Last Minute Finish…

by Sandie…from  Crazy About Quilts Blog!!  She has just posted her Winter Solstice Quilt pictures for this month!  Sandie accidently made the trees to go with her wee houses and am I ever glad she did!!  They are wonderful!  Love the colour combinations!!  They give me something to strive for this month!!  Sandie, you have inspired me to dig out those green homespuns…and I’m sure the rest of the Winter Solstice Sew A-Long crew feels the same way!!  Way to go, Sandie!  You can go and see what Sandie has been up to by going HERE!  She has got the hard part done…because the stars are easy-peasy!

Winter Solstice…Round TWO!

As you may know, many of us bloggers, as well as non-bloggers, have been busy working on ‘Winter Solstice’, a quilt designed by Country Threads.  Our goal is to have her done before Winter Solstice…which is Dec. 21 in the Northern Hemisphere.  If you live in the Southern Hemisphere then you have plenty of time because your Winter Solstice isn’t until June 21…2015! :o)

OK…let’s get the show on the road…

Here’s Seattle Judy’s August ‘work’…she is clearly having WAY too much fun with this project!!  Magnificent!

And Glynis has been messing around in her sewing room too!!  She has secretly finished the entire quilt but is only showing what is necessary!  Such a good team member!  Aren’t they cute…

And close-ups of her sweet stars…

Sandy’s wee houses are adorable…

Even though Sandy spent the entire month of August at the lake, she managed to get her houses finished and her wool stars prepped!!

Some of us are using wool for the stars and some are using cotton…either way, all’s good!

And Claire, who is on Hornby Island managed to finish her homework before leaving!  She has prepped her cotton stars ready for being appliqued…

This is the view that Claire has from her Hornby Island deck…yup…she is stitching away… with a glass of wine close at hand!!  Yes, life if tough!!

And here are my wee houses and stars…I have stitched my stars in wool.

And all together…

You have GOT to check out the other bloggers who have been busy working away on their own Winter Solstice…

Pam from “Stitching Between the Lines” (love the name of this blog!!) has posted her wee houses and stars!  You are going to love her post!!  Check it out HERE!!

And you MUST hurry over to Bev’s blog, “44th Street Fabric”!!  She says she is enjoying working with the darker colours…I can’t wait to see what she has done!

If anyone else has posted then send me a note and I will ‘link you up’!

SEW…there you have it!  Next month our goal will be to finish the top off…minus the border!  We will save the border for October…unless of course, you are feeling ambitious and  want to ‘get ‘er done’!!  In that case…fly at ‘er!

Have a Sunny Sunday and Happy Stitching!~P

Winter’s A-Coming…in more ways than one!

I’m down to the crunch with ‘Snowy Days’ by Heart to Hand.  It’s sandwiched and pinned, the audio book is playing, so you will find me  busy hand quilting it together!

The background fabric is wool so I opted for no batting.  Instead I found a nice thick black flannel for the backing…leftovers from another wool quilt!  This means that I don’t have to do a lot of hand quilting as there is no batting to hold in place.  Yeah!

I’m hoping another day’s work and this puppy will be ready for the binding…certainly ready before the snow flies!!

News for those quilters participating in the WINTER SOLSTICE SEW ALONG….

OMGosh…today is August 30 and YOU know what THAT means… TOMORROW is ‘Winter Solstice’ SHOW AND TELL time!  Those quilters who are working on the ‘Winter Solstice’ Sew A-Long Quilt need to show and tell what they have been working on…(your homework was to complete the wee houses and stars by the last day of the month…remember? :o)  I think I just heard a wave of “Holy Crap” coming from Blogland?  Yup…I know, August went by in a blink of the eye…!

But having said that, pictures are coming in fast and plentiful, SEW stay tuned for tons of highlights!  If you have a blog and are participating, please let me know so that I can provide a link to your blog in my post…WE WANT TO SEE what you have been up to!!  If you didn’t get your ‘homework’ done, then not to worry…there is always September…October…November!  It’s ALL good!

Have a super Saturday and Happy Stitching!~P

It’s TWINS!!

Remember this quilt?  I made it earlier this year and I loved it!  It was fast and easy and dang, stinking cute!

I need to make two more baby quilts…this time for TWINS!!  The parents found out that the twins are a boy and a girl early on, so I have had plenty of time to thinking about these quilts!  I love the planning ‘stage’ of quilt building…but I keep coming BACK to this quilt!

I want one quilt to be pink and one to be blue…but I also want them to have a common fabric to tie the two quilts together…they ARE after all TWINS!!

SEW this is what I came up with…think two hexie quilts similar to the quilt I made for little Arthur…In my stash I knew I had this yummy baby fabric…I believe it’s Bunny Hill Fabric from a few years ago…

Pink and browns for the girl…

And blue and browns for the boy…

I set to work…First step was making the paper hexagon templates…I used old file folders and my paper rotary cutters…

I put a stack on the middle size hexie of the GO! cutter and..

whacked away until…

I had a nice stack of cardboard templates!  YEAH!

Mix the templates in a bag with the fabric, templates, needle and thread…give the bag a shake and take it with you wherever you go and Presto!  The hexies will be ready before you know it!  Like magic!

Stay tuned…Houdini had nothing over a quilter on a mission!!

Have a FUN Friday and happy stitching!~P

Feeling a little like Alice…

This morning while trying to find a specific FREE PATTERN…this one to be exact (found on Faeries and Fibres Blog)…

I stumble onto another BLOG that made me feel a little like Alice in Wonderland falling through that magical rabbit hole!  Oh the sights…OHHHHH the FREE PATTERNS!!

You have GOT TO GO!  Be warn it’s quite the ‘trip’! 
There was a RAINBOW of FREE Patterns and no witch to be seen!!  GO HERE and have FUN…but remember to find your way back and then get stitching! 

You’re off to see the Wizard the wonderful Wizard of Oz…~P

PS…You can find the ‘Baskets and Nine Patch Pattern’ by Karen H. HERE!!  Thank YOU, Karen H.!!

Wednesday’s ‘Work’…

This is what I will be ‘working’ on today…

…I’m BIG stitch quilting stars onto my ‘Midnight Harvest’ (a Primitive Gathering’s Pattern)!  Yesterday, I FMQed meandering loops all over the quilt (being careful to go around all wool applique). 

These are the tools that I am using…

Valdani Pearl Cotton…the colour is a varigated green taupe P3(the camera flash makes it look whiter than it is).  I am always asked what SIZE pearl cotton to use…my answer is WHATEVER I HAVE!  No one sells Valdani around here so I have to go with what is in my Pearl Cotton tote.  Today it is size 12. 

I LOVE this NEEDLE THREADER by DMC but there are other makes out there which are similar…this a MUST HAVE when working with pearl cottons or wool threads!  I use the smaller hook, thread it through the needle, hook the thread over the hook and pull it through!  No fuss, no muss…It’s that easy!!

A pair of small SHARP SCISSORS are a must have!  I stress SMALL…do you know how easy it is to snip something YOU SHOULDN’T when wielding a big pair!  (Don’t ask…:o(( )

And because I am stitching on black fabric I NEED the Clover White Marking Pen!  I can’t say enough good things about this pen!!  LOVE IT!!  It goes on smoothly, marking a fine white line, and comes off with a spritz of water…I even think a hot iron takes it off.

And  of course you need a good light source!  Do you know how hard it is to stitch on black?  Yowzers…I got out a flashlight while FMQ and pulled a ‘CSI’…you know on the TV Show ‘CSI’ how they always pull out a flashlight to look for clues…well…that’s what I did… going over my quilt with the beam of light to see WHERE I still needed to stitch!  You do what you gotta’ do…

Now I just need someone to mop my brow as I take my next stitch…

So there you have it…my ‘work’ for today!  Yup…life is tough! :o)

Hope you get to ‘work’ yourself wacky this Wednesday too…and Happy Stitching!~P

What a Woman!

Welcome!  If you are a regular reader than you already KNOW that my friend, Glynis is an extraordinary quilter/wool worker…what you don’t know about Glynis is that she is also a famous gardener!  Her gardens have been open to the public for Garden Tours, usually to help raise money for charity!  This morning YOU get to tour Glynis’ garden for FREE!  So bring your coffee and let’s go…

Here we are at Glynis’ front door…yup, definitely Glynis’ house…See the sweet Quilted banner…she likes to let the neighbours know what month it is!  :o)

This morning we are not going to use the front door…we need to go around to the back where the GARDEN is…Check out what is on the side of her house…Is this not the cutest little vignette?  A little reminder that Glynis’ husband, John, was in the gas/oil business before retiring…

Ahhh…here is the gate that we are looking for…leading down to the garden path!

WOW!!  Like a hidden oasis!  OK…now YOU get to wander at your leisure…make sure you check out the ponds, the rock streams and all the features.  Glynis is the gardener and John makes the ‘stuff’…what a GREAT TEAM!

Can you see John’s newest project…a new green house behind the gazebo!  It will come in handy to store some of their more delicate plants during our winter months.  Such a handy man!

Their property backs up onto the Oak Tree Ecological Reserve…which is stunning on it’s own!

I loved seeing all the little do-dads hidden here and there!  Can you imagine all the work that it takes to keep this yard looking the way that it does?  Incredible!  It is so lush and green…and not one weed in sight! 

BUT…enough about gardening!!  More importantly, what has Glynis been doing INSIDE her house??  We followed the quilts…and pillows up to her sewing room for a look…

These are the monthly pillows that Glynis has been stitching along with Scrap, Quilt and Stitch Blog…and yes, they are ALL wonderful!

Isn’t this a new quilt hanging?  It’s a Pat Sloan pattern…and it is lovely!

Ahhh…here we are…this is what Glynis is working on!!  Lisa’s (Primitive Gatherings) free Sew A-Long quilt…and let me tell you, it is adorable!

And feast your eyes on her candy basket…FULL of wee packages of blocks..it’s Lisa’s SBOM which Glynis is planning on attacking once the rain starts!  

And on the quilt rack are various quilts in different stages of completion…NO UFOs for Glynis!!  (hmmm do you think her secret is to lay them out on a quilt rack where they are fully visible and not put them into totes and into closets?  Out of sight…out of mind…?)

Her ‘Winter Solstice’ was hanging on her work wall…and it is almost completed!!  Yes, she is working on her border!!  Let me tell you that it is STUNNING!! But I will save that one for another time…This month the quilters involved in the  Winter Solstice Sew Along are to have the wee houses and stars completed.  The big reveal is this SUNDAY and let me assure you that Glynis’ homework will be completed…haha!!  Yes, there is one in EVERY crowd!!

I think it’s safe to say that most days you will find Glynis in her garden or her sewing room…or biking, hiking, walking…or volunteering at the local elderly care facility!!  I also think that it’s safe to say that whatever Glynis is working on, it will be wonderful…and definitely FUN! 

Now I need a nap…it’s hard to keep up with her!

Have a terrific Tuesday and Happy Quilting!~P