Project Progress

This is the progress on my projects since New Year’s Day.

1. I have pieced another 17 color catcher string blocks. They still need to be trimmed, but that is a job I will leave till an evening in front of the TV. This is an ongoing project. As I have color catchers and strings of fabric, I continue to make these and store them in a box. When I have enough to make a quilt, I sit down and piece the top. I will never run out of string blocks, nor will this project ever end.

2. This is the color catcher string quilt that I quilted on New Year’s Day. It now has a binding machine sewn to the front. All this quilt needs is the hand work to fasten the binding to the back of the quilt. I will be taking this project with me to work on at my Monday night quilt group.

3. This is my dryer string diamond quilt. I finished this quilt to the flimsy stage back on May 27, 2007. It was time it was quilted! I quilted it using the Baptist Fan template. This one just needs the binding now.

4. This is my Christmas Patience Corners quilt. I worked on adding blocks to this one in the last couple of days. Currently this top is 73″ wide. I bought some backing on Friday (from the last of the bolts left from Liquidation World’s sale) that was 108″ wide. I think I will make this quilt as wide as I can to make maximum use of the backing. That means I will likely need to add another 1 1/2 blocks (if you count a group of four squares as a block) to the width of this quilt for a total of 7 1/2 blocks in width. I started this quilt top back in December 2006.

This is a picture of the wide fabric that I bought for the back of my Patience Corner quilt. It is bright and wild. Those flowers are at least 10″ across. I think I mentioned before that bright green is my new favorite colour!

Customer Quilts

The last customer quilt for Christmas delivery is finished and off the frame! Picture me doing a happy dance!

As I scan through the pictures of the customer quilts that have been finished recently, I wonder how many of these quilts will be under the tree this year, ready to surprise friends and family, ready to wrap the recipient in a warm hug………
















Customer Quilt

One of the things I enjoy most about quilting for others is the stories that go along with the quilts.

This quilt is owned by a self proclaimed non-quilter and non-sewer. The blocks were inherited from my customer’s step mother. My customer set the blocks together using a small floral print fabric that closely matches the time period that the blocks were made. The blocks were hand embroidered by friends and family of my customer’s stepmother. These blocks are old and only one or two people are still alive today that originally made these blocks. This quilt holds great sentimental significance to the owner. I was thrilled to have a part in preserving these memories.

This first picture shows the quilt from the back.

This quilt was quilted exclusively with Circle Lord templates: the heart, the wave, and tiles.

This quilt has Thermore for batting as the quilter was originally thinking of hand quilting this piece. She decided she did not have the time to commit to hand quilting this quilt and so she came to see me. The Thermore makes this quilt extremely light and soft. This is the first time that I used Thermore on the long arm and I was pleasantly surprised with the results.







Fall is Here!

Fall is definitely here! Some days, I think we have moved past fall and into winter. This was what we woke up to Thursday morning. That snow is awfully close!

These pictures were taken from the deck of my parents’ house.

I love to decorate for the changing seasons. This year, I have included the entrance in my decorating. This is the front door of our house.

A wreath in fall colours.
A mum to welcome visitors.

Before we go inside, there are a few plants still thriving outside that I want to show you. Soon the cool evening temperatures will force the end of these plants, but for now they are here to enjoy. I am not sure what this plant was called, but I just love it. I will be sure to plant this in my hanging baskets again next year.


This is my husband’s Castor bean plant. He brought it home in a small 4″ pot at the beginning of August. It is extremely fast growing. Since they aren’t hardy in our climate, we will have to plant one again next spring.


The flower / seed pod.
Once inside, there are two quilts hanging in the entrance. This is “Moonlight over the Pumpkin Patch”. This is a quilt that was just finished last weekend. Finishing this one allows me to cross another UFO off my list on my sidebar for this year. The quilt pattern was BQ. I started this quilt over a year ago. I first saw a quilt made from this pattern at the Lynden fair. Although it is a simple pattern, I was distracted and didn’t finish until now.


Does the pumpkin fabric look familiar? I used what was left over from this project to make the latest 4 patch stacked posies quilt that I have been working on.

This is a quilt that I bring out to the living room each fall for snuggling under while watching TV.

This quilt made from the Warm Wishes pattern is hanging in my dining room.

A closeup of the fabric and clam shell quilting with variegated thread.

And this quilt is on the table.

Customer Quilts

My quilting life has been busy lately. Not only was I working on the wedding quilts for my niece, but I have been trying to keep up to the customer quilts. The first quilt I have to show you is a colour wash sort of quilt–completed by a newer quilter. I think she was so brave to work on all those white triangles on this quilt!

This is a closeup showing the wave quilting pattern which echoed the lateral movement of the quilt. The fabrics were gorgeous!

I received 7 table runners to quilt for another customer. I finished 6 and had to wait for backing for the 7th. It is interesting to see all the table runners together–same pattern, different fabrics. They all have their own unique personality. This customer is ahead on her Christmas projects–she plans to give these all away as gifts during the festive season.






There was one more customer quilt. I promised I would not show pictures of it until after our quilt guild meeting as it is part of the summer black and white challenge. Our first guild meeting of the year is the third wednesday of this month. I will post pictures of the quilt after that night’s show and tell.