The times they are a changing

Well, I have a confession to make.  For me, personally, instagram has kind of killed blogging.  I still like to read them, but I find myself doing more in the world of sewing on instagram than the blog.  I also find the time to sit down and read as many blogs as I follow, never mind write posts, to be a little much for me.

So I pared down my list to a few blogs, my favourite to read and a few Canadians I enjoy.  Most of the rest have a big presence on instagram so if I want to follow up I can always look into their blog.  And it will be a lot easier to manage just a few blogs.

I will still post from time to time, but with a busy toddler, and [surprise] another baby on the way, I don't imagine getting less busy.  I hope you'll stick with me, but I understand if you don't.

My February bee blocks

Nap time

Helping dad assemble our new ikea bed.

Posing on her favourite thing, the water slide! Too hard to get a pic when she was actually going down!

Also loved the (not so) hot tub

Water bug! (Featuring my hubby and his man bun)

Seems to be the favourite position.

Now that I'm through my first trimester I have a little more energy, so I hope to do more sewing.

If you are on instagram and we aren't already connected, my name is klandine and you can feel free to comment yours and I'd be glad to follow.  Its just easier right now!

New year

I know I'm a little late, but I figured better late than never. Just wanted to share what I've been up to!

I made this cute little Christmas Nessie top for Abby.

I started...

...and finished my Schnitzel and Boo mini quilt swap quilt.  I tried to get fancy with the FMQ so hopefully the recipient likes it!

I made some maple leaf blocks for a bee mate.

And it has come around to my turn to host the been again, I decided to do granny squares.  I really love the yellow and blue one!  I'm also a fan in general of any quilts I see made with this block and can't wait to get them all together.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday, button is in my sidebar!

WIP Wednesday

I know it's been a while now, but I couldn't help but share our little Hallowe'en ewok!  I just bought a teddy bear costume and then made that little hood thing from some fleece I got.  Adam made her that slightly deadly and non-child safe tomahawk.  She posed pretty well for me with it!

I feel as if I've done a lot of sewing lately, but I don't really have a lot to show for it. Here are two bee blocks I made for my group.

She wanted churn dash blocks with a mix of bright colours and black and white.  I haven't been a fan of the blocks prior, but I love how these look!  I don't think I'd want to make a quilt with this pattern, but I would definitely be interested in using a colour scheme like this.

I joined the Schnitzel and Boo mini quilt swap this time around--here is my start.

I made a little zippy top for Abby from a Nani Iro print I got.  I had intended to make it for myself but I messed up on how much to order.  It's pretty see through too, so I lined it with bathing suit lining (lol!).  The zipper is a little crooked but I'm hoping it won't be so noticeable on.

Lastly, I recovered a chair for my sewing room.  The fabric is a canvas, I think geo pop of some sort.

Before

After

I'm so excited that it is getting close to Christmas!!  After Remembrance Day I pulled out all my decorations and once Abby went to sleep I Christmas-ified my home.  Now the key is tracking down the ornaments that get pulled of the tree by a certain little someone every day!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Well, I suppose since I've seen so much of it, I'll try to join in.  I'm submitting a quilt that I just finished last week.  I wouldn't say it's my favourite I've ever made, but I didn't make it for me, and I'm still very pleased with it! To check out the blogger's quilt festival, click here!

I was lucky enough to be a pattern tester for Diane from fromblankpages.  She is the one who designed the celestial star quilt that I recently finished.  This pattern is called candy wrappers, and it is a foundation paper piecing pattern.

I am a registered nurse at a small hospital, and the way our schedule works for full timers, we are paired up with a full time LPN.  My amazing partner, who has been nursing in some way or another for 40 years, is retiring this month.  I wanted to make her a quilt that I could finish by the beginning of November, so I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity.  She had seen the pattern (my printer is on the fritz so I had printed it off at work) and commented on how she liked that it looked like there was a cross in the pattern.

She is a woman with a deep faith that has been apparent in every aspect of her life, and has such a servant's heart.  So I decided that I would try to make this with attention to the cross in the middle.

The fabrics are persimmon, modern neutrals, a bit of Lotta Jansdottir, and a few others including some 3 sisters stuff I had in stash.

I did a FMQ design I've done before, maybe something like a peacock feather? I was thinking of quilting in a way to draw attention to the cross, but wasn't happy with any of my ideas so just did an all over design.

I machine bound it following Red Pepper Quilts' tutorial again, definitely my go to now!

The backing is a 3 Sister's print I had from a sale at my LQS.  I am still not sure if I like it but I felt it went well with the quilt.

My only mistake was that I didn't put a sleeve on it to hang it as it is intended to be a wall hanging quilt (24" x 24").  I am thinking I'll just get some heavy duty velcro.  And I guess I lied about that being my only mistake because I wanted to make a label for the back and didn't, but I think I could still fuse one on.

That was a lot of writing, so here is Abby having a good time on the grossest chair ever.  That quilt was a wedding gift from my talented Aunt!

WIP Wednesday

For all that I feel I have been busy, I don't have a lot to show.

I finished off the bee blocks for this month.  We have two leaders this month, so I made four instead of two.  The first were x & + blocks.  I love how these two turned out, and kind of want to make a quilt of these blocks for myself.  Maybe someday?  Or perhaps I'll start cutting pieces from each fabric I cut for something else to make blocks gradually?

I couldn't bring myself to toss the extra scraps from the above blocks so I made HSTs and put them together to make a mug rug. Not sure what to do with them.  I used a new toy, my bloc-lox ruler, to trim them up.  I highly recommend it as a ruler, it's great!

The other bee blocks were Christmas themed, so I used my few Christmas fabrics paired with red and green fabrics.

I also made a new shirt for myself!  This is a Neptune Tee from See Kate Sew.  It's a basic tee that you can put those cute triangle cut-outs into.  I love the sleeves, they're the perfect length!

The fabric is from Girl Charlee, and I am super pumped at how I managed to match the stripes along the side.



It can be left plain, without the triangles.



The cut-outs can also be inset with a contrasting fabric.  I didn't really think that anything would match this fabric well so I left it empty.



I love this shirt! It's so comfy and was pretty easy to make.  And, if you ever wanted to see a lot of me, here you are!



Gratuitous baby photo!!



I will be linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Finished!

Well, I finished my celestial star quilt!  I have been waiting for sun in order to get some good picture--and there has been none. So, I just took them with my flash, and they're awful.

Here's the whole thing.

This is how I quilted the four setting squares.  Anything white got a small scale stipple, and the grey is just loops back and forth.

I did two of the corners with scallops around the star.

And the other two with just echo lines.

The centre star has pebble fmq in the grey, and a spiral in the star itself.

The backing is a print by Amy Butler, I don't remember the name and I sewed the selvage into it. It wasn't big enough so I used my leftover grey to finish it off.

This picture shows how I quilted the stars in the four corners.  I just did that up and down in each of the twelve segments.

The binding is one I got on sale, the selvage said 'Alhambra 2.' It was what I had originally wanted to back the quilt with but I didn't have nearly enough. Apparently I am completely delusional about the amount of fabric it takes to back a 72" square quilt.

I tried a new method of binding, based on a couple different tutorials, but the main one by Red Pepper Quilts.  It is the best job I have ever done machine quilting binding.

Despite the poor pictures, the quilt turned out great!

Lastly, I got back into my Harry Potter blocks. For those in the know, this is the golden snitch.

Connecting to WIP Wednesday.

Quilting, teething, 'bee'ing

Well, it's been a fairly productive past little while, considering.  I finished up the quilt top for the Celestial Star QAL.  This is an...interesting top.  I do love how it turned out but it's a little goofy.

I ran out of the grey that I was using for the background from the first four, so I ordered more.  Or so I thought.  When it came, it was very much different colour.  Well, not a problem there, I could just do five blocks with a dark grey I had on hand for a nice contrast.  Well, I only had enough for three blocks.  So, I did two setting blocks in the grey that I accidentally ordered.  Oh well!

I knew I wasn't going to get 9 star blocks done in time for the QAL, so I chose to do setting blocks--good thing too because I have used almost every scrap of the fabric I had for this.  Although I kind of butchered them and I'm not joking when I say not a single point lines up.  Distance (and hopefully quilting) is my friend!

All in all, I do love it.

I also whipped up my bee blocks for September.  We were to make whatever we wanted, so hopefully these will do! The scrappy one I just did, and the other block is a tea leaf block from the Vintage Quilt Revival book.

Below is the current state of the quilt for my month as bee leader.  I made the one with the pearl bracelet print on the navy and it is driving me nuts.  I'm going to use the star on the back and get rid of the irish chain block (I don't really thinks it's a stand alone block) and replace them with something different.  I thought I would be ok with the contrast, but I'm just not.  My plan is to have it finish at 5x4 blocks.  I'm just waiting for one more pair to come in the mail, and then I will make the rest.

Meanwhile, someone is going through some raging teething--diaper rash, the runs, fever, and all!  Poor little thing.  Although this is the only time she will sit still and cuddle, so there is that.

I will be linking up with WIP Wednesday.