Merry Christmas!

 Good Morning!  Finn and our daughter arrived last night for the holidays so the festivities can begin now!  I did a bit of cross stitch on my Christmas project.  The wreath is getting there!  I hope to have more time to work on this after Christmas Day!  

I have been sewing a fair bit this past week, finishing off gifts for friends and family.  While I can't show you pictures of my projects yet, here is evidence that the sewing machine has not been idle.  I use a make up brush to clean my machine--lots of fluff!  My sewing machine is much happier now!

Here are a few pictures of Finn to round out this post.   We are so happy that he is healthy and excited to be here!  You may remember that he was very sick last Christmas. 

This glowing collar makes him more visible in the dark when he's out for his walks.  

Our family has plans for reading and puzzle making after Christmas. I hope to have some time to sit and relax and enjoy some slow stitching and knitting over the holidays.  I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.  I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers now. 

LMQG Swap: What is it?

Members of the London Modern Quilt Guild are swapping small quilts with members of the Ancaster Modern Quilt Guild.  Christine and I both decided to participate in the swap. We received the name and preferences of our swap partners in February and the quilts were due at our July meeting this past Saturday.  Now that my quilt is handed in, I can show it to you on my blog!

I started by making some random sized building blocks with some brightly coloured scraps.

I was on a roll and did not take any more process pictures as I put it together in two evening sewing sessions.  I used a light grey diagonal mesh print for my background. It was fun to figure out how to piece it together from my building blocks. At this point, I showed it to my husband to see if he could tell what it is...his guess...A HAT!  He was wrong.

I quilted it with fuchsia thread...the lines are the width of a piece of green painter's tape and the second set of lines are two pieces of painter's tape wide.  Painter's tape was my friend when I was quilting this quilt!  Next, I did diagonal lines through every other intersection in both directions...I'm not sure that is a good explanation, so I will show you...

The idea for the quilting came from Jacquie Gering's book "Walk" and also from the two day walking foot quilting class that I took with Jacquie a couple of years ago.  I think the quilting makes my quilt sparkle!

Several years ago, my friend, Erin, gave me a couple of yards of this fabric. It makes an interesting backing for my swap quilt and the colours are similar to those on the front.

It is bound in fuchsia grunge fabric.  Have you guessed what I was trying to depict yet?   Yup--it is a SEWING MACHINE! I hope my swap partner likes it!  Maybe she will find a spot to hang it in her sewing room.

Stormy Afternoon

It is pouring rain outside this afternoon so I am inside working on a sewing project.  I don't mind the rain at all...my garden and grass were thirsty and I needed some "me" time! I am going to link up to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching--something I have not done in a while.  I hope hand basting a wall hanging before machine quilting it counts for slow stitching!

 I worked on this project at the Modern Quilt Guild retreat back in April and now that I have figured out how to use the walking foot on my new sewing machine, I am ready to quilt it!  I am using the pin fabric for the backing.

The new machine is working well!  I have a plan for quilting this wall hanging with circles and curves, echoing the edges of the paper pieced arcs.

I am using the edge of the walking foot as my guide.  I took a class on quilting with my walking foot with Jacquie Gering in April too so I am putting my new skills to work on this quilt.

I did 5 rows of stitching around the centre circle and now I am working on the outside 3/4 circles. I will show a picture of the completed project later this week.  It should not take too long to finish quilting it.  I will have to decide on binding too--Do I use a bright colour or just more of the background fabric??? Time will tell.

I have not done a stash report in ages...

Fabric used since my last stash report: 22.6yards
Total fabric used this year: 61.1 yards
Fabric added to the stash since my last report: 21.5 yards.
Total fabric added this year: 67.75 yards
Net fabric added this year:  6.65 yards
Slow improvement in the numbers...

I have more quilt backs to make so this should continue to get closer to being in the black soon.

This peony is blooming in my garden.  This plant once belonged to my husband's grandmother. 

Have a good week.

Before and After

Before I went to Michigan for the Beaver Island Quilt Retreat, I thoroughly cleaned my sewing machine. I used my paint brush to get rid of all of the fuzzies that were in the bobbin mechanism and in the upper part of the machine. I oiled the bobbin winder, as it was making a terrible screeching sound like it was being tortured every time I wound a bobbin. It was much quieter after oiling!  I also oiled the other moving parts of the machine and ran the machine to get all the oil worked it. I changed the needle and wound several bobbins in preparation for my sewing extravaganza.

Christine and I got together for our weekly sewing night earlier this week and before she arrived, I decided to clean my sewing machine ... I think it was overdue!  Yuck!  You can tell I did lots of sewing at BIQR!

It is all cleaned out now, and humming along happily once again.

I tried a new block when Christine was here...it is a disappearing 4 patch.

This one is destined for an Elgin Piecemakers charity quilt. The colours for our November meeting are lime green, black and white.  The instructions on how to make this block can be found here. (http://round22.blogspot.ca/2012/07/disappearing-4-patch-with-twist.html) It looks complicated but is really quite simple to make. The only tricky part...there are lots of bias edges to sew together. I also worked on a Christmas gift.

Christine is making a Scrappy Trips Halloween quilt for her family to snuggle while watching Halloween movies together.   She hopes to have it done by this Halloween.

Looking good, Christine!

My next post will be about Gwen's quilts that she showed us at BIQR.