Coins on the sidewalk copycat.

I have to give credit to Kelly from My Quilt Infatuation for all the excellent advice on making this quilt. I saw her quilt Coins on the Sidewalk and I knew I had to make it. Kelly was so very kind with her time and help and she did all the hard math for me. Thanks Kelly!!!!
 I love how this top turned out!!
I used Kona Raisin along with my scraps on this one and I really like it. I will be finishing this one by October to put in a raffle benefiting  Dog Bless. They are a local dog rescue group that pulls dogs from high kill shelters and bring them here to adopt out. Hop over and check out their website, you can read all the happy ending stories.
This quilt measures about 57x57 before quilting.
I'm joining up with Needle and Thread Thursday.

We heart quilts

                                     

A few months ago my youngest son asked me if I could make a quilt for his friend. His wife is expecting their first baby. They don't know if it's a boy or a girl. More and more parents are opting to not learn (or share) the sex of their baby. I think it's fun, and a nice surprise to not know. It can be a bit tricky to make a quilt 'gender neutral' but I like the challenge. I would love to hear from other quilters, how they tackle a project like this. I have found that if I add too much purple the quilt can lean to the girly side. No pink. Some blue is fine but not too much. I sometimes sneak a few floral prints in. Maybe I'm pushing it to the girly side with the florals. Gotta be careful with the florals. And the purple. Are these universal rules or am I on my own here?
  I started with a jungle print and orange borders on this quilt and I think it turned out ok. Ben said his friend loved it. Makes me want to make another one!
I'm linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday

Pinmoors

I love making quilted pillows. They're like mini quilts. And who doesn't LOVE a quick finish! A friend of mine is moving to a new home and I thought I'd make her a couple of pillows. I've had Jaybird's Hex n More ruler for a while now, and her pillow pattern, Candy Dish to use it with. Perfect! It's been a lot of fun putting this project together, a bit like a puzzle. The pattern directions are very good too. Don't cut off those little 'ears', they help line up the pieces :)
For basting small projects, I've been using Pinmoors. They're like little rubber plugs you stab your pins into. I like to use long pins, it seems to lie flatter that way. And they're easier on my poor fingers than safety pins! These little things get 2 thumbs up from me!

Sewing at Sea!

Hey everyone! Really enjoyed seeing the fantastic projects you are working on. Who says there is no time for sewing in the summer! Barry and I have been enjoying a wonderful sailing trip in non-stop sunshine.  I wanted to share a sewing project that I made for the boat. I found a youtube video for how to make a windscoop and had fun mucking about sail lofts and sailing canvas companies for all the materials. I hauled out my Bernina to do the hard work of sewing through many layers of Sunbrella fabric and found UV polyester thread at Capital Iron - really happy with the result! It kept us cool by funneling air through the cabin.

I also enjoyed spending some time ironing my Dresden Plate blocks on the boat and doing some applique as well. It was fun bringing my little ironing pad, travel iron and the handsewing kit that Kim made me!

Monday Quilting

Our little quilt group was a happy one on Monday. Pam is back! Fresh from the Calgary Stampede! Yeehaw!
Tracy is happily sailing somewhere....hope you're taking photos Tracy :)
Here's what we were working on...

 Pam brought her sample from the dye workshop. The photo doesn't do it justice, there are buttons sewn into the long yellow strip. Very clever.

 Gaye made another Dresden pillow to go with the first one. She outdid herself on this one and we all agreed she should enter it in the Saanichton Fair! It's a winner!

 Gaye also got a head start on her Hawaiian print quilt. I am really in love with this one! Good thing I am making one of my own. :)

 Karen got a great deal on somebody's half finished project. A flannel rag quilt. Don't get carpel tunnel Karen! That's going to be very cuddly, can't wait to see that fresh from the dryer....

 This is a Candy Dish pillow cover in progress. Sorry about the poor photo, but you get the idea. This is a Jaybird pattern. It is so much fun to put together. I was worried about sewing triangle to triangle but with her clever ruler, the Hex n More, it was a breeze. I love that ruler!!

 I'm putting the binding on the Churn Dash. I promised Alicia I would have it finished before her baby is born. I hope she's not early.... :o

This is a little heart quilt I'm giving to my son for his friend. 

Look at those white legs! shocking.....

I'm linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday.

Blocks to Calgary

There has been all kinds of bad news this month. A devasting train wreck in Quebec and flooding in Toronto and Calgary. And that's just in Canada. There was another train wreck in France recently too.

It's heartwarming to see some quilters reaching out when they can, to show a little bit of quilt-y love. Use your power for good, right? 

When I saw that Cheryl from Dining Room Empire was jumping in to help organize a block drive, I put down my other sewing project (sorry Alicia- I promise I'll have the quilt done before the baby is born!) and started to make a couple of slabs.  I made one of these quilts from Sunday Morning Quilts already and it was a lot of fun. I gave myself a day and a half to make some blocks and was only able to make two. The blocks need to get to Cheryl by July 30 so I worried about any delay in mailing them.
Here are my two slabs.

They have been mailed :)

    Tracy, our quilting partner-in-crime, had a birthday this week. We usually have lunch or appys and exchange some fun gifts. We have a spending limit of $5 and since I'm a very poor shopper (or just lazy?) I usually try to make something. We do this at Christmas too. I have to admit, I really love planning ahead and making gifts. There are only 5 of us so I only need to make 4 items. That's do-able, eh? I think so.
Deciding what to make for Tracy was pretty easy- she loves to hand quilt. I opted to make her two drawstring bags in different sizes using This tutorial  and a cute pincushion using this tutorial.
  I like to use crushed walnut shells to fill my pincushions. They give them a nice weight and they don't scoot out from under my pin when I stab at it. You can find crushed walnut shells at most pet stores. They are used for lining lizard beds I think.
    I'm linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.