Category Archives: Quilting

Table Topper

Quilting
They are subtle, but can you see the animals?

I attempted to make a table topper that would match a set of placemats. I didn’t have enough of the matching fabric but I thought that these ones would work. As it turned out the colours were completely “off”.

My first mistake was in the cutting. I didn’t cut those centre squares the right size but I thought I could adjust the rest of the pattern to make it work. I couldn’t so I ended up putting it together with my own pattern.

I like the results but I don’t have a need for another topper so I will offer it for sale at the quilt show.

Julie

Quilting
~ 13″ x 13″

This was my pattern for the March sew-along with Stacia and Deloise. Because they had both done this one before I had a few notes in my book regarding cutting errors. I tried to follow them but found even with the updated measurements mine wasn’t coming out the right size. I was almost finished when I realized I had completely missed one of the borders. Because I was so far along I chose not to correct my mistake. It finishes a bit smaller than it should have but I’m okay with that as it hangs in the stairwell as part of my collection of small projects.

The fabric I picked for the basket didn’t have enough contrast with the background so I outlined it with a blanket stitch. I’ll keep that technique in mind for another time. Most of the flowers were cut from scraps of fabric I’d used for my One Block Wonder project.

That Fairy Tale Quilt

Quilting

I picked up this pattern during the CQA quilt show in Vancouver in 2022. I had seen a number of Jen Kingwell’s patterns but really liked the idea of this one. I didn’t read carefully enough though as it wasn’t one of Jen’s, but rather one of her daughters.

I have to admit that I struggled with this one. There were scads of templates that I had to draw and cut onto sandpaper. I didn’t follow the steps as listed in the pattern book (yes, it was a book) but went block by block. In hindsight it might have been better if I’d followed the instructions. As I went along, I had to redo a few of the blocks, and I added a few clouds to the sky.

On a trip to Panorama, Stacia and Deloise helped me pick out the backing for the quilt and it is perfect. I searched through all my fabrics until I found a binding that I was happy with.

It wasn’t until the call for the Guild’s 2025 quilt show came out that I got down to finishing the top.

Can you find the six fairy tales in the quilt?

Someday I hope to have great grandchildren that I can share fairy tales with as we cuddle under this quilt. I quilted it on my domestic Janome.

Here a Chick, There a Chick

Needlework, Quilting

At the Guild’s 2023 quilt show there as a display from Woolies on the Coast of a chicken block done in wool felt embroidery. I couldn’t get it out of my mind and before I knew it I had convinced Stacia and Deloise to stitch along with me. Not only did we get that first block but we bought the entire series of six, and each of those six had a bonus block.

I was very tentative in starting out and really didn’t have a lot of confidence when I got to the end. I enjoyed the stitching but was thankful for the pile of embroidery books and youtube videos to help me with the various stitches. I also admit I copied some of Stacia’s ideas.

When it came to putting it all together I made up my own version. I wanted to add all the bonus blocks in with the main blocks so added some appliqué vines and flowers. In the end, I was very happy with it.

The next chore was to figure out a way to quilt the project. For the appliqué blocks I as able to do a mattress stitch but I didn’t want to stitch over the embroidered blocks. I decided to hand quilt those larger blocks. I used a big stitch hand quilting technique to finish the project.

This was an entry into the Guild’s 2025 quilt show.

I saw one block of this on display at the 2023 quilt show and before I knew what I was doing I had ordered kits for six blocks. It is my first attempt at wool felt embroidery. I quilted some of this by hand (another first for me) and some on my domestic Janome.