Thursday, May 25, 2017

Thistle Quilt Guild show

Just a quick post this morning to tell you the Thistle Quilt Guild is having their annual quilt show this Saturday , all the info is on this poster , sure hope you can attend , we'd love to have you !
I promise you won't be disappointed , we put on a great show .
 Hugs Sheila

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Westering women and landscapes

Good foggy morning to you , it has been damp and chilly here the past couple of days,  typical spring weather .
 This Saturday is the Thistle Quilt Guild quilt show so I have been super busy getting things prepared.  My BOM , a combination of Westering Women by Barbara Brackman and some blocks from Quilters Cache is finished , yes I could add more quilting but for now it is completely bound with label in place . This has been a project since last fall and my first time doing a QAYG handquilted project . I enjoyed every stitch on those blocks each month , the stitching of the rows together , not so much , but it's all a learning experience and I would do it again as I feel quite good about the fact I finished a queen size quilt in record time for me and I think i could work smarter the next time .

On Sunday I attended a party for two sisters , one was having a significant birthday,  the other just moved in her new home so I made each of them a landscape to remember the occasion .

I took the risk of ruining this piece when I chose to FM stitch the tree , I had never done leaves before . 
On this one I did some embroidery in the foreground . I enjoyed creating these and hope the girls will enjoy them . My supply of Hand-Dyed fabrics is really dwindling,  time to learn how to do this myself !  Any tips from anyone who has done this ? 

I am quite excited as on Saturday along with the quilt show is have tickets to Riverdance an amazing show of Irish dancing . When I visited Ireland a couple of years ago we attended a similar show and it was great but I think this will be even more incredible.    I will let you know how it goes πŸ˜‰

Time to run so thanks for taking the time to stop in and have yourself a fantastic quilty day . I am linking up to the Needle and Thread Network today for the first time in a long time , go here to see what others have been up to this week . 
 Hugs Sheila 

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Rain , rain go away

It's raining again today , enough already , I am forming web feet . This kind of weather is not so great for the joints infact downright painful so hope it let's up soon .
 However I have been getting a few things accomplished , still working away on my BOM Quilt,  nope it isn't finished yet , did I tell you I am slow πŸ˜‰
At our retreat I had finished the stitching on the curved piecing art work as I showed you in the early post and since then I have completed it and finished the second one which I had just done the piecing on . Both of these projects were from the class I taught last fall . The first one I showed I had it all pieced to share with the class but no quilting done , the second one I am about to share was simply strips of fabric laid out to show how I choose fabrics and the order in which I lay them out before starting to do the curves . I like to know ahead of time what my plan is or sort of as it often changes midway. I wasn't quite sure what to add to this second one but wanted to keep it simple just like me , so this is what I came up with . It doesn't get much simpler, than this.

I just love these Hand-Dyed fabrics , it makes my job so much more fun and I am determined to learn how to do this myself. 
I think this will be a movie day and some more handquilting so I will let you know how things are progressing and maybe just maybe I will finish this real soon . Thanks for stopping by and have yourself a great day. 
 Hugs Sheila  

Saturday, May 6, 2017

FNWF Report and a flimsy

You won't see much progress here but for me it is significant,  I have now attached the last two pieces of backing to the quilt , I worked on it on Thursday evening as well as Friday evening plus I did some quilting on it . I ran out of the fabric I had used to back my blocks so this back is a mishmash of fabric , a girl has to do what a girl has to do to finish things ,right πŸ˜‰
Since I had never done this before it was completely guess work and a lot of praying too .So far so good , it seems to be right . Here is another look at the front , a more detailed look at my hand quilting which still has a way to go .
The colours are a little off here but it will give you a general idea of what my scrappy BOM looks like. I need someone to light a fire under me to get this quilted before the end of the month , oh my not so sure it will happen but the sky won't fall if I don't so I am really not stressing over it , honest .
 Now today I got to work on my star quilt I had done as a block a week with Darlene of  Needle Pulling Thread quilt shop last year . It just wasn't big enough so I came up with this brilliant plan to do a zigzag border , well in reality it wasn't all that brilliant,  it was a challenge but the results are worth all the times I took it apart , yep , three times lucky lol . My friend Janice helped me last weekend while on the retreat to make the turn so the zigzag would continue around the corner . We thought we had it all figured out but it turns out I needed another full unit to make it fit . This old broad does have a brain that works now and then she just doesn't use it often enough when it comes to math . Taking a picture of my progress really helped keep things in line and eventually the light bulb came on , whew !
 
There you have it , I am super happy with how it has turned out and so relieved it actually fit together.  
I am off now to have supper,  hope you have enjoyed your day and did something creative . Thanks to Cheryll for hosting FNWF , I really enjoy stitching along with you all . Thanks for stopping by .
 Hugs Sheila 

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Say it isn't true

It can't possibly be May , can it? Oh my goodness where did April go , I can't believe it has been a month since I posted here but holy moly it has been a busy month .
  What has kept me so busy , well several things , the first being my BOM Quilt for the guilt guild . I now have it all sewn together and am in the process of quilting the remaining sashing strips I couldn't do until my border was attached . Here  is a peak .

I chose to do a little leafy vine for the sashing strips,  hmm , lovely but why didn't I chose something quicker to stitch haha.  I will of course still need to do the border once those are finished . I was hoping to have this finished for our quilt show coming up the end of this month but unless I do nothing else that won't likely happen.
 Since this year is Canada's 150th birthday I decided to take on the challenge offered in the Quilters Connection magazine to create a mystery runner . The pattern does not include a photo so you really have to be careful when putting it together . Thanks to a little help from my friend Annette I finally got it worked out . It is HUGE , I have never made a runner this large before and I don't have a table this long , infact my table is round . The fabrics I chose have little red anchors in the background fabric and the red fabric has what could look like wheat,  the oceans on each end of this great country and the wheat fields of the prairies in between 😊

It actually fits well at the end of the bed so may be used as a bed runner .
 The other project that has my attention lately is the crazy quilt block from my online class with Kathy Shaw.  I am still amazed she provides this class for free . I need to add a few more beads and I am thinking of trying a ribbon butterfly but for now this is what it looks like.

I really enjoyed this class and would highly recommend it if you want detailed instructions on creating a crazy quilt block and a all for free . Kathy offers the class periodically infact she just started a new one so too late to join up now but be on the lookout for an announcement for her next one.  
This past weekend I was fortunate enough to attend a retreat , the first for our guild . It was a blast and I am already looking forward to next year's.  We decided to not have scheduled workshops for this retreat but each worked on our own projects which made for some very interesting eye candy . I worked on a couple of different projects , the first was to finish the stitching on my curved piecing sample I had started for the class I taught last year , hmm , pretty sad when the teacher doesn't finish her work huh . Anyway I managed to finish all the stitching and added my applique and since I came home did a little more work on it , want to see ? 
Since I had been doing ribbon embroidery on my crazy quilt block I decided to add some to this block . I had also decided to add a dragonfly so drew one on and have hand embroidered it , that was fun . This photo is rather dark so when I do actually finish this up I will repost a better picture .
 I will share a little more about the retreat later on but for now I must run , I have been up for a while and my tummy is telling me it is time to eat 😊
 Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by .
 Hugs Sheila