Prismatic Medallion Mini Quilt for Sonya

Our Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild had a mini quilt exchange. I made this "Prismatic Medallion" for Sonya. I used the free pattern from Robert Kaufman.

This is how it started.

Because I wanted every piece of fabric in it to be different, I ended up with a bunch of leftover half rectangles ... which is what led to my making the "East - West - Home is Best" quilt for Alexa.

East West Home Is Best Quilt for Alexa

My niece, Alexa, left home this fall to attend the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts in Toronto. I made this quilt for her so she could wrap herself in a bit of home.

The quilt is called "East - West - Home Is Best". I hadn't planned on starting her quilt yet (I had some other commitments on the go) but sometimes quilting just happens, usually resulting in your favourite quilts. I must say, I like this one very much. This started with some leftover half rectangles that made me think of Alexa.

Alexa is a performer. In her last year of high school she was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. And last year she was in Peter Pan. These thoughts combined with her colourful and bright personality went into this quilt.

I had a few technical difficulties with this quilt and while it might not be my best work, it somehow came together and I'm really happy with the look of it. 

Lisa very kindly quilted this for me at the last minute so I could give this to Alexa for Christmas. I gave it to her unbound, mind you, but I was able to finish it in time for her to take it with her to Toronto. I had a couple of late nights!

I'm so happy with Lisa's quilting! She very kindly included some phrases that are stitched into the quilt. It's very subtle with the white thread on white background, but if you look really hard you can read the text and just knowing it's there is the main thing.  The words include a verse from "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" 

Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue 

And the dreams that you dare to dream, 

Really do come true.

... and, from Peter Pan, "You can fly ... you can fly ... you can fly ... you can fly ... you can fly ... you can fly ... you can flyyyyy".

Appropriately, there are bluebirds on the back in the Tula Pink Free-Falling fabric. It's so silky! I mean, REALLY silky!

The label is a made from a corner of a vintage handkerchief, homage to Alexa's parents' wedding quilt that was made using vintage handkerchiefs. I chose this handkerchief because there's a girl on it who looks like a dancing gypsy ... very much like our own Alexa! And then, again in homage to Alexa's Mom, I cut the handkerchief into the shape of some pretty panties! This story makes me laugh and hopefully it will make Alexa laugh, too. When I first met the woman who would become my sister-in-law, she was a teenager and almost every time I saw her, she should show me her panties! Her panties were really pretty and such a shame that nobody could see them, of course, so she would always show them to me! LOL. When I reminded her of that today when I dropped off the quilt, she couldn't remember ever doing that! How could she forget??!! Funny!

Quilt Details

Name: East - West - Home Is Best

Pattern: Original Design

Size: 60" x 80"

Fabrics: A mix of stash fabrics and scraps for the geese. The background fabric and binding are large Pearl Bracelet in Bright Star by Lizzy House. The backing fabric is Tula Pink's FreeFall in Orchid.

Quilting: By Lisa Hancheroff - includes lyrics to songs and a pretty loopy design.

Label: Made from a vintage handkerchief

The Mystery Quilt That I Started in July

I had the best of intentions this year and I only just got started this summer before my life got hijacked, after which I seriously lost my quilting mojo. I hope I have it back because I have projects to do! I have to say, I really loved sewing at the lake. I might have to plan a little sewing retreat for next summer.

This is the quilt project I had hoped to finish last summer but I only got started. Stay tuned. It's really outside my comfort zone and I'm not so sure about it but am eager to see how it comes together.

There was lots of cutting involved and Mom helped me with the chain piecing while we were at the lake cabin this summer.

The trimmings from HSTs are almost pretty enough to eat!

Doesn't this look like a happy place to be?

And then this happened ... a little unplanned pericarditis (an infection of the fluid around my heart). It really took the wind out of my quilting sails for quite some time. I don't recommend it! Not one bit!! I kept the photo very small so as not to be too graphic. Just sail on by!

But ... when you're not well, your quilting friend brings you cupcakes!

Stay tuned! This is the quilt project that I plan to be putting my energy into next.

Is it a Gumball or a Jawbreaker?

Our quilt guild participated in QuiltCon's Charity Quilt Challenge. Every guild participating was given the same colour palette with instructions to make something using "improv with intent" piecing.

Carly (Citric Sugar) took the lead and asked participating members to make gumballs or jawbreakers using her curved log cabin tutorial.

This is the block I made.

Since then, Carly has put the quilt top together, Lisa quilted it on her longarm machine, and last Wednesday several of us met at Sheila's for a binding party. The quilt is finished and ready for Carly to ship to QuiltCon.

I'll have more photos of it at a later date!

Traveling Quilt Blocks

During the last half of the year, while I didn't get much real sewing done, I did finish a couple of blocks for some of our quilt guild's Traveling Quilt Group A. This is the last of them. Next up is for everyone to finish their quilts. My quilt top is finished and now I need to quilt and bind it. Hopefully soon ... after I learn to use Lucy (the longarm quilting machine at Periwinkle) that individuals with the requisite training can book time on.

I made trees for Bev's traveling quilt. If I hadn't been so rushed, I think I might have redone the block on the left. The one one the right looks much more tree-like to me. Sorry about the one on the left, Bev.



I made this block for Kelly. We could make any block but we had to use colours that suited our personalities based on a chart she supplied.

I made some "pebbles in the sand" for Carly's traveling quilt, using her requested colour palette.

Churn Dashes for Kim's traveling quilt. 

Here is what I was adding to for Kim's quilt.

Christmas Tree Mini Quilt

I made this mini quilt for our guild's Christmas Party gift exchange. It went home with Sonya.

I used a stack of charm squares of an out-of-print Denyse Schmidt. I'd been hoarding them, waiting for the right project and this seemed like it.

If I remember the tutorial I used, I'll put the link here. I'm sure I'll stumble upon it at some point.

Mug Rugs for Christmas

I haven't abandoned my blog. I just haven't been very productive in 2015 in terms of quilting. Life mostly got in the way of quilting but I hope I'm back on track. I managed to get a few late-in-the-year projects finished.

I made 9 mug rugs / snack mats for the 9 student assistants that work at the Engineering Library with me. I used up a few scraps for the fronts and used some favourite pieces for the backs.

That cone flower print by Anna Maria Horner is my favourite!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to anyone who stops by and reads this!! 

Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild's First Ever SHOWCASE!

Our Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild is so excited to have presented our first ever showcase. We called it a "showcase" instead of a "show" because it wasn't juried and there were no prizes or categories, etc. It was just guild members showing what we've been up to. People outside our guild were invited to show their "modern style quilts", too, but nobody but members submitted. We also had some great vendors, a concession, and members sold some of their handiwork, contributing all profits to the guild.

So much planning and preparation went into the event with some particular members really taking on a heavy load. I'm so grateful to them for taking charge and for organizing the rest of us. We only had 2 hours to get the showcase ready for the public but, much to our surprise, we had it all up and ready in 1.5 hours! Everything went so well. No snafus at all! Most importantly, I think we at least covered our costs and we acquired some more new members!

Here are some photos from the event.

Here are our fearless leaders, Jaclyn and Carly, with a van full of quilts organized and ready to hang. We're gathered in the parking lot waiting to get into the building. Jaclyn even has her daughter, Little Miss Tim Bit, strapped on her back. What a trooper! 

Most of us were on hand for a group photo before the doors opened. Some people came later and some weren't able to come at all due to prior commitments. Thanks to those who made our banner! This is the first time we've used it. I think Lisa finished stitching it the night before the show. We all contributed blocks to it and various members did the brunt of the work. Nicole, in the front sitting on the floor, is our guild's event planner and she did so much work to make this happen!

Tarra was in charge of our concession. We all brought baking.

I think over 250 people came! This table has lots of so nice handmade things on it for sale.

I hung 3 large quilts of mine – Counting Stars, Linked, and the Plus Quilt I made for Luke. Considering Luke's is 3 years old, it's held up rather well, I think.

I noticed a woman at the show wearing a blouse made from fabric I have in my stash and then it occurred to me that it's the same fabric I used in Luke's quilt. Fabric spotting!

Sheila and three of hers. I especially love churn dashes (the one on the left).

Patti with her giant plus quilt and and her half-square-rectangle quilt. Patti makes so many inspiring quilts. She had several beautiful minis on display, too. Watch for the beautiful paper-pieced lion at the bottom of this blog post.

Tarra with her raspberry kisses quilt. The back with the stars and the kids catching fireflies is beautiful, too.

Kathryn and her first ever quilt! Quite an undertaking for a first project, I think!

One of Sonya's. The back of it is gorgeous ... much in the same vein as Tarra's.

One of Jaclyn's. She had several in the show. I especially love this one that she made as a wedding gift.

One of Kelly's ... Kevin liked this one in particular.

 Bev had many quilts in the show but was unable to be here herself.

A coupe of Lisa's many beauties. The first one is a Modern Alphabet using Tula Pink fabrics and the 2nd is flying geese made with Anna Maria Horner fabrics with lots of negative space for her to practice her longarm quilting techniques on.

Carly ... the master of improv. She has a whole different approach to quilts than me, which I greatly admire. I love all her quilts. There is so much story to them. Her spider web quilt is one of my very favourites. Do you recognize the representation of Star Trek uniforms in the 2nd one? The 3rd one below is a Punisher quilt especially for a brother-in-law.

I also love the blue and orange improv quilt made by Carly. Beside it is a colourful one made by Jaclyn.

We have a lot of nerds in our guild. I say that most affectionately. Star Trek and Star Wars are  represented in the two quilts below. Come to think of it, everyone in our guild is probably a bit nerdy!

The bargello quilt at the far left in the photo below was made by Nicole.

You can see my two circle baby quilts at the bottom of the photo below.

Jaclyn made the quilts at the top left and bottom right of the photo below. The rest were made by Bev (I think).

And look at all the mini quilts in the 3 photos below. Why mini quilts, some of you may wonder? I used to ask myself the same question ... until I set up my quilt studio in Luke's vacated bedroom. What better way to decorate the walls of a quilt studio?! Plus it's a nice way to test a pattern or technique or to make something that requires much more work than you are prepared to put into a large quilt. We've had two mini quilt swaps amongst our guild members and these are a lot of those. It's really special to look at your wall and find a beautiful little piece of quilted art made by a guild friend.

One of the minis below might even be meant for me. We'll find out at our next meeting when we do our swap! 

The two I made are both in this top photo. The 2nd from the left at the top is "raspberry kisses" and the one below it and to the right is is "prismatic medallion". FYI, see the mini at the bottom with the blue and white background and the hexagons? The hexagons form the chemical symbols for chocolate and wine. Brilliantly imagined and constructed by Sheila.

The lion by Patti and those piano keys (at least that's what they look like to me) are by her, too.  I love it! The "clean and dirty underwear" are by Kim. She made those for her husband to set his precision tools on in his shop.Hilarious!

So many pretty minis. I wonder ... I wonder ... I wonder ... which of these beauties is for me? Or is mine one that's missing? I have to wait another week to find out.

We had several vendor booths. I hope they did well. They looked busy!

I hope you enjoyed a peek at the show! Thanks to those of you who came in person!