Forest Maps Progress

These are turning into the most interesting set of blocks done in slash and flip technique.

I don't know which way vertical or horizontal for these trees?

This a refresher on the green blocks I did up in September.

Happy Quilting everyone!

Snippets and upcycling make me happy!

Hi everyone!

Good news, my ankle recovery is finally feeling like we are getting somewhere. Its great to be back to normal walking and not having to think about what my ankle needs.

I have been binge watching of Anne with an E series on CBC. I joined CBC as a member and now, I have more advertising than I did have before. So any thoughts from Canadians on their experience with having this 4.99 a month payment is going? Do you have more advertising. I was initially interested because it was advertised as no advertising.

I hav finished the Forests Fire Quilt. But can't share until its actually recieved by our friends in Telegraph Creek.

First up over the past weekend. I upcycled my sweet little summer housecoat. I had shrunk and so I added extra length to the bottom and to the sleeves. I also decided to tie it all together, it needed a new front cuff. Really encourage you to give this upcycling a try out.

Next up is my new jumper. It started with a nice floral shirt but the sleeve length was off by about 4 inches, so off they went, I added the bottom skirt section by piecing denim, flannel and odd bits together and there you and it looks sweet on me :)

This summer top seems so long ago now, with all the upcycling I've been doing.

This is one of my favorites that I don't think I've posted about earler. The top was a new blouse pattern that once done, it hung weird on me, so I upcycled it by adding a cotton skirt to the bottom and suddenly it hung fine. This dress is perfect fo the hottest part of the summer!

And now, I'm off to go and work on my Maps Challenge.  Have you noticed at the top of my page, that I've added a whole page of 59 finished quilts?

Hoping you are fine and quilting away!

Progress and Projects on the side

I have finished the forest fire rebuild quilt for our friends. Its going in the mail , now that Canada Post has unfortunately been ordered back to work. We are hoping it arrives before Christmas, fingers crossed.

Its getting done in between challenges and other projects I have on the go.

These blocks were hauled around all over the country side while being worked on.

I love Dresden Plate blocks. I began this quilt a long time ago.

This quilt is intended to be finished by end of November ready to begin hand quilting on this treasured quilt. With the goal to be complete hand quilting by summer of 2019.

I've decided that instead of in the ditch or some 'overall' hand quilting like clams, I will do something different. Different from clam design below.

This quilt is so toasty, we use it only when its really cold outside. I'm actually considering unpicking the entire thing. Have you done this kinda crazy thing? Its going to be a big job, but my hubby loves this quilt,but its so warm, we rarely use it.

I love  blending generations of fabric. Its so forgiving, even while at first you think, NO, those colors can't go together and they do!

I've  been mending clothing and making a few upcycled fashions for winter too. Also, my lovely pattern for new dresses for next summer arrived this fall and looking forward to sewing those over the winter. 

Christmas is just around the corner, decorating, soon to get our tree up. Wishing you all a great time doing what you love.

Happy Quilting

Circle Explosion

When I began to write this progress report on my "365 Circles" that began so long ago I suddenly realized that circles have been a huge part of everyday life. Bowls to holes and all in between circles are the way life goes, in a circle!

This lovely table runner went to a local charity raising funds in an auction. Three Dresden Plate Fans made into this Modern Dresden Table Runner

I made this upcycled bath mat way back into the 1990's and have not looked back on the upcycling front.

This fire ball was an exercise in exploring Ms. Carlson book.

Quilting hoops around my house are a constant distraction for my family as pins and needles managed to escape and no one drew any blood in this exercise.

When you begin a project I don't usually have a plan, to be completely honest. I just usually start with some sort of vision in my head and if I don't get it onto paper soon, it goes by the way of the Do Do Bird.

I have learned how to make moccasins and beading from my friend a Gitsan woman of Glen Vowel.

I made these two needle and pin catchers for her grand daughters.

Then I started with the challenge and I can say that yes, mindful stitching is the name of the game with stitching around the outside edge of any circle and I am not a perfectionist or use any kind of template to make my circles. So they may appear wierd to your eye.

So it wouldn't surprise you when I learned of the 365 Circles Challenge and I began with a goal of 365 circles appliqued onto blocks, I now have well over 400 blocks to work with when I decided I had enough to begin making my quilt.

This had become the medalion of this new quilt. I am working on making the borders that will become something like this sketch below.

Hope you all are having a wonderful day! Thanks so much for hanging in with this long blog post. 

Forest Fire Quilt

This project did at first make me think, "Oh ya, I can do this, really quick!' but then it was suddenly daunting with a whole king size quilt to machine quilt in a quick way. 

• It meant I'd have to have an attendant to help me move the big quilt through my home machine and I really enjoy hand quilting more than that. 
• I would need help with pinning it on the floor, OMG, this means I must wash the floor! 
• Just joking, but it started to feel a lot like a more work. And as I get older these questions do arise with each new quilt I make, so I look for easier ways to do things.

So I cut it all up!

Yes, the freedom feeling that it gave me was instantaneous and I felt a lot better being able to really calculate how soon I'd have this quilt complete and in the mail. 

Of course, I didn't count on Canada Post going on strike.

So, I elected to do Free Motion quilting and QAYG on each block and then sew each block together again using Marti Michells's method from her great book "Machine Quilting in Sections"

But once I opened up this great book of Marti's, I realized quickly that I would have go off into "FreeStyle Planning Mode" and get busy.

I added 16 inch batting chunks and sandwiched all 20 blocks with Miscellany from Cloud 9 Fabrics equal sized chunks for a reversible quilt finish on the back.

I proceeded onto machine quilting with these smaller chunks. I made it simple and did only 2 inch vertical lines of machine quilting down each 16 inch block.

Once all blocks were quilted, this is the layout I chose to do to make sure of some kind of a planned backing layout. I took a risk that the layout on the front would be OK.

Our fiends are safe and sound and totally resilient. They will survive no matter what.

I started back to sewing these blocks together and a flood of memories came back to me as I sewed them all together. Memories of the many t-shirt quilts I've made, they are so fun and carefree to make. I made the Centennial Quilt for Smithers using this method and many more.

With my trusty Brother sewing machine I have sooo many options for stitches and I decided that Jenny will love to run her hands over the stitches and so decided on Blanket Stitch and they all turned out lovely. I am really pleased with the process.

Sizing these blocks has been a bit tedious, as the original makers of these various blocks supported a good cause back in Smithers and for some reason the quilt did not get finished. 
This was more than a decade ago. Then someone sewed all the top together, I think I remember participating with this part but can't really remember how it went. So the quilt blocks were  not regular, made by MY hand alone. 

Improvisation comes into play often in my work. They had inconsistencies in each one. 
But will be lovely and warm as this quilt came together.

So far so good on the way the first row all joined together looks, wow, what a piece of luck that the dark row of tiny squares are leaning the way I was hoping it would turn out.

Below, you will see the inconsistancy in the sizing does show up to my quilter eye. Some of it comes from not having these blocks made with the quilt in mind at the beginning, but you go with what God gave  you and move on.

But I'm hoping they won't care.

This quilt has been a great project!

In some small way, its brought me back to the roots of Good Earth Quilting and its origins and feeling like I had something worthwhile to contribute to the greater Internet world of bloggers who love quilts.

I strongly urge anyone who reads this all the way to the end to leave me a comment and tell me is this article useful in any way to your journey in quilting?

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Best to you, thank you so much to many followers who have continued to support my little bits of inspiration through this blog.