Updates, Swaps and a finish!!

Pin It Now! Well hello!
Welcome to the land of snow!! Yes I said it again, the dreaded "S" word. Well it has been snowing here in Calgary off and on since last Tuesday and so far it is here to stay. I have been doing some hand sewing and cutting in between work since I last posted as my lovely machine has been in the shop for a tune up. It has desperately needed one since I do so much sewing on in and as I need to get 3 big quilts finished and bound before Christmas!

We are also moving in the middle of november to a cute little town house we are renting from a co-worker. My husband and I are so excited as there is a cute fireplace in the living room and tons of natural light where all my sewing stuff is going. It is going to be a very, very busy month!

I also just signed up for two swaps -the Modern Christmas Table Runner Swap and the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap! Talk about ambitious!!! The sign-ups are closed for the table runner swap but there is still another day or so to get in on the scrappy mug rug- go here http://www.flickr.com/groups/1533394@N22/ and sign up!

I already have my design for the table runner sketched out although I won't show it quite yet. I need to get the fabrics first. But I am super excited for it and can't wait to show you.

If my partner comes by to snoop around, here is how I did my tree a couple years ago and I want to do it similar to this again this year if I can.

Here is my inspiration picture from flickr just for fun. Don't you love the bright colours?


1. reindeer mug rug, 2. merry christmas table topper, 3. Candy Cane Binding, 4. Snowman Runner, 5. Christmas Cathedral Windows, 6. 2011-11-13 Countdown To Christmas table runner top quilting and embroidery details, 7. Holiday Mug Rug, 8. Mug rug #1, 9. Mug Rug for Grant and Kelly, 10. Christmas Mug Rugs, 11. Snack Time!, 12. Merry Christmas Mug Rug, 13. Untitled, 14. savvy_4, 15. xmas runner final, 16. Christmas Mug Rugs, 17. christmas ornaments, 18. christmas ornaments, 19. table-runner received from Fiona!, 20. Tablerunner in all its glory!, 21. Modern Table Runner Swap Received, 22. MCTR swap, 23. Modern Christmas tablerunner at home, 24. Modern Christmas Table Runner - received from Vicky, 25. Winterkist Created with fd's Flickr Toys


Rubies, Diamonds and Garnets Too!
Well, I have officially completed my top for rubies, diamonds!! I am just waiting for my machine to come back from the shop so I can get started on quilting it. I am so excited and happy with this quilt. I plan on splitting the batting in order to be able to quilt this on my machine at home. So that will be interesting! Sorry for the crummy pictures but it has been very dreary here and I have bad lighting in our apartment!

Cathedral Windows Quilt Along
I am behind by two blocks at the moment since my machine is in the shop. But I have until the 15th of November to make sure all the blocks are complete and together. Again I have been making mine ~9 1/2" instead of the 12 1/2" they started out as.

I love the little mushroom print!

Is this not fun!?

 Now the block above is definitely my favourite!!! It is so much fun, easy to do and just stunning. I have plans for this type of block so stay tuned and you shall see what I have in mind!

I {heart} Snow!

I believe I had shown some of this ages ago. Well, it is now complete, quilted and bound. As much as I want to keep this one for myself, and had originally planned on doing so, I know my mother-in-law will love it just as much as me because she adores snowmen. This is a wonderfully soft flannel by Shelly Comiskey called I Love Snow.  I followed the pattern they designed for the fabric as I loved it so much and for once I did not change anything and let the fabrics speak for themselves. 

 Vintage Plates
My LQS does what is called a Freebie 15 each year. The basis is that you get a free block "kit" each month if you bring in the previous block completed on the 15th of each month. There is also "companion" blocks you can purchase for 10$ each month as well. Doing both gives you a large bed quilt. We don't know what the finished quilt will look like so it is a mystery! This year just started in October and I have the first blocks completed. The pattern has been names vintage dishes and apparently will all be done in sherbert colours. I think it is going to make a wonderful spring/summer quilt.

Freebie #1

Companions #1

I thought this was hilarious and couldn't help but share it!

Happy Stitching!

Kallie

Just Take a Deep Breath and...

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Jump right in! That is exactly what I needed to do to start free motion quilting on my machine. I have been watching tons of Craftsy classes and finally felt a little prepared to start doing this on my home machine. Now  I have used a long arm machine before and love it!! Eventually I will purchase one once we have a home of our own and the space to do so. (read: not in the near future!) So I needed to learn to do it myself at home on my lovely Janome- Winter.

I spray basted, for the first time, and I think I love it. It was a little hard to do on my little balcony outside but it worked and so far no tucks or pinches of fabric that I have found! Hurray! I guess I should tell you what quilt I am quilting! Haha! It is called Baby Love and its a pattern from my local quilt shop that was in a kit. It will be for my wee niece for her first Christmas as she seems to have fallen in love with the one I did for her brother and won't go to sleep without it (and she is only almost 6 months old! )

There is always a cat to be helping out! 

You can see the pattern I traced out

I am not done the quilting yet I have completed 10 out of 20 blocks to quilt plus the small details to do but it is a start!!

And here it is quilted. The lines are not the straightest of the best but its a start!

I am debating about doing the same quilting in the blocks between but I am not sure if it will be too dense for a baby quilt. 

Rubies, Diamonds and Garnets Too
Progress is happening on Rubies, Diamonds! I have added the borders to the quilt and plan on putting hexie flowers on 5 of the 9 blank squares.  (The ones on there now are not sewn on yet)

Please ignore the mess. I was shoving things out of the way to try and take pictures and its a very small apartment!

Dresdens are going in the other 4 blank spots! They were so fun and quick to make, I could not believe it! I definitely need to make a dresden plate quilt now!!

Aurifil BOM

Have you ever been at the point where you put off doing something for a super long time because it seems like it will take a long time? But when you actually do just sit down and make yourself do it, the projects goes by super quick and you enjoy every minute? Well that was me with the july-september Aurifil BOM stitcheries. I just could not get into it and had to make myself just do it. I am super happy I did because I now love them and its one  three more things off my to do list!

July

August- Still need to add some words

September

And now it is bedtime according to my little kitty! So happy stitching everyone!!

Kallie

Rubies, Diamonds and Garnets Progress!

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Rubies, Diamonds and Garnets!

Now I realize I just posted yesterday and all there was was 15 blocks. Well I have been super productive last night and today and just had to show you the progress! 

Sorry for the awful colouring. Took this picture last night. This is all just laid out, and of course my cat Nox had to jump in the picture to say hello to you all!!

Ahhh much better colouring!! I have the diagonal rows sewn but not sewn to each other if that makes sense! 

Now I do plan on doing something in those lovely little blank squares. I am debating between redwork embroidery, hexagon flowers or a mixture of both! Once I get these all together I will trial a couple ideas. I am falling more and more in love with this quilt. It is going to be hard to give it up in December to my parents!!

Jam, jam, and oh look! More Jam!!

So yesterday after a lovely homemade stew and fresh bread for dinner my brother and I had an amazing dessert using some of the jams I have been making this month.

We took these two lovelies:

Don't they look so pretty!!

And we added in some chocolate ice cream for this!

Now let me tell you, this was heaven in a bowl. Such a summery treat that mixed tart and sweet magnificently!

 I plan on posting the recipes I have been using sometime next week. I usually half the recipe so that I am doing small batches at a time. I generally get 3-4 half-pint jars.

Below is the jam I was making this afternoon. It's a peach strawberry concoction. I am excited to taste it tomorrow after it has fully set. Although I might cut the peaches smaller next time! Oh well, live and learn right!!

I hope you all are having a wonderful day and getting some stitching done!!

Kallie

Rubies, Diamonds and Garnets Too

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So I was going through my previous posts and realized that while I have talked about Rubies, Diamonds and Garnets I don't think I have actually really posted any pictures! How terrible!!! I have drastically changed how I am going to put this quilt together because while I love the original layout there is no way I will be able to make all the 1" half square triangles needed (approximately 1600+ of them) and get it in to be quilted in time for the beginning of December. So change of plans and re-draft the quilt layout and away we go! Now I should be done by the end of the month! That will leave the quilter about 2 months to get it done (just in case she is super busy!) and time for me to bind and wash it :) 

Here are all the blocks I have done. Just one more to go! These are 12 1/2" unfinished

These are the fabrics I am using for the sashing, corner stones and borders. Not much of a shot but I promise you will see them better soon!

As for the rest of today I will hopefully get the sashing finished for Rubies, Diamonds and Garnets and I really want to get another batch of Jam made! I have been really loving the process of making jam. It is so fun and rewarding, I will never be buying jam again, especially since it is so easy to make yourself. I am likely going to make 2-3 more batches before I am done for a little while. While it is a fair amount of jam we have been enjoying putting it on toast and ice cream and I will be putting some aside for Christmas gifts to friends and family! Up next will be strawberry orange, strawberry lemon and possibly an orange grapefruit concoction but we will see!

Happy Stitching!!
Kallie

What a week!

Pin It Now! My goodness! Where in the world did this week go!

My apologies for a week going by without a post! Work has definitely kept me very busy this week with no time to post. I really dislike my day shifts as I feel exhausted afterwards and don't get much done when I get home. And this week I worked mostly day shifts. So not much was accomplished.

However you are here for quilty goodness and not to listen to my complaining :)

Comments:
I am trying to get a reply back button to be able to reply back to all the lovely comments you have been leaving me. For some I have tried to just leave a comment myself but I think that may get confusing and it is hard to remember to go back to a post you commented on for a reply. I am going to try to start replying by email to those who leave comments until Blogger lets me reply to those comments directly. Is everyone ok with that? Please let me know what you prefer as I do not want to be "spamming" your inbox if you don't want a reply that way!!

Red & White
My LQS did a quilt kit way back in 2006 and at the store I saw it completed and fell in love. It was called Rubies, diamonds and garnets too. Don't try looking for it online as you will not find it. It was done through just this quilt store. But I will post pictures as I work on it. I had been looking for a Red and White quilt pattern for my Mom & Dad for christmas and this fits the bill perfectly. Lucky for me they still have some kits available and  I can buy the blocks as I need them. SO just another project to add to my list.


Hexagon Needle Book:
I also make some cute hexagon needle books which will be another post likely tomorrow as it is long and a semi tutorial! Here is a sneak peak though!!

Aurifil BOM:
Now I am sure most of you know that Aurifil is doing a stitchery BOM. 12 different designers are creating cute little patterns for us to turn into blocks. Here is January's Block download- It is about halfway down the page.
http://auribuzz.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/january-aurifil-designer-of-the-month-roseann-kermes/

Here is my block:
Not the greatest picture, I know but best I could get in the lighting.

Now I don't really have access to Aurifil thread as I have not been able to find anyone local who carries a good range. So I used good old DMC floss in colours I liked. I also changed the pattern a wee bit so I liked it more.

February's block is adorable and I can't wait till I have some time to stitch it. The link is below and again the pattern is about halfway down the page.


http://auribuzz.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/february-aurifil-designer-of-the-month-sherri-falls/


Dear Jane:
Not much done on the Dear Jane front but I completed block B3 and I think it is my favorite so far! Don't you just love the little arrows!! Perfect for Valentines Day.

And here is the block I am currently working on B12,  using a mix of reverse and regular applique:

Omigosh:

Still plugging away at Omigosh. I almost have all my 4 patches together. I have a huge pile to cut apart (I am chain piecing) and iron. My current chain is as long as my apartment is wide!! And I still have half a baggie to piece!

Current pile to be cut apart and ironed

Pile of ironed 4 patches

Each teeny tiny 4 patch is 1 1/2" unfinished! 

I also managed to get all my 2 3/8" squares (white and print) cut in half and matched print with white. They are next to be chain pieced together for my Shoo-Fly blocks.

I am hoping to get the Shoo-Fly Blocks completed by end of February but it is looking more like mid-March! Eek!! Hopefully I will be able to find lots of time in the next two weeks to get my butt in gear!

Well I am off to make a tea and get some crochet done. Yes I crochet as well! I have some ladies in the NICU who order hats from me ad I have sadly been neglecting working on them. So I am hoping to get at least 2 finished today! Wish me luck and hopefully I can post their pictures tomorrow!!

And I shall leave you with a pic of my tea making set up just for fun!!