Pillow Back = Shirt Front

My favourite way to finish off a pillow top: chop out the front of a thrifted buttondown shirt, and use it as the back of a pillow! The button closures are cute and, more importantly, already there. So, you get to look clever and have a quick, professional-looking finish all at the same time.

Eye Candy

These delicious goodies were found at a new-to-me fabric shop called FabricTown in Mississauga (Ontario). I could not resist buying some to play with!

Kitchen Art!

Another batch of UFOs made into something...

I found some lonely yo-yos in a bag while reorganizing my sewing room. They are lonely no more! The flower stems were made with the help of the wonderful Clover Bias Maker gadget, and I drafted the vase and freezer paper foundation pieced it. The whole thing is backed with flannel to give it some body, and I did some simple running stitch embroidery to add a bit of detail.

I hung it in the kitchen, and somehow it looks like it has always been there.

My First Sewing Machine

It still works.

Scissors Completed!

Here it is! Finished!

Another scrappy backing; check out the huge chunks I used up from the Stash. I used the quilting bar attachment on the walking foot that came with my machine, and I really enjoyed not marking parallel lines. I added a bit of free motion quilting action on the scissors blocks, and finished it off with some old buttons and a contrasting blue binding.

Time to cut on a new quilt and take a little break from the UFO pile…

Scrappy Scissors

Here is yet another top that has been languishing in the pile of UFOs. As I am fond of the Scrappy Backing, I threw some fabric from the Stash on the floor, and I’ll be straightening up the edges and making my backing from what you see here. I had originally selected a big chunk of solid beige for the back… boring! I like this a LOT better. Let’s see how fast I can get this thing finished…

Blue & Cream Log Cabin

The UFO Round Up continues…

This top has been finished for ages, and the first stage “in the ditch” quilting had been done for a while, too. So, hot on the heels of Cog and Wheel, I slapped this one into the hoop and finished the quilting by hand, taking quilting passes through two rounds of “logs” in each block. Quilted, bound, DONE.

Next up, Scrappy Scissors…

Stash Builder Shirtings

Thrift shops are a great place to supplement your stash with lovely, non-quilt shop fabrics. I spotted these two gorgeous violet cotton shirts (can we call them "mulberry" instead?) at my local Value Village and snatched them up. They are absolutely delicious.

Cog and Wheel: Mine's Done, Too!

With the decision to NOT enter an epic quilt competition this winter, I feel a measure of relief and happy anticipation of the new year and all the quilty promise it holds. I have some new projects brewing, but I am also eager to hammer away at older unfinished quilts and get them done!

My Cog and Wheel quilt had been pieced quite a while ago and had been quilted, but hadn't been bound yet. So, I kicked off the New Year with finally attaching and hand-finishing the binding. Hooray for a finished quilt! Plus, recent blog posts by Karyn and Katherine provided a boot to the behind...

You Look Familiar...

I check True Up all the time to scope out the latest and greatest in quilt fabric. I'm scrolling down... Hey! New stuff from Anna Griffin! But wait, that one looks familiar...

Anna Griffin's "new" fabric...


...compared to the Happy Homemaker by Darlene Zimmerman for Kaufman Fabrics some years back from my collection...


They are "swirl for swirl" identical except in colourways. Is it legal? Was the scale of the design tweaked just enough to make it so? Is fabric design this unregulated? And can't Anna Griffin just design fresh? Come ON.

Kanzashi!

Not a whole lot of time lately to sew, but I squeezed in some craftiness this week after the arrival of this wonderful book, "Kanzashi In Bloom." I want to make a hundred of them, then go downtown to a specialty button shop and spend a few hours selecting just the right button centre for each one...

The Grid

Look! I'm in print!

A weekly magazine here in Toronto called me up last month and asked if I knew anyone who might be able to design and stitch the title of their next issue on short notice. Yes, I did. How about me?

A few days later, the finished cross stitch was packed up and sent to the photographer by way of courier. A few days after that, it appeared on the cover of The Grid magazine in stands all over the city! As I was working that morning, a search posse (family) was organized and many issues were scooped.

Hooray!

(And no, I did not stitch the work in that wooden hoop! I never use circular hoops with Aida cloth; they would have left really bad hoop marks. I used a Q-Snap frame. Dang those stylists!)

CQA 2011

This post is extremely overdue. Prepare for horn-tooting...

I entered a quilt called "Album" in the Canadian Quilters' Association National Juried Show this past spring and won Second Place in the Excellence in Original Traditional Wallquilt category! There had been a two year gap since the last time I entered, so this win seemed extra important and special to me. I was glad the show was fairly close to home this time (if a two-hour drive is close) and also that my dear quilty friend Michelle Dunn of Kallisti Quilts was there to share my excitement with me.

Houses!

I avoided Foundation Paper Piecing like the plague for a long time. Picking out all the paper after sewing everything was a mind-numbing exercise in tedium. When I'm finished sewing, I want to be DONE. I made a tiny little sample or two, and chucked them aside for the maddening irritation they caused.

I have since had a change of heart. Karyn at the workroom sent me a link to the Twiddletails website. I clicked on it with scepticism.

It was a complete game changer.

This version uses freezer paper as the foundation! You don't pick out bits of paper for hours- you just peel it away! Genius. AND you can see where you are sewing. AND you have nice, neat and even seam allowances.

I designed Houses! and had a really fun time making it. I was so excited that I slammed out all the house blocks in a weekend. And now I'm designing more...

Mission Accomplished!

...with time to spare!

A Letter

Dear Baby-Shower Givers,

We share in the happy anticipation of the arrival of this special bundle of joy with you! This baby couldn’t ask for more wonderful parents. However, two weeks notice is insufficient time to inform those guests who might be quilters. We want to make this baby something cozy, colourful, and comforting, and we need time to make this token of our affection. Given the time constraints, we must pare down our artistic vision.

Squares. The quilt will be squares. Not adorable appliqué, nor whimsical pinwheels, or anything else that can’t be cut and sewn marathon-style. They will be lovely, thoughtfully selected and placed squares, but squares nonetheless. We hope you understand.

We will see you at the shower, on time and with gift wrapped in a bulky, tell-tale bundle. When it’s opened, we hope to please the expectant mother, and some ooh’s and aah’s would be nice, too. And tears of happy joy at the awesomeness of handmade love in blanket form wouldn’t hurt either.

Respectfully,

Johanna Masko and Daughter

Tutorial: Do-It-Yourself Quilt Labels

Here's a nice way to make a quilt label- quick, easy to do and professional-looking.

When I was planning this one, I knew I wanted a hand-written look for the title, but my regular hand-printing was not going to give me the neat and tidy appearance I was going for, as anyone who had tried to read my scribbly notes can tell you. So, I did a hand-written, scripty title in pencil (using a penciled-in bottom guide line), and tweaked it until I liked it. Then I went over it with a felt tipped marker.

Then I used the computer to type my name, city and year the quilt was completed. (Of course, you could use the computer to do the whole thing, including the title.) After that, I tried out different fonts and sizes to see which one I liked, then printed my favourite. You can tape your title to the computer-printed info and decide on your line spacing.


I pressed a big scrap of muslin for my label. Then I cut out an oversized chunk of freezer paper and pressed it with a dry hot iron to the back of the muslin, shiny side down. This keeps the fabric smooth, stable and flat so you can trace your lettering.

If it's daytime, tape your lettering to a window, then tape your paper-backed muslin on top and trace it. Or, do what I did (because it was evening and I didn't want to wait) and rig up an improvised "light table" with a cheap-o piece of picture frame glass and a table lamp with a lamp shade (to rest the glass on) and a fluorescent bulb.

I used a black Pigma Micron permanent pen with a 0.25mm line width.


When your ink is dry, peel off the freezer paper, cut to size, turn under your edges and applique to the back of your quilt!