Nordic Forest

This happy little quilt went together in no time from start to finish. 

Rufus is the perfect colour of a model for this quilt!

I bought these six fat quarters and a yard of the red in the same line a year or two before Covid. Funny how we measure time now that way, and like how is it six years ago that we were hearing the terrifying stories coming out of China, and then Italy in lockdowns...

But on to brighter cheerier topics! The quilt store had a kit which I think was a cushion, made out of these fabrics, but they had sold out of the kits, so I picked up fat quarters and figured no worries, I could figure it out myself. Sadly, I did not write anything down, probably because I intended to make it right away. Which, clearly did not happen. 

Cheerio!

I have a finish on a Friday! Here is Cheerio!, a collaborative effort between my friend Cathy and me. 

Hot off the ... sewing machine last night!

Isn’t it just so bright and cheery? Cheerio! was the original name of this design which I did for Island Batik quite a few years ago. When I released the pattern, I renamed it Sunset Strip, because the batiks I used evoked colours of the sunset. This quilt now, it’s definitely got a Cheerio! vibe: a common salutation in England, an ‘o’ shaped cereal, and of course, this cheery quilt. The pattern is available in my Etsy Shop. It has two sizes, this baby quilt size and a throw.

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:

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:

Rainbow Gingham Quilt

I’ve had a few finishes under wraps of late, some because of surprises, others because they’ve had to wait their turn. This is one of the wait your turn finishes.

You’ve seen this one as a flimsy, the quilt I made after my first three presentations to guilds east of Toronto in mid-October. It was a DrEAMi, a Drop Everything And Make it quilt. Last week I got it quilted and I think I’m as excited to show the back as I am to show the front!

Gingham Quilt for J

This is my OMG for June, probably the fastest one I've finished since declaring and finishing.

About two weeks ago, our daughter Brianne called us to let us know the son of one of her neighbours had just been diagnosed with cancer. He is the same age as Brady, and the two know each other through school. Although they have played together over the years, they don't seem to be able to get along, and so they tend to go their separate ways.

However.

No matter the conflicting personalities, we all feel terrible for him, and I immediately wanted to offer comfort...in the form of a quilt. He starts chemo soon, and having something warm and fuzzy may help a bit.

I took this photo in the 'golden hour'. There are two each day: the hour that follows sunrise, which was when this was taken, and the one that precedes sunset. That glow is actually the sun coming through the trees.

Whimsies

This quilt ticks two boxes: my OMG for May and my PHD finish for May. I love how it turned out, and I love the motivation I got TO finish it by making it both of those!

This was one of the RSC challenge projects that Angela at so scrappy came up with in 2019. I was quite late to the party, but in actuality I was behaving, focussing on Island Batik challenges and other projects I was supposed to be doing. But then that little turquoise pinwheel in the second from the bottom row grabbed me (thanks Mari) and I just had to make it...along with three others, and I was smitten. Here is the post. We were deep in the throes of the major renovation so it was a welcome and fun little diversion to make a little 4.5" finished block each month. However, although I'd pretty much decided on using the Kona Ice Frappé as the background, I never did put any of them onto the background because I had no clue how I'd arrange them all. Enter PHD and OMG!

TGIFF - Friendly Fences, an H2H Quilt

Welcome to TGIFF! This is a linkup to show our finished quilt projects. And oh yes, pass on some inspiration.

I have finished the quilt for my neighbour who is an essential worker at one of our local grocery stores. You can read the story behind the quilt in this post. That will help you see why I named the quilt Friendly Fences, which may seem to be an oxymoron. It isn't, because our dogs becoming good friends through the chainlink fence between our yards led to us getting to know each other more.

I was really pleased to read that Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict added this category to the Hands2Help comfort quilt drive. Unless you know someone who works in a grocery store or a pharmacy, I don't think we tend to think of them as people like ourselves, with families and homes and lives, you know what I mean? And I don't know about your governments, media, and rich fat cats who own these grocery and pharmacy chains, but mine here in Canada started out regularly highlighting their contributions. One even gave them an hourly raise at first...and then took it back. Now we don't hear so much about their continued efforts, though CBC TV runs a very poignant ad about nurses.

Rainbow VIP

It's the end of the month and time for an update on my PHD (Projects Half Done) programme. I'm happy to report that it's the end of the first quarter and I am still right on track to complete this. This is a UFO from last year, one of my two RSC projects, which I've called Rainbow VIP. It's also my OMG for March!

I love how it turned out! Each month last year, I made ten blocks, a 6-patch with a white bar on one side in the colour of the month. This is a pattern in American Patchwork & Quilting April 2006 by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr. They did theirs in just six light colours. It's a bit of an improv way of assembling the quilt top, chopping off parts of blocks so the white bars purposely do not align and the side edges are random.

Rainbow Way

I am so pleased to present my Rainbow Way quilt which was one of my 2019 RSC projects. This quilt pattern was in McCall's Quick Quilts August/September 2018, though the original was done all in greens.

I am also glad we had another beautiful sunny day, albeit with the coldest to date overnight low of -10C. One good thing about that is that I got to use a new colour in my temperature quilt! Time is running out for me to run fresh new quilts down to this lake lot for photographing: it has been sold, as I mentioned a while ago, and they've been doing a lot of work to fortify the shoreline at the bottom of the cliff, which you can see from the above photo.

Champs et Lacs

In other words, Fields (or Meadows) and Lakes. This quilt needs a French name because it is going to a dear friend who is French. It is the Meadow Mystery designed by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs. It was a QAL back in 2016/17 in which I participated, but I hadn't quilted it until now.

It was done on Friday, but I knew we were going into the city, Windsor, on Saturday, so I wanted to get a glamour shot of it on the Detroit River, downtown Detroit in the background. The day was beautiful for a photo shoot, but as per usual, there was a bit of a wind by the water. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and how well the Warm n Natural 100% cotton batting shows off the quilting. Can I say just how much I love these fabrics and these colours? No, they are not batiks but they sure have the hand-dyed painterly look to them don't they?

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.

Still Waters

This quilt is one of those that just kind of jelled within a day or so. At the beginning of July, my daughter Brianne had a request, "Would I make a quilt, (that's not quilty - it's Brianne remember) for a very special teacher/counsellor, Mme Gifford, of Brady's?" He has finished grade 6, knew her from kindergarten all the way through grade 6. He graduated from elementary school in June, and is heading to junior high in September. (How is this possible? He should be like 5!) I asked Brianne to find out Mme Karen Gifford's favourite colour, which Brady did: turquoise. Just, and I mean just before the request, I saw a quilt on Instagram that Jasmine of Quilt Kisses had made for her neighbour who was undergoing cancer treatments. I loved it, and said I just wanted to have a DrEAMi, lol, Drop Everything And Make it, though I certainly could not afford to. Well, when I heard that Karen's favourite colour was turquoise, and I loved Jasmine's greens and blues quilt, I sent Brianne a photo of it and said what about this? Yes, came the immediate reply.

So I started going through my stash, which is one of my most favourite parts of the quilting process. Rummage, pet, unfold, pet, refold, restack, ahhh. There is a good pic of that joyful jumble on Instagram.

Fly High!

I am so pleased to have this long-awaited UFO done and checked off the FAL List. It's been on that list for over two years!

The block is one by Deb Tucker, called Migrating Geese. I followed this tutorial, making it as one of my RSC 2017 projects, but doing my own layout. Each month I made one row of the geese.

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.

Stars Aligned New Quilt in Modern by the Yard Issue #13

Benartex's new issue of Modern by the Yard is out, and I have another design in it! I was so honoured to have been asked again to design a quilt for their ezine. This is actually a quilt I designed in last year's #30quiltdesigns challenge that I've hosted for a few years now.

Don't you just love how they photographed it? I sure grinned when I got the photo!

Grace

This has been another year for new experiences, and, as I approach a rather sobering milestone in 2020, I am quietly pleased that I am still learning, still trying new things, still up for challenges. More on this in my 2019 Review and Planning for 2020 post. This quilt was a commissioned one. I do believe the only previous commissioned quilt was my mum's request in 2016 for one for her brother, which I called con fuoco. This quilt is also a squirrel, a 'Drop Everything And Make it!' project, which I will link up with my party on the last Saturday of the month where we celebrate all those DrEAMi projects.

When Dayna's good friend in Alberta lost her baby in her second trimester, in November, she talked at length to me about it, and one of the first things she asked was if I could make her a quilt. We both knew it needed hearts on it. I sent her a couple of images I found on Pinterest, we chatted several times, and somewhere in the conversation I said what if I design one with hearts floating all over it... And, as designs are wont to do, this design became much more than I'd originally thought.

La Vie En Rose

I am pleased to have yet another item finished, a large one, and checked off the Q4FAL List, which is here. I've had it done for a couple of days, but the sun did not cooperate for photos until today. This quilt is for my daughter, Brianne, the one who doesn't like quilts, same daughter who got me started in quilting when she, at the age of 8, basically forced me to make a quilt block to enter in a draw for all the blocks turned in, and yeah, I won. So I had to learn how to make a quilt. That first quilt went to her. Since then I've made her one other, again in pinks with oranges, and now a third, again pinks. Yes, she's a pink-loving girl, always has been.

I collected the fabrics over the course of about a year. That was oh, three years ago... thinking it would be for her then new home. Now she's in her new house (for over a year, oops) so this is like a happy new forever home quilt.
Yeah we got snow...set a record for amount, earliest, and coldest overnight temperature that fateful day. And it's been cold all week.

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.

TBT #22 Coneflower Crazies

This is one of my Fall quilts I like to bring out around this time of year. It is such a fun quilt, and very modern when you start to look at it. Today's Throwback Thursday is hosted by Andrée at Quilting & Learning - What a Combo!

We had a gorgeous hot start to the week here, but I didn't do the photos until yesterday...in the rain. It is still raining today, and woke me up in the night with its pouring so hard. If you look closely, you can see drops hanging from the deck rails! The colours are a little washed out (pun not originally intended) because of the grey skies; they are much richer and more vibrant in person.