ANOTHER NEW QUILT!

This is my new quilt, finished yesterday while feeling a bit under the weather! I don't know what happens to me, sometimes I just can't get going for the day. Yesterday was one of those days, so I did the hand finishing on this quilt.





I think it's supposed to be prairie queen? But I didn't put strips in and just combined the white blocks together and it looks good. Not my usual kind of quilt though.





I like using different patterns than this. But since doing the Pat Sloan orange quilt along, I decided to try a few different patterns.





I used only fabrics that I had left over from other projects and managed to make about 65" X 70" which is large for me to make. But I tell you the Janome 6600 that I use has lots of room to make this size and larger! I used a Jeans needle and the batting is bamboo which is a great product to work with. It's softer than the warm and white that I usually use.

I did the back in the same print as in one of the
blocks on the front.

I am also a fan of spraying because I tell you it takes about half the time to put the quilt together.

I am fortunate that I have a large work table to work on and maybe that makes it easier to manoeuver the fabrics. But it takes me about 20 minutes from start to finish, give or take a few minutes.

AND, while I was quilting Jerry is working on an old sideboard that we have had for a few years and want to take it to the cottage this summer. It will sit in the sunroom below the kitchen window. Right now all we have there is small table that we dump everything on. When we have the kids come with all their stuff, we hope that there will be less dumping at the door of the sun room. We'll see. I will post next on the sideboard. It is an antique with the back of it having a 14" pine board. You sure don't see that any more.

I am also quilting the old quilt. I used a block that I had to test how it would look stippled. It's the only way to go with it because I can go over the seams of the blocks and still have it looking good. I will post it when it's done. It's going to look good. Trust me!

THE OLD QUILT REPAIRED

When I got this old quilt, the sentimental value of it was what was important. I just didn't know how I would repair the blocks so that they would hold together.


So after all the comments and getting advice from Helen, a hand quilter also, I took the blocks apart and salvaged 14 original blocks. The ones that I just couldn't save, I discarded and then I took all the strips off the remaining blocks.





That took a few days and you can imagine what an expert "picker" I am now. I looked these 14 blocks over and realized that the measurements along with the age of the blocks, I may have also taken a bit off the sizing of the original blocks.



The first photo is the block as it was in its original

state. The second photo is after a lightly starched
and fused block. It was amazing what happened
when I fused the block. Not only did it stabilize
the block, but the colours came to life!

I don't know whether it shows in the photo or not, but really it looked like night and day.

I found an odd coloured check fabric that I used for the strips of the now fused blocks, I just didn't find a pale yellow that looked good with the quilt
as it is now.





The fusible web I used is called Stacy and it worked
so well and it was also very very light. I actually was
able to add little strips as needed because of the
sizing issues I had with some of the squares.




I have also decided to stipple it, but with larger
strokes than I usually do in order to not take away from the quilt pattern.

I am going to use the check as the back of the quilt and probably will keep it really simple by using that as the binding also.


I don't think I would ever do another "restoration"
as I'm not into that, but my grandmother made
this, and she gave it to my uncle Jerome and
his wife Linda as a wedding gift. It was made and given with love over 40 years ago and it has been used and loved all these years. So when I give it back to them, I hope that they have it for a good while.

I think that the instructions for washing will be
to dryclean or hand wash at best. I do have a front loading washer and it has a gentle cycle, so that will be ok I think.

The final photo is of the top pressed and ready
for the next step.

I am using bamboo batting, as it's my new favorite even though I do like warm and white
also. But the bamboo has a bit more flexiblility. The next job will be to quilt it and I do have the extra square to work with and see what works best.

I NEED ONE OF THESE T.SHIRTS!

These illustrations were done by Gary Glassbergen which goes to show that some men really really do "get" women! I loved these and do have a few more sent to me this morning by my friend who is in Florida. Dawn has been in Florida for about 2 months now, escaping the frigid north .

It's funny but in the world of blogging and emails these take on a life of their own. I received an email this morning also about a woman running for ovarian cancer. Basically it's an awareness email and being forwarded around the world. So I did send it on to a few others in my life.

I don't get too many what we would call "junkers" that I delete because most of the people who do send them to me know that I really love play on word jokes the best, and not too long of stories as I do have a short attention span.

I've spent the last half hour with new "friends" in the blogging world. Just popped over to visit a few and see what they're doing, how they are feeling etc. Kept a few in my favorites to see if I post them on the side bar to visit more often.

I did go visit Mary Quilts. She just got back from visiting her mom and since she does Heartstrings projects, she found a box of tops that are fabulous in the least in her mail box yesterday! People are so generous to be so involved in charities.

The weather being a mild gray day here in Whitby is going to be a sewing day for me and maybe lunch with my sweetie. We have been watching what we eat lately and he now knows that "what's that green stuff?" is good for him and eating more of it! So we are going to eat out!

Have a good weekend folks.

For me I shall be thinking of my Uncle Rolland's family in Montreal who are celebrating his life of 87 years. He passed away this week! A life well lived.

LEARNING A LESSON

When I first started quilting and I say that loosely, I didn't have a clue what I was doing except trying to sew 1/4" seams, and keep the blocks "fairly" straight. I also never did a sample block until, of course being me, I had cut out a thousand or so little squares. Keep in mind that I had a rotary cutter, and a small cutting mat about 12 X 14, and a small 12" ruler. So you know how long it took me to cut my first quilt.

I still have some of the orange and white squares from that original quilts and some of the squares in various orange shades from the second and some reds and so on.

So, today, I decided to copy the old quilt design and make it up. I decided on the colours of the small squares, the side squares and then did two for my sweetie to see which he liked the best as he has a good colour sense.

He picked the blue because of the blue in the side squares. He thought that even though the colours in the dots were right, the total effect just didn't work and when I produced the blue, he really like it.

Of course I didn't tell him that I had already cut out all the 4 1/2" centre squares of dots, but no matter they will find a home.

I also have been calling the strips between the rows of squares "sashing" and in fact they are called strips. Thanks to all my friends for not telling me the proper term. Since this is a day of learning, I found it out by reading a book on quilting this morning with coffee. I think this pattern is called prairie queen as best I can tell. An old pattern too and one that of course my grandmother would have made.

I did talk to an aunt yesterday who has had a quilt repaired that my grandmother made in indeed she sometimes made the stitches almost between 1/4 and 1/8 inches in her sewing and therefore you know it's pretty hard to do the repairs on 1/8" squares.

We are having above freezing temperatures today for I think the first time since December. There were many people out this morning walking in the sunshine feeling the warmth.

Quote of the day..."I never hated a man enough to give him back his diamonds!" Zaza Gabor.

Me neither I think!

THIS IS A CROC!

Did I ever tell you of my love affair with Crocs? Well I have about 6 pairs of them because they are so comfortable and easy to wash and cheap to buy for summer accessories.

The orange pair is probably the most comfortable of the sandals. the strap is wide and sturdy. I wear them the most in the summer.

I am ordering the green pair from my friend in Florida as we can't get them here in Canada. Not the Patra style anyway.

The other sandal I like is the Cleo, it's almost the same as the other but in softer material. It is also really comfortable.

Of course I have a few of the regular crocs and even a couple of the fur lined ones too. I just throw them in the wash and they come out looking good as new.

I am thinking spring and summer here so it's time to look at what I need to get ready for the "season".

I also shopped a couple of years ago at Jams World and got a couple of dresses direct from Hawaii and even a few shirts for my sweetie. His shirts are REALLY loud! He is always complimented on my good taste to put him in pineapple and birds of paradise shirts! They are expensive, but last forever.

My son and granddaughter popped in yesterday on what was to be a visit to my mother in the nursing home, see the rest of the family and drive about 120 miles home. Well plans changed and they are sleeping still. We told tall tales till past midnight and I finally just collapsed into bed as I am not a night owl.

I am awake and feel awful from lack of sleep but I couldn't go back to bed so I am finishing this, making coffee and picking at the old squares. It's a pyjamas day for me.

ANOTHER WHITE QUILT.

I had done a similar quilt a couple of weeks ago. This is what is left of all those squares I cut that when they were put together.....well, a dog wouldn't have had it for breakfast!

So, I added white to it all and look what happens, it's a beauty. The others had blues that popped it and this time, I wanted to use pink to do justice to the work.

.

I have believe it or not some little squares left over of the cutting that I did when cutting. My math is so awful, that I swear, I don't know how I ever passed out of public school all those years ago! Or maybe it's age and it's gone and long forgotten what I learned.

I like the size of about 45 X 50, just a lovely lap quilt. You know what the sweetie said right? "Oh it's a keeper, we

could hang it on the wall at the cottage!" Just so you know the only wall that we could possibly hang a blanket on a wall is one living room wall, all the rest of the walls are either windows or the room is too small for putting up a quilt!

I've pretty well decided to try a couple of the suggestions regarding the fixing of the old quilt. I will try to see if I can possibly do some hand quilting, and I use that term loosely. I have never done it before, so it could be a challenge. I also have a stitch on my machine that kind of looks like the hand sewed look, so I may experiment. I am still picking it apart and it's going to take time.

My new Janome 6600 is very sick with a terrible fever. It just quit yesterday with lots of directions as to what to do, but no avail. We are going to the hospital tomorrow as they are closed on Mondays. We didn't know that and my sweetie drove over there this morning while I was with Courtney, the granddaughter in training, to have a bone scan of sorts, which showed that she has a small stress fracture. She is off to Florida training camp for 5 weeks and cannot run, so the trainers will have her do different cardio stuff I suppose.

OMG, it was 5 above zero F. this morning! The wind chill put it into double digit minus's.! What is going on here? I want spring and want this winter gone for the next 8 months, am I asking too much? All over North America we are in this chill.

Quote of the day..."Sometimes when I look at my children, I say to myself, 'I should have remained a virgin'." Lillian Carter, mother of Jimmy Carter, (I think she was speaking of the other brother though)

REPAIRING THE OLD QUILT..

This is the old quilt that I have started to fix not restore as the sashing is just too thin to keep or repair.
I have taken most of the blocks that could be saved apart and kept the others for piecing if need be of the kept blocks.

Here is my delemna, because these squares are 40 yrs old and much used and loved, I wonder if I fused them onto a muslin fabric if that would strenghten the block? You think it would?

The pattern is quite simple, and I am able to piece those squares that have possibilities. I think I will end up with 12-16 squares. One of them I would like to put in a frame for my aunt and uncle to keep. I saw that somewhere while searching for a remedy to the quilt.

The batting was virtually gone from the inside, it was all in strips and I will put new batting, new sashings, and match the back to the sashings. The colour now is pale yellow which
I suspect was a muslin fabric due to the look of it. It certainly
must have been a bit brighter in its day, but I can't find a yellow
to even come close, and creamy white is not an option either.
So I have a small green and cream checked fabric which I think
will just do the quilt and look really good.

I had this batting and backing all over the family room this
morning and my sweetie just got the vacuum out! He admired
my patience, considering that my grandmother who did this
quilt used "scant" 1/4" and I mean "scant". I hope I can do
the blocks justice after I remove all the sashings and repair
the blocks.

So, what do you think, fuse the blocks? Can I then quilt
the block by machine? Should I stipple the quilt to strengthen
the fabric? Would stippling do that anyway?

I did take a square to a couple of shops to get an
idea of colour and the green that I chose really looks good with the blocks even though you see so much red with light blue, but each block has a soft green in it. It doesn't show so much in photos here, but it is there.

NOW THIS IS A CHALLENGE!

See that carpet of flowers? Well it's an annual exhibition in Brussels. These photos are from last year!. Isn't that amazing? This all started in 1971 apparently to promote the beauty of begonias and all the colours of this plant.

Each year this carpet is produced using flowers, mulch and a few other materials to create this effect.

I bet they could do a dear jane quilt with the flowers too!

I have seen in magazines, paintings on outhouses, barns, sidings showing quilt blocks and a flower one would be a challenge. Enjoy the photos which I received by email.


You can see from the second photo how they
arrange the flowers and start the process.
Ok, it is a lot of bending over and I could not possible try this, but you get the idea.




The third photo is of the ground level display of all the flowers in this square.




My daughter Kelly who loves, and I mean loves
to garden is speechless now looking at this magnificent carpet of flowers! Try that Kel!

The cold has returned to Southern Ontario with a vengeance and so I am going to try to quilt another top that has been awaiting my pleasures.

I know that the cold isn't going to last for long, and just the little enticement of spring has brought the deer to my neighbours back fence. She saw five of them yesterday, just walking along the fence nibbling at the vines which had some leaves and berries left over that the birds had not eaten. She didn't take a photo as she thought that they would see her and run! They did that when the dog moved a bit and they were gone! I know that some of you see them all the time in your areas, but we live in a subdivision! The greenbelt that surrounds some of this area isn't that isolated so it was with joy that Mary saw the deer!

THE ORANGE QUILT A THON, PAT SLOAN, FINISHED.

Well here is the Pat Sloan, quilt finished.

I really love this. I finished it with the orange that was left over. I used all pieces of fabric that I had and did the back in the large floral print that is on the front. My sweetie just loves it and says not to give this one away too.




I really enjoyed making this and learned a lot about pattern fitting techniques. I think I 'll try another just to get it down right.



I wonder how many of the bloggers actually visit all the people that are listed on the sidebars. I see some have around 30 "favorites" on their lists. I find it hard to visit the ones I have on mine and feel that they are there because the ones in my sidebar are visited regularly and I do take the time to visit them because I like the blogs.



I have visited others and note them to see if they are worth adding to the sidebar or just to periodically see what's doing. Just a thought. I feel that the sites that I drop in and visit are usually worth a note and that does take time.



I always love to read even a single line that has been noted and think that it's so nice to read that someone has taken the time to make comment on my blog. I remember the first comment I received. I mean the first comment from someone other than my daughter Kelly who would comment as annonymous because she didn't know how to do the leave comment thing. The first blogger was names Suze. She didn't come back though. I don't know what happened to her, but there are those of you who have stayed with me and comment all the time. If I name you and then leave someone out, I would hurt feelings. So for those of you who visit often, give me advice and drop in frequently, you have no idea how pleased it makes me.

Oh boy, I was getting syrupy there. It must be the coming warm weather around the corner. Our snow is melting in the back yard and OMG, the dogs have lived there for a couple of months and I must clean it up tomorrow before the next snow fall. It's a mine field out there!

I hope you like the quilt.

AND THE COLOUR IS !!!!

Well as you can see I ended up chosing the green. It was a hard decision because I also liked the white and the little flower print. But the orange in the print was "off" and the white was good, but the green really goes with the back which is the large flower print.

I did make the strips only 3" so they ended up 2 1/2" and it looks really good. I want to thank those that commented on downsizing my strips.

I have it stippled almost finished but can't quite decide on the binding. I think I will use the centre orange. I have enough of it left to do it.

This has been fun to do and I think I will now be able to do a disappearing patch as this is how they are done, right? Cut the centres and turn them around. I am gaining confidence.

I wanted to post this as I have been anxious to post the quilt. My sweetie also liked the green as did Kelly and they both have good colour sense.

We are awaiting daylight savings which comes into effect on March the 8th I think. I would be happy to not have the changes and it seems we are moving to that as this is earliest of the time changes that I can remember. Wasn't it supposed to help the farmers? Do you really think the cows are able to tell time? Do the sheep? Since the days are getting longer I feel spring is not to far away for those of us who have lived through this awful winter weather.

By the way, I loved the Academy Awards. I had no idea that Hugh Jackman could sing and dance. I loved his stuff and he looked so relaxed, as did Will Smith. Will could do the show too I think. I loved all the gowns and especially Penelope Cruz's gown. It was a vintage gown from a collection that she had seen 8 yrs ago and loved it. But I tell you some of those women need to eat! Did you see the bones sticking out of Angela Jolie? Gee, she looks like she has anorexia, I swear. I loved Mylee Cyrus's dress too, she looked like a princess. The Slum Dog entourage were very classy and they deserved their award! Sean Penn....so nice to see him smile! And I do love Kate Winslett. At least she has some meat on her bones!

Isn't it fun to diss those "stars"?

WHAT COLOUR WILL JUST POP THESE SQUARES?

Ok, I can't decide which colour to do the strips between these orange squares. I have looked at all the possiblities and it's hard to decide.

So the examples below are what I have come up with. I did think of yellow too, but just didn't do that one because it's a bit overwhelming.

I like the green best I think as it really pops the squares and there's a bit of green in the patterns.

I also liked that bias fabric, but then I'd have to square up the diagonals and I just know I couldn't do that. It's too hard for me to do.

I think the orange is just too much. And the white is the same, just a lot of white.

I'd like to do the sashings vertical and horizontal, keeping them the same.

I'm leaving it and will decide tomorrow I think.

This has been very fun to do and very quick I must say. I may try this with other colour combinations just for the fun of it.

I also think that 4" sashings and the binding being orange with the back being one of the sasing colours just might do it. I also thought to use the pattern of white print that is on the square too for the back.

A dilemna in the making here.

KNOCK......KNOCK

who's there? ORANGE>...ORANGE WHO?

Orange you glad we are doing squares like this?

Ok, it's lame but this is my square almost complete for the quilt a long on Pat Sloan's blog.

I have yet to pick the colour for the outer corners as I am in a dilemna wondering if I should add more of the orange that is in the centre.

I might. I like the idea of white sashings to really pop this quilt which will be about 50 X 50 a bit bigger than I originally thought. But I have quilte a bit of this fabric. It's supposed to be a triangle on the outer corners so I must decide soon. I also thought of yellow, but that would be adding another colour. I think the orange will be the one I choose.

The weekend is almost here and I am not doing too much on the weekend, so I might do some more of this just for the fun of it. Since the weather is so cold, I might just as well sew this one up.

Remember the white quilt? well I have the last of that fabric made into a top. I have yet to choose the trim, although the blue looks really good, but I used pink in it to give it another colour choice for borders. I really like pink.

I really like the stippling. I read that the more you practice the better you get. Well the better one gets, the more one likes the stippling effect. Gosh, last summer I had the hardest time doing it and now it's one of the things I look forward to when quilting!

The Obama visit which was huge news here in Canada yesterday is still being touted as a successful visit and I certainly hope that the President of the United States is made half as welcome when he visits other countries. He even visited a cookie shop here to bring some home for his girls. The secret service must have been going nuts, but he is such a people person and the cookie shop was totally over whelmed by it all. Very very sweet of him. It doesn't matter if one is Republican or Democrat, when that guy smiles and turns to the people, it's just the most incredible feeling as told to those that only saw him for a minute! Imagine ! He has the charisma that has been lacking in leaders for a long time. He's not like Kennedy because this is 45 years later. He just seems to like people! And they in turn feel it!

Enjoy your weekend.

LOOK WHO CAME TO VISIT?

Wasn't it great to have the President visit us on a cold February day?

He has such high approval here in Canada, over 80% which is unheard of in this country of a quiet and staid peoples.

There looked to be about a thousand people on Parliament Hill just to catch a "glimpse" and I mean a "glimpse" of this man who continues to give us hope.

One of the reporters to the CBC Tv station was overjoyed as she turned to the camera and shouted "I saw him, I saw him!" and then she just looked so excited and laughed and said it again. it was so cute!

Ok, on to more important issues than the President visiting, I am doing a quilt a long tomorrow with Pat Sloan and the colour of choice is orange with something else.

I am not sure what I am doing, but I LOVE orange and have lots of it. So I am in for a pound as the saying goes.

I just checked "Getting stitched on the farm" blog on my list of favorites and the lambs have been put out of the kitchen...lol. And this morning the lambs got out of their pen and all came to the kitchen door baaaaing and wanting breakfast. Have a look and a great smiling face when you read the blog.

WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO

Boy oh boy, as the saying goes, I've been given a quilt to try and restore. It's about 40 years old and VERY well worn. However, as the story goes, my grandmother who made quilts for all of her family gave this one to her youngest son and his wife for a wedding gift.

Well I don't know if there is a rule about use, but if there is....well they did it. It's very thin, frayed and because of the sentimallity of the piece (did I spell that right), my aunt wants me to try and fix it. I looked at the squares closely and the middle ones looked like they can be saved.

Here's what I'm thinking, cut those out, repair as best I can with the left over squares and make it a smaller quilt. The saved original squares would be the centre foundation and then I would work around these to give her back a finished quilt of a lap size I should think.

I took some quilts to Montreal (previous post) and they loved the stipple look of my quilts. I am wondering if I can stipple these repaired squares and stipple them. Would that make it stronger do you think?

The posted photos don't actually show how thin this quilt is. I wonder if I use fusable web to the squares and then put that on a backing if that would help.

Just a bit of a problem here today.

Oh well bridge is waiting for me.

MONTREAL WEEKEND.

Do you remember this quilt? I made it last fall and took it with me to Montreal this past weekend. My Uncle Robert died last week so most of the family journeyed to Montreal for his funeral service and remembrance of life reception.

My Uncle Bob loved a good party. He would have loved this one in his name at his son Paul's house.

I took some of my best quilts to show my relatives who travelled from afar, so that I could show them what I have been doing and in doing so realized that my cousin Robert and his wife Debra were expecting a baby girl the end of March.

So, off this one went to a happy home. Deb had a hard time picking from three that were children quilts. She will let me know the name of her baby (a girl) and I shall embroider a patch to send to her so that she can put it on the quilt.

Although the journey was one of sadness, there is always a rainbow at the end for our family of a lot of Irish descendents...we like to gather and tell tall tales. So lots of tall tales were told, some of my uncle Bob and some of the others in the room told great funny stories of life. He really would have loved it and his children did well in their choice of service and reception.

It was really cold in Montreal compared to Toronto. And the city has so much more snow. You know it is a different culture and life is a bit different than here in Ontario. It's always good to go there.

We are relaxing today which is family day in Ontario and we are tired from the travel, the talking, the laughing, and sleeping in strange beds for a few days. So today is a nothing day.