A Quilt Retreat

Although I sew at home nearly every day, it is nice to get away and sew in a different place. In January, I had the opportunity to go with my best sewing friends to Canmore, Alberta and spend a few days sewing with them in a beautiful mountain location.

This was the view outside our window. 

We set up 3 sewing machines on the dining room table.

and sewed. . .

 and painted fabric with Shiva paintsticks. . .

 and did sashiko and hand applique. . .

 and pieced tiny pieces together into beautiful designs! (These strips are just 1/2" wide!)

Getting together with friends is always great time spent and when you share a love of something, be it quilting or something else, it just makes that friendship even more special! I'm already looking forward to next year's get away!

--Ann

PS - these are all creations from my friends!

St. Patrick's Day 2015

I recently picked up this panel at a local quilt shop (Addie's Creative Fabrics in Cochrane, Alberta) and some great St. Patrick's Day fabric at another shop (Along Came Quilting in Calgary, Alberta) and put them together into a few mini quilted wallhangings!

Large Irish blessing - For Sale here

 If you can't find the panel in your local quilt shop, they are available here at Block Party Studios.

Irish Blessing - For Sale here

 I love these Irish blessings - they just make me feel good inside!

Irish Blessing - For Sale here

 And the green is a lovely reminder that spring will come again!

Celtic Knot - For Sale here

And this last one is a celetic knot that I hand stitched with bias strips. Sometime I will have to show you how this is done as it's quite a fun technique. This is a nice size (the knot is about 6" across) project for the first time doing this technique.

Blessings to you all!

--Ann

Chevron Quilt Finishes!

Here's the two chevron quilts that I recently finished! The blue, grey and white one is off to it's new home in Texas. 

blue and grey chevron quilt

full-size chevron quilt

 When I had the pieces from the above quilt on the design wall, I wondered what it would look like with the addition of some coral stripes. I found a great salmon colour that looks fabulous with the blue and grey and made a baby quilt.

chevron baby quilt

 I've been backing more of my baby quilts with the Minky fabric that's so popular with baby blankets, and no wonder, as it's soft character lasts and lasts! This one is backed with a Tiffany blue and it just begs to be cuddled with!

chevron baby quilt

And the chevron continues to be a popular choice at Magpie Quilts and I have an order for a pink one that I need to get done this week!

--Ann

Creations from a Fat Quarter fabric pack

Two of my favourite quilt or craft shows are the Central Alberta Quilt Show (April 3&4, 2015) or the Creative Stitching & Crafting Alive show (September 25-26 in Calgary). I love seeing the new fabric lines and the patterns and often come home with a ton more ideas in my head of things I want to do or try.

Many of the fabric shops that have booths at these markets, package their fabrics up into tempting little packages of what quilters call fat quarters. Normally, fabric is sold off the bolt with a quarter yard measuring 9"x the width of the fabric (44"). Fat quarters are also a quarter yard of fabric, but the fabric is cut a full yard and then in half, both lengthwise and crosswise to yield a piece of fabric that is 18" x 22". Quilt shops will then package these fat quarters up into coordinating bundles that are so very tempting to the quilter who is walking through their booth.

Last year I picked up a pack of 5 fat quarters and this week I sat down and sewed a few things with it. The first thing I did was cut materials for 2 tea cozies. These are a little different than the cozies I've made before and the sewing of the gathered bottom edge onto the circle base was more awkward than I thought it would be.

The next thing I cut was some squares for a simple table runner. One of the challenges I've set for myself in 2015 is to step up my quilting skills and learn a few different designs so I can do more than one or two quilting designs. I pieced a backing from what was left of the fabrics and a plain tone on tone off-white fabric, layered it and pinned it and started quilting.

As the amount of fabric I had left was dwindling rapidly, the next project was a pair of potholders. I used the left over squares from the table runner and used a disappearing 9-patch pattern. These potholders finished up at just under 8.5", a nice size for using in the kitchen. I still need to find a better way to attach the loops - I like my potholders to have a loop at the corner, but I just can't seem to find a way to do it so they look good.

The remaining small pieces will be cut and added to my scrap boxes of 1.5", 2" or 2.5" squares for the next scrap project I make.

--Ann

Chevron Inspired Baby Quilt

Last week I shared with you a white, blue and grey chevron quilt. While it was on my design wall, I thought it would look great with the addition of a coral stripe.

 So, with the blocks that were left over from the other quilt, I started this one and swapped a couple of the blue stripes for coral and look! This is going to make an adorable baby quilt and I'll share more photos when it is finished being pieced and quilted. I already have a pale blue Minky back ready for this quilt!

Do you ever get inspired by something you are working on? Do you ever change one design element to create something just a little different?

--Ann

Kim Diehl Table Runner almost done!

Just wanted to post this work in progress. I've been working on this for probably about 3 years now and the appliqué is finally finished and now I need to find a backing and quilt it. 

The pattern is called Cottage Garden and is in the book Simple Graces by Kim Diehl.

--Ann

Linking up here: