Black and White and Orange all over

I am so lucky that I get to quilt a wide variety of quilts.  The quilt I just finished was pieced by a beginner quilter.  She wants a quilt to give to her son for his dorm bed.  Orange is his favourite colour, so this black and white quilt has orange for an accent.

A log cabin quilt for a beginner is quite the accomplishment.  Congratulations Jani!  I'm sure your son will love it.

Thanks to the tip from Carla at Grace and Favour, I also have changed my setting so hopefully it will be easier for you to comment if you don't have a google account.

For those of you who are interested in how to apply binding on quilts that have very different angles  at the corners, check out Marci Baker's video.  Marci also has a video on the traditional way to join binding.  Click here to check it out.  After watching it I think you will understand why I join my binding in the corner, as shown in a previous post.

Have a great day everyone!

The fast way to join binding using a mitre

I have a number of methods I use in my quilting to speed things up a little.  One of my favourites is to join my binding with a mitre in the corner.  This is also useful if you want to have different coloured binding on each side of your quilt.

Make your binding whatever size you normally do.  Starting 1/4" from the top edge, start sewing your binding on the side of the quilt.  Take two stitches, backstitch two stitches, then off you go sewing around the quilt.  If I am making a one colour binding, I turn the three other corners as shown in every quilt book out there.

When you get close to the corner you want to mitre, turn back the binding that you started with to look like the picture above.  This is so you have a reference point.  Stitch the binding right up to the turned back piece.  You should be able to feel the fold with your finger.  Once again backstitch a couple of stitches.

When you turn back the second end, this is what your corner should look like.  Trim the batting and backing taking a little extra out of the corner.

Fold your quilt on the diagonal, right sides together.  The two binding pieces should be even.  Make sure all your seam allowances are turned towards the body of the quilt.

To make it easier to see, I have drawn where I am going to sew.  The diagonal line coming out from the corner should be in line with the fold of the quilt.  At the middle of the binding you make a 90 degree turn and sew out to the edge of the binding.  When you start to sew you will have to start about 1/4" from the corner and backstitch to about 1/16" from the stitch line of the binding.  You leave a little space here so that you can ease in any fullness.  When you reach the outer edge you will once more need to backstitch.

Trim the seam to a scant 1/4" taking a little extra out of the corner.

Turn the binding right side out.  If your stitches are a little loose and you are concerned about them showing, you can always colour them with a pigma pen.  Most of my quilts have one corner of the binding mitred, for my join, and the remaining three corners are turned as below.

Most people would not see the difference.  This method would not be used on a quilt you wanted to win a blue ribbon for in a juried show.  However, my quilts are all meant to be used and loved, so this is a quick way to complete them.  It usually takes me less than a minute to mitre my corner.  Your first try might take a little longer, but after you have done a few, you will see how easy it is.  Let me know if you try it, and happy quilting.

Paper Foundation Pieced Wee Bear

Occasionally I decide I need to quilt just for fun.  I subscribe to a newsletter from Silver Lining Originals and each month she has a new pattern.  Last year's patterns were Wee Ones.  This is one of those patterns that I have wanted to find the time to try.  The Wee Bear was a bit of a challenge, but we all need that now and then.

I see that I have a few loose stitches from pulling the paper off.  I will have to get my pigma pen out and colour them.
If you would like to see some of Linda Hibbert's patterns click here.  Scroll down the page and you can sign up for her newsletter.  She never sends any mail but the newsletter, so it is very safe to sign up.

Christmas is fast approaching in the quilt world, so this is the first Christmas quilting of the year.  I can't spill the beans on the whole quilt, as it belongs to a friend, but I will show you the border.

It is a cute fabric that is called count down to Christmas.  I quilted circles around each of the circles in the fabric, to make them pop.  I was going a little cross eyed in the process, but it was only thing I could think of to quilt.

Happy quilting!

Shane and Nichelle's Wedding

For those of you that are only interested in quilting, there is a quilt at the end.  For the rest of you, Shane and Nichelle's wedding was beautiful.  The weather was wonderful, the setting was amazing, and the Bride and Groom were stunning!

Shane and his buds were hamming it up for the camera, prior to the festivities.

Shane and Nichelle were so beautiful.

Sandra was so proud of her little boy, and his wonderful wife.

My son George has always been a big brother to Shane.  What a handsome pair of young men.

Weddings are a wonderful time to get families together for pictures.  This is the first picture with all four of us kids and Mom and Dad, in about forty years.  Love it.

The dance with the parents.  Ahhhhhh.

And as promised, the quilt that I made for the happy couple.  I did post a little more info about this quilt here.

Wedding Dress Road Trip

Last Saturday Leslie, two of her bridesmaids, and myself, went on a road trip to Kelowna to go wedding dress shopping.  Now any good road trip has to start off with food, so Wendy's was the first stop.

The girls were trying to hide all the real fattening food by setting it on Leslie's car, but .......

The next stop was Starbucks in Vernon (an hour away) for a pee stop, and new drinks.  Then came the dress shop in Kelowna.  Off to our little waiting room to wait for Leslie to show us THE DRESS.

Of course I can't show you THE DRESS, but I can tell you Leslie looks beautiful in it!

Now to get out of THE DRESS a bridesmaid is sometime needed.  Not necessarily Heidi's best side, but fun anyways.

After stopping at Shopper's for more drinks, it was back on the road.  Falkland was the pee stop on the way back, and of course, more food.

The Petro Can in Falkland carries the black licorice cigars that I love.  Brianna doesn't like licorice, so I was force to eat two.  What can I say.

A great day with three wonderful young women.  Thanks for letting me join in!

Friends

Today I stopped by Katja's Quilt Shoppe to check out what was happening.  A small group of Quilters were in the classroom sewing up a storm.  This group of friends gets together once a month for a little sewing, a lot of food and great companionship.

A couple of the ladies were shopping when I had the camera out.  I'll get them next time! Thanks for letting me stop by.

I would like to say that I was so inspired by their mini quilt gathering that I rushed home to finish the quilt I was working on for a friend.  However, truth be told, I had promised to have it done by 6 and was determined to make the deadline.  I find deadlines help me focus.

An Irish Chain is always stunning.  Green and Pink are not colours I would normally put together, but in this quilt they really compliment each other.

Deanna's Big Boy/Girl Quilts

A good friend of mine, Deanna, makes a quilt for each of her grandchildren when they turn 4. These quilts are the big boy/girl quilts made to fit the big beds.  The latest quilt is for Sadie. The batik hearts are bright and cheerful.  I quilted the quilt with overall paisley hearts using King Tut #921.
Sadie's name was pieced using Tonya Ricucci's method of free form piecing.  Check out Tonya's Word Play Quilts book available at Katja's.

Cleo will be the lucky recipient of this batik star quilt.  In both quilts Deanna replaced a block with the child's name.  Great idea!

Mylah is already using this beauty.

Soren wanted farmyard fabrics on his quilt, so Deanna created this fun quilt.

Olin was into construction equipment, so this is the quilt he received.

Hunter's quilt was made before Deanna knew how to quilt the name.  I'm sure he loves it just the same.

Thanks to Deanna for agreeing to let me show you these great quilts.

Small Blog Meet

I was just visiting Lilysquilts and she has a wonderful idea to help newer bloggers like myself, link up with others.  My post is supposed to say a little bit about myself and my quilting.

I started quilting about 28 years ago and still love it.  I love traditional piecing as well as new and funky piecing.  I try to find the easiest way to make a block.  Life is to short to do things the hard way.  I have taught quilting classes at the local quilt shop for the past twelve years and have long arm quilted the last eleven years.  Now if you are keeping track of the numbers, you have figured out that I'm a little older than most bloggers.  But what is age, just a number and no, I'm not giving up the number.

I hope you take a minute to scroll through some of my posts and return again.  Thanks.

I love to feather!

I love to quilt feathers.  I think every quilter finds a quilting pattern they just have to use whenever possible.  For me that pattern is feathers.

Today I finished quilting a quilt based on a pattern from Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting, January/February 2011 magazine.  The original quilt is called China Girl.  The quilt had a lot of different shaped background areas that I just had to fill with feathers.

A medallion feather for this spot.

A funky feather in a straight line for this area.

And a feather in this box that looks an awful lot like a flower.

Of course I did add a continuous feather on the border.  I will show you the finished quilt when I get the binding on it.

For those of you who are quilting feathers, remember, they are just half a heart.

Valemount Quilt

If you are driving through Valemount, you must stop in at the info centre to check out this wonderful quilt.  It was made by the local guild and depicts scenes from around the area.

The centre block is the view of Canoe Mountain.

From the info centre head across the highway and a couple of blocks down 5th Ave. to the Bear Paw Den.

Even though the store is small, it contains all sorts of treasures.  Even the men will find something interesting to look at.  If not in the quilt store, then at the sporting goods store next door.