The only swap I will do this year...

I keep repeating that to myself over and over, like a mantra, warding off evil spirits...this is the only swap I will do this year, this is the only swap I will do this year... This is my mini quilt for the #mqgswap, the first swap run by the Mothership.

It's not because swaps are evil or anything like that. I really like them! But I tend to get sucked into things when I already have a million things on my list to do. Then I fell overwhelmed, then I feel quilty. Why do we put ourselves through that? So, no more swaps for me this year. I'm going to focus on that pile of WiPs again this year, I am getting to the bottom! And, I am still sewing from my stash this year which delights me...using all of my fabric treasures.

A little more about this swap. I started with fabric of course. My partner wanted bright colors and in the depth of winter I needed some sky colors so this is where I ended up...

Then my partner really had a liking for Libs Elliott designs so I thought HSTs would make me happy and get to a Libs Elliott feel. I hit Pinterest for some inspiration.

The mini-quilt ended up at 24" square. I did spiral quilting on this piece, I love the texture that it gives and thought it was a good contrast to all of those straight lines.

 This piece is now off to Calgary I hope my partner likes it!

In other news, at the end of this month I am going to be celebrating five years in the quilty bloggy world. Where has the time gone? So of course I am all "reflecty" this month, but I promise not to get too boring. In fact I am planning a little giveaway for my blogversary so be sure to stay tuned...

I have also been busy sewing up orders for Seamwork these days. Canadian Flag Pillows are pretty popular since our Country is celebrating it's 150th Birthday this year.

And I made this sweet puppy pillow for my friends daughter to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Well, that's me for now. I'm off to Patch Halifax this morning to teach some folks how to make Elizabeth Hartman's Sleep Sloth. Should be a fun day!

See you soon!
Adrienne

ps:  I'm going to sneak in to TIGFF! this week, and also linking up with Show Off Saturday.

HELLO my name is Grateful

Three years ago I founded the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild and since that time have acted as President. A role which has taken me on an amazing adventure. An adventure which lead me to find a community. A community of creative, supportive, fun and loving people.

This month marked my last presidential duties as I passed the crown on to the amazing Crystal (@halifaxmom on IG). How emotional was I as I passed the Tiara and our Guild Banner on? I cried!  Now I am a crier people, anyone who knows me knows I am always good for a cry, happy or sad!

But what made me even more emotional was the surprise of this amazing quilt!

Twenty five members of the guild participated in making this most special gift, all in secret of course! I have to send special thanks to my friends Linda and Amanda for organizing all the work. I have goosebumps again just thinking of the stitchy love that went into this quilt.

The quilt features all of the colors from our guild logo and has tons of special touches like the piped binding that Amanda did, the organic straight line quilting by Linda, and look at all the fabric from everyone's stashes! I like looking at every block :)

The back - it gets even better - see the big sail boat!!!! Thanks Karen for doing the piecing on that baby. Of course it is the MMQG logo and it means so much to me to have that pieced into the quilt.

Right down to the label (thank you Beth!), absolutely everything about this quilt makes my heart sing.

I think I am out of words to describe these first three years of MMQG, but I know this...

I have learned, loved, laughed and cried and I can't wait for more!
Thank you
Adrienne

This is not my first finish of 2017...

It's my last finish of 2016! Yup I am still a slacker when it comes to blogging right now. Oh well, at least I own my slacker qualities ;)

So back in November the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild brought in their first famous designer Libs Elliott! I was so excited to meet Libs and learn to conquer the y-seam with her Weight of Love Quilt.

I started the adventure with a fabric pull, using my hoarded print from Priory Square as a start. Time to use the "good" fabric!

I ended up in love with my fabric combo and it was all from my stash! I even had enough in the end to make a scrappy binding. I'm still committed to making from my stash this year. I did so well in 2016 some of my fabric bins are empty! What?! Must. Resist. Buying. More. Fabric.

The class with Libs was great! It's Y-Seams not Cry-Seams people! and I loved learning about how Libs designs her quilt patterns using computer code. fascinating

Confession time - if you get close to this quilt, it is a bit of a hot mess. Appliqueing the center piece onto the background did not go well for me, but I consider it a huge lesson learned. If your options are building a"fabric frame" to baste to or a full panel of fabric...choose the full piece. Just saying.

Good news is, I took the pictures from far away, so it looks awesome! You're welcome.

Some IKEA Nummers on the back. My stash of this is running dangerously low, so it only goes on special pieces.

It was  so fun to meet a famous quilty person! That's right I met Libs Elliott - see I have a picture!  

MMQG is hosting workshops  Krista Hennebury of Poppyprint fame in May, cannot wait!

The only thing better than a fresh finish - Quilt photo shoot outtakes. Thanks Barb!
Anyone else out there still reporting on 2016 finishes, or have you all moved on? I hope I'm not the only one....

See you soon
Adrienne

Linking up with TGIFF! because it's Friday and I finished something!

Seam Work

First I would like to start by welcoming you if you are dropping in from The Needle & Thread Network. I am being featured today on their site and I am so pleased to "meet" you! I hope you have some time to check out the blog :)

So It's December! How the heck did that happen? Anyone else have a Santa's sweatshop set up in their house for holiday making? Mine is in full swing AND I have been busy with some other stuff.... some exciting stuff...like opening an Esty Shop! I introduce Seam Work

For most of the year I have been thinking on this whole Etsy thing. I wanted to open a shop. BUT, I was a afraid.  Afraid to start something new, to put myself out there,  what if people don't like my things? Crazy fears.

But then in the Fall I started to get excited about it, started looking into how it all works. And then I had a sew day planned with my friend Jeanette from Stamp Stitch Create. As we are sewing away she says "hey wanna start an Etsy shop together?" (or something to that effect lol). She was nervous too about starting something new.

So we held hands, looked over the edge of the abyss, and opened Seam Work in November. We both just needed a little nudge to get going. Quilty friends are good for that :) Now we have a great shop that will be full of both of our quilty goods. Good for us, good for our customers!

You can visit the shop  HERE

Jeanette and I pose for our Shop photo. I think we are pretty cute!

Since the shop opened I have been busy making custom flag pillows. I am now a Jedi Master in the ways of the invisible zipper.

And look at our adorable labels!

So I guess I am officially a small business owner and I am loving it! I cannot thank Jeanette enough for doing this with me. I think together we are going to have a hell of a good time!

Do you sell your quilty things? I would love to hear all about it!

Talk to you soon, I have some finishes to share so I should probably write a post more than once a month...
Adrienne

Chillingsworth. Back to his roots.

Right now I am under a duvet, under a quilt, with a cat, a dog, a tablet and a laptop. The days of the long nights have settled in with Fall. The lands in the Maritimes are awash with color during the day. (if you have never been to Nova Scotia in October...come!) But, it is now dark two hours after coming home from work, dark the next morning when I leave again. Sigh. But there is always you, my dear readers, here at my slightly-less-neglected quilty diary.

And there is the sewing:) It's getting a bit frantic with plans for some major Christmas prezzie sewing (more on that later...think zippers), filling Flag Pillow orders for others Christmas Prezzies and some other equally important "makey" things. And I am loving every friggin minute of it!

So, why did I stop everything and do something completely frivolous last week? Because I could. This is all supposed to be for fun people.

I finished Mr. Chillingsworth. I was on a mission to finish him for the MMQG meeting. Challenge accepted! I free motioned his whole skeletal panel (don't lose faith in me, but that was the biggest piece I have ever FMQd! slow learner.). I did a special X stitch from a setting on my Janome in the black border, and then I caved, threw on my walking foot and random wavy lined around the HSTs.

 

I really treated this project like a bit of practice. It's a fun, theme quilt that I was ok with making mistakes on. It's just hanging around in my hallway after all, looking spooky. One thing I learned is that a lot of dense FMQ (even if is a hot mess in places) crinkles up so MUCH in the washer/dryer that you cannot even see the hot mess! What sweet quilty goodness is that!

I learned that even though you want to finally use up that spool of thread that just never-seems-to-end, you should color match your thread to your backing fabric when you are learning to FMW. Wow, way to highlight the hot mess!

It also happened that once I showed off Mr. Finished at MMQG, my friend @Purple Boots & Pigtails and I headed to the Annapolis Valley for some much needed Fall fresh air...and fabric shopping therapy! On the way we found a small old graveyard where Mr. felt quite at home. So we stopped for a photo shoot.

We might have even stopped (after cheese buns at the Bakery) again on the way back, safety pins in hand from our LQS to take more pics!

I think the setting and the gorgeous leaves were the perfect backdrop. And I hope the gentleman in cute house across from the churchyard doesn't think we were being disrespectful. We were conscious or your caring eye ;) Oh the life of a picture-a-hol-ic-quilter can get you into trouble sometimes.

Funny story. I literally sat for hours, as a passenger, in a vehicle in the most glorious setting with a camera in my lap and did not take any other pictures. Weird. I guess I was focused on the scenery and company. I consider that a successful day!

So that was so worth stopping everything! Now, back to my regular frantic program. Here I Come!

Have you stopped everything this year and finished that Halloween project that has been sitting in your closet or your Pinterest board? Tell me all about it, and if you have recently finished, why not link up with TGIFF! I am :)

Mr. Chillingsworth says Hello!

Back on Sunday it rained. Evil grin. No painting for me! Not only did I sew, I threw everything I was supposed to be working on aside and pulled out this wicked panel that has been lounging in the stash for far too long. At the last MMQG Sew In, my friend Purple Boots & Pigtails reminded me about this guy.  Just look at him, a spring in his step!

So as you can see it put him up on the design wall thinking about what to do with him? As I am backing away I look down into my WiP pile and I see the stack of Denyse Schmidt scraps left from Charlie's Quilt.

Perfect! I left out the teals and the floral print, leaving blacks, grays, mustards, creams. I added a couple more prints like this great stripe, a solid pumpkin punch and another orange print to round it out. I also added those cute spooky Alexander Henry Ravens to the mix.

Based on the size of my scraps I could not do anything too large scale and I wanted this to be a "finish in a day" project. I felt the need for some instant gratification.

So after some math, that I am sure I made far more complicated than it need be, I had a plan for my fall back favorite, the HST.

I put a solid black border on the Mr. before I added a frame of HSTs. Purple Boots would be proud that I did not plan out the HST placement, threw them in a pile and chain pieced with wild abandon!

So, this is where I ended up Sunday Evening. I also pieced a backing and now have a need for some Franken-batting. I am going to practice Free Motion on this project since I have no special plans for it and I think I can get away with some imperfections (ha!) on a Halloween quilt. I want to practice a basic skill and get good at it, move on to the next etc. What would you suggest as an easy first free motion design...swirls, loop de loops, stars....??

In other news I have been steadily working on this quilt each week. Its the Kriss Kross Quilt by Suzy Quilts. I am stealing the color combo from the pattern quilt! But I had that perfect stripe! remember? And then I went and added my my current addiction - Kona Punch for the perfect wow! Can't wait to start seeing more blocks together!

This quilt is not instant gratification. BUT it will be friggin margarita gratification when it gets done and is awesome!

Happy Tuesday People!

TGIFF! Winner & A Wee Sewing Machine

It's Friday again! They do come quick, thank the quilting gods. This week I wanted to share this mini sewing machine I finished up.

I joined my first Instagram swap last month, a swap focusing on the paper pieced patterns by Kristy at Quiet play. I have made quite a few Quiet play patterns and they are so great. I have even made this sewing machine before, only a bit bigger :)

My partner wanted a rainbow sewing machine with a dark grey background and a bit of shine.
I hit the stash and made a rainbow. Seems like this should be easy, but it takes me forever to figure it out.

Anywho, what about that shine? I found a great Robert Kaufman that was the perfect shade of grey and had a silver sparkle. And then when I started to quilt, that Aurifil has such a nice sheen it was perfect!

On the backside I carried through with a blue from the machine on front and added some triangle corners for hanging. I turned one corner inside out to have a place to write a wee message to my swap partner.

My partner is not expecting this gem until the end of October. Cannot wait to send it off.

AND now for what you've really been waiting for, the winner of this awesome improv book from last week's post.

THE WINNER IS...

Jennifer from Little Black Cat Quilting

Thanks to everyone who dropped in last week, it was so much fun reading your comments and improv vs. patterns and seeing all of your finishes. 

Now, what should I work on for next week? So many projects...
I'm linking up with TGIFF! this week, you should too!

You know I have to...Charlie just loves quilty photo shoots