Summer 16 Quilt

Welcome back! I want to share my Summer 16 quilt today. This quilt was a custom order that I worked on over the winter months. My friend wanted a bright summery quilt for her bed in a new condo and in time for summer! Her inspiration were the quilts made by Rita at Red Pepper Quilts. I don't blame her, I love all of Rita's work!

This quilt is full of "special" hoarded fabrics from my stash that make me smile. I mean look at that wee bicycle! Baguette and a glass of wine anyone?

I called it summer 16 because I had every intention of making 16 patches and building the quilt from there. It didn't quite go that way, but the name stuck! here are some "in the making" shots...

Original fabric pull

My helper.

This ended up being a big queen like 90 x 90, it was fun quilting! (she says sarcastically)

Decisions about binding and backing...We went pink!

I really loved working on this quilt through the winter. On some of the coldest days we had I would pull out the white and brightly colored squares and work away, dreaming of summer days...

Do you have a favorite summer versus winter quilt? I switch mine out all the time!

Thanks for coming to visit, I'll have more to catch you up on soon!
Adrienne

Yadda: Seam Work

Some other fun stuff that was happening while I wasn't blogging was getting ready for my first ever craft show with my Seam Work partner Jeanette. We participated in the Dartmouth Makers Spring into Summer Market.

Of course getting ready for such an event meant tons of sewing! I focused on my Quilted Flag Pillows and some smaller baby quilts. Here are some that made their way to Market...

A sample of the pillows I have been making. Love these small quilty treasures!

So many pillows ready for Market!

This baby flying geese piece I actually made along with my Beginners Quilting class at Patch Halifax.

This HST baby quilt was actually made from left over blocks that I found in a ziploc bag for a custom quilt I made a couple of years ago. I had enough in the ziploc for a whole quilt. I love happy finds in my WiP pile!

And finally, this wee square in square piece that actually now lives in New York State with it's forever family :) (clearly it needed an ironing before the photo shoot...

Phew! That's it. We had a lot of fun at the Market. Will we do it again....? Who knows what the future holds?

Ok, that's it for me for now. Be back soon, I still have lots of updating!
Adrienne

Yadda Yadda: Pillows

Yup, we are still getting you caught up on my no-blogging activities!

I have more pillows to share! You know the thing about pillows, unlike quilts, they are quicker to finish! They are a great way to practice skills on smaller projects and their own little stitchy instant gratification.

Here are some that have passed through the Janome while I haven 't been blogging....first some flags...

I had a lot of fun making this special custom order, a Canadian and Union Jack flag combined for a newly minted Canadian Citizen from Britain!

This adorable Sleepy Fox is a paper pieced pattern that I tested for 3rd Story Workshop. This is only the top but it has made it into a full pillow now. You can get the pattern here...

Again this year I am participating in the #87pillows charitable project to give handmade pillows to residents of Long Term Care Facilities in Dartmouth. The wonderful endeavour is the brainchild of my friend Jeanette and I hope we do it every single year. This is a sample of some of the pillows I made this year.

This fun Hazel and a matching scrappy bolster were custom orders. I love Hedgehogs!

And, for fun, some happy sunny pineapple pillows. Can't get enough of these!

Are you sick of my updates yet? Because there is more to come! Talk to ya later!
Adrienne

Yadda Yadda Yadda: My Travelling Quilt

So yeah, I have not been blogging...and yadda, yadda, yadda...here I am now! The good news, I have been happily and busily sewing all along. So how should I catch you up? I think I'll just start at the beginning and see how far I get. Hopefully this won't be all a crazy hodgepodge!
(and now i am craving hodgepodge)

Well I HAVE to start with my Travelling Quilt. Thirteen months, twelve amazing Canadian quilters, and the mail. It started back in December of 2015 and in February of this year we all received a finished quilt that had been contributed to by each quilter.

The experience was....challenging, intimidating, time consuming, AND exhilarating, exciting. I loved and learned every minute of it.

The quilts all started with the makers idea or concept and a starter block.  Sometimes you got a story or color preferences, fabric scraps to also inspire you. My quilt was all about words.

A super fun part of the process were the journals. Your quilt traveled with a journal with you making the first entry. As the quilt passes quilter to quilter we would journal why we made what we did, maybe a story about why, messages to the next quilter in line, and usually some pop facts about the time and place the quilt was in. Our quilts traveled coast to coast.

Some of the blocks I made along the way

Also, it was all a secret! We used Instagram #travellingquiltscanada to share, but only small snippets of what we were working on. No one saw their completed quilt until it arrived in the mail thirteen months after you sent your first block into the world. The anticipation....

When my mailbox was finally stuffed with that final package...it was so much more than I could ever have expected. All the words were cool, the different methods whether it be pieced or applique were so varied, and it is so colorful and HAPPY! It is now a favorite couch cuddle quilt in the Klenck house.

Would I do it again? Hell yes! But not this year! This was the type of adventure that I don't think I could do back to back. It really is a huge commitment, and there is no dropping out like I have experienced in other bees (thank goodness, which makes is even more worth it). but next year...yeah I would seriously think about that :)

So I was thinking that in this post I would get you caught up on more than one thing, but I guess not. Man am I talky! So, until next time...
Adrienne