Design Wall Monday #21

The weather for our Victoria Day weekend turned out to be much better than the weatherman predicted. It was supposed to be rainy and cold, which it was on Saturday, but Sunday and today are beautiful and sunny, allowing me to spend more time outside than I had thought I would. I purchased my vegetable seeds from Hawthorne and my heirloom tomatoes from this cute little place. Now I have everything planted except a few herbs which I need new pots for.

And when it was raining, I did some machine quilting on my QFAH quilt.
Here is the backing that I pieced from the leftover scraps and a few fat quarters. Can you see the grid quilting I did? Just straight lines, nothing fancy.












Here is a close up of my quilting using a different setting on the camera...can you see the quilting now?

And I already have the binding prepared, so after I go visit my mother-in-law today, I might be able to finish this quilt! That would be amazing...a quilt started and finished in the same year!
The other quilt I was hoping to work on this weekend (my 18 year old UFO) didn't get finished, but I did make lots of progress on the hand quilting, and the end is in sight!

To visit other quilters and see their Monday design walls,  click here.

Design Wall Monday #12

You won't believe what I forced myself to do!

Borders! The part of quilting I like the least.
This is Judy's Quilt For An Hour project called "Freeze Frame".
I finished up until the little boxes border in October, but then I lost interest in the other 4 borders and it started drifting towards the UFO closet. It was rescued from that pile when the outside border fabric arrived that I had ordered from Back Door Quilts. I am very happy with how it turned out and look forward to quilting it, which is one of my favorite parts of making a quilt. If you have any suggestions for the quilting design, please send me your ideas.
But first I must decide whether to buy a large backing or piece my backing from the leftover scraps. Wonder which way I'll go on that?!?
If you would like to see the design walls of other quilters, go to the listing on Judy's blog - click here.

Happy Spring!
The weather here has been terrific...sunny and warm with record breaking temperatures for March. And the robins are back in town! I spotted this little guy singing his heart out in the tree in my front yard. Last year my robin post was March 30th, so spring has indeed come earlier this year! You can see that the buds aren't even out yet on the branches.

Happy Monday

We have enjoyed some beautiful fall weather here. It's my favorite time of the year and most of the leaves are golden. By the end of the week I'll be raking up the last of them and we'll have to wait 6 or 7 months to see leaves again :(

I have finished the next step of the Quilt For An Hour project. This photo shows up to hour #10 and I have 2 more to go, which will involve attaching several (at least 3) more borders.
Now I have 2 problems...one is that I don't like doing borders and the second is that I don't have enough fabric to finish the borders as outlined in the pattern.  So I will have to be creative! I really hope it doesn't fall into my pile of projects awaiting inspiration.... aka the UFO pile!
I have been so slow to finish this that the next Quilt for an Hour is already to start! But I am resisting another project...oh yes, I am! I know I said that before, but I mean it this time!
Visit Judy's blog and see what other quilters have on their design wall today.

Design Wall Monday

It's Monday again! It's a holiday here in Canada for our Thanksgiving, so the whole family is home today and we are soon headed over to my sister's for another turkey dinner!
It's a dreary fall day and we needed to walk off some of that turkey we ate yesterday to make room for today's turkey dinner, so we went to the apple farm to pick a few bushels of apples. I'll be looking for some free time this week to try making some of Judy's apple jam - click here to read about it.
And what is on my design wall? I have finished hour #9 of Judy's Quilt for an Hour project that I don't have time to start! Here are my 34 blocks for border #4 on the design wall. I think they look great and am now thinking about a whole quilt made of these kind of blocks but in brighter colours for a children's bed quilt. I'm thinking it would be a great pattern for using up scraps.
Check out what other quilt bloggers have on their design wall - click here.

Design Wall Monday

I have Quilt Show Hangover. Do you ever get that? The excitement is over and I am recovering from sensory overload. I spent yesterday getting my house back in order. I had been so busy getting ready for the show (finishing quilts)  and then spent the better part of the 2 days at the show, so I came home to discover piles of dirty dishes and a disordered mess. My husband has been travelling and he comes home today, so needless to say, yesterday I was Molly Maid. No rest for the weary quilt show attendee!
Here are 2 of the finished Quiltville mysteries that I had hanging at the Quilt Show. The pink one is "Double Delight" and I just put the binding on last Tuesday. I was happy with how it turned out but that mistake is still bugging me (you can read about it here).
The orange quilt is, of course, Orange Crush. It is still really Orange! I thought the Orange might grow on me, but so far it hasn't! But this is a quilt that my son likes, so at least someone appreciates it!
We won't mention that Carolina Crossroads (Quiltville's first mystery and not on the website anymore) is still a UFO! This is weird because I really like that quilt...I guess  it will be on the 'to-do' list for the next quilt show!
If you haven't yet entered my Quilt Show Celebration giveaway,  click here and leave a comment.

I love Judy's Design Wall Mondays. You can see what other quilters are working on and it's especially fun when a bundle/clump/cluster (what do you call a group of quilters??) of quilt bloggers are working on the same project. Right now many of us are sewing Judy's "Quilt for an Hour" project.  I started this quilt knowing that there are 8 borders, and attaching borders is the only part of quilting I dislike. I am hoping to make some progress in this area and be able to enjoy the border stages more. This is my quilt after Hour 5.

Design Wall Monday

It is Design Wall Monday again. This week went by way too fast!
I still have 2 quilts to finish for the Quilt Show, and do not have time to start a new project. But if I did, I'd make Judy's Quilt for an Hour and I'd use these fabrics that I bought in Paducah so I wouldn't even have to buy new fabric...I'd actually be using up my stash.
And the step #1 block might look something like this.

I'm not starting anything new....

I have several things to finish up for the quilt show - click here to find out more about the show. I have hanging sleeves to sew on and 2 quilts to finish the quilting on. I may have mentioned that I work well under pressure!
I also have my garden to sort out. Since we have frost at night, the plants are all dying, so the remaining tomatoes have to come in. I am freezing some and canning some.

And I am for sure not starting a new quilting project. No way. I don't have time. Maybe after the quilt show. Judy Laquidara is having a "Quilt for an Hour" project on her website, and even though I love it and know that it would use up a lot of stash (and I have the perfect fabric for it)  I am staying strong and am planning to resist starting this new quilt.