Quilted Ornaments for the tree

Santa with yoyo's

Cross stitch windsock.

Folded Star Christmas ball

Christmas quilts

I am finally decorating the house for Christmas - and along with my regular ornaments, Santas and snowmen, I pulled out my Christmas quilts. I have more than I thought, so I'll take a couple posts to share them with you. 

Here's my tree skirt. When we lived in Beaumont, Alberta (not Texas!) I was part of a wonderful group of women who quilted together. The blocks in the tree skirt were 6" blocks exchanged by that group. I don't have a pattern for this - its just made up as I went, but I think of my friends every time it comes out for the holidays! 

I love that there are so many good happy memories with this little quilt!

-Ann

Continuous Piecing

There are many ways of sewing a quilt together. Some quilts are meant to be sewn together piece by piece by carefully hand stitching. Those are reserved for very special people and occasions. Other quilts are pieced together with methods that are quicker and I'm going to show you my favourite way to sew blocks together while keeping their layout intact.

Continuous piecing is just sewing blocks together, one after another without a break or having to cut any threads between (or minimizing the cuts!) It's also called chain piecing and you'll be able to see why when you've tried it out. Start by laying your blocks out in the desired pattern or order.

 This is a basic, simple 9-patch block, but the technique works with much larger quilts as well. There is nothing directional in these squares, but if you are working with blocks for a large quilt top, you'll want to keep track of which end is up on your blocks. I do this with a scrap of paper pinned to the top of each row with an arrow pointed to the top of the block. Then I am careful to stack all the blocks in a column with the tops the same direction.

The next step is to take your 2 far left columns and flip column 2 over column 1 right sides together so your seam goes down the right hand side. Carefully pick up each pair, starting at the top and adding the others BEHIND your stack, so your top pair stays at the top and the bottom pair at the bottom of your stack. If you are trying this out with a small block like this 9-patch, just lay it out beside your machine and don't worry about stacking, just start sewing your patches from the top left down the column to the bottom. DO NOT SNIP THREADS between your sewn matched pairs. Just one snip AFTER you've sewn the last pair.

You'll end up with your pairs sewn together as shown and a small bit of thread between holding the blocks loosely together. You will not be snipping these threads, ever! Now take the next column of blocks and stack them from row 1 down, in the same manner. Top block is on top, others are stacked behind, with the last block in the column on the bottom as shown.

 Now, take your first set of sewn squares, keeping the top left to your top left (if you have them marked somehow, you won't mess this up! Promise!) Put your new stack of blocks to the right of your sewing machine with the top away from you as you are looking at it. Now, flip the top block from your new stack onto the right side of the top row of your sewn squares and sew down the right side. Flip the next block onto the next row and continue down to the bottom! These are non-directional fabrics, so an accidental rotation of a square is no big deal, but if yours are directional, just keep track of the tops!

Trust me! NO THREAD SNIPPING until the last block is sewn from the stacks! Leave the other threads intact that join your rows together!

Now, your whole quilt top will be tacked together - rows sewn together and held in their correct order by the small lengths of stitches that you didn't snip! Amazing! It's time to press - one row at a time - seams one way on one row, the opposite direction on the next row. I love doing this at a sewing day or a retreat as I can easily move my quilt top at this point without it getting mixed up and having to rethink the layout again.

 Now sew your rows together one at a time. I do this without pinning, but you could pin if you want.

And ta-da! Your block (or quilt top) is pieced! Add borders and quilt as desired! Don't be put off by the lengthy how-to, this is an easy thing to do and just takes some practice! Main things to remember are don't clip threads and keep your tops at the top!

Happy quilting!
--Ann

Guild Tinners Exchange Update

Tins have been passed around furiously in our guild and I think some are way ahead of schedule and some are behind. I have 3 on my sewing table to work on before the guild meeting on Thursday, but I think I forgot to show you the 2 that I completed last month.

 This tin had a beautiful, rich, earthy toned orange and brown batik fabric and a pattern. Because oranges and browns are not very well represented in my fabric stash, I used it as an excuse to go visit my favourite quilting stores to go shopping.

The next tin featured some great Asian fabric and some varied, unique blocks.

 I didn't think I had much for Asian fabrics in my scraps, but I found a few that were left from another project and used the featured fabric as the main square in a modified log cabin block.

I hope you're enjoying the peeks at our guild's tinner exchange and I'll try to remember to share the next ones a little sooner!

--Ann

Quilt Retreat

I spent the past weekend in the foothills of the Alberta Rocky Mountains with my sister and a lovely bunch of women. I can't show you what I was working on, but this is the quilt my sister finished. 

And this is the quilt top she was madly sewing on until the last minute. It's completely out of scraps - isn't it lovely?

This weekend was also the first snowfall of the season and I stood quietly under the trees and listened to the snow falling and the smell of the forest. And it took me back to a memory of our family spending time at my father-in-law's trapping cabin for New Years. The smell of smoke from a wood stove, the silence of being so far from civilization that you could hear the snow fall - and being able to fully be with the people I was with - no electronics to distract. 

What's your fav place to retreat to?

-Ann

6 inch Heart Block

This heart block is perfect for putting into a scrap quilt or to use as a label on the back of your quilt. You will need the following:

One 4" square heart fabric

Two 3.5" squares heart fabric

One 4" square background fabric

Four 1.5" squares background fabric

Take your 4" squares and layer them together right sides together. Draw a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite corner. Sew 1/4" seam on both sides of the line you drew. Cut apart on the drawn line. 

Press one of these pieces towards the heart fabric and the other towards the background. This makes the final assembly of the block easier as the seams will butt up against each other nice and easy and less bulk at the seams. 

Trim to 3.5" as shown. 

Take your four 1.5" squares and draw a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite corner on each. Line them up at the top of your 3.5" squares as shown. 

Sew right on the drawn line this time. You can trim the pieces or leave them on. I chose to just trim the excess from the 1.5" squares, leaving the 3.5" squares in one piece. This minimizes any stretching that might happen while piecing. Press towards the corner. 

Now lay out your four pieced pieces in the heart shape. 

Sew together and press seams open. 

Sew that final seam, press open and your 6" heart block is done and ready to put in your quilt!

-Ann

Fabric Coasters

Coasters are all packed up for the craft sale this Saturday in Chestermere Alberta! $10 for a set of four. Also available in my shop! 

Prepping for Christmas Craft Sales

Last year I made a list in the quiet times of the craft sales I participated in. This list was for things that people asked for when they looked at my table. Some wanted more country colours, some asked if I made coaster sets, and some looked, walked away, came back and left again without purchasing anything.

Country Greens Table Runner

 I've expanded my table runner selection to include a number of country coloured quilts, made some coaster sets and still have a couple weeks to make a few more surprise items that will be new to Magpie Quilts.

This year I am going to be set up to accept Visa and Mastercard credit cards. I'm hoping that this will help purchasers who might otherwise not carry the amounts of cash for some of my larger quilts.

Christmas Poinsettia Table Runner

 And I've been trying to increase my number of actual Christmas themed items - after all, these craft sales are meant for the Christmas market!

--Ann

WIP - Friday, October 18

The sewing machine has been humming and things are being finished in preparation for the Christmas Craft sales coming up. I find it hard to work on Christmas items when Halloween isn't even over! So I started my sewing spree with some great Canadian themed fabrics from Northcott's Oh Canada by Linda Ludovico.

Fabric Coasters - set of four - FOR SALE

Canadian Wallhanging - FOR SALE

Skinny Canadian Wallhanging - FOR SALE

These fabrics were designed for the Quilts of Valour Canada - a great program that provides quilts for members of our Armed Forces.

I still have some of the panel fabric left and have a few more projects in mind for them, so watch for them in the coming weeks!

--Ann

Orange - My Least Favourite Colour!

(FYI - before you say I'm a terrible speller, I'm Canadian, so that means British English spelling rules!)

I don't have much in the way of orange fabrics in my collection of quilting cottons, but quite a few more than I had 2 or 3 years ago. And I've never been one to decorate a lot for Halloween. Maybe it's  because when my kids were prime age for trick or treating, we lived in the far north and Halloween meant costumes over snowsuits. And maneuvering kids and treat bags up flights of icy stairs to get to the doors of houses that were built with above ground crawlspaces so they wouldn't melt the permafrost. But probably mostly because the colour of the spooky day is orange and it's not my first go to colour pick!

And so it was with surprise that I found myself with a nice selection of Halloween themed fat quarters when I cleaned up a bit in my sewing room. I brought them with me to my weekly sewing day with a couple friends and I just cut them up into 5" charm squares - all of them, every last Halloween fat quarter. Then, I randomly put squares together in pairs, then in rows of 4 and slowly pieced together a Halloween quilt top.

It's hanging in my dining room right now (just the top, not quilted) and covers up my blue and white quilt (which I LOVE!) We'll see if it lasts through to the end of the month as every time I look at it, it surprises me and gives me a little physical "jolt".

And just to be sure I wasn't surprised when I looked in my fabric stash, I sewed the left overs into coasters. (And I even used up the selvedges!)

Do you have a favourite and not-so-favourite colour? Tell me about them!

--Ann

Blue and White

It's no secret that blue is my favourite colour. In clothing stores, I automatically drift toward the blue section (if the store is arranged by colour groups!) and my fabric cupboard is overwhelmingly blue. From my delft blue collection to a "chicken scratch" blue gingham table cloth stitched by a friend to blue dishes, my home is filled with my love for blue.

Chicken Scratch embroidery

Gingham Chicken Scratch Table cloth

Delft blue bell

Delft Blue Miniature tea set

Delft Blue Souvenir Windmill

What's your favourite colour? Do you fill your home with shades of what makes you happy?

--Ann