper/gluestick, there is a wee bit of gluestick residue on your fabric, but less is more remember, and a spritz of water will remove anything if you ensure you use washable glue.