Thursday 31 October 2013

TGIFF! - Hexed

It's a little early for TGIFF!, but it's Halloween here so I'll be a little busy later trick or treating with the kids in the pouring rain. Fun! Fun! Fun! Also, there's been a little change in the schedule again so I'm hosting this week and Laura will host next week.

I hope those who've been by this week already will forgive me for sharing Hexed for this week's TGIFF! It took so much time and effort that I'm going to milk this finish a little longer. 

This won't be a repeat of Tuesday's post though. I'll share a few process things instead.

Some of you might remember this little teaser sketch from a few weeks ago:


This is how it turned out: 

That purple iris? Fussy cut from a scrap of 1001 Peeps Scheherazzade fabric. I can't believe I forgot the freckles though. May have to add them in...

And then there was the cauldron dilemma. I used the same process to get the 'photo' effect as I did with Cheeky Pumpkin (tutorial here). Attempt number 1:

Attempt number 2:
Attempt number 3:

Then came some layout play. Pumpkin on top?
Nah. Pumpkin on the bottom.

I knew I wanted to do a fair about of thread embellishment aside from the quilting so I used a layer of batting to stabilize the first round of thread work. Look at those thread colours...so pretty!

Pretty much all of the thread details on the cauldron, witch, pumpkin and broom were done with this one layer of batting. When that was done, I added another layer of batting and the backing and quilted in the ditch around all of the motifs and did the free motion quilting in the background areas. I ended up having to do the steam on the cauldron twice! Ugh!





So yes, I'm very thankful this project is finished and hanging in our kitchen. One more reason for me to love decorating for Halloween!

Tuesday 29 October 2013

Hexed


Psst! Ready for some more Wicked fun? Come and sit for a spell...or two... 


Welcome to my stop on the Wicked Blog Hop! The tour started last week and runs until tomorrow. So much Wicked fun!

If you are new to my blog, welcome! I have an eclectic assortment of finished quilts and projects on the go at any given time and I love to try new techniques. I also co-organize TGIFF!, a fun, touring finish linky party with Laura of Quokka Quilts. We are celebrating our second anniversary this month with OctoberQuest 2, where participants get a chance to win one of five gift certificates to Mad About Patchwork, Sew Sisters and Christa Quilts -- only two days left to link up and be eligible for the prizes!

If you came by my blog last year during the Wicked Blog Hop, you may remember my Cheeky Pumpkin block. I hadn't done anything with my lonely little pumpkin so I decided to incorporate it into a Halloween wallhanging for our kitchen. I call it Hexed. :)

It feels like I incorporated just about everything I've learned over the last few years - design, machine appliqué, free motion quilting, thread sketching, collage, etc. So very happy with Hexed!




Getting up close and personal

Last week, when I shared the trouble I was having with this cauldron block, it was your spells suggestions that made me have another go at it. Bubbles? Steam? Overflow? You had more faith in me than I had in myself, but I gave your suggestions a try. It appears that the third time's the charm -- I'm very happy with the result! Thank you!


Isn't Hexy simply wicked? Oh, she's mischievous, she is. Be wary; a wink and a smirk may get you changed into a violin-playing frog!


Cheeky pumpkin finally gets some stitching to finish it off!


 Oh, and of course, any self-respecting witch needs her trusty broom...


Hexed is finished using a non-mitred facing. And the back - a fun little Halloween print. :)


Some other details:
Thread: About 20 different colours of mostly Aurifil, with a couple of Coats and Clark and Guttermann threads thrown in. Weights varied from 12 wt. to 50 wt.
Batting: Two layers of Warm and White
Size: 17" by 34"

Thanks Wendy and Madame Samm for organizing a great hop! Hope you had a Wicked time while you were here and do check out the other fabulous stops on the Wicked Blog Hop tour today for some Wicked inspiration:








Friday 25 October 2013

Bright Stripes - Blogger's Quilt Festival

Bright Stripes - Close up
Bright Stripe
Ah, one of my favourite times of the year -- the Blogger's Quilt Festival! It's a great way to explore the fabulous quilty eye candy out there in the blogosphere!

I'm sharing Bright Stripes for this festival. People have asked me if I pieced the squares ie. the white and colour stripes. Whoa! No way! That's Anne Kelle's Bright Remix stripes by Robert Kaufman.

For those who are here for the first time, this is my test of my Falling for Stripes pattern (coming soon).

This is quilted on my domestic machine with white 50 wt. Aurifil thread (#2024) with spirals, a small double line around the outer spirals and then straight lines.
Bright Stripes - Front

Quilting Detail - Double line
separating the spirals
from the straight lines
Quilting Detail

The spirals were started with free motion quilting, but then I switched to my walking foot so that I'd get more even and uniformly-spaced spirals. I'd seen this on someone else's blog, but now I can't remember who it was. Sorry! One lesson learned was to do at least 10 turns of the spiral to make the centre free motion spiral large enough so that the walking foot can maintain a smoother curve.

I love effect the texture effect of the spirals done this way, but man it was a pain in the arse to quilt! It's worth it though.

For the back, I took one strip of scrap Bright Remix and some white. Simple. I like it.


I also used the Bright Remix for the binding, just like I did with What The FMQAYGQAL? I love, love, love Bright Remix as a binding.
Bright Stripes - Back
Quiltography: "Bright Stripes," by Michèle-Renée Charbonneau, Ottawa, 45" by 57", 2013.

I'm entering this into the ROYBGIV category of the festival. Thank you to Amy for doing such an amazing job organizing this festival. Go check out the other quilty goodness in the festival!
AmysCreativeSide

Here are my entries into past Blogger's Quilt Festivals:

Wednesday 23 October 2013

Double, Double Toil and Trouble

Double toil and trouble is right! I'm working on my Halloween wallhanging for the Wicked Blog Hop, witch has started! Today's fun line up of participants is:




My day is not until the 30th, witch is a good thing because I'm stuck on one section. The cauldron section.

First I did this one:


But something didn't seem right, so I made this one:


Now this one doesn't feel right either. Feels a little flat? I'm leaning towards the first one cauldron, but redoing the potion. Thoughts? Suggestions? Spells I could cast to make one of them work so they don't revoke my witch license?

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Quilt Matters Bundle Winner

You guys have great ideas on what to do with this bundle! Love it!

The winner of the Quilt Matters curated bundle from Mad About Patchwork is:

67. juceyj0315 October 2013 14:00
I follow Pam's blog via bloglovin as well!
*Jessica

Congratulations Jessica!

Love the fabrics? You can order this curated Quilt Matters bundle from Mad About Patchwork yourself. It includes:
  • Nordika Stellar in Moonlight
  • Remix Ovals in Grey 
  • Pearl Bracelet in Glacier 
  • Square Elements in Shadow 
  • Pearl Bracelet in Hi Ho Silver 
  • Remix Ovals in Aqua 
  • Sketch in Aqua 
  • Domino Dot in Lagoon 

Mad About Patchwork

Monday 21 October 2013

Modern Block Monday - The Tula Effect


Happy Monday! This is the last day of the Aqua and Grey Goodness giveaway by Mad About Patchwork, so if you haven't had a chance to enter, you can do so here. Winner will be announced tomorrow!

I'm working away on my Wicked Blog Hop piece and I'm loving most of it, but one area is giving me issues. To distract myself a little, I thought I'd get a quick finish fix with this:


Yes, that's Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks. Each block finishes at 6", which I think will be fun to double them up so they can go with my blocks from 99 Modern Blocks, which finish at 12". Sweet! This was a fun, quick block and I'm looking forward to doing more.

Other blocks in this Modern Block Monday series are:

Thursday 17 October 2013

TGIFF! - Lunch Anyone?

Surprise! We've had a change of plans so TGIFF! is over here again this week. My finish this week also has something to do with a surprise. It's another version of Ayumi's lunch bag! I just love this pattern. I did a similar one back in June and liked the fabric pairings so much that I had to make another one when I needed a gift for a friend's 40th surprise birthday party. The party and the gift were well received! Phew! :)


Now for OctoberQuest 2! Please make sure you READ the rules BEFORE you link up. We had to unlink several folks last week and I'd rather not have to do it this week!

Your quest is to finish up those quilty projects and link up at any of our fab four hosts throughout the month of October. The rules remain the same as last year:
  1. Your quilty project must be completely finished (As much as we love celebrating quilt tops or completed blocks, they will not be eligible for the prizes so we will need to unlink them).
  2. You may enter more than one finish and even more than one finish each week. Just add a link for each finish to one of the linky parties. The linky parties will stay open until the end of the month.
  3. Your blog post or photo on Flickr/Picasa must have a link back to the TGIFF! site and the particular party you are participating in. Posts without links will be deleted.
  4. Link up your quilty finish in any of the TGIFF! linky parties this month:
  5. OctoberQuest will be open until October 31st at 11:59 p.m. EST. Winners will be picked via Ms. Random Number Generator on November 1st and notified via email. Please make sure we can contact you via email or we will blow the gift certificates on ourselves need to run Ms. Random again.
1) Mad About Patchwork is giving a $50 gift certificate to two lucky participants! There's something for everyone too - Pam's offering a 10% off purchases for the month of October to all OctoberQuest participants -- just use TGIFF10 at checkout.
Mad About Patchwork
2) Sew Sisters Quilt Shop is giving a $50 gift certificate to two lucky participants! They too are offering 10% off purchases (excluding classes, clubs and block of the month programs) for the month of October to all OctoberQuest participants -- TGIFF10 at checkout!
Sew Sisters
3) Christa Quilts is giving a $25 gift certificate to one lucky participant! Christa is having a special fall blowout clearance sale - take an extra 10% off her clearance section when you use the code 13CLEARANCE at checkout.
Christa Quilts
Just think of what deliciousness you could get with one of these prizes?! So exciting! Thank you to our sponsors for offering these goodies! So to help us celebrate OctoberQuest 2 and be in the running for these amazing goodies, start linking! Here's the linkup:

Wednesday 16 October 2013

Works in Progress Wednesday - The Turkey Haze Edition

If you haven't had a chance to enter the Aqua and Grey Goodness giveaway from Mad About Patchwork, check it out here.

***

It's been 6 weeks (?!) since I last did a WIP report. What? It must be the tryptophan that is giving me the courage to look at the WIP list again. Nasty! I'm hoping to complete some of these WIPs for OctoberQuest 2 so wish me luck!

New Projects:

Wicked Blog Hop: The Wicked Blog Hop with Sew We Quilt is coming up soon and I've been working away on my project. I'm hoping to incorporate my block from last year somehow. Here's a photo of where I'm at right now. It's ambitious and going to be a stretch for me. Fingers crossed!


Completed Projects:

Asterisk Christmas Table Runner - Two years on the WIP list and it's finally done...and reversible! Woo hoo!


Front
Back
Bright Stripes: Done, blogged, but still working on the pattern.


Rainbow Bright: My version of the Something New Sampler. Woo hoo!

Simply Solids Bee

The October Bee block for is for Pam.


Confetti

Current Projects:

Scrap{Bee} Quilt: The top was done. And then it wasn't. The blocks have been unstitched. New layout coming soon!


Kingston quilt: No progress.

Su{Brrr}nova Scraps: No progress.

Scrappy Trip AlongNo progress.








What are you working on this week?
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