Cold and Rainy at the Beach

Since the weather here today is so crummy, I thought I'd post a few pictures from a day trip we took this summer to Midland/Penetang. It turned out to be a beautiful day and we spent it by the water, going into little shops and playgrounds.
I spent this morning organizing my stash to go in my new sewing corner. It's really dwindling, but money's tight right now and I don't think I'll be doing much buying until the new year. At least what I have is neatly folded and on shelves. But going through all of my stuff had me dreaming of new quilts!
I'm so pleased with the number of UFO's I've finished in the last few weeks, but it's making me question why I had so many quilts lying around that were unfinished. Most of them had the majority of the blocks done, some were complete tops and 2 just needed to be bound. I guess when it comes to quilting I'm just easily tempted by starting something new. Which is so funny, because in life, I've always got to see things though until they're finished.
I've got a huge pot of soup bubbling away on the stove. I can't wait to snuggle with my daughter this afternoon, have some soup and watch a movie. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday that gave me a lot to think about and I'm looking forward to just vegging!

Little gift quilt

Boy am I missing my camera! These are the best pictures I could get of this little quilt! It's Smoky Mountain Stars by Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville, and I used up most of my bright small scraps making this puppy. I didn't take any pictures of the back, but I used up some really 'hard to work with' fabric for it. I quilted this one on the machine and just did vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines.
I'm most excited that I'm finished another quilt and another Christmas present. This brings my unfinished total down to just 5, with 2 being Christmas presents. Which is great because I have about another month to finish these. I'd love to squeeze in some sewing for my family or things for my own home....but this may have to wait until next year!
I just got a call from one of the girls, asking me to go out tomorrow night for 'coffee' (I'll have to stick with water). I think I could use a night out, even if it's a quick night!

Hope everyone out there in Quilt Land is doing well!

One of my first quilts

I'm working on this blue basket weave quilt this weekend. This is from a Debbie Mumm book my mom bought me probably 8-10 years ago. I can't even find the book anymore. The seams don't match in a lot of places, but it's a finished king size quilt top and the quilt currently on my bed desperately needs replacing. It makes me happy to see how far I've come from this quilt, which I found very difficult at the time, to the quilts I make now.

My progress this weekend has been slowed by two things:
#1 I moved some of my sewing stuff down to our rec room. There just isn't room in my dining room for it all anymore. My husband helped me to move a desk and brought in some old shelves for me to store things on. I'm pretty happy about having my own space that I don't have to clean up every night before supper!
#2 I started quilting on the little stretchy stars quilt. I'm about a quarter way through the basket weave, but I just wanted to tick something off my list.

As I've mentioned, I'm pregnant, which is making some things difficult. I'm having trouble 'bellying up" to my machine, and cleaning just doesn't get done. While I was setting up my new sewing corner yesterday, DH cleaned the whole main floor! Dusting, vacuuming, windows - the whole deal. Now that's romantic!!!!
Happy Weekend Everyone!

Orange Crush Boarder Help!

Help! I've finally finished the top for my Orange Crush mystery quilt, designed by Bonnie over at Quiltville, but I am unhappy with my orange boarder. I'm thinking of adding a dark blue one, but I don't have any left in my stash. Any suggestions?
This weekend, my big quilting plans are to finish quilting a blue basket weave quilt for my bed, and basting a fun little quilt for a Christmas gift.
UFO update: I've now got 4 finished quilt tops, one quilt I'm hand quilting and one I'm machine quilting. 3 of these are to be Christmas gifts. It's going to be tight!

Hubby's quilt is finally pieced!

I started a very brave thing a few years ago. My husband was always complaining that i made quilts for other people and never made one just for him. So I took him fabric shopping and let him pick out the fabric for this one. I was surprised that he was drawn to the country cottage look. I wasn't a huge fan of some of the stuff he picked but I bought just enough to finish the quilt so it wouldn't end up sitting around.
The quilt did sit around though, for several years, as I worked on projects that were more exciting to me. Now that I'm on a finishing streak, I brought it out again and finished it up. The only problem is that I didn't realize how much waste this quilt would have! I decided on these 2 blocks long before I learned about the ez angle ruler. So I have hundreds of triangles in fabric that I'm not crazy about. Luckily I've already matched them into pairs to make pinwheels and have started using them as leaders and enders.
Now I just need to go and press this thing! I got a hand quilting frame for Christmas last year and I'd love to start using it. I think this quilt would really benefit from some pretty hand stitching in all those empty blue spaces.
My husband has tomorrow afternoon off work. I can't wait for us to relax as a family of three this weekend. It may be one of the few times we have left before we become a family of 4! I'd better get working on those UFO's!!!
*I'm still without my camera. These photos are all ones from my phone, so I apologize about the poor quality! Hopefully I'll have my camera back soon.....

Jeremiah and Cindy's quilt and another UFO!

Here's a picture of the Carolina Crossroads quilt, designed by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville, that I'm working on for my brother. As you may be able see from the picture, the hand quilting is a bit wonky, but I'm really enjoying doing the baptist fans. I'm trying to do at least an hour a night, but things (like sleep!) keep getting in the way. This was a mystery quilt, which I'm so glad I did. If I'd seen the finished product first, I probably wouldn't have made it, thinking there were too many small pieces. I'm really proud of this one and can't wait to send it to Jer and Cindy for Christmas.

I was digging around in my stash today looking for some ugly stuff to use as backings and I found another unfinished quilt top. This one moved with us from the city 3 years ago and is all wrinkled. But it only needs boarders and then it'll be ready to quilt. So my new unfinished total is 6, all in different stages of finish. I'm off to order Scraps and Shirttails and have decided not to start any project from it until I've got these 6 finished.

2 UFO's down, 5 to go!

Finally!!! I finished binding 2 UFO's this weekend (pictured above), put together a quilt top for my husband, cut some bricks for a new quilt and did 4 hours of hand quilting on my brother's wedding quilt. I haven't had such a productive weekend in a long time...and did I mention that I had company for part of the weekend?
Saturday we took a trip to the Great Northern Exibition, which is a combination of farm animals, midway rides, yummy snacks and a craft show. There were some beautiful and inspiring quilts. I was most impressed by the hand quilting-the stitches were so perfect on some that my dad thought they were machine quilted.
The quilt top I pieced for my husband has been hanging around for almost 2 years. I started it long before I started looking for quilt patterns that didn't include tons of wasted material. Anyhow, I found hundreds of half square triangles in the bottom of the project bag. This morning I took all the wasted triangles matched them to make pinwheels. Now even with my 5 UFO's, I've got the beginnings of 3 new quilts. Yippee!

My Nights Are Spent.....

These days my nights are spent working on hand quilting baptist fans on my Carolina Crossroads quilt (designed by Bonnie Hunter). My older brother got married this past June and this quilt is to be a wedding gift for him and his beautiful wife Cindy. Normally I would have had the quilt done long before the wedding, but they only gave us a week's notice so I don't feel so bad! I thought the crossroads design was perfect, since we're from Ontario and Cindy is from Halifax.

Looking back, their wedding was so beautiful. Small and very personal, it included family from here and from Halifax and had all the heart-warming moments that a wedding should. Now if I can only get their quilt finished in time for Christmas!!! I'll post a picture of the quilt soon.

The Drive-In

This is the view from my van at the last drive-in we went to this summer. I love the drive-in, and feel so lucky that I can share the experience with my daughter. I love that this drive-in is surrounded by corn fields and that the sun sets behind them. I admit to getting out of the car in the middle of a movie, just so I can stare at the stars, which reach from field to field. This is one of the memories that will inspire me though the cold winter months (which seem to be coming very soon). I'm thinking of starting a quilt inspired by the colours...but I can't decide between the corn fields and the night sky. I'll have to think on this one!

My First Post

I've been spending a lot of time lately reading other quilting blogs and I love reading about what other quilters have been up to. I have a baby due at the end of November and have been trying to finish all of my UFO's before then. My camera is currently busted but I'll post pics of what I've been working on soon.
I'm a huge fan of Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville.com and am currently working on getting my Orange Crush quilt ready to quilt. I was hoping to do it this weekend but we have family visiting, so I'll have to be content with binding a quilt I finished quilting a year ago and never bound.

UFO tally
Current Projects: 7 (plus I'm itching to make a new one for my hallway)