A while back, I showed you a sneak peek of a quilt I was working on. Well, I both started and finished it this weekend.

ETA:  For those here for the quilt festival, please see my festival entry found HERE







Although it's rained for most of the weekend, I did manage to pop out and get some pictures between showers.  So, here is the quilt I orirginally intended to show in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival.

As some of you may know, I'm quite new to quilting.

I made my first experimental "cat quilts" back in January and February of 2008, and my first lap sized quilt in April of 2008, so I've been quilting for about a year and 1/2 now - not very long at all.

Last February, I was talking to a fellow customer I met on my first visit to a quilt shop and she was giving me well-meaning (but unwanted) advice about how to choose a colour pallette and what fabric lines were "the best", what patterns were "the best" for beginners and simliar other advice.

                

I was there to look at what the quilt shops had to offer, but I wasn't interested then (and still am not now) in buying a line of fabric from one designer or manufacturer and making a quilt to someone else's pattern.

Although I was just being all earnest and enthusiastic about my newfound passion for quilting, in restrospect, I realize that I rather obnoxiously told her that I wanted to "create something new".    She looked at me like I'd put her nose out of joint (and deservedly so, I think) and told me that I'd  never truly be a quilter until I'd made a log cabin quilt.

Well, this quilt won't be much of a surprise, since you got a sneak peek on Friday.  Originally intentioned as a baby quilt, at 45 x 48, it would work just as well as a couch throw.

I finished up the quilting on Sunday morning, and went back to another project I've had on the go, but thought I'd post the results of the sneak peek.   Here's the full back:

A UFO that came in from the cold. I originally blogged about this WIP/UFO back in January, before most of you even knew I existed, but here's my original post if you're interested.  It's a quilt I called Man's Fans.  The top was done, I just had to do the quilting, already!

I had a very busy weekend, so busy, I didn't even have time to reply to your birthday wishes (which I thank you for), so I thought I'd pull out this old one.

It was made out of the leftover scraps from  Autumn Steals In, as well as a luscious chocolate stretch satin for the borders and back, saffron yellow upholstery weight silk for the binding and some bits and pieces of African cottons.   I said in my original post that I thought I was going to regret the choice of stretch satin when I started quilting, and boy-oh-boy, was that a prophetic statement!

After finishing Coneflowers in Leslieville on Saturday, on Sunday I rested. *selah*

On Monday, I wanted something quick and easy. Since my orange project, though easy, is definitely not quick; I decided to start something new. I've had a baby quilt percolating in my head for awhile now (two actually) so I decided to start on the first one.

I had about a yard left of a nnifty animal print flannel, so I appliqued it (my first attempt!)  into a centre panel, bordered by ribbon.



and judiciously used the rest of the yard along with some yellow flannel for the side panels and the back:

Free at last, praise the Universe free at last!

*hee* Okay, maybe that was an over-reaction, and truthfully, the quilt has been done for about four days now, but I feel like I've been blogging about this thing FOREVER.

I think that's because "Kinda Blue" has made me feel kinda blue!

This week I've been busy with non-quilting projects, one of which I'll post about later this week because I think it's so cool. But I was kind of scratching my head wondering what to post about in the interim, and I remembered that I made a quilt last year that I haven't blogged about yet. It was around October of last year and I had decided to kill two birds with one stone: get rid of some of my flannel stash and practice my very first curved piecing.  I decided that the best way to do this was to try my hand at a Drunkard's Path.

I used a flannel printed with lions and tiger and monkeys (oh my!) as well as a plain soft yellow flannel for the blocks. For the sashing and front ruffled edge, I used a tone on tone yellow polka dot. And for the back side, I used more of the animal print.



Once I was done the finished product, I wasn't very pleased with it. I was sorry that I hadn't chosen solids for a more modern look, and I also didn't know what to do with a baby-sized quilt when I was done. I ended up donating the quilt to a charity auction, from which it was stolen!

*all pics are clickable to see "in big"

ETA: Welcome to visitors from Field Trips in Fiber!

July first is a holiday here in Canada, known as "Canada Day". Formerly known as "Confederation Day" - it memoralizes and celebrates the unification of Canada as a single country. I spent our National Holiday celebrating all things Canadian, and therefore, took my Canadian self to my sewing room to celebrate me - by quilting. :)


I've been working on all of my "must finish" projects for quite some time (two weeks) and was feeling rather sorry for myself. *hee!* Not only was I working on things I had to do as opposed to selfishly making things for me, I had further limited myself to making things only with my stash for the months of June and July. (Wah, wah *heh* Seriously though, I've loved all the projects I'm working on.) I decided that a reward was in order for all my good behaviour, so I decided to make something quick, fresh and pretty. I remembered I had the pink pinwheels that I ended up not using in "Spring Forward", so this was the result:

Some of you may remember this quilt:

Today after work, I finally managed to take pictures of my latest quilt, "Oma's Pocketbook", which I took in our still fallow garden, with a dying battery in the setting sun.

Saturday was a long and productive day - I did in fact, manage to finish one more project in the "Spring to Finish" challenge I've been blogging about this month.

It was the quilt I've been referring to as "The Ugly Black One" (that's what I've been calling it ever since I made it, about this time last year). It was my second quilt ever, and it was quite a disappointment after the triumph I had experienced with The Green One .

I blogged about my pitiful attempts with "The Ugly Black One"; but sadly, that didn't motivate me to do anything with it. Jacquie's challenge finally "forced" me to get working on it. The poor dear really was an ugly little thing, wasn't it?

Never fear, I made it better when I pulled it out on Saturday, not least, by adding another border to make it a useable size (boy! It was quite long, but it was SKINNY!)



And then I quilted that border using my own version of a stippling/meander - I'm not sure what to call it - I never actually "stipple (i.e. make those little puzzle shapes) and I don't "meander" (I don't cross lines because I like the challenge of a continuous line) but whatever I decide to call it, I did it in the outer border.



It was much more challenging to add a border to an already quilted piece than I could have forseen, and I must admit that there was some cussing going an as I worked on it.

However, I finally finished it - and although it's still not my favourite, it is no longer called "The Ugly Black One". *hee* As it is full of mistakes and based on my (sad) version of courthouse steps pattern, Beloved Spouse suggested I call it "Mis-Steps".



After that extemely long process (much, much, MUCH longer than I expected or planned); I wanted to do something easy and fun - so instead of finishing another UFO, I made a new quilt top. Yay! And I managed to finish both Mis-Steps and the new top yesterday. I pieced the backing and binding today, batted and pinned and even began quilting the new one, so I hope that I'll be done this it by the end of the week in time for the end of the Spring to Finish challenge. I really hope I'll get it done - two pieces would be very sad to show for a month, wouldn't it? :/

And, if you got to the end of this very long post, you're about to be rewarded.

Tommorrow, I'm going to post about my first giveaway!

I'm excited, are you excited?

:)

With some encouragement from Amy at Park City Girl and my online friend Crystal as well as Beloved Spouse), I've decided to join in on the fun and play along.

So, this is my entry in Amy's "My Favourite Quilt" Festival!


               

It's the third quilt that I made, which I called "Saucy Divo" as it was for my dearest friend, a male opera singer. I wanted it to be as "saucy" as he is, so the fabrics in it are lame, chenille, silk taffetta, velvet, a lovely dark red batik and some others; all beautiful shades of a rich, luxurious red. And then I quilted it with metallic red thread!

This is my first finish as part of the Spring to Finish challege by Jacquie at Tallgrass Prarie Studios.

Originally, for lack of a better name, I called it "Elephants in the Park", but I'm now calling it,


"A Day at the Zoo."

Although I took physics in University, I was really terrible at it, and I hired this great tutor who taught me every theory as a narrative. In addition to the work we did for the course, he told me an anecdotal story about this guy, Schrodinger, who either approved or disproved one of Einstein's theories by use of a cat and a box, and something about the cat disappearing.

Formerly known as Spider's Kiss, this quilt shall henceforth be known as "Problem Child".

As you may remember from my previous post about making this quilt, it came into being because of my efforts to make "a perfect block". By the time I'd made five (or was it seven?) I decided that I might as well put them together and make a quilt out of it. Thirteen blocks later, (the best one was finally sent off to the Round Robin group I'm part of) and I put the rest into a quilt.