Celebrating a Famous Canadian: Lyra QAL Parade

This is the tenth time I have participated in this annual celebration which happens around the same as Demando and my birthdays along as Fathers Day for hubby and my youngest son who is the the darling Granddaughter’s Daddy. Sandra, mmm quilts, the host extraordinaire and designer of the wonderful QAL patterns, really outdid herself this year’s Lyra pattern with its three versions, I had to make version I, (the official QAL quilt) which I’ve named gaMMMa Galaxy and version II (the extra quilt) Artemis in coMMMemoration of the recent Moon Mission which captivated our attention and brought back old memories of watching past space explorations at home and at school. My quilts this year, versus last year’s, does look like the Lyra pattern, but with a slight change.

Back in early April, Sandra had sent her mmminion/mmmuddle or pattern testers, the Lyra pattern; some of us tested and you know who just looked at the pattern and planned an alternative way to make it. Sandra, in her effeminate “mmmickedness” sensed I was up to something and emailed me. Along with an annual celebration, I do an annual confessional with Sandra as to how I was not going to follow her pattern and keeping “mmmum”. As in the past, Sandra approved.

Here is my confession; my quilts are smaller than the Lyra pattern because I used my die-cutter which made the patches 4”(f) rather than 5” like the pattern so my quilts measure 32” square and not 40” square. The Kite shape (left) bought back memories of Sandra’s first QAL, Freefall, which I couldn’t print the foundation pieces and had to draw my own. Was this a bad mmmemory?

Only five fabrics for the Lyra pattern were needed but gaMMMa galaxy uses twelve. While I trying to choose which color I wanted for the spiky star points, I realized I had all of the colors in the same print which were in the Allison Glass Star print to make the ombré points. Would you believe over the course of several days I finally came up with this combination and was once finalized after I found the multi-color grid fabric in the backing vault. It may have taken awhile but I was really happy that all of these prints, especially the lights, were found in various areas of the studio.

To make assembling the blocks easier, I made a diagram showing which color/print went where and then sewed it together row by row.

I thought my favorite quadrant quilting wasn’t going to work but it did. I used #2600 White Dove Auril thread for both the top and bottom and like using this color since it blends well with bright multi-color prints. The backing is a white grunge, which I won’t show you, and the binding is the multi-color grid print. I am liking 32” square quilts as I can hang them on the inside of the front doors and if the right colors, I have the perfect space in the family room. For now, gaMMMa galaxy is hanging on the front door but eventually will hang in the darling Granddaughter’s bedroom along with Star Shine Prism Break Quilt which was Sandra’s Orinoco Flow pattern.

While I was sewing gaMMMa galaxy, Sandra came out with version II of the Lyra pattern and I immediately thought it was the perfect pattern to commemorate the Artemis Moon Mission. Sandra did do version III which may be her official pattern for Artemis but I had already die-cut the patches for version II. I’ve always said that it’s easy for me to pull 10+ fabrics for a quilt, but when it’s less than ten, it takes forever because when there’s only a few, they have to click. Once the Art Gallery low volume print was chosen for the Moon, I chose two prints from the Carrie Bloomston’s  Story and Dreamer collection and the red is from Matisse/The Women fabric line by Exclusively Quilters.

Sadly, the two prints from the Carrie Bloomston stash was used up in Artemis but was worth it. I ended up not having enough of the teal print and had to substitute another similar print for some of the  connecting corners in the square in square units. This gave me a new personal quilting rule that if you can’t see the difference from the moon, then it’s okay to substitute. Would you believe, I had more trouble with this quilt in sewing the rows together. I kept flipping the patches so they were pointing wrong; I did this at least five times.

The Moon fabric was important to make up for my lackluster quilting. Again, I did quadrant quilting with CT Essential Thread #21160 Parchment. I’m being lazy with this Post as I am not showing you the backing  which is just a low volume print found in the stash. The dark blue Story print was used for the binding which I am so thankful I had just enough. Artemis is now hanging in the family room on the wall just perfect for a 32” square quilt.

Isn’t it amazing that the same pattern made two different quilts just by fabric placement. I’m also proud of the fact that I did sew all of the square in the square blocks (except one) which I do not like sewing and sadly did not have a die in the right side. 

In celebration of Sandra’s Tenth QAL to Celebrate a Famous Canadian, I have my annual collage commemorating this:

And also a collage of the mmmany mmmerry mmmakes made through these same years…

And one more since it involved Sandra sending me some of the fabrics and having me purchase the backing from a friend who was destashing. I’ve named this quilt Oh Sanada and was given to her daughter to give to a friend who was undergoing medical treatment.

If you’re counting all of the mmmerry mmmakes, the total is 24. 

I always say that each mmmake gives me a punch onmy GET BELLA card and I’m thinking #25 should give me a nice 8”x10” glossy, pawed by her sweetness. What do you think? Sandra already sent me some of Bella’s fur.

Be sure to visit to see the other Lyra QAL quilts. I would not be surprise if the other participants mention how much they enjoyed this pattern.

I’m writing this Post a week before the Parade as I will traveling back from the GP House and hopefully it will post on the 15th.  And I will have another Post tomorrow which will reveal last year’s secret sewing project and proof that I can follow a pattern.

Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL Parade/Glass Houses

Today is the Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL Parade hosted by Sandra, mmm quilts. This is the 7th QAL of Sandra’s which I have participated in and this year’s pattern was again a fun make. I previously posted about my progress on April 1st, which was the start of the QAL and then on April 10th when my nine blocks were finished. It was nice to have 2.5 months to finally finish my Glass Houses Quilt, so named because I used Allison Glass fabrics, although I waited until the last week to finally finish it. 

Part of the delay was due to two vacations and several trips to the GP House and my indecision on whether I wanted to machine quilt with vertical straight lines, my first choice, or horizontal wavey lines. As you can see, the vertical straight lines, 1” apart, was decided. Since Glass Houses is going to be a wall hanging, I thought the straight lines would add a more graphic look but used #3817 variegated Aurifil thread so the quilting wouldn’t look too stark. The binding is the same black Cross Stitch fabric used in the sashing. My original plan was to used the multi-color print as in the cornerstones for the binding but after machine quilting, I realized it needed to be the same fabric as the sashing to better frame Glass Houses.

If you read my Previous Post about becoming a happy pieced backer now, I had to make one for Glass Houses since I had three leftover quilt blocks made with Allison Glass fabrics from my Ernie Express Quilt #2. This is my third piece quilt back and I’m now at the stage in which I feel guilty if I don’t make one. Normally, for a wall hanging I prefer the backing to be the same fabric and light colored too.

Glass Houses was finished four days before the parade and we’re having iffy pic-taking weather besides unprecedented poor air quality with heavy smoke from the Canadian Wildfires both here and at the GP House. The front bench was moved so Glass Houses, Petal Pop and Ernie Express #2 can be taken together as this is going to be the darling Granddaughter’s new bedroom ensemble at the GP House. The Master Quilter Holder was glad to be standing behind the bench so he didn’t have to crouch down to hold the 54” square quilt but he did have to hold it up as high as he could which wasn’t too much easier.

I had fun with this year’s Collage of all the quilts I made to Celebrate A Famous Canadian’s Birthday. While I was making Glass Houses, I was thinking that this would be the 7th one which is a lucky number and Sandra must also have some sort of magical powers for me to participate in all seven of her QALs plus making other patterns of her’s. I like to come up with “mmm” names for her and “magnificent” came to mind which quickly changed to “Maleficent” the powerful fairy in Sleeping Beauty. Note Maleficent is a fairy, albeit a powerful one, and not a witch or as I say magically wicked which makes “mmmicked” a fun word, don’t you think? So, I thought it would be “mmmicked to add a graphic to this year’s Collage which was  easy for me to come up with my MMMaleficent. All I needed was to grab Sandra’ blog photo, which is very nice by the way, then the Maleficent pic with Angeline Jolie, apply a few apps like PicMonkey and Voila AI Artist and then iPhone photo editing to draw the hair and make the lips red on my iPhone. Fun, right? I thought I should explain this so Sandra doesn’t think this graphic was already available on the Web, although I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was.

The Rainbow Neighbourhood theme was very fitting for this year (one last pic of Glass Houses amongst an actual rainbow neighborhood in Allentown/Buffalo thanks to Google and picMonkey). I want to thank Sandra again for another wonderful QAL and if she isn’t going to banish or turn me into a mouse, I look forward to participating again next year.  I’m sure it will be mmmagically fun.

Wishing every one a safe and Happy Fourth.

Linking up with MMM Quilts Parade of Rainbow Neighborhood Quilts