Follow Your Own Path/Celebrating a Famous Canadian’s Birthday QAL

June is a busy birthday month in my house being that we celebrate birthdays for myself, my oldest son affectionately known as Demando in Blogland, Granddoggie Daisy and for the past five years a Famous Canadian also affectionately known as Sandra’s Father. While the birthdays celebrated for my family involves cake, I celebrate the Famous Canadian’s birthday by participating in the annual QAL hosted by Sandra, mmm quilts.  Since this is a milestone anniversary of celebrating a Famous Canadian’s Birthday I thought I create a collage of the quilts I made in observance of this fun and important QAL. And talk about having ants in her pants waiting for June 15th, the first day of the Linky Party, so I can post about my Follow Your Own Path quilt which was a Finally Finished  for more than a week.

Here is my quilt for this year’s Follow Your Own Path QAL, a theme that, a QAL rebel like myself, could be inspired to go off course. Surprisingly, I behaved myself by sewing somewhat on schedule and did not deviate much from the pattern which I will mention later in this post.

I love participating in Sandra’s QALs; her patterns are fun, quick and easy and I always seem to have just the right fabrics in my stash. I have to confess, though, that this year’s Follow Your Own Path (FYOP) QAL was a challenge to find the right fabrics in my stash. Part of the fun in participating in a QAL is to make the pattern your own and I was having problems because I kept seeing Sandra’s version of the one she made for Modern By The Yard Ezine. I knew that I would have problems finding eight fabrics in four colors with two shades and with the right patterns/scales in my stash.

After several days and hours of pulling out fabrics and coming up with numerous combinations, these are the fabrics I finally decided upon and was resigned to using.  To tell you the truth, I was not in love with this choice, partly because the colors were similar to Sandra’s quilt and I could foresee how this quilt would look. Part of the fun of participating in a QAL is making the quilt your own.

While putting away the piles of fabrics I had pulled in my quest to find the perfect fabric combinations, I passed my bins containing new fabric purchases.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw this fabric neatly folded, tucked under some other fabrics, but enough for me to see that this was the fabric I wanted for my background. I thought I could exert QAL Rebel privilege by using the same black fabric which was going to be my background for the shadow arrows. Combined with using Basic Grey Grunge fabric of which I have a nice colorful collection in my stash, this would work and this combination definitely made my heart sing. Unfortunately I only had a 3/4 yard remnant of this background and I needed more. I purchased this remnant online and the selvedge didn’t show the maker or the name of the fabric line. Thanks to some sleuthing of past online purchases, I was able to determine that it was from Dear Stella and after typing a search for Dear Stella Graffiti fabric I had a name for this fabric line: Pour Some Sugar On Me which I think was inspired by a 1987 song by Def Leppard which may explain why this fabric line had a rock music theme. I was able to purchase yardage of this fabric, on sale, from Hancocks of Paducah.

So, Grunge and Graffiti makes my FYOP quilt and is fitting of my usual QAL Rebel-ness and the theme. On a side note, as for using the same black fabric for the shadows, not being a rebel, because Sandra in her   

April 4th post confirmed that you can use black fabric for all of the shadows which was a “YES or fist pumping moment for me. The only thing that concerned me was that I had to wait several weeks for the fabric delivery which postponed my “follow the schedule” mantra for this QAL. I should mention that I had intended to make the smaller version of FYOP but chose to make the throw size so I could showcase more of the cool fabrics.

Once the fabric was received, cutting the fabric was smooth sailing, thanks to some of the patches were die cut and being able to cut the larger patch sizes with my Stripology ruler. (I should mention there are no affiliate links in this post.)

Like all of Sandra’s previous QAL patterns, these arrow blocks were a snap to make despite having to pay close attention to the arrow orientation. Really these arrows could have been made at one time but someone was following her mantra. Leave it to Sandra, the Shadow Master, so named by Kathleen McMusing, to figure out a shadow can be created with just three patches of fabric. I see from posts on Instagram and on Blogland, there were a lot of participants who finished their quilts early, probably, I think, because the pattern was just that fun and quick to sew.

Once the flimsie was sewn, I decided to add a 2/-1/2” border with the background fabric so some of the shadow arrows would not be next to the binding which was going to be the same fabric as the shadow arrow. This is my only deviation from the pattern.

This black and white paint splatter print by Springs Creative was perfect for the backing and a nice alternative for wanting to preserve the remaining yardage of the background fabric. I found this fabric at Walmart and purchased a whole bolt of it since this print would work so well with some of the modern quilts waiting to be quilted. I found this bolt on the very top shelf which involved some climbing on my part since hubby was shopping elsewhere in the store. If you’ve seen the YouTube video of a huge Monitor Lizard inside a store climbing up a shelf, that’s what I looked like, but not as graceful.

One of the reason why the background fabric is important for me when I do a mmmquilt pattern is that I need it to hide or camouflage my lackluster quilting.  I had wanted to do quadrant quilting but I couldn’t line up the arrow points with the quilting lines so I did horizontal straight line quilting, 3/4” apart.  Inspired by the Follow Your Own Path theme, my quilting lines were not always straight, sometimes I couldn’t see the guide lines, especially on the background fabric and were in some places, downright wonky. I used an Essential Thread in gray for the machine quilting. FYOP measures 58”x64”.

Kathleen McMusing already posted her FYOP quilt last month and threw the gauntlet down as to finding a cool place to photograph your quilt. Knowing of some of the other participants in this QAL, like Diann who lives near a sculpture park and Wendysota (Wendy from Minnesota) who wouldn’t surprise me if she captured a Bear to hold up her quilt, I created a collage of where my FYOP quilt would look great thanks to some photo dropping via PicMonkey.

This one is my favorite taken when we were visiting South Carolina several years ago.

After hanging around all of these photos, my FYOP quilt deserves a rest on the porch steps at the Grandparent house. I’m not sure of this quilt’s final resting stop but I did offer it to Demando to hang in his bedroom since it would go well with the other graphic art he has hanging around but he declined. Surprisingly, he does not like the background. Demando did mentioned, though, that he would like a new quilt for his bed, the nerve.

Again, for the fifth year in a row, I would like to thank Sandra for designing this wonderful pattern and hosting, as usual, a fun QAL, “ton père strait fier”. Be sure to check out the Linky Party to see the other FYOP quilts and don’t be surprised if you see a Bear holding up Wendy’s quilt. As for suggesting future QALs like I’ve done in previous posts, I thought I mention that I would not have a problem with using my graffiti background fabric again. Also, still hoping for Bella to be one of the prizes.

Linking up with MMMquilts Celebrating a Famous Canadian’s Birthday Linky Party

Slow Stitching, Scraps and Small Quilts

I had mentioned in my previous posts of being inspired by the many posts from other quilters who shared their Kawandi, Kantha,  Boro, Sashiko, etc. quilts and since then have learned of Chiku Chiku stitching. You can find wonderful examples of these techniques on Pinterest. All of this to me translates to big stitching which I’ve been happily doing for the past months in between visits to the Grandparent house and during downtime (watching TV) when I am home. I thought I would share the projects I have been working on or have completed.

Although I liked the techniques behind the Kawandi, Kantha and Sashiko patchwork quilts, I thought I would work on the patchwork blocks, which were scraps I hand sewn to batting squares while traveling to Yellowstone in September of 2017 which you can read about it in this Post.

My original plan for these blocks were to either make coasters or pincushions and since there were around nineteen squares sewn, I thought I didn’t have a need to make that many of them.

After I trimmed them, there were at least twelve of them which were 6” square and thought I could make two rectangular quilts or placemats.

Before the backing was added, I did big stitch hand quilting with #10 white crochet thread.  I got this idea from BanjoFlannel Method of Patchwork Sashiko.  The rows were spaced 1/2” apart and after I quilted four rows, I skipped a row. After I was done big stitching, I then added the backing and machine quilted the binding. You can see in the photo above, the 1” spacing between the four rows.

The reason for skipping a row was that once the backing was added, I then quilted this row, which there were three, and I consider them to be the “tacking” row” since their purpose to hold the backing. This is something I learned from making several quilts with the  Quilt As You Go method, and that is, since the top and batting are quilted together and once the backing is added you only need to quilt it at certain intervals to keep the layers together.  I liked how these turned out and after all of the big stitching I did I don’t want to use them for placemat since I can’t bear to see them getting stained.

I’m really liking the big stitch hand quilting and used it for this small wall hanging which had been a flimsie for over ten years.  I did do some machine quilting in the ditch before hand quilting the three layers.  I will say big stitch quilting is much easier when only the top and batting is involved. This small quilt is what call my Patchbox Quilts which I someday need to write a Post about my idea behind these small quilts.

It’s funny that I went into 2021 subconsciously wanting to start making small quilts which is what I’ve been doing when I’m at the Grandparent House which is much easier to make than a large quilt. The quilts on the bottom of each row are ones made from patchwork blocks with batting and ready for big stitching and the others are machine piece and waiting to be machine quilted with some big stitching accents

Here’s another one I’ve been working on where I machine pieced scraps onto a piece of batting and did various stitches with #8 Perle Cotton which I love.  I left some areas unquilted and once I add the backing, I’ll add the “tacking” stitches. What I like about these projects is that I have several of them going on at once and I can switch between them when I get tired of working on one of them.

I now have assembled a project box containing patchwork blocks, batting squares and scraps which is ready to take when traveling between the two homes. The tools and notions are kept in a separate pouch. This is really a nice, portable project and a great way to use up the scraps that just keep on multiplying.

And here’s another small quilt just finally finished which is my #2 of Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge.  The top was finished in 2017, coincidentally the same time when the beforementioned Patchwork Blocks were first sewn.  This quilt measures 25” x 33” and is a combination of wool circles and squares made from Thimbleberries fabric.  This idea for this quilt was inspired by one I saw on Pinterest from orangesink blogspot and this is the second one I made based on this pattern.  When the Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge started last year in July, this is the one I really wanted to finish sooner than later since I  have a spot for it at the Grandparent House.

We’re leaving for the Grandparent House tomorrow for a four-day visit and upon my return, I’ll be setting aside my Slow Stitching projects for some serious sewing— Sandra of mmm quilts’ Follow Your Own Path QAL which according to me is the sixth QAL of hers which I have participated. More importantly, this is the fifth year I will be celebrating a Famous Canadian’s birthday and I’m thinking a special commemorative T-shirt needs to be designed. My fabrics have been chosen and surprisingly I have not yet started nor plan on doing any deviations.

Today would be a great day for stitching but sadly doing the Taxes are yelling at me.

Septe”MMM”ber Shine

It’s been awhile we’ve been home for at least a one week stretch and one of the projects I needed to finally finish was my Shine Quilt designed by Sandra (mmm quilts).  The flimsy was finished in early August but in between the numerous visits we made to the Grandparent’s House since then, this was the first time I had a decent block of time to tackle the quilting.  To tell you the truth, if you’ve seen Sandra’s Shine Quilt and admired the exquisite quilting she did on her quilt, you would understand my hesitancy in quilting straight lines which is the only type of machine quilting I do besides wavy lines and thinking that it would look too bland.  Surprisingly, I love how the straight lines looks and doesn’t the sunlight dappling through the tree branches onto the quilt make it “Shine”?

To give you a little back story on how the quilt got to be made, Sandra asked me a few months back if I would like to be a pattern tester for her Shine pattern which you may wonder why she would ask me since I”m a little rebel or tend to “misbehave” when I joined her QALs which have been, according to my calculations, five.  I’ve always did something a little different with either the background or construction and did not always follow her pattern but the finished quilt always looked the way Sandra designed it.  I promised Sandra that I would be a good pattern tester and would follow her instructions completely.  I chose to make my Shine quilt with Carrie Bloomston’s Wish fabric line with Ruby Star Society Spark fabric for the background.  I chose this for the background since I thought the Silver Gray fabric would help the letters and stars stand out and also I wanted a background fabric with a little detail to make up for the inevitable lackluster quilting.

This is the first time I had the opportunity to be a Pattern Tester and I took this task very seriously.  I read the cutting directions very carefully to make sure it was accurate.  I did order an extra half yard of the background just to make sure I had enough in case I made an error cutting or in this case my iron acted up and splashed rusty water while I was ironing it and ruined a quarter yard.  Thankfully I still had enough.

It didn’t take me to long to break my promise to make the quilt according to her instructions.  Sandra let me deviate from her Flying Geese method since I like to make them using my die-cutter and that was the only time I “misbehaved”. 

I wished I could had a video of me sitting by the sewing machine, concentrating on following the instruction with my finger running over each line to make sure the patches were sewn together correctly and then lifting my head up and staring into space when I realized then that I wasn’t a Pattern Tester but Sandra gave me a pattern test to see if I could really focus and follow her instructions. This happened when the patches were almost all sewn together into blocks. Talk about getting schooled for my “bad” QAL behavior.  At least the “test” was easy and also very fun to sew, I’m not saying this for extra credit.

I think I passed and learned some patience in sewing the top together.  I’m never one for pinning rows together but for this quilt I did to make sure they lined up.  Funny fact about the making of the top was I was really tempted to only finish the left half of the quilt since I thought that the Shine panel would make a nice banner especially for a classroom but my determination to be a good “Pattern Tester” prevailed. Also, I like to mentioned that this is the first time I ever pieced letters and really enjoyed making them.  I even told Sandra she has to come up with the rest of the alphabet.

Once the straight line quilting of 5/8” apart started, it was a breeze, no pinches or puckers.  It was really nice using Aurifil thread for both the piecing and quilting.  I really thought the straight lines would be boring but I think it gives the quilt a nice graphic look.

While I was machine quilting, I was listening to “The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding” by Jennifer Robson which was recommended by Wendy of Pieceful Thoughts.  It’s a story about the embroiderers who worked on the wedding dress which inspired me to embroidered some of the stars around the flame with yellow floss. 

The backing was yardage of a gray dotted fabric I had in my stash which I love when that happens.  I originally wanted to bind the quilt with the same solid yellow fabric as the small stars but decided the gray and white geometric print would accent the colors of the quilt better; the yellow would have been overwhelming.

Shine was a Finally Finish this past weekend and of course rain was in the forecast so I didn’t think I would be able to post until later this week. Surprisingly the sun was shining on Labor Day and we had the opportunity to go to a friend’s house which has acreage to gather acorns for my squirrels.  I brought along Shine so I could take photos of it amongst the trees and, of course, with Honest John, the twelve-foot road sign on the property.  They look good together don’t they?

Here is the Link to the Shine Pattern which is available to purchase from Sandra’s Etsy Shop.  This is not an affiliate link and just wanted you to know where you can purchase this fun pattern. I still am tempted to make just the Shine panel which would make a nice door quilt or a banner for a future classroom.

It’ll be a few more days before we leave for the Grandparent House and my Shine Quilt will be living there now in the darling Granddaughter’s bedroom.  I’ve already made her another Patchwork Blankie which I will share on my next Post along with other projects done during the rest of September.  It seems like Summer is leaving us too soon. Hope everyone stays healthy and happy.

July/August Blog Break

It’s been six weeks since my last post and I decided to give the new Blogger interface another go, despite reading other bloggers’ comments about problems they’re experiencing and also seeing how elongated photos are appearing on their blog. For the past few days I’ve been trying to decide whether or not to leave  Blogger and join Wordpress which comes at a cost I’m not sure would be worth it. This afternoon I had some luck with editing my 2020 Quilts and Project page and was comfortable with using the editing tools once I knew how to access them. So, here I go with posting what I’ve been sewing/finishing in between the three visits to the Grandparents’ House, mostly photos with brief descriptions.  And if my photos are experiencing the same problems with elongation, I might be posting photos of myself since my Twiggy Days have been long gone.

I’m participating in Country Threads 2020 Dirty Dozen QAL which started in July and I committed to finishing twelve UFOs. Coincidentally, the number pulled was for a Country Thread’s Pinterest Kit for a table runner purchased before the shop closed over five years ago. The runner is now a Finally Finish and sitting prettily on the dining room table at the GP house.

Sandra, mmm Quilts asked me if I would test her latest pattern “Shine” which I was happy to oblige since it was an opportunity for me to use my recently acquired Carrie Bloomston Wish fabrics. The flimsy was finished several weeks ago and the pattern is available from Sandra’s Etsy shop “SandraJaneQuilts”. Once my Shine quilt is a Finally Finished, I’ll write more about this quilt and my adventures of being a “pattern tester”.

Emily, The Darling Dogwood, and I decided our third QAL together would be Fat Quarter Shop’s Jelly Snowflake and both of us decided independently of each other that our quilt would be a little different. My modified version doesn’t look like a snowflake but there are snowmen in some of the prints so I named this quilt Frosty Flake, so apropos since it is my favorite cereal.

Two baby quilt tops were made for Jack’s Basket.

Granny Squares blocks were sewn for an QAL between Sistas and waiting for sashing and border.

My August block for the 2020 Color Challenge is sewn and the color this month was Pink for Flamingos.

Last of all are two feedsack fabric projects which I was able to work on while at the GP House. Surprisingly, the darling granddaughter showed no interest in my sewing machine, supplies, fabric-it’s a good thing we have a lot of good toys and videos to distract her, along with snacks.

I gave myself a little pep talk these during my blog hiatus to spend more time in my studio and try to commit to a number of hours each day to my “craft”. I should mention that I haven’t done a very good job in recording my activities in my planner and not tracking my fabric log but pretty sure it’s negative, maybe barely. Also it was a little tedious typing my post on my iPad, just don’t like my index finger doing all the talking and also the uncertainty with the new Blogger interface. I’m glad to be able to post before we leave for another visit to the GP house. Here’s to better Blogger Days and to figuring out how to insert links and labels.

P.S. before I published this post, I learned that I inadvertently typed this as a Page and not a Post and thankfully nothing was lost. My index finger could not handle the retyping.

Centred/Celebrating a Famous Canadian Birthday Again

Once again I am joining in the celebration of a famous Canadian's birthday with my Centred Quilt which is only the seventh quilt I finally finished this year. According to Sandra, mmm quilts, who is hosting this QAL and also the daughter of this famous Canadian, this is her fourth annual QAL but for me, this is the fifth QAL of hers that I have participated in or as I say I have reached the QAL Quintuplet level now that I have five finished quilts.  Here's a link to the post with the other four quilts. The reason for the difference in which number this QAL is because Sandra is not counting the Postcard to Sweden QAL because it was not her design but I'm including it in my count because I would not have made it if she didn't host a QAL.

When Sandra first announced the QAL back in March and mentioned that the size was perfect to "perch my sit bones" (or do you say arse?) while doing Yoga, I knew I had the perfect fabrics in my stash; Mary Fons' Small Wonder fabrics of which I had several prints inspired by India.  If my Centred Quilt looks different from the other Centred quilts, it's because I was too mmm-patient to wait for the instructions and thought I could figure it out based on the quilt Sandra first posted and she doesn't do complicated, right?. I recently told her that “mmm” is the acronym for “must make me”. The fabrics I wanted to use were prints and not batiks (most of my batik stash was used for making face masks so I didn't have much useable stash anyways). Seam lines tend to blend better with batiks which also gives this pattern so much movement and with prints they seem more pronounced and stationary..  And yes, I made a full confession to Sandra for being a rebel and doesn't every QAL need one?  The top was done before the QAL started and I stayed quiet about it in  Blogland. All I'm going to say is that only four of my blocks were quarter log cabin blocks and that all my blocks are the same colors throughout the quilt.  Also, Sandra's pattern would have been much easier for me to do. Thankfully my quilt did measure to 40.5" square. (Note for next year: just wait). Although I don't do Yoga, I know my Centred quilt is going to make a great meditation mat; it's look so good laying on the floor.

Here's a close up of the center block which you can see the fabrics used in the Centred quilt.  I ended up switching the black/natural print with a black and white crosshatched print which I thought contrasted better with the other prints.  One of the reasons I made the quilt the way I did was to leave the fuschia print intact but after the quilt was done I don't think it wouldn't have mattered but I think it would have for the teal India Crown print. Isn't this print beautiful? This block does have the "you "perch your sit bones" right here" feel to it.

And I love how the Elephant print is showcased in this quilt.  This print has been stored on the back of my mind, waiting for just the right project to use it.

I really love participating in Sandra's QAL because her patterns are so fun and easy and I always manage to have the perfect fabric in my stash.   I was even lucky to find a backing fabric quickly and didn't spend a whole lot of time searching.  In fact, I saw it immediately on my shelf in one of the bins housing my black fabrics, no search and rescue party this time. The Jane Sassaman "Jane's Hothouse Garden" bought in 2007 is finally being used and really fits the energy of my Centred Quilt. The swirl motif on both the black and teal fabric on the front and the backing ties it together.

Although I only did straight line quilting along the seam lines, it did take some time since there were a lot of stops and thread burying which I don't normally do a lot.  I think the black thread did a nice job of quietly accenting the fabrics and the lines in the quilt.  This is the first time I used fusible batting which was helpful while quilting.  I liked the convenience of not having to remove a safety pin every several inches. The only problem I had with it was the fuzz/lint it left on both sides of the quilt--lots of it--I had to change the sheets on the lint roller seven times.  Can you see the fuzz, especially on the black and gray stripe?  I'm really pleased how my Centred quilt lays nice and flat with the simple but fancy, as I'm calling this, straight line quilting.

I haven't posted much this year mainly because of everything that happened or still is happening that is making me feel "off-centered."  I am looking forward to the days when I feel "Centred"--mentally and emotionally confident, focused and well balanced. Having made this quilt helped--it has good, positive energy.  Since my Centred quilt reminds me of a magic carpet, the song to be humming while finishing this quilt was "A Whole New World" from Aladdin, appropriate for the times "they are a changing."

permission to use this photo by Sandra

Thank you, Sandra for once again designing and hosting a wonderful QAL and I now have five out of the million punches on my Get Bella Card (wink). And yes, I have a pipe dream that Bella is going to be one of the giveaways in Sandra's QAL and I'm going to win. Wouldn't she look just so gorgeous lounging on my Centred Quilt?  Be sure to check out the other Centred quilts and Bloggers who are also celebrating the Famous Canadian Birthday.

On a side note, this may be my last post done in Blogger since the new format is starting at the end of July and as some bloggers feel we are being forced to relearn how to blog.  I really love the current Blogger, it was very easy to learn and do.  I've tried the new Blogger and it just ain't the same. At first, I could not find a tutorial or resources to learn the new format  but there may be hope since I just discovered that if I do a search for "New Blogger Interface" I can find some information but not what I was looking for, i.e, how do I edit my "Pages" which is where I store photos of my flimsies. They say the new Blogger will help those who write or manage posts on their phones which is something I never do since I have a really hard time typing on my phone.  I really like my blog so I have a record of my quilting life but it's sometimes a source of frustration for me. Hopefully I can get up to speed on the new Blogger because I have a lot of quilts that are in the stages of being finally finished and that is always a good reason for me to post.