International Quilt Festival

I had the most amazing time at International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas!!  I was so excited to be able to go!  I had entered my Bird of Paradise quilt in the "In the American Tradition" exhibit and it was accepted so I had to go see it!  Back in the spring I boxed up my quilt and shipped it away.

 So, the first thing I did on arrival was find it in the show.  It was displayed so nicely.  I was vibrating with excitement that first evening at the show, hardly knowing what to look at first.

 I was very much looking forward to meeting quilters that I know from their blogs.  Judith Ebbelaar from the Netherlands was the first one I met. I felt so welcomed with a big hug.  It was wonderful to get to know her and see her in person.  She was working very hard at the Dutch Heritage booth in the vendor area.  Such a beautiful booth and such gorgeous fabrics. 

 I have been gifted with Dutch chintz fabrics before but never able to shop for them myself.  It was difficult because I wanted it all  :0)  I know I will be starting a quilt with these fabrics soon.  I can't wait - they're so gorgeous!

 The next morning I got to meet Kyle and her husband Ed.  She was every bit as delightful as I thought she would be from her blog that I have enjoyed for so many years.  We visited and shopped and viewed quilts together.  I loved every minute it. 

 I also got to meet Lori of Humble Quilts.  I've followed her blog for ages and have made several of her doll quilt quiltalongs. What a fun supper we had!
I have been blogging for 10 years and had never met any of the friends made through blogs until this Houston trip.  It was so great!

Barb of the blog Fun with Barb had her Mother's garden quilt in the show.  Barb was the one who encouraged me to enter my quilt.  I'm so grateful to her for believing in me.  I wouldn't have been in Houston if my quilt hadn't been accepted.  Her quilt was marvellous.  I kept coming back to it to find new details to enjoy. 

 Wendy of The Constant Quilter had 2 quilts in the show.  This one was scrappy delightful.  I loved the little stars on cheddar reaching from the center block to the border. 

 Karen of Log Cabin Quilter blog had her beautiful Shenandoah Valley quilt there.  Loved the chocolate brown background. 

 This quilt Old Voices was by Cynthia Collier and Peggy Morton.  I got to meet Cynthia at the show and enjoyed talking about applique quilts with her.

 

Teresa of Fabric Therapy had her beautiful prize winning Contentment quilt in the show.  She also made a Civil War Bride Quilt years ago and I've enjoyed following her blog for several years. 

 

There is so much more to tell so I'm going to make another post to share about the antique quilts and others I enjoyed in the Show - hopefully later this week :0)

a BIG finish



I finished my Bird of Paradise quilt!!  Appliqued and quilted by hand - only the assembly of the blocks and basting was done by machine. 



 I started with the Threadbear Civil War Bride quilt pattern.  I made 10 of the blocks just like the pattern, 4 blocks slightly altered and the remaining 6 blocks I drew myself using some of the flower and leaf shapes from the pattern and my own drawings.  For my borders I took inspiration from the original 1862 Bird of Paradise quilt pictured in The Quilt Engagement Calendar Treasury.  I wanted the horses for sure to be included - they add so much energy to the quilt.  I also really liked the top border from the original so I sewed mine to be similar.  The sides and bottom are of my own design. 

With the horses racing along the bottom you'd think I'd have been racing to a finish.  Actually I started this quilt in September of 2010.  Quilting began in May of 2016 and finished in Sept of 2017.  Yeah - September.  It took me 5 months to trim and bind this quilt.  It was like an anticlimax.  And, I'm not sure why.  I loved working on this project so much - I miss working on this project.  It's a fairly large quilt and I really don't have anywhere in mind to hang it.  I'm really happy with how it turned out - I'm just not really sure what to do with it.

 Here are some close ups.  I love the squirrels :0)  They've been so busy hanging upside down off of our bird feeder eating seeds all day today.  (I was less happy with them when they were digging up and eating my carrots in the summer though)

It's a large quilt to display.  I'll find a spot for it somewhere I'm sure.

 It was a tremendously fun journey.  I learned so much about applique and designing blocks and borders while working on it.  Honestly I'd love to make it again. 

It is fairly densely hand quilted.  After I saw Hilda's beautifully quilted Civil War Bride quilt I wanted that look as well.  I learned a few things about marking while I worked on it too.  There were challenges :0)

 

Overall, it was a wonderful ride :0)  What next??

Happy Quilting!

Time flies

A blog post is long overdue.  Its been a tremendously busy few weeks since I last posted.  I did take time out to go to the annual outdoor quilt show at Heritage Park.  It was such a gorgeous day!  Sadly I did not have a quilt to put in this year - can you believe I didn't finish a single quilt in the last year!?  The park featured several of their antique quilts in an indoor exhibit - what can I say - they were my favorites.

They were hung in front of windows and not flat either but I was happy to see them on display.  This was a fabulous 4 block applique quilt.  I just love this block!



 

 Simple grid quilting - very thin batting.

 I thought it was interesting to see this faint red stripe running through the background of one of the blocks.  A repurposed flour sack??

 3 days later I was back at the park accompanying my youngest daughter on a grade 4 school field trip and spied the quilt again displayed on this bed in the ranch house.  Imagine sleeping under something this lovely  :0)  I like that Drunkard's Path quilt too!!

 This was another of the antique quits displayed on the quilt show day.  The handquilting is very fine on this one and I love the striking border.

 There was a wonderful exhibit of quilts celebrating Canada's 150th birthday this year.  I thought this one was great.

 This was another fabulous entry into the show.  That is a lot of little triangles - marvellous!

 I was thrilled that 2 of my daughters wanted to come to the show with me.

I had to laugh at this tag - what a name for a quilt.  I never have nightmares about applique :0)

 Here is what I've been appliqueing lately. I'm almost finished the first side border for my signature quilt.

 And I've been working away on my border background fill on my Bird of Paradise quilt. I've turned the second corner so I'm just over halfway now.

 I'm not sure it was the best choice for the border background.  It looks kind of boring.  It is fun to stitch though. All I did was switch the direction of the 30 degree lines. I wanted the background to be quilted just as densely as the middle.

In the end I decided this quilt is really all about the applique so its alright for the quilting to be boring and not detract from the applique.

Happy Quilting!!

handquilting progress



Good progress is being made on my Bird of Paradise quilt.  The parallel lines in the background are almost done. I have about 1/2 of one block left to do. 

 It was actually pretty fun to do. 

Here is where my hoop was this afternoon.  The sun came out briefly so it was a good opportunity to lay the quilt out for some pictures. 

It's hard to get the whole quilt in and still have the quilting show.  I can see some areas where more quilting is needed like the girls' skirts.  I want to add veins to a few leaves and there's a vase and a tablecloth needing more quilting too.  I didn't cut away behind the applique so I will likely procrastinate finishing those things until the end ... 

The border is next :0)  More outline quilting will come first.

Happy Quilting!!

something I find very interesting!

A package came in the mail - I was very excited to open it and see the fabric inside.  Windham fabrics has a new line out called Vine Inspired By Susan McCord and I just had to order some to see it in person.  Having spent years appliqueing this quilt - one panel at a time - I was very interested to see their cheater cloth of the same design.

 So here it is - laid across my finished top.  (the cheater cloth is on the right)  It is a bigger scale than Quiltsalott Janet's pattern and bigger also than the original I believe but I haven't seen the original for myself.  Janet found out about this line and had emailed me about it in the summer. 

 It has 4 panels across the width of the fabric.  It's so flat, smooth and light compared to my top.  For a few seconds I toyed with the idea of using it as backing.  It would make my quilt reversible - LOL!  Perhaps not...

 My vine

 Printed panel vine

 Of course I had to have a few other prints from the line :0)

And handquilting continues on my Bird of Paradise quilt.  I am really enjoying it!  The 1/2 inch parallel line background fill is going faster than I thought it would.  I shouldn't be surprised though - what's not to like about handquilting??

Happy Quilting!!

background fill

I haven't posted in awhile and I was surprised when I loaded my pictures how much I had to share.

I'll start with my Bird of Paradise quilt.  I completed the outline quilting for all of the blocks and last week I started with the background fill quilting.   



 I wanted to do parallel lines on the diagonal instead of a crosshatch. I decided on a 30 degree angle to try something new.  The lines are 1/2 inch apart.  There is a fair amount of starting and stopping so it's going to take awhile.  I was very happy to finally be successful in using a hera marker to mark the lines.

 Once the background fill is done I can easily see where I need to add more quilting to the block elements - like this tablecloth and the birds' bodies.

I also finished this Kim Diehl quilt top.  I'm really pleased with it but now I need to work up the determination to pin baste it for machine quilting. Basting is not my favorite...

 A close-up of one corner to show this red floral fabric I used for the borders.  It's a French General fabric and I love it!

 I also made a little table topper with some French General fabric. It's a Carrie Nelson pattern called Little Bites that my guild decided to do as an easy project together.

I was able to use up a couple of mini charm packs I had had in my stash for awhile.

And a couple of weeks ago my DD#2 had a day off from school and she wanted to do some sewing with me.  (I LOVE it when my kids want to sew with me)  She wanted to try making a pencil roll for her coloring pencils. 

We found a tutorial online and made some adjustments for the number of pencils she wanted to put in it.  It was a fun little project and I think she is pleased with the results.  Did I mention LOVE it when my kids want to sew with me?  :0)

Happy Quilting!!

slow progress

Well the kids are back to school and things are returning to "normal".  I have made good progress with handquilting my Bird of Paradise quilt. I have finished the outline quilting on most of the blocks - 4 more to go and I will get to the background fill quilting.  I finished outline quilting the Bride block today :0)

 

 

 I also finished making the uneven 9 patches needed for this next project.  I pieced the applique blocks together and started adding 9 patches.  I did use the 2 blocks I appliqued with Kim Diehl's machine applique method and so had to be very careful not to iron over the invisible thread when I sewed them together to the hand appliqued blocks.  I wasn't sure I would use them together but in the end decided to not waste them.  I am really hoping this becomes a completed top soon!

 

It's shown folded in this picture as toys have currently taken over my design floor space...

 

Slowly more Star-a-day blocks are getting made.  Here I wildly threw a few on a new piece of purple I bought recently.  Anyone who knows me well will smile at this - I don't like purple and I have almost none in my stash. Every now and then you need a little purple but there is no way I would ever set these stars with purple - lol!

Happy Quilting!!

camping sewing

We had our annual camping trip to Shunda Lake this past weekend.  It was a lovely family weekend.

 I knew I'd want some sewing to bring.  I didn't want to bring any current projects with me - I wanted something smaller.  The August American Patchwork and Quilting issue had arrived in my mailbox and I was instantly drawn to a small Kim Diehl applique pattern in it.

 I did some prep at home.  Inspired by Barb at Fun with Barb - I tried machine basting the stems.  That was a fast, great idea I will use again.

 We had pretty good weather - it is such a beautiful place. 

 We did some hiking and kayaking.  I wish I had pictures of the eagles we saw but I wasn't brave enough to bring my phone with me kayaking. 

I took other pictures instead - doesn't this old bus have interesting character!

At home I've continued to put handquilting stitches into my Bird of Paradise quilt.   The outline quilting continues to be so fun to do as I get to revisit all of the applique. 

 

 I also made a little quilted pouch for a friend's birthday using a great tutorial I found on Pinterest.  Here's the link.  It's from a blog called The Sewing Chick.  I especially liked the instructions for the zipper.  I've started another pouch from a different pattern but I'm going to use the same zipper instructions for it.

This one might have some goodies inside :0)

Happy Quilting!!