Cascadia Finale

Another mystery sew along has come to an end. Lori at Humble Quilts has posted the reveal of her mystery sew along, as well as the inspiration quilt - click here to see it.

This quilt used up a lot of scraps - 260 scrappy 1.5" squares to be exact!
I realized that my seminole rows were exactly 1 square shorter than the others, so I removed one square from the straight rows (instead of adding fabric to the end of the seminole rows) for a perfect fit. The finished size of the quilt is 17" x 17".

I had such fun with the machine quilting, stitching a wavy line through the diagonal rows, and diagonal lines through the straight rows. 

Can you see the quilting design in this photo?
A big thank you to Lori for another wonderful little quilty adventure! I can't wait to see what you will come up with next!

And now I am hopping over to Quiltville for the reveal of step #2 of the ongoing Grand Illusion mystery.

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween everyone!
I have a finished quilt to show today, and that's no trick... it's a treat!

A long time UFO is done! This was mystery quilt pattern #21 from Quiltaholics from 2007.
It sat in the UFO closet for a lot of years. I didn't like that the quilt was square and doesn't fit a bed. But I finally just decided that I wanted it done... 
and now it is!




I tried a spiral quilting pattern (tutorial by Crazy Mom Quilts) for the first time and it went well. For some unexplainable reason, the size of the rings grew as I moved out from the center of the quilt. I am excited about trying something new, and I am happy with how it turned out.
I am linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes to brag about my finish. This finish marks the half way point of finishing my 2014 UFO list - 6 done and 6 to go! 
Happy Halloween!

A Finished Quilt!

It's a wonderful feeling to finish a quilt!
And this finish is especially delicious, since the quilt was made in about a month (you can read about the start of this quilt here). Also great is that this is a total scrap quilt. Everything from the blocks, to the batting, and the backing were constructed from leftovers from other quilting projects!

This was a joy to sew, to quilt and to finish! 

Pattern by Jackie Syer at FRJ Designs.
Finished size: 50" x 64"


I should be cutting the grass today after work but instead, I plan to sit under my beautiful tree, snuggle up in my scrappy quilt, enjoy a cup of tea, and read a good book.

August UFO Finished!

My second finish this week is my August UFO called "Fandango and Friends"!

This is a quintessential scrap quilt which has some newer light scraps (Fandango scraps) to perk up the old ones (ancient scraps).  This quilt was 4 years in the making and actually includes some of my oldest fabrics. It is a half hexie pattern inspired by Jamie's tutorial.

I quilted vertical scallopy free motion lines roughly following the hexagons. It was easy to do, but I see places where I could have tried harder to be more consistent with the shape - perhaps if I was concentrating more and singing less (to the newly released album by Factory City!)



I repeated the scallop shape into the borders right out to the edge of the quilt. It was all just "eyeballed" - no marking or measuring.

This is one of my favorite parts... hand stitching the binding. I find it so relaxing, and it's one last chance to stitch in some prayers, and admire the quilt before it goes out into the world on its own!
Linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishing and Hexie Weekend.

July UFO Finished

This quilt was finished in a nick of time, just under the deadline of July 31st! If you see any layout mistakes, don't tell me cause it's too late now! LOL   

It is called "Plaid Beauty", since it is 100% plaid fabrics in the top and the backing. Some of the fabrics were purchased yardage, and some are cut from old shirts. The finished size of Plaid Beauty is 59" x 71". This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern called Blue Ridge Beauty and was started in a Bonnie Hunter class way back in 2010.  

Can you see where I added in a few tiny 4 patches to use up some little plaid scraps?  I think it makes the quilt sparkle!

This is the pieced backing, made from leftover plaids. I think it looks nicer in real life than it does in this photo!



Here is "Plaid Beauty" hanging in the tree in my parent's backyard.

I just love this quilt! It has such happy memories and holds lots of positive energy. The problem now is that I was intending to give it away as a gift. But now I find myself hesitating and wanting to keep it.

This photo shows the feather quilting in the border a little better. 


To see more finished projects, hop over to A Lovely Year of Finishes July linky party.

Design Wall Monday - Finished Quilt

A finished quilt is on the design wall today! It is Pam Buda's Market Day Sew Along quilt. Pam's version is red and blue, so it looks quite different from mine. Also, I added an extra border around the original design and I really like how it turned out. 
A big thanks to Pam for a fun sew along... can't wait for the next one!

It is quilted in straight lines with the walking foot to emphasize the diagonal lines of the design.

And here the quilt is off the design wall and enjoying a photo shoot by the creek at Deanna's country paradise.

To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday - Finished Quilt!

On my wall today is a finished baby quilt... woohoo!

I finished binding it late last night, so the colours are not right in the photo, but I am very happy with this finish and wanted to share it today. I will get better photos when the sun is up.

Now I am ready for the neighbour's baby to arrive ... and I am hoping it will be a girl. But just in case, I will now get started on a baby boy quilt! 
To see more design wall posts, hop over to Patchwork Times.

UFO Finished!

The Miniature Storm at Sea quilt is finished! Woohoo!
Let the celebrations begin!
I bought the laser cut kit from John Flynn at Paducah in 2009. I started piecing the blocks in February 2011. To see how small these blocks are -  click on this blog post. I love making miniature quilts, so I enjoyed every step of making this quilt. The only drawback is that it takes a long time... and I have a lot of patience, so we make a good combination :)

I machine quilted bubbles in the border and hand stitched the binding. Hopefully you can see the bubbles in this altered photo. This is a very fun design to machine quilt... thanks for the idea Missy!

The finished size of the quilt is 19.5" x 23" ... a finished quilt after all these years!!

To see more finished UFO's finished this month, hop over to A Lovely Year of Finishes.

Now that I have finished another quilt, George and I will be at the fabric store buying some fabric to start a new quilt!

Happy Friday!

End of the Month Quilty News - Good and Bad

Good News: 

Another quilt is finished! 
This is Nabby's Dowry, which was a really fun mystery sew-along with Pam Buda last fall.  I like this photo, although it is a bit washed out, because it shows the quilting.




All the quilting was stitched using the walking foot. In the setting triangles, I used my Hera Marker to give me a guideline to follow when quilting. I used the width of my 1" ruler to measure each line and just marked the lines as I came to them.  

I call this "mark as you go"!










This is the backing on the quilt. 

It was pieced from all the leftover scraps. If it looks  slightly askew to you, it is! That is not something I planned at all... it's just a little special, slightly annoying bonus!!

The finished size is 36" square, which is the perfect size for a tabletopper.
Do you know what this means?!?  It means that I can start the new sew-along called Market Day! I am planning to make the mini size, so I should be able to catch up quickly.

Bad News: 
As you can probably guess, that in spite of finishing 2 quilts this month, my planned May UFO finish was not one of the finishes. I have no explanation or excuse other than I didn't feel like doing it! I did make one small step in the right direction with the purchase of the border fabric, and this is how is will look eventually, but the border didn't actually get sewn onto the quilt yet. It will get finished next month hopefully!
More disappointing news is that for the first time in many years I can't attend the Mennonite Quilt Auction.  I am hoping that someone out there in quilt land will be attending and can give me the highlights?? I thought it would have been last weekend and double booked myself. So many fun things to do, so little time!
Have a great quilty weekend!

Fantastic Friday Finish!

I am so excited to share that I have completed my "Angel Solstice" quilt! 

The photo shows that the dandelions are growing well, but the tree leaves are still not out yet!
I am happy with the weird creative thing I did in the corners of the red inner border. I was running out of red fabric and thought I would stretch it out using the gold at the corners. And then I found more of the red fabric at Ye Olde Quilt Shoppe which I used for the binding, so it turns out I didn't need to do all that work! 

The only thing I would change about this quilt top is to add another border around the outside. I cut off most of the outside triangle points when attaching the binding and I could have avoided that with an outside border. Oh well... live and learn!

The machine quilting was done by Cathy over at Eagle's Wings Quilts. She quilted the angel design that I love (which she also quilted on my Civil War quilt). 
Can you see the quilted angel flying above the angel on the fabric? 



This quilt was made from Bonnie Hunter's "Celtic Solstice" pattern that she posted as a free mystery quilt starting last November. You can see more than 100 variations of this quilt that were posted on the Quiltville link up in February - click here to see them.

This photo shows the backing for the quilt. It started with the "Angels Among Us" panel.

If you are wondering how to construct a pieced backing from your leftovers, this is how I made mine. I started with the panel, and built the backing out from there. 
First I added extra pink triangle blocks above the panel, and then added a pink bar which used up all the leftover pinks from this quilt. Then I pieced sections of black scraps to add to the top and bottom of the panel. Lastly long strips were pieced to fit and were added on both sides of the centre panel, which used up most of the remaining fabric.


The binding is made from two of the reds in the quilt.

If you want to download the pattern, it is still free (click here) until June 1st when it will be removed from the website, and will likely appear in one of her future books. A big thank you to Bonnie for another great quilting adventure!
I am linking up with the celebration parties over at TGIFF and Finish it up Friday!

Finished the Countdown!

"Countdown to Christmas" is officially finished! This was a free pattern offered by Temecula Quilts back in December.

This is the UFO I wanted to finish this month and I am proud that I accomplished it even before the deadline at the end of the month - that's a first for me!








The machine quilting is very simple but effective -  just diagonal lines following the patterns in the quilt top and quilted with the walking foot. Simple. Really, anyone can do this! Here is the view of the back.

And it has even survived the photo shoot with the cute
Granddog Max. He was not
supposed to be included. I was trying to capture the sunlight streaming through the window to highlight the lines of quilting, but Max loves quilts and this is the perfect cuddle size for him (32" x 40"). Here he is showing the hanging sleeve on the back of the quilt... thanks Max, now GET OFF the quilt!

No quilt is truly "finished" without it's label.

To see more finishes, hop over to A Lovely Year of Finishes.

A Mini Finish

I finished this little miniature quilt, which I am calling "Civil (War) Kisses"! Once I decided that scrappy sashings wouldn't work (read more here) the quilt came together really quickly. Because I was using up scraps, the options were limited for the sashing, but I really like this fabric with the little hearts. It was perfect to sash the kiss blocks! The little sashing pieces were cut 1" x 2" - very tiny to work with. I like how the touch of red before the binding brightens it up a bit. The finished quilt size is 8" square.

I love this photo taken in the maple tree in my backyard. You can see that the buds are just starting to grow and soon we will have leaves again!

What is Your Superpower?

Welcome to the Superpower Blog Hop! It's my day to share my Superpowers!
I bet you didn't know I have Superpowers! Well, I do! But I only made a quilt about one of them! LOL
Guess which one?!?
I SURVIVED BRACES!

Getting a full set of railroad tracks put on my teeth when in my 50's was not a good idea. It was agony at times, and the rest of the time it was just plain miserable. My mouth was full of sores and my teeth constantly ached from being poked, twisted, and shoved around.
But I survived having braces and lived to make a quilt about it!
Now...more about my quilt...

The stitchery was done with variegated   DMC floss. I added some metallic thread to the word 'braces' but it doesn't show up well enough to make it worth the trouble of struggling with it!




The machine quilting is a combination of some walking foot straight lines, and some free motion quilting.



The centre block is a paper pieced mystery block from Paper Panache. This is one of my favorite websites, and you can buy this block and many more here.
Did you see the braces attached onto Ms. Sunshine?!? This is the real piece of hardware that was attached to my bottom teeth for 2 years. And now it is stitched onto my Superpower quilt!  

What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger!
A big thanks to Madame Samm and Pauline for giving us another fun blog hop celebrating the Superpowers of our blog friends. You can visit the blogs of the day by clicking on the links below and discover what their superpowers are:

Kathy's Quilts (that's me!)
Made by Me in Red
life, quilts and a cat too
Val Spiers Sews
Quilt Doodle Doodles...
Quilting My Way-5th Generation Quilters Blog

And as a little giveaway for the Superpower blog hop readers, I made a couple of little scrappy mug mats. If you'd like to win one, leave me a comment about what your superpower is, and I will draw two winners from the comments.

Fantastic Friday Finish!

After 7 years of stitching, my "Journey of a Quilter" is finally finished! It was a long journey and I loved every stitch!

The pattern is by Leanne Beasley with some slight liberties taken along the way in changing some of the stitching.

The finished size of the quilt is 50" square. The piecing of all those little scraps was done by machine, and the embroidery and quilting was done by hand. 

I am delighted that this quilt is finished, but also admit to feeling somewhat sad. As my son used to say "it's a happy sad". This quilt has travelled a lot of miles with me over the last 7 years - to the lake, to the farm, to parks to camp, and to the hospital. I will miss hauling it around with me everywhere I go just in case I have some time for hand stitching. It was kind of like my security blanket at times. I guess I'll need to get another quilt prepped so I'll have something else to drag around with me! 
I am linking up my finish at "Finish it up Friday" at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Friday Finish!

The robins have returned to town. Finally.

Usually I post about their return in mid March, but today was the first day I saw one in the yard and ran to get the camera. It's always a good sign that we all made it through the winter!

Another good sign...I already have finished a project his month!
I finished hand stitching the binding on the spring tablerunner in time to give it to my Mom for her birthday!

Here is the runner on her table with the potted tulips we gave her. I thought it was such a clever "springy" gift, but found that other people had exactly the same idea!
We must all be feeling a little desperate for spring to arrive!

Here is a portion of the flowers she received! Now Mom has a whole flower garden to remind her that she is loved and that spring is on the way!