Pineapples: A Finished Quilt

I finished a quilt for my mother-in-law using the pattern Pineapple Farm by Elizabeth Hartman. I showed her the pattern before I checked out complicated it would be and...guys, don't do that. Check how much you're committing to before it is too late! It was complex and time consuming but my mother-in-law is worth it so I persevered.  

The end result is pretty awesome, and she definitely loves the quilt, but I can't pretty much promise I will never make another one of these ones!

Here is Pineapples:

There was a fresh layer of (spring) snow when I took the pictures which worked out for me because quilts look great on the white background!

I did a crosshatch quilting at varying widths.

My little helper was very useful holding up the quilt. This is the quilt in totality. Warm, mostly red colours as per my MIL's request.

I LOVE this backing I found on extreme clearance at Sew Sisters (I think it was $4.99/m!). I used the backing fabric for the binding as well. It reminds me of the inside of a pineapple.

She sure added cuteness to the photo shoot.

I'm really happy with the end results and I am glad my MIL is too. It will be appreciated and loved which makes all the hours of work worth it!

Linking to Finish it Up Friday with Crazy Mom Quilts.

#QBtravellingquilt and One More Shop Hop

The #QBtravellingquilt continues. I finished my addition to A's quilt by using From Blank Pages' pattern My First Alphabet (this is the 3" size). I also, as per our challenge, used a new skill which was layered applique with free motion black outlines (say what??! I did applique??).

I love the result and she seemed to like it. Her quilt is colourful while still being quite soft-looking. The other two quilts are sooooo saturated by comparison but they all look amazing. I wish I had taken a picture of what my quilt looks like after C added some EPP stars (EPP!!!).

So pretty, isn't it?

 With my QB peeps we decided to go on a Toronto shop hop since our July shop hop took us West. We went to four stores: Sew Sisters, EweKnit, The Workroom and Len's Mill Toronto. I had never been to that Len's Mill and I loved it. Great selection, better organized than the Guelph location I usually go to and I found several yummy purchases. Plus the woman cutting our fabric was chatting with us and totally our kind of person. We invited her to come to lunch with us but she thought perhaps her boss would disapprove.

I only took pictures at The Workroom because it is in the new location and I had not yet been there. But I also had to take a picture of this graffiti mural right next The Workroom because it was just so good.

There's lots you can interpret from Make Good.

One angle of the new space.

More of the new space.

The Workroom is not my favourite, mostly because of their very high prices (most fabric is $19.99/m) but the space sure is beautiful! I found some fabrics that I liked and splurged. 

The end result of the trip was a lot of fabric- mostly reds because I needed a ton more reds to make a pineapple quilt for my mother-in-law for her new house (look for a future post on how that is going). There is a healthy amount of Alison Glass (from Len Mills) and that bottom fabric is an old Valorie Wells fabric I got at Sew Sisters that was in the extreme discount bin ($4.99/m). It is not my colour BUT it is perfect for the colours my MIL wants in her quilt, the fabric works well in terms of scale and the pattern sort of looks like fronds which works for pineapples and it was CHEAP. Sold. They only had 3 3/4m and I technically need 4 3/8m but I will piece something together to fill it out!

It was a great trip with wonderful friends and the high will have to last some time because C and I are going on a fabric fast from September 1- December 31. Note that the rules are:
1) No new fabric purchases from September 1-December 31.
2) Using gift cards doesn't count.
3) You can make one preorder of a must-have fabric.
4) You can purchase one pattern during that time if desired.

I'm sure we can do it. Especially because we both preordered a TON of new fabric from Dinkydoo fabrics that should be coming every day. Like, I need a new fabric shelf ton of fabric. :)

Shop Hop & Some New Acquisitions

A couple of weeks ago, over March Break, I was fortunate enough to have a day to go on a mini shop hop with quilty friends A and C. I wanted to go the Quilter's Nine Patch because I have no idea how to even get there on my own (A always leads the way!) and it is a bit far to be considered "local."

It is on this corner in what seems like the middle of nowhere, attached to a gift store and a little restaurant.

The store is really interesting because they have catered to both modern and traditional quilters. The thing is, looking at the traditional area with the sample quilts and muted, flowery fabrics had me reflecting on my own quilting obsession.

I think it is safe to say that most people picture this sort of thing when you mention quilting.

Looking at this dark, muted area of the store I know that I would not be such an enthusiastic quilter if these were my only options.

Part of the appeal of quilting for me are the modern fabrics and colours that I associate with the modern quilting movement. I have always admired quilts and quilting, but my own enthusiasm came from finding beautiful fabric that I felt was modern and clean and crisp, not the browns and maroons and flowers that used to dominate the quilting world.

You would think that this was a different store from the change in aesthetic, right?

So I am so glad that I came to quilting when I did, when the modern quilting world is huge and present on Instagram, Facebook, blogs and, most importantly, visible through the fabric lines being produced by people like Carolyn Friedlander, Lizzy House, Tula Pink, Violet Craft and more.

We also went to another quilt store, Greenwood Quiltery, and to Triangle Sewing for some notions.

Here is my very reasonable haul:

Kona Black (for the Quilt of Belonging) and some new fine, glasshead pins were things I actually needed. Some Tula navy, Elizabeth Olwen and Elizabeth Hartman Rhoda Ruth also followed me home.

Also, A was making a trip into the north end of Toronto a few days before our shop hop and planned to stop at Sew Sisters. She kindly asked if there was anything I needed or wanted her to pick up. I quickly got in touch with Judy, who runs (and owns?) Sew Sisters and arranged for there to be a bolt of Kona White for A to pick up for me! I'm so glad since my last bolt was finished a few weeks ago and it was going to get hard to keep going soon!

Only 16 yards? I'll need more next week!

Not a huge stack of pretty purchased, and I didn't get any batting which I need desperately, but it was an awesome day with friends who are easy to spend time with, and I got things I did need like the Black and the pins. Worthwhile for sure!

Now I wait for my two must-have orders to arrive in the mail/coming home to me from Florida with my mother-in-law. A very low Canadian dollar and obscene shipping rates sure help from splurging on fabric too much lately!

WIP Wednesday: Variety Reduces Boredom

With the little snippets of time I can carve out for sewing with little people underfoot, I have been back and forth between working on a Greek Cross baby quilt (tentatively named AirPlus) and assembling the Quilt of Belonging. 

I was feeling unmotivated to work on the Greek crosses because it involves lots of monotonous chain piecing (to be efficient). So I made one block to motivate me...and it worked!

How cute is this block? Greek crosses look awesome.

Stacks of blocks to press and then get back to chain piecing.

Piles growing as I plodded along.

And I actually got all the blocks pieced in a fairly short amount of time! Here it is laid out on the floor. I now have all the rows pieced and the first three rows assembled. But that was getting boring.

I love how this quilt is bright and cheerful but not too baby.

So because the repetitive piecing was getting boring, I laid out and selected the solids for the Quilt of Belonging blocks. Being in the Sew Sisters Kona solid of the month club sure has been useful for having a wide selection to choose from.

Since the photo was taken I have finished the reds and oranges. I'm hoping to get yellows done today. There will also be Kona Black in between each block to mimic the original quilt.

And for a fun bonus, I'm sharing another example of all the help I get when I'm trying to sew.

He didn't understand why lying on top of the blocks wasn't helping.

I can't link up to WIP Wednesday because Freshly Pieced has stopped doing it, but since WIP Wednesday motivates me I'm posting anyway!

Happy Birthday to Me

My birthday combined with a little shop hop with my quilty friend A resulted in me buying just a week bit of fabric. You'll see. In my defense, it was my birthday.

We first went to Sew Sisters, a go-to for solids that is not too bad a drive (about 45 minutes depending on traffic). They have a$7.99/metre room in the store that I like checking for backing fabrics. I didn't fall in love with too much but did find a great backing for a little boy's quilt I'm making sometime in the next year and about a yard of a print I liked that was on super clearance for $4.99. 

Then we tried a store I had never been to before called EweKnit which I never would have thought to visit because I assumed it was all wool. A promised me that there was a bit of modern fabric too, and we were both surprised to see that since she had last visited the fabric collection had exploded!

The entire back half of the store was wool but the front half was fabric!

This is just one little bit of the fabric offered. I liked the choices immediately.

I was able to restrain myself, buying just three pretty fat quarters. And then we went to another store that I follow on Instagram but have never visited- The Workroom. That is when things went downhill for my wallet.

A bit of a pain in terms of parking but fortunately A was kind enough to drive (which I hate doing in downtown Toronto).

The fabrics were DROOL WORTHY. The style of the store was so my vibe. I wanted to buy approximately 80% of the store.

And they have a shop dog. A SHOP DOG! This pup is super calm and sweet (and sporting hand sewn clothing, of course)

My haul was significant. This was the take from all three stores:

There is a LOT of Sarah Watt's Honeymoon line from Cotton+Steel in there. One friend bought me some and then I added the other prints that I was loving.

Okay, so I went overboard. Plus I got a squishy mail package the next day with more fabric. I'll post about that another time.

A and I had so much fun, including a nice lunch, and so I will forgive myself for the purchases (because I LOVE them) and just be happy that I don't shop hop more often. My bank account is happy about that. :)

January Kona Solids: Procrastination Pays Off

It was my intention to cancel my Sew Sisters Kona Solids of the Month club subscription because my solids were building up without me touching them and because I hadn't been too impressed with the bundles lately. With everything else going on in life, however, I forgot to cancel in time and my January bundle arrived. This time not getting something done really paid off!

Here is the inspiration photograph:

Snowy is a pretty accurate reflection of the weather around here.

And I was delighted with the colours. They are not ones I necessarily would have chosen (with the exception of Stratosphere) and yet the combo and the shades have me really happy.

From top to bottom: Celestial, Stratosphere, Laurel and Seafoam.

I don't think this picture does the combination justice because they really do look good together. I still think I'm going to cancel, but I'm so pleased that these babies were added to my stash first!

Lynn

December Kona Solids

My December Kona solids from Sew Sisters came quite some time ago, but I've been too busy- and there has been too little light- to take a picture.

Here is the inspiration photo. I do like a cute kitty picture!

I don't think my own cats would be as tolerant with a hat and bow on.

And the selections are here:

Left to right: Bone, Ruby, Red and Ivory.

Red is very, very red. Very much a Santa red. The Ruby is more to my taste (which must be why I used a ton of it on my friend's quilt). The Ivory and Bone are pretty interchangeable. The bone has more of an antique colour to it, but both are pretty gentle off-whites.

I think I'm discontinuing my subscription. The solids are stacking up and I'm just not using them. I'm also not as excited every month to receive the package. I think that is a sign to end it, for now. Maybe another subscription is in my future one day!

Lynn

Chandelier: A Finished Quilt

A neighbour is expecting a little girl on December 31st and I knew I wanted to make her a small baby quilt. This is her second daughter but her first is already almost 11 so I think she is pretty much starting from scratch! I originally planned to make them a sort of wild black, white and neon coloured quilt but I couldn't make it work so I asked for the nursery colours. Can you tell, from this quilt, what the colours are? :)

I used my Tumbler template again as this is very easy to assemble, quick to cut out and still more visually interesting than simple patchwork squares might be (which I also love, don't get me wrong). All of the fabrics came from my stash, including the backing which I picked up at some big sale at Pink Castle Fabrics at least two years ago.

Here is Chandelier:

I bound it using some left over white-on-white binding from my Candy Cane quilt.

The name comes from that Riley Blake fabric with the chandelier. Notice lots of Lotta Jansdotter, plus various pulls from my stash that I don't even know what they are anymore.

I did echo quilting along all the seams and rotated the quilt at the junctions to match up with the tumbled effect of the quilt.

The back is all one fabric, a Moda fabric I picked up ages ago. The soft grey is nice but I'm not thrilled because the white is creamier and the binding is crisper white. But it will do.

The echo line quilting looks cool on the back.

Mom is hoping baby will arrive early, and if she does I'll be ready!

Lynn

November Kona Solids

My November Sew Sisters solids arrived! Normally Jenn at A Quarter Inch from the Edge, who lives several provinces away and gets her bundles later than I do, hates when I post my fabrics because I get my package so much sooner than she does and it ruins the surprise. I think this month I'm safe since I'm sure the arrival of her twins must have her much too busy to check the blog world!!

This was the (somewhat predictable) inspiration photograph. Really, Ontario looks like this in October. By November we are much bleaker and winter has really attacked!

Pretty fall colours.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the colours are all very different from each other which is nice since the last few months have had colours so similar it was hard to distinguish between them.

From the top: Terra Cotta, Mocha, Palm and Natural.

They are all colours I wouldn't choose but they all round out my Kona collection, so I'm pleased. Let's hope we don't get red and green for the December bundle!

Lynn

Mini Sewing Retreat

Thanks to my ever-generous quilty friend A I got to spend several lovely, kid-free hours sewing a couple of Saturdays ago. She offered her home and a few of us came. Unfortunately C had to abandon us for her Nan (when your grandma calls to help at the church bazaar you don't say no!) but CW and K were both able to attend. K made a delicious chili, I brought goodies (including mini Haagen Dazs ice cream...yum) and we sewed and sewed!

K recently bought herself a base-level Janome and it is adorable and wonderful. I could see myself buying one to use as a travel machine because I hauled my big ol' girl and she is HEAVY.

I wanted to work on a few things (and I did) but my main focus was to get the experience and advice of A with a pattern for a yoga mat bag that I wanted to make for a friend at work. She had all these little bits and bobs that I needed (the woven webbing material that I had never heard of, for example, and she was incredibly generous in letting me steal everything I needed). The pattern came from One Yard Wonders which is a great book if you are newer to sewing.

What I wanted to share specifically was that we got to use this cool new circle-cutting tool that she had picked up after attending a quilt show talk that involved a quilt with lots of circles (I think it was Zen Chic she went to see?). She bought this and I was the perfect excuse to break it out and try it together. A and I worked the tool and K took the pictures. Teamwork!

This is the tool. It is very much like the compass you would use in high school math to draw circle, except instead of a place to hold your pencil it has a tiny circular blade.

A held the fabric and I worked the cutter. We did it on a scrap piece first to make sure it would work. The circles were for the bottom of the yoga mat bag. Getting used to how much pressure was necessary was the trickiest part.

Ta da! Two pretty darn perfect- and pretty darn easy circles! The fabric is from my stash, purchased from the discount room at Sew Sisters some time last year.

The bag came together really well (thanks to A's help!!) and I got CW to model it for you here:

Cute, right? (The bag and CW).

I didn't end up using the D-ring that they suggested because I thought this worked really well. A was an amazing help, and CW and K were in awe that I finished something in one short sewing session. They are the newer sewers/quilters and I can only imagine what they will be able to accomplish as their skills grow!

I was so pleased to have a day with wonderful people while sewing. I'm lucky!

Lynn

Candy Cane: A Finished Quilt

As a result of a Blogger's Bundle of the Month Club that I was in, hosted through Fat Quarter Shop, I sometimes received bundles of fabric that were not at all to my liking or taste. One such bundle came full of different reds and with what I would consider "old fashioned" fabrics like those from the French General line (which is wildly popular in some circles).

I was inspired by a pin on Pinterest to make a red and white quilt and, because the fabric is a little "old lady" for my taste, to gift the quilt to an old lady: my husband's stepmother's mother, Nana. She is the kindest woman you'll ever meet and even if this was the ugliest quilt ever made I assure you she would adore it because it was handmade for her. Her health has been a bit challenging this year and her husband, Papa, has also been quite ill which has been stressful for her. I think a beautiful red and white quilt as a Christmas present will help cheer her up!

So here is Candy Cane, being held up by quilty friend CW who was  not impressed that at our retreat I wanted her to hold it up for me in the rain. Apparently complaining about quilt photo shoots isn't restricted only to my husband. :) She was a trooper.

It is also important to note that CW is not nearly as tall as my 6'1" husband.  The binding is leftover white-on-white fabric and I think it frames the quilt nicely without being overly bold. I have never bound a quilt with white before but I think it works!

Here I think all the reds play nicely together. The whites are all white-on-whites because I thought a crisp Kona White would be too stark against the more traditional fabric.

The back is all one fabric. I got this one on clearance from Sew Sisters quite a long time ago because I knew I wanted something red but not too RED, you know? I love it.

I echo quilted all the seams with a variegated red and white cotton thread using my walking foot. 

This is a generous lap-sized quilt, especially considering Nana is a pretty tiny lady. I hope she loves it and gets lots of cuddling under it!


Lynn

This Friday I'm going to try to remember to link up to Finish It Up Fridays with Crazy Mom Quilts. Here's hoping my brain doesn't let me down!

October Kona Solids: What I Would Have Chosen Instead

This month I was hoping for a really "wow" bundle of Kona solids from my monthly Sew Sisters delivery. Last October had this gorgeous combo of greys that was dark and spooky and delicious because they were varied enough to really get a feel for the range you could work with. I even commented on the pleasant lack of orange and black, the "obvious" colours.

Then this year's October bundle arrived and...

Well that was expected.

I don't mind orange, not really. And green is a favourite colour, though perhaps not these sweet greens.

Top to bottom: Orange, Asparagus, Pear, Mango

Mmmmm. Food-themed colours. I will add them to my stash and know that one day I will be grateful for the addition of these solids! If I had picked some colours for the bundle, though, I might have used a picture like this:

And then chosen colours like this (from the Sew Sisters site, even):

Hibiscus

Amethyst

Cadet

Charcoal

What do you think? Did I do a better job than the orange and green from this month's picture?

And as a bonus, here is a picture of my baby trying to eat a pumpkin.

Yummy.

Lynn