WIP Wednesday Spiraling Along

Still working on the current WIP, but I'm at the final borders stage.  Circles are hard to quilt, unless they are inside lines!  Mine come out often looking squashed, square-ish, egg-shaped, and sometimes round.  Sigh.  Of course it's a tad more difficult when you are fighting off a "OMG I'm in LOVE with this new quilt, Sandra" cat named Bella:

Altogether I removed her no less than four, or was it five freaking times from this most favoured spot of hers!  She loved that I'd left the removable "free arm" part of my machine right there for her leaning pleasure.  She loves to have one arm and shoulder leaning on something.  I even moved her faux sheepskin pouffé (cushion) she loves, from the floor to the right of the sewing machine with new-to-us fabric under and beside.  She, like me, has a thing, a very sensual thing, for new fabric.  She wasn't having it.

I wish I could add sound here, she was purring like a Mack truck, kneading the fold under her 3, yes 3, there's a back one in on the action, on top of the front two, paws!

After I took this pic, I scooped her again, and got bitten!  Yes! And mrreee-OWED at.  She stomped, as only a cat can do, bottle-brush tail spiked out in indignation, out of the sewing room and didn't come back.

So here is where I'm at! Having so much fun with FMQ.

Angela Walters' dot to dot design in the yellow (without a ruler, not bad!), spirals and pebbles in the aqua, and Leah Day's Angles and Circles design in the squares.  All free-motion quilted on my Bernina.

A peek at the back.  In the top right you will see Leah's Pea Gravel Path design.  It shows up much better on the back, so I only did the one. Most of these here are simply quilting around the designs in the fabric.  Fun!

This is another of Leah's, from her From Feather to Flames book, a cluster of pebbles "flower".

I've used more than 5 bobbins of thread so far, with the final border in progress now. The quilt is only about 49" square.

In other news...

The pattern said you might have to rip back the first glove a few rows, omit a couple in the hand section to have enough to complete the second glove...sigh.  At this rate the winter will be over by the time they are sent!

Linking up with Freshly Pieced and Let's Bee Social.

I Spy Quilt

I didn't have time to post this yesterday, which was my intent for Thankful Thursday, but I am one proud Nana!!  And so very thankful for the most wonderful little boy in my life, my grandson, Brady.

He graduated from kindergarten yesterday.  I cannot believe where the nearly 6 years has gone since his birth.  He will be six this summer.

Of course I made him a quilt for his birth.  Hmm, think I've loved scrap quilts for SOME time. . . every single piece of the fabric was from my stash or scraps.

Being a Leo, he had to have lion fabric on the back.  This is some of the leftover fabric, used for a magic bag cover.

I quilted his name into the quilt.  I sewed and quilted it on my Bernina.

Although he slept under that quilt every night from birth, last year I decided he need a bigger quilt for his bed.  This one isn't a twin-size, but it's a decent sized throw.  I used the Cloud 9 pattern but made it as an I Spy quilt. Here it is on the design wall:

I bought all the fabric at Rainbow's End Quilt Shop in Dunedin Florida, except for a couple of pieces I added that I found in JoAnn's Fabrics.  The red is Kona from one of the local quilt shops I frequent, Alma Sue's Quilts.  The backing is Dr. Seuss that I got at another of my LQS, Cotton Patch Quilts. Gotta spread my love!

I am pretty proud of the FMQ on this quilt.  It was only the third quilt on my new-to-me Avanté.  Leah Day was my go-to gal for all of the designs.  Sorry that the lighting isn't so great on some of these pictures.

I used a primary colours variegated King Tut 40-weight thread on the red and I'm so glad I did, as it gave it so much interest.  It did produce more lint than a finer cotton, but it sewed like a dream.

If you've read a some of my posts, you'll know that I always work my name as well as the person's name to whom the quilt is going, into the quilting.

I did a meander over all of the busy prints.  I used a red Isacord here.  Again, it sewed like a dream.  There is nothing I've thrown at my Avril she won't handle.

I just could not resist doing some special designs in that gorgeous red Kona cotton, his favourite colour.

His name, the "special secret" in his quilt that only he and I know. . .surrounded by pebbling

The good old Gothic D for all things Detroit; my husband grew up in Windsor, aka "south Detroit"

Leah's Tree of Life design just quilted

The design after washing

Her instructions for quilting that design without a mark are just excellent, and I couldn't (and still can't) believe I just drew that with the machine!

Pretty pleased, in his fave shirt, sitting on his new-fave quilt, which is folded in half here

All his favourite and meaningful things are in the I Spy parts: lions, swimming, Elmo, diggers, football, hockey, ABC, superheroes, Star Wars, dinosaurs, and so on!  We had fun playing I Spy with it, as he was right into I Spy at that time.  We took it to him last May when we drove out to Alberta, a 3-day trip from here.  It is so hard being so far away from this child of unbelievable character, poise and gentleness, as well as talent at all things sports, particularly swimming!  He is always so happy and at ease in the water, and always has been, right from his first bath.  He was fussing ahead of time, but as soon as his body was immersed, he relaxed and kicked his fat little legs quite contentedly!  We cannot WAIT to have a week of him all to ourselves at the end of this summer when he and Brianne are flying down here!


Quilt Details:

Size:  54X70
Fabric:  100% cotton with a 100% flannel backing; Warm 'n Natural batting
Pattern:  Cloud 9 by Villa Rosa Designs
Quilted with  Isacord and Superior King Tut

Update:  Duh!  Forgot to link up as I'd intended, with Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict as I am definitely doing a happy dance because of Brady, who makes me happy every single day, but even more so with his kindergarten graduation! And I've now also linked up with Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing!

Dogwood Picnic

Finished Scrap-a-Palooza quilt #4.  This is the second scrap-a-palooza quilt for me.  I am loving the series!

I finished it last night, but wanted to wait until this morning to post, as I was struck with a great idea as to where to take an outside picture.

So this morning, just after 8:00, I walked across the street to Southgate Residence, a senior citizens' assisted living residence.  This is one of the many pink magnolias in our town.

I loved Cynthia's picture of her Two-Color Woven Quilt, and with the pinks and greens in this second dogwood inspired quilt, I knew I wanted to lay it on a lawn too.  Her picture also inspired the final name for my quilt.

I copied her, too, with the straight line quilting in the coloured squares to emphasize the woven effect.  I did 4 passes, two 1/4" from the seams and two roughly centred.  I had a hard time figuring out how to continuously quilt this to avoid too many stops and starts.  I didn't want to travel stitch across a bar.  In the end, I mostly travelled across the 1/4" line of stitching, not always being successful with hitting it.  I just tried to not stress about it too much, hoping the overall effect would take over from the imperfections.  "Close enough is good enough" is what Angela Walters repeatedly said through the Dot to Dot Quilting class on Craftsy, and I tried very hard, fighting my perfectionist nature, to do just that.  After all, it's not a show quilt, and it's only my 8th quilt on the Avanté.

In the white squares, I knew I wanted a filler.  In the first row, I did a different one in each square, thinking it would be a perfect place to practise FMQ, much like I did on my Perky Purse quilt.

I opted out of this decision after I did that first row for two reasons: 1) I felt the thread, an ivory Madiera Polyneon, looked almost dirty on the white fabric, and 2) your eye would perhaps go more to all the busy quilting in the white squares and not see the weave.  So I quilted all the straight line quilting with the polyneon, and then went back in and quilted an open meander, Leah's "Wandering Clover" with a white Sulky rayon.  After washing, both threads sunk into the quilt top quite nicely, but I do think having the one unifying meander in the white squares was the right design decision.

Close-up of Wired Feather and Growing Sprouts

However, I DO love the looks of all those designs in that top row!  I tried out one of Leah's latest FMQ designs, "Growing Sprouts", as well as an older one, "Wired Feather".  I also like the looked of "Modern Art".  These last two I got from her two books; they are so handy to just flip through and see what grabs my fancy.  I read the written instructions, and then if I want to see her do the design in action, I go to her website. 

The back.  Ancient fabric from a sale at (choke) WalMart.  My husband and I have boycotted them for more than 10 years now, however, (so that tells you how old this fabric is!!!!) due to their business practices.  I had a stack 'n whack quilt in mind for this and I have enough left still that I might still do one...that or use it to start another scrap quilt, like Paula's Triangle Quilt Along at The Sassy Quilter.

The label, pieced again as an integral part of the backing.  Sorry the lighting seems too bright here to read properly.  You get the idea.

Rolled up!  Mmmm.

It was a perfect morning.  And I cannot get enough of magnolias.

Ever.

I Love All Things Leah Day!

In October 2013, in my 14th post, I wrote my first "'Ode' to Leah" post, and here I am, just over 6 months later, writing another.
Why?
1.   Well, I just now grabbed Leah's FMQ button! And this is important because I JUST figured out within the past week and a half how to add other bloggers' buttons to show what I'm participating in.  Her button is very important to me. . .

2.   She was the first person whose website helped me to learn to quilt on my secondhand Avanté that I purchased last February.

3.  She not only helped me with practice on my Avanté, trying out SO MANY new designs, but also with doing new FMQ designs on my Bernina when I quilt on it from time to time.

4.  I LOVE this book so much, which has helped me in so many ways:

5.  that I bought this year the second one!

 I think she should be voted Teacher of the Year, if there is such a thing in the online world.  Her continued generosity in sharing her designs, her honesty in sharing personal stuff, and her gift of her time to make and post all the how-to videos (all free!) put her, in my opinion, at the top of the list.  She's even got her husband learning to FMQ, so that she can deal firsthand with a beginner, and learn how to be a better teacher through teaching and watching him learn to free-motion quilt.  Wow.

I really hope one day to meet her in person.

I was going to write a post on favourite marking tools, but after catching up with Leah's blog, especially after her post, "Bent Knees Are Okay Here", I was just so inspired to sing her praises once again.

And here is "Tribute to Flowering Dogwood" on our bed!  My husband made our bed this morning (gotta love that) and he spread it out.  I'd just had it folded at the foot.  I like the way it looks! Who said anything about maybe selling it?!

The quilt underneath? FMQ'ed on my Bernina in 2007

And OMG!  I just realized seeing it here that all of the greens in the star quilt found their way into the dogwood one.  That's 7-year-old scraps!!  (as bad as my fridge and cupboards, my family would say, lol!)  Sigh.  Better than having them sitting in plastic bags, and Rubbermaid containers and drawers, right?!

Ellie Bag

This is an adorable free tutorial from Heidi Staples of Fabric Mutt.  I have no idea how I came across the tutorial. . . clearly, or should I say, muddily, it's from the quilting vortex that I occasionally often find myself in!  I finally finished it this afternoon.  The zipper gave me serious issues.  But I persevered (reverse-sewed a few times) and got 'er done.  And I love it.

I see it as a make-up travel bag.  I had leftover fabric from Seaside Rose, so put it to good use.  On this side I quilted around the one clamshell in the middle of the front.

On this side I quilted a brittle starfish design of Leah Day's.  I used So Fine thread, but I wish I'd used a rayon so it would show up a little more.  Still, I kind of like the subtlety.  I used Sulky Blendables for all the other quilting.

Side view.  I really liked the handle application.  I think I'd make them slightly longer when I make another.  I also do really like the zipper that extends down each side, as it ensures you can easily get to the bottom to retrieve that pesky little eye pencil sharpener you know you popped in there.

Even though it's only 7.5" square, it's 4.5" from side to side, so it actually holds a ton of stuff!  I have a Bath & Bodyworks bodywash in there, a 95g marzipan chocolate bar, and a bunch of my make-up and there is still tons of room. However, it is not for moi, but will be going to a very special friend of mine.

I did get my two charm square quilts washed and dried so they're nice and crinkly.  I hauled them around the 'hood to snap a couple of outdoor mood shots, lol.

Hidden in Plaid Sight

On the cement bench under a spectacular humongous live oak that has shed its leaves and most of its pollen, and is now busting out in new leaves.  I guess they do still have a cycle down here in the tropical south.

Yes, I am reading The Tiger's Wife and am just enthralled by it.  I think I already mentioned that I am so amazed, awed too, that a 25 year-old wrote this incredibly rich in descriptive and narrative detail of a novel.

Winter Night

Not much winter in this picture!  The lily pads are blooming too, so pretty!

Update this evening - duh!
Just remembered this shell from Fort Myers Beach that I had saved with this bag in mind!  My mind works, sometimes just slowly. . . It had a hole in it from Mother Nature herself.  Perfect for a zipper-pull!