Tic Tak Deco

I finished piecing my Tic Tak Deco top.

The pattern is well written and it went together really quickly and easily.  I think it looks much more impressive than the effort I had to put into it - always a good thing!

Here is a little peek into how those curves are sewn.  When you first get the curved pieces together they look quite wonky and you are a little unsure of how it will all turn out.  The cool thing is that the ruler is designed for trimming up your blocks as well as cutting them out initially.

I'm not exactly sure when Helen with have the pattern ready for purchase, but you can check out her blog here.  Or find the ruler here.

I haven't decided if I will add a border or not.  Might just live with it a while before I make that decision.

I also took some time to make something just for me.  My friend Stacey and I decided to give yoga a try for the first time this fall.  It was suggested that we may want to bring out own mats, so I decided to make myself a bag using this free pattern.  I cut into one of my favorite snow-dyes (it was only a little hard).  It was really hard to capture the texture of the fabric in the photos.  It really isn't as white as it appears.  I love how the bag matches the color of the mat!

Dyeing Success

I am happy to report that after 4 rounds in the dyeing room, I finally came up with a fabric palette that I am happy with.  (I also have a number of yards of fabric that will have to find a home in other projects!)

The top picture is a much better representation of the true colors than these following two.  I think that the wheat color above is much better than the too peachy and too yellow below.

I volunteered to be a pattern tester for Helen over at HGMR Deco Quilting.  She is developing a line of patterns to use with the Jenny's Quick Curve Ruler from Sew Kind of Wonderful.

The ruler has a curved slot that fits your regular rotary cutter and lots of reference lines to make it super easy to use.

Step 1 was to cut out some squares and rectangles.

Then using those rectangles and the Quick Curve Ruler, it starts getting interesting.

Cut the arc once.

Move the ruler and cut the arc a second time.

 Voila!

The quilt I am making finishes at 54 x 54.  It took me about 45 minutes to cut everything out and that included the time it took me to press the fabrics.

And a little tease of where this is going!

I am excited to see how this goes together!

Wild Flowers!

This is the latest quilt to make it off my machine.  It is definitely bold and wild. Not my normal taste, but I put a panel and 6 fat quarters to good use.  Backing is one of my hand dyes.   I used my Wildflowers panto and Quilters Dream Puff Batting.  It was very nice to use up all the little bits of leftover fabric into a scrappy binding.

I have been busy dyeing and over dyeing some fabrics trying to get just the right combination of color for a pattern I volunteered to test for another blogger.  I love the two batiks I pulled from my stash, and finally have the right burgundy to go with it.  The right yellow is still eluding me.  One too peachy, one too bright.  Sometimes dyeing goes exactly like you expect and sometimes it just feels like a big guessing game.  Back to the dyeing room for round 4.

Hello September!

I can't believe it has been over a month since I posted anything here!  What have I been doing over the last month or so??

We did take a wonderful holiday back to Flin Flon. We had lots of time to do some geocaching, fishing, tubing, relaxing and visiting.   I got to see many of my quilting friends at a lovely gathering hosted by my wonderful friend Kathy.  Here we are.  Kathy also surprised me with this pantograph as a gift. I love it, and have to find just the right quilt for it!

I was caught up on my Just Takes 2 blocks before we left on our trip.  Now I am two sets behind again!

I had to totally disassemble my quilting/sewing room to allow for some ceiling demolition before the installation of a new furnace and air conditioner, so I didn't really get a whole lot of quilting done myself, but my two quilting apprentices were busy getting things finished before school started.

Kyla quilted her "Uptown Girl" quilt with the "Dainty" Pantograph.  I think she did a pretty great job.

 

We dyed the turquoise fabric for the back as well.  She used Quilter's Dream Puff batting.  It is really light and has great loft.  I had never tried this batting before, and I am very pleased with the results.

 

Kendra's "Bella" quilt got the Daisy Bounce Panto.

It was a little fiddly working around the applique, but worth it in the end.  She chose a green color for us to dye her backing.  We dyed a white-on-white wide fabric and it turned out very pretty.  She also chose the Dream Puff batting.  She is pleased with the results.

Now to teach them how to do bindings.  Hopefully they enjoy that job more than their mother does!

Caught up

I have been working on the Just Takes 2 block of the month project and am happy to report that I am caught up.  I had fallen a little behind with the arrival of my machine and all the excitement that it involved, but the 15 outstanding blocks are now done, bringing the total complete to 56.

This has been a very interesting project with everything from applique, paper piecing, traditional piecing and even a little hand piecing!  I still like paper piecing, hate hand applique - so now those are being done by machine, and I have learned to see the value in hand piecing certain kinds of blocks.  The project is designed to be done in red and white, but I am using my hand dyed fabrics samples instead.  There have been instructions to piece blocks together into 2 sections, but I think I will wait on that until the end so that I can arrange the colors in a more pleasing way.  Here are the blocks in the suggested lay out.

My good friend and dyeing partner Kathy is working on the same project, although I'm not sure if she is enjoying it as much as I am.  I wonder how Kathy is making out with her blocks?  You can check in on her at http://tamarackshack.blogspot.ca/ and  while you are there get in on her summer giveaway of some hand dyed fabrics, just like we are using in this quilt.

I also wanted to share the gift I received from my friend Sandra. She when she saw it she had to get it for my new business.  It has found a perfect home in my studio.  Thanks Sandra it was really thoughtful and I love it!

1600 Bali Pop Quilt

I got an email from Bev a couple of weeks ago asking if I was ready to start taking customer quilts.  I was a little scared and a lot excited.  This is her 1600 quilt.  She made it from one bali pop plus a few strips of her border fabric to make it just a little bit bigger.  Bev is a relatively new quilter, but you would never know it if you looked at her quilt top.  It was flat and square and  perfectly pressed- a gift for the new longarmer for sure!

In progress

Done!

 I used Quilters Dream Blend batting, So Fine! thread and the "Come Dance with Me" panto.  I love how the panto looks on this quilt.

And a peak at the back!

Thanks for trusting me with your quilt Bev!

Star Fling

I got this binding on the Star Fling Baby Quilt today. (Another quilt made from the Northcott fat quarters.)  It is great pattern that makes the most out of a fat quarter collection - very little waste.  It is designed by Terry Atkinson and still available for free from P & B Textiles here.  I decided to practice my stitch in the ditch in the border, and combined some ruler and free hand work in the blocks.  The hardest thing was choosing a thread to go with all these wild colors.

 

 And the back.

There has been a lot of other activity in my sewing room.  I bought my girls quilt kits as an end of school present.  They are both eager to try the longarm so I thought it might be a good summer project.  These are the two patterns.  Bella for Kendra who is 11 and Uptown Girl for Kyla who is 14.  I got the kits from Fabriculous, a wonderful store located in Swan River.  The kits have much more "modern" fabric than my normal taste, but my girls were thrilled and I think they may be growing on me a little.

I did help Kendra get her strips cut to size.  (Considering my recent rotary cutting accident, I think we weren't quite ready for her to go there!)  She handled the sewing and pressing and all the machine applique for the flower.  Two borders to add and it is ready for quilting.

Kyla did about half of her cutting and has all of her rows and sashing rows ready to put together.

I think they are going to be in need of another project before the summer is over!

And I just had to show you how my batting storage turned out under my machine thanks to my wonderful husband.  Those rolls looked huge in my kitchen, but seem just fine in their new home.