Showing posts with label Comfort Quilt QAL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comfort Quilt QAL. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

May progress & finishes

May is always a crazy busy month with lots of quilt shows, events and deadlines. You may have been following these in my last few posts. Here are some updates.

Comfort Quilt QAL

I have been participating in the Comfort Quilt QAL based on Amy Ellis' book, Modern Heritage Quilts: New Classics for Every Generation. My version is not her lovely low volume quilt but rather some colourful cuddle quilts using a variation of her pattern. It's great to see everyone's progress on Instagram. There are some fabulous quilts in the making 😊

I want to make 4 cuddle quilts but I very realistically chose to make two cuddle quilts as my May OMG - One monthly goal. I've learned a lot during the finishing of the first quilt. You can read about it below.

22" cuddle quilt made using a variation of Amy's Comfort Quilt
I attached the binding by machine for this first quilt since I had lots of space to sew within the border.

Here is the second cuddle quilt, before attaching the binding. The quilting can be seen better on this picture.
Second cuddle quilt, before the binding
Second finished cuddle quilt

There was less room on the border so I attached the binding and finished it by hand.

These two cuddle quilts were my May OMG. Done!

I am planning on making at least two more but it will probably wait till the fall.





Starry Bright Sky QAL

It's the end of the month and I finished my star last night. As with the origami block, I had help from my son. I don't do 3D very well, even if it's just folding fabric. 😊

Fabric cutout of a star for month 5

Upcoming Kingfisher Stitch-Along and Hexie Runner

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm getting excited about joining the Kingfisher Stitch-Along to make a quilt with some English Paper Pieced (EPP) flowers. I just love being able to use my hexies in different ways. 

I just checked out the Stitch-Along site and I'm in luck! They are using 1" hexies which is what I've been working with, so I probably have a few flowers ready :-)

I've been working on finishing my Hexie runner for a while now. It's very slow going but I plan on finishing it very soon so that I can concentrate on this next Stitch-Along.  This is on my To-do Tuesday list for this week.
Finishing the Hexie Runner soon
What I learned
  • Sewing with flannel is different than sewing with regular quilting cotton. The stitches end up being more embedded into the fabric, making picking apart the sewing very difficult! Of course, today, I read an article about sewing with flannel. They recommend that you use a slightly longer stitch. I hope I remember that for my next batch of cuddle quilts.
  • I measured the quilt tops before adding the border, but after finishing the FMQ, the yellow quilt barely made it to 22" while the blue one was slightly over. In theory they were the same size, and I even used the same size of borders. 
  • I have mentioned before that I am accuracy challenged - that would account for the difference in sizes. I hope the babies won't complain about a ½".
  • Although my cuddle quilts are quite different from Amy's Comfort quilt, I really enjoyed checking out participants' work on Instagram. 
  • This month's Starry Bright Sky block was made thanks to my son's help. I'm glad that he's around to help me with anything 3D or involving math.
  • My star cutout is not as starry as I would have liked but then, like snowflakes, they are all different (aren't they?)
  • For my Hexie Runner, I'm using the same binding technique as the first table topper I made. I'm not sure if it's because it's a larger piece, but it's not going as well as my first one. I hope to have it finished in the next couple of weeks.
  • Great news! I won 2 spools of lovely green thread from Connecting Threads through Alida's Starry Bright Sky QAL. They were shades that I didn't have - wonderful! Thanks Alida :-)
Related Links

Linking Parties
I will be linking up to the Elm Street Quilts' OMG May Finish Link-up as well as Starry Bright Sky QAL- Month 5 link-up. I will also be linking up to many other linky parties. Join me to see what's new out there. Midweek Makers, Let`s Bee Social, Tuesday Colour Linky Party, Linky Tuesday, Design Wall Monday, Moving It Forward Monday, Main Crush Monday, Monday Making, To-Do Tuesday, WOW Wips On Wednesday, May Color Challenge Link Up, Needle & Thread Thursday, Free Motion Mavericks, 

Project Details


Two cuddle quilts
22" x 22"
Adapted pattern: Comfy Quilt by Amy Ellis
Material: cotton flannel
Techniques: piecing, free motion quilting


Some great news - these quilts were featured on Muv's Free Motion Mavericks!
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Thursday, May 17, 2018

Many projects

I have so many projects on the go that it's time to post an update on a few. (oops, sorry for clicking on Publish a little too early!)

Free Motion Quilting Challenge Quilt Along

This FMQ Challenge is officially over, but I realized that I haven't posted my last three blocks. The challenge may be over, but if you're interested, Angela Walter's videos are still available on YouTube, so check them out! (see Related Links)

This block is a combination of the techniques from weeks 2 and 3. I'm not really a fan of the plain meandering but I did want to include it in here so that I could say that I did most of Angela's FMQ designs.

Week 2 & 3 - meandering, echoing and continuous curves
Week 9 is the wishbone. There are a couple of variations, including making it between wavy lines. I had never done the wishbone until recently. It's a great little design that can fit pretty much anywhere. I find it elegant.

It took me a while to practice it using a pen until I realised that it's putting together a cursive "l" and "j". Remember that if you have problems with this one :-)
Week 9 - Wishbones and wavy lines
I made an extra block, so I put together most of the designs from the class. The centre is a dot-to-dot, which I didn't make a whole block of since I've been doing this technique for many years now. I love the dot-to-dot technique although if I really want to FMQ it well, I will often take the time to draw some of it on the fabric. It just depends how accurate I want it to look.
Sampler of most of the techniques in the FMQ Challenge

Art with Fabric Blog Hop


Last weekend I spent most of my time working on my Art with Fabric piece, "Morning has broken". I was on a real high - it's one of the loveliest pieces I've ever done. I got most of it done so that I could take an official photo for Alida's website. But after that high, I've come crashing down and have barely touched it since.

I don't want to completely spoil the surprise, so I'm just going to show you the image from my last post. The big reveal is Monday :-)

The FMQ and piecing is about 90% completed. I didn't have the correct shade of green (my goodness but there are tons of greens!!!) so I had to buy more. That's been done, so now I just have to actually do it.

The next step is to finish the quilt. I will probably add a facing to it since I left a lot of space around the edges to do this. Then I'll be able to embellish it, even after the facing has been added.

I hope you'll join me on Monday for my post. I took a lot of pictures and learned a lot. I'm looking forward to sharing this.

Comfort Quilt QAL

I now have two pieced cuddle quilts sandwiched and ready to FMQ. I just have to trim them a little because I have having to cut up my FMQ. These only have to be 22" x 22".

I











It's my OMG to finish these two by the end of the month. I think that I'll manage that, especially since the Art with Fabric blog hop will be over soon! Besides, I have some more flannel fabric that I want to play with :-)

Kingfisher Stitch Along


I am thrilled to share with you this next great stitch along. It combines some of my favourite things.... English Paper Piecing (EPP) and quilting. The quilt is made of diamonds with EPP flowers appliqued to them. Isn't this image beautiful?

It starts in June, so check out the link below.



What I learned
  • For my last block, I ran out of my lovely backing fabric, so the front and back are the same. That seemed to be fine until I noticed that some of the stitches on what I thought was the top, were not variegated. You guessed it - I had flipped the block between designs. Not a big deal, but definitely something to think about or watch for.
  • I'm really happy that I took the time to follow this quilt along. I learned a couple of very cool FMQ designs that I have already incorporated into my repertoire :-) My favourites are the feather and leaf meanders. 
  • I'm very proud of myself. Even if I worked extremely hard on my Art with Fabric piece last week, I didn't panic about not having it completed for the photo. I'm even not panicking about getting it finished for Monday since I can always crop the picture and / or finish it after since it's all about pretty pictures and it won't be seen in person, probably for another year :-)
  • I may be a little more tired than I thought....I was very surprised this morning to receive in my email, my blog post! It would seem that I clicked Publish instead of Save. Oh well, at least I get to sleep in tomorrow - in Canada it's the Victoria Day long weekend!
Related Links
Linking Parties
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Thursday, May 03, 2018

May updates and plans

The beginning of a brand new month. I'm not sure where April went, but it's now history😊 (lame but true!) Here are the updates and plans for this new month.

Comfort Quilt QAL

I finished the quilt top of my first Comfort cuddle quilt. I added a two inch border but that will have to be cut down so that the quilt ends up being 22" x 22". I'm hoping to practice some cool FMQ designs.

Cuddle quilt ready to FMQ
My One Monthly Goal for May (OMG) is to finish at least two of the cuddle quilts. I'm hoping for more, but we'll see!

FMQ Challenge Quilt Along

I've been following Angela Walter's FMQ Challenge Quilt Along for the last month or so and recently practiced week 4's Leafy Meander design.

Leafy Meander - week 4

Back of Leafy Meander
I still have at least two more FMQ designs that I want to add to this collection before calling it done.

Common Thread Quilt Guild Show - Ottawa

Next weekend (May 11 to 13) is the Common Thread Quilt Guild show. I'm really looking forward to seeing my friends' creations of the last two years.

I will have four small quilts in the show - the Charming baby quilt, the Tea Time - England souvenir wall hanging, and two art quilts - the Canada 150 and the Isles Canarias. Since this is a quilt show and not an fibre art show, I decided to show my more mainstream quilts.

Canada 150
Tea Time










Islas Canarias




Charming










I still have to put temporary sleeves on Charming and Canada 150,  as well as make a label for Charming. I'd better get this done this week since I'm sure we have to drop all our quilts off soon :-)

This is my To-Do Tuesday list.

Art with Fabric Spring 2018 Blog Hop

It's coming along! Here's a preview of my quilt to date.
Preview of Art with Fabric
Spring 2018 piece

I'm at the stage of thread drawing, that is,  FMQ on the fabric, before adding the batting.

I always find it a challenge to figure out what needs to be highlighted or drawn with thread as opposed to actually quilted. I've tried various techniques but at this time I like to do some thread drawing to attach the fabric as add highlights before doing the actual quilting.



What I learned
  • I have some great fabric for more "boyish" cuddle quilts. I can's wait to start playing with them.
  • I also want to try some variations of the Comfort Quilt pattern for them.
  • The Leafy Meander FMQ design is very forgiving. I messed up in a couple of spots but just kept going. I made sure to not leave any big empty spots because those are more obvious than mistakes in the design.
  • I'll be taking some pictures of the quilt show next weekend and writing up a post. It's so much fun learning from other people's quilts - their colour choices, their FMQ, etc.
  • I expect to spend the weekend finishing this piece up. I am sooooo looking forward to that 😊
  • I haven't posted a picture of my inspiration art piece yet, Sunrise by the Ocean by Vladimir Kush because I really don't want to push the copyright issue. I'll just post it on my official blog hop post on May 21. The link to the image is included below in the Related Links.
Related Links
Linking Parties
I will be linking this post to the OMG May Goal Setting link-up, To-Do Tuesday as well as many others. Check out what's happening. Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off the Wall Friday, Finished or Not Friday, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, Free Motion Mavericks, MOP Monday, Moving it Forward, Design Wall Monday, Monday Making,


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Sunday, April 29, 2018

First Week of Comfort Quilt QAL

Earlier this week I started cutting fabric and sewing together some large blocks for the Comfort Quilt QAL.

I'm making a few cuddle quilts for our guild to donate. It's been a few years since I made a charity quilt, so I'm going to make a few :-)

The first four blocks of Comfort Quilt
I really like the way that it's coming along.

Comfort Quilt cuddle quilt in the making
I just need to add a border to make the quilt 22"x 22" and then it's off to FMQ. I can't wait!

Dreami!

This project definitely qualifies as a Dreami! post (which stands for Drop Everything And Make It!), as in a totally unplanned project that just needs to be made, no matter how much else is going on.

I have a hard time resisting quilt-alongs. I must say that my self-restraint isn't that bad because there are sooooo many more quilt-alongs that I would love to join. The Comfort Quilt QAL just came at the right time - I had to buy something at Ron's in Cornwall :-) so flannel for a worthy cause wasn't too difficult to rationalize!


Art with Fabric Spring 2018

It's my favourite time of the year - spring and the Art with Fabric blog hop!

This year the theme is 1+1=3 That can mean many things, but I am interpreting it as being whimsical and different.

I started looking at surrealist paintings in my daughter's art books. I was intrigued by Rene Magritte - especially his "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" image but as much as I tried, I just wasn't inspired. I thought about Salvador Dali. Although I'm not really a fan - that doesn't mean I don't appreciate it - I was intrigued by some of his imagery. Since I only need to be inspired by it to make my own art, I finally found a painting on the internet that excited my imagination. It's called Aurora by Dali, 1948 - or is it?

When I went looking for more information this morning and couldn't find anything, my daughter did a search. It turns out that there is no painting called Aurora by Salvador Dali. The painting is actually called Sunrise by the Ocean by Vladimir Kush, 2000 (see Related Links below).

I'm scheduled to post my art piece on May 21st. Be sure to check it out 😊 Don't worry, I'll remind you!

What I learned
  • I suspected that I wouldn't be impressed with the little blocks from the Comfort quilt. There's absolutely nothing wrong with them except that they have tiny 1" blocks. I have really big hands and it's just a little too fiddly for me. I made a few to get my first quilt done but I'll probably be avoiding them, unless of course I happen to be in an extra zen mood (right!)
  • I really love Amy Ellis's new book. My favourite thing (other than the gorgeous quilts) is that each quilt had a "One at a time" section. This gives the fabric requirements for those, like me, who make their blocks one at a time. It makes my life so much easier, not having to figure out what the fabric requirements are for only one block. Thanks Amy - that was brilliant!
  • I was really surprised that Dali got so much credit for Vladimir Kush's painting. My daughter wasn't surprised - apparently miss-attribution happens a lot. It's a good thing that I have an art-historian daughter - it seems that you can't always trust the internet!
Related Links

Linking Parties
I'm linking this post to Dreami! and posting pictures of my progress on the Comfort Quilt QAL on Instagram at #comfortquiltqal.
Oh Scrap!, Finished or Not Friday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Design Wall Monday, Moving It Forward Monday, Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, Needle & Thread Thursday, Midweek Makers,


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