WIP Wednesday

I thought I would show off some great work on my fellow Edmonton and District Quilter's Guild Members. First to show you is Wanda's Fabric basket. Look at the buttons. She is a great collector of old buttons. She has made this to give to a new daughter in law and wanted to use some very special buttons. 

This fan quilt is a group raffle quilt. The funds raised will go to the Edmonton Guild Endowment fund. We have been fund raising for a few years now and are able to give two scholarships. The hope to have enough funds for a third graduate scholarship. The quilt was long arm machine quilted by Kim. I forgot to get a book of tickets. Maybe at the next meeting.

I have linked up today's post to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday and The Canadian Needle and Thread Network WIP Wednesday.

Design Wall Monday Feb 25

Today my design wall has all the purple scrap blocks I got done for the month of February. I have been working on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013 over at Soscrappy. Every Saturday there is a link to post your progress on using up the colour of the month. February has been Purple. I have not done much else but working with my scraps. I am going to have enough blocks to make at least 6 quilts, maybe more if I make smaller quilts. If you see a block and want to know more about checkout Links to Scrap Saturday, I have links to were I found the patterns for many of the blocks. 

I have added today's post to Design Wall Monday. 

I did some cleaning in my sewing room. The long arm is holding many things that were on the floor, you know it gets messier before it is cleaner. I was trying to take inventory of some old UFO's. I have a couple of big quilts that just a a few days of work and then they would be ready for quilting. I may have to work on one of the older UFO's.

Sunday Stitching

I have been slowly working on my hexagons again. I have a number of Pink ones done and have started to working on Purple now. I have a baggy of purple Hexagons prepared and ready for more stitching tonight as I watch TV. 

I have added today's post to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

I thought I would show you a quilt I did for a special customer. This was done by Wendy and it is her very first quilt. My mom and dad had Wendy and her husband visiting from Australia this past week. They came to Canada in the winter to see what our winter was really about. They had great weather. No cold snap or big dump of snow or a great big frost over night. It was warm and sunny most days. My husband took them horse riding across the lake. They walked on water. Frozen of course. They took the horses though some tough snowdrifts. They also snow shoed, went for a ice walk, a dog sled ride and snowmobiling.

Anyway, Wendy wanted to learn to quilt. After the top was complete, I did the longarm quilting. Wendy had most of the binding hand stitched when she left for home. You can see the great western fabric in the close up shot. Great job for her first quilt.

Last Purple Saturday

I got two pansy blocks done. I knew I could make a better pansy block then the sad one from last week. I had a comment from Paddilous who sent me this Pansy PDF link. I did not have many 4 1/2 squares needed but I did have the 2 1/2" square and triangles that I could use. So yes, I changed it a bit. I am happy with the flowers now. 

I have added today's post to Soscrappy's Scrap Saturday and I signed up for  Friday Night Sew In with Heidi. I did get some of the blocks done Friday. I sew most Friday nights. 

I got some Spools done this month. This block is a Bonnie Hunter Leaders and Enders Challenge. I have about 12 more cut out to do and to finish up in the last few days of February. What colour will be next for March? I am going to take a guess at Red. Why Red, because Angela has started making Red Dear Jane blocks.  Maybe I will be Wrong and it will be Green for St Patrick's Days.

If you want to join in the fun check out the RSC13.

I got 32 purple butterflies done this week. The Pattern for the Butterflies is at Bee In My Bonnet Row along Row 2.

Here a just two 16 patches. I have been doing 9 of each colours so I am not done yet. Below is the 2" squares I still have left to use.

This weekend is the Edmonton Orchid Show. I went Friday afternoon and bought two new plants and some  new potting bark. I replanted about 5 of my older orchids when I got home. The two new plants are not flowering but maybe next year. One plant is on the far right and is attached to bark and not in a pot. I need to find a spot to hang that one. 

Scrappy Saturday Feb 16th

Your not going to believe how much I got done this week on my Purple scrapes. I got two sets of the X'x and O'x done. Special for Valentines day.

There is more purple from the other quilter over at Soscrappy and information about the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013. I just love following a long and doing the next colour.

When I did the X's and O'x I have little bonus triangles and sewed them up in to units then into Pinwheels. Aren't they cute, less then 3". There were 8 pinwheels.

I used 4 in this block. It is finished to 12". I worked on this quilt all last year on the RSC 2012. I had 24 blocks but needed one more block to make a 5 by 5 row quilt. Now to get the top put together. The hard part working on larger units. I will leave it for now. I am having to much fun making blocks. 

Then I did two more hearts in Purple this month. 

See what I may do. I have 4 pink hearts and two purple ones and then the X's and O's. I not really sure where this is going but so far it is looking good. It could have just a few more blocks and be a cute baby quilt. Sometime this year we should have Red. Or maybe some other colours. Not sure it will be a true rainbow quilt as I may leave some colours out. 

Ok the pink scraps are still not put away yet. I did a few 6" crumb blocks with purple and pink. Way back in the fall of 2011 I found these batik crumb blocks of Kathy's and loved the colour flow she had going. I still like calling it poverty piecing more then Crumb blocks. I do not think she has finished the batik crumb quilt. Maybe she will see this and dig them out again. 

So with these 15 blocks you can see where I may go with the crumb blocks. I have 15 with purple (two were from last week but I did not like the number without showing them all). I just do not stop or show 13 blocks. Bad number. I have five in pink from last month. 

I found more pink and purple strips so I added a little more to my "Around About" again this week. I like it as it gets a little more wonky and not so square. Now I think it is done till next month. What colour next? 

OK I really do not like this block. I was aiming for a pansy flower. Not good. Does anyone have a good pansy block? I thought I had a book with a good pansy block but can not find my book. It is in the messy sewing room. 

See I told you you would not believe what I got done this week. 

Finish Up Friday - Machine Case

My Dear Dad finished my new oak Sewing machine case this week. It is for my featherweight sewing machine. 

I had a case but was in bad shape and the buckles were both broken and you had to hug it to carry it. 

The old case did not have a tray. Dad was able to make a new tray for the case. You can see we added a strip of magnet so the bobbins do not roll around and bounce out. It just all fits so perfectly.

Dad also got brass plates made with my name and phone number. He added a brass plate with Spring Ridge Creations - the name of his wood shop. 

I am using my featherweight this week to sew some purple scraps. I will be making a post on Saturday about all the purple scraps I have used up this week. I have some spool bits ready to sew.

I have added this post to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday

Mr Lex was trying to be a lap dog and stealing kisses this week. He is a little big for a lap.

Purple Scrappy Saturday

I got to sew Friday night with Bonnie Hunter on Quilt Cam, the computer was next to my machine as I sewed and listened to her.  Her blog is Quiltvile. I think she said her next Quilt Cam might be Sunday at 2 pm eastern. I love joining her when I can, it feels a little like a mini quilt retreat. The spools on the top left are from Bonnie's web site and are a leaders and enders challenge.

I got my 5 purple Sprout block done Friday night. The sprout pattern can be found on Tracy Jay Quilts.

I was having a little trouble getting the pink scraps put away and did three more pink crumb blocks to go with the two on the bottom I did earlier in January. I also got the two light purple crumb blocks done this week. It takes a long time to sort and kit up my scraps. I have 16 patches and butterflies and more spools to do yet this month.

I have added today's post to Soscrappy were the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013 is hosted each and every Saturday. January was pink and February is purple.

Finish It Up Friday Lace Scarf

Last Friday I started this Lace Scarf with my Surface Design Group. Five of us gather about once a month and one of us leads the group in a technique or project that is fiber related. Last week Yvonne lead us in Crazy Felt. Two of the other ladies had done some of this before. Basically we used two layers of wash a way stabilizer and filled the inside or middle with fiber and then machine stitched like crazy to get it all held together. 

 This is my scarf before I washed it. You can see some shiny stuff sticking out from the edges and that is the wash a way stabilizer. I machine stitched and stitched to hold the layer all together.

I used a large collection of handmade dollies I had been collecting. I really wanted the ends to show off the fine details. I used white and cream and slightly aged looking dollies. I also used five or six different yarns as well. 

 I used two wool yarns and hoped they would felt a little and peek though a dolly or two. When I laid out the yarns I tried to get a spiral.

I am so in love with my new scarf that my head is spinning with other ideas I could make using the dollies and yarns. I hope I can find time to do something more. I hope I have enough dollies, this used so many.

I have added today's post to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday

I also baked Poppy Seed Rolls. Yes one kid got his piece before I could get my photo. It is really good. I used some home made marmalade in the poppy seed mixture, so it a hint of bitter orange.

Design Wall Monday Feb 4th

I have started to take some of the pink blocks down. I thought I would play with my spools. I have been using the spool block as a Leaders and Enders project for 6 months. To see more about this and to get the free pattern go see Bonnie Hunter's Blog Quiltville. I wanted to play and see how I could move from one colour family to the other. You can see how I moved from blue to pink. The movement from orange to pink is much more blended but is the same every other block as the blue to pink. So far I only have some blue, pink, orange and brown on the wall. I have a stack of black blocks made but not on the wall. I was running out of room. This spools quilt is going to be big, I think. I am trying to do it like a charm quilt with no fabric repeated. I found one repeat in blue today.

I got some really good quilt News this weekend. My entry to the Canadian National Juried Show got accepted. I will show if off around May 16th when the National Juried show opens. I am hoping to go to the opening in person that night. Mom and I and a friend are making plans to go.

I have added today's post to Judy's Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.

Sunday Stitching

I have got more Hexagons done, and have four more laid out to finish. I kind of work on the colour from the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013. January was Pink so I am a little bit behind. February is purple, so when these are done I will start the purple ones. I have not made up my mind as to how I will use them. Maybe applique then on to a background or add a neutral layer around and keep hand piecing them together.  We will just have to wait and see what I do. 

Check out the other Slow Stitching over at Kathy's Blog

My foot stool buddy. He was asking for something not sure what he needs. Maybe a dog cookie. We did not enter the agility trial this weekend. Maybe at the end of the month.

1st Purple Scrappy Saturday

I have had a busy day but did get a little bit of purple out to work on. I added a few rounds to my 'Round About'  project. I may still add to it later this month. I found this pink and purple strip set in a scrap bin and I just had to added as my transition piece between colours. How lucky was that?

I must show you the wall of Pink. I finished up the pink this week except the two Pineapple log cabins. I have a few more sprouts, 16 patches and spools added to the pile of blocks. I am impressed with how much I have done. I am not sure I can keep it up every month, we will see. 

I have added this post to Soscrappy, As she hosts a linky party for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge 2013. You can join us any time and linky up your purple scrap projects this month. 

I have to show you what I did yesterday. My fiber group meet up Friday and we worked on Crazy felt. We used water soluble interfacing on the top and bottom. In the middle we placed fiber and then stitched and stitched to hold it all together.  I used many old dollies cream and white, I also used five or six different yarns and placed then in a spiral. I think I am ready to wet it all down and wash out the stabilizer. It should be good for a light weight scarf. I will show off the finished project later in the week.