Month: August 2019

Gifts for Travelling

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By the time you read this post, I’ll be getting ready to leave the UK and head to South Africa.  My sister is speaking in Johannesburg and asked if I wanted to go with her.  It took me about 10 seconds to say, “yes.”

We are stopping in England on the way to visit some cousins of my mothers and I thought I should make some “Canadian” gifts to take with me.  I had a few bits and pieces left-over from my Canadian Quilt of Valour  and so it lead very nicely to these bags.

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The maple leaves were cut at the same time that I cut the big one for the Quilt of Valour.  The bottom right white one is the trimming of one of the leaves.  The red & white bags are all made with Island Batik fabrics (except for the lining) and the “O Canada” bag is made from my stash.  The smallest bag is 5″ x 7½” and the largest is 7½” x 8 ¼”.

One who sleeps under a quilt is covered by LOVE!

Happy Quilting! 
Gail 

Monday check-in

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I’ve been trying out the arrangement of my sewing room.  So far, just a few minor things have been moved around.  And I’m loving it!  If you missed the tour – check out this Blog Post.

Design Wall:

Piecing 

It’s not quilt related.  I’m working on some travelling neck pillows.  I made them before, but didn’t have a loop/button at the front and it was a real pain in the neck to not have it.  (did you get the pun?)  As well, I’m making them a little bit longer.  I put zippers in the top and we stuff them loosely with clothes.  It  gives us a little bit more room as we try to only travel with carry-on. These are being made out of flannel.

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New Sewing Room!

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I am mostly moved into my sewing room!!!  YEAH!!!  It’s a big room, but I still don’t have everything in it!  All of my batting will eventually find a spot.  But at least I have all my machines (except a treadle, named Stella) and my tools in one room!  My treadle is named “Stella” after the lady that gifted it to me!

In the video, you will see the serger on a table behind my Janome 8900 – the machine I do all my quilting on.  When I move the serger, it gives me a bigger table space for my quilt! Which is perfect for quilting those large queen sized quilts!

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Island Batik – Beat the Heat Blog Hop

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I’m sure you’ve noticed a thinning of blog posts lately!  I’ve been away – not sewing (very much) and have not had internet connection for most of the past 2 weeks.

However, I do want to let you know about the fabulous blog hop that is happening NOW. This blog hop is featuring the Spring 2019 fabrics.  And there are give-aways!  Be sure to enter each week for your chance to win some of the wonderful fabric!

Click on BEAT THE HEAT BLOG HOP to go to the Island Batik site to see the schedule of events.   My day to post is August 22 and this is the wonderful fabric I’m making a quilt with:

It is a fun line of fabric!  And my quilt will showcase each and every fabric!

One who sleeps under a quilt is covered by LOVE!

Happy Quilting! 
Gail 

8 x 16

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When I was sorting through all my fabric, I found a bunch of 6″ squares.  All blue fabric (my favourite colour!).  I found it totally weird that I had cut 6″ squares, not 6 ½”!   Sew, with the help of a friend (thanks, Dawn), I was able to figure out how big to make the quilt.

Dawn had made a quilt with 5″ blocks. She started with 6 blocks across and 12 blocks down.  Then she cut it diagonally, in 2 places.  Then she sewed the 3 triangles together, resulting in a small quilt, wth the squares on point.  Even with using 6″ squares, I knew the quilt would be too small for my purposes. The pattern idea originated at Quiltwoman.com and can be found HERE.  Their demo page shows a slightly different method.

SEW – I stared out with 8 squares across and 16 squares down.  Cut them in the same manner that Dawn did.  (Drats – I should have taken a picture.)

But here is the finished quilt! fullsizeoutput_b4f

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