The Blue Circle Quilt done...

I finished this before Christmas so it had it's moment and now I will show it off.

I have just finished the binding on last year's Christmas quilt.  (This is the back.)  I'm not sure where it should go.  But I like it.

I might have gotten a bit carried away with the quilting (insert shrug ) but what can I say....

And one more....

Beginning a Kitchen wall Hanging

The new dishes for the kitchen have arrived and they are very cheery.

I like the orange stripe a lot.  They of course require new wall hangings and placemats, right?

 - This is the base for some hand applique. The photo shows the wrong side of the applique block.

Can you see the outline of the applique?  I will keep you posted on the progress.

Blue Christmas progress

I have been working most afternoons for a bit on this hand quilting project.  I am kind of torn when I hand applique something - and I usually think I should hand quilt it too.  This was an easy choice as it is relatively small.

I love the feathers especially when hand quilting...

My Circle quilt is off the Design Wall

Finally, I got my christmas quilt off the design wall and on to the hand quilting frame.  After a bit of marking, the quilting is begun,

Basketing Around Finished

It was pretty intense, but with a few long hours at my machine in the dining room, I got it done.  I even powered through the hand sewn binding while watching free videos from Quilt Con.  It was really interesting to hear about the Amy and David Butler team.  They are amazing.

Here it is...

The echo quilting in the borders is very rewarding but time consuming.  I am happy I did it though.

This might be my favourite block.  I loved how the colours came together.

And now...

Is that too much or what.  I think I made my brightest quilt ever.  And I designed it all myself too.

Applique Fantasia

I know I've blogged about this quilt before.  It is kind of slow but I just moved my sewing machine (again) to the dining room.  That is important in the next step of quilting this sandwich.

Flowering Laurel steaming along

Speaking of steaming that may be the next step to make all the appliques look smooth and finished.

This is block number 10 - I thought it was nine and I was going to quit there but now I have ten which begs for 2 more to make 12 right.  How's my math today.  Solid I think.

This is a set of blocks I have been working on for quite a while.  The pattern is in the November 2004 issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine.  I usually carry a block with me when we travel.

Basketing Around

So this has been simmering along for a good while (think years) ...

And now I am ready to quilt it I think.

So I set up the dining room table for some machine quilting...

And I got busy - well a start any ways.  With Christmas coming and me hosting Christmas Eve this year I better get to it.

Blue Circles on my Design Wall

Here's something new on my wall....

I'm trying to figure out how to lay them out.  These circles are all made from the same piece of christmas ball fabric - very old now.  The 3 1/2 " blocks have been sitting in a box for a few (ok, quite a few) years... but I'm getting to them.  Maybe in time for Christmas this year...

Past Glories - Part 2

My DD made some great suggestions on how to improve on this one to push it a little closer to completion.  This block had a pale blue (with birds) border to match the interior of the medallion...she deemed it unworthy and then obligingly unstitched it from it's spot....She said the border should match the tiny green check you can see the the left of this block...More sewing later....
                       ....to be continued

UFO revealed - Part 1

I have been busy with visits from my DD who normally resides in Regina, an 8 hour drive from here.  She is very persistent (in a good way) at getting me to look at what has come before.  Mainly quilts of course.

In the early 2000's I started doing Hawaiian quilting.  I loved doing the applique so much but not being able to leave well enough alone I had to change it up...

These were very satisfying.  But... I got really confident.  Both of these smaller wall hangings I cut out in the traditional way but pretty soon I branched out more and more...  to be continued