Magpie Quilts

My quilting friend, Noell, came back from her winter down south with this lovely crazy quilt pattern that she shared with the Dalemead Quilt Guild that meets southeast of Calgary, Alberta. The blocks are made from 5 fat quarters of fabric. I had a half meter of the darkest fabric and this baby quilt used up all the fabrics. There is a piece of the larger fabric left, but not enough to even make the binding, so if you want binding, you'll have to add fabric for that. Step One : Cut four 8" squares from each fabric. We stacked our fat quarters and cut through all 5 layers at once to make 4 neat stacks of 8" squares. Set three stacks aside and work with one stack at a time. Step Two : Cut your stack of squares into 5 pieces. Avoid parallel cuts, sharp points, and intersections at outside corners. You may want to sketch out your cuts on paper before actually cutting your fabric. As you cut, label the pieces that are cut off from 1 - 5 (1 being the first piece cut off ...

Wow! I can't believe it, but I've been blogging for a full year! I hope you're enjoying reading what I have to say! I still feel it's a bit presumptuous to think people really want to know what's on my mind! Often, while I'm sewing, I think about why I love to make things and who or what encouraged me along the way. Being creative is something that feeds my soul. I don't ever remember a time when I didn't have that urge in me to "make" something. My parents had their own business and when I was there with them, I loved to pull out the coloured papers that were there for the photo-copier and a pair of scissors, pencils, markers and pencil crayons. I would happily cut and draw and colour for hours and although none of my creations survived the passage of time, the time was well-spent. From Red Pepper Quilts Later, sewing, crocheting and knitting were added to my crafting skills and I made doll clothes, blankets and gifts for those aroun...

My sewing machine sat idle for most of the week, but today was my weekly sewing day with a couple friends. As it turns out, there were only 2 of us here at my house today. My friend, Marie, was working on a challenge quilt from her guild retreat and was adding some beading embellishments. Click to enlarge and check out the gorgeous beading on this one! And I was playing catch up from one of the swaps I'm behind on - the Scrap Buster's Bee on Flickr. The idea here is that once a month, a member of the group posts what type of quilt block they want and the other members make that quilt block from their scraps. Here's the one block from the 3 months that I was behind on: Scrappy crazy quilt block While I was looking for some of my old craft supplies, I found this folded star pincushion kit that I started and didn't finish. It's now a little closer to being completed, but I need to find some fiberfill to stuff it. Although I love the look of the folded star, ...

The snow is finally gone and the grass is starting to turn green and that makes it hard for me to stay focused on quilting projects. Saturday was the local Dalemead Quilt Guild's annual Stone Soup Day, where we all get together and work on quilts that will be given to local charity groups. Scrappy strips - donated Above is a baby quilt/toddler quilt that I donated from blocks received in the Scrap Busters Swap. The green border is a reproduction print that I already had and the backing is a flannel, also from my stash! We had a great time, so much fun that I forgot about taking pictures until we were packing up! By then all the quilts were put away! 3x6 Bee Flickr Swap With a fresh week and a clean design wall, the rest of the 3x6 bee blocks were put back up. These are the quilt blocks that were primarily blue and white and I framed them with a blue print fabric that I was hoarding had in my closet. It is a good size for a baby quilt, but on the wall, I thought it wasn...

I think my Granny Square quilt is working it's way up to the top of my to-do pile. This is such a great project to use up some of those scraps in your fabric stash. While I'm procrastinating waiting to start, here's some great examples of Granny Square quilts from all over the web. from Blue Elephant Stitches from Canoe Ridge Creations from A Quilting Life from Quilt Story Hope you enjoyed a little quilting inspiration! --Ann

This custom quilt was a joy to complete from start to finish. Although paper piecing is not my first choice for constructing a full-size quilt, this quilt pattern needed the precision that paper piecing provides. Click to see close up of the quilting! I loved the fabrics and this quilt pattern works well with the fabrics chosen. Marie of Blueberry Hill Quilts in Chestermere, Alberta, did a beautiful job on the quilting (as always!) and selected a paisley floral pattern that is just stunning on the completed quilt. Looks great on my wall - maybe I should make one for me? Someone will need to remind me to take pictures of the FINISHED quilt - the pictures I took were before the binding was sewn down and I packed the quilt up and forgot to rehang it and take some pictures before packing it up. --Ann

WOW! This week flew by and here we are at Wednesday again! The quilt binding is sewn on the Sunshine & Cloud yellow and gray quilt from last week and the custom wedding quilt is being quilted. I cut the left-over fabric from the wedding quilt into 1.5" and 2" squares and set them aside and while browsing some of my favourite quilting blogs, I found this picture of the Granny Square quilt block done up in red and white fabrics from Auntie Em at Quilt Crossing . I thought how awesome that block looked, so complicated, yet so simple and imagined how the left-over squares would look done up in this pattern, so here's a couple that I put up on my design wall: This will probably be a WIP for a while, as I have several other projects that I need to finish, but this one may not let me ignore it for long! I don't have enough squares for a full-size quilt, but I see this one as a picnic quilt or a lap quilt for sitting on the front porch on a cool evening. One ...