Category Archives: Quilting

Anna 2.0

Quilting
Anna (from Little Handfuls of Scraps)

I hope this pattern is the hardest one in the book. Deloise struggled with it when it came up on her list and I know Stacia is also dreading it. It was my project for two months of sewing.

I tried to work the pattern exactly as the book said but I wasn’t able to get the Y-seams correct and everything was a mess. I salvaged what I could and tried hand sewing those Y-seams but still no luck. Anna went into the bin.

But I hated to give up so I came up with another plan. I would make the stars which, by comparison, were quite easy. The idea was then to appliqué the stars onto a background and avoid those Y-seams.

To some extent that worked but in order to get the right size I needed to trim off a quarter inch on each of the raw edges. I marked the quarter inch and used scissors to trim them.

The placement on the background isn’t quite right but it was good enough to add the border and do some dense straight-line quilting.

I was so happy to be done that I neglected to add the hanging sleeve to the back but I’ve stitched it on by hand and, hopefully, it will be strong enough to hold. I’ll hang it on my stairwell to replace one that I’m sending to Elizabeth.

Since it isn’t quite as the designer intended I’m calling this one Anna, version 2.0.

I think it is interesting to note that when Deloise was on an evacuation alert due to the forest fires her version of Anna is the only quilted project she loaded into her car!

Congratulations Dylan and Will

Cards, Quilting

June, 2023

Both Dylan and Will are graduating this year. In fact in just over an hour Dylan will be crossing the stage to get his diploma. I have to assume that Will won’t be looking at my website and seeing his card before he graduates at the end of the month.

Both boys have spent time on the Honour Roll; Dylan will be going to college in the fall and Will heads off to University.

Andrew

Quilting
Andrew (from Little Handfuls of Scraps by Edyta Sitar)

This was my April project for the sewing day with Stacia and Deloise; I’m going through the book alphabetically while my sisters have picked a different path through the book. This is one that Stacia had already done so I was able to get some pointers from her.

When I was picking my fabrics, all scraps, I was happy that I had pieces already cut that fit the pattern almost perfectly. For another project I’d been saving 1.5″ x 3″ pieces; this called for 1″ x 3″ so it involved only a bit of trimming.

The piece went together very quickly and I was completely finished, binding and all, before our last check-in of the afternoon – a first for me.

Happy Birthday Madison

Cards, Quilting

April 10, 2023

~ 25″ x 32″

As part of last Christmas’s 12 Days package each family received a colouring book with quilt blocks. I asked them to colour a few blocks and send me their favourites. Madison was the only one who sent me a photo of the block she created. So for her birthday “card” I decided to make the block for her.

I must have looked at her photo a hundred or more times both in the designing stage and in the actual making of the piece. How on earth I made such a glaring error I have no idea. But I didn’t notice it until I was well into the quilting and it was far too late to make the correction.

I ran out of basting spray so had to sandwich using pins. All my big quilting pins were in use in other sandwiches so I had to use the small ones. With my numb fingers it was a challenge to get the pins closed. Another challenge was getting the pins open and removed as I ran up against them in the quilting process. Tying and burying the ends was also difficult.

Except for the mistake I made I’m happy with how it turned out. When I started quilting I had no idea what patterns I would use in the blocks but as I finished the first bit ideas came to me. It is all straight lines but I’m pleased with the effect.

I used one of my own coloured pieces for the label.