Quilting Floral Dreams

I was hoping to have a finish for today, but not quite.  Ah well, this should work out for TGIFF for tomorrow then!  this is Cynthia's of Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, June Scrap-a-Palooza quilt.

This is my first edge-to-edge design that is not a meander.  It was a little tricky.  The design itself flowed easily, two of my favourites: spiral and feathers.  Covering the quilt top evenly did not flow as easily!

Erk! An unquilted gap.

And another:

Guess I'll be going back in with my Bernina.  I caught several as I went, but when I looked at the back as I did my second roll-up, I found another gap I'd missed.  Ugh!  It's hard because the fabrics flow together so well, the thread (a rayon again) blends so nicely, both of which create the effect I wanted, but it's hard on the eyes as far as seeing where to go next, as well as seeing where you missed!

Nearly done. 

Here is a shot of the back:

It's a brushed flannel backing.  It will make for a really soft quilt.  I love how the design shows up so well!

This evening I sat down on the downstairs couch for a break.  I had immediate company, purring merrily.  Consequently my break went a little longer than anticipated!

I should have a finish for you tomorrow!  This one will be going in the boutique at our September Quilt Show.  It will be for sale through my blog though too.  Don't all jump at once now...

Make-up Bags!

Over the past few days I have made a few little bags. They were a lot of fun.

I did already show you the one made with the patchwork squares

I am steadily using up ALL of the Seaside Rose and Simplicity fabrics!  I am amazed at how far the scraps are going!  The purple bags are from purple scraps of various fabrics.

These two are going to Jude's sweet granddaughters

Can you see the "R" and the "S", their first name initial, that I quilted onto the bags?

Inside view

This pattern can be found here.  I really really love Moda Bakeshop!  I might have mentioned that once or twice before...

Another one in purples...so rich!

The pattern calls for fusible fleece but I used up scraps of my Warm 'n Natural and had fun doing simple quilting for the outside.  I'm putting a couple of these into our guild's boutique at the show in September.

Yet another using Seaside Rose scraps with Simplicity scraps for the lining

We spent a wonderful afternoon yesterday driving east along the shores of Lake Erie.  We went all the way to Erieau and Rondeau Bay.  Aside from the vegetation and the brown, as opposed to white, sand, it looked and felt much like Florida, hot and humid.

Huge beach!

Swimmers enjoying the waves

Fantastic wave action

Of course I had to walk down to that breakwall you see in the distance, with the "lighthouse", actually one of the channel markers that guide boaters from Rondeau Bay into Lake Erie.

We were about 60 miles east of Kingsville, which is also on Lake Erie.  It takes about 4 hours to drive the length of this smallest of the Great Lakes!

Yay!  It is cherry season here (and sweet corn!), so we had to stop at an orchard and buy some picked-that-day cherries.

To die for!

Checked out another lakeside winery, Smith and Wilson Estate Wines.  Yep, had to come home with a bottle of Pinot Grigio, as well as one of their Rondeau Red, a glass of which I'd earlier enjoyed at Bayside BrewPub -- mmm!  It's been a good few days!

Thankful Thursday #8

Today I'm thankful for good times, memorable times, laughter-filled times, with good friends.

I talked with a dear friend from Alberta earlier this week on his birthday.  So glad, and thankful, that nowadays phonecalls are so reasonable (in our case, free, as we have magicJack).  When we lived here in the late 80s, it was incredibly expensive to call, so calls had to be timed and infrequent.  Now we have FaceTime, or Skype, both of which shrink the 2000 miles between provinces, or between countries, in the case of some of our American friends--

This past week we also FaceTimed with another dear friend who winters in Florida, but lives in upstate New York.  He was actually in Vermont at the time, so we got to see the campground where he spends the summer weekends in his 5th wheel trailer.  So cool that I can now picture him there.

Last night we had two other couples over for a BBQ.  We'd already been to each of the others' houses, so it was our turn.  And it was a great evening.

I was once again reminded of how very lucky I am to live in such a bountiful county, also known as the Sun Parlour, Essex County.  We enjoyed wine from Pelee Island Winery, from grapes grown on Pelee Island, 17 miles south of our house in the middle (literally) of Lake Erie.  The retail and secondary operation is just 2 km from my house.  Dangerous...

Bread from our bakery, homemade by moi tapenade

 Yep, that's an Alberta Wild Rose spoon in the tapenade, a nod to my home province.

I thought this was really neat - I will now be on the lookout for Lucky Stones!

We enjoyed a couple of terrific salads off pinchofyum.com, and finished off with homemade baked peach and raspberry cheesecake from an old recipe book.

Gotta love leftover cheesecake, yum!

The weather cooperated magnificently, as did Mother Nature with no bugs (I think fishfly season is over, fingers crossed) so we enjoyed everything from appetizers to dessert, on our patio, the labours of Joe's gardening green thumb to enfold us at one end and Lake Erie upon which to gaze at the other.

And just because I've had two suppers of terrific new foods, here's another Pinch Of Yum from tonight's supper (there was virtually no leftover salads from last night, which is, really, a good thing, right?)

Healty Pesto Baked Rigatoni

Good food, good friends, good wine, good times.  That's what really matters.  Tomorrow I'll show you what I've been working on over the past couple of days.  It's not amounting to much, sigh.

Gaaaak!!!

Kind of how I feel about aaaaapliqué...

I haven't posted since last Wednesday because I have not allowed myself to do any sewing of any kind except for the appliqué part of my Self-directed Round Robin. Note that they've modified the name from Self Round Robin to Self-directed, although it should be Guild-Executive-Directed!

I have been making steady, albeit slow, progress.  Sigh.  I did find some good advice on Alyssa's Pile o' Fabric blog that helped me a lot.  Click here.  I watched the videos and read through her Skill Builder Lesson 9 lesson handout.

This is round 3.  I got 1/4 of my appliqué round done since last Wednesday.  It is time-consuming, that's for sure, and I have questioned my sanity in deciding to do this detailed of a design!  Questioned while muttering some bad words, or many, if I'm honest.  There are 44 pieces in this quadrant, not counting the stems.

The design is from the April 2014 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine.  It took me some time, with lots of searching through magazines, and online, to decide on a suitable pattern that would fill the rather large corner triangles.  I traced all the pieces needed in April before we left our Florida condo!

3/4 of the pieces, since I've now used 1/4

And there they sat, occasionally often making me feel guilty, while I had fun making various quilts and projects over the past 2 1/2 months.

I haven't even allowed myself to look at Cynthia's July Scrap-a-Palooza quilt, nor have I read my usual blogs over the past few days.  Since it has been absolutely gorgeous weather, calling to me to be outside, I moved my work from the basement to the dining table and one end of our kitchen countertop.  I couldn't work outside, as portable as this kind of a project is, and as Hilary does of Hilary Florence Quilting Workshop.  So this was a good compromise to keep me at it.

Here is a not-so-bright picture to show you a bit more of the quilt.  There will be one of these flower bursts in each of the four corners.  Possibly bursts of my brain and patience in the corners of my house too...

 

I thought that I would work through one in its entirety (and it's not stitched yet, just glued) and then assembly-line work on the other three.  I have the darker stem self-made bias tape left over from a quilt I made my mum for her 70th (that would be 7 1/2 - oh my god - years ago now) and I made some more with a different brighter green.  The pattern calls for two different fabrics for the various flower stems.It was good to use the Clover bias tape maker again.  So slick!

This one flower took me 1.5 hours to make.

I shall soldier on until this entire round is done!

The next round (I am a couple several months behind) says to put some words on it.  I have had some choice ones of late.  They probably wouldn't appreciate it, LOL, and in truth, it would spoil the quilt.  I do quite like it.

Even though I'm telling myself, 'No!! What are you thinking?! Absolutely not!  Do NOT go there!' I think the empty corners of the flying geese round need a spot of appliqué now, so there's a bit of a flow into that round.  What do you think?

Linking up with Marelize's guest host, Diana, of Red Delicious Life for Anything Goes Monday!

A Lovely Year of Finishes July Goal

Well, hope I can up my average from 50% to 66.6% by getting this project done.

I actually did do some work on it just before we left Florida in April, but it has sat, untouched since we got back home.  This is a pattern I picked up at the Sarasota Quilt Guild Show in Spring 2013.  The pattern comes with the photo transfer ready to be applied to fabric.  I intend to make it for my huband's garage.  It is a wallhanging, and has some cute gears to appliqué on the quiltlet.

Yep, appliqué.  And we all know that I still have not finished the appliqué round of my Self-directed Round Robin.  My Self is not bitchy enough, clearly, LOL!  I considered (for a nanosecond) having the round robin as my July finish; it will have to be the finish for August as the show is September if I want it to be part of the display, and I do!

I found the gears green backing at Rainbow's End in Dunedin, and I bought more than I need, so he might one day get his very own quilt...

Linking up with Melissa's (Sew BitterSweet Designs) A Lovely Year of Finishes, as well as Lee's (Freshly Pieced) WIP Wednesday.

Yoga Mat Bag Tutorial

This bag will hold a Manduka Eko 5mm yoga mat.

You will need:
1 yard of your main fabric
1 yard of your lining fabric
a 25X34" rectangle of batting
scraps of batting
36-39" of cording for drawstring
1 grommet 11mm or 7/16"
thread for piecing and thread for quilting

Bag body:
Cut a 25X34" rectangle of both the main and the lining fabrics.
Layer, baste, and quilt as desired.  I divided my bag into sections of roughly 6" square.  I then chose various motifs from Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting project blog, some of Angela Walters' designs from her Dot to Dot Quilting class on Craftsy and a few others out of books I have or designs in my head.

Once your bag body is quilted, trim it to 22 1/2" X 32".  Set it aside.

Bottom:
Cut a 7" diameter circle from your main fabric, your lining fabric and your batting scraps.  Layer, baste and quilt as desired.

Strap:
Double-sided strap where each side is different:
Cut a 34" long strip by 3" of the main as well as of the lining fabric.  Cut (2) scant 2 1/4"X34" strips of batting.  Alternatively, you may just cut one batting strip.  I like the extra cushy-ness of the double layer of batting.

You always wanted to save those long edges of batting after quilting and trimming your quilts, right?  Now you know why!  Straps for bags!!

Sew the main fabric to the lining fabric RST along one long 34" side using a 1/4" seam.

Press so the wrong sides are now together.  Press 1/4" fold along both 34" sides of the strap.

Open out and lay the 2 batting strips on the lining fabric so their edges are well within the seams and folded edges of the strap.

Fold over the main fabric.  Pin.

I know everyone is crazy about the Clover mini-clips, but I prefer these oh-so-fine pins.  AND I can sew (slowly) over them!

 Edgestitch along both 34" edges.  I stitched right along the edge, and again 1/4" away.

I stitched right down the middle of the strap and then quilted wavy lines the length of the strap to hold all the layers together.  here you see the 3 components besides the main body of the bag:

Sew the bag together along the long edges, right sides together with a 1/4" seam.  I zigzagged the edges after stitching.  You could use a serger here.  Alternatively, you could bind this seam so your bag is reversible.

Feed the strap inside the bag, which is still wrong side out, and baste the strap to the bottom of the bag, using a 1/4" seam and centering the strap over the side seam you just sewed.  If you are making your bag reversible, apply a second strap to the opposite side of the bag from this strap, attaching it to the lining side.

Attach the bottom.
Fold the bottom circle in half, marking the edges with a pin.  Refold, lining up the 2 pins and mark the new edges with pins or press lightly in all four places.  This quarters your bottom so you will have it placed evenly inside the cylinder of the yoga mat bag.

Flatten the bag now, with the side seam at one side.  Put a pin in the opposing side to the side seam.  Open the bag and refold, matching that pin to the side seam and flatten again.  Drop a pin in each of the opposite sides here so you now have the bottom quartered as well.

Insert the circle that is the bag bottom inside the cylinder, matching up all 4 pins.  Stitch in a 1/4" seam, zigzagging as you did the side seam, or using a serger here if you prefer, or binding if you are doing a reversible bag. You would want to use bias binding around this circular seam.

Binding the top edge
Turn the bag right side out.  Baste the top edge of the strap to the top edge of the bag, using a 1/4" seam.  Cut a piece of either the lining or the main fabric that is 2 1/4" X 28".  Fold this strip in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and press.  Bind the top edge of the bag as you would a quilt,

either machine or hand-stitching the binding to the inside of the bag.

Turn down the top edge of the bag 1 1/2" to make the casing and press.  Open it back out, and fold the bag in half having the strap at one side.  Mark the opposite side from the strap with a dot.  Apply your grommet here as per instructions on the package.

Fold back down the casing and stitch it down, stitching along the edge of the binding.  Be sure to match your bobbin thread to the main fabric so this stitching blends into the bag.

Thread your cord through the grommet hole and knot the ends.  I chose to feed it through before I stitched down the casing.  If you do this, be sure the cording is at the top folded edge of the casing so you won't stitch through it.

Pocket
Cut a 5X71/4" rectangle of your lining fabric.  Fold one long edge over 1/4" and then fold it down once more 3/4".  Press and stitch it down.  Fold the pocket in half, RST, and stitch down the 5" side and across the bottom.  Turn right side out and press.

I sewed my pocket by edge-stitching it just under the binding edge of the casing, centering it over the side seam.

This will be a perfect place for me to keep my phone and car keys during class.

And voilà!  A yoga mat totebag!

Note: For another, different yoga bag, I downloaded Amy Butler's free Nigella Yoga Bag pattern here.  I had thought to adapt that pattern using my quilted fabric as the material, but it wasn't big enough for my mat, didn't have an inside pocket, didn't close at the top, and wasn't reversible, as I'd originally intended.  On my bag, you could bind the side seam, and the bottom seam, as I did the top edge, as well as sew on a strap to the lining side, so it would be reversible.  My inside fabric is so pretty, but the quilting doesn't show, which is why I opted not to do a reversible bag after all.  Maybe one day!

Lost and Found

A few days ago I was on the hunt through my sewing corner's various Ikea drawers, Rubbermaid totes and Sterilite plastic drawers for zippers.  Just two days ago it was for cording for my yoga mat totebag.  As usual, I was also keeping my eye out for a few missing items, "lost" in the move across Canada that involved packing up my entire sewing room in our former house so it could be renovated-- how I miss all those beautiful cabinets and countertops!-- into a bedroom prior to selling our house.  I didn't see the majority of the contents of my sewing room for 9 months.  So you can appreciate how things "disappeared".

Well, FOUND!!

This blast from my past is almost older than dirt...

I was hoping I hadn't tossed this in the severe culling I did before we left.  Phew.  I hand-sewed all but two rows of squares on this Barbie doll quilt, cutting out rectangles (pretty smart to save myself one seam), stitching them together, stuffing each one with some polyester stuffing (not batting) and then joing the puffy squares into rows.  I was about 10 years old.  Once I was 12, I was allowed to use my mum's old sewing machine and I made the quilt a little bigger.  These fabrics are from my mum's scrap bag which had some upholstery samples as well as some scraps from clothing she made us four kids.  It's kind of cool that before I became a quilter, I already was one in my soul.

I also found (HOOOOORAYYY!) the label for my Cloud 9 quilt.  This was only the second quilt I quilted on my Avanté, and I didn't sew the label high enough up the backing.  So when I got to the lower section of the quilt, I was pretty upset to see that the top ended half way into the label, meaning I'd be trimming it off.  So I unpicked it (that was fun, sitting under the quilt back still loaded on the machine, arms in the air, reverse-sewing).  I put it in a "safe place" so I'd stitch it back on once the quilt was done.  Well, I misplaced it shortly thereafter, which was last April, and only, finally, found it again 2 days ago, through looking for my X-Acto knife and blades!  Woo hoo!  I sewed it back on this afternoon:

I plan to carefully go over the waves on my Bernina, so the quilting will go through the label, as always.

Finally, while looking for backing for my June Scrap-a-Palooza quilt, I found some more of the Simplicity fabric I had hoped to use entirely up by making this quilt...and the makeup bags...

Ah well, this will become the lining and some of the patches in the other two makeup bags I have started.  Or maybe the binding on the scrap quilt. . . maybe both?!  There is 2/3 yard!  How I love Moda fabric.