FQG Quilt Show Part 1 of 2

I went to a quilt show today -Yay! It was certainly a rare treat for me to do something fun like this on a week day. I went to the Fredericton Quilters' Guild show. Wanna see some pics?
This was a super cute little wallhanging near the entry to the main room of the show. I actually took the picture to show my kids. They love cats! I like the rotary cutter the cat has. This piece is by Sandi MacMillan.

This was a great miniature display. I am fascinated by the skill and patience it takes to create something this intricate and small. See the hexie one? That was my people's choice for favourite miniature. Any guesses on how many hexies are in it ?????

1801 hexies !!! This was made by Barb Perry. I spoke with her at the show. She said she cuts all her own templates and all her own hexies (not just rough squares from what I understood, but actual fabric hexagon shapes before sewing). I think they are 1/4 inch hexagons (as in each side is about 1/4 inch). For an idea of size, see the thumbtacks just below the quilt. You can see that the hexies aren't too much bigger than the head of the thumbtack. To sum it all up : WOW !!!

I loved the energy in this quilt by Barb Cross.

Now, this quilt is by Trudy Corey. It's very nice, traditional, dare I say unassuming? BUT, it has a little surprise in store for you ...

Check out the quilting! Skull and crossbones. What a surprising whimsical touch.

And this was a cool one by Jean Ketch. The arches actually have piping.

More quilt show quilts to come in my next post. Happy Weekend!

Work in Progress Wednesday

So it's Wednesday again and on Wednesdays Lee at Freshly Pieced hosts a linky called WIP Wednesday. It's a neat and unique linky because it is all about what people are working on, not just what's been finished. I enjoy seeing all the other links, because it's nice to know that I'm not the only one with several half-done things going at once!

And now onto to my half-done things ... above is a border for the Love-Serendipity-Family Selvage Quilt. It is very, very close to being finished to quilt top form. I had to order more Kona Rich Red, which is the background colour, to finish the very outside of it. Once that's here, I can be done in a matter of about an hour. I should have a finished picture of the quilt top to post soon!

I am making the binding for the Not a Wink Quilt. It is back from the long-arm quilter and looks great. I have mentioned before though that I am the slowest binder in the East. I am not kidding. This one will be a while.

Last night as I watched the hockey game, I sorted my I-Spy squares.

And for future projects ... Rosa gave me these selvages! Thanks!!

And Cathy of Blueberry Patch sent me the fabulousness above. It is rare that I ever have a new fabric right when it comes out, but look, some of the new Denyse Schmidt fabric. I feel so cool. LOL. Cathy also sent me the two bonus fabric pieces, just because ... thanks Cathy!

So what are you working on? Happy Quilting!

Fabulous Four Birthday Quilt Finished

This is the birthday quilt I made for my daughter's upcoming fourth birthday. The big day isn't until May 22, but for the next month our family calendar is full of both lots of fun stuff and some writing-related deadlines for me, so I wanted to get it done early.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It is just a super simple strip quilt, but I think the fabrics really work together so well.

The two feature fabrics are the "Fabulous, Fantastic ... Four" fabric and one called "When I Grow Up" with lots of little girls dressed up.
I quilted it in both straight and wavy lines. I used pink, yellow and turquoise thread in a random order. I just changed the thread whenever I felt like it. (I kept the same pink in the bobbin the whole time for the back)
The backing is the "Fabulous Four" fabric and the binding is the zig zag stripe.

I have lots of fabric left and I'm planning to make a matching pillowcase and maybe even a little pillowcase dress for her.

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Easter!

My I-Spy Quilt Block Collection is Growing

So this all started when I decided to participate in an I-Spy swap. I haven't received my 200 different swap blocks yet, but in the meantime, I've been getting squares of my own ready -- and the pile is GROWING. At this rate I may honestly be able to make a queen-sized I-Spy quilt with no two squares alike ...

Above are some of my favourite squares which I've cut from my own stash and scraps.

And a few more from my own fabrics. I love squares that feature a single larger fussy cut like the baby or flowers, as I think they will help break up the wild busyness of the whole quilt.
And because we all know that quilters are typically generous sorts, my friend Tanya showed up at my house with the squares above ...

And these too.

And then Rachel of Not-So-Plain Jane volunteered to send me "some" charms. Little did I know she'd send 50 all different ones!

Look at all the great colour in these that she sent!

Plus I still have lots more fabric to cut -- scraps from my Mom, Tanya and from a scrap swap I was in.

This quilt is already so FUN and I haven't even sewed a stitch yet.

I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday since this quilt is definitely a work in progress.

Happy Quilting!

His and Hers Quilt Complete Pattern Tutorial

As promised, here is the tutorial for the "His and Hers Quilt" inspired by a conversation with my husband (read more in the original post here if you like).

This pattern will make a nice big quilt of 99 by 100 inches. It fits well on our queen-sized bed. It's a very simple straight-ahead pattern with no fancy sewing manoeuvres needed. It's really just a fun and funky variation of a coin quilt. Kind of like a coin quilt with attitude if you will.

I think the trickiest part of the quilt is really choosing the fabrics that will give you the maximum impact. Once you have those, it's smooth sailing!

So here we go ...

I am going to refer to the fabrics that make up the unpieced strips in this quilt as the "Feature Fabrics." You will need 3 yards of His Feature fabric and 3 yards of Hers Feature Fabric. I say go big, go bold, have fun! The same fabric in two colourways works well. And although the print should be large scale, I would suggest a fabric with only two or three colours in it, so the whole thing isn't way over the top and looking like a crazy busy circus (I know my quilts often do look like that, but this time I would advise against it.)Then you will need 10 Fat Quarters of coordinating His Fabric and 10 Fat Quarters of coordinating Hers Fabric. When choosing these prints, really try to come up with a nice variety of patterns and colours -- some with a bigger print, some with a tinier one, some monochromatic, some geometric, some novelty, some floral, you get the idea ...

So to quickly recap: You need 3 yards plus 10 FQs for EACH of the His and Hers sides. You will eventually need 7.5 yards (!!!) for backing. No need to buy anything extra for binding as you will be able to cut your binding from the leftover feature fabrics. And onto cutting ... Get out the longest ruler you have and cut your feature fabric vertically into strips that are 9.5 inches wide and a whopping 100 inches long! Cut three His strips and three Hers strips. Next start cutting the fat quarters. You will be able to cut 8 rectangles of 8 by 4.5 inches from each fat quarter (assuming you have at least 16 by 18 inches of usable fabric -- which you certainly should, even taking into account crooked cutting, frayed edges due to pre-washing, or, maybe like me, cutting off the selvage to save) This means you will cut 80 His rectangles and 80 Hers rectangles.

* * *

Now, for something more fun, start arranging your rectangles into strips, stacking them so the 8.5 inch sides are touching. Make three tall strips of 25 rectangles each (for each of the His and Hers sides, 6 all total). Yes, you have 80 rectangles cut and only need 75 per side, but this will give you more design leeway in arranging everything, giving a good overall mix of fabrics, and making sure that no two pieces the same are too near each other. Move everything around until you are happy with the arrangement of your three His rectangle strips and your three Hers rectangle strips. Sew all the rectangles together using a 1/4 inch seam. Backstitch the end of each seam. Press your seams as you like. I press my seams open, just because that's my thing. Next arrange all the vertical strips, alternating between feature fabric strips and rectangle strips. Notice in the photo how the His and Hers feature fabric strips meet in the middle and then the alternating strips move outward from there. The rectangle strips should technically be 100.5 inches long at this point, as compared to 100 inches for the feature fabric strips. This gives a smidge of wiggle room if you needed it. If your seams are absolutely perfect (never happens here), you could trim 1/4 inch off the top and bottom of each rectangle strip, making it exactly 100 inches before sewing the strips together.

Of special note, the His and Hers sides of the quilt in this case reflect the sleeping positions of my husband and I ... in your case it may be on opposite sides, so arrange your fabric accordingly! Notice how I labelled the strips above. Sew them together two at a time until all are sewn together. Use a 1/4 inch seam. I would sew one half of the quilt all together first, then the other, then the two halves together at the end. Cut binding strips from your leftover feature fabrics.

Back, quilt and bind. Bind with His fabric on the His side and Hers fabric on the Hers.

Enjoy!

Of special note, in my original quilt I used a feature fabric with birds and I wanted the birds to line up with each other. If you do choose a feature fabric with an element that you want to line up, you will likely need more than 3 yards to be sure it can be done.

Also, although the amount of FQs for this quilt works out nicely, you can easily substitute scraps for many rectangles to save cash and add more variety.

If you do make one of these quilts I would LOVE to see it. Please email (just click my complete profile on the sidebar above to get to the link with my email).

This pattern is for personal use. It was fun to finally get this posted here as the original idea for this quilt was on my to-do list forever and now it is 100% done and out there. I will happily answer any questions or clarify anything that may be confusing. I am far from any sort of quilting expert, but this is how I made my quilt, and it turned out pretty, straight and sturdy.

Good luck and Happy Quilting!

Meet My Selvage Quilt Family

I have had this idea forever, but I finally got it transferred to fabric! This is my little selvage family for my Love-Serendipity-Family Selvage Quilt. It's my favourite use of selvages yet. It was so fun to choose the perfect selvages for each family member. My husband has "Prints Charming," "Love U," and two selvage pieces that say "Brother Sister Design Studio." We have a son and a daughter (a little brother and sister) who he helped design ... hee, hee ;-) Here are Tess and Eli. Tess is almost 4 and Eli is 6. I made them the same height. Eli is a little taller in real life of course, but Tess is gaining fast. Her selvages are "Sugar and Spice" since that's what little girls are made of, as well as "Belle" and "Growing Wild." Eli has "Growing Wild," "Geniuses Grow Up" (Like most Moms, I think my kids are smart) and "Kids." I just used "Love" for me. I tossed some pieces quickly up onto the design wall. These are all separate bits not sewn together.

This picture is a bit better and less cluttered. In the real quilt the pieces will be well spaced and alternate between selvage sections and red.

So the selvage family is what I finished up for my first time participating in the Friday Night Sew-In. It was more like a Friday Evening Sew-In for me as I was all sewed out by just after nine o'clock. Oh well. I'm just not a late night sewer. These little selvage stick people were really quite easy to do, but I definitely picked up on a couple of things I'd do differently next time. I thought I'd write up a little tutorial ... lets say within the next few weeks ... the His and Hers Quilt Pattern will be my next post.

Happy Weekend!

Trying Something New: FNSI

I've read about the Friday Night Sew-In again and again on other blogs, so I thought it was about time I gave it a try. It means that I'll be sewing tonight as other bloggers around the world do too. And then tomorrow I'll post about my progress, and have a little surf around blogland to see what everyone else got done.

I'll be working on the Love Serendipity Family Selvage Quilt.

Just click the button below if you'd like to find out more -- or join in!

Just Some Quilty Scraps ...

Scraps of information that is, about what's going on as I quietly quilt away in Quispamsis. First off, I often get questions about the name "Quispamsis" and whether or not it's a real place. Well, it is, and I am just a lucky quilter who lives in a qu place. Quispamsis, New Brunswick, Canada is a beautiful town and I am so happy that my children are growing up here. The name comes from the Maliseet language and means "little lake in the woods." We have a small lake in the middle of town. If you're interested in more information about Quispamsis, the town's site is here.

Now, about the picture above. I've been quilting away on my daughter's birthday quilt. I've made several mistakes including my signature mistake of having the backing fold over without noticing and stitching it down where it shouldn't be. Oh well. I've seam ripped four or five quilting lines, but overall I'm happy with how it is turning out. As you can see in the picture, I still just use my regular machine foot for quilting.

Here's a rare pic of me, but I really wanted to show how loaded down I was before the guild meeting last night. I have the His and Hers Quilt for Show and Tell (I should have the pattern done and posted here by the weekend), the five neonatal quilts for the hospital to drop off, a big bag of miscellaneous fabric bits for the 'bring and buy' (yard sale), plus my usual small stuff in the bag. And as you can see I'm wearing my selvage nametag. This is a picture of the KVQG raffle quilt for this year. I took this picture last night at the meeting. It is called Sunshine and Lollipops. I love the colours and love that it seems to have the perfect balance between traditional piecing and more modern lines/colours. It is huge too. I can take absolutely no credit for this beauty as I had nothing to do with the making of this quilt, but I wanted to show it here because the ladies in the guild who did work on it did such a fabulous job. I've mentioned here before that my son loves geography and maps, so you will understand why I recently bought the fabric above. And more Ghastlies ... And some monsters which will be going into my Halloween stash. I kind of have an idea brewing about an all-Halloween themed I-Spy Quilt ... hmmmmmmm ... Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Quilting!