Creating

Hey all! Still creating away (slowly, very slowly) over here in the beautiful weather that we have been getting. For the moment, creating is stuck in between all the back to school rushy type activity that September always holds for us. New clothes, cleats, shin pads, newspaper route, skating, new teachers, packing lunches etc etc. It feels strange to be tied down to all these schedules after 2 months of FREEDOM. But we always adjust and soon it will be smooth sailing and lovely Fall will arrive.

I have been humming and hawing over these...

And then I did this to them....

Then I hummed and hawed some more. And then I did this to them...

And all that colour made me stop humming and hawing. And then I found some superb sashing fabric from this Canadian Etsy shop (Canadian = save on shipping charges - yay me!!!) and I am sewing it all together as we speak (haha, now that would be a feat we would all like to accomplish...sewing and blogging at the same time - imagine the work we could get done...)

Update soon! Hope you are all in fabric heaven sewing your hearts out this week. Linking up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced and WIP Wednesday at The Needle and Thread Network.


~Lisa

Joining in on the Fun! Bloggers Quilt Festival Entry #2

And for my second offering to the Blogger's Quilt Festival:

My Night of Hope Heart Quilt

This quilt was made with much love and donated to the Night of Hope, an organization which raises money for Breast Cancer research. My mom and I both volunteer for the Night of Hope, in memory of my mom's youngest sister (and my beloved auntie) who died of breast cancer when she was only 42.

  

NOH Heart Quilt

Finished Quilt Size: 48 x 60

Best Category: Throw Quilt

Quilted by: Me

Thanks for stopping by and having a looky at my entry. Best of luck to all the quilters entered in the festival. Why don't you pop on over to Amy's Creative Side and see what's cooking!!!

 ~Lisa

Joining in on the Fun - Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry #1

Hello all! I want to join in on the fun over at Amy's Creative Side and offer a couple of my quilts up for entry into the Blogger's Quilt Festival. First offering...

My Duplicity Mini

This quilt began as a take off from my original heart mini. Which was created in response to Jolene's beautiful heart quilt and also an interest that I had in trying this fabulous tutorial from Elizabeth at Oh! Fransson.

And peacocks for the back, so colourful!

Duplicity Quilt

Finished Quilt Size: 11 x 11

Best Category: Doll/Mini

Quilted by: Me

Thanks for visiting my entry into the festival. Best of luck to all the quilters. Now head on over to Amy's Creative Side and check out all the wonderful entries!!!

 ~Lisa

Heart Quilt Happiness

Some of you may recall me previously mentioning the Night of Hope, a gala evening held to raise money for Breast Cancer research. This event is held locally in the lower mainland of British Columbia and my mom volunteers her time throughout the year to organize the silent auction portion of the event. We both volunteer on the evening of and help with the running of the silent auction. This year I decided to also donate a quilt for auction. I have been working on this quilt for awhile now and finally finished her (180 HST's later) just in time for the auction last night.

48 x 60 lap quilt

I am pleased to tell you that she was purchased and went home to live with a new family. I am thrilled that the lady who purchased her was thrilled! It felt good to see it go walking off in the arms of someone who was smiling with the delight of their new (I want to say family member here...) quilt.

Please tell me I am not the only one who does this - becomes so familiar with their quilt (after all the cutting, sewing, ironing, stacking, smelling, patting, wrangling, gazing, squishing etc etc) that you feel it is sincerely a part of you, or at least a part of your family. I often find it hard to part with my quilts, even though I made them for the particular person (or in this case reason) they are going to and not because I actually want to keep them, but just because they are SUCH a part of me and I will miss them. Ok, sounds crazy - but is true.

I quilted this one with a design I had originally drafted when I was working on this quilt. I divided it visually into four sections and quilted it as you see in the picture below (this pic depicts only 2 sections/or the top half of the quilt) - only with many, many more lines of quilting, about an inch or so apart. I do so like the look of a densely quilted quilt - so very textured. Let me tell you though - this was some serious quilt wrangling with the all the turns - each quadrant took me 2.5 hours to quilt. Phew!!! But I absolutely love the outcome, so worth it every time.

And of course, added a label. I love these labels - it feels much better to send my quilts out into the world with my name on them. It felt wrong to me, when I sent them out without my name, like someone/somewhere might want to know one day where this came from.

Polka dots for the backing just fit naturally with this quilt. Who doesn't love a good polka dot??!!!

And lastly, my fave heart. Interesting that in this quilt my favourite block is the colour of Breast Cancer awareness - very fitting I think.

I hope you each have a happy weekend. On to another project for me,  I love the moment of finish up one and start up/planning something new. Somehow so satisfying and exciting all rolled up in one. Linking up with 'Finish it up Friday' over at Crazy Mom Quilts and 'Let's get Acquainted' linky party hosted by Nat at Made in Home -  going to go check out what everyone else has been up to!

~Lisa

Sneak Peak

I'll give you three guesses what I have been up to...

YEP!!! You got it...trimming HST's. And then of course...SEWING HST's. Been making these...

Who knew HST's make HEARTS??? Certainly not me. And let me tell you, there may have been a party in my sewing room when I discovered this.

Happy Friday all! Linking up to 'The Let's Get Acquainted' linky party, hosted by Deborah at Simply Miss Luella.

~Lisa

Duplicity

I really HAD to make another mini heart quilt. I enjoyed the process immensely. I pretty much stitched the last stitch on this binding and then picked up my rotary cutter and dug in my scrap bin - more 1.5 inch squares were on my agenda. Some of these wee squares were turned into teeny tiny HST's...

Some miniature HST's...so freakin' cute.

 For me, the layout stage is always a party...

As in my last mini heart, I found the task of transfering the squares to the grid quite satisfying - very neat and tidy - every little square in its own little home. For both my mini heart quilts I have used this fabulous tutorial to make the block.

And finishing up at a whopping 12 inch square...I have added this little one to the growing collection on my sewing room wall.

Have a wonderful week all! What sewing fun have you been up to? Linking up with 'Let's get Acquainted' Monday link up being hosted by Martha at Weekend Doings.


~Lisa

And She's Done!

I finished up this wee little heart last week. It sewed up as a 12 inch square mini quilt - complete with a toile (my fave!) binding. 

I mentioned in my previous post that I was going to use this tutorial to sew it together. Well, let me tell you....what fun I had! I loved this technique and it sewed up very easily. The funniest part was when my family saw it go from being laid out on my cutting table as 1.5 inch squares (18 inches across in total) to being sewed up as 1 inch squares (12 inches across) - they could not believe how much it SHRUNK.

I decided to quilt it with a free hand 'sketchy' type stitch, a heavy thread and my triple stitch function on my machine. I even 'coloured in' the corners, allowing myself to sketch with my needle and thread. Choosing to quilt in this free form way was VERY hard for me, as I am a 'a place for everything, and everything in it's place' kind of gal and letting myself 'freely' stitch feels foreign and disorganized to me. I far prefer the stream lined feeling of stitching from side to side in STRAIGHT lines. Even though I like the way it turned out, I still have the urge to rip it all out and do straight lines! HAHA!

Ooooh love the look of all these 'organized' and tidy seams. So pretty!

When making small quilts, I really enjoy the opportunity to practice my binding. For some time now, I have been narrowing down the binding steps/techniques that work/don't work for me, in an effort to come up with my 'works every time' binding that makes me feel happy with it EVERY time. So far, my bindings have been a little haphazard for my liking. For this reason, the last time I bound a quilt, I wrote a list of what worked and what to try for future. This is the list I used this time...I am definitely getting closer to my happy place!

When I pinned this little quilt up on the wall in my sewing room, the first thought I had was 'it needs a buddy'! I may or may not have already started cutting out more little squares...here's to a wonderful week of sewing! Have a great week all.


~Lisa

On my Mind

Ever since I saw this fantastically fabulous quilt by Jolene from Blue Elephant Stitches -it has been on my mind - such inspiration in a photo! I needed a pick me up this weekend -something fun and new and colourful- so I decided to follow my hearts inspiration and make a heart quilt of my own.

I began cutting wee little squares (1.5 inches each) late last night...and laid out my plans.

I was pondering how I was going to sew all these mini squares up into a block and then I remembered that I had bookmarked a tutorial - a mad dash through my bookmarks and I came up with...this tutorial. Genius! 

So, following the tutorial, I drew myself a grid. I drew mine on the back of some lightweight fusible interfacing.  To help guide and keep my lines straight, I used my cutting mat, lining up my ruler on the same line on each side.  The tutorial suggests drawing the grid on some muslin, which I may do next time, as it means you can use it over and over by simply laying your interfacing over top of it to see the squares. 

I flipped the interfacing over and began to lay my squares on top of the fusible side, using the grid to give each of my tiny squares their own little spot. I loved this part - it really spoke to my affinity for organization and orderliness. The interfacing's gluey side has a slight rough surface, which holds the little squares from shifting too much before you iron them.

And the VOILA! I ironed it and so far it looks like this....

Now, to follow the next step in the tutorial, I need to fold along each line (one at a time) and iron it into an accordion of sorts to prepare the sections for sewing.

Not sure what this guy will be made into - likely a mini quilt. I like the opportunity to practice my binding and quilting that a mini quilts offers and also because I think he will look so cute hanging on my sewing room wall.


Happy sewing all!

~Lisa