Happy Valentines

Hope you all have had a wonderful day with special people in your life.  My day could not be better!  I awoke smelling fresh coffee and chocolates were on the table, that was a perfect start to my day.  Later in the afternoon we went out for strawberry sundae and coffee.  I did manage to finish my Valentine twister heart.  I don't usually do seasonal projects because I just simply never finish them.....well my sewing machine was certainly trying my patience on this one.  I changed to red thread and then it didn't want to FM nicely and breaking thread and tonight it still is skipping stitches as I was sewing down the border.  Anyway I won and I hope you enjoy this picture.

I don't know how many of you enjoy curling but here in Canada it is a national sport and if you live in small town Saskatchewan, it may be one of the only winter sports you have.  Saturday, the Tournament of Hearts ,which is the Canadian ladies teams, starts for a whole week.  I will have to organize some simple sewing so I can sew on my "Fabric 15-91" while I watch the games.  Another note, we are half way through winter...woo hoo!  Temperatures are starting to rise but we are getting rain and lots of snow but that's okay, it is winter here.  Have a great weekend.

Back In Gear

It has been a bit more than a week of recovery and I thank all of you that check in for new updates.  You are such an important part of my quilting ventures.  It is quite an amazing process of getting an artificial hip...3 weeks today....I have absolutely no pain of any kind and just have weakness in that leg.  I am already getting around in the house nicely with a cane.  I am faithful to my exercises as they say they help reduce the pain and strengthen the leg.

I haven't done very much sewing as I couldn't sit for very long and it takes time to get all those drugs out of your system.  I had the hardest time last week to make a pinwheel...just couldn't get the thought process right.  That is all cleared away now.  I do not do much  in seasonal themes but I did do a couple "Hint of Christmas" pot holders.  They still need a bit of quilting to finish them off.  I love the little sign "work for freezer space"! 

I am booked in for a Home Base Business Trade and Craft Show on November 24th.  I paid my fees but wasn't totally convinced I could be ready for this but I am doing really well so I am getting excited.  We have moved to a larger venue and it is only a 1 day event so I am anticipating a larger turnout.
I am putting together a child's quilt from a panel I had.  I am calling it tossed alphabet.  Here I am laying it out for a preview and I am pleased how well everything is fitting together.  I thought I would add squares of the pinwheel fabric set on point across the top and bottom of the banner.  I think I should expand that green outside border to maybe 3".  That striped will be the binding done on the bias.  Any thoughts you might have as to this layout are certainly welcomed.

The original panel was finished with a blue border...do any of you think I should go that route?
Please feel free to leave suggestions and comments that will help me improve on my project...I love to hear from you.

I am linking this post to Freemotion Quilting by the River.
 

Catching Up

Thanks all you readers and followers who have dropped  by over the past couple of weeks.  I just need to catch everyone up on what's happening on my sight.

This past Monday, October 1, I had a complete hip replacement and got home today.  I am feeling very well and I am getting around good, with the aid of a walker and not much pain.  I had a phone call for my surgery two weeks ago, so to make it brief I was in a whirlwind getting ready.  I need to rest for a week and then maybe I can get back to doing some sewing.  I want to wish everyone here a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

UFO Update

I haven't had a post this week because I have been very busy with garden produce and quilting, but it has been a fun week.  My new UFO sofa topper has had a lot of work done.  I did some rippping of FMQ, don't you just hate doing that but it had to be.  My color of thread that looks stunning on the black, didn't show at all on the greys so I ripped out the quilting and used a navy and all is well now.

I did some pine boughs in one square and when I was done, I realized I had just done thread painting and it was fun and looks great.  I have never tried thread painting and didn't practice this but I am not going to be over confident as the next time I try to do it, it will be a big flop.  Just a lucky day!  Here is a close up of the stitching.

 

My bare tree on the right is upside down and this was one of the blocks I had to redo.  I must thank those of you that left comments and suggestions.  I used each one and I am so pleased with how it is coming together.  Leah's UFO posts are just so great and I have never before had such responsive support.  Now, I am going to see what everyone else is up to this week.

UFO Drawings

I certainly appreciate all the feedback I received today and tonight I have done some drawing.  I made an exact size block and have drawn some leaves, etc. on it.  Those 2 blocks "square in a square" are the ones giving me problems.

Sorry it turned sideways.  The leaf vine is my border up each side.  I seem to loose the maple  and oak leaf every time I put something around them. The center squares aren't very big.  So I tried this:

I ignored the center square and filled the bigger square with a leaf.  I was also wondering about replacing the fern with either a dead tree or a pine tree.  What do you think?  I could maybe find a stitch to fill the maple and oak leaf similar to what I did with the plain leaf.  I appreciate any feedback you wish to offer. 

It's UFO Sunday

I can't believe it is Sunday again and time to pull out a new UFO.  I finished my 2 projects from last week but didn't take time tonight to do pictures so I'll post this on Linky Tuesday at Freemotion at the River.

This new item is a sofa topper that I started last fall.  I was planning to take it to my craft show but the amount of quilting didn't fit into the time slot I had to finish it.   The first picture is the overall quilt and please excuse the fold lines as this has been put away for a while. The colors aren't showing up that great but are done in black, greys, taupes.  It is made up of the same block turned different ways and then side borders.

Here is a closeup of one block.  I have done the leaf and my feather looks more like a leaf than a plume.  There are also some loopy loops and a narrow strip of ribbon quilting.
Here is my dilemma, what do I put in the borders around the squares?  Should I do leaf designs in all the areas?  I like the leaves I have done and may add a maple leaf in one of the squares.
When I get the quilting figured out for this one block, should I repeat the same quilting in all the blocks? The narrow strip on the side is a border that I was going to do leaves on a vine.
 

Leah Day's Quilt Along

How is the last summer holiday of the year going?  I hope you are enjoying family, sunshine and all the other wonderful things that come with summer.  We are already starting to see signs of fall, summer is so short for us in Canada.  I do certainly enjoy the fresh vegetables coming in and I have done some pail pickles, 10 big quarts of dills, today 2 batches of pie dough for our prairie apples and a batch of tomatoes sauce to use in cassrole dishes so it has been busy so far but I am thrilled to have some veggies for those cold winter months coming.

I am been sorta following Leah Day's Quilt Along all summer and trying many of her quilt designs.  It has certainly helped me improve my skills quite a bit.  Now, every Sunday is going to be UFO day and I sure can use this!  For this first week, I am pulling out this twister wreath that I made from a tutorial on the "Quilting Board".  I suddenly became ill and ended up with surgery so this got tossed to the UFO bin. 

I don't have a lot to finished it so I think it is a good first UFO finish.  I did micro stippling on all the white sections on my treadle.  That was a lot of fun. I have stitched 1/4" inside the twisters but need to do the pink ones and then the borders.  I plan a big rose/burgandy bow at the bottom of the wreath.

I have all the straight line quilting done on my string wall hanging.

 

And look at the stitching on the back.  I used different sized squares for the centers but the stitching almost makes you dizzy.

I really like the white/black sashing.  This is not my original design and for the life of me I can't find the gal who made this to give her full credit for a great wall hanging.  I am going to bind it in a black/white binding, a bit darker to frame the whole event.

I have spent more time than I should have on the "Back to School Blog Hop", any of you doing this?  While browsing around other blog sites I came across this darling Quilt Along called "Hello Sunshine".  I am just puttering with these right now but they are so darn cute it will be hard to leave them alone.  There is a new block each month and you can join in here.  Here is a sample of the blocks and my first sunshine.

I can't quite decide if I will make this into a quilt or a Quiet Book.



 

Fun Fabric Friday

Has anyone been stashing up on good fabric sales.  I did, and today 4 packages arrived. WooHoo!  The sale is still on over here at Quilt It Shop.  This is their annual big inventory sale and I think it is terrific at $4.50 and $4.00 a yard on all inventory.

The bundle on the left is creams and neutrals for some pillows/place mats.  I got 2 baby panels and the center bundle are some coordinates.  The panels are 24" wide so need to add something.  Third bundle is for a modern quilt with a grey background fabric.  I am going to a Christmas Craft Sale in late November so I am sewing for that.  I love all the fabrics I received and it was like Christmas in August for sure today.  Also, the shipping was terrific too so go see what they have.

Christmas in August

Just catching up on what everyone is up to.  I finally have a small item finished to show you.  This table runner is done with Christmas scraps so I am calling it "Christmas in August".  I am liking how it turned out and I have been wanting to try some circular quilting and this seemed like a good project.  I did rows spaced 1/2" apart and staggered the circles across the runner.  I didn't get a real good picture to show the design and the quilting but here goes.  The design is the small twister ruler.

The circles weren't that hard to do as I thought I might end up oval not circular but it all went pretty good.  I would like to try a bigger item, like a baby quilt.  I have no idea how far experienced quilters space their circular lines so if anyone out there can provide some insight, I would love to hear from you.

These photos are again taken in my flower garden.  I spent several hours last week cleaning out some of the expired flowers and moving some pots around.  It's good to be back online after our modem gave up on us leaving us for several days with no TV and no Internet!  Hope you are having a wonderful week.

I am having a few problems writing posts lately but I can post a picture so they are coming first.  How was your weekend?  Ours was splendid, couldn't get any better with family, pets, sunshine and food!  I made this little baby quilt from 2 charm pacs of California Girl, oh how I love that fabric and I could make another of this pattern, just so much fun with a modern flair.  I used the 3" twister ruler.  I FMQ using a free style pattern on my trusty antique machine. Hope you enjoy seeing this finished.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend, I sure had a productive one while we snuggled indoors for 3 days of rain.  Today there was enough sunshine to get out doors and take a few pics.  Here is my retro picnic table cover to match my umbrella.  I am very pleased with it considering all I had was a newspaper for a template.  Here is the link click to go to the tutorial for this really cute table center piece that I used to make my bigger version.

Everyone used to make jokes about my umbrella, well now it is right in fashion so I thought a table cover would be nice.

Rainy Day Finishes

It is 12 noon Saturday here in Saskatchewan, the fireplace is lit and we have already had 1 3/4" of rain this morning so I figure this is a good day to get some projects finished up.

Up first on the list is a little lap charity quilt I made last year.  I have been experimenting with new quilting designs and have one I am feeling quite good about using  and this little quilt seemed the right project to debut it.  Sorry for my picture quality today, I have no where in the house to take good pictures.

Here is a close up of the quilt design.  A couple little wiggles but it is coming together well.

Next I put the binding on my retro spoon and fork wall hanging that was a project over at Stash Manicure.

So now I am on my third project....my retro picnic table cover.  I am just doing some final adjustments so it will lay flat in a circle and then some backing.  I will post it finished on the table when the sun is back shining and a link where you can make a cute circle table mat.

It is rather fun to have a day like this once in a while and no point pouting about the rain.  I 'll be back when the sunshine comes out.....they say Tuesday!!!

New Modern Quilt

Oh, I am so excited to start my new modern quilt.  Last night I pulled my fabrics that I have available to use but whether or not I use all of them is still debatable.  Here is what I got, what do you think.

I am going to use blocks from Sew Mama Sew BOM that you can find herehttp://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2011/12/modern-block-of-the-month-bom-december-sew-along/I just love these patterns and when you scroll down you can see how 1 block will look as an entire quilt.

I have a couple projects to finish up first, of course!  I need to quilt my string quilt so I can take it to the Cancer office.  I need to finish and mail my Doll Quilt for the swap on the Quilting Board.  Bonnie`s mystery quilt Orca can wait a bit long.  It needs lots of work yet and I need to get back in that mood so I can stick with it until it is done.

Making Things Safe

Today I downloaded my new free anti virus program AVG2012.  I am very happy with how well it all went.  I am not super computer savvy but I manage to get through things.  I ran a couple scans and no items were detected so that always makes me feel good.  I hope you all take a bit of time to do this each year.  It is important to keep your system safe and to ensure your visitors are safe as well.

Other than that, I sewed some strips while scans were running and systems download, etc. so I will have my 20 String  blocks done pretty quickly here.  I am always anxious to see what the layout will look like and I have never had one disappoint me yet.

The Desperate Housewife posted 27 weeks of modern block tutorials and had 27 guests post tutorials.  I have been going through them and picking out some I really like.  I am going to make my very first modern quilt and it is really exciting. 

I also will have some exciting news to announce soon as my first anniversary of blogging is coming up.  I am definitely going to have a give away to celebrate so I am planning what the give away will be.  No pictures this time but hope you are all having some time to work on your quilting projects.

Sewing, sewing like a mad woman.  I am so excited about this coming Saturday, it is the Home Trade and Craft Show.  It is only one day but with 30 booths, there will surely be some good sales.  Here is what I want desperately in the show...my sofa/bed topper.  I love how it turned out and now I need to focus on the quilting, so far so good.

This is all I am going to show you until it is finished.

Of course, the kids are ready and excited to go.  Here is one keeping check on me!

Cross you fingers for me.  I have been to Saturady shows the last two weeks and they were terrible.  The weather was bad and -20 windchills so no one was in the mood to shop.  I have lots to show you after the Saturday show.

Happy Thankgiving to all my American friend

Hi, I am Hooty and I just flew in at Samantha's House



Well, how is everyone today?  Hope you had lots of sunshine as we did, just a lovely day.  I keep talking about sunshine because a city like Toronto has only had 5 sunny days this spring vs 28 last year and temps at 5 C vs 28C last year!

I love my little Hooty that I designed and sewed up today.  He is about 7x10" and so cuddly and totally child proof....nothing hard....nothing can fall off.  He is made of poly fleece and stuffed with a poly stuffing.  I plan to offer him in my shop which is coming soon.

Our Cancer Society is hosting the Relay for Life this weekend.  I donated a lovely pink quilt that I made from a mystery design by Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville called Double Delight.  Sorry, I didn't take a picture before I turned it over to them.  On another note, we are a Regional Hospital and serving a large farming and ranching community in Southwest Saskatchewan.  Many people now come to our hospital for part of their chemo treatments and surgery when needed.  I approached our local committee about distributing quilts, afghans, shawls and anything else that might bring the clients some comfort while dealing with this terrible disease.  I just received word that they would take on this project and I am thrilled I will be able to direct my quilt donations to our own local people.  Here are 3 I have just taken to them.

I love making string quilts and I sew them to a fabric foundation.  I used a fleece for the backing with no batting.  I love how it turned out.  Here is a closeup

Another smaller string quilt that I added some cute prairie points to

The next one is partially refurbished fabric that I found at a garage sale.  It has a cute light hearted theme in bright colors.

I know many of you readers make donations to various charities.  Doesn't it give you a good feeling of warmth to visualize someone in need receiving a nice handmade gift?  I love it and will make as many blankets as I can get together.  My goal each year is 9 but so far I have only managed 6.

In closing, I want to share my most recent purchase.

Oh, my picture isn't very good.  These are labels printed with "Samantha'sHouse.blogspot.com" that I can sew on my projects that will go into my shop.  I have looked and looked and was thrilled to find these that Michelle custom designed for me.  You can have some too by visiting her Etsy shop "Inked Papers".

I am going to have something special for all my viewers and followers on Wednesday, June 1.  I know you are going to like it so I will see you then.  Have a great week.

















This has been quite an eventful week with the Blogger crash.  Seems things are being restored but I thought I would just wait until things were working better.

It was a wonderful weekend here and I spent most of Saturday repotting my tomatoes and bedding plants into larger containers so they will hold out another week or so.  It was quite warm, windy but I loved every momment.

A month or so ago, I was chatting with a couple of my quilting ladies that live in a senior complex.  I told them I had a quilt I made over a year ago that was still waiting to be quilted.  I keep putting it off because once I start on it I want to finish it.  They offered to come and help me, so nice of them.  I got a better idea!  Would you be able to get permission to set up a frame in your complex and I would bring my stands, boards and the quilt and you ladies could quilt it and I will give you the quilt to do as you wish.  They were so excited and had approval in no time flat.  We set a day and armed with the equipment and my husband, off we went.  We were met by several residents so interested in how we were going to set this all up.  Many were there offering help with whatever we needed.  It wasn't long and the quilt was on and ready to stitch.  Really, there are only 2 ladies there that are able to do any amount of quilting and, in fact, did most of in 10 days would you believe.  I took it back home and finished it off with the binding.  Here is a pictures of their lovely work that they are selling tickets on. The proceeds will be donated to a worthy cause.

I really like this quilt and I am so happy I decided to donate it to this group.  It has been a real social event there.  It was reported there was lots of coffee, cookies and many stopped by to check on the progress.  It brought back many memmories of quilting bees and good conversations.  I certainly would consider doing this again if they are interested. 

One night I came across some drapery samples I had gathered.  Christina from "A Few Scraps" was encouraging us to try reverse quilting using a piece of preprinted fabric.  My samples were too nice to hide so I did some practicing on thread shading.  Once  I had done enough, I thought I would finish it off into a generous tote. 

This pretty well sums up my quilting projects this week.  Check back often as I will have a surprise coming before the end of the month. 

Enjoy our first summer holiday weekend, happy gardening, happy quilting.

Hi everyone, hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day.  I certainly did and was gifted so generously by my family.  Look here, even a card from my granddog, Hudson!  He came for a visit and is soo adorable, even if he is a big boy golden retriever.  He gives us so much love, just like pets are suppose to right!

And lookee what I won!  I am so excited and now I will have a legitimate excuse to go to Saskatoon.  Monika from My Sweet Prairie here celebrated her birthday in great style last week and had a number of giveaways.  Stop by and see her wonderful fiber art.  She does the most amazing fabric pictures from photos of the Prairies.  I know you will not be disappointed.

Another project that is finished and in the mail are the cushions I made for my cousin.  I love the hexagons and I am going to make one for myself now.  Easy fun stuff!

 I have had this community cold and flu for a week now.  Went to the doctor and got meds on Friday so I am feeling pretty good today.  Last night I just ran out of energy so I played around with these blocks that I had put together some time ago.  I had a substantial amount of green scraps so got the idea that I could piece them and make them into nine patch blocks.  Well, I did but they don't look that great so I added a white sashing to 2 sides and charcoal polkadots to 2 sides.  I just randomly laid them out on the floor.  This will be a quilt for the Cancer Society when finished.  I think it needs a bit of a border to tie it all together.  My thought was to make a quilt that could be given to a man.  I really struggle with designing masculine quilts.

I do have one other project that I am finishing up and I will show you when it is done.  I will pop  back later this week with another posting.  Until then have a fabulous week.