Postcard Swap Finish

Welcome to TGIFF!

A little over a month ago, Patty of Elm Street Quilts decided to host a Postcard Swap. I decided to join in, because, well I wasn't very busy in the month of March....snort.😂 I quite like mini quilts, and wanted to push myself a little in the creativity department. I like challenges. You got one word from your partner, and you gave one word as a clue to what you'd like.

I won't tell you the word I got for my partner, nor who she is, because it just got mailed off today. Was it a fun project to do! I did a little detective work on her blog to get a feel for her personality and quilting style. We are similar in several ways, and although I'm not familiar with her blog, I will be following her from now on.😁

Here is my postcard!

Again, I wish the camera could capture the glint of light on the Sulky Holoshimmer thread I used on the ocean section.

What is amazing to me is that the scene I chose I drove right by in the summer of 2007, and I may have stopped for a photo surprisingly close to this breathtaking spot. These huge rocks rise up out of the Pacific all along the coast, so unusual. It took a little bit of digging, but in about 10 minutes, I located the photo album (pre-iPhone photos and all digital) of that trip! MacGyver's anonymity is preserved with some chunks of beach glass, LOL. (Yeah, I have yet another beach glass bowl in the works.)

August 2007

I used an image off Google as a starting point, and took a little artistic license with it, adding in the shorebirds and the evergreen tree on the side, typical of this region of North America which has stunning ocean scenery in front of you and forest vistas immediately behind. I am no artist, but if I have an image to look at, I can usually produce a fairly reasonable copy.

I used my drawing to make the pieces for the appliqué by tracing what I'd drawn.

I made the base by piecing the sky to the ocean and then doing a gentle improv cut and sewn curved seam to add the sand.

From there it was Crafted Appliqué for the rest, oh how I love this method. You can still get Lara's book on Amazon. I save my appliqué-ready scraps between wax paper and place them in a ziploc bag for future use...and I have actually used pieces in new projects, like this one!

The tree and one of the monoliths came from a scrap from testing blocks for a Canada's 150th birthday quilt for Cindy of Stitchin at Home, and the birds from scraps from the walleye potholder I made for my husband. I prepared some black pieces for the other monoliths.

I layered the piece with one layer of Thermore by Hobbs (great thin batting for mini quilts) stitched around the appliqué shapes and then FMQ-ed the entire piece. Those birds were TINY! Cindy knows I start to twitch when I have to appliqué tiny pieces. But it was worth it. I free-motion embroidered their feet, and, as the fabric was only 2-3 threads thick at the bills, I added free-motion embroidery there too, to stabilize and define them.

Here are the threads I used, lovely beautiful Sulky rayons, all 40 weight but one 30 weight, and one Holoshimmer.

I can't show you the back, because I wrote her a message, but it's a piece of plain white. There's a layer of stiff fusible batting between the Thermore and the white fabric, making a total of four layers. I statin-stitched around all four edges with the beautiful variegated turquoise rayon, once loosely to hold everything together, and then two more rounds at 0.5. My mmm! quilts label is on the postcard back.

So that's my second finish this week! My first was the Cat-eye-doscope Plus quilt for Cheryl and Paige's book release blog hop. This is SUCH a great hop, such a great book, two terrific quilter/authors.

Update Friday March 16:

I spoke with Preeti (by iMessage) yesterday and she asked me to do her a favour in memory of her sweet precious friend, Angel, who, so very sadly, passed away yesterday. In my haste to get the TGIFF post up before I went to bed on Thursday night, I forgot to do her small request, that has the power to become huge, much like Bernie's doll quilts...

First, please read Preeti's post from yesterday. I hope you will also read the link to Angel's quilt, either by clicking there or from Preeti's yesterday post. It is strange how The Universe puts things in our path... Preeti had reached out to Amy of AmyScrapSpot, wondering how her multiple-disabilities 3-month-old baby boy, Axel, was doing, but hadn't heard in some time. Yesterday, yes, yesterday, the very day Angel died, Amy emailed Preeti back about Axel. Are you seeing a triple A-team here?  Preeti's profound sadness over the loss of Angel has now been channelled into doing something good: helping Amy with Axel's medical expenses. Amy's sister started a Go Fund Me page, (I know how DEEPLY appreciated these pages are, where people donate, anonymously or not, whatever they feel appropriate, since one was set up for my own grandson after his too-young father died last June), and Preeti is asking if you would take a moment, read her post, read Amy's about little Axel, and donate a small amount. As she says, "If 300 people gave $10 each, we'd meet out goal." I know quilters have humongous hearts, and I know that my post will see a lot of traffic this weekend, since I'm not only hosting TGIFF (and leaving it open a wee bit longer, sorry guys, made an executive decision; don't fire me) but I'm linking up my postcard finish with the other big Friday finish parties. THANK YOU for keeping my belief that there is inherent good in this world that gets my spirit so down a lot of the time.

What have you finished this week? You may link up your blog post, Flickr or Instagram post using the link up below. Remember to visit a few blogs and spread some quilty love and encouragement. Please include a link to this blog post and/or the TGIFF button, so your followers can come here to view all the great finishes! You never know, you may have your quilter ADD kick in, and have to go DRop Everything And Make It, aka DREAMi! (Come back for that link up on the last Saturday of March; see sidebar for the button which will take you to the explanation post.)



Linking up to the Friday Finish parties in QBL:
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Busy Hands Quilts

An InLinkz Link-up

Postcard from Sweden Step 3

Here we are at about the halfway point! By now you should have paired and sewn all your HSTs together and trimmed them to size.  Or not.  Perhaps you are assembling the quilt as you go, either in rows, or in blocks of four.  I have done both, and think I prefer in blocks of four because of being able to spin seams when pressing and avoid lumps where eight triangles come together.

We interrupt this blog post to say, "GO Corbin Watson!" He's the goalie for Team Canada's hockey team in the Paralympics and is from Kingsville! They've won all three of their games so far and play again tomorrow. I'm so happy that the Paralympics is getting more attention these days; IMHO these athletes have more heart and determination than 'regular' athletes. 💖😍

Ideally, if this is the halfway point, I should have 10 of the 20 rows sewn together. Well, I have not quite half that amount...what a good example am I? I have been rather busy of late! Here is my progress so far and I am loving it:

Here are a couple of tips that I have discovered helpful:

1. I label the HST pairs with a fine tipped marker within the seam allowance.

This way when I press them, I don't have to worry about pressing painter's tape, or a self-adhesive label, or having it fall off. Trust me, I've done this on many many quilts over the past 20 years, marking within the seam allowance, with never an issue.

2. I press to the side, 'the dark side' to quote Angela Walters and Jenny Doan, lol, and this ensures all these seams nest beautifully. Pinning has been minimal. If you spin the seams, as in unpick a stitch or two within the seam allowance where the seams join, something Carrie Nelson (think Moda's blog and Schnibbles) is well-known for, then you can press them all in the same direction, and the bulk is reduced by half.

Love those cute teeny pinwheels that form!

Okay there's my HSTs sewn together step NOT complete, but I'm going to keep plugging away between my other projects, 😉 and eventually I will have a quilt top. Let's see what your stitched HSTs look like by linking up your quilt progress below.

For the Postcard from Sweden schedule, click here. Remember there is its own page under the tab Quilt Alongs at the top of my blog page.

An InLinkz Link-up

Modern Plus Sign Quilts - Cat-Eye-doscope

Welcome to my stop on Day 3 of the Modern Plus Sign Quilts Book Blog Hop. This is a terrific book, great ideas for new twists on Plus Sign quilts, lovely photography, and excellent instructions.

When I first heard that Cheryl had a book coming out with Paige, I right away emailed Cheryl, asking  if she was considering doing a book release hop, could I be a part of it. I've been a fan of Cheryl's designs for some time. She won my very first giveaway on my blog a few years ago. 😊 Of course she said, "Of course!" I wasn't the only one who wanted to be a part of the hop; there are 40 of us; that's love for you!

Once In A Blue Moon

I am often late. There, I said it. However, work-wise, I am on time, and I am also known for keeping to deadlines, the very important ones, that is. Thus, it is with a red face and downward cast of eye that I admit that I missed the important deadline for posting my mini quilt challenge which should have been done in February.

Note that I was provided the fabric by Island Batik, the batting by Hobbs, and one of the navy threads by Aurifil. Without further ado, here is my mini, 'Once In A Blue Moon'!

I Like/Love #13

February was a blink, and I did not write my monthly gratitude post, the first Thursday in March was Throwback Thursday on my blog, and so here we are today.

1. I like the sound of the vacuum.
Especially when I'm not the one running it. 😂 My darling husband is, without even being asked. He knows I've got a couple of irons in the fire, pots on the stove, quilts in the works. Besides, he does often vacuum anyhow.

2. I love my friends, my family, and Mama Nature.
(common theme in these posts, no?)
This has been a bit of a tough past couple of days... Remember this photo I took on December 23 and wrote about in my December I like/love post?

I mused about this making a great Christmas card, photoshopping out the patio chairs legs of course, and how I recalled cardinals being messengers from loved ones... Naala had just passed away. March 4 would have been her 11 birthday, so she's been more on our minds/hearts again. My dear friend Helen, of Word Weaver Art, (please go check out her wonderful blog and stunning pieces of art) delivered on my musings.

Not only did she 'photoshop out' the patio chairs, she zoomed in on the 'Glimpse of Red' and she added Naala's paw prints, symbolizing she's just outside of view for now... It hung in Florida, was carefully bubblewrapped back up and transported to one side of my feet in the SUV ride back home, where it now hangs in our kitchen, which is where I first took the photo. This blog has changed and enriched my life in unimaginable and numerous ways. I thank the Universe for bringing Helen and me together. IRL aka In Real Life, very soon, we both hope, and visualize.

More friend time of the IRL kind was had in Florida, with family time in Nashville a couple of weeks ago.

The first photo is of a wonderful canal-side restaurant, Farlow's On the Water in Englewood, FL where we met up with John, Janette and Eddie, friends from the Catskills in New York. We had a wonderful day, walking dogs, visiting and enjoying the warm sunshine. The Tabebuia trees were in full bloom when we left, both pink (not pictured) and yellow. Glorious! Also glorious was a weekend in Nashville, courtesy of Dayna's fiancé and his sister, for Dayna to shop for a wedding dress, which, if you read a prior post, was a successful venture. That is me in Franklin, just outside of Nashville, under a gorgeous... um cherry? tree. Ahh!! the magnolias too, which were just opening, one of my favourite trees. The southern magnolias weren't out yet, those with the fragrant dinner-plate-sized blooms. It was so strange, in a good way, to leave hot steamy summer weather in Florida, go to mild spring weather in Nashville, back to Florida for a bit, and now in early chilly spring here in southern Ontario!

3. I love teaching yoga.
I'm so glad to be home, despite the flurries we had yesterday (nothing stuck) and again today, as I type, (stuff is sticking...not a fan). My self-esteem got quite the massage at yoga on Sunday, and again in my 6 am Tues/Thursday classes, as my students showered me with hugs and words of love, and 'missed you so much', upon my return. 🙏

4. I love dessert.
I don't let myself eat it daily since I passed 40...which was a while back. Once or twice a week, though, dessert of the home-baked kind especially is welcome! This, however...

in Nashville, in the district known as 12 South, was the stuff of dreams! A cupcake ATM?! Best. Cupcake. Ever. No lie. Wonderful weekend as well.

5. I love reading.
I finished a great book out of the library, Weekends With Daisy by Sharron Luttrell. If you love dogs, and even if you don't consider yourself a doglover, you will love this book as it is about so much more than looking after a puppy-in-training for a service dog. Daisy lives Monday to Friday with Keith, a prisoner who was selected to be a puppy trainer, quite the privilege in prison. He and Sharron share the raising of Daisy, where Sharron learns as much about herself, and about how to approach life in general, as she does about being a dog trainer. I also read two more No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books, and am currently engrossed in two books, The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham, fulfilling a personal goal to read at least one classic this year, and Voyager by Diana Gabaldon, re-reading it as I watch season 3.

6. I love water.
I am blessed to live less than two minutes' walk to Lake Erie.

You've seen plenty of photos of her on my blog, and I don't plan to stop anytime soon. This was a couple of days ago. There was a bad snowstorm a few days prior to us getting home, and me taking this photo. You can see some of the wet stuff still plastered, ha, like icing, (see what I did there) on the side of that tree. It does something to my soul, my spirit, seeing, gazing upon, listening to, smelling, water. The birds were busy, both flying and fishing.

7. I like water, and kayaking.
We always make time for a couple or more beach walks. Below is the one along the midway point of Manasota Key. Beside it is a photo of a sea urchin I spotted on the shore of Bird Key, which is across from Sarasota where we were walking dogs, a certain one swimming his heart out, with one of the best men in my life, John.

The bottom two photos are from our kayak outing this year. I hope one day we can get either a tandem kayak or two individual ones. For now we rent. This year we kayaked in the intracoastal water between Englewood and Manasota Key, through Lemon Bay and down to Stump Pass, about a 3-mile round trip. Those are the bottom two photos.

8. I like chain-piecing.
These two projects are my Island Batik project for February (I know....rather ashamed that it's late, but IRL took over QBL much to my annoyance) which is blues and violets, and Postcard from Sweden, the large HST Kona Thistle I believe, going through the machine. Let's see if I can do both without reverse-sewing...so far so good.

9. I like learning.
This week sees the start of the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop, with us behind the scenes getting to know each other, working on blogs, doing 'homework'. As a first-time co-host, I'll admit I'm nervous, but excited, because it always has a positive outcome when I try something new, when I face a challenge. In April and May we will be doing some hopping to new blogs in QBL, with some pretty attractive prizes up for grabs for readers of those new blogs!

Linking up with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color where you can visit several other people who regularly write these I Like/Love posts.
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My Favourite LQS's

As with choosing a favourite child, it's nigh on impossible for us quilters to pick our favourite quilt shop, right? Each one is loved the same, but different aspects of each one is loved more. So it is with quilt shops. Because I spend some time in the winter months in Florida, I have two, well maybe three.  See?!

An optional assignment for the month of January for us Island Batik ambassadors was to write about our LQS, which stands for Local Quilt Shop, for my non-quilter readers. 😍 I took pictures at home in January of my favourite LQS, A Stitch in Time, but somehow never did write up the post. I neglected to take pictures of my favourite LQS in Port Charlotte, Expert Sewing Center (that is the store's FaceBook page; here is the online store; Sewing Supply Warehouse), but I did take some of my favourite one, Alma Sue's Quilts in Sarasota! I've mentioned this one several times over the past couple of years; in fact I even have an Alma Sue's Quilt Shop label! That's love!

Let's start at home. This is A Stitch in Time in Leamington, Ontario, Canada.

A Stitch in Time opened in 1991, in a smaller location than the present one. It sells not only a wide variety of fabric, but also a wide variety of yarns and notions. They also sell cross-stitch supplies. This combo is my dream shop, well, the knitting and quilting part for sure, as I don't cross-stitch anymore, and embroidery, though I want to, rarely seems to happen.

Inside:

As you can see, it's well lit, and there are plenty of quilts on display, on the walls, in vintage accessories like that red wagon, and the baby bassinets.  This is the main room, and I am standing in the centre, at the till. Behind me is another cutting table (there's one in the back you can barely see here), all the notions are to the left behind me, and there is a wonderful bin of sale fat quarters as you enter the shop. At the very back, just to the right of the EXIT sign, is another doorway. This is the yarn room. LOVE! I actually felt my heart rate speed up the first time I stepped in there. Just to the right, past the red wagon and the shelves of fabric, is another 'room' (think L-shaped dining room) of more fabric. And...to the left just past the till/checkout counter is yet another doorway to a room, an entire room of Minky!!! (next time I'm there I will update this post with a photo) This is the best selection on both sides of the border (remember I live just outside of Windsor which is on the southern shore of the Detroit River, with Detroit on the north), and IMHO, the best-priced selection as well. With over 6000 bolts of fabric, and very reasonable prices, I find myself gravitating more and more to this shop which is a mere 8 km from my house!

Alma Sue's Quilts
One week later, 2000 km or 1200 miles to the south, and a little braver about taking photos of a quilt shop....
In Florida, one of the very first shops I discovered is Alma Sue's Quilts in Sarasota. If her golf cart is parked outside, the store is open! Note the Amish bicycles on the left side of the photo.

Just inside the door at the checkout.

From the checkout area, this wide-open space is what greets you:

You can see another room where the Christmas tree is that is just for Christmas fabric.

To the left of me is this large, naturally-lit hand-quilting area:

I surreptitiously snapped this one, as the Amish do not usually like their photos taken.

That is what fascinated me on my first trip, when she was in her previous location, less than a block away, was seeing Amish ladies gathered around a frame, hand-quilting a quilt. She offers this popular service while they are in the area during the winter months. How do they get there? was my question as well, since that would be a super-long journey by horse-drawn buggy... 😂 Why, on huge coaches (not the Cinderella or stagecoach kind, but busses) driven by a non-Amish driver! If you look past the ladies, you can see the opening to another entire room where you will find some fabric, (sale fabric is here), books, remnants, quilts for sale, and the sewing classroom. A closer look into this room is below:

I spoke with Ella to find out when she opened the quilt shop. I knew it had to be 2008 or earlier because I'd bought the backing fabric for my daughter Brianne's wedding quilt from her. Interesting! She was the first quilt shop in Sarasota, opening in 2002. She opened it to give her mother something to do after her father had died. In her words, "It just exploded!" It is located in the Amish area of Sarasota (yep, who knew, but it's true). Across the parking lot from the quilt shop is a popular restaurant, Der Dutchman, (if you don't eat in, then definitely take out a coffee and either some fudge or a red velvet donut with cream cheese icing, or a whoopie pie...) and just behind the restaurant, opening very soon, if not already, is a large hotel, The Carslisle Inn. The shop has been asked to make 300 quilted pillows for the hotel, which has a different quilt pattern theme for each floor.

Expert Sewing Center
Since we moved from the Bradenton area to the North Port area, I have found a third local quilt shop, in Port Charlotte, Expert Sewing Center.
Here is the classroom, snagged off their FaceBook page where you can go to see several other photos!

This store has a wonderful selection of fabric, especially of Moda fabrics. This is where I bought all the fabric for Aidan's Radiance quilt and Dayna's Shoot for the Moon. They also stock Handi-Quilter needles and bobbins, and tons and tons of threads. I purchased the background fabrics for an upcoming (SO EXCITED) blog hop quilt from her. I highly recommend checking out their online store (links are all in first paragraph of this post, no affiliation) as that is where I first 'met' them. Also you should know that Sheila's sale section is to die for.

Okay! Time for me to shoot for getting some quilts finished in the very near future, so I'm outta here!

Connecting Threads has the thread Avril, my Avanté, loves on sale, Essential 100% cotton, for just $1.95 for a 1000m spool! They stock a fabulous array of colours. Also something like 75 different green fabrics are on sale for up to 60% off! And best of all, my personal favourite that runs 365 days a year is their free shipping policy, which they extend to several countries, not just the US, with a certain minimum spend.😍

As always thank you for using my links to purchase product; it's what helps pay for things like the linky parties for Postcard from Sweden (such a great number of us are quilting along with Helen and me; hope your HSTs are progressing faster than mine are😞), DrEAMI!, a link for those squirrels that distract you from your regular sewing lineup, Throwback Thursday, a link where we show and discuss our pre-blogging quilts, and Quilt Alongs (yep, yep, yep, the second annual one is coming soon!). There is lots of activity here on the blog...  and behind the scenes. The New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop is starting up now that sign-ups are closed. We are getting to know each other, doing some learning and planning in preparation for the upcoming hops in April and May.

Linking up
Sew Fresh Quilts

Throwback Thursday #3 "A Dent in My Stash"

Welcome to the third TBT. This is a quilt I made specifically for the Florida condo we used to have. We'd already bought a red couch to be a little daring, and were decorating in earth tones with a few hits of beachiness.

I just had to get a shot of the quilt in the early morning sun; these colours really glow.

I'd picked up the free pattern a couple of years prior to actually making this at the annual sewing show, Creative Stitches, in Edmonton from a Saskatchewan quilt shop. It was a really cool method at that time, to sew strips around a square and then slash apart the square in unequal segments. You then sewed them back together randomly, mixing up the fabrics.

You can see two of the blocks that are created below:

You rotated the blocks so colours aren't beside each other, using 12 fabrics in total.

A closer look at the border motif, quilted with a black Sulky rayon

The border motif I quilted is a fun leaf in alternating directions. This is a Kathy Sandbach design. Seeing her on Alex Anderson's 'Simply Quilts' and buying both her books really made a major impact on my FMQ skills.

In the green batik border I quilted a wavy line, and then I did various leaves across all of the blocks.

Here is the back, snuggly warm flannel (perfect flor Florida lol). These are both leftovers, the green from my mum's 70th birthday quilt, and the blue from a quilt I made for our family, the pattern and kit I picked up at that very same sewing show that year! This is in the shaded area of our yard so the colour is a bit greyed out. Compare this shot to the one after it...

LOL notice I even had to piece in a third bit of flannel, the tan strip by the label!

And the label:

Originally we had it on the red couch, but after I made 'Cloud Nine' (you can see a glimpse of it in the photo below) and liked the aquas against the red, I moved it to the IKEA storage bench we use in the entryway.

Rolled up:

I used one of the browns in the blocks for the binding, which is machine-stitched to the front and hand-stitched down on the back.

Here's the staged shot on the wicker love seat on our lanai:

Quilt Stats: (note that I will have to update this once we are back home, as the quilt is packed away)
Pattern:
Size:
Fabric:  stash
Batting: Warm 'n Natural
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads:  pieced with Gütermann cotton; quilted with Sulky rayons

So that's my TBT!

An InLinkz Link-up