Quilted Rose Placemats for Mom

I sewed 4 quilted placemats for my mother for Christmas last year.  She wanted 2 more and finally last weekend I made them.  Fortunately I had enough of the rose panel that has 4 different roses but had to coordinate a different shade of pink and green fabric with them.

 I measured and cut....

and did some sewing and quilting....

The first 4 had a different rose on each one and quilted were like this one...

but I'm sure she will like these 2 coordinating placemats I'll give her on Monday.  Now she can set up a pretty table for her friends and serve up something special.   In the picture they look like a square but they are rectangular in real life..

Now...what will I make with the rose panels I still have left?  I'll have to think on that. 

 Have a rosey day... Judi xoxo

A Quilt for Madeline

I had recently started to finish a quilt from years ago. I've put it aside again because I had another idea that took me to Fabricland on Sunday. I wanted to make a little quilt for Madeline....something sweet that she can snuggle with on a cold evening or when she's having a little nap.

Madeline loves pinks and purples and I adored this fabric which I'll use as the focal point. It has flowers in pretty colours and butterflies too.

I had no trouble finding pretty fabrics to go with all these lovely colours. In fact I chose 9 different fabrics and some even have butterflies.....
I cut and sewed together 4 large blocks using one each of the 9 different fabric squares.
I'm putting a square of the focal fabric in the middle of the quilt and using 4 ivory squares as well. I will applique and sew something simple on the 4 ivory squares. Hopefully my idea works and then I can share those squares with you later in the week.

I am going to choose a couple of other fabrics for the edges and in between to join the squares. That will mean another trip to Fabricland. How I wish we were having a snow day tomorrow..... :o) but we're not having any snow. I'll have to be patient and wait to work on this after work.

I hope you get to do what you want to tomorrow.... Judi xoxo

Forgotten Unfinished Quilt - A New Challenge

A while back I came across a little storage container of fabrics I hadn't looked at for a while...a long while. I guessed it must have been over 15 years ago when I first taught myself the beginnings of quilting. Somehow I managed to make all these log cabin squares. What a surprise...

When I made the quilt for Geoff and Kiley I referred to this great book. I remembered this is the book I learned to make these squares in shadow blocks. This book is fabulous and takes you through the steps to making a quilt. It is all pictures and many different methods and so many different squares.

Tonight I started laying the blocks out on my diningroom table. Arranging them this way and that way trying to get together a pattern using the dark and light sides of each square.

After downloading the pictures I saw I hadn't placed the blocks the right way. See the top right square of the big square in the middle? I had to turn that block to place the dark side down....

So I reorganized the squares .... replaced a few blocks...

There I think thats better. I think I'll be happy with that switch once I have all the squares sewed together.

So far the size is 28"x41". I'll trim the squares to make them all the same size. I hope to find 2 different pretty coordinating fabrics to make borders around the quilt. I don't think I would be choosing this colour scheme and fabrics if I was doing it now but I am up for the challenge to finish it up and see how I make out with it.

Do you have a project you started years ago to finish?

Hope you have fun finishing it up also.... Judi xoxo

"A Labour of Love".....is complete...

I'm excited the quilt I made for Geoff and Kiley for Christmas...is finished. They didn't know I was making it for them as I posted before. The quilt was born from a telephone conversation Geoff and I had about a month before Christmas.

Geoff asked if one day I would make one for them and could it include things about them....things they liked and he gave me examples.... Although I had doubts because I'm not a "quilter" as such I was able to come up with some of their loves...

This block represents their love for each other. The black buttoned fabric around their heart is an older police officer shirt of Geoffs. Both Geoff and Kiley are police officers. They met when Geoff was training her a few years ago....

love for Geoff's daughter Madeline..... "M"...


love for Kiley's son Austin.... "A"

Canada...the red maple leaves amongst other trees we have and love...


Finland - our heritage with the word "SISU" which means the determination, strength, perseverence of the Finnish people

an embroidered Irish symbol for Ireland - Kiley's heritage....

this looks like the home they just purchases this fall together...

their "dear" pet trantulas....

camping....bonfires...the outdoors...

this picture to remember their dear Ronin who had to leave their love after just a short time this fall....this spring they plan on adding another doberman puppy to their family....

I made other quilt blocks in the colours they have in their home and sewing it altogether I've called it....

"A Labour of Your Loves"....

This was a true labour of love from me to them....Lots of work and worth every stitch...

I hope this day is worth every moment for you... Judi xoxo..

A Labour of Their Loves

It wasn't many weeks before Christmas when my eldest son Geoff asked if I could one day make them a quilt...one that they could use and then keep over the back of their couch. We were talking on the phone at the time and as he continued to describe the quilt he would love, I thought, oh my I can't to this.

At the same time I wished we'd had this discussion earlier. What a wonderful Christmas gift this could have been for them.

As I thought about it ideas came to mind and then it became a challenge to see what I could do.

He wanted it to include their life and what they loved and enjoyed doing...

I planned an embroidered "M" for Madeline, his daughter, my granddaughter...

an embroidered "A" for Austin, Kiley's little son....

I started with individual quilted blocks and embroidery....their new home...their love of camping and outdoors....birds...doberman...spiders..Finland...Canada...Ireland...

Here I laid squares on my bed trying to decide how to arrange them...

finally I started to sew strips between them, joining the squares...

I worked long evenings and long weekend days. Finally on Christmas eve, our Christmas I surprised them with the quilt. I had pinned the binding and still had to finish quilting the border and the binding but it was as ready as it was going to be for Christmas. They were so surprised and loved it.
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I had to take it back so that I could complete it. This is my plan for this week and I'll show you the finished quilt when it is.

Marc said this was truly a "labour of love" and I decided a rightful name for the quilt should be "A Labour of Your Loves"..... Somehow I'll incorporate that onto a label on the front.

I'll share it when I'm done.....Judi xoxo

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, BLUE Monday and Quilting

Abby and I wish all my Canadian friends a wonderfully Happy Thanksgiving.

Thankfulness and sharing with family and friends.

Yesterday we had our family dinner at my place. Because of schedules (and a new grandoggy) Kiley and Austin weren't able to join us unfortunately.

I will post pics from our vacation this week. It was sooo lovely...truly we had a great great time I'm so happy to have one more day off on Monday for Thanksgiving....

Meanwhile I'm also joining Sally at SmilingSally...our gracious BLUE Monday hostess. Be sure to check all the other BLUE participants.

I don't know why I leave things to the last minute but I guess it could be because I have been busy with other things for the past almost 9 months! Janet has a C-section booked for October 19th and Marc will be a proud grandpa again. Jack who turned 3 in June is excited to be a big brother.

So today I finally started and worked diligently on the baby quilt. The front is almost complete....see the pretty blues... I'll show you better pics when its complete.

Have a wonderful day and again Happy Canadian Thanksgiving..

..... Judi xoxo

Finishing up the Edge/Trim Corners of a Blanket/Quilt Tutorial (my way)

I wanted to post about a baby's blanket I made for a lady at work who was expecting her first child. Don't they have the cutest eyes and expressions? I thought so.

At the time I made a tutorial on how I did the edging and corners on the main side. I used to have some trouble making the corners square but after playing around with it this is how I do it. Many of my quilts and blankets use a contrasting material on the back that becomes the edge binding on the right side. This is easy, tidy and is a nice contrast for the front. It works for me.
I had a lot of interest in this tutorial when it was on Wordpress so I thought I'd bring it to Blogspot as well.

Looking at the front of my completed blanket I measure the panel/material that runs around the completed blanket/quilt which is the right side of the back piece of my blanket/quilt. I want to leave double the width I want the edge/trim to be and cut it to that size.
Along the long side I fold the fabric in half and then half again on to the blanket and pin at that spot.

Beginning at the left side of the short end I place a sharp fold, temporarily pinning that point and fold the bottom up to the bottom edge of the blanket/quilt and then fold up one more time. You might have to adjust the fold until it meets at a perfect and neat angle with the edge of the left-side longer edge. I fold up the rest of that edge pinning along the way to the end.

Turn your blanket/quilt so that you once again begin at the left side with the sharp fold repeating until all four corners are pinned evenly.

I then sew along the folded edge of the trim/edge all the way around. I might use a fancy machine stitch, or small zigzag to close up the fold on the corners, or place delicate hand stitches and sometimes the fabric looks good without doing anything more.

The trim is actually the same width all the way around the blanket although them picture didn't capture this. Were you able to understand my tutorial?

Let me know how it works for you....I'd love to hear your comments on what you are making.

Morning 2 of Vacation is sunny and clear....it can only be a good day.

Hope you have a lovely day too.... Judi xoxo