East Coast Quilt - WIP

Here is a project I have had hidden in my drawer for sometime. I think it goes back to 2011- 2012.

 

I have quite a few friends from the east coast and they always had these amazing quilts with hand drawn pictures of things that reminded them of home. I have always admired the hard work and thought it took to draw out all the pictures. Being one who likes a challenge I thought I would try my hand at creating one of these East Coast Quilts.

 

Sadly I was not blessed with the ability to draw, the extent of my drawing skills is limited to stick men. I cannot take credit for the designs below. I found east coast inspired pictures online and used them as my template for the blocks. I taped the outline of the pictures to the window and placed my blank block over top. I then traced the picture with a fine pencil and coloured it in as saw fit with crayons.

 

To set the newly coloured block I placed a scarp piece on fabric over top the block and heat set the crayon design with the iron. The excess wax from the crayons transferred to the scarp piece of fabric and I was left with a nicely set picture block.

 

Below are some of the blocks I have done to date. I think they look half decent! When they are all sewn together with a nice tartan fabric in between I think it look great.

 

The quilt will be comprised of (12) 12" x 12" blocks - (3) across (4) down with tartan fabric for the sashing and borders.

 

I have (9) blocks down and only 3 more to go. So close to the finish line ... with that said it may take a couple more years ha-ha.

 

 

Until next time

-The Youngest -

 

Don't forget to leave a comment!

Dog Gone CUTE

I was browsing through some quilt blogs when I came across a Blog Hop by Sew Fresh Quilts. I was instantly enamoured with the Dog Gone Cute quilt. Without a second thought I knew I had to try my hand at this quilt.

Now a blog hop is a big commitment and I did not want to be tied down to any time lines. So instead of signing up for the HOP I purchased the pattern from Sew Fresh and decided to work at my own pace.

I found some fat quarters from an online Canadian fabric store Fridays Off specifically for this quilt. The customer service of Fridays Off was excellent and there are some really great fabric options on there, for a reasonable price.I find it hard to find online fabric shops that will ship to Canada without it costing me an arm and a leg.

Fridays Off offers $5.95 shipping anywhere in canada and orders over $125 ship free !!! That sold me right there. Oh and to top it off when I got my package in the mail there was a darling hard written note. Way to make a customer Happy! Way to go Fridays Off !!! Happy Customer right here ☺

Before I started the Dog Gone Cute quilt I had one more baby quilt I needed to finish as there was a dead line ... the baby was about to arrive! You can see that quilt in the "Winner of a Quilt" blog post which was posted earlier this month.

Check out my fabric choices below - can't wait for it to all come together.

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Like any other sew day I called my Mom up last minute and invited myself over. The deal was that if we are doing a sew day I needed to do her hair first. She got new rollers and wanted to test them out. I begrudgingly agreed ... I say begrudgingly only because if you have tried to put rollers in your hair with those darn pins it is a big pain in the B . U . T . T!

Alright lesson learned my Moms rollers are high tech and WAY better than the older style ones. They heat up fast, easy to put in and make amazing curls.

PS. FAMILY - I would like to add these rollers to my Christmas List ☺☺

With the hair done we now started on cutting all the fabric for the Dog Gone Cute Quilt. We worked out a system where Mom read the instructions and I cut the fabric.

The hardest thing I find when cutting fabric from a pattern is I always end up going back and forth from the pattern to the fabric. The whole "Measure Twice, Cut Once" idea. Well I second guess myself and end up measuring for about 5 minutes per cut. Having a reader and a cutter makes the whole cutting process go by a heck of a lot faster.

In one afternoon we managed to get all the background, ears and nose fabric cut + one patterned fabric for one dog. In the below picture you can see the first dog we selected to do.

We used the highlight as you go method. As we cut we highlight so we do not end up duplicating cuts that have already been made. This seems to work well for me.

In the initial layout of the pup (below) he looks more like a gremlin instead of a Cute Dog ha-ha.

This quilt is a work in progress. I am taking my time, trying to match up those points the best I can. As usual my seam ripper has become one of my best friends. My BF knows I have made a mistake when he hears the machine abruptly stop followed by several grumbling sounds.

Pup One- When I saw the final block I was like a kid hearing an ice cream truck in summer

Pup Two - One of my favorite fabrics from my Fridays Off purchase

Pup Three - This is the BFs colour choice ☺

 Pup Four - For some reason I found this one the trickiest so far (I may have been tired at this point)

This one is so cute I am going to keep it for myself.

Stay tuned for the completed quilt!

If you would like to see other projects from some fellow bloggers check them out HERE .

And don't forget to leave us a comment !!! We love hearing from you ☺



WIP, UFO, ON THE GO, TO DO.... and organizing

The sewing room is a mess, but there is progress! I have a quilt ready on the design wall to have lattice/strips added and then off to Karen for quilting! I have my daughter's projects organized for the retreat! She has some hand-sewing to do for binding (which she claims she hates -- but I'm determined to teach her how to do it!)

I have my next baby project fabrics out and ready to go! All the applique has been cut and ready for placement. I hope to start appliqueing on the machine this week! I have Friday off, so I am hoping to get a big portion of it done this weekend! If all goes good, I hope to have it DONE!

My paperwork is all sorted in the file cabinets below my table.My papers for my taxes are ready to go! The cutting table is now cleared and ready for action!

Mess sometimes is encouragement to create and sort! I know that once everything is all organized, I am ready to sew! Thirst drove me downstairs and I thought I would blog a bit! Chef is prepping dinner and I thought I would show you my creative mess. Trust me, it's worse much of the time! I had to bring down a bag of garbage when I came down!

So much accomplished this weekend around the house! So much organization and a bit of Spring cleaning! It was great to get into the sewing room and do the same -- organize and clean! I think that once this retreat is over, there will be a number of UFO's that will be complete and not cluttering anymore! I also think that I need to put some things up for sale on Kijiji! We have a whole pile of household items headed to Value Village (like the Sally Ann) from our purge yesterday. I think that Chef is getting in the mood to do some major cleaning of his chef supplies, so that will be good. We have so many duplicates of things -- why are we keeping it?

Always organizing! I love it! I keep wanting things to be easier to find and pared down for just the right amount. I have the grandson to think of as well for projects and hobby/craft supplies. I found some of my paints have dried out never to be resurrected -- so those were tossed out! I also went through my UFO's, so I know a couple of them are quick to complete, so they got packed for the retreat!

I look around and see all the little "chatchkey's" I call them. Stuff that really doesn't pull at my heart, but is cluttering. Don't get me wrong -- there are lots of things that I love and wouldn't want to part with, but do we need it all? We've had a few things replaced that were plain old worn out! We've added by putting up shelves and reducing the clutter on counters etc. I still feel my sewing room could be more organized, but then again, the room is multi-purposed with the office basically in the closet and under my cutting table. I've thought of reorganizing the furniture -- but this works with the amount of space I have in there! I think I just have too many projects that need to be done to free up some more room!

We still have a kid at home -- so the spare room is no longer a spare room! I would love a room to put all those quilts in and decorate. Thus some of that spills into my sewing room! Working full time also cuts into all that creative time, but for now, I love my job and will just keep adding to my "quiet/me" time when I can!

Life is good!

WIP - Work in progress by the Young 'un! & straight pins!

Yesterday, was extremely cold! I should have stayed indoors, but the youngest needed my help with choosing fabrics for her upcoming project. She came to pick me up in her fancy SUV with the heated seats. How could I refuse? Besides, I really, really needed some straight pins!

Of we went to the local quilt shop. Just to give you an idea -- she was looking for 21 different fabrics. Although the piecing was smaller and yardage wouldn't be huge -- by paying $16.99 Can. per meter (3" larger than a yard), it still would be costly.

She did a great job (with little help from me) picking her fabrics! She went up to the studio and went to work cutting her fabrics with the Accuquilt, while I headed to the kitchen to prep dinner!

Fabrics were all cut and she was ready to sew! A few of the pieces she had to "un-sew" (in a huff no less -- you can relate!), and sew back together with perfect 1/4" seams! Take a look at a sneak peak at her first block:

Look at those perfect seams! The girl does me proud! Yeah! Another quilter in the family! She will be working on this project when we head out to our retreat. Somehow, I have a feeling she will be whipping up those blocks in no time! I'd better get some more projects ready to go in case she finishes this!

She is the girl that starts a project and doesn't stop until it is done! As for me, I get bored and have so many projects on the go that I have way too many UFO's hiding waiting for my attention!

As for the pins...

I came home with two packages. The first on the left are red/yellow head silk pins made by Clover. They come in a box containing 100, what looks to be 1 1/4" long, 0.5 mm diameter pins. The pins have glass heads so they will not melt with the heat of the iron. I have had these pins before and just love them! The only issue is, like socks in the wash -- they tend to disappear or get bent. The box of 100 was $6.99 Canadian funds.

Now one wouldn't think that few pins would get bent, but for me:

•  I run over the pins *ahem* accidentally
•  I tend to use pins for other things like tacking up fabric on the wall for me to stare at, or photo's without damaging the walls.
•  I get frustrated with some pins because they "catch" in the fabric, or I struggle to get them to hold intricate pieces.

The package to the right came in a really nice blue tin a bit smaller than a hockey puck. I couldn't figure out the tin for a minute, but discovered if you push down the middle, the top pops off. putting the top back on and pushing on the middle again, snaps the lid back on. Great for travel -- i.e. upcoming retreat! 

These pins are 1 1/4" super fine pins. The package contains 500 pins, made in Switzerland out of nickel-plated hardened steel with super sharp points. The only draw back is the heads are small -- so you I will really need to pay attention while sewing! Cost for these pins were $15.99 Canadian funds.

I have had quilting pins -- those long one's with the yellow heads. I found that they were quite thick and the heads tended to pop off under pressure. Not my favorite.

I also have applique pins that are very short, allowing you to work around with your hand stitching without stabbing yourself and bleeding to death! All very tragic I assure you!

Check around and try out the one's that work for you. Know your prices so you can grab the deals when those sales come on!

Now, on to a little sneak peak of what I have been working on. This particular project should be done in the next couple of weeks after work and between another baby quilt. I hope to have it backed with a nice purple Minky or Cuddlesoft!

I have been talking myself into blogging more. If I don't have anything to show, it would be horribly embarrassing -- so I am hopeful this is the kick in the butt that I need!

What great things are you working on?