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Posts Tagged ‘Judy Laquidara’

Free Motion “Freeze Frame” (Stash Report)

Posted in Stash Reports 2011, tagged , , , , , , , on March 6, 2011| 20 Comments »

I just finished quilting the “Freeze Frame” quilt that some of us made with Judy Laquidara as part of her “Quilt for an Hour” project in 2009.

I practised and practised my free motion meandering on my domestic sewing machine until it looked right to me, and then I just jumped in and did it.  It was very scary!  I kept thinking — what if I ruin this quilt top?  It’s one of my favourites, and it’s a gift for my father-in-law.

Here’s one of my practice samples with scrap muslin and batting:

And here is the quilting on the quilt top.

quilting

It was a lot more difficult to manoeuvre a large project than my small practice samples, and I can see some places where I made errors and some of my stitching lines are not smooth and flowing.  However, I’m mostly happy with it, and truly amazed and relieved that I could do this.  🙂

Here is a photo of the whole quilt top.  It measures 63 x 81 inches.  The sewing machine just visible in the background is my Janome 6500P, which is what I used for the quilting.   The sofa underneath the quilt is one of my most valuable quilting tools — it’s like a giant extension table!  😉

The back is pieced from my stash — two pieces of dark green and one green floral.

Now I just have to trim the quilt edges and bind it.

I already counted the fabric for the top in a long-ago stash report, but I can count the backing and binding this week.  The binding is already cut, pieced and ready to sew on.

I also bought some new fabric this week — a roll of 2.5 inch strips in pink and blue batiks put together by a local fabric store.  I saw a jelly roll pattern recently that will be nice in these colours.

My Stash Report totals are:

  • Used this week:  5 yards
  • Used this year:  5.5 yards
  • Added this week:  2.5 yards
  • Added this year:  2.5 yards
  • Net used:  3 yards

To see how other quilters are progressing with their Stash Busting, please visit Judy’s blog for a list of links to Stash Reports.

Happy Quilting!

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Violet Doll Quilt (Stash Report)

Posted in Doll Quilts, Stash Reports 2011, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 6, 2011| 15 Comments »

Here is my project for Judy’s February Monochromatic Challenge — a Violet doll quilt, and it’s already finished!

I’ve just fallen in love with doll quilts!  They are so sweet and quick to make.  I pieced the top on Friday, did the quilting on Saturday afternoon, and hand-sewed the binding down while watching TV on Saturday night.  The quilting motif on the borders is copied from the pocket trim on my winter coat.  Inspiration is everywhere!  🙂

This is a free pattern is called Civil War Doll Quilt, and it was designed by Kathleen Tracy.

It only took about a half-yard to sew this doll quilt, and it’s going to make a little girl and her teddy bear very happy!  🙂

My Stash Report totals  for this week are:

  • Used this week:  .5 yard
  • Used this year:  .5 yard
  • Added this week:  0
  • Added this year:  0

To see how other quilters are progressing with their Stash Reports this week, please visit Judy’s blog Patchwork Times for a list of links.

Happy Quilting!

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Some end-of-year finishes!

Posted in Stash Reports 2010, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 26, 2010| 7 Comments »

Hooray!  I have finished several things just in time to count them for the end-of-the year report!

We had the annual Christmas fair at school, and I made bags again — this time in several sizes.  The small gift bags were the best sellers, especially the ones sized to hold DVDs and CDs.

I also made the usual grocery-shopping sized bags in bright fabrics.    Here is my table in the corner of the school hall.  A coat rack makes a great display for hanging bags!

I made this green String Quilt top for a friend and have already pieced the backing.  Now it just needs quilting and binding.

And best of all, I finished the purple and green Puss in the Corner quilt in time to give it as a gift on Christmas Eve.   It has gone to our older daughter’s long-time boyfriend, who admired the colours when I first started working on it, many months ago.   He was really pleased to have it.  🙂

The full-length picture turned out a bit dark, but here’s one during the quilting that shows the true colours better:

I quilted this project using a Continuous Curve motif designed by Carla Barrett.  Then I went back and stitched a quarter inch inside the edge of each large centre patch.  The backing was pieced using large left-over pieces of green and purple fabrics.

All that activity brings me back into positive numbers!  Here are my totals:

Bought this report:  0
Total fabric in this year:  54 yards
Used this report:  32 yards
Total used this year:  76 yards
Total (net):  22 yards

Thank you, Judy Laquidara, for hosting the Stash Report.  I would like to continue participating in 2011 and hope to be more regular in my reporting.  🙂

Happy New Year, everyone, and Happy Quilting!

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Quiltathon Sunflowers Finished (Stash Report)

Posted in Stash Reports 2010, tagged , , , , , , on August 8, 2010| 7 Comments »

My Sunflowers quilt top is finished — right on deadline for my own little Quiltathon to join in with Judy Laquidara’s big Quiltathon.

I was able to make the quilt top larger by adding four borders, and it’s now 50 inches square.

The yellow print below is going to be the binding and backing, the blue fabric is what I used for the wide border, and the small pieces are what I used for the pieced border.  I sewed the little bits together in Chinese Coin fashion, and then trimmed them to get four equal width strips to go all the way around.

My Stash Report totals for this week are:

Bought this week:  0
Total fabric in this year (bought and gift): 54 yards
Used this week:  2.5 yards
Used year-to-date:  37 yards
Total (net):  -17 yards

To see how other quilters are getting along with their Stash Busting this week, please visit Judy’s blog for a list of links.

Happy Quilting!

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My Sunflower Quiltathon Project

Posted in Quilting, tagged , , , , , , on August 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

For Judy’s Quiltathon this week, I’m working on a UFO project of 4-inch squares in cheerful sunflower prints.   I can’t remember what these squares were for, but they’re cute.

Today I have sewn them into 4-patch blocks and arranged them in sewing order on my design wall.

This is going to be a small quilt, maybe 40 inches square when finished, but it will make a good table covering or picnic rug.   Just in time for the end of summer!

Happy Quilting!

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“Too Good to Cut” Challenge on my Design Wall

Posted in Design Wall Monday, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 28, 2010| 14 Comments »

Today I’m working on my “Too Good to Cut” Challenge quilt.  Poor little project, I’ve been neglecting it for several weeks and working on other quilts instead.  But…according to the guidelines of the challenge, it has to be totally finished — quilted, bound and labelled — by December 31, 2010, so I’d better get busy!  I know how I am.  😉

I finished the first block some time ago, and now I have two blocks.   Only 10 more to go!

I’m using Judy Laquidara’s pattern, Bears in the Farmhouse, which I thought was just perfect for this focus fabric, which contains many colours.   My focus fabric is “Kaleidoscope,” which was the Hoffman Challenge fabric for 1997.

I sewed a quilt top from this pattern last year as a participant in Judy’s Quilt Along but used radically different fabrics.  My version is called “Bears in the Art Museum”, as my focus fabric was based on the artwork of Paul Klee.

So, even though these two quilts will be from the same pattern, they won’t look anything alike.

To see what other quilters have on their Design Walls today, please visit Judy’s blog for a list of links.

Happy Quilting!

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Claws on Paws (“Too Good to Cut” Challenge Week 8)

Posted in Quilting, tagged , , , , , , , on February 25, 2010| 6 Comments »

This week I started attaching the little claws onto the Bear Paws.  Here are the first two:

The pattern I am using is “Bears in the Farmhouse” by Judy Laquidara.  The focus fabric is the 1997 Hoffman Challenge Fabric, called “Kaleidoscope.”

To follow the progress of other quilters sewing along on this Challenge, please visit their links listed under “Challenge Participants” in my blogroll.

Happy Quilting!

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A week of going backwards (Stash Report #7)

Posted in Quilting, Stash Reports 2010, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 14, 2010| 14 Comments »

I didn’t make any positive progress on my pink and purple Flying Geese quilt at all this week.  But, if mistakes are educational, then I have learned a lot!  😉

First, I thought I had the perfect backing for the quilt — a beautiful shade of pink in 100% cotton.    Got it all basted and started the machine quilting.  However, it’s a bed sheet, and now I know why quilting on bed sheets is not such a good idea — the threads are so close together, it’s difficult to quilt through.  Even with a small needle (10 or 11), it still leaves a big hole in the fabric.

I was so unhappy with the results that I unpicked two hours’ worth of free motion quilting and undid the basting.

Then I found another length of regular quilting fabric in my stash that was a good match for the colours, but I didn’t have enough.  There were two others that I thought would make a good pieced backing using the instructions Mary Johnson wrote for HeartStrings, but I didn’t have enough of those, either.   Aaarrrggghhh!

Finally the light dawned on me to cut the quilting fabrics into 10.5 inch squares and piece them together patchwork fashion to make a backing by one of the methods used by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.  That will give a good variety of prints and use up even more stash.  I’ll probably start that tomorrow.

Haven’t finished any other projects to count in my totals this week, but I did start working on a UFO for Judy’s February Quiltathon and hope to finish that today.

Totals for Week 7 are:

  • Bought this week:  0
  • Bought year-to-date:  9.75 yards
  • Used this week:  0
  • Used year-to-date:  10.75
  • Used (net):  1 yard

To see how others are doing in their Stashbusting this week, please visit Judy Laquidara’s blog, Patchwork Times.

Happy Quilting!

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“Too Good to Cut” Challenge (Week 6)

Posted in Quilting, tagged , , , , , , , on February 12, 2010| 3 Comments »

I’m back to making half-square triangles this week.  There are so many shades of colour in my focus fabric that I thought it would be nice to have a wider range of colours in my bear paws, as well.  I’m making the Bears in the Farmhouse pattern by Judy Laquidara.

Here are the additional green “claws”:

and more amethyst “claws”:

The focus fabric is the 1997 Hoffman Challenge fabric, called “Kaleidoscope.”

Later on in the pattern, I will also need some larger half-square units, so I have started making those, too, to be sure that I have enough fabric for a nice variety of fabrics in both sets.

As a result, I now have many more HSTs than I will need for one quilt, so I am thinking about making two quilts of the same pattern, at the same time.   I could keep one and give one, or we could have two matching quilts for twin beds in a guest room someday.

I hope that plan is not too ambitious…but if I have the whole year to finish, it might work out fine.

To see how others in our group are progressing, please visit their blogs listed under “Challenge Participants” in the blog roll.

Happy Quilting!

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“Too Good to Cut” Challenge – Week 3

Posted in Quilting, tagged , , , , , on January 22, 2010| 4 Comments »

I have finished sewing together my 192 half-square triangles — finally!  Now I just have to trim them down to the proper size and starting assembling the little “paws.”

I am using a Bear’s Paw pattern called “Bears in the Farmhouse,” designed by Judy Laquidara.

If you would like to visit other quilters sewing along with this Challenge, they are listed in my blog roll under “Challenge Participants.”

Happy Quilting!

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