FINAL NEW THING AND A LITTLE FABRIC SHOPPING!

Well....I didn't quite reach my goal of one new thing a week in 2013! However, I did make it to week 31 which is pretty good!  Here it is...

 



A sweet little fabric stamp!  This went on the envelope for the parents of a friend's new baby grandson.  So much fun to make.  Tutorial found here!  And...my most favourite thing of my 31 new things was definitely the flourless chocolate cake (see this post)! This cake was so delicious and so easy! I think it's one of the best things I have ever baked.  Give it a try!!! I promise you won't be disappointed.

 

I also managed to get in a little fabric shopping today.  I got these sweet pillowcase kits from my LQS for 50% off!

 



 

One for me and one for my husband.  These are for next year.  Hopefully I won't put them away and forget about them (wouldn't be the first time)!

 

I also picked up these great prints...

 

 

Don't you love the animal print?!  I couldn't resist it!

All in all, I think I had a pretty productive 2013! I hope you did too! Looking forward to 2014!

 

DO YOU TRIM?

I do!  In fact, I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time trimming stray threads. Especially on something like this...

 



It's something I usually do in the evening when I'm too tired after a full day of work to do anything else! I use a lot of white in my quilts and don't like the idea of a wayward coloured piece of thread showing through the white fabric after the quilt is finished. I even find myself a little obsessed at times!

 

Here's a picture of the finished quilt...

 



 

I love star quilts but find making them a little monotonous!  Looking at the end result though, I think it's worth it. This is probably my last finish of 2013.  I didn't keep track of how many quilts I made this year...maybe around 20 or so. I think this one did me in for a while!

 

ANOTHER FINISH!

Okay...I know I said a while ago that I never use the same quilt pattern twice!  There are exceptions to every rule, though, right? And this is one of them!



 

 

I just can't get enough of these granny squares!  I just love them...and I love making them! I think my favourite part is picking out the colour combinations.  For this one I used my vintage feed sack fabrics and Kona snow for the sashing!  I believe this is granny square quilt number three (with more to come)!

Linking up with the fabulous Amanda Jean!

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

ONE NEW THING WEEK 30!

My new thing this week was to try QAYG (Quilt As You Go for my non-quilting readers)! I was a little pressed for time but managed to finish this bib!

 



 

I threw it together pretty quickly without paying much attention to my fabric choices but it turned out quite cute in the end! I enjoyed the QAYG process and want to give this another go when I have more time!

 

In quilting news, here's a little peak of a recent almost finish...

 

 

 I`m so addicted to these granny square blocks! This is my third quilt using them! I think choosing the colour combinations is my favourite part.  Quilting them is a bit of a challenge though because of all those bias edges. For this quilt I dug into my growing collection of 1930s vintage repro fabrics!  This one is a baby quilt but I think I need to make one of these for myself!

 

 

I'M ON A ROLL (MAYBE)!!!

Hurray!  Another finish!  It feels soooo good to finish up some of these older projects.  I had purchased this fabric quite a while ago and made a quilt which sold in my shop!  I put the rest of it away waiting for just the right pattern!  In the end I chose a simple 3-patch (not sure if that's the correct term, but that's what I call it)!

 



 

This is Bella Butterfly by Michael Miller! Isn't it pretty! It's so soft and sweet.  I may list this in my shop or hang onto it for myself the Dunbar Craft Fair next month! Hope to see some of you local Vancouver quilters there! This craft fair has long been considered to be the best one in Vancouver. I've shared a table there with my SIL for quite a few years and it's always a fun day!

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday! 

Have a great weekend!

ONE NEW THING WEEK 29!

I'm back with something new for this week. Now, obviously, I've fallen quite far behind with 52 new things in 2013, but I'm going to see how many more I can do by the end of the year!  This week it's another quilting project!  Stippling on minky!  Here's the result...



 

 

A sweet little wholecloth quilt backed with minky. I've been wanting to try this for ages. My first attempt was a disaster.  I think I must have stretched the minky too much when I was basting the quilt. This time, I carefully taped the minky to the floor being careful not to stretch it.  I was advised to use spray basting as well as pins but discovered that my can of 505 had dried up.  (Jeez that stuff is expensive - the price sticker on the can says $16.95. I had bought it quite a while ago and forgot how pricey it is.) Anyway, I decided to give it a go with just pins! I also used a very thin polyester batting instead of the usual cotton/poly mix that I normally use.  I stuck with my regular Aurifil thread and used an 80/12 Organ needle. (If you haven't tried Organ needles, I highly recommend them, especially for FMQ.) I guess the quilting fairies were with me because I didn't have one problem - no thread breakage and no tucks in the minky at all! I did find the FMQ a little more difficult - it doesn't seem to slide over the machine as easily as cotton and it's a little more bulky to work with but otherwise there were no issues!  I rounded the corners on this quilt and attached the bias binding to the back of the quilt and machine sewed it down from the front side. Definitely not perfect but I like the security of machine sewn binding.  I'll definitely be making more of these little wholecloth quilts backed with minky!

 

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers!

 

TWO FINISHES!

Have you ever started making a quilt completely unsure how it will turn out? Me?  Never!!! (Kidding!) This was the case with this quilt...

 



 

I found myself with one Googlies fat quarter with no idea what to do with it!  I was about to cut it up for bibs, but then had a brainstorm - Road Trip! I managed to find quite a few coordinating prints from my somewhat limited stash and whipped up this quilt in pretty short order! I rarely make multiple quilts from the same pattern, but I'm a huge fan of the Road Trip quilt pattern and have made several (a huge thanks to Allison for such a great pattern and tutorial)! Anyway, this quilt has turned about to be one of my all-time favourites!

 

 I also quickly put this scaled down version together...

 

 

Same pattern but the pieces were cut slightly smaller!  This one finished at about 32 x 26 inches. I know I promised no more tops (see previous post) but old habits die hard don't they!

Linking up with Amanda Jean! Have a great weekend!