Friday 30 August 2013

TGIFF! - All Things Equal

Happy Friday, all! After a very quiet summer on the blog, I have a finish to share!

This is a gift for a wedding we attended out East on our vacation. It was a beautiful wedding for two very special people.

One of the recipients of the quilt is legally blind, but can discern simple, bold patterns. That was a big factor in the designs for this quilt.

The quilt is reversible -- marriage equality symbol on one side, star made of equilateral triangles on the other. Both sides were made with Kona Cottons.

On so many levels, this quilt is about equality so I've named it All Things Equal.

Marriage Equality symbol side

Star side
Machine quilting close up
I went with matchstick quilting using red 50 wt. Aurifil 2260 and red 40 wt. Aurifil 1103. I was hoping that using two weights and shades of red would give a bit of depth to the quilting, but the reds I chose were really too close in colour and weight to really tell. Lesson learned.

The matchstick quilting took a long time, but the texture is so worth it. Plus, because you don't have to worry about quilting precisely straight lines, it becomes a rather meditative process. I've only done matchstick quilting on one other quilt (Seeing The Forest) and found that it's quite a bit stiffer on cotton than on shot cotton. I think it will loosen up with more use and washing though.


But what to do about a label for a reversible quilt? I didn't want a label taking up space on either of the sides. Finally, I settled on writing my name and the date in permanent fabric marker on the binding. Much less information than I usually put on a quilt, but I'm okay with that.


Finished size: 60" by 60".

I'm linking this up with TGIFF!, which is over at Pippa's Patch this week. Let's head on over to check out the beautiful finishes!

I'm also happy to say that this was one of my goals for Q3 of the 2013 Finish-A-Long with Leanne at She Can Quilt. Yay!

Thursday 29 August 2013

Dirty Laundry

Em from Sewing By Moonlight is hosting a Sewing Room Clean Up and it's just what I need to get my quilt haven cleaned up and organized before I jump back into my projects. I started a reorg in April and another one again in July. It's time to finish, no?

So here are some photos of my 'dirty laundry'. I have to confess that this is actually pretty tidy; it's still in good shape from my last big guest clean up. It's usually way messier. Ahem.

Sewing station with the folding table left out from quilting the wedding quilt:


The "Fallout" area (a.k.a. the guest bed):


 Cutting table with scraps from the wedding quilt:


Stash, books, magazines and dyeing stuff:


Don't you store your WIPs under the table?


Supply Bookcase #1:

Supply Bookcase #2:

My goals with this clean up are to:
  • Clear out the stuff I'm not going to use. (Aack, how do you do that for art quilt stuff?)
  • Find a Fat quarter storage solution (I think I've got one, but need to implement it).
  • Find a WIP in progress storage solution. 
  • Find a WIP on hold storage solution.
Any ideas for me? Is there something about your space that's bugging you?

Linking up with Em at Sewing By Moonlight

Wednesday 28 August 2013

Ottawa Modern Quilt Guild

Hey Ottawa peeps, it's official! The Ottawa Modern Quilt Guild will be having our inaugural meeting on Monday, September 23rd, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. in the Ottawa Citizen conference room at 1101 Baxter Road (Pinecrest/417). Woo hoo!

More details, as well as membership info and future meeting dates, can be found on the Ottawa Modern Quilt Guild blog page. Hope to see you there!

Here's a sneak peek of the finished wedding quilt.


Tuesday 27 August 2013

And We're Back!

Bluenose II in dry dock for repairs, Lunenburg, NS
Hope you had a fantastic summer for those in the northern hemisphere! We're back from a fabulous vacation in Nova Scotia. We had some beautiful weather. Sunny and warm, but not too hot.

With no naps to worry about this year, we did a lot more touring; we visited the Citadel in Halifax, Upper Clements Park, Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg, saw a couple of parades, ate some delicious lobster at the Shore Club to celebrate my 40th birthday, kayaked in Hubbards Cove, went tubing down the Gaspereau River, and spent some quality time with my in-laws and my BIL and SIL. Fun, fun, fun!

Peggy's Cove, NS
It takes us two days to drive to Nova Scotia from Ottawa so we usually stop in Edmunston, New Brunswick overnight. When we got into the hotel room that first night, my littlest guy saw the iron and ironing board on the wall of the room, turned to me and said, "Mommy, you can quilt here!" He then paused and continued, "Wait, where's your sewing machine?" I sadly informed him that I didn't bring my machine on vacation. I think we both teared up at that thought. ;)

Peggy's Cove, NS
Peggy's Cove, NS
Even though there wasn't any sewing going on, there were some quilty highlights, which included getting to catch up with my good friend Dominique from The Running Thimble and checking out her wonderful quilts in person.

I think it was
warmer in the sand!
I also made a stop at Avonport Discount Fabrics. Oooh la la! They now have a whole wall of Kona solids. Heaven! And a visit to Laurie Swim's Gallery in Lunenburg rounded out a great trip. Gorgeous work!

Now that I'm home, I'm itching to get back to the sewing machine and cut into some of my purchases this summer.

First up on my list is my August Simply Solids bee block for Patti of Retired to Quilt. She requested a bit of a stash bust, with the putty as the neutral in this Rolling Stone block. I finally got a chance to make it last night. Hope she likes it!


Simply Solids Bee - August Block - Carmine Group

And speaking of the wonderful Patti, she kindly volunteered to test my Falling For Stripes pattern. She did a fantastic job. Check it out on her blog. More to come on the wonderful tests and on this pattern soon!

The two older kids started school today and the little guy starts next week. I foresee much more quilting time this Fall. Muahaha...
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