Last Minute Gifts

I finished up these redwork ornaments for my girls, I left the edges raw and did a running stitch. I hope to make this a tradition of making something different for them each year. It's never too late to start a new tradition. Owls are very popular this year, I think they might like them.

Some progress on the Le Jardin block, Christmas has made it slow going right now. I think there are 3 more blocks to go.

Boo Boo is saying Merry Christmas!

Le Jardin Block

In between all the hectic organizing for Christmas, I finished this block. I think this is number 5. I'm still enjoying the back basting method of applique.

We went this week to the out door Vancouver Christmas Market. It's based on the markets in Germany with little wooden huts selling food and other gift items. Some of the wooden ornaments are hand made and hand painted. We didn't buy any as they were pretty pricey. We did have sausage and Hot Spiced Wine with rum.......yum so good and it kept us warm for the night of shopping.

If you want to see more pictures of my sewing and other things, I've started using Instagram, follow the link here or you can always find the link on my side bar.

O Christmas Tree

I finished the quilting on the tree runner this week and worked on the binding yesterday. I like how it looks on the table. I'm undecided about what kind of a center piece would work. You can find the free pattern on The Shabby Fabrics blog.

A little stitched pillow I made last year. I'll be doing more Christmas project stitching this weekend.
Have you done your decorating for Christmas?

Happy Decorating!

Deck the Halls

I managed to get some decorating done this week, in between naps. I've had a awful cold and really only felt like sleeping most of the time. I'm feeling much better today. Snowmen and trees are my favourite, you'll see with more pictures below. The quilt I made a few years ago at Buggy Barn in a class with Cheri Payne.

The tablerunner I made last year and I bought the wooden snowman.

Gotta have a little tree in the kitchen. The snowman candlemat I made a few years ago.

This little tree and snowman are in the front entrance. The snowman was one of the first I've made. I like the bird on his hat.

What is it about boxes, cats love to claim empty boxes.
Got to get back to finishing Christmas gifts and a few more customer quilts.

Happy Quilting!

Starting to Redecorate

It's time for the all the pumpkin decorations to be packed up and stored away until next fall. I wish this was a better picture of my pumpkin quilt (it's much darker). The yellow stepping stool is a new purchase, I hope I can incorporate it in my Christmas decorating.

It's time to start bringing out the reds and greens. I'll be doing the Christmas decorating over the next couple of weeks, yes it takes me that long to get things where I want them.

I taught a class last week for this "Pocket to Go" organizer. The group of 5 ladies were very enthusiastic and completed the organizer by the end of the day, with the exception of hand sewing the binding. They all did so well with my scrambled brain instructing them.

Happy Quilting!

What's on my Gammill

I'm making a few small gifts and can't share them right now. Don't want to spoil the surprise. Instead I will share a customer quilt I worked on today. This is Vintage Holiday and I'm using the Holly Berries pantograph. I've made the same quilt and really love it.

My favourite block.

Another cute block.

Quilt is now bundled and ready for my customer.

Happy Quilting!

Appliqué

I completed the four blocks using the back basting applique method. I'm really liking this method and plan to do more this way. These blocks will be made into a little quilt with sashing and corner stones. I might have to wait until after I've finished a couple Christmas gifts to put this one together.

I've completed the 4th block for the LeJardin Quilt. This block I used the freezer paper method, maybe the next one I'll do back basting method...the more practise the better. This quilt is very sweet with all the bunnies.

Happy Quilting.

Learning Something

The stitching group that I attend a couple times a month had a demo day on applique. There was 4 applique techniques demonstrated, fusible, starch and freezer paper, back basting and needleturn. I enjoyed each station and learned new tips and techniques from each demo. I usually use the starch and freezer paper method but the down side is that there is so much prepping before stitching begins. This is my first try at "back basting" applique, I'm really enjoying how much less prep there is with this method and no freezer paper.  I've got 2 blocks finished since Thurs and I'm loving it! There are 4 blocks in this little quilt, I should be finished these soon.

Happy Quilting!

Happy Halloween

Have a safe and fun night!

Gorgeous Fall Morning and Ruby's Finished!

I've completed Ruby's garden quilt and I'm so happy with how it turned out. It's a great quilt to have finished for the start of a gorgeous fall day.

Here is a view of all 12 stitchery blocks. The quilt looks a bit wrinkled from washing and drying.

I had to get this picture really fast before the sun changed position. This is a garden feature in my back yard, I love how the sun cast a shadow of the garden girl on the fence. We moved this rock fountain from our old house, my husband never let me forget how heavy she is and if we moved again.......she will stay put.

Enjoy your day!

Happy Thanksgiving and Ruby's Garden

Wishing all our Canadian Friends a very happy Thanksgiving weekend. We'll be having our family turkey dinner later today. I've made my cranberry sauce yesterday with fresh cranberries from the local farm....yum.

I've pieced the borders on my Ruby's garden quilt. I changed my minds at least 3 times on which fabrics I would use for the alternate blocks and I'm very happy with what I decided on. With a little help from a friend I got the borders picked out last week. You can't see it in the picture but the inner border is a charcoal colour with grey dots.

A close up of a couple of my favourite stitched blocks.

I'm so glad it's finished.

The quilt is about 58" square, good size for a lap quilt. Wish me luck on getting it quilted sometime this week.

Happy Turkey day!

Rudy's Garden and bits of Fall

I'm finishing up the top for Ruby's Garden stitcheries quilt. The red will be the inner border and I need to decide on the outer border and binding. I'm thinking for the outer border something in a navy blue. I'll need to go shopping for that soon....woohoo I'm excited.

I've pulled out a few of my favourite fall decorations. I made the witch a couple of years ago. She sits in my front hall with her broom and black cat under her arm.

The wool pumpkins are also from a couple years ago. The wooden blocks they are sitting on I purchased from Folktales.

The pumpkin girl I also bought. She came home with me from the Lynden Craft and Antique Show last year. The quilt I made at least 8 or more years ago.

I'm working on the next block for Le Jardin applique, I'm enjoying these blocks with the French General fabrics. Back soon with some progress.

Happy Quilting.

Welcome Autumn

The last day of summer I was wearing my shorts and sandals and the first day of fall came the rain and cold. Thankfully the sun has been coming out each day since. I love the cooler days and the leaves changing colours. It's my favourite time of year.

I finished piecing my spools quilt, I started this last spring. It's nice to have this one off my list and ready for quilting.

I'm still working on the Le Jardin blocks, this is the third block. Don't know if you can see I still have a few more leaves to sew down. 

This is the beach on the first day of fall, we had a break in the rain and decided to get out for a little walk. It was so windy that day we couldn't stay for long.

Happy Quilting.

More Appliqué

I'm still working on the Le Jardin applique blocks, number 3 is prepped and ready to stitch. These two little applique blocks are a Lori Smith pattern, can't remember the name right now. These blocks finish at 5" so are pretty small. I'm enjoying the reds, greens, cheddar and brown combinations.

The bread and butter pickles are ready. I didn't buy enough pickling cucumbers for some silly reason, I don't know what happened. Only came home with 8 lbs and then DH picked up another 5 lbs for me. I should have had something close to 20 lbs, same as the dill pickles. Next time I'll make sure I get more cucumbers. This will have to do until next year because I'm done and don't feel like making more.

Happy Quilting.

Le Jardin Block

I finished the second block of my Le Jardin BOM. I'm still using the Hugs and Kisses freezer paper, I hope the washing will make the applique soft when it's all done. Has anyone use this product?

The dill pickles are canned, have to wait a month to give them a try.

This is a small sampling of the cucumbers and carrots we are harvesting from the garden. I wasn't sure there would be any cucumbers growing because we were late planting them. They are so tasty in salads, crisp and sweet.

Enjoy the long weekend. I still plan to make bread and butter pickles this weekend.

It's Quilted!

I've finished machine quilting my 4-patch quilt, the binding is waiting for hand sewing. The quilting pattern I did was inspired by Kathreen Ricketson, in her book "Little Bits Quilting Bee" she had quilted a large logcabin quilt in a back and forth zigzag pattern. This type of quilting is out of my comfort zone but the reason I did this was because a customer has made the logcabin quilt from the book and wanted the same quilting pattern. This is when I heard about the tragic story of Kathreen's death, you can read about it here and visit her website here. Such a sad story.

I've started a new applique project. I'm using Hugs and Kisses new freezer paper method. The paper stays in and washes away later, I haven't tried the washing yet....we'll see how it goes. I usually do the starch method but I like this method because I don't need to use a iron. The edges are glued over the freezer paper and washed out.

We had a busy week with moving my daughter 4 hours away so she can go back to school. I see more driving in my future.

Happy Quilting!

Vintage Holiday

I finished putting together the top last week using the Thimble Blossoms pattern. I changed the setting just a little with the added scrappy corner stone blocks for interest. This is something I've been working on for a BOM at the quilt shop where I work, it's called Creative Edge but sorry no website. The blocks are quick and fun to sew. I'm happy this will be ready in plenty of time for Christmas.

Cute ornament blocks. The snowman fabric adds a bit of whimsy.

Happy Quilting!

Fun with Appliqué

I did a little hand applique this past weekend and finished my Cheryl Wall quilt. I must say I didn't enjoy the pointy stars, I just struggled with getting those points. It's done and I'm happy with how it turned out.

The remainder of the weekend was spending time here. We did a long walk on the beach at low tide and were surprised on the way back how fast the tide comes in. It was a very relaxing weekend filled with sun, sand a little stitching.

Happy Quilting!

Turtle Stitching

This is my first attempt at Sashiko, the pattern was printed on the fabric, so seemed pretty easy. I needed to make a birthday gift for a secret sister and this is it. I'm happy with how it turned out. I hope she will like it. My DH likes turtles, so keeping it secret from him was a bigger challenge. Now I need to start another one for him and keep it a secret again.....whew can I do it again???

Here is the fabric I put on the back, I'm so proud of the zipper. I hadn't done a zipper with a flap for so many years. Now back to regular quilting, I have a Xmas quilt to add borders.

Happy Quilting!