Season of Giving

Do you remember this quilt that I made and sent over to Italy for the 'Thousand Colours' earthquake project? Well, this holiday season the quilts are being handed out to the children living in the towns that were devastated during the earthquake. Go here to read all about the presentation ceremonies and scroll down to read more about the project. This is the season of giving and what a perfect time to give to these children.

Wishing all of you Happy Holidays. Stay safe! :o)

Challenge updates

I have to put aside these challenges and work on some stuff that needs to get done. Amongst all this, our main bathroom is being painted. Talk about putting extra pressure on myself! So, between scrubbing my hands of paint and sewing, I'm a busy girl.

This is my layout that will be done for the red/white snowball challenge. I have all the centre blocks done and just need to start sewing the white blocks on the outside. I changed the block size to 9" and by the time this is finished, it will be queen size. A number of quilters in the challenge are starting to layout their blocks and there are some different layouts being done. Sure am looking forward to seeing what everyone ends up doing.
For my Joseph's Coat, this is as far as it will get for now. I'm looking forward to the instructions for putting these blocks together. The pink you see is just the styrofoam board that is part of my design wall. I sure am loving the colours and the way they flow.

With all the leftover fabrics, I foresee a number of quilts with these colours.:o)

Have a great day and happy sewing!

Sky Jewels

.... and that is the name of this pattern. Usually, when I see a pattern that I like and want to make, the pattern gets changed during the making. But, not this one. The first time I saw it, it was love at first sight and the design is exactly as per the pattern. The only thing that was added are the beads on the stars as I was hand quilting. It is a slow process doing it that way, but it sure gives this quilt a lot of sparkle. A lot of beads were used here and my stash has been somewhat reduced.

This whole quilt has been hand pieced (that is where the pattern directions got changed), but if I was to do it all over again, English Paper Piecing is the way that I would go.

Enjoy and have a great day!

Pattern source: Quilt It for Christmas 2006 magazine (designer Gail Cole of Odessa, Texas)

We're determined .....

I'm determined to get this UFO done by New Year's Eve. This quilt has been pledged to be finished by then. It has been hanging around long enough. There is still some more machine quilting to do and lots of applique in the borders to be applied.

You have no idea the number of times that I have put down different layouts for applique. None of them appealed to me. I'm still not sure about this one, but it is growing on me the more I look at it.

The applique is being done after the quilting. This is not usual practise, but that is what I'm doing. Again, it is because I just could not decide on the layout. Did I mention that I am determined .....

.... and Hank is determined to sleep on my quilt while it is being machine quilted .... .... and while applique is being done ...
Yes, we are both determined! :o)

Have a great day!

Oh, those challenges

I have been a busy lady working on my challenges that I signed up for.
This is my red/white challenge.....
..... and this is my Joseph's Coat.

For both these projects, a few more FQ's had to be bought to help even out the scrappy look. Otherwise, it feels so good to be dipping into my stash to make all those blocks.

Have a great day!

Diamond Stars

Once I finished my hexagon top, my fingers needed another English Paper Piecing project to work on. This new project was started this spring but I never got around to showing it to you.

So far, this is half of the diamonds made (it will be queen size). The hexagon fillers are made out of two different fabrics to give it an added surprise. Actually, I didn't have enough of either fabric to use, so decided to use both and I have to say that the look is rather interesting.

I was having a little bit of problem with my star points meeting in the centres, so added the little hexagon to hide them and I much prefer the look.

I want to do something different with the borders, but don't know what yet. Probably applique....

Have a great day!

Happy .... eeerk .....happy again

Back on my post of Sept. 24, I showed this UFO that is part of Finn’s challenge. This hanging has been on my design wall for quite some time now (as in many months ...) and I just didn’t know what to do with it. Now, I could have done any appliqué design and it would be fine … but what appliqué design? Lordy me, but I was stumped.

I showed it to Debra, she knew exactly what should be done …. it was staring me in the face all this time. She said (Oh, wise woman) to replicate the fussy cut flower in the 9-patch. Oh, my …. what an idiot I am ….

And that is exactly what I did. I copied the flower and blew up it gazillion of times to reach the desired size. Then, using CLOVER water soluble marker and my light box, the design got drawn onto the large white area of my top.

Merrily, I went doing my appliqué and making some more adjustments to the placement … until finally it was done. How happy I was! Note the ‘was’ word here.

The top was finally ready for sandwiching, but first I drew my quilting lines using Crayola washable markers. I was not happy with the quilting lines, so a quick wash and dry and start all over again was in order. This is where I became a very unhappy woman.

The blue CLOVER marking lines (that should have easily come off) turned from blue to yellow and they would not go away. I tried just about everything. A quick email to CLOVER for help was ignored. It is their product and they should care about problems like this. The Crayola washable marking lines went away just fine …. but not CLOVER.

Finally, I pulled OXY GEN out and using full strength, let my top soak overnight in their solution.

Eureka! It worked like a charm. Those ugly yellow lines are gone, gone, gone! I thought for sure that this top was a candidate for the garbage bin, but not now! :o)

Now, I will re-mark my quilting lines using Crayola and then I can finally get this UFO quilted and done.

Have a great day!

P.S. The same Clover pen was used on my Joseph’s Coat and those lines disappeared just fine. Why? Is it the material that is causing this problem? For my Joseph’s Coat, I used Moda muslin and for this top, I used Kona cotton. Both cottons were pre-washed and dried removing any chemicals. It is indeed, a mystery.