Butterfly Bag

I have been wanting to make a small 'carry all' bag, every since I saw this post by Elizabeth of 'Don't Call me Betsy'. Aren't they amazing??? 

I searched around and decided to purchase this pattern by ELizabeth Hartman and decided to try Bag C (which I think looks very similar, don't you??!!) and also includes a few other styles which I just may have to try out as well...for starters I am going these fabrics...

I started with the Butterfly (Field Study-Anna Maria Horner) - isn't he gorgeous?! And then just allowed fabrics to choose me from there. The blue vintage sheet in the top left corner insists on being the lining fabric - I'm going with it...no sense fighting the fabric, it always wins anyways.

After a few trips back to the original post by Elizabeth, pining after her bags, I decided to join the her 'Perfect Stars' Block of the Month Club. I am totally stoked!

I have been madly in love with stars of late and deseperately wanting to learn paper piecing so - VOILA - it totally makes sense for me to jump right in and be a part of this awesome party! Party officially starts January 1 (though we did get a bonus 'practice' block today) and I have yet to go get my fabrics! I have started to dream about how they might look...but we all know how that goes...I am sure once I have a discussion with the fabrics it will look NOTHING like my original vision!!!


Off to sew my very first bag - will let you know how I do!


~Lisa

Ovals Quilt Finish aka 'The Bossy Quilt'

Some of you may remember my Ovals Quilt that I began in late October. I started out with the 'Happy Hour' Pattern from the book Modern Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman and a few piles of fabric. 

Well, I finished it up this weekend!!! Yay me!!!

Let me tell you a little about this quilt....it sure had a mind of its own! From fabric selection to quilting - this quilt knew what it wanted and spoke loud and clear. 

For example: the orange in that original pile of fabric - forget it. Every time I placed a piece of that gorgeous tangerine orange fabric on my design wall, this quilt yelled NOOOOOO!!! I would pull off the orange, hide it back in the pile and then stick it back on the design wall a little later...and again the quilt would yell - NOOOOO! It was hilarious. No matter what I did, there were certain  fabrics in my chosen piles, that this quilt was just not going to have. 

Again with the quilting, I thought it would be interesting to quilt in large V's towards the centre - densely quilting some areas and leaving some strips without quilting. I went ahead and started quilting like this and again the quilt  - NOOOOOO!!! It was to be densely quilted all over.

And you know, the quilt was always right! I have renamed it, 'The Bossy Quilt' and am super happy with this finish. It is a gift for a special friend for Christmas. So I am going to wish it farewell (I always find this hard to do!) and wrap it up all Christmas style tomorrow.

My first label - purchased here from Hobbytime on Etsy.

I added some wonky stars on the back for some fun detail.

Wishing each and every one of you a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad! Happy Hanukkah!


Linking up with Plum and June for the Monday Link up party.


~Lisa

TAG...I'm it!

I was recently tagged in a game of blog tag by Melissa from Melia Mae Quilting, what fun! So come on, let’s play…  

HERE ARE THE RULES TO PLAY BY:

•   every tagged person has to tell 11 things about themselves

•   the person who tagged you asked 11 questions, answer them

•   ask 11 questions for the (up to) 11 blogs that you're going to tag 

    (the people you tag should have less than 200 followers)  

•   mention the blog that tagged you, but don't tag them back.

11 THINGS ABOUT ME:

1.   I am Canadian, I live in beautiful BC on the West Coast and I love it here.

2.   I was born and raised in the city, but I am a country girl at heart. I live in (what would be considered) the ‘country’ now, but am still working on talking my husband into moving to a farm.

3.   One of my favourite things to do (besides the obvious – quilting) is preserve/can food. Love to make food and put it into jars – such fun can be had! Trust me on this – if you haven’t tried it, you must!

Pickles from last summer

4.   I love chickens (see #2 if you are questioning this). I don’t have any, but like the farm, I am working on it. Imagine – fresh eggs!

Taken at a local farm - how fun to have one of these following you around in the back yard!

5.   One of my favourite trips ever was with my grandmother on a cruise ship through the Panama Canal when I was 21. Such good memories.

6.   I like to surround myself with things that have a story to tell, that had a life before their life with me. Especially if they are from my family – for example, I have my grandmother’s marble collection in her big old mason jars that used to sit in on her shelf in the kitchen.

7.   One of my very favourite places in the world is Maui  - this is because I used to visit there with my family growing up and whenever I return there the smells and sights bring back wonderful memories.

Top of Haleakala Volcano (on Maui) at sunset

8.   I really enjoy being in my garden. I desperately want to start a vegetable garden in the spring, but worry about having enough time to do it well.

9.   I love lying on my hammock, reading Harry Potter with my son under the big old tree in the backyard.

10. I love to bake and cook and I don’t like anyone else in my kitchen.

11. My favourite colour is orange orange and more orange.

ANSWERING MELISSA'S QUESTIONS:

1.  What is your favorite holiday? Well, I wouldn’t call it ‘favourite’ per se as in many instances we are honouring those who gave their lives, but Remembrance Day is the most meaningful for me because I really like to keep it close to heart that we live in the peaceful way we do because of the sacrifices of others.

2.  What is your favorite Christmas tradition? Opening stockings.

3.  What's your real job? I am a teacher.

4.  Would you chose it again?  Why or why not? I love to teach – making connections with children is priceless. Plus they make me giggle each day and I love that. Just today my kids added a ‘cha cha cha’ at the end of each verse of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and we giggled and giggled. Now, what other job would offer you that?!!!

5.  What is your favorite part of the quilting process? Without doubt, the quilting.

6.  What is the next project you plan on working on?  The Fox and Gnome Tote Bag that can be found here at Artisania.

7.  What is your favorite fabric line of all time? Oh wow, I don’t have one…I was just looking at my stash today and noticing how I collect eclectic fabric – rarely purchasing a whole line. I am a super nostalgic person, so vintage sheets and vintage fabrics always make their way home with me.

8.  What is your favorite movie?  The Breakfast Club – I am so 80’s at heart.

9.  What is your favorite food?  Tea – does that count?!!!

10.  What are some of your other hobbies besides quilting? Well, my son and I have a paper route – he gets the paycheck, so I guess that makes it my hobby??!!! I so also love to read – and collect books. Love books in print – the real thing.

11.  Where would you go on your "dream vacation"? Egypt, Nepal and China.

I AM TAGGING THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE WHO ARE NOW ALL IT:

Gillian at Red Raspberry

Ginette at The Quilting Princess

Sarah at Stitching and Bacon

Chrissie at made by Chrissie D

Alicia Pazos at Arty and Crafty Little Things

 ...AND HERE IS MY LIST OF QUESTIONS TO THESE PLAYERS:

1.   What is the most memorable book you have read?

2.   What are you reading right now? Would you recommend it?

3.   If you could have any job in the world it would be…?

4.   The song/group playing in your music player (ipod, car cd player, itunes, etc) right now is?

5.   Favourite animal and why?

6.   Why do you like to quilt?

7.   Favourite meal to cook and for whom?

8.   What was the last thing you learned?

9.   What was the last thing you taught someone?

10. Your favourite colour is…?

11. Tell us about your best trip/vacation ever or one that you would like to go on.

 TAG you're it ladies....have fun with it!!! Thanks Melissa for including me in this game!

~Lisa

Amidst the Quilting...

I thought I would do a quick progress report...

 In my happy place today...the quilt is talking, must go listen! Happy Sewing all!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.


~Lisa

Fox and Gnome Tote Bag

Have you seen this???

Fox and Gnome Tote Bag pattern by Artisania

This is my awesome..I-should-be-in-bed-but-I-am-still-up-surfing-quilt-blogs-at-12 a.m. find from last night. I was surfing through the list of blogs (posted at Felicity Quilts) from the Canadian Blogathon being put on by Sew Sisters and I came across this super awesome pattern designed by Artisania. I have been itching to make a bag to carry all my quilting books/sketch book to and from everywhere and voila this is THE one.

 Here are my fabric choices...

Have I mentioned that I love, adore and pine after toile?!!! It's true, I totally do.

Now to learn how to paper piece! Pretty excited!

Happy Thanksgiving to those popping in from the U.S.


~Lisa

Ovals Update

I sewed and sewed till my hearts content yesterday and guess what???!!! I finished the top to my Happy Hour Quilt! Yay me!!! I began this quilt about a month ago and have previously posted about it here and here.

Piecing this top has been such a learning journey for me - I had never tried sewing curves prior to this quilt. So of course, in the style that I usually work in, I threw myself in whole heartedly and made a gazillion of them. And I must admit, they are pretty cool to sew. Each one that I would complete was like another little 'yay me!' down in my sewing room.

Now it's time to go on to my most favourite part of the process - QUILTING. (Well, I imagine I will baste first!) I absolutely love the process of quilting, it is the moment that all of this beautiful fabric becomes a real quilt - to me it is the moment that it comes to life.

My favourite form of quilting is straight line quilting. I decided to sketch the quilting out first, as I had a few visions and wanted to see them on paper in order to choose the one that I thought suited this quilt best. This is the one that I am going with...

And then I auditioned a few (many few) fabrics for the binding and decided to go with lime green. The lime green sections spoke to me while I was working with this quilt and I decided that I wanted to highlight them through the binding. This lime green is Heatwave from the Chicopee line by Denyse Schmidt.

Hope you all have a fabulous week! Crossing my fingers for some sewing time...


~Lisa

Organization Wins!

It feels good to finally be able to say...I beat the scraps! Their messiness (as pictured here) has been haunting me for awhile now (all Summer and Fall) and it was driving me a wee bit crazy. 

Now I am happy to report, that I stuck with my organization deadline of the middle of the month and here are a few pictures to prove it!

For the scraps under 1/4 yard I used one drawer per colour, with one for vintage scraps and one for fabric collection scraps (in this drawer I bagged each collection for future use).

A peek inside...

And I used a basket for snippets... these are those tiny little pieces that I cannot seem to part with (I seriously like them even better than the scraps!). I see a Ticker Tape quilt in my future!

Happiness in my world = organization and organization = inspiration. So,  I am feeling pretty good right about now!

What good things have been making you feel happy lately? How do you organize your scraps???

Linking up with My Creative Space.



~Lisa

Long Weekend Home Day

Love these kind of days. Got all my work type tasks out of the way earlier this weekend (cleaning, errands, laundry etc) so that I could spend some time today doing the things that I really love.

Made some of these...

The kids favourite - good old chocolate chip cookies

And some of these...

My hubby's favourite - Whole Wheat Flax Blueberry Muffins

And this....

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

Oh, how I love to bake (and my family loves to eat, so it's a perfect combo!).
Now, for the final happiness of the day - back to some of this...

Hope you have had a wonderful, Remembering kind of weekend.

~Lisa

Making Hand Puppets

The 6 year old love of my life has a wonderful school teacher who has been capturing the class's imagination with her promotion of puppets and theatre. My little dude came home one day all aglow with the idea of making hand puppets. 

So we pulled out the bin of felt, grabbed some scissors and came up with these 2 creatures (plus a dog, a ninja, a zombie and a skeleton - did I mention that I have a boy child...)

In his robust enthusiasm for our above finished products, he took a few to school (not the zombie, skeleton or ninja I might add...) and alas the entire class thought these were pretty cool. "Mom, can you make one for everyone???"

With his teacher's permission, we came up with the idea of a puppet station, manned by me, where each child could visit and make their very own creation. My son and I developed our own very technical pattern...

And I sewed and sewed until late last night...creating 22 blank canvases one for each child to develop into their very own character.

Now we are all ready for a puppet day at school next Tuesday. Pretty excited! Love it when my little dude gets all bubbly about a creative project - I can just see the wheels-a-turnin'.


Linking up with Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts  and TGIFF at Quilt Matters.


Happy Weekend all!

~Lisa

It's Been Another Happy Hour

Hello pretties...

If I could hug these things - I would - seriously. They are making me pretty happy at the moment. It took me about 3 complete blocks to get into a really nice groove. Those 3 blocks included lots of trial and error (a.k.a the stitch ripper) and then I had mostly figured out what I needed to do to get a agreeable curve each time (with the occasional hiccup of course!).

I am halfway through my quilt top now, working towards this finish, with a long weekend ahead...looks like a sewing kind of weekend to me. (Who I am kidding - EVERY weekend is a sewing kind of weekend!)

Linking up with W.i P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and My Creative Space.

~Lisa

Motivation for Organization

 Welcome to my sewing room...

It's like a little piece of heaven to me and I feel soooo super lucky to have it. I love spending my time here.

Here I keep all my treasures, crafty gifts, art and collections. I seem to have a lot of these goodies, but I make an effort to stay relatively organized, as it makes me feel more creative in an organized space.

If don't know where to put something that I want to keep, I pin it here on my huge cork board and then at least it's contained!

Here is a close up...

This board makes me smile!

But there has been one area of my sewing room that I have been spending much time thinking about lately...I share with you this little problem that seems to have snuck up on me...

...and I have been wondering how to get a hold on this??? Not the kind of organization that I generally like!



Enter this lovely book that arrived in my mailbox last week...

With fabulous ideas for...

And I have just the motivation I need to get started on this daunting organizational project of mine...the bonus will be choosing one of the gorgeous scrap buster quilts from the book to make once all my scraps are organized.

My goal is to have my scraps controlled by the middle of the month -  will update my finish. How do you organize your scraps? How does this sneak up on us so???


~Lisa

Blogger's Quilt Festival - My Star Baby Quilt

Each Spring and Fall over the past few years - I have enjoyed looking through all the wonderful quilt entries for the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side. I have been amazed and inspired by the unique, creative and simply beautiful entries that I have seen. This year, after having started my blog just over a month ago - I have decided to be a participant in this fabulous event and I am super excited!

I offer my Star Baby Quilt as my entry into the festival.

Finished Quilt Measurements: 31' x 41'

Best Category: Baby Quilt

Quilted by: Me

This quilt started from the simplicity of not having anyone to sew a quilt for at the time, but having the need to sew a quilt...I am sure you have been there before! I had been eyeing the Oz by Sanae for Moda charm packs that were sitting in my stash and had fallen in love with the 'Dots'. I wanted to make a quilt - that was colourful, but not overly bright - so I challenged myself to only use the squares in the small floral and the dots (I see a few cherries snuck into the border to finish up the lengths).

I really enjoyed practicing my wonky stars.

I always love a vintage sheet for the back - I was lucky enough to find the same sheet in 2 colour ways and used one for the binding as well (Oh! you should have seen the process for deciding which would go where...too funny!).

Thank you so much Amy for the wonderful opportunity of sharing my quilt and enjoying everyone else's beautiful work!

Hope you are all having as much fun as I am clicking through all the amazing entries! Starting a list of my faves...

~Lisa

Patchwork Pumpkin

I wanted to share my finish...

I had expected to make him some friends, but was surprised by how much stuffing he needed and am just not up for a trip out to purchase more. Would much rather head back down to my sewing room and continue sewing these...

These are my curves from this work in progress. I think I will be spending a lot of time on these this Fall!

Hope you are having a great start to your week. Happy Monday!
Linking up with 'Manic Monday Linky Party' at Sew Happy Geek.


~Lisa