Exciting News to Share

     I have some exciting news to share. Do you remember my minimalist star quilt that I posted about here?  Well it was accepted into the Star Issue of Curated Quilts and I couldn't be happier.  I didn't have to wait until the issue came out to let you know but somehow I didn't feel comfortable sharing the news until I had seen it with my own two eyes.  Here it is in print with the original beside it.

     I love Curated Quilts magazine and if I was an American I would have a subscription for sure.  Each issue is full of wonderful inspiration and interesting articles on Modern Quilting and sometimes on quilt history.  So far I have been able to buy my issues from Mad About Patchwork which makes them slightly more affordable than ordering direct.  Postage from the U.S. is just so expensive.

     There is a mini challenge for each issue of Curated Quilts.  So far I have participated in two of them.  I had an idea for the Black and White Issue but no time to execute it.  I'm looking forward to further challenges in the future.  Have you made any quilts for the Curated Quilts challenges?

Octobers Goal

     As a rule I don't make Holiday themed quilts, but I'm a nana now to two little boys who just love cute animal stuffies. So when I saw this kit at Creative Sisters i just had to pick it up to make for the boys and their parents. 

     I just know that Gabriel and Eli will love the tigers and penguins and bears on the panel, but they won't be young forever ( they are three and two at the moment) so I think I have to put it together quickly.  I'm hoping to give it to them at the beginning of December.  My goal is to finish the quilt top by the end of the month, which gives me the month of November to quilt the quilt.
     Of course it's not the only thing I'll be working on this month so we will see how I do.  I'm linking up with Patty for the OMG for October linkup.

Septembers Goal is Done!

     I put the last stitches in the binding last night, which let me just squeeze this finish in before the end of the month.
My eight sisterhood sisters holding hands around the mini quilt.  I received seven of these blocks in the sister hood block swap earlier in the year.

     I have to admit there were times this month that I didn't think I would manage to get it done.  Like that week I had a virus and just couldn't bring myself to do anything in the evenings.  But it's done and I couldn't be happier.
     Here's a close up of my "big" stitch quilting.

I used three strands of Aurifil embroidery thread.  I chose a light ivory colour to fade into the background.  I seem to prefer to have the quilting play a more supportive role to the piecing, although as my quilting improves I may change that preference.  If you are interested in purchasing the pattern for this cute paper pieced block you can pick it up at Happy Sew Lucky.

Linking with Patty of Elm Street Quilts for the OMG linkup and with the 3rd quarter 2019 FAL. The original post is here.

     

Mosaic Mystery Update

     One of the fun things about being in a quilt along is getting to post pictures of the sub units in interesting arrangements.

     Here are my "house" blocks for the Mosaic Mystery hosted by Cheryl of Meadowmist Designs.  I think they are looking very much like a mosaic tile floor!  
     Last weekend I celebrated a birthday, and since that birthday I have started to work just two days a week.  I managed to sew up these blocks on Wednesday afternoon.
Some of my free time has been filled with catch up medical appointments and some of it has been filled up with time with the boys, but I am hoping to continue to squeeze in more sewing time.
     My Tuesday afternoons are set up to go to Wendy's to work on the sit down long arm, and I did manage to do that on Tuesday.  Here's a sneak peek at my quilting.

     Can you see it?  It's the dogwood pattern.  I'm working with a 50 weight Aurifil pink thread.  It's a pretty big quilt and I am almost 1/2 done.  I am continuing to quilt fairly sparsely which is fine for me at the moment.  I suspect I'll quilt more densely as time goes on.  My plan for quilting is to alternate working on one of my own quilts with working on a quilt for the guild.
     The coming week brings a couple of Dwight's aunts to stay at our place as they visit a friend who is not well, followed by a visit by our daughter.  We will see how the quilting goes with this much activity in the house. I do have to make sure the Modern Guild charity quilt is at a point where we can move on with it at our sew in next weekend.
     I'm linking up with the September Mosaic Mystery Linkup.  Will I see you there?
    

Jelly Roll Waves is Finished

    I'm not quite sure what happened to September.  I didn't post much.  I did sew a fair bit but there wasn't a lot that was sharable.  My weekends were all really busy and I didn't seem to have the time to post.

I finished the quilting on the jelly roll waves quilt at the beginning of the month but I didn't manage to get around to the binding till this last weekend.  Here she is.

     It was pretty grey out when I took the photo but the quilt has enough colour to brighten up the sky.  The Jelly Roll is 
Betty's Luncheonette and the fabric is designed by Violet Craft.  The designs remind me of the forties and fifties.  You can see them on the leather seats of the luncheonette or on the tables or chairs, or maybe on curtains from the time.

     When I was on my knees pin basting the quilt and looking at the starburst pattern that turns up in a lot of the prints I remembered the sparkler quilting design I had seen on Leanne's blog Devoted Quilter.  You can see it here.
I quilted this quilt on my domestic sewing machine using white 50weight aurifil thread. The pattern for the quilt is Jelly Roll Waves by Myra of Busy Hands Quilts.

     I had a lot of fun practicing my free motion quilting on this quilt. The stippling part of the design is definitely starting to flow a bit better.

     I'm not sure what the batting is or the background fabric of colourful dots.  I got each of these from our guild stash as I'm donating this quilt to our outreach program.  This is my third finish for the 3rd quarter of the 2019 finish along.  The original list is here.  I'm linking up with the Jelly Roll Waves Quilt Along
on Myra's Blog and with Bragg About Your Beauties later in the week. I'm also linking with the 3rd Q FAL at She Can Quilt.

September Goal

     I have a confession to make.  My August goal which I thought would be on the difficult side was so easy I got it done the day after I made the goal.....so I didn't bother to link it up to the finishes link up.  My goal was to sew the sisterhood blocks into a quilt top.  After giving up on perfection, it came together very nicely and I have been big stitch quilting it here and there over the last few weeks.

     My goal for September is to finish the hand quilting and bind this little beauty.  You can see that I am using 3/4" painters tape to mark by stitching lines.
     I'm also hoping to finish free motion quilting my Jelly Roll Waves quilt.  I'm half way done.  I'd also like to get my blocks done for the Mosaic Mystery.  There are a lot of them and September is a busy month.  Do I say this every month?
Linking up with Patty of Elm Street Quilts for the September OMG linkup.

2019 Online Quilters Meet and Greet

   

     Hello there!  Welcome to my stop on the 2019 Online Quilters Meet and Great.  I'm glad you are here.  As you are here I guess I should introduce myself.  My name is Lisa and I live with my husband Dwight and our cat Bennie in  a  medium sized city, in southwestern Ontario Canada.  We have two adult children and two young grand children.

     I have been quilting for something in between 15 and 20 years but very very part time at the beginning so it seems like less time to me.   I increased my quilting time when my kids went to university and that's when I started blogging.  Now that grand kids are in the picture I am finding it a bit harder to get to the sewing projects and the blog.  At the end of September however I'll be going down to 2 days a week at work so I am hoping I can squeeze in a little more quilting and blogging time.

     I belong to two guilds. The local traditional guild, where for several years most of my energy has gone into making donation quilts.  I also belong to the local modern  guild where guess what, I am currently organizing the making of the charity quilt for Quilt Con 2020. This group really likes working collaboratively so the work is spread amongst many, and things are moving along nicely.

     Here are a couple of my favourite quilts with links to the corresponding blog posts.

     This is a quilt I made for my great niece Charlotte.  I designed the block for the 2015 Fabri Quilt block challenge and the block pattern was featured in the first Quilter's Planner.  You can read about this quilt here and the block design here.

     

  This star quilt is one of my all time favourites.  I made it for my co workers son Rory using fun animal prints and co-ordinating bright Swe Swe fabrics. You can read about it here.

     This one is the 2018 Quilter's Planner quilt along quilt designed by Cheryl Brickey, and the corresponding blog post is here.  I gave this quilt to my nephew and his wife in the summer of 2018 as a gift for their wedding.  His older sister got married this summer but that quilt is still in the planning stages.

          You can see from these quilts that I am attracted to bright colourful fabrics and that I enjoy the challenge of trying to design my own blocks and quilts.  I am hoping to work more on my own designs as time allows.  One way I have participated in challenges is through the Curated Quilts Challenges.  So far I have managed to complete two challenges.

Houses  and Stars with their posts here and here.

     I love working on these challenges as they give me a time line and framework for working on my own designs.  In addition to making quilts I also enjoy making clothing and from time to time I share my clothing makes here as well.  I made the top I am wearing in the photo of myself above.

     I have come to the end of my post.  Thanks for visiting with me today. This blog hop is continuing for the whole month of September and you can find the list of the other hop participants by clicking the button at the top of the post.

     And don't forget the prizes.  There is a prize of oodles of fabric.  You can enter this draw by clicking on the button below.  Each time you visit one of the bloggers and click on the button you get one entry into the draw.  So enjoy your visits with all the bloggers and good luck with the draw. Thanks to Benita of Victoriana Quilt Designs for organizing the hop.