It Is Good To Be Back.......

....I think!  Yes it is good to come home to Techie and all the family, but sad to leave blue skies and sunny days, even though they were very cold at times.  The weather here is cold too and windy but there is a glimpse of sunshine this morning so it does feel a little warmer. All the plants in the garden are beginning to show signs of spring.  We have even found some little fritillaria which have appeared from nowhere and these little anemones are giving us a splash of colour in the border.

The daffodils are blooming too and tiny buds are appearing on the acers and shrubs in the garden.

I hope you have all bought a daffodil this month in support of Marie Curie Cancer Care.  I have a few projects in mind for fundraising in the coming months myself.  I will continue to make quilts to sell to raise funds in support of Marie Curie Cancer Care some of which can be found on my Etsy page above

I will be giving this one 

to my niece E who will be raffling it to raise sponsorship.  She is running in the Marie Curie 10k race which is talking place in Edinburgh in May and has her own designated Just Giving site here.

 

It was fun unpacking all my quilting things and settling down to my sewing space again, even although the view is not quite as spectacular.  Yes - I have been sewing already.  The ladies at the class will be eagerly??!!  awaiting the BOM for April.  I try very hard each month to stitch up the block (just to check the size and measurements I am giving them come out to the correct size) before emailing the pattern to the ladies to try out.  I am really looking forward to seeing everyone's colour schemes for the blocks we have been sewing each month over the winter.  This month will be the penultimate block.  We will need to set a date for completion as I know some ladies have been stitching as they receive the pattern and others are playing catch up.

I'm not exactly sure what I will be sewing next but hopefully by next week I will have decided and have a few more photos to share.  I must also get a few more Farmer's Wifey blocks done.

In the meantime enjoy the remainder of your weekend even though it is an hour shorter! 

All Good Things Must Come To An End

We are heading off home on Wednesday so the next few days will be packing up, tidying and cleaning the house and putting all my sewing things away for next time.  We have had a lovely holiday and have enjoyed our Spring break in Canmore, but it will be good to go home to see our family and all my quilty friends at class.

So my quilting achievements this holiday are as follows: I have completed three and a half quilts, 

Fall in the City

Allsorts

Flirty Pinwheels

The last one Flirty Pinwheels, is made up from the HST's left over from Twister.  

Twister is not quite finished, the top is finished and the backing pieced - I am taking it home to sandwich as it will save me a bit of bulk in the suitcase. More room for fabrics!

Three gloves and a cuff,

One and a bit knitted 20 x 24in preemie blankets for the Linus Project.  This is knitting I keep in the car for odd moments I feet the need to keep my hands busy.  I also made a few hexies and stitched a little bit of embroidery.

....and then of course there is Hardware - I put these blocks away earlier in the holiday but I brought them back out again this week and completed a few more.  They are not the cheeriest of fabrics, I still think they are too dull and busy for this block which I do like and is a good boy's block.  I might try it sometime in other fabrics.  In the meantime it will be put in the WIP box for my next visit.  I do think Best Press saved this one.  Due to the small pieces and the number of seams I wasn't happy with the way the initial finished blocks looked.  When I sprayed the finished blocks and repressed them with best press there was a remarkable difference - it's still my best friend!

I have also had two really fun days at Addies in Cochrane AB, with BA Jansen, a longarm quilter who gave me instruction on how to quilt using her APQS Millie. This was a first for me but I hope it won't be my last.  I really enjoyed quilting Allsorts using the machine with the pantograph and I just love the look of the stitching on the quilt.  Thanks again to all the lovely ladies there who made me so welcome especially BA.

This will be the last post from here - I will not manage a midweek post this week.  Next week if jet lag allows I will be posting from the other side of the Atlantic.

Have a good week everyone.

 

Some Days There Is No News

........so best say nothing at all.  That's what I thought this morning when I realised it was Wednesday and time for another blog post.

Then I remembered I hadn't shown you the photos BA took on my phone while I was doing my longarm quilting. I don't often think of photo opportunities so didn't take my camera, these are taken on my phone.

 

Quilting with Millie

I'm not too chuffed that BA decided to hide!  She is a great teacher and I learnt so much.  I look forward to another lesson or two when I return hopefully in the late summer.

Finished the quilting - BA told me not to hide!

Then I remembered this little chap. While we were sitting having our afternoon cuppa by the side of Two Jack Lake yesterday he was sitting chirruping away in the tree next to the car.

Male Red Crossbill

His bright red plumage was very distinctive as was his crossbill.  His mate was a little less colourful in her more subdued yellow/green coat.

A very snowy Two Jack Lake and Rundle Mountain

The ice is beginning to melt on Two Jack Lake although the snow is still too thick on the access road to get down to the lake edge where we like to sit in the summer.

Spring is definitely in the air!

 

PS Sorry to everyone reading this earlier - I think the gremlins were at work.  Hopefully this all looks a bit better now.

Liquorice Allsorts Anyone?

......and a long awaited picture of a quilt in the snow.

I thought I had better get a photo of one of my quilts in the snow before it all disappears,  it is melting very quickly now.  This last week there has been a huge upturn in the temperatures here.  We have had a lovely week of sunny days, blue skies and temperatures of +9 and 10c quite tropical compared to the previous week.

Yesterday while out on our drive I took my Allsorts quilt to sew down the binding.  While sitting by Middle Lake and completing the last stitch I realised I had a photo opportunity.

Allsorts in the Snow

......and the back

......and a close up of the quilting

As always seems to be the case when I try and take a photo, the sun just disappeared behind a large cloud as I got it all set up.  

 

Here is Allsorts, completed all except for the label.  I am so grateful to BA an excellent teacher, who allowed me to use her Millie longarm machine to quilt this quilt using the pantograph method.  We had lots of laughs and I had great fun.   BA arranges lessons and hires out her machine on an hourly basis, which I think is a great idea, allowing people like me to try out longarming.  I don't really like freemotion but I really enjoyed this method of quilting.  Maybe I will be persuaded to do freemotion next time.

 

I didn't think for a minute when I arrived here that within 4 weeks I would have a quilt top completed, taken lessons on longarm quilting and actually have the confidence to produce an intricate stitch pattern on a proper quilt - never mind a practice piece.  I used most of my scraps to produce this easy top which can be found in Modern One Block Quilts by Natalie Bonner and Kathleen Whiting they called it Squared Scraps but in my colourway I think it looks just like Liquorice Allsorts. 

Now I need to get my labels done today.  Have a great weekend everyone.

An Interesting Product

I would like to introduce you to Mary Ellen's Best Press my new best friend.

 

It was suggested that I might like to try this out as one of the fabrics I was using in my twister quilt was particularly apt to fray.   I could not find an alternative to this fabric for this quilt the colour was just the right one and toned nicely with all the other fabrics so I just had to use it.  I new this would fray as I had used a the same fabric in a different colour way before in Lime Haze and it was a beast.  I was humming and hawing over this fabric until B suggested I try Best Press.  This was a new product for me - and the shop girls were amazed that I had never heard of it nor used it before.  I was led to believe it was a bit like starch but without the aerosol can, without any nasty smell and hard finish.  I was assured it would help stop the fraying and also set all the bias edges cut by the twister template, and it did.  

I am very open minded (sometimes) and happy to take on board any tips and suggestions. I bought the bottle and tried it out on the first block.  Not sticky or tacky and no smell, this one was fragrance free although I believe you can get it with fragrances, easy to use and it produced a nice firm crisp block.  It was not hard or stiff but just had a nice smooth flat crisp finish.  At first I felt it was a bit of a bind when pressing just to remember to give the block a little spritz.  However I continued all the way and I really liked the look and feel.  As I reassembled the blocks and stepped back only to realised one of the blocks looked a little off.  As I lifted it I realised why - I had forgotten the spritz step, it was a bit limp and sorry looking compared to the others but it spruced up with an extra press and a spritz.  This is a winner and I will certainly be adding it to my list of must haves for quilting.  I just hope I can find it back in Scotland.

I had another longarm lesson yesterday.  What fun,  BA was tremendous again, patient and understanding. Like everything new there was lots of information to take in and absorb but I came home delighted with the results.  I have a couple of photos to share but I am afraid you may have to wait until I have more time to get them sorted out.  Suffice to say Allsorts is coming along nicely and will be trimmed up today hopefully and the binding attached.  Look out for it at the weekend on the next blog. 

Twisted Twister

On one of my visits to the quilt shop I think I told you I had seen a sample of the Twister quilt.  This was one of the many samples hanging on the wall in Addies and was made in primary colours with a black border.  It caught my eye and as usual a spur of the moment decision was made.  I bought the large template as well as an accompanying book showing lots of different layouts for table runners, cushions, quilts and more.

The Twister Template - note the thickness and little feet

When I brought it home and and read through the book my immediate thought was that it was going to use quite a lot of fabric and create lots of waste.  Undeterred I laid out my fabrics.  The coral, peach, teal, aqua, grey and big bold print called Flirt by Sandy Gervaise for Moda.  Hmmm it should work. 

Some of the fabrics I used

 

Although the pattern suggested a layer cake I cut out my 10ins squares and started laying them out on the floor - no design wall here, so I was crawling around on my hands and knees - not a pretty sight.  As usual the plan in my head was not the one I used.  The method for this quilt was to sew the 36 squares together 6 x 6,  add a 6 ins border then use the template to recut new blocks.  



The layout

I pieced them altogether and stepped back.  Hmm!  The dark border I had chosen was not going to work, it flattened all the colourful pieces.  Change of plan - substitute the light fabric.  This however meant a couple of the blocks at the edge would disappear - ho hum!   Now for the recutting.  

Here are some of my observations and a word of warning about the template.  This template is thicker than a normal ruler and has little non slip feet on the back, thus raising it from the fabric.  This means if you are using a normal 45mm rotary cutter like me, it catches.  Not good.  If you have one use a 60mm cutter or if you don't, consider paring down the feet with a sharp knife (as I eventually did). I would also suggest a new blade in your cutter so you don't create any drag.  Be very careful at the corners do not run past the edge or you will slash into the next block you only have a little leeway.  If you do go too far wondaweb is good for a repair!!  The good thing is there's not a lot of waste.

All the requirements - note the little slivers this is all you have between blocks 

 

These new blocks are then joined together and a brand new pattern appears.  Watch out when sewing them though because each one now has bias edges.  (I now have a new best friend and I'll tell you about it next time.) 

The first two rows of blocks

The pieces between the blocks leave a little 4.75in square. These can be recut with the lil' twister to make minis for the border or like me you could make HST.  The next decision - will it be this ......



Using the leftovers

........or this

I've used this layout before

.............or something completely different.  That's for next time too.

I hope I haven't put anyone off using this template because this was a fun top to make - I did enjoy it.  Maybe the instructions on the sheet should have come with some of these warnings.  It was challenging to deal with all the slight issues I had but I would not recommend it for a beginner though. 

That's what quilting is all about is it not - push the boundaries and try something new.   Would I use this pattern again? - Yes definitely.  I enjoyed seeing the new pattern develop in each row although I do have 2 disappearing pieces.   Guess what I'm going to name this one?

A Great Day Out

A new day dawned and I felt like an excited teenager going out into the unknown to try something new.   I set off on my hour drive for my day of tuition with BA at the quilt shop in Cochrane.  As usual a welcoming smile greeted me from all the ladies there.  BA was in the process of guiding another lady through the steps of setting up a quilt to be quilted on her machine 'Millie' an APQS longarm quilting machine.  

I was a bit apprehensive about all this new technical equipment.  BA put me at ease and soon had me set up on the other machine.  I thought I was on a 'white knuckle ride' I was gripping the handles so tightly, however soon discovered you could move the machine around with your little pinky finger, it was so manoeuvrable.  I was soon wandering over the fabric practice sandwich with wiggles, loops, ells and ees, my shoulders were tense but I was having fun!  This was such a wonderful opportunity and great learning experience but not at all relaxing.  



My First Attempt

After a short break I was transferred on to Millie, what a lovely machine - in some ways more complex and technical but much easier to use than the other one which was having a few tension issues.  Millie and I got on well, I was beginning to relax a bit.  We chose the pantograph from a large and varied selection and BA set it up.  I helped load up a new practice sandwich and I was ready to start again.  So many things to remember, and a whole new set of words to learn, brake, rollers, channel locks, stitch regulator, laser guide, white button, black button - my head was buzzing!!

Here are the practice pieces from yesterday's  tutorial.  Thank you so so much BA for such a great day.  



Not so good on smooth ups and downs with the pantograph



This was done on 'Millie'

1st row with stitch regulator, 2nd one without regulator and finally echo quilting and stopping on an intersection 

I returned home tired, a little stiff and totally invigorated by this fantastic experience. Cochrane, Canmore and Calgary quilters just don't know how lucky they are to have this on their doorstep.  I just wish we had such a facility back home in Scotland.   So if anyone out there reading this has any contact details for any longarmers in the central belt who hire out time on their machine please, please let me know.

I am returning next week to have another wee shot and if I'm good enough I might even quilt the Allsorts quilt. 

I hope you are all having a fun quilting week too.  

Fresh Sewing Day

It's a Fresh Sewing Day and I'm linking up today for the first time to Lily's Quilts.  As Alex and Ricky say on The Quilt Show, "It's a new day, everyday" and a new month too.  Time for a new project.

February is always a short month, this year it seems to have flown by.  We have been enjoying our break from the dull, damp, grey days in Scotland and have been enjoying blue sky days most days here, although the freezing -20c to -27c temperatures have been a shock to our systems.  It hasn't stopped us getting out and about though I do feel even more like the Michelin man by the time I'm all wrapped up in extra layers, scarves, gloves and thick jacket.

Stitching has been slowish with only one real finish this month. I finished up the totally misnamed quilt for this time of year Fall in the City.  I finally finished the hand stitching around the blocks a couple of days ago and I must say I am pleased with it. The front.....

.........and the back.

I have also managed a top finish which will be called Allsorts which is bundled up already to be taken to Cochrane (weather permitting) on Tuesday.  Watch this space to see the results later.

March always seems to me a month of new beginnings.  The days begin to get a little longer and we have more daylight hours.  The plants in the garden start to wake up and produce new growth, but here in the Rockies the plants will stay asleep for a little longer in these freezing temperatures.  Today will be a fresh sewing day.  A day playing, planning, cutting and sewing.  I hope to make a start to my twister quilt which I am looking forward to and should be a whole lot of fun.  It's -27c outside this morning so we won't be going out for a while if at all.  A good day to sew!