Finished Quilting Projects

Sunday 28 June 2015

Rainy Sunday = Sewing Time

I spent a good part of my day yesterday cleaning so I rewarded myself with some sewing time last night and all day today. Well I did cook a meal or two but I mostly sewed today. I'm working on a set of six placemats and napkins at the moment. I finished the tops before I left for Portland but did not pick out a backing or get the batting pieces cut. I looked through my scrap pieces of batting and only found one piece big enough to cut out for two placemats. Then I remembered I purchased some Heat Press Batting Together tape from Sew Sisters.


It was the perfect opportunity to try this stuff out. Especially since it would be on smaller pieces. The instructions are pretty easy. Lay your two batting pieces up to each other, trim if you need to and cut a piece the length of the batting.


And I used my pressing sheet to avoid any of the glue getting on my iron. And you just run it smoothly over the strips. You don't need to be ironing it for long, I found a few seconds on each section did the trick. And if some of it didn't stick, I would just go back over that section for a few more seconds.

Other side of batting piece.

The end result.


I was pretty happy with the result. It takes about 20 minutes to do a small piece like this with a bunch of strips. It did make me feel good to use the batting scraps I have though. So I give Heat Press Batting Together a thumbs up :)

After getting all my backing pieces and batting done, I started putting them together. Then came the quilting. I had decided to quilt the strips with straight lines 1/4" apart. I finished three placemats last night before I went to bed...


I loved how the quilting turned out on the backing.


Then when I was laying in bed, I felt like they needed more quilting. So this morning, I decided to quilt diagonal lines on just the brown/red floral print.


And check out the quilting on the backing!


I am so happy with the way the quilting turned out. The Floral print is still the center of attention but the quilting is great in the background. And the quilting just fills up the backing. It's a bit more work since I have six to do but nothing that can't be managed. I have finished quilting two of the six placemats....only 4 more to go.

Hope you all had a great weekend :)

Keep calm and quilt on!


J.






Saturday 27 June 2015

Ah, Portland.....Part 2

As promised in my last post, here are more pictures from my vacation in Portland, Maine. You can read and view my first post here.

While in Portland, I went on a few tourist attractions. First up, was a tour around Portland and a visit to Port Head Light while driving around in a Trolley car.

I sat in the "A/C part" of the Trolley.


This was the view across from the Trolley car. Reminds me of the Locks of Love bridge in Paris. Of course, this is not a bridge but does have a water view :)

Portland City Hall

I also went for a train ride on a vintage train that went along the waterfront. And also visited the Train Museum.

"Polar Express"

First Class Railway Cabin

Me in front of the train with my pack o' fabric....there were a small amount of clothes but mostly fabric :)

And now Show & Tell from my visit to Marden's....

This Riley Blake print which has lots of lovely words....2gether, beautiful moments, absolute joy, loving our time...and so much more! Not sure what pattern this is since the selvage is cut where the info would be.

I'm planning on using this for the backing of another 26" square pillow.

And I bought some of this Hipster by Shannon Lamden for Riley Blake to go on the top of the 26" pillow cover. 

Also picked up this Ooh La-La print by Jo Moulton. Love these umbrellas!

And picked up these other fabrics :)

"Paper Dolls Around The World"

"Garden Party"

"Sea of Tranquility"

Leaves on Brown

What a lovely trip to Portland! I so cannot wait to get back. Hope you enjoyed reading about Portland, Maine. Hopefully it will help if you ever find yourself in Portland :)



Friday 26 June 2015

Ah, Portland..... Part 1

I just returned yesterday morning from a mini-vacation in Portland, Maine. What an incredible place! I wish I would have had more time there to enjoy more of it. I did get to see a lot of it but would have loved to see more! I'm hoping for another trip this sailing season. I normally don't share many vacation photos that are not sewing related. I will have to make an exception for this trip. I also did pick up some fabric too ;)


I love this picture! I took it outside of the tourist bureau on the waterfront. Love the reflection in the water.

Some pictures of downtown...


Love the brick buildings!


I may someday want to make an Art quilt from this picture. Just a beautiful building!


And I love the different colours of paint on these buildings!

And a couple of lighthouses...

Portland Head Light

Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse

Portland is definitely a beautiful place. Beautiful lighthouses, interesting buildings, and a great history. Not to mention there's a fabric store or two around ;)

I was backpacking so I had to limit and debate my fabric and notion purchases....my first stop was at Jo-Ann's....


I picked up some Jumbo Wonder Clips with my half price coupon and managed to score this Babyville Playful Friends Owl PUL fabric remnant for just under $7! There is almost a full yard! Very excited to try this out!

And these gorgeous vintage looking buttons :)

Some heavy weave cotton made for Jo-Ann's. I am thinking of covering a few of those 26" pillow forms I have stashed away.

Love this Mod Geek Atmosphere fabric from Sarah Johnston! And at 30% off, it was a steal!

I hope you enjoyed my post about a small part of my trip to Portland. Stay tuned for a second post with more Portland pictures and my second fabric stop :)

Friday 19 June 2015

Fabric Problem???

I did a bit of shopping this week....I purchased these mini owls....


I could not pass up buying some of this Ann Kelle's print. Love these owls.

Then I picked up this beauty from Timeless Treasures.


This was suppose to be my only purchase. I needed some fabric to go with my main fabric for those placemats I mentioned in my last post. But then the salesperson mentioned the buy one meter, get one free for the clearance section.....so I took a peek over there and ended up with these....



One meter each of Houndstooth in Blue and Jolly Christmas in green. I didn't need these but since there were only $6.99/m and getting one meter for free, I simply couldn't resist.

And then I realized I had my coupon for 31% off any regular priced single cut of fabric....I just knew I had to use it! So I decided to purchase 2 meters of Imaginarium :)


I love these parent and baby prints! Incredibly adorable. And then when I arrived home, there was a squishy package from Sew Sisters...which were the Bargain Lovers Club.


Definitely more exciting than last month but still doesn't seem to get me excited! I am debating whether I should give up being a member of this club or not. I love the squishy package but have been more disappointed than happy with the selection lately. Not too much that I have over 200 Fat Quarters....I haven't done an exact count yet but I have a feeling it is around that high number. If I ever get the courage to count them, I will post the amount ;)

After all this shopping, I started on some placemats.


Over the last couple of days, I've managed to get them together. I used Alissa Haight Carlton's tutorial to make these.


 I changed the layout a bit. I only added two strips instead of four which is what the pattern called for.

So now I need to figure out what to do for the backing. Hopefully I'll find something in my stash.

Hope you all have a great quilty weekend :)





Sunday 14 June 2015

Finish It Up Friday....or Sunday :)

Well it has been a very busy, tiring week. We had to go to the city for a few days due to a medical emergency. But all is progressing in a positive direction now. Keeping our fingers crossed that it will continue to do so. So I apologize for my lack in posting anything.

I did get some sewing in yesterday and today though between the cleaning spurts. I finished my pillow cover for one of the 26" pillow forms that I purchased a while ago. Here it is!


I put an invisible zipper....on close inspection, I realized that I installed it wrong...but since this is for us, I'm not going to take out my seam ripper....


And someone is already enjoying it...


And I also washed it and dried it in an attempt to shrink it....yes I said shrink it lol. I've never wanted to shrink anything in my life. But this pillow cover is a bit on the bigger size. After the washing and drying, it seems to fit better :)

So onto the next finish. I prepped the binding for the baby panel quilt.


I forget how many labels I've used so far now but I'm no where near running out :) I do love these labels!


The way this picture came out of the backing, reminds me of Stained Glass :)


I also did a bit of shopping this week. I picked up this decorative box up at Michael's last week.


I'm going to use this box to hold a set of placemats and napkins. I thought it would make a great wedding gift. The inside is pretty too.


And I figured this box is perfect for a wedding gift because it has Laugh, Love and Live on the front. And it was 30% off so I can't complain about it ;) Plus I love pretty storage boxes :)

Besides a quilt, what have you given as a gift that was made from the heart? I'm curious :)

Sunday 7 June 2015

Weekend Production

Well I finished quilting the baby panel yesterday morning. Love how quickly these always come together :)


This panel was purchased a while ago. At least 6 months. So I'm happy that I was able to take this out of my stash and quilt it. I also picked out some Flannel Blue Elephant print from my stash.


I used this as the backing on Teal the Elephant quilt too. So I had enough left to use for the backing of this panel. It's feeling really good to use up some of the fabric in my stash. Turning all those beautiful purchases in something functional and beautiful :)


So now I just have the binding left to do on this one. I have my binding all ready to be ironed and then I just need to machine stitch it on. And my binding came from my stash as well ;) I'm hoping to get it done this week so that I can deliver it when I make a quick trip to the city next week..

So then I decided late last night that I wanted to try to make a pillow cover for one of my 26" pillow forms. I had sketched an idea a little while ago.


I decided on this colour palette because it matches my husband's Dressed To the Nines quilt which is always on the futon that I want to have the pillow on.


So I went through my scrappy 5" squares and pulled out what I could from there. Then went through my red and black scrap bins to cut up the rest of the 5" squares that I needed. And pulled a Fat Quarter to cut the rest of the light squares.


Then I started on the process of turning these into HSTs.....


And the trimming....


I know some quilters don't bother trimming these up but look how good they look when they are :)


And then the layout was done....


Now they are sitting beside my sewing machine all ready to be stitched...


Hopefully tomorrow night, I'll be able to get to them :)

So how was your weekend? Get any sewing in?