Category Archives: Quilting

Mixer Cover

This pattern is one that I fully intended to start on Diane’s birthday (January 30th) but for some reason I just couldn’t settle down to doing it. When I mentioned to Christy that I was going to make one she said she’d like one too. The project came up on my reminder list in March but, again, I put it off. With Christy visiting at the end of the month I thought I had better get at it.

The pattern was from the internet and there weren’t a lot of details on how to do it but the instructions for the measurements were good. They could have been a bit smaller in length from back to front but my test pattern fit well enough that I decided not to change it.

I pulled several fat quarters from my jungle collection that was purchased to make Elizabeth’s eel table topper. I couldn’t help but think of the Tiger King as I was putting this together. There are three different tiger prints in this. If I’d been a bit more careful with thread colour this could have been reversible.

I made very few changes for the cover I made for Christy; I just changed the way I did a few of the things since I knew how it was supposed to go together.

August Miniature

August 10, 2021

~ 13″ x 16.5″

Another sewing day with Stacia and Deloise. For the very first time I was able to keep up to them thanks largely to the fact that they each had long telephone calls in the morning.

I enjoyed making the log cabin blocks; I had strips already cut in my scraps so all I had to do was find pieces that were long enough and then trim the blocks down after each round. Deloise has given me a new (to me) tool that has my seams straighter and the right size. For every project I’ve used it on it has saved me tons of time.

I wanted to try a couple of new things for the quilting. The log cabin blocks are quilted with a clamshell pattern on the diagonal. This was a pattern that came with my quilting rulers; I used the rulers to mark my lines but I used my walking foot for the quilting. I need more practise but I’ll definitely use this idea again but I’ll work on clamshells on the straight lines next time.

I also wanted to try feathers in the larger border; I had a stencil and I used it to mark the quilting lines. But when I got to the machine I wasn’t able to tell where to go from one feather to another so I stopped and ripped it all out. Then I tried to freehand draw some feathers but what I ended up with are more like leaves but that goes okay with the fabric I was using. I will try this again but do some practising on how to draw those feathers.

Medallion Mystery

65.5″ x 65.5″

As near as I could determine this one hasn’t been a UFO for an extremely long time based on some of my other projects. It was a quilt-along from the National Quilters Circle and the first clue was released in October of 2018. The first photos I have of my work were from March of 2019. I was stalled on the project for quite awhile because I had some mismatched points in the centre and it took awhile to talk myself into taking it apart and fixing it. The top was finished by May of 2020 mainly because it appeared on my 2020 UFO list. When it appeared again on this year’s list I was motivated to get it done.

I used only straight lines for the quilting but I tried to be a bit creative in the lines I stitched while keeping some consistency. I’m pleased with the results and I’m feeling more confident not using any free motion for my quilts. I saw a video for using a stencil to quilt feathers with a walking foot. I tried it for the border but changed my mind; by the time I was ready to do the border I just wanted it done and feathers were going to be too time-consuming.

That did, however, give me the idea of using my quilting rulers to form a pattern. I used chalk to mark the pattern and it was relatively easy to use my walking foot for the quilting. Although I need to measure things out better it certainly worked; best part of the ruler work was that it hardly shows so my pattern placement hardly shows. I’ll be exploring this technique more often.

Although the purple backing isn’t really a good match for the purple on the front it is a nice fabric with lavender stalks in the pattern.

UPDATE: This quilt went to Kathryn

July Miniature

Friday, July 16, 2021

I was sewing today with Stacia and Deloise; we worked on our July postcard from the Temecula Quilt Company. As usual mine was very scrappy. The half-square triangles were already finished (leaders and enders) so all I had to do was arrange them in rows.

In my mind our first check in was going to be at nine but that was nine Saskatoon time. I was barely out of the shower when Deloise called to find out where I was. By the time we did our second check in both Stacia and Deloise were pretty much finished their projects while I was still working on the centre of mine. We discussed what we would work on when we finished the miniature; I volunteered that I would get back to my quilting when I finished.

Truth be told I barely finished my project before our last check in of the day. And there was no moving on to another project for me. I suspect Stacia finished catching up on the mystery we are doing and Deloise probably finished the quilt top she’s been working on.