My Heart Is Full

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

~Mahatma Gandhi                        

This weekend:

Clematis at Dayna's

Fresh from a local greenhouse

Last night:

H2H quilt top is done

Rhododendrons in Amherstburg

Incredible sunset (this does not do it justice) over the Detroit River, Amherstburg

Just to relate this to quilting, as if the colours are not enough, Amherstburg was the last stop on the Underground Railroad to Canada and freedom, quilts hung over porch railings or on clotheslines with symbols sewn in to safely lead the way.

This morning:

7 am:  Greeted by...a cardinal, (that brilliant red spark by the stained glass sun?) his mate in the tree above him. The lower red spot is a quince flower

Rocco soaking up the love of these adorable munchkins, who he ADORES; they don't see his breed, just a loveable soft doggie

That's a beach picnic and toys wrapped up in that quilt!!

Made by her oma, the girl told me this quilt sadly got literally eaten (shades of Nugget, no names mentioned) by her dog in one spot.  It's all handquilted, such bright happy fabrics.

More bright happy

and icing on the cake, shortly after I got home from our walk, this arrived!

Perfect!  (uh, notice the Rocco photo-bomb again?

I won this in Julie's (Pink Doxies) giveaway a few weeks ago, for linking up on her Pet Project Saturday.  It is BEE-YOO-TEE-FULL.  Colour choices, fabrics, FMQ and workwomanship.  It looks just terrific on the cream loveseat against the wheat-coloured walls.

Can you get the sense of just how round and fat my happiness bubble is...

It Started With This...

This is in Pam and Nicky Lintott's Two From One Jelly Roll Quilts, a book I took out of our guild library.  I thought it might work as my Hands2Help quilt for the Canadian charity, Because You Matter.

But I had this

The strips on the right are left from my over-zealous cutting for Maren's quilt.  I suddenly saw blocks of strips as the star centres rather than the 4-patch.  Pulled out the graph paper, and drew this

pieced, dug for some white fabric, dug out more scraps from Maren's quilt, and put this on the design wall:

I experimented with two different squares for the flying geese method I wrote a tutorial for here.  It's rather freeing to do a quilt for charity, with no pressure.  Let's see, I thought, what would happen if I used two different colours for the squares...could I get two-coloured geese wings?

First I laid two pink squares across the background white one.

Sewed, cut, pressed as per the tutorial.  Added the purple ones

Sewed, cut, pressed and squared to this

Kewl!  as my sister Linda would say/write.  It worked!  You get 2 identical pairs, so 2 with the purple on the left and the pink on the right and 2 the opposite.

I also by accident found another layout for the pieces in this quilt:

A rather happy accident!

I like them both!  But if I do this arrangement, I would need to either make another column of the strip set blocks and geese, or make big borders because it's only 30" wide.  I love the diagonal movement though... What about you?  I think...hmmm, I think that will keep for another quilt as I want this one to be about 40" square, and with a 2" border it will be just that!  Perfect for a child to grab, hug, or put on her lap.
:-)

Now to remake the same pattern, but in boys' fabrics!  Remember the stacks of strips at the beginning of this post?  Those on the left are left over from Brady's  I Spy quilt.

Whatever layout I choose for the girl, I will do the other layout for the boy.

Outside of a piece of cotton for the backing fabric for this first quilt which I picked up yesterday at Fabricland on sale, this is completely from scraps in my stash.  Aren't scraps a wonderful thing?

Linking up with Julie's Pet Project Saturday, Cindy's Oh Scrap! Sunday, and DSW on Monday at Patchwork Times.  Buttons on sidebar.

Remember to vote in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival!  I know I need to go do this asap.  Did my 3 picks for Viewers' Choice last week.  My two quilts are Gears in Art Quilts and Seashell Runner in Small Quilts.  So much talent and beauty and inspiration all abound in this twice-yearly festival!

Oh, nearly forgot:  Bella, in her diva, pose-for-the-blog-why-haven't-I-been-on-it-lately way, managed to catch my attention yesterday:

"Make sure you get my good side!" she's thinking.

I mean, come ON!!  What cat does this?  Well, lots, I know.  If I'm cutting, she has to be on the table; if I'm pressing, she's trying hard to be allowed to stay on the pressing area; if I'm sewing, she's either trying to get on my lap (and often succeeding) or trying to wiggle into a spot behind the small of my back, or sitting on the sewing table.  I laid out the white fabric and of course, because I was cutting, she was on the cutting mat.  So I draped the fabric end over her and smoothed out the end I was cutting.  She didn't even move, loving being beneath the fabric!!  I went to the pressing side to press the squares I'd just cut, as they still had a bit of a fold in some of them, and saw she was still motionless under the fabric. So I picked up the iPad which was right beside me, said, "Bella! What are you doing you silly pussycat?" and of course up, periscope, she popped with a "mmrrow?" and held still for two photos.  You know, just to ensure I used the very best one here.

Charity Quilt for a Senior #2

And a finish for a Friday.  :-)  Hold onto your hats for a LOT of pictures.

I decided that this year I wanted to give a minimum of two quilts to the seniors' residence across the street from our home in Kingsville.  Unfortunately, but really, yay, no seniors in that residence are in wheelchairs.  So I called another, Royal Oak, and they were happy to accept quilts from me, quite tickled, in fact.

Playing with the layout on the design wall

The lady to whom I spoke said there are a few residents who rarely have family visit :-((( and so she will ensure these go to them.

Slight change, and I went with this instead of over-thinking things as I am wont to do!

We made charity quilts for wheelchair-bound seniors once before in the Alberta guild I belonged to.  These two need their ties sewing on in the top two corners yet.  That way the quilt stays secure on the lap without danger of falling off and catching under the wheels.

I seem to be on a diagonal kick with the layout of quilts I design...

Flimsy done

I had fun with the back, since I didn't have enough of the Robert Kaufman fruity fabric.

Think I STILL have about 20 3" blue squares left!

I had several squares left from Shamrock.  So when Cindy at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework started the latest Scrap-a-Palooza quilt, I just knew I could use them up in this quilt, my eighth of her scrap-a-palooza series.  I started sewing the 9-patches a couple of days before we left Florida, knowing that I would have an all-over print that I could incorporate for a few large squares.  I love jewel-toned colours.

This is an oldie, bought in a small town quilt shop on sale; at the time I thought it might work for Paula Nadelstern kaleidoscopes, but nope not symmetrical

I don't know why I only had half the width times about a yard and a quarter.  I have NO idea what I did with the first half...Stack 'n Whack?? If so, I gave the quilt away...  Or maybe my friend LuEllen and I split this fabric?  Uh yeah, it's been that long...

I'm happy to say this is all that is left, this plus two strips from the edges that are on the strips pile...(for more string quilts in all probability).

What do I do with these??

I cut several 2.5" squares of the fruity fabric, and I will cut more of the deep red (I still have a fairly large chunk of that left since I only needed 15" X the length of the quilt).  I am glad to see that I have learned from Cindy about scraps as far as organizing in strips and 2.5" squares, but I don't know what to do with these 4-5" by 9-13" ... I will save them for now, and maybe they will grow up into a bars quilt down the road, right?

Pre-washing texture...

Instead of a meander like I did in quilt #1, I picked a meander from Christina Cameli's Step by Step Free Motion Quilting.  I just LOVE this book, so glad I added it to my FMQ book collection.  This is Lilypad, and I love it!!  I did it on a larger scale for the most part, as I wanted this done fast.

Post-washing texture...love it.

In each of the four fruity 7.5" blocks I did a Dot to Dot design of Angela Walters'.  I wanted to practise ruler work before tackling Dayna's graduation quilt.

Wait, what?  Dayna's quilt?  I know, it's not been on the blog officially, as it was a surprise for her, although you did see some of it in this tutorial... I will post about it now she's seen the flimsy. I might not have finished the gift in time...and it's not the first time I've been late with a gifted quilt, red face of shame...

A view of the back:

It's really cuddly.  I used Pellon Nature's Touch 100% cotton batting as I did in quilt #1.  I just love this soft batting.  No affiliation, but I should talk to them; I'm giving these quilts away, and waxing poetic about their batting, right?!

Closer view so you can hopefully see the effect of the Dot to Dot designs.

So then I took the quilt outside onto the front porch as opposed to the washed-quilt shots on the floor of the front entryway...

For the binding, I just turned the backing to the front with a double-fold à la placemats.  I love the way it turned out!

I used Fufu's rayon and outside of a couple breakage issues, it quilted great, and has blended and sunk in wonderfully with the fabrics.

This design of Angela's is awesome in a busy print, and easy to stitch out!

Another great design of Angela's, good in a busy print

Trying to get all 3 in a row of the Dot to Dot designs

Both quilts!

This shot makes me happy!

The folded up shot, blue string quilt on top...

And

Fruity quilt on top--can you spot my signature initials/name?

Ha, just thought Tutti Fruity (sp) would have been a good name for quilt #2, but I didn't name either one.

Quilty loveliness

Charity Quilt Stats:
Size: ~29X37"
Pattern: Scrap-a-Palooza #15 Rainbow 9-patch
Fabrics: scraps from my stash
Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 100% cotton
Threads: pieced with Gutermann; quilted with Fufu's Rayon, The Bottom Line in the bobbin
Quilted on my Avanté

What's next?
Well, this

Hands2Help Charity quilt-to-be for Because You Matter

and this

Fabrics for one of Cheryl's quilt patterns I'm testing--needs a neutral, yes?

Random:
My mum gave me a two-mug set that I just LOVE, when she was here.  It's from Serenity Lavender Farm.  We both helped to support her business when we stopped in for a visit!  I knew I'd use the box the mugs came in in my sewing corner, and last night, I got rid of the $1 store basket as a catch-all on my cutting table/pressing area, and replaced it:

I love organization, but pretty organization is even better!

Gotta say how much I also love my Elmer's school glue for binding now, mmm!

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict (whoop! whoop! for my finish) and Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday, and TGIFF which is at...HEY!  it's in Edmonton, Alberta, where I was born and raised :-)  at Slostudio. 

One Lovely Blog Award

Two days ago I got the most lovely email.  Lisa of Sunlight in Winter Quilts, a sister Ontarian, wrote to tell me she'd nominated my blog for this award!

Was I ever touched.  I had never heard of this, but it is a terrific idea as a way to recommend other blogs to your readers, and thus, find new blogs, and make new friends.  Moreover, it really makes a person's day when they hear they've been nominated.  :-)

The idea of this award is to basically spread the love, by nominating other bloggers, mostly newer ones, that I think should be recognized.  This way, we bring attention to blogs that we think are lovely, that we enjoy reading, and that we think others should too!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival - Spring 2015 - Entry #2

I am happy to share with you my choice for my second entry into the Blogger's Quilt Festival! Although I have had just a small amount of time to glance through some of the entries, I am just so impressed and inspired by what quilters around the world are doing every minute of every day, 24/7!  It's a feast for the eyes, a massage for the spirit, a flame to ignite creativity...and it's F. R. E. E. !!!  Thank you Amy!

Although the main voting begins May 22, you can now vote for your 3 favourite quilts in the Viewers' Choice.  Go here to vote.  Anyone with an email address can vote for the favourite three within the entire festival.

So without further ado, here is my second entry, my Seashell Runner.  I am entering it into Small Quilts.  It is too big perimeter-wise for the mini quilts category, and I already put a quilt into Art Quilts, and I'm not sure whether this really is an art quilt...maybe they need a runners category, right?!

I bought the pattern several years ago in Florida at a quilt shop.  I wanted something designed by a local, and I'd planned to make it for the condo we owned at that time in Florida.  I picked up several fat quarters of batiks I thought would work.

And there it sat, in a drawer, for several years.

This winter, I took it down to Florida once again (yep, it went down...and back north last winter, not gonna lie) and put it on my Q1 FAL list.

And got it done!  Here is the back:

All the satin-stitching and quilting detail looks pretty cool.

I was so pleasantly surprised that it fits absolutely perfectly on the coffee table in our house we now own in Florida.  Love that.

I brought it back north for show 'n tell at my Kingsville guild meeting, and was even more happy to find that it fits here on our coffee table!  We live on Lake Erie, so the shells theme works here too, maybe not so much the sharks' teeth and starfish, but that's okay.

It's pretty unique as far as quilted runners go; each shell or shark's tooth is made individually and then all the shells, starfish and sharks' teeth are tacked together.  You can read more about the process here and here, and the finish here.

One more detail shot:

You can find this quilt in the Small Quilts category.  Remember that the thumbnails change places each time you visit a page, so you have to hunt through all the tantalizing pics to find the one you want.  Good strategy for more than one reason, wink.

Voting starts May 22, but you can vote now for Viewers' Choice - pick your fave three quilts!  It is so interesting (and a vortex to be sure, but a good vortex) to go and see all the many many entries.  And thank you so very much to Amy at Amy's Creative Side for organizing this twice yearly event--she's been doing this since 2009!!