Monday 30 January 2017

TGIFF! - Heart Strings

This quilt is two years in the making. I first shared the my design process for this top in September 2015. I wanted to do a vertical version of October Sky, but in reds.

Just as I was starting the hand stitching, my mom got very sick. She spent almost two weeks in the hospital and I brought this project along to help pass the time and manage the fear and sadness.


After her stay and all the emotion from that time, I just couldn't work on this project for a while. She's had multiple hospital visits since and each time, I've brought this project along. It's been quite therapeutic.

I finally finished this in the fall. I'm so glad this one is done. It feels like closure on that time.


With all the emotions stitched into this project, the design and the colours, Heart Strings seemed an appropriate name. To me, this is not a happy quilt and I've been reluctant to share it. Given the events of the last few days in the States and in Quebec City last night, I feel like my heart is breaking again so I thought it's time to share the quilt.


Some photos of the details.


I really love the texture of the hand stitch and machine quilting combination. I used 6 shades of red DMC floss and Aurifil thread for the red section and 2 shades of grey DMC and Aurifil thread for the grey background. 


Final size: 30" by 19"

I'll be linking up with TGIFF! later this week.

Hopeful things will get better. Take care! XO

Thursday 26 January 2017

Blue Mountain - A Work in Progress

Feeling that I'd done a lot of red and grey projects lately (Triad, We The North Since 1867, etc.), I needed to try something different colour-wise.

I love the work of Lauren Harris, the Group of Seven artist, who painted one of my favourite paintings, North Shore. The way he uses blues and whites in his paintings of icebergs and mountains to capture the light of the northern landscape is incredible. So drawing from that inspiration, I started playing with these fabrics.


I cut some strips of many of the colours and started playing with them in a layered mountain formation, with just pins to anchor the strips on my design wall.


I found the aqua too strong so took that out. 


Changed the angle of the strips so the mountain idea is a little more obvious. 


Found a couple of the blues too strong so switched those out. 


Closer, but not there yet.


Open to ideas! 

Monday 16 January 2017

Mmmm Bacon Bee Sewcial Block - Modern Block Monday

I'm a little behind in sharing my bee blocks for Bee Sewcial this past year. I adore this bee because we are given a prompt for the month and we are to design the block(s). It's a little daunting sometimes, I'll admit, but what a fantastic creative stretch.

And speaking of creative stretches, July's Bacon Consideration prompt by Debbie at A Quilter's Table  was the first and only (so far) food prompt I've been challenged with.

For my blocks, I went with raw bacon:


And cooked bacon:


Debbie has finished her bacon quilt, which she calls Baconrific. Do check it out -- it's aptly named!

You are always welcome to follow along with the prompts and post your blocks to Instagram under the #inspiredbybeesewcial.

Saturday 14 January 2017

Q1 2017 Finish-A-Long Goals

Alright, new year, new goals! I have yet to look back at my goals for 2016 and see how I did, but time is running out for linking up with the Q1 2017 Finish-A-Long so let's do that first. For this quarter, I hope to finish the following:

1) My Improv Modern Christmas tree quilt with blocks from my xx bee. The top is done and the layout for the back is planned. It just needs to be sewn together, basted and quilted. I definitely want this done for this Christmas and am motivated to work on this one now.


Layout for the back:


2) My It Takes a Quilt Village quilt with blocks from my Bee Sewcial bee mates. I think I have the vision for the layout sorted out (not what you see here though). Now, I need to sew it.


3) Wee Spy baby quilt for little Jane. It's ready to be quilted.


4) Ice Blue Mountain (not the name yet). Still trying to sort out some design issues, but this one won't leave me alone so I'm adding it to the list.


5) Fibonacci quarter log cabin. Here's a rough sketch. Playing with the colours for this one now.


Possibly in these colours.


Way more than I'll probably finish, but let's give it a go! Linking up with the Q1 2017 Finish-A-Long gang.

What are you aiming to finish soon?

Sunday 8 January 2017

Celebrate Canada's 150th Anniversary with The Canadian Sampler

I am very excited to share with you a project I'm participating in with 19 other Canadian designers -- The Canadian Sampler. Sew Sisters Quilt Shop asked us each to design a block to celebrate Canada's sesquicentennial as part of a Block of the Month (BOM) Club for 2017. It didn't even take me two seconds so say, "Hell ya!"

Here is the finished quilt. Didn't they do a great job laying out all the different blocks?


You don't have to lay yours out this way, of course -- you can lay it out any way you want!

Designers worked with Northcott ColorWorks Premium Solid 9000-241 Cardinal and 9000-10 Snow to design and create a block that expressed their appreciation for this country. I think there's such a great variety of blocks in this quilt that can appeal to all types of quilters. I especially love that "Eh!" block! Eh? (sorry, couldn't resist)

My block is the Canada By Code block (the lower right one below). That's Canada written in Morse code. I'll tell you more about it in February, when my block is up.


The BOM kicks off this month and I can't wait to get started. If you'd like to participate, check out the Sew Sisters Quilt Shop website. Instructions for two blocks are sent out each month, with the instructions for the layout and sashing coming in the 11th month. Could be done for Christmas...just sayin'...

What a great way to celebrate 150 years, eh? 

Monday 2 January 2017

Kicking off 2017 with a Party -- A Slab Block Linky Party That Is!

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you were able to get a little 'you time' after the hustle and bustle of the holidays. I, for one, was really looking forward to slamming the door on 2016 and greeting 2017 with wide open arms. One of the ways I'll be trying to make 2017 better is by participating in Canada's Big Quilt Bee with the Canadian Quilter's Association (CQA) and Fabric Please!

Check out my last post for more details, but in a nutshell, CQA is looking for 12.5" slab blocks with some Canada 150 fabric to make 1,000 quilts for kids at Ronald McDonald House.

Slab blocks are really easy to make and you can find the instructions on the Canadian Quilters Association site (thank you to Cheryl Arkinson for providing them!).

Fabric Please!, in addition to carrying the Glowing Hearts Canada 150 fabric, has offered up some prizes for people who donate slab blocks to the project. Woo hoo!

For the prizes, we have:

Three gift certificates to Fabric Please!

$25 Gift Cert w Logo
And this gorgeous black and white fabric (selection of fabrics may vary), thread and pattern pack:

Big Bee Grand Prize

Thank you, Fabric Please!

Here are my first two finished slab blocks -- just love that red, aqua, grey, black and white goodness! I'll share more of them over the next few months.




You can link up the slab blocks you make for the project in this linky party until 8:17 p.m. on May 17, 2017 so you have lots of time.

Only slab blocks please -- this isn't TGIFF! or W.I.P. Wednesdays or Sew Thursdays or New Project Tuesdays or Manic Mondays or any of those other linky parties. This is just for slab blocks for Canada's Big Quilt Bee. I will remove your post (with love though) from the linky party if it's anything other than slab blocks.

Also, we need to spread the word so please link back to the party so your readers can find us too -- we will need a lot of blocks to make 1,000 quilts! You can mail your unfinished quilt tops and/or slab blocks to: Leslie Whitby, 2895 Almonte Road, Carp, ON, K0A 1L0. Last day to mail is May 30, 2017 so they can make it in time for the Big Quilt Bee.

Note: your slab blocks do not have to have Glowing Hearts fabric in them, but they do need to have Canadian 150 fabric somewhere in it. Also, you do not have to be Canadian for this either, just use a bit of Canadian fabric in your block. 💋

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