Design Wall Monday Block Exchange

Good day everyone. I hope your Mother's day was a good one. Mine was. I did not get much time to sew because we were so busy.

Let us take a look at my design wall today. I have called this block "Alberta Fields". I have signed up for a block exchange with the Edmonton and District Quilter's Guild. Our guild and the Napa Valley Quilt guild is doing a quilt block exchange and the blocks are due in Wednesday. Alberta Fields is my block for the non traditional group and measures 12 1/2". I have used some of my hand dyed fabric and then added long stitches to the bottom of the yellow field.

This block is called North Winds. I have used some rose prints as the flower for Alberta is the wild rose. I kind of laugh at north winds, as I am sure in winter the ladies in Napa Valley do not look forward to getting north winds from cold Alberta. I have added today's post to the linky page on Patchwork Times. If you would like to see more Design Wall Monday go check it out.

I gave my Mother a new seam ripper for Mother's Day yesterday. Her's is on the bottom and mine is the one on the top (mine is an old one and was a test). I have been playing with polymer clay for years and find I go back to it sometimes. I made a cane of clay, black dot then white and black then added green and back to black and white again. I then slice disks of colour from a cane. Mom's seam ripper has a couple of larger canes and then the small size.

I also covered this little tin lid with the rest of the cane of clay. I drink tea and love to buy loose tea in these tins. I am not sure what I will store in my little tin now that the tea is gone. I may have to decorate the side of the tin next. If you want to see the cane work I did a post sometime ago on Cane work.

Scrappy Saturday Yellow

It is a Scappy Saturday and the month of May is Yellow. I did not get any done the first week but today I have a good start. I have added today's post to SoScrappy linky page. I have been a good girl and done many of these Saturdays for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2012.

Here is my box of well sorted out yellow straps. I have trouble deciding if some are yellow, brown or orange. I think sometimes to get the contrast we need for patch work we need to add a little of the other colours in.

I have a stack of 12 string blocks done. I have started a new quilt again. Last month was neutral scraps so I am a little late but I am sure you will forgive me. I did do a whole quilt top last month.

I have done the string block on old phone book paper, like Bonnie Hunter does.

I need to trim and cut my blocks like the above photo. I am wondering if some of you can guess what quilt I have started. I will give you a clue - there were many of these quilts on the go last winter.

Going to mom's now.

Machine Quilting

Today I had some good friends (and customers) come and pick up their quilts and I remembered to ask if I could post the photos I had taken. They of course have said yes go a head. Here is the sampler quilt made with so much great floral fabric. I love how she has used some of the different prints. The sashing is a strip and the dark rose colour for a the sashing star. Soft green and pinks are some of my favourite colour to quilt with. I have a quilt top in the closet that is a sampler and uses a rose print in navy and pinks. Some day I will have to quilt mine.

Because it is a sampler quilt I made each block's quilting a little different. I did not take photos of all the blocks but these two blocks gives you some idea of what I did. Part of what does not show up in photos is the quilting on the darker fabrics. I did some roses in the out boarder in the rose thread and then leaves and loops in the boarder in green thread.

I hope you enjoy seeing some of my customers work. I am planning to sew with Mom on Saturday as our mother daughter day. Then Sunday is going to be with my In-laws and my mom is with my brother's family.

Spring Is Here

I did some gardening today, so it must be spring. Here is the pond and rock garden area. Take a note at the trees in the far back. The leaves are trying to burst out. In three days they will be fully out. I love living in the country were we are so much more aware of the changing seasons. I got a few lily bulbs in the ground and some weeding done.

I have also put out some new wooden disks for stepping stones. They were left overs from my husbands work in forestry. He brought some disks home to burn in the fireplace but I am using some of the large ones for stepping stone. The one on the right has been outside for two years. The two on the left were from the same tree and the rings say the tree was 108 years old. Each of these disks have been sanded and then the rings counted and marked on the disks. The disks do crack and need to be replaced once in awhile.

This flower bed has lots of growing to do. The bottom photo is from last year and the one above is today. I hope they look just as good this year. I sit on the deck and watch the humming birds come to feed. 

I get to stay home tonight, so maybe I will do some scrap sewing next.

Design Wall Monday - Mystery Results

We had our big mystery day in Leduc on Saturday. The Black Gold Quilt Patch bought in the PQM Prairie Quilt Mercantile ladies to do a mystery quilt. My mom and I had a good time sewing and talking and we got lots done in part to Myra who ironed all day for us. One of the ladies brought her NEW boyfriend to iron fabric. He was a hit. His name tag got "Iron Man" added to it. I had asked my boys if they would come and iron but not unless I had offered money.

Now to go make the link to the Patch Work Times Design Wall Monday

We arrived on Saturday with our fabric cut out. Then were given each step, one at a time. I really like how my dots and lady bugs came out.

This is the quilt in rows on the floor. I am guessing but I think this was around three in the afternoon. I got all rows together and the two out of three boarders on before we left.

This is the results of the fat quarter exchange that we did at the guild meeting. It turns out I took 40 fat 1/4s and then I also won three in a draw. I did come home with a few of my own fabrics. I now have more new fabric.

I missed out on doing my rainbow scrap challenge this week. I will have to take a look and plan for Saturday. Mom and I hope to sew together on Saturday as our Mother's day thing.

Mystery Fabric and Quilting

Happy Friday. I have fabric picked out for a mystery quilt. On Saturday my mom and I are going to a mystery quilt day hosted by the Black Gold Quilt Patch and run by the Prairie Quilt Mercantile (on Facebook) . We get to sew like crazy ladies. I think they said we have 31 people signed up for the day. We are doing a potluck lunch so good food too. The fabrics above are what I am going to use. The red strip will be the binding, the large red with black dot is the out boarder the the next two are inner boarders. I think I do not need the last red on the end.

I have been very busy machine quilting for my customers. I like to show you some of my custom quilting but I forgot to ask or forget to take the photos. I have three going out this week and have taken photos, now to just ask if I can post the photos.  This quilt is my mom's Betty. She has made it for my brother's boy. I think the pattern is from Colour Shuffle Book.

I have done the spirals to complement the lines. I love the colour of thread too. It has lime blue and purple in it. The whole quilt is make with batik fabrics. I was with mom when she bought some of the fabrics. The blue with lime dot was bought last year in Hawaii, I have a piece too.

I have added this post to Nap Time Crafters - Friday Favs Party.

Tin Box Exchange and Agility

The Black Gold Quilt Patch of Leduc meets tonight. The Tin Box Exchange is due tonight and I got it done without it being very last minute. This box number is 4 and the theme is Winter. The fabric we were to use was the dark blue print on the bottom right of the photo. I think this is my last box but there is one block missing. I think we had someone join this group late and they have not done this box yet. After they are all done we will be drawing for the boxes.

This is the block I did for the box. I found a pattern for a bird in an older Debbie Mum book I had and I changed a few things about it. I wanted to just appliqué one red and then do the hand embroidery to show off the wing, eye and beak. After I added the bird I thought it needed a branch to sit on so cut my block and added the brown stem then added the out row of half square triangles.

Also at the guild meeting tonight is a Fat Quarter exchange. I have gone though my fabric and thought I would take these to exchange (30). I hope other members have some good fabric to trade with me. Some of the fabrics are hand dyed and some are just older stash fabrics. I will have to let you know what I get in exchange.

Yesterday was our first outdoor agility class for the season. I took my camera and got a few photos. Here I have asked Lex to 'Go Tunnel" and that is what he is doing. I am heading to the next jump to direct him over. We have so much fun. Also last night was the beginning of the boys outdoor soccer season, both boys teams lost their first games. I took Lex to sit on the side lines with me. He is one tired puppy today. It was very cold to sit and watch. I got a blanket and mittens and hat out.

Design Wall Monday Painted Fabric

On Friday my Surface Design group did some gel plate painting. I have my fabrics all dried and thought I would share them with you today. I forgot my camera the day we did the painting so I have no photos to show from Friday, just my results. The 4 pieces on the left are my clean up rags. I took many handed fabrics that I did not like to make them better. Many I did make better, a lot better.

I really like these three. I have a underwater theme going here. I really love the centre one. I have some ghost colours from one of the other ladies using the gel plate before me.

These next ones I got using bubble wrap to print with (except the green one was a ice cube tray). I love dots and just kept on going with dots. The gel plate was loaded with paint and used to get the paint on to the bubble wrap. I had way to much fun with this.

We had a great day of paint and fabric play and a great lunch. I have linked today's post with Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday. 

Below is a close up of the dots made with bubble wrap. I still have one of the gel plates at home and may do some more at home this week. We will see as it is wildly busy this week. The boys start soccer, I still have agility class and the Leduc guild has a meeting and a weekend event. More about that later this week. I have a tin block due by Wednesday. Thanks for taking a look and commenting I love to hear from you. Now to check out the other design walls tonight.

Square Top

I got the square quilt top done. I was thinking I could put a boarder on it but now I am thinking I will call this quilt top done.  I will add it to the stack of quilts waiting to be quilted. I now have four of my own that are ready to be quilted. I have been very busy quilting for others and the phone has been ringing with customers this week, it is a good thing but keeps my tops from getting done. My mom has given me three to quilt as well and I am making her wait too.

This quilt was started to use up the shoe box full of scraps from my quilt Bad to the Bone. It also needs to be quilted still. I have added this to Crazy Mom Quilts Friday Finish it up. A Saturday update: I did start this as part of the Rainbow Challenge and this month was Neutral, so I have added this to this to Linky page at Soscrappy. Also the snow is gone now and it was a nice sunny day.

Look at the weather we woke up to today. SNOW. I hope the roads are not bad as I am off to the surface design group today. We are going to play with gelatin and paint and fabric. I will take some photos.

Please leave a comment, I love to hear from you.

Design Wall Monday - Pamela's class results

Sweet Thoughts  - Glued down and ready to sew.

Today is Design Wall Monday over at Patchwork Times so I thought I would share my art work from the weekend workshop. The Edmonton and District Quilt Guild hosted a workshop with Pamela Allen from Ontario. I was in two days of classes. There were three days but I did not sign up for Friday's class. 

This is the cupcake lady just before I did some of the final touches. It is neat to see them change. Note the window is different, also the hand and hair. I did this one on Saturday and it felt good to get this much done. I now need to sew the appliquéd down by hand and then it can be machine quilted.

My horse and me. My horse is named Jester and he is a paint so a rainbow horse. I know I am the jester. Not sure this one is done. I may make some changes still. This one is not fully glued down yet, just pins. 

My pop quiz. We were given a little piece of printed fabric that had a part of some art. We were then to expand the piece and add what we wanted to complete the art. It was quick say 30 mins or so. The final size is only 7" by 10" or so.

Some group from Sunday mostly. My horse is on the top left.

Group designs from our mini pop test. These were very fun. I may have to do some more of these as they made you think faster. I think my mom and I may have to have a mini workshop to do some of these. It really loses you up and there is just a little bit of fabric. I think some of us had trouble cutting out some big chunks in our fabric. I know I sometimes used a less favourite fabric because I was saving the good stuff.

Lex trouble again. He has my husband's old sweat shirt. Loves to bring us things to get our attention. He likes to bundle it up so it does not hang down. This was the best of about 6 photos as he kept moving.