Mystery Quilt - Sneak Peek

This weekend coming up a few of us ladies are participating in a sew day where we will be putting together a Mystery Quilt.

Two of the ladies participating are new to quilting and joined us for our Irish Chain Class a few months back. One is my Moms good friend C and the other is my best Friend B. 

Check us out below after a long day of cutting fabric for the Mystery Quilt 

What is a Mystery Quilt you ask, well its actually a great idea. You simply create a series of quilt blocks without knowing what the final pattern will be. The fantastic ladies running the Mystery Quilt day lead you though the instructions and techniques needed to make the Mystery Quilt. They are also an excellent resource and help when it comes to making your fabric selections.

Trust me its harder than you would think to pick fabrics when you don't know what the final quilt will look like, especially for a "Type A" person like myself.  All in all I am so happy with my final fabric selections. (Thanks Michelle for all the help!)

MYSTERY QUILT - FABRIC SELECTIONS

Quilt #1  [The Youngest] 

 Quilt #2 [B's Selection] 

Quilt #3  [C's Selection] 

Quilt #4  [Quilting Momma] 

"Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise."

Julia Cameron

Until Next Time

- The Youngest -

Snowflake Applique

I must have a short attention span because I have to constantly switch up my projects and take on more and more and more.

My WIPs (work in progress) are getting a bit out of hand. Does anyone else have this problem? This was my latest WIP however I have motored along and got this one completed.

I love looking at Pinterest and getting new ideas and I came along a picture of a very simple snowflake design. These days I am determined to only use my stash! So I dug through my messy fabric stash drawer seeing if I had any fabric that would work for the "Snowflake".

Fast forward through all the digging and it turns out I was in luck. I had all the right fabric colours, turns out most of the fabric I picked was from Fridays Off. Now all I needed was some guidance from my all knowing "Mom". I have never attempted applique before and you know "Mom knows best".

I was drawn to this pattern for its simple yet impactful design.

Plus I have been wanting to use my new orange peel template.  

  

After a long sew day at Moms 

(me sewing & mom teaching - she is still recovering from her 2nd hand surgery)

I had the top completed in no time. I have no idea why I never attempted applique before.

My amazing Husband was gracious enough to hold up the quilt top for me =D

Next was the basting. My mom read about a new technique called board basting and she thought I would be the perfect student to test it out.

It worked perfect and I easily basted the entire quilt MYSELF - yay! Usually it helps with a second set of hands for basting but seeing that my Mom is out of commission I was out of luck.

I was flying solo, and it worked out fine.

 Usually I have my quilts professionally machine quilted but it was decided that I should do this one from start to finish. I am a BIG NEWBIE when it comes to machine quilting and was laughing uncontrollably and at the same time thinking "What have I done" HAHA 

HOWEVER in the end I think the quilting actually looks really great.

Why oh Why must I second guess myself.

This quilts new home will be for an adorable baby boy who was born in January. A blue snowflake quilt for a beautiful winter baby.

Until next time

- The Youngest-

Sew Day's - Retreat Carry-All

I'm new to all this packing for sewing days and retreats. I always seem to forget something and I also want to do it a bit in "style" instead of cardboard boxes and my grocery bags to carry it all. The dollar value to all those "totes" that you can get is a little crazy to me - so I do with what I have and make it work for me.

Canadian Tire (or any other tool-type store) carries tool totes. The beauty of these things is they are CHEAP. OK, they are around $35-$40, but way better than $200 plus!  BUT...it's ugly! At least it was ugly until I got my hands on it!

Of course Tigger had to "pose" as well. I am sure he would like to take credit for some of my creativity! (Did I mention that the last FART...fabric acquisition trip.. we left him at home and he decided to cover my sewing space in thread??) I found a spool of thread wound around every object in my space. I can swear he was grinning as I was collecting it all!

Back to the carry-all..... When I came up with this idea, I wanted it "now" and of course I couldn't order some of those great decals on-line -- but I did find some great decals (for $4 I might add) that was a great addition to the u-g-l-y box! I love it! Check out all the storage in this baby!

The bungie cords will be used to attach my cutting board and rulers to the tote.

This top box includes two smaller flip top lids, a yellow removeable lid and the box on the top removes from the larger bottom box that has wheels.

a place for everything!

While I'm at it, what do you pack for retreat? I'd love to see your list! I'm working on a master list that I will share here once it's done! 

Happy packing! Retreat/Sew days here I come!

Margo