With An Open Heart

Well, I don’t make my plan A in time for the Project Quilting deadline but plan B did get done. However I was not going to let plan A sit idle! I’m so very happy I pulled this too-long-on-the-shelf bundle out and went for it, despite knowing it was a bit of a reach. I am even more happy that I finished it!

The warm sunshine made for a beautiful outdoor shot today.

Kismet

After I'd finished my Winter Blues quilt for Project Quilting 16.2. I always wondered if it would work with a jellyroll…and it sure did! It's taken me no less than five quilts (yep, this is number 5!) made in this pattern to finally answer that question! Here is Kismet, and she has quite the story to tell.

Yes, just one jellyroll, well, actually, half of one jellyroll!

Glowing Hearts - Winners!

Wow! Seventeen quilts made this year, and what absolute beauties. I am truly grateful that each of you took time out to make this quilt. I love seeing all the various spins you put on it as well. To me, a quilt pattern can be made as is, or can be a jumping-off point for your own personal touch.

I am also truly grateful that once again, I have generous sponsors who offer some pretty sweet prizes. Let's see who won!

Glowing Hearts QAL - The Parade!

Welcome to the ninth annual Parade of Quilts for my Quilt Along! First of all, I want to pause, as I always do, and think of you, Dad, on this day. You always thought it extra-special when your birthday happened to fall on Father's Day. I miss you still. I know you would love that my Quilt Alongs always end with a parade on your birthday.

I am so excited, as always, to see the lineup! It's such a thrill, and it never gets old, seeing what people do with a design of mine.

Glowing Hearts QAL - Make Four Hearts on Light Background

Wow, are there some gorgeous heart blocks out there! I know of several more that are in percolating stages, and do not worry, I will show them in a post once they're emailed to me, or tagged at me. And, it just hit me: I will extend the linkup for another week. I have the power, ha, and why not?! Know that we've got lots of time yet before the parade on June 15, so please don't stress.

As always, I am just thrilled to see what you are doing with the quilt design! Some are doing all one background as opposed to two, others are making twelve instead of nine blocks, and still others are adding wider borders... I look at patterns once I've bought them as my jumping off point. Some I sew just as they are designed, while others I change them up to suit my tastes or needs. You do you! We do us!

Love in a Mist

Finishes fast and furious this past week! 😊 Today I have the throw in my newest pattern Winter Blues to show you. It is yet another spin on this (if I may say so myself) wonderful pattern!

The light pink and dark pink magnolias close to the lake are at their finest right now, just jaw-dropping magical. When I walked by this old girl on my morning walk on Thursday I knew it would be a great spot for a glamour shot.

Glowing Hearts QAL - Make Five Heart Blocks

I am happy that the method to make the bottom half of the heart has been so well-received! This week we are going to make the five heart blocks that are on the dark background.

I also think that we should show off our first heart blocks, don't you? There will be a linkup at the end of this post to show one heart block on your dark background (or whatever colour of background you are using). I admit this is also because I am so curious to see the fabrics you've chosen! Two of my yoga students are joining in with this quilt along and I got to see a photo of one block, and wow, I love it as well as what she's doing with the entire quilt!

Summer Vibes

First of all, Happy St. George's Day! He is the patron saint of England, the one who, legend has it, slayed the poor dragon. His colour is red. I'm a bit chuffed as my mum would've said, when I realize that the RSC colour of April is red, and I'm making a red and white quilt for my Quilt Along! She read all my blog posts, and I just know this first paragraph would make her grin in English pride.

When I made my second version of Winter Blues I wanted to make it in warm vibrant colours, totally opposite to the cool blues and icy background of the photo shoot. So I give you Summer Vibes which, I think, definitely is the opposite!

It’s actually spring, not summer, here in the northern hemisphere, and our pink magnolia isn’t quite open yet but she is the closest to a full floral background in my yard for today!

Glowing Hearts Quilt Along - Cutting Instructions

Now that we have decided upon (or maybe there are still a few possibilities to decide upon) our fabrics, it's time to cut them up.

Be sure that your fat quarters are the full 18" x 21". If you wish to work ahead, or you wish to make the throw version, the pattern is available in my Etsy shop, SandraJaneQuilts. It is on sale for 25% off now through midnight on Easter Monday. There are instructions for three quilts within this pattern, each one unique. Once I have the Glowing Hearts version quilted and her glamour shoot wrapped up (see what I did there?!), I will update the cover, and send it out to those who have bought it. Here it is at present:

Heart Centre Project Quilting 16.5

Quilt designs come to me sometimes by doodling on graph paper, at other times by playing in EQ8, or, as with this one, fully formed into my head.

The quilt is now for sale in my Etsy shop. 

It was Tuesday, our last night in Cuba. I was well into my third book of the week, a gripping biological warfare murder mystery, The Chosen Dead by M. R. Hall. Quite chillingly, may I say, exploring the world of pandemics and modifying DNA and creating smart vaccines...published in 2013! Anyhow, I’d stayed up a bit later than usual, voraciously gobbling up the story, and, although I still had a hundred pages or so left, finally, reluctantly, turned out the light. And… my mind would not wind down. I’m the type of person who, once the light goes out and my head hits the pillow, is off to sleep within less than a minute. Not so that night. It was sometime after midnight before I finally drifted off. One of the things I was doing in an attempt to slow my mind down was figuring out what I would make for the ‘Follow Your Arrow’ challenge. Well that worked out fine as you can see!

Winter Blues PQ 16.2

My quilt for the second challenge of Project Quilting is done. We were to make something that shows the visual effect of ombré, which is a colour shift in value or hue. As you know, my favourite colour is blue, and a couple of things came nicely together - a set of fat quarters sitting on a shelf and a random test block from a few years ago I'd pulled out as a possible candidate for the SAHRR. This is the result!

I first thought of calling it Twilight Hearts but as the design came together in fabric, and with talk of Blue Monday last week on the CBC Music programme I listen to, the name came to me: Winter Blues. January is a hard month for many of us in the northern hemisphere and I am no exception. Blue Monday, the third Monday in January, was actually designated by a UK travel company as the most depressing day of the year back in 2005, and the moniker has stuck. A couple of serendipitous connections made the name stick.

Smooches Quilt #5

I have made a fifth Smooches quilt, and I love it so.

When my friend saw the fourth Smooches quilt I had made a few months ago, she requested one just like it for her granddaughter. Unfortunately, I couldn't replicate Smooches #4 because I no longer had enough of the mostly fat quarters I'd used. That, however, is one of the things I love about most handmade items: they cannot be exactly replicated, each one is unique.

Kitty Love

I’ve had this project in my head for a couple of months, so it feels good to finally have it finished and now gifted. 

Once again, it is all from stash and once again, several fabric companies blend together to create this pretty cushion.

Another Smooches Quilt

This was a commissioned quilt. My friend Marybeth asked me to make another baby quilt for her (Sofia’s quilt was the first one she requested), and when I asked her if she any designs or ideas in mind, she said, "I don't know, maybe something with hearts?" Well, Smooches popped into my head. It's a bit big for a baby quilt, 51" square, but that's okay because it will be useful forever, right? Here's where we ended up:

Smooches is a free pattern here on my blog. Of course, this one, like the others, started with a massive pile of fabrics in colours she'd picked: peach, soft pink, green, lavender… 

Project Quilting 15.2 Sky Color

I got SO excited at this week's prompt for Project Quilting because I am a bit of a nut when it comes to watching the skies. I have a lot of it to see from my sewing room windows which face south, east and west. Yep tons and tons of light. Our house is pretty much like that, one of the main reasons I agreed to buy it is that it is filled with light thanks to lots of windows.

Here is where the challenge ended:

It had some definite growing pains along the way and missed the deadline by a couple of hours.

One of the things I love most about PQ challenges is getting to paw through my glorious stash. This challenge was no different. So we were to make a project that evokes sky colour (I use Canadian aka English spelling) with only 10% cerulean. Love that word, a beautiful name for the colour sky-blue. Blue is my favourite colour, so making a quilt about the sky without it at first seems strange, but not when I think of the sunset I saw Sunday night, hours after the challenge was posted. Look at those fiery pinks and oranges and the reflection in the clouds overhead. This is pure Mother Nature, no filters or enhancement.

or the sunrise on Monday, again no filters or special touchups:

Harper's Heart Quilt

Another long-standing request of Dayna's is a quilt for Harper. Yes, I made her a cat mat a few years ago, which she loves, but Dayna wanted an actual quilt for her. When I was making the pixellated heart quilt for Millie, Dayna's BFF's daughter, I made one using 2.5" squares that ended up being too small. I made the second one, using 3.5" squares to get it to a better size. The small pixellated heart has been sitting for almost exactly two years, waiting patiently for something to happen with it.

When Dayna and Tyler were in Detroit for last week's game against the Rams, which the Lions won, woot woot, we met them at Toast, a family-owned restaurant in Windsor (no relation to Toast in Ferndale, Michigan across the river). Meeting up with them was the impetus to check off this item on her list of quilt requests.

Full Yet Also Aching Heart

I thought I'd do a little update on WIPs in my sewing studio and life. We had a quiet Thanksgiving, a nice dinner, and a nice fourth win for the Lions. It makes my heart swell to hear from Dayna how packed Ford Field is, with everyone in their seats at kickoff, and the noise level is incredible. Even the announcers keep commenting on it. Fans want this very badly, and I'm especially glad for Dayna and Tyler who bought season tickets again last year (they had them pre-Covid but let them go) and then got transferred to Tennessee, so are now flying or driving up here eight or more times this season! I'm also grateful and my heart is full (as well as my belly lol) for good food over the weekend.

Not only have I been busy in my sewing studio; I've also been a busy bee in the kitchen, making homemade beet hummus from my homegrown beets (yass!), chocolate chip and chunk cookies, pumpkin raisin muffins, and then the main dishes we had (nope I did not make the pumpkin pie, bought it from the in-store bakery). I've been working away at my #wipsbgone list for October; the hearts is all I can show for now of the Grace (#3) quilt top that got finished yesterday.

Yes, sadly, I'm making a third broken heart Grace quilt. I do know that this quilt is such a healing comfort quilt, and as I've sewed the top, my love and compassion have flowed from my heart and soul through my fingertips into this quilt. More when she's done and gifted.

Millie

This adorable pixellated heart quilt has arrived at its destination in Alberta, so I can share it now. Three quilts are connected in this post, all through sadness, but with hope, love and joy as well.

In December Dayna asked me if I would make a baby quilt for her BFF, the one for whom I made Grace. She was going to Alberta the third week of January and wanted to take the quilt with her then. I ran a few heart quilt ideas by her, because it had to be a heart quilt again because her BFF loves them. She immediately fell in love with the pixellated heart I made for my friend and former Yin teacher, Gillian who had just been diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. That quilt is what brought my friend Helen of @helenmidgetgem together, but that's another story, which you can read about in the Gillian post, Friends of the Heart, if you so desire.

Another Turquoise Heart Cushion

When I made the Greybird cushion, I cut out pieces for two, sewing the two fronts at the same time, chain-piecing style. I would either keep the second one or put it in my Etsy shop. I finally finished it!

I love it too, and if it doesn't sell for a while, I'm totally okay with that!

Greybird

 About a month ago, my good friend Liz had to say goodbye to her beloved cat, Greybird. She was 15 years old, a good age for a kitty, but still... I knew I wanted to make her a little something to show my sympathy and empathy for what she was going through. I had originally thought of a mug rug, maybe a mini cat with the Snail's Trail block tail.

That's not a cat, I know! And it's not a mug rug either, if you look at the size of it compared to the thread! As with many projects, things have a way of just flowing along in the way they mean to; I just have to listen, and then follow.