Pouch Swap!

Hi there!
Our Victoria Modern Quilt guild is very excited to do a pouch swap with the Fraser Valley guild. We have had fun picking out styles of pouches and choosing fabric. I chose a Bow Clutch pouch - my girlfriend Barbara from Abbotsford made me one when I went ga-ga over hers. Here are a couple of photos of the process (notice the end tabs on the zippers!) as well as the goodies. I made a scissor holder as part of the goodie bag! We can't wait until July to trade!

Here is the lining of the bag with the zipper tabs . .

Here is the outside of the bag with quilting done - ready to sew on the strap.

Here is the finished bag!

Good Morning!!!

I'm a bit behind on a couple of baby quilts but thankfully they're small so I should be able to finish in a week or two, right?

Here is one of them- it's Mosaic Tiles by Sukie Newbold. You can find it in Modern Bee- 13 quilts to make with friends. The quilts are all written with instructions for making and sharing blocks with other faraway quilters! How fun! They even include advice on dealing with the tardy quilter. That might be me, lol! A good book, I can recommend it.






I'm altering this quilt to be a baby size. And a bit more pink.
Here's my progress- it uses 5 inch squares so you can use a charm pack :)



Here it is so far on the design wall. It will be bigger, but this is all that will fit on my wall :D


A big, big thanks to Brian from The Cloth Castle for helping me choose the right solid to go with these beautiful prints. If you're lucky enough to live nearby, you might get to meet Brian. He is SO MUCH FUN!! And he always knows exactly what I need for my project :)
Ok- enough blogging. Time to get sewing!!

Michael Miller Modern Challenge + Modern Metallics Challenge
    A few months ago, our Victoria Modern Quilt Guild arranged for us to get some free fabrics. I couldn't believe my luck! A fantastic new Guild and now, some free fabric! Life is great.
Then the penny drops. I have to cut it. Does anyone else have a problem cutting into a stack of beautiful fabric? Can't we just leave it in lovely piles and just admire it?? I know I can't be the only one....
 I took a deep breath and cut into the Modern Metallics first. And since I don't like sewing for nothing, I made something I needed. A pillow cover. I know, I make a lot of them. But I have two dogs and I'm constantly having to wash them. Yes, my dogs are allowed on the couch. Until I have grandchildren anyway.....
Ok, here's the pillow-

The pattern is The Metro from Pillow Pop. This is the third pillow cover I've made from this book and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last. Ok, so that's one challenge done.
Now I had to really work myself up to cut into the Michael Miller prints. But I finally managed it two nights ago. I  won't tell you what I'm making but I can tell you that it's not a pillow.
Here's a sneak peek...

I'm having problems blogging from my iPad. Any advice would be welcome :)

I've finally finished my Christmas pillow!!! I actually finished it just after Christmas but I didn't have a pillow form to fit it. Now I do!! I used a lovely soft flannette (on sale at Cloth Castle) for the back. I love it! Its hard to see but the holly berries are tiny red buttons. So cute!
This pattern was created by Katherine at Sew Me Something Good . That might be my favorite blog name ever :)
Its available through Craftsy.

Celebration and Creativity

Good morning everyone from Tracy!
It is a crisp frosty morning here in the Canadian northwest. I took the hummingbird feeders in this morning to keep them warm and my little friends where chittering like crazy ( hummingbird-speak) with delight when I brought them out this morning. I will have to find the little quilted covers I made for the feeders last year - or make new ones!
It is feeling very Christmassy and I have been having fun looking at retro felt/sequin Christmas ornaments. Take a look at this sassy little guy from http://thriftstorecrafter.com/2013/10/28/rudolph-the-felt-and-sequin-reindeer/

Now if I could only score some aqua felt . . .
Our group enjoys celebrating birthdays together with a lunch and quilting to follow - here is a photo of birthday girl Gaye having some birthday fun!

After lunch quilting buddy Pam showed us some wonderful she did at a "Zen Doodling" workshop that she attended - very inspiring. Wonderful work Pam!

Looking forward to the Victoria Modern Quilt Guild meeting tonight where Pam will pick up her winning challenge project. We all had to do a small hanging that represented what we felt represented what modern quilting is all about. There were handed in last month and visitors to Satin Moon Quilt Shop (where we meet) voted. Congratulations Pam!
We're linking to Needle and Thread Thursday!

Done to the 'Top' Stage!

Tracy here!
I really do love piecing! From the cutting of the fabric into little bits, to sewing and matching seams, to watching pieces grow into blocks and blocks grow into a quilt. Each stage holds a delightful surprise at the end. And no-risk creativity is involved to a great extent with a scrappy quilt - how it goes together is all good.
This has been a challenging year for my family. I would call it "Annus Horribilus" like Queen Elizabeth did one year, if I only knew how to spell it! But God is good and he has surrounded me with great friends and a hobby to turn to when I had time and energy. So getting this top finished was a cause for celebration for me and I was overjoyed to share my creation with my quilting friends.
It was a beautiful sunny day and they suggested that we display the quilt outside. It took Gaye to help get the lighting right, Kim's inspiration to let it wave in the breeze and Pam's patience in waiting for the breeze to take the picture!

Now I get to enjoy the process of planning the border. I had something fancy-dancy in mind as I like piecing and I didn't want to rush past planning the border just to get it done either.  Now that I see it all put together I have something much simpler in mind - you will have to wait and see!
We are linking to Needle and Thread Thursday!

We Have a Modern Quilt Guild!!!

Kim here!
I'm very happy to tell you that we now have a Modern Quilt Guild on the Island! We had our first meeting last month in one of our quilt shops, Satin Moon. We were jammed in there like sardines but I can tell you, we had fun!! There was a lively discussion about the definition of 'modern' in a quilt. Is it the fabric choices? Is it the pattern? Is it the use of negative space? I don't think we came to any conclusions, but it was fun to hear every-ones ideas. We even had a few notable bloggers, how cool is that? We also were presented with a challenge. If we wanted to participate in it, Satin Moon had little paper bags for sale with a fat quarter of one solid colour inside and a list of the rules. Our challenge project could be 20 inches, no bigger. And it is to be our own interpretation of 'Modern'. We can only use solids, no prints and the quilting could only be straight lines. We could add as many extra solids as we want. This is my first challenge- so exciting!!

Tracy very kindly took some great shots of my project but I can't seem to find them in Picassa :(
So here is another cell phone photo.....the reddish colour was my fat quarter challenge fabric. I'm calling it Positive Space.  Cheeky?
I'm linking up to NTT.