Color Your World Red

My friend M-R over at Quilt Matters has challenged herself and others to experiment with color this year.

Every month we are to work with a different color.  January was RED!  One of my favorite colors!

I decided to challenge myself to make monochromatic star blocks every month.  Each star will be different but will measure 12 inches finished. I am hoping to make a sampler quilt with them all at the end of the year.  

Here is my red star!

It took me a while to get it right and I did change the fabrics around a few times but I love the end result!

If you want to see what others have done with the color red please head on over to M-R's.

Please vote for me!!

I entered this quilt in the weekly themed quilt contests over at the Quilting Gallery.

Please head on over and vote for me!!

Thank you so much!!

Getting ready!

I've been working on these little labels this week.  They're for the cuddle quilts we made for Mary.

See those red tweezers?  They are my new all-time favorite tool!!  I use them to help me cut the little threads between the letters on my embroidery.  I wish I had bought them ages ago! 

I am also getting ready this week... getting ready for our in-town retreat!

Our quilt group has a retreat at my mom's every winter.  I think this is the 4th year we do this.  It is nice to get together for 3 days and play with our fabric together in my mom's basement.  We have great meals together too, but we get to go home to our families and our own beds.

Friday is a PD day for my girls so my dad was going to watch them while I got to start on my projects.  When I told my 6 year old what our plans were for Friday, she told me she wanted to sew too!

I got so excited!  She made herself a little cushion back in the fall.  When I asked her what she wanted to make, she said she wants to make a bigger cushion.

Monday she came home with an invitation to a birthday party.  We decided she would make a small cushion for her friend too! 

So here is some of the fabric I've gotten ready for her projects...

And here are some of the projects I will be working on...

The photo above is a quilt for my bed I started about 4 years ago.  I really want to get it done so I can put it on my bed.  There is a pieced border made up of smaller stars.  I am still working on the smaller stars.

This photo is a jelly roll I have yet to get ready.  We are all making the The Jelly Roll 1,600 Quilt.

We have decided to all have our strips sewn end to end so we are ready to start sewing the rows together  on Saturday afternoon.  I will definitely post pics of the finished products!

I am also planning on working on my challenge for the Guild and maybe make some mug rugs or work on a table runner I have started, using hexies.

Looking forward to a great weekend with my quilty friends!!  Hope you have a great weekend too!

Labels

I have been busy this week making labels.

I make custom embroidery labels for myself and others.

Some of you have seen the labels I have posted here on my blog. 

I make them on my Designer I.  I have been making labels for a year now and really enjoy it.

It is so nice to be able to put that finishing touch on a quilt.  Not only can a label tell you who made the quilt but it can tell you who it is for and if it was made for a special occasion.  It is nice to have the date on a quilt, for future reference.

  

It is especially nice to offer someone a quilt as a gift and have that personalized touch on the back saying, "I made this just for you!"

I work on my labels on the computer using the Husqvarna 5D software.  Then I send my customer a mock-up of their label for their approval.  I can then make changes before actually sewing the label onto the fabric.  Once it is to their liking, I sew it up and send it off.  It's as easy as that! (As long as my machine co-operates!)

If you are interested in purchasing a customized label (or know of someone who is), please feel free to contact me.

A Tisket A Tasket and a Couple of Challenges

Yesterday was a cold day and I had no plans to go out so I declared it a sewing day!

I finished machine appliquéing my A Tisket A Tasket blocks over the holidays.  I would really like to show this quilt at The Common Thread Quilt Guild's Quilt Show this May so I left the blocks up on my design wall once they were appliquéd.  I took yesterday as the perfect opportunity to put the top together.  

Now all I have left is to add the border and then it's off to my mom's to get quilted.

Back in November I mentioned the Challenge at our Guild.  You can click here to read up on it again.

I have finally come up with a design and would like to share with you the fabrics I will be using.

The 4 fabrics on the top are the ones that were included in the kit and must be in the quilt top.  I am adding the bottom fabrics plus one more that I still need to find!  It needs to be just right.

I love a good challenge.  My friend M-R over at Quilt Matters has invited me to join her Colour My World - Colour Your World Challenge, which you can read about here and here.  

We will be experimenting with one colour every month. 

I have decided to make a 12" monochromatic star block every month.  I am hoping to make a quilt out of all the blocks so I have decided not to quilt them.

The colour for January is RED.  I cut out my fabrics last night and my block is up on my design wall.  I am still playing with a few pieces... this is harder than I thought!  I must say that I really like it so far though and can't wait to share my red star with you at the end of the month!

Charity

Every year, my mom and I, (and some of our friends), work on these little cuddle quilts.

 My mom has a friend in Markham, Mary, who was a nurse at the North York General Hospital.  

We have been making these cuddle quilts for her, for 8 years now.  They are given to the parents who give birth to babies who are stillborn or who haven't made it to term.  The nurses and volunteers in the bereavement unit dress the little ones with little hats and booties and nighties, that are also donated, and then lay them on our little cuddle quilts for them to have a final moment with their little angels.  The parents then get to take all of the donated items home with them as a momento.

We always make them around the holidays and finish off a bunch of them in January to send to Mary.  It makes us feel like we started off the year right.

Although it is sad, it makes us feel good and warms our hearts that we could do a little something to help these families go through one of the most difficult moments in their life.

A Giveaway and TGIFF Hawaiian Style Appliqué

I don't know about you but I love a fabric giveaway... and I have yet to win one, but that's another story!

Rebecca over at Our Busy Little Bunch is celebrating her birthday by giving away 2 Fat Quarter Bundles!  Go check it out by clicking here!

Last summer I read The Aloha Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini.

About 5 years ago, I took a class in Hawaiian style appliqué.

It is just a simple 20" block.  

It was one of my UFOs.  After reading the book, I bugged asked my mother if she would have time to quilt it for me.

I just finished the binding yesterday.

I absolutely loved everything about making this quilt, from cutting the paper pattern, to the needle turn appliqué.  I do have another small 20" block started, but after reading The Aloha Quilt, I really want to make a bigger Hawaiian style quilt!  Jennifer really describes the process so well!

And I wouldn't say no to a trip to Hawaii either! 

Go check other great finishes at Quokka Quilts!

Happy New Year!

I know, I am a little late in wishing you all a Happy 2012, but we had a sick little girl here and so other things took priority over quilting and the blog. 

She is doing much better now and I can share with you my last finish for 2011!

This is a WIP/UFO from the Piecemakers calendar for 2000.

Yes, I said 2000.  That means this project is 12 years old!  I started it in 1999 or 2000 (I can't remember!)

I worked on it on and off for a few years.  This was my first project using needle turn applique.  I had a lot of fun making this landscape.

I had done embroidery before but not on a quilt project.

It was also my first time doing ribbon embroidery.  I really enjoyed it and find it so pretty!

The windows are reverse applique and were then stitched with one strand of embroidery floss.

One of the reasons it took me so long to finish this project is because it was all done by hand (except the borders, which were added on by machine) and so I really wanted to try to hand quilt it.  As I was trying to scratch projects off my list of UFOs in 2011, and my hand quilting wasn't getting any better, I asked my mother to machine quilt it on her Gammill.  She did the most wonderful job!  She even used some metallic threads in the snow and sky!  

I finished hand sewing the binding on December 31st, as my husband was watching the hockey game.  

And so, although I am a little late, I wish you all a very happy and quilty 2012!!