When in Hamilton...

... Buy fabric!

I am in Hamilton, Ontario this week.  All work and no play, except for a little running in between meetings and other work obligations.

So I was out for a run late afternoon yesterday when I ran past this delighful little store called "Needlework".  Well, you know I just had to go in.  It's a small but inviting store and workshop with a nicely curated fabric selection.  I was tempted to skip the rest of my run, especially since it was -15C (that's 5F, folks), but the store was opened until 8:00, so I had plenty of time to finish my run and come back before closing.  No excuse! 

Come back I did, and did what any quilter would have done in the same situation...  Buy fabric!

I exercised some restraint, but came out with delightful fabrics:

Nice, eh?

In the WIP department, I brought this quilt along to hand stitch the binding during my flights.  Hope to get it done by the time I get back home.

I realize the pictures are not the greatest - I am without a regular camera and just used my ipad.  It is my first time writing a post with just my ipad (and minimum time on a borrowed computer to transfer pictures).  It is a little challenging, but I had to share!

Do you look for fabric stores when travelling?  Have you ever discovered a nice little quilt shop completely by chance?

A Blue Green Finish

I started this Blue Green quilt last fall, just because.   I needed instant gratification.  Well, sort of, since I happily left the binding unfinished for a couple months.

 

Blue Green love

 

I was really in love with the green-blue combo.  Within the colour scheme, except for florals, anything was fair game: solids, geometrics, tone on tone, batiks, some modern and some not so much.  I like when I can use up a few of my "uglies" and make them look good! 

The quilt top came together very quickly - it's a crib size - and after a little pondering, I chose the funky sunglasses-wearing dolphins for the back.

Still not sure about the wisdom of backing a baby quilt with these slightly scary creatures...

For the quilting, I wanted something simple and geometric.  I really like what I came up with.  It looks like individual squares with one vertical line, but if you look closer, you will see that each column is quilted in a continuous line.  So easy, and great texture too!

You can see that I was not shooting for perfection here...

The method...

Quilting went like a charm.  I could have finished it right away, but whatever little hand stitching time I had was taken up by hand quilting this quilt, so I saved it for a rainy snowy day.

This week end, we've been hit by a couple snow storms so with three days stuck in the house, I not only found time to finish the quilt, but I got the perfect backdrop for pictures!

The wind... this quilt has a life of its own!

 

Ah! Better!

I am not kidding when I say we had a lot of snow.  Here's what I did just after the photo shoot...

Gotta love Canadian winters...

 

Not sure where this quilt will end up, but for now, it's in my "reserve".  The finished baby quilt stack was looking a little too girly, but now, I am prepared for the next occasion where a gender neutral or baby boy quilt is required.

The perfect backdrop

And I can't resist inserting a picture of the quilt roll...

In parting, here it is after a spin in the washer and dryer:

All nice and crinkled!

That's my finish for February.  I did not join any finish-a-long, or make any list, but with two finishes in two months, I'd say 2015 is off to a good start!

Linking up to TGIFF at the Carpenter's daughter who quilts and Finish Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

WIP - Late / Early Christmas Quilt

I am either two months late, or ten months early...

I am working on a Christmas quilt!

I was inspired by Amanda Jean's Quiet Christmas Quilt.  Even though her quilt was "quiet", it was screaming to me "Make me!  Make me!".  As soon as I saw it, I had the urge to go through my red, green and low volume fabrics and start cutting up 5" squares.  So I cut, and cut, and cut some more.  A little from scraps, a little from stash.  I also used up some dots and stripes I got in a charm swap, so there are a few new-to-me fabrics that only show up once.  Oh and I may have ordered a few half yards cuts to round up the selection... 

There's a little bit of everything in there.  Some moderns prints, some pretty generics fabrics, and some of my older stash I no longer like.  Together, it works.  It's a little brighter than Amanda Jean's version, not by design but because my low volume stash was a little depleted.  I did not use one Christmas fabric in it so technically, it could be used all year round.



I finished piecing the top (and also made a backing) last Saturday at MMQG's Sew-In.  I don't have any large piece of batting on hand, so it will be set aside until I get around to buying a new bolt of batting (if you have any batting recommendation, please tell me!).  I am pretty pleased with this top...  Now, off to working on my other Works-In-Progress.

Linking up to Let's Bee Social at Lorna's Sew Fresh Quilts.

What Santa Brought

Warning: This is not a quilting or sewing related post but it could lead to an addiction for all creative types out there!

I have been meaning to post about this wonderful "toy" that Santa left in my stocking.  December and January were busy times in my household, so here I am.

Kaleidograph Contrast, Flora and OpArt

I first heard of the Kaleidograph from this blog I was visiting...  I gave a little hint to Santa, then completely forgot about it, so I was both delighted and surprised when I found these in my stocking.  Thank you Santa!

So... what exactly are these?  Hours and hours of fun for creative people, that's what they are!

This is Kaleidograph Flora:  12 cards with a different colour on each side.  Three cards are plain, and the other nine have a cut out.

Same cards, reverse sides

What do you do with it?  You just stack them whichever way you like and watch the magic happen.  The cut out have 6 sides, so that even by turning just one card by 90 degrees, you get a completely different design, like this:

From left to right, all I did was turn one card by 90 degrees

There are millions of combinations.  Once you start playing, it is pretty addictive, but as far as addictions go, you could do a lot worse...

Same cards and layout, I simply turned the two black cards on the white side

Santa got me not one, but three kits.  This one below is called OpArt.  It is all black and white except for a couple gray backgrounds and is all curves and circles:

And the last one is called Contrast, and is all angles.  

I have not played too much with the black and white ones.   I can see how they would appeal to many people, but I much prefer to play with colours.

Just playing with colours

I was a little protective of my toy so my kids did not get to play too much with it but I will try to be a bit more liberal with it.  I am thinking of adding it to the rotation of "take out" toys that kids bring when they are dragged to a sibling's sport practice.  (My kids have limited screen/electronic time so rather than taking an electronic game like pretty much every other kid, we bring books, dinky cars, writing and colouring materials, etc.)

This toy can easily occupy kids and grown ups for quite a while!

So right after I finish this post, I am going to do one last design and put it in this nifty plexiglass display rack (it does not come with a single Kaleidograph set but Santa got it when he bought three sets).



There are several online sites where you can buy the Kaleidograph but I can't recommend any one in particular.  If you want to learn a bit more, check out the Kaleidograph website.  No one is paying me to advertise this, but the website is pretty cool too.  If you decide to get one, be warned: You could end up spending hours shuffling around twelve pieces of cardboard!

A Labour of Love

It's a finish!

Four years ago, when my daughter was a one year old in a crib sleeping under a tiny quilt, I decided it was time to start working on her big girl bed quilt.  She was growing so fast...

I searched for the perfect pattern and eventually settled on this Darlene Zimmerman beauty.  It would need some tweaking:   I would add a few rows to make it a good twin-size quilt, and switch the green for a nice yellow (although I really, really love that green).  Also, I wasn't crazy about the stars, so I decided to replace them with different appliqués, my way to take a commercial pattern and make it mine.

And so, I began working on my baby girl's big girl bed quilt, making 25-patch blocks and appliqué-ing (is that a verb?) hockey sticks and ice cream cones and cherries and birds...

It was fun coming up with 20 different appliqués

We eventually bought the perfect bed for her room... a double bed.   More tweaking was needed....  the top was almost done, another row here, another column there...

After a few months, the top was complete, and the quilt was basted with the help of a few ladies from my former guild, Mariners Quilt Guild.  Then came the big decision: to machine quilt, or to hand quilt?  Sure, machine quilting would be faster, but hand quilting would be so much more suited to this 1930s inspired quilt.  Plus, I had hand quilted both my sons' bed quilts... so the decision was made.  A decision I would come to regret many, many times.

Over the next few years, I hand quilted while watching hockey practices, gymnastic and karate lessons.  I quilted at the cottage, at guild meetings and sew-ins, and at home.

Favourite chair at the cottage...

This quilt has been everywhere!  to Toronto a few times, to at least three New Brunswick destinations, from airports to airplanes, from rental cars (I wasn't driving) to hotel rooms, even on ferries.

In the middle of the Northumberland Strait...

As much as I love hand quilting, I did not love every minute of hand quilting this quilt.  Sure, I enjoyed some of it, but it got tiresome pretty quickly.  When my daughter eventually got her big girl bed, I was not even half way done and it was clear that it was going to take much more time.  I struggled to find the motivation and I put it away many times, hoping the motivation would return before the 1930s bedroom would need to be updated for a teenager!

Nothing beats the texture of hand quilting...

And there were lots of nagging doubts: Would the darker fabrics bleed?  Would the quilt still fit on her bed?  The hand quilting seemed to shrink those 2" squares by about 1/8" to 1/4", which could mean 5" to 10" over the final size... I did not dare measuring it, it was to late to start again.

I was also bracing myself for a typical small child reaction, something between complete indifference and "I don't want/don't like it".  Truth be told, I wasn't even sure I liked it myself. I really, really had to push myself to see this through to the end.  I am glad I did.

Final stitches...

My daughter is quite oblivious to the amount of time it took to complete this quilt (4/5 of her life), but as I was putting the binding on it, she snuggled next to me and asked whether the quilt was for her.  I had told her before, but this was the first time she really showed interest.  When I said yes, her eyes lit up and she could not wait to get it on her bed.  She did have to wait: after four years of being tossed around in all sorts of places, it needed a good wash! 

I had to get a picture on the hammock even though I just missed the light

I am happy to report that the fabric did not bleed (I am glad I used a colour catcher - it came out very dark), that the quilt still fits the bed (I dried it flat for the most part but tossed it in the dryer for about 10 minutes), and that my daughter loves it.

 And finally, I can say I love it too!

Linking up to TGIFF hosted by Leanne at the Devoted Quilter and Finish Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

housekeeping stuff and one quick quilt

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Pardon the funky codes above, I am "claiming" my blog on Bloglovin.  I am about a year and a half late jumping on that bandwagon...

Since it would seem wrong not to have a quilt on a blog post, I present to you a quickie that I made a couple weeks ago:

Nice print on the front, solid flannel on the back, sandwiched with a nice thick-ish batting and quilted along the natural lines of the fabric. You can see the texture really well on the back.




Now, I have another handmade gift ready for an occasion where a pieced quilt is not necessary! 

I must say I am a bit reluctant to call this a "quilt" and I tend to use "blanket" for these types of (insert appropriate term here) because it is not pieced.  And the term "whole cloth quilt" would seem more appropriate for some handquilted heirloom.  Not sure.  Would you call this a quilt?

Not bad for a week-end

I've had one of those weeks: the common cold has been making itself at home in our family and the energy levels have not been at the highest.  Thankfully, we did not have too much on the go, and I was able to find some time to quilt.

My biggest victory of the week-end: After weeks, months, years, three to be exact, this quilt is finally hand quilted!

As I have shared before, because the quilting goes in all directions, I had devised a system to keep track of what I had left to do, on a spreadsheet.  Every so often, I would update the spreadsheet to motivate me.  Only 250 more squares!  Only 30 more hours!  Only 123 squares!  Only 12.5 hours!

After I quilted 8 squares today, I sat down to update the chart today, and realized I only had 3 more to do.  I made quick work of that and finally, finally I can call this "beast" done.

Well, it's not finished yet, but it might as well be.  All I have to do is sew the binding on it and it's my very favourite part.  I am not going to rush this... I am going to savour the moment and finally enjoy working on this quilt again.

And speaking of  old, languishing projects, I found these unfinished blocks the other day...

These are paper pieced (not sure what I was thinking) and the white bits are actually the paper background.  Well in one evening, I had 6 more made.  I trimmed them, removed the paper, added the white corners and assembled this top:

It only finishes at 32", so I will add a white border all around to make it a useful crib size.  There was snow outside and a little bit of light left, so I thought I should do a quick photo shoot...

I even had a willing volunteer to act as a quilt holder!
 

Looks like NOT making lists is the way to go if I want to get stuff done...

Hope you had a nice quilty week-end!