Progress ... SLOW but steady

It hasn't been as easy as I would have liked thus far, a few pieces are a little askew and so it’s definitely taking time to get this quilt together. This is the first 'section' that I have assembled. I still have the appliquéd stars to make but most of the smaller pieced bits are now together. Hopefully I will find a little more time this week and weekend to get this project moving along. I have one grouping that needs some serious stitch ripping and re-adjustment or its just not going to look right in the end.


But for all those of you who were concerned about there being no faces, as you can see they now have faces. All twelve blocks have faces, the snowmen have button noses in the shapes of carrots. Thanks to my mom and sister who helped me with the faces.

Night Train

Disclaimer - I have an affinity for baby quilts. I have tons of patterns for baby quilts that I would like to make. This is a paper pieced pattern which I really enjoyed. I generally like the look appliqued baby quilts better because the patterns are rounder/cuter but I really like this one, thought it was really sweet and fun.
Paper piecing is very accurate and easy once you get the hang of it, I couldn't believe how perfectly the little stop lights came out. I actually know someone who paper pieces most of their pieced blocks, and in all honestly I've certainly given it some thought now and again.

Frosty Babies

I am lucky enough to have 2 best friends. One of my best friends lives in California despite having grown up in Ottawa. To remind her of one of the things she loves most about home I decided to make her a snowman lap quilt. The pattern is from Brandywine designs, I hand appliqued the snowpeople, and then put it together by machine, and machine quilted the blocks.
The quilt has worn very well, and we'll keep our fingers crossed that things will continue that way.

Sorry, this picture was obviously taken without the help of sunlight.

If you like this pattern you should definitely checkout Brandywine Designs, they have a lot of patterns I love.

Sunshine & Shadows

I made this quilt last summer as a house warming gift for my best friend. It was my first full sized pieced quilt. Its made of a simple block , where the block is rotated through the 4 different orientations. I was drawn to the repeating diamond pattern created within the pattern. To quilt it I simply stitched in the ditch.

This quilt was a a bit of a lesson for me in colour choices, given that half the quilt is made up of neutral beiges I didn't realize that the finished product would be quite so bright

I made the half triangles with the help of a paper template called "Thangles". It really made things go a lot faster to not have to measure or mark any of these pieces. Simply sew on the dotted line.

Meet Rucinda

Thinking my bestfriend might like Amy Butler's Birdie sling, I showed her the pattern only to have her say that not only did she love the pattern but loved the fabrics featured in the pictures. So while not original, I made this bag as one of her Christmas presents. Shown in the right, Miss Rucinda was testing the bag out for us.

(For some strange reason Rucinda is obsessed with fabric and constantly wants to touch every piece of it that's not tucked away.)

If I were making this bag for me, I would reduce the width of the straps where the strap meets the bag, I find the opening left on the sides is a little on the small side. Other than that I really like the bag, the lining is interfaced with fuseable fleece, and the outside with a heavier weight fuseable interfacing. In addition to the pockets inside I added a strap with a hook for keys.

This is the last of the Christmas bags. Although in reality Birthday bags are probably right around the corner.