A Barrel of Monkeys…

July 29, 2015September 20, 20153 Comments

Last week seemed like a barrel of monkeys with all the activities

that were going on but I am back on track this week.

Lynn created this adorable Sock Monkey quilt.

The fabrics in this quilt are so much fun; Lynn always has really

cool fabric. These sock monkeys are no exception.

Lynn decided that she wanted an all over design so we went with

“Quirky.” What a great name for a design and it fits the monkeys perfectly.

How can you not love these critters? Even the backing shouts monkeys.

When I loaded this quilt on the frame, I mistakenly put the backing on

the front. I had to take it off and reload it once again. Whose acting like

a monkey now?

It is a pieced backing so it will seem as if the receipent is getting 2 quilts in one.

Here is the backing. We used a light yellow polyester thread for the

front and the back of this quilt. There are alot of different colors so the

yellow blends well with all of them.

Here is another quilt that Lynn created. She is quite the creative

quilting force.

Lynn chose “Happy Times.” It adds nice texture and movement

to the rectangular shapes of the quilt top.

The backing consisted of a blue fabric and the stitching shows up nicely.

Can you see the string of pearls on the fabric?

Karen made this quilt at a local quilt shop. It was a BOM Quilt

with lots of piecing in it. The colors are really soft and beautiful.

This section of the outer border shows up the quilting nicely. Karen chose

“Celtic Vine” as her all over pattern; a taupe polyester thread was used as well.

The taupe blends with all the colors yet isn’t too loud for the quilt.

Here is the backing fabric, although a little dark.

A close up of the panto on the back of the quilt. This is a really

classy design that works well with alot of designs.

Have a great week!

Busy as a beaver…

July 15, 2015September 28, 20155 Comments

The Even though it is hot outside, I am still quilting away. Usually the summer time

is quiet for me but this year that is not the case.

Anne has also been busy.

This quilt is made from strips of fabric sewn together. The colours remind

me of fall.

Here is a close up of the strips. You can also see the panto that I used.

Anne is giving this to her son in law and he loves camping; thus the tent.

Isn’t the tent cool? Makes me want to go camping. Too bad you can’t control

the weather when you do though.

The back of the quilt was a solid green colour. We used a gold brown

polyester thread for the front and back of the quilt. Anne Bright designed

the tent and camping panto.

I am sure that her son in law will love the quilt.

This is the second quilt that belongs to Anne. Another strip quilt

but in a different layout. It amazes me of how many different quilt

layouts can be made using the same idea, in this case, strips.

Again, we used the same gold brown polyester thread for the top and the

back of the quilt. This time, though, we used a panto with oak leaves all

over it. This was an autumn theme quilt for sure.

The back of the quilt shows off the quilting nicely. Anne is certainly going

to be busy making and adding the binding now too.

Hope you are having a great week.

Guess who I saw last week?

July 8, 2015July 8, 20154 Comments

Guess who I saw several weeks ago?

Yes, that is Judi Madsen. The picture of me is terrible but who cares

when you are standing next to Judi. There were 2 days of classes at

The Quilting Bee, in Fonthill, Ontario.

It was a fun 2 days and Judi is so funny and crazy when she teaches.

Besides that, life is back to normal. Here are a few of the finishes I have

had lately.

Anne’s Quilt

This is Anne’s Elephant Quilt. She made it for a friend who loves elephants.

I think she will love it. Anne chose a panto that was called “Elephant Safari” by

Anne Bright. And she chose a rich browny gold thread color for the front and

the backing.

The backing is a very rich looking as well.

elephants on the backing

Although the print on the front is busy there are

elephants on the quilt; they may be shy and hiding but they are there.

Arlene made this adorable Alphabet Quilt for one of her

grandkids. She bought the panel at Lens Mills and the backing at

Fabricland. Looking at both fabrics, you would think that they came

from the same place.

The backing has a cream background color and has red children and words

written all over it. Perfect for this quilt. Arlene wanted a light panto so she

chose “Happy Times”. And we used a cream polyester thread for the front and

backing.

Arlene cut up the panel and added pictures to correlate with each letter of the

alphabet. Borders, in cream and red were added to make the quilt bigger.

The backing

Overall, a very cute quilt indeed.

Helene made this great 3D quilt. Can you imagine staring at this

while piecing it together? Any teenager would love this quilt.

And look at all those pieces? Wow!

I can’t remember how many blocks were in this quilt but Helene

does deserve a medal for this one. We used a monfilament thread for the

top and a black polyester thread for the backing. Helene didn’t want the

color of the thread to take away from the design of the top. Who could

blame her? I would want the piecing to be the focal point as well.

That is why we chose the monofilament thread. Usually, I use it for

stitching around applique so I don’t have to change thread colors

constantly but it works in this situation as well.

We used a really open panto called ” Swirl” by Norma Sharp.

It worked well and the piecing does show up first. The monofilament

thread worked well and I had no tension problems at all.

The backing was black and the texture looks good as well.

back of Helene’s quilt

I have also managed to complete my July block for the

Oceans BOM,over at Quilt Art Designs.

Enjoy your week and keep on stitching.

Happy Canada Day!

July 1, 2015July 3, 20153 Comments

Happy Canada Day to all the Canadian bloggers out there.

I was thinking about why I like Canada so much and here are a few items.

Freedom, maple syrup, lots of open space, lobster, salmon, trees,

and beautiful scenery. Sad how alot of what I mentioned revolves around food.

Oh, I forgot the great fabric stores all across Canada as well.

Happy Canada Day!

This was a fabric postcard I made last year for an exchange, but

it was stolen in the mail. Someone was overly patriotic last year.

Here are a few of the quilts that I have finished lately. This quilt was made by

some ladies at a local quilt store, Country Concessions. One of the ladies has

cancer and her co-workers decided to make her a quilt.

She loves butterflies and the color purple so both were combined. What a

kind and thoughtful idea.

3D butterfly

A 3D butterfly. I couldn’t quilt over it so I went around it. I used a white polyester

thread for the top and backing. A butterfly panto was used as well.

The butterfly quilt

Each person used the same fabrics but created their own unique block

that revolved around the butterfly theme.

I think this was my favorite block of the whole quilt. You have got to

love the butterfly bra. I need to get one of these.

Here is the entire quilt. It is interesting that the back was made of

minky. I was a bit nervous putting it on the frame because I thought that

it would stretch like crazy.

It didn’t stretch as bad as I thought that it would. One interesting

occurence though was that the minky fibers came through to the front of the

quilt. I had used a white thread on the backing and you couldn’t even see the

white thread but the purple fibers came through to the front. So, I adjusted

my top tension by loosening it alot. It did help somewhat but I had to take

a needle and push the fibers back through the stitching holes. There was only

one really bad spot anyways so it all worked out in the end.

The recepient loved the quilt so that is all that really matters.

It was beautiful and I love the minky on the back. I think that I will have to put it

on a few of my baby quilts.

Have you ever worked with minky? Let me know what you think about it.

Kay’s Quilt

This is Kay’s quilt. She is quite the piecer, perfectly straight borders and

no ruffles anywhere.

Kay wanted to used Celtic Vine for the panto design and we used a light cream

polyester thread for the top and the backing.

I think it turned out beautifully.

Back of Kay’s quilt

The backing is gorgeous with all the texture from the quilting.

I think the texture is what makes my heart flutter.

Here is the latest completed block from the Oceans BOM,

over Quilt Art Designs.

June block of Oceans BOM

Can you guess what animals these are?

Have a great Canada DAy!

Stitching Impressions

All aspects of longarm quilting

Month: July 2015

A Barrel of Monkeys…

Busy as a beaver…

Guess who I saw last week?

Happy Canada Day!