Quilting for a Cause!

Marie belongs to several quilting circles and one of them is the Fabric Cupboard's BOM Pinwheel group. Their 2013 pattern was a Churn Dash in solids. If you knew Marie, you'd know this was outside her comfort zone! She is all about color and pattern, except green. So when she brought this top in, I was very surprised. I LOVE solids and this one is particularly lovely!

She wanted to quilt it on Lolah instead of hand quilting it and decided to try a different pattern than her usual. She chose Zephyr pantograph designed by Hermione Agee for Lorien Quilting. 100% polyester batt completed the sandwich with a solid backing.

Imagine Filtec's Glide thread in Celery for the top and Linen color for the bobbin thread. It made for a great combination.

Marie feels more comfortable quilting patterns with shorter "stretches"... achieving smooth long lines can be difficult for beginners.

Such intense concentration...

I believe Marie was quite successful in getting those beautiful curls.

A very interesting mix of colors...

Well done... great flow...

It's beautiful Marie!!

Front and back...

Marie has donated this quilt to "Un Phare Dans La Nuit" a group dedicated to raising funds for Mental Health. Tickets will go on sale soon!


I'm slowly catching up with the blog posts... We're into February's now... this is what it looked like...

Just a reminder of some of our snowstorms... we are done with these... bring on SPRING!!

Some days, getting to the barn was a bit of a challenge! BUT we survived another winter of record snowfall!

Toodles,

Lorette

A Santa for Ming!

The last of the 4 quilts commissioned for our daughter-in-law's mother was the most fun for me. Other than a request for a Christmas wall hanging, there were no guidelines or preferences.

We started with a panel and coordinating fabrics cutting up the tiles into blocks then adding sashing and borders. It helps to have someone well-accustomed to designing quilts from panels working in the shop. Thank you both Hollie and Marie!

Choosing the right thread is always fun... here you see the choices lined up on the quilt top and the bolt of fabric used for the backing. Since there was so much color on the front, I decided to base my choice on the backing fabric. 

I love the pantograph called Starflower by Jodi Beamish for Clothwerx; it looks like a snowflake. Because of that, and the fact that there are silver snowflakes on the blue background, I chose FilTec's Glide in Graphite. It's the one on the left...

There's not that much difference between these threads. It was a toss up... Tar Heel was another great color and would have been lovely too!

It quilted up beautifully... since this was going to be a wall hanging, I used 100% cotton batting.

Graphite was the perfect color to match the snowflake shapes.

Did I hear Ming say this quilt may not make it to Indonesia?? Ming LOVES Christmas... she's all ready for 2015!!! You heard/read that right... and I can see this quilt hanging on the wall behind her during the holidays!

I loved making this top! I too love anything Christmas especially quilts! Come by the shop and you can see my Christmas quilts!

Wish we had had this snow before 2014 holiday season!! Perhaps it would be all melted by now!! Don't we live in an amazingly beautiful country!!

Toodles,

Lorette

Georgina's quilt

November has been a very busy month for Lolah! Georgina came by with her beautiful black and white quilt and decided she would try free motion quilting on Lolah. 

She chose FilTec's Light Turquoise Glide and a double layer of wool batting for her lap quilt. After the wonderful start to her all-over meander, we decided it would have to come out as it was too tight a design. We chose to remove those stitches at the end once she was comfortable with a larger design. 

Her appliqué flowers give this quilt a girly look... perfect for the grand daughter who will receive it.

Look at these gorgeous prints!! What a collection!

Very pretty backing to match the flowers on the front.

Georgina did such a great job...  a very pretty quilt... love the turquoise with the black and white!! I must remember that! And that wool is just soooo soft!

Georgina also brought in another quilt to match a backing... it stole my heart... no pictures yet... you'll have to wait for it!  The fabrics are French General in reds, creams and pale green... the fabrics used by Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs in her Merry Merry Snowman quilt. Can't wait to see that quilt quilted! 

It was a snowy day when Georgina came to quilt. DH was on the road delivering Bessie (the old Windstar) to our mechanic for winterizing and storing. This was at the beginning of the storm...

Of course the pictures can't really capture the size of the snowflakes that looked as big as golf balls! :) Any other day I would have been happy to see the snow but when a loved one is on the road, it's hard to stay focused and appreciate the beauty of a snowfall.

Today is the last day to vote on the Christmas Ornament Challenge! Please take the time to review them and cast your vote if you haven't done so yet. Tomorrow, we'll announce the winner!

A new feature has been added to the blog... have you noticed? A new page to showcase YOUR talents! SHOW & TELL page went live last week... bring in your finished projects (no matter where you purchased your fabrics/patterns/quilting) and we'll take a picture and feature it on this page! We love to see your work so bring it in! 

Happy stitching!

Toodles,

Lorette

One week later!

Our mover/driver was unable to get up the driveway because of how low and long his trailer was. DH had to rent a Ryder truck to unload by the road and then drive it up to unload in the house. What should have taken 3 hours took 8 hours! Everyone was tired by the end of the day!

It's been an interesting week since to say the least. It all started off on the wrong foot... DH slipped on the ice the day after the movers left and injured his ribs at the site of a previous injury suffered on a bike tour in July 2012. It'll take a longer time to recover from this one no doubt; I just want him to recover completely and quickly. Unfortunately, he refuses treatment of any kind which includes medication to deal with his pain. I can't change his way of thinking, I can only support him in his decision and his chores.

Because of his injuries and limited mobility, he's been unable to help much in the way of emptying boxes. That activity has been mine which is just as well as I can take my time and plan what and where to store and what to donate. This old farmhouse lacks a good storage room! That will change as we prepare to start our big construction plan this summer. First off will be a garage/workshop with storage room upstairs. That will greatly relieve the tight space we live in today. In the meantime, we have to make do with what we have.

 

Lolah now sits comfortably in her room, on the frame; we thought she'd be safer set up! It was a big job in tight quarters surrounded by boxes but we managed. Our contractor installed ceiling LED track lighting above her bed which will greatly improve visibility in the North-East facing room. We could keep our contractor busy here for the next few years. My thoughts of loading a quilt will have to be suppressed for a little while longer as I continue to clear a path around me.

I don't want to offend anyone who has experienced this winter's record snowfall but we've really enjoyed the last three storms to hit our area. We've been away from this for the past 13 yrs and we really missed it. It was exciting to watch... we were like little kids going from window to window marveling at Mother Nature. The snow started falling on the day the movers were here. Luckily, it was near the end of the move when it began. Then Sunday's storm was fantastic: almost 18 inches of snow and blowing snow with winds so strong that at times, we couldn't see our car in the yard. A few days later another 6-8 inches fell overnight. What beautiful scenery snow creates! 

The trees surrounding the house were all dressed in white... it was fabulous. Friday's rainfall and yesterday's beautiful sun, warmer temperatures and a good breeze have melted more than half of it already and our yard is again mud. We do have snow in the fields and the forecast is for more deep freeze temperatures so winter isn't over yet. Thank you to our wonderful neighbor who comes by to clear our driveway!  

The wonderful thing about all these snow days is not having to go anywhere. LOVE being retired!!! Being retired also means we can sit and watch the Olympics without guilt! Canada does a much better job at reporting the games than the USA! We've just finished watching the hockey gold medal win of team Canada against Sweden! What a game!!! YEAH CANADA!! Both men and women hockey GOLD medal winners!!

After all this excitement it's back to unpacking and setting up the sewing and scrapbooking rooms...

Toodles,

Lorette