I Won the Bag

Gay at sentimental stitches  offered this bag as a draw prize after being at the big Houston Quilt Festival this fall. I won and love it. I discovered her website Dec 30, 2012 and joined in the fun as they started the just takes 2 red and white sampler quilt BOM 2 days later with no less than 6 blocks. It was a response to the Red and White Quilt show in New York a few years ago.

I decided to make mine from fabric in my cupboard and used many different Jinny Beyer Pallet colours on a plain white background. I still have a few blocks to go. Some of them are patterns I had never seen before and techniques that were new to me. When completed there will be 100 blocks in varying sizes.

Serendipity

I might put this on my 2015 goals list. Or I might pull it out, lay it on the bed, gloat about it a bit them fold it up and put it back it its box for another year. After all, there will be lots of time after I complete the biggest goal for the year and that is completing my doctorate.

Blessings,
Chris

CCCQ Update

I completed this block babysitting the other night. It is one of several that I had stitched on in Poland in October. I really must learn how to center pictures so they do not look so distorted.

CCCQ #23

The house guest will begin to arrive in 2 days. It's going to be a lot of fun . . . and probably noise . . .

Blessings,
Chris

Ben Biggs Catch-up Marathon

When I started the Benjamin Biggs Wedding Quilt in January, I told myself that it should be quick and easy to do one block a month by machine applique. I was wrong. I had all the reds and greens from the CCCQ quilt and enough background fabric in my cupboard to start immediately and I had a whole roll of Floriani wash-away fuseable web to use for the shapes and not have to remove like you do with freezer paper. Maybe because I thought it would be quick and easy, I did not get to it as fast as I could have. Or did I? According to my calendar, I was away 5 times this year at the beginning of the month when the blocks were released and I just downloaded the patterns and saved them to print off later. That backfired on me when I could not find the files for 2 of the blocks and frantically tried to find them. They did show up accidentally when I copied the link and, then I found the patterns I had printed off in a note book.

Because I am using several different reds and greens, I laid out the blocks I did have done on a table in order and then started picking colours for the rest. I did not want the same colours together. Have I ever mentioned that choosing colours is not one of my better skills?

I had traced and cut out all the pattern pieces last week and this week I ironed them onto the wrong side of the fabrics and cut out the shapes leaving a small seam allowance. I have not yet glued these under. I will do that another day. All the blocks have been neatly stacked and returned to their project box for another day.

Ben Biggs Block # 10

The sun sure was shining brightly through the geraniums on the window, casting deep shadows on the light table. Did you know that too much light in the top does not allow the light under the table to shine through? I did not know that before. I do now.

Ben Biggs Block # 12

I thought I had counted all the pieces needed carefully. I missed 2 flowers here since I was layering 4 sheets of the wash-away stuff and then I could not find a piece to cut out the rest. That`s one of the problems when you start tidying up and putting things in their rightful place.

Ben Biggs Block # 11

 The sun eventually moved on and the light under the table started to shine through.

Ben Biggs Block # 9

I bought a  glass topped table last year to use as a light table.  I was planning to start  the Love Entwined 1790`s Marriage Coverlet last year, but so far have downloaded all 18 of the free patterns and obsessed about what colours to make the center compass. After reading all the posts about the process from many different quilters around the world, I realize that my applique skills needed a lot of learning and fine tuning. So, Ben Bigg`s is  my tutor for machine applique using the wash-away iron on fuseable stuff. LE is so detailed and finicky that I do not want to mess up. CCCQ and BTCT have been my tutors for needle turned hand applique. And now I have discovered a new approach to freezer paper applique. I love reading the quilt blogs that have come my way this past year.

Blessings,
Chris

Is it December Already?

My goodness. Where has the time gone? It seems like just a few days ago I was packing  my bags to go to England and Poland.Then after I was  home for 2 days I flew off to New Brunswick to spend time with my daughter and grandson. Now they have been here for the weekend for my husband's family annual Christmas dinner, which now takes place the Saturday after the American thanksgiving so his brother's family can all come back to Canada to celebrate with us. Since we were hosting this year, I made 3 turkeys and now  all the turkey bones and leftovers are in the freezer awaiting another day to make gallons of soup, since I cooked way too much. Not to mention that as I sat at the dinner, my throat started to close up and here I am, 3 days later with laryngitis and a deep bronchial cough. But I did spend lots of time looking after Devan when she was sick last week so, I guess she shared. 

Last night I printed off and taped together 5 pattern layouts for the Ben Biggs quilt that I am way behind in. I traced off the patterns onto wash away fuseable web and took time to cut them all out. I did remember to label them first. Two boxes of new fat quarters arrived from Craftsy. I had them in my cart and responded to a flash sale 2 1/2 weeks ago and got a better price then than they were offering last week, so I am happy. I have been slowly, oh so slowly, working on my simple tutorials for the Bright Jane quilt blocks. The sun is shining so brightly in here today.

In 2 weeks the house guest start to arrive for Christmas. Most recent count is 4 guests staying at my house, and 24 for Christmas dinner here at the Farm. Six of the nine coming from Saskatchewan will be staying in other homes. First guest arrives from Qatar Dec 18 and the last 2 leave for New Brunswick Jan 10. Both of these will be making quilts while they are here. Now, in order to sit 24 people at the same time in the same room, I need all 4 of my quilt tables cleared off, moved to the living room, that is 25 feet long, and I think there are enough chairs throughout the house to seat everyone at the same time. I have more than enough dishes since I bought all of them from a hotel auction 30 years ago and only broke one so far. Stacking chairs came from a local church auction 25 years ago.  One of the joys of living in a really big ole farm house, is that stuff seldom gets thrown out since there is so much room to store things. However, I did give away the 100 year old church piano (bought from the same auction) last week so have a whole wall empty in the living room. I am dying to fill that space with book shelves to house the hundreds of books sitting in boxes right now. Maybe. Just maybe, I could ask for bookshelves for Christmas? My daughter and my husband have had an annual luncheon date for the past 30 years to go out and buy my Christmas present. She always asks to make sure that I am happy. Hhmm.

And I drew up a 2015 goals diagram. Instead of writing a linear list like I usually do, I thought this might be more effective. Its like putting rocks into a jar. Only a very few large ones will fit, so the largest rock is completing my doctorate. The smaller stones are also important but not so big. Sand to fill in the gaps will be regular stuff like blogging, retreats, quilting, travel. And water to fill all the tiny spaces is everyday stuff.  I might change it but that is what came to mind immediately when I started.

Somehow, all the farm files made their way into the quilt room and this is the priority this week. The corn got combined yesterday and looks like a good crop this year so should have enough from selling it to pay for all the fertilizers, spraying, seed, combining, drying, silo filling, fuel for tractor and wages for workers. Then we get to start all over again with orders for next year's seed corn in the bills to pay file.

Blessings,
Chris

Welcome to My Blog

Hi. My  name is Chris and I live on a dairy farm in the Hamilton area of southern Ontario. I have been quilting for a lot of years and have a group of friends who come to Quilt at the Farm.  I have been blogging for more than a year now and cannot believe how much quilting I have accomplished since I started posting my progress here. I have also met with some pretty amazing quilters across Canada and around the world. Some are working on the same projects, other are doing their own creative thing. I have been inspired beyond belief with my quilting and my faith.

BTCT # 20

On of the quilts I am working on is the Beyond the Cherry Trees from Sentimental Stitches.  This was offered as a free BOM several years ago before I discovered it. I am needle turning and hand appliqueing as I babysit my wonderful grandchildren. I keep a bag ready to take with me. I got 9/12 leaves stitched down tonight. Try as I might, I still get peaks in my curves. Need more Practice. I will get that soon enough when I start on those 43 round cherries. I cut them out using one of the GO dies that has the right sized circle, I hope. Now, should I glue baste them in place or use the tiny pins like I have been with the leaves?

Blessings,

Chris

Original CCCQ

I found a picture of the original Chester County  Criswell Quilt made originally in 1852 as a wedding quilt. You can find more info  here  about the BOM.



I have been working on mine for 14 months and below is my progress so far. It is here that I have learned to do needle turn hand applique and am really loving it. Stitching around all those narrow inny and outy points with a size 10 Milliners needle  has given me an opportunity to learn to stitch with confidence. The original quilt has 61 blocks. Some of them were repeated by different family members. I am making mine with the 33 block pattern that are being made available.

 

Blessings,
Chris

GORF Retreat Update

We had our very first ever GO Real Fast Quilt retreat here at the Farm this past weekend. I had this crazy idea that a whole quilt could be prepped, cut out using the Accuquilt GO cutter and dies, blocks designed and laid out ready for machine applique in just 1 weekend. Two of the girls are making a 9 square quilt with swag borders. They are designing their own blocks using mine for an inspiration starting place. The other girl is making the same 16 squares that I made with swag borders. She could only come the one day and I forgot to take pictures of her progress. Each of the girls will be returning in the next 2 weeks to complete their blocks.

This is my yet unfinished quilt. I am quilting it in sections and my quilting machine is still at the repair shop. I machine appliqued the flowers onto the swags as a demo for the girls who practiced setting up their machine tension and thread on scrap bits after cutting out their shapes.

This is Daiva's work space above and she is ironing on the heat-n-bond fuseable web.This took longer than I expected.

How creative is this? She got 3 blocks done and 3 more started.
We laid out the blocks and border  on the design wall to see how the swags are going to look, then auditioned different options to connect the swags by pinning them on.

Leslie is cutting her very soft pink focus fabric after ironing on the heat'n'bond lite fusible web.

Her creative process was fun to watch.

 I learned a lot.

1. Everyone needs their own table space.
2. You cannot make the whole thing in a weekend if it is your first time.
3. Laughter is very good for the soul.
4. So is potluck food.
5. Not everyone wants to copy my patterns exactly.
6. Giving freedom to use my blocks for inspiration to create their own works.
7. This takes more time than copying a pattern.
8. I can learn from my students.
9. Helping each other is faster than doing it alone.
10. Three quilters at a time is perfect.
11. I never take enough pictures.
12. I want to do it again.  

Blessings,
Chris