It's Blogathon Day!!

A warm welcome on this blustery November day to all of you visiting via the blogathon!  For all my returning readers, I am being featured, along with other quilting bloggers from my province, for Canadian Quilters Connect Blogathon Canada hosted by Sew SistersQuilt Shop.  Our host blogger, Heather of Church Avenue Quilts, has some amazing quilts.  Her work is beautiful and often features her four legged helpers.  You all know I have a soft spot for them. I am the Crazy Crafting CAT Lady after all!

For those just joining, here is a little bit about me.  you can view my post here talking about how I got into quilting and some of my inspirations.  Basically, my skills were taught to me by my mom and my grandma. Everything past that has been self taught from various sources.  Now I just run wild with different projects I find and create.

So, on to the projects and the quilting happenings of my life!! (A.K.A. the fun stuff!)

A week ago today, now that I think about it, I went out to Stonewall to turn in my quilt block for the block of the month quilt.  I didn’t get to see the quilt shop before because my mom’s friend signed us up and my mom turned in my first block for me while I was in Mississinewa.  This place was heaven!  I picked up some double sided interfacing for the un-named quilt and a cute little mini stocking quilt project.  Here are our blocks for month two!

 My block

 My Mom's block

The block for this month features even more HST’s but my mom and I are feeling more confident about them.  I am in love with how the second block turned out.  I like it a lot more than month one.  

Now, on to the un-named quilt!  I had a lot of fun playing with the iron on transfers and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  I started some of the detail stitching, although I'm still not the greatest at it.  I was using all my lovely coloured threads I picked up at Joann's in the states.  I used an almost identical blue on the birds for the smaller blocks.  When Big D saw it, he said it was good but not very visible and seemed like a lot of work for nothing.  Seeing as how these are the border pieces, I left them as is.  I picked a darker blue for the center bird and here's what I have so far.

The tail on one of the smaller birdies

Detail on the wing.

Detail on the center bird.  I want to do some more stitching to him as he is the focal point.

The original inspiration for the quilt.

I still have to do the applique stitching on the greenery.  When I quilt the entire thing, I might do some more detail on the little birds, but I want to see how it comes together first.  With any luck, I'll get the last of the applique stitching done tonight.  I have the place to myself for 4 days because Big D went hunting with his dad again.  Hopefully he can get one more deer to fill his tag and we are set for meat for the winter!!

Seeing as how this quilt is still un-named, aside from my unofficial "Museum Quilt" title when referencing it to friends and here, I'm offering a contest.  Comment below with suggestions for names, and the winner will receive a free copy of the pattern once I have it finished.  This will be my first full sized design of my own making and I can't wait to have it up for sale in my shop.  So let the naming begin!!

Keep warm and cozy everyone and Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and readers!

The still untitled quilt

Welcome back everyone!

A little while back, I talked about a painting I had seen on a wall in one of our local museums.  I found fabric on my trip to make a quilt inspired by this and I have finally come up with a design.  Right now its just a sketch on graph paper and a few squares of fabric sewn together, but in my head it is AMAZING!!

 The design.  The blocks are plain except for the few that are applique.  I want the fabric to be the focus in this quilt, and any detail put in to the quilting.and applique

The quilt so far.  I have the middle applique block, border around it and side panels. Also, my edges are not that wonky, the iPhone jumps a bit when taking panoramic pictures

I want to applique the birds and leaves onto the quilt, which will require some super awesome iron on interfacing.  I didn’t use any with “Home at Last” and some of the houses are coming away from the quilt.  I’ve heard great things about a product called Steam a Seam and I really want to try some.  If any of you Manitoba quilters know where it can be purchased locally, or a similar product, I would love to hear from you. 

My brain subconsciously altered the design with a miscalculation in number of pieces I had cut, so the border around the center design changed just slightly.  I’m not sad at all about this change.  Nothing was set in stone, I had lots of fabric to play with and I like the outcome anyway!

I’m hoping I can get the two top rows done tonight, and maybe even cut out the birds and leaves.  I want to pin them in place and get a feel for the whole thing.

Our snow storm from this past weekend seems to be that brought the snow that’s going to stay.  I’m not entirely sad, it’s perfect sewing weather!!  It will be cold this weekend though when Big D and I head back out to the farm for riffle season.  He still needs to fill his tag, and is determined to get a bigger buck than last time.  I think his feelings and bragging rights took a bit of a hit with that deer.

Keep warm and have fun with your winter craft projects!