Hands2Help Quilts Now Donated

This morning after my Mysore yoga class, I stopped in at the Sexual Assault Centre in Windsor to drop off the two lap quilts I've made for Sarah's Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge.  I just love these two cuddly quilts; carrying them in felt like carrying a small child or a small animal somehow. 
I don't know what it is about these two, but my heart is in them like no other charity quilt I've made.

April 22 - I got mine done really early this year

My sister, Linda, gave me the idea of making a quilt for a child who has been sexually abused.  Here I am earlier this morning:

Crafted Ahhh-pliqué - My Turn and a Giveaway

Welcome everyone to my stop on this lovely blog hop for my dear friend Lara's first published book.  I have a feeling there will be a few more forthcoming from this incredible designer who is not only talented, but flipping ingenious to boot!  She blogs at Buzzin Bumble and is a busy bee for sure when it comes to quilting and creating.

We bonded two summers ago, first over a profound love of dogs, and cemented it with Pets On Quilts when she featured her daughter Kaitie's pibble mix.  (Hey! That Pets on Quilts link shows you the new button for this year's show! Such fun!) I have done a couple of projects using Lara's exciting new method of appliqué, with another two in the works.  Here is my second project:

Yes, when I went to take the photo of the finished pillow, there was Miss Bella, stationed at the ready for the photo shoot.  I don't make this stuff up!  I didn't stage that shot, other than plonk the cushion down on the bench in the front entry.

In my corner of QBL my fur kids make frequent appearances, I sometimes muse about various subjects not necessarily quilt-related, sewing doesn't always get done as quickly as I think it should, and I try to find a way to add a smile to your day, sometimes unintentionally, lol.

This is Lara's book; I know you've most likely seen it around QBL these past couple of weeks.  It is available here on Amazon (no affiliation).  HAPPY DANCE, it has sold out, but it will be available May 20 in the US, not sure about when in Canada.  For a short while it was #1--I GRINNED when I saw the screenshot in this post of the #1 banner across her book.  I know her!!!  With the innovative method she's devised, the amount of care and attention to detail she's put into explaining the method and the amazing creativity she exhibits in the projects within the book, it is no wonder that it has sold out.

And, (insert shy red face), I am "in" the book!  Somewhere after that fated Pets On Quilts 'meeting', she emailed me telling me she was writing a book, and asked if she could quote me in the introduction to her book!  Pshaw!  Really? Moi?  And she did!  So I am in print, hanging by a tube-turner-grabber-nabber, ha, to Lara's beautiful appliqué projects.  I had written something about changing my feeling about 'aaack-pliqué' to 'ahhh-pliqué' in one of my blog posts about Fleurs.  I can tell you right here, right now, she certainly has done that.

I showed you my first experiment with this method here when I made two potholders.  I've been using them ever since, love them!  I wanted to show you what happened when I washed them and then dried them in my dryer:

If you check that original post, you won't notice much, if any, difference!  Maybe a slight puckering of the binding, and if you had feel-o-vision (kinda like smell-o-vision), you would notice the soft hand of these now.

Up close and personal:

Look Ma! No frayed edges!!

It really is 'the bomb' isn't it?

I had hoped to make a tree, inspired by Lara's The Walking Tree quilt in her book.  There were two more common bonds:  a love of books, especially fantasy, and a love of nature.  I have long had a deep reverence for trees, so this project really appealed to me.  My tree quilt will be forthcoming, I promise, and it excites me to no end what I am creating!  That is what I really like and appreciate about this book: it has 7 appliqué projects in it, that you can either make exactly as shown, or use them as jumping off points to inspire your own creativity, as I have done with my tree quilt.  Moreover, she gives extremely detailed explanations as to how to get the best results for her technique, all in a friendly tone with humour sprinkled amongst her wise advice and tips.

This cushion is actually a wallhanging, a pattern I bought some time ago because the saying just killed me, as it is so true.  I thought it would be the perfect second project to try Lara's method, as it had more pieces, and a little layering of pieces so I could see how that worked out.  Uh, fantastic?!  I stitched around the appliqués with just a straight stitch, no zigzag or blanket stitch required; in fact, you can get away without stitching around them at all!

I backstitched by hand the words, and Bella's, er the cat's mouth.  Rocco's, aka the dog's mouth was done on the machine as were the tufts in the cat's ears and the whiskers.  I like to think of this as representing my blue-nose pibble, Rocco, and my diva, Bella.

I had fun with the quilting.

Immediately after the bench photo, I took this one, and she was bound and determined to photobomb it as well!

I managed to shoo her away to get some light on the background to show what I did:

There are four pawprints, and a dog biscuit above the word "have", echoes around the animal appliqués, and then just wiggly lines in the lower half.

I used a variety of threads.

I like to bind my cushions, and thought black would frame it perfectly.  This is RJR Handspray, a 5-yard cut from Craftsy bought at a recent sale.  It's got fabulous depth.  Thank you to Judy for putting me onto this stuff.

I had the perfect backing, a lovely gift from a blog reader who goes by Jake.  She does wonderful work for and with animals, and sews all kinds of stuff for fundraisers, as well as quilts for animals going through major surgery, like for cancer, at a vet specialist near her.  Along with bandanas for my three fur kids (you can read the post here), she sent me several other goodies, including this fanTAStic fabric, which I used for the backing of the cushion.

Wanna see it close up?

It's cats and dogs doing yoga!!!! It came by way of my good friend Preeti, to Jake, and now a piece to me.  Full circle.  Love that.

There is a cushion pattern in Lara's book, along with a few other 3D projects that made my mouth drop open in astonishment when I first saw them.  My favourite is the little cottage that is a sewing machine cover for one of her Golden Girls, her vintage sewing machines:  aka Dorothy, Rose, and Blanche!  Yup, we each have a pretty good sense of humour, Lara's being the wittier.

I made my own pillow form to go inside the cushion.

I made a label using the same appliqué technique to adhere it to the backing. I didn't topstitch it but outlined it with the gel pen so it would pop a bit.

Used the Pentel Gel Roller for Fabric that Preeti gave me to write and then to outline the pawprint

There has been some ahhh-mazing projects shown on this blog hop for Lara's book.  The schedule is here.  Be sure to check it out.

I'm so glad I got this project from pattern in a drawer, to finished little pillow on my bench, and I am so honoured to have been asked to be part of Lara's hop.

Giveaways!  TWO!
Lara has generously provided a copy of her book for readers of my blog.  AND!! She is this type of generous spirit: if you have already bought your copy of the book, have no fear; enter still!  She will refund your money if you are chosen.  I don't know, but that just makes my heart swell when I encounter such a giving nature in a person.

Duh, I decided on my walk just now, 4 hours after this post went live, (alone, sniff, as Rocco is on the DL for another 7 weeks), to have a second giveaway.
Brady:  Nana, how come you always say that?
Me:  Say what?
Brady:  You always say 'duh!' ...
Me:  I do?  Oh, I guess I do! Well, because I often do stupid things.
Brady:  intake of breath - You're not supposed to say that!
Me:  Say what?
Brady:  (whispers)  that 's-t-u-' word.
Me:  I'm sorry. You're right. Okay, because I always do silly things!

I'm going to give away the pattern for a second prize!  It is open to anyone, anywhere; I will happily mail it to you.

One last look at the cushion:

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Dogs vs Cats by Bloomin Minds
Size: 13.75 X 16.25" after quilting
Fabric:  From stash
Batting: Warm 'n Natural
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads: pieced with Gütermann; appliquéd with Sew Art International Invisible thread in Smoke; quilted with Isacord 4421 teal and ??15 grey, Aurifil2123, Sulky Blendables 733 4011 30 wt and Essential in magenta

To enter the giveaway, leave me a comment telling me the most generous thing someone has done for you.  Followers of my blog can get a second entry; just tell me how you follow!  I'll draw 2 winners this Sunday, May 22.  Please put your email in if you are a no-reply blogger, or follow the link below the comments to fix this, so that I can find you; otherwise I will draw another person.  I also won't be responding to comments on this post, but I will sure enjoy reading them!
The giveaway has now ended.

I'm linking up with creative Connie at Free Motion by the River and the lovely Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts.

For The Love of A Pibble

or Why I Need Tons Of Quilts - a musings post

This past week has been rather tumultuous in my corner of the planet.  This deals with the most tumultuous of the events...

I'm a pretty simple girl.  It doesn't take a lot to make me deeply happy in my being.  Quilts make me deeply happy.  Some quilters give away most of their quilts.  I am not one of them.  Although I do give a lot away, I also keep a lot, and I make no apologies for doing so.  They make me content, and creating them feeds my soul, my passion, and although it may sound cliché, they are my therapy.

My other therapy is my prince, my beloved Rocco.  How do these two therapies come together?

This past week he had to undergo surgery.  Again.  Seventh time being under anesthetic.  He ruptured his ACL in his right back knee.

Race to Finish - Sunny Days

Getting two things in with one post: a Friday Finish and OMG for May.

Sunny Days is done!  Ironically, what with real life taking big bites out of my sewing time today, I had to photograph the finish in the setting sun, just as it dipped beyond the horizon.  As a result, there are some interesting lighting effects.

For anyone watching and/or reading Outlander, does this not whisper of Scotland?

On Avril:

I added curlicues here and there to the feathers, a little more feminine

I did the same quilting designs as on Blue Skies with two minor changes: first, I did Kathleen's, via Angela's "magic feathers" instead of echoing a feather, with a single spine, not a 1/4" spine with pebbles, and second, in the meandering, I threw in my favourite flower motif here and there.  I also used a very pale pink thread, Essential from Connecting Threads.  Love this thread!! Not one break through the entire quilt.

Hot off Avril in the daylight of the front entry Friday morning

Again, as I was quilting, I was beating myself up, worrying, thinking oops, that feather didn't round enough, oh, I missed a spot to meander, how will I work back in there, the spine of the feather is wobbly there, the tension isn't perfect here... but when I laid it down here and stepped back, I was SO happy with the overall effect.

Here's the back:

Thanks to Tish's daughter, who gave the definitive, as only a confident 16-year-old can do, 'that one', I went with my gut and put this on the back.  It's a fabulous Rowan Westminster Fibers print called Fairylyte Garden by Melissa White.  I'd had one other possibility, a soft yellow and pink plaid from Kona Bay that I also got at Alma Sue's the same time as I picked this one up.   The saleslady had said, "Do you mind if I ask what you are going to do with these?!" in a bit of 'seriously?' tone.  I told her bag linings or quilt backs.  I couldn't explain why I just LOVED this print, but I do.

In the garden at Lakeside Park; note the difference the light makes!

Below is the 'magic bridge' as seen by me, just before 9 pm Friday.  Pretty magical, I'd say.  The light was blue...so interesting.  Such a different light compared to the warm golden light of 7 am when I was photographing Colours of Alberta for TBT the previous morning.

I thought hmm, wonder what a shot on the bridge of the quilt under a lamppost would look like:

kinda cool...

Then crossed the bridge to one of 'my' favourite sentinels.

You know me, quilts in trees!  This is a 'back atcha' for Katy.

That quilt is 40.5" wide by 48.5"; looks pretty teeny against the huge much-hugged by moi tree.

Tried to get a full-on shot in the kitchen, and of course, it's another photo op opportunity for Miss Bella the diva.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Original design
Size: 40.5 X 48.5"; 39 3/8 X 47.25" after quilting
Fabric:  From stash; white is Leaf Lines from Connecting Threads, backing is Fairylyte Garden by Rowan Westminster Fibers
Batting: 100% polyester
Quilted: on my Avanté
Threads: pieced with Gütermann and Mettler 100% cotton and quilted with Essential thread in pale pink; binding stitched down with Essential magenta

This quilt will be for sale shortly in my Etsy shop, which is open, but has a rather lame appearance right now. :-(  I ran out of patience and steam earlier this week, got rather frustrated after spending way too much time on the computer.  Hope to spruce it up this weekend.  What did I name it??
sandrajanequilts
Oh, and I took all of your most helpful advice (thanks so much everyone) and doubled the price of Blue Skies.  From what I've seen after visiting several other quilt shops on Etsy with baby quilts this size, that is a very fair price.  That's $130 Canadian dollars, so LOL only $65 for you Americans after all!! ;-)

In shade, colours are true here

Texture!

Yay! the sun came out right about this point in finishing up this post Saturday morning, so here is a sunlight outside shot or ten for you of Sunny Days:

Sideways to sun, but had to show it against my rhodos :-)

A bit of a high haze, so not the golden sunlight of the other day, but still:

I'll have a pattern out very soon for this simple little quilt with two sizes and two methods of constructing the background.  I already have a mystery volunteer to pattern test!  I am SO excited about this!

OMG
I'm squeaking in my May OMG goal, which is to finish Dayna's grad quilt, only a year late.  This was taken in January.  I had hoped to finish it up in Florida on the Bernina, but that did not happen.  I think Avril and I are humming along merrily enough together now that I can get back to work on this, another original design. :-)

Linking up with
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF at Quilt Matters
Red Letter Quilts

Remember to check out Craftsy all month long, (hope you've signed up to get their blog updates, so you will be in the know!) as there are lots of freebies, and some good sales coming up; in fact, I just checked this morning and a TON of classes are marked down again, a few feathers classes, Angela's feather class among them, just sayin'...

TBT - Colours of Alberta

Colours of Alberta - Throwback to 2005

The story:
Picked up this sweet robin's egg lying on the sidewalk yesterday on my walk with Rocco.

Such wondrous work does Mother Nature

Clearly something was wrong: either the baby inside hadn't developed properly and the egg was kicked out of the nest, or a predator bird had attacked.  I am surprised it was in as perfect a condition as you see.  We walked between, well, ended up IN, rain showers, so those are actual raindrops on the egg.  Incredibly smooth.  Incredible soft robin's egg blue.  And yes, I'm the crazy lady who walked another 2 km cradling the egg in my gloved hand. (gloved!! at the beginning of May!!)

Sunny Days

There has been a dearth of them around here of late...

Sometimes words pop into my head from who knows where (probably from a book I read) and I think, "Hmm is that really the right word?"  Enter Google, and yep, the brain was actually right: dearth means "a scarcity, lack."  So that might explain why I needed, like really needed to make this easy-to-piece flimsy instead of working on my Crafted Appliqué project for the hop that is going on right now! Click here for Lara's intro post and the schedule.  Thirty, count 'em, 30 bloggers are helping to promote her book!  And yours truly is one of them.  On the 17. And there are tons of giveaways of her book!

Today I have the companion to Blue Skies, which named itself before it came into being.

Blue Skies

I was sort of thinking baby quilt with Blue Skies, and then, hmm, blue for boy, what about girl, pink...love pink with yellow...bought that Windham fat quarter bundle in pinks and yellows (note this link takes you to a different bundle--which I think would look AWESOME in my or anyone's design--the one I got is no longer in stock), made that pink and yellow Three Quarter Patch Tote both items from Craftsy...

I added in a few more fabrics, because when it comes to fabric, more is always better.

Cut off a 2.5 strip of each, added in some LOVELY white on white from Connecting Threads, called Leaf Lines, and eventually had this flimsy.  I added one more row to make it rectangular because some people, (hello Jasmine!),  prefer rectangular quilts, and also to show another possibility.

First layout on the design wall

I liked the idea of sprinkling the yellows and pinks throughout the quilt.  However, I thought I'd just see what a little more order would do...

Nope...besides I'd have had to ditch 3 pink blocks and make 3 more yellow ones

Decided against the order.  However, this design would lend itself well to a rainbow effect n'est-ce pas?  Tuck that idea away for the future...  Tweaked a few spots as some of the really bright pinks needed separating a bit.

Final layout

Spent a little quality time sewing with my darling friend Tish on the weekend, okay and Bella too, who, shocker, loves this new quilt:

and then finished this up on Monday.

Love the shadows created by the Black Walnut trees, and some sunshine!

This will go in my Etsy store, which is almost open!!  Apparently I have to have at least one item for sale before it is official...but it has a name! Big reveal when the quilts are in the store.  This quilt is on the Avanté about a quarter quilted. :-)

And!  I am writing up the pattern for the quilt, in both size options, with two cutting options for the white background as well. It is perfect for jelly rolls.  I hope to have the pattern for sale (yes, this one I am charging for) in my Craftsy pattern store in the month of May for May Makers, see sidebar for button.  Both quilts should be in the Etsy store within a couple of days.  Eeek!

Another eek! The sales of Pocketful of Sunshine are up to 2121 as of today!!  Holy wow! (it's a freebie from moi for you, mwah!)

May is for Makers.  Great post on this concept, here at LR Stitched, one which I have LIVED. Basically, choosing NOT to look at Blue Skies and Sunny Days and say, "Ha, I can figure that out," (we've all, myself included, been there, done that) but support the designer who spends hours upon hours designing, making, and writing up a pattern (that makes this designer want to throw things, like the laptop, out the flippin' window at times).  Skip the Starbucks one day and spend those $$ buying a pattern from a designer.  :-)

had to sneak in another shot of those fab potholders ;-)

Speaking of making...I follow Pinch of Yum, and made this dish, Healing Bowls, on Monday, because I saw it that day on her blog, and was like, uh HUH! We have almost everything on hand.  I substituted spinach for the arugula, and fried, rather than poached, an egg in just a smidge of butter.  To DIE for.   Sweet potatoes, brown rice and quinoa, spinach, egg, lemony-herb dressing drizzled over and sprinkled with almonds.  I need to make this again.  Like now.
'k bye. (as only Brady can say so very well!)
Linking up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts who has a wonderful runner to show you that she created with Lara's Crafted Appliqué technique...and a giveaway!

Sunday Stretch For Sewists #8

Happy May Day! I was reading a great article on Bernie Clark's website, yinyoga.com, where he again stresses, as he does in his book, the importance of the language yoga teachers use.  Rather than say, "Feel the stretch along your hamstrings," we should be saying, "Feel the stress along your hamstrings."  I often say "tension" in my yoga classes.  Stretch, to me, implies using the muscles to help pull or tug, in whatever area is targeted; whereas tension, or stress, implies that you are feeling a sure and steady discomfort in the area, a gentler way of doing a pose.  This is Yin.  You never want to "stretch out" a joint or tendon or ligament; but applying some steady tension has lots of benefits, which I will not get into here or this will be a tome of a post.

Today I had thought of showing you a way to work on backbending, something that, as adults, we don't tend to do.  But then I heard from a sweet reader, Kathy, who asked if I could show something to help relieve stress and ache from the shoulders, particularly between the shoulder blades, from hours spent longarming.  So here we go.  I was out for a lovely lunch and movie with Dayna yesterday, and we'd planned to do a yoga poses photo shoot, but we forgot, so please bear with my iPhone photos using the timer feature.  Egad, I know.

Eagle Arms
Eagle arms is a Yin pose that you can do in various seated positions, whether in your sewing chair, or sitting on the floor, which will work your hip joints.  :-)

Take your right elbow and place it inside your left elbow. 

Cross-legged, opens the hip joints  ;-)