Pay It Forward Reminder

Hello everyone!  Just want to remind you that today is the last day of my Pay It Forward event.  If you want to participate, be sure to leave a comment.  If you don't have a blog, you can leave a message anonymously - just be sure to leave your name and contact information in the message. :-)


Hope you all have a safe and happy Halloween!

Mary-Frances

Halloween Howler

Hello everyone!  A special welcome to Joyce, thanks for becoming a follower! Appreciate the support!

I'm heading out to a Halloween party this evening.  A costume party with a 50's, 60's and 70's theme.  For my costume, I thought I would channel my inner Joan from the series Mad Men...meaning I want to look like this tonight...

Unfortunately, I have a feeling I'm going to end up looking like this....

LOL!  That's a photo of actress Andrea Martin dressed as her character Edith Prickly....let's hope there's more "Joan" than "Edith" in my costume tonight! 

As for quilting, here are a few photos of the Astor Manor jelly roll project I'm working on.



Two strips sewn together then cut into 2 1/2 inch strips, ready to make my four patches.

 

A few extra blocks were cut to make sure I had enough four patch blocks to go across the top of the quilt.

 

I put two strip of brown at the top and the bottom of the quilt center.  The four patches are ready to be sewn together then added to the top.



A closer shot of the top portion of the quilt.  I still have a few strips of fabric left, they will be used in some way for the bottom portion of the quilt.


Enjoy!
Mary-Frances

A Good Day

Hello everyone !  I hope you all are having a wonderful day.  I was fortunate enough to spend most of my Thursday in the sewing room.  I did some sewing, some pressing, some daydreaming (of new projects) and even a little cleaning up.  Here's what I accomplished -

Enjoy!
Mary-Frances
 

Remember this?

  

I sewed the strips together today - one strip for each colour group.



Then cut them into 2 1/2 inch strips. 



Five strips equals one block...



Four blocks equals one row....

 

Four rows equals one quilt top!  It's 41 inches square.  I still have 15 strips left, mostly of the browns and creams, so I could make it a little longer.  I'll have to think about what I want to do. 

Remember this scrappy "made" fabric?  I took a few minutes to play...



Cut strips  - 3.5 inches wide.



Cut the strips into 3.5 inch blocks.

 

Four of the above, makes one of these.  There are a number of ways you could create this type of block - this is just one way.  Foundation piecing is another way.



All sewing came to a halt when Rex (the daschund) came over to play with Max (our Sheltie).  The two little rascals were running all over the house, so I decided to call it a day!



In the Sewing Room Today

Hello everyone!  I have high hopes for today - hopes that involve lots of sewing time and constructing time and if I'm lucky, very little deconstructing time. ;-)  The housework is done (for the most part), meals prepared (I'm ordering in), no errands to run (I've lost my to do list) so I have time to spend in my sewing room today - yoohoo!



My supplies are ready...



The sewing machine table is good to go (I'm sure you are really loving my skills as a photographer - LOL).



And my quilting companion is all settled into my his chair!

 It's going to be a good day.
Happy quilting!
Mary-Frances

Scrap happy

Daily Quiltspiration - Have fun with your fabric.  The old and the new, the gorgeous and the ugly and the downright boring.  Remember its FABRIC.  Be an equal opportunity fabric user and let those scrap quilts pull it all together.
                                                          - Bonnie Hunter

                                                             http://quiltville.blogspot.com/

Hello everyone!  I'd like to extend a warm welcome to Kerry, nlmcelwee and Alisa!  Thanks for signing on - yoohoo!  I'd like to thank all those who leave comments for me as well - it's good to hear from you.

I feel like I've won the lottery today, the scrap lottery that is.  I recently took part in a scrap exchange and I received my parcel from Kelly of http://www.pinkadotquilts.blogspot.com/ last night.  Thank you so much Kelly, the fabrics are truly wonderful!

Cheers,

Mary-Frances



Look at all the wonderful scraps I received.  All of this - and a book! -  arrived in one 10 x 12 envelope. Clearly I could take some packing lessons from Kelly. :) 



Lots of great projects in here.



Here are some larger pieces of fabric -  romantic florals, my favourite.  Love the April Cornell stripe.



Look how cute the Hallowe'en themed fabrics are!



These blue and whites are definitely going into my Cool Blues quilt.



Look at this piece - I love it - is it a tiara?  part of a rooster's crown?  part of a flower?  Dig the retro scissor fabric above it! 



Ta-daa - my new rotary cutters! 

  

Naturally, I had to pick up some fabric while I was at the quilt store - at 50% off, this Hallowe'en fabric is perfect for next year's project - because there is no way I'm getting it done this year! :-)



Thinking of Spring

Hello everyone!  It's that time again, Bloomin' Tuesday - yoohoo!  Be sure to check out http://msgreenthumbjean.blogspot.com/ to see what's bloomin' this week. 

The weather is colder here and the sunshine in short supply so I thought I'd share a few pics of my spring garden, because there is absolutely nothing blooming in my garden now - lol.

Enjoy!
Mary-Frances




My favourite shrub in the spring is the double flowering plum, seen in the background.

 

The first of the spring tulips, this variety is called Toronto.



Here's another favourite, creeping phlox.  So beautiful!

This is the back bed, notice the strange looking spiky plant in the foreground.  That's a sedum, it's called 'blue spruce' and it has tiny yellow flowers on the tip of the spike. 

Drumstick alliums.



Here's a better shot of the double flowering plum.

More distractions of the quilty kind

Hello everyone!  I'd like to welcome Tracee, a big thank you for joining!

I did a little work on my Cool Blues quilt yesterday, and things were going along pretty smoothly until I broke my rotary cutter...yup, that's right, I broke the sucker. I was cutting some of my white fabric when the cutter seized...there was no moving that blade, no way, no how.  Looks like I'm making a trip to my favourite quilt store today. ;-)  So, no updates on the Cool Blues quilt as I had hoped, but, I did find a few more unfinished projects that I missed yesterday.


I had all but forgotten about these blocks I had made this summer, the fabric is from Robyn Pandolph's Canadian Cottage series.



The blocks are made from two packs of charm squares - easy peasy.

 

I bought two jelly rolls recently, with plans to make a log cabin type quilt.



Here's a better shot - isn't this fabric yummy?



I found this in my orphan block pile.

 

Decided it needed a little something - done before the rotary cutter gave up the ghost.

 

That's better, now I have four blocks to play with.



Here's an update on my small triangle block, it's getting bigger, but it's slooooow going.  The blocks are 1.5 inches.



A little scrappy 'fabric' ready to be cut.


See you tomorrow!
Mary-Frances

Quilty distractions

Hello everyone!

I'd like to welcome Gina, Cathy and GrandmaRockton.  Thanks for joining me this week, greatly appreciated!  I'd also like to thank everyone for their comments, I'm always interested in hearing what you have to say.

So here are a few projects that have distracted me this week...I really need to focus on my blue and white quilt so I can finish it and then move on to one of these...




Another block for my Kitchen Sink quilt.  I still think it needs a little something, perhaps another wonky cut and fabric strip? 



This is all I have so far, 2 scrap blocks, 1 star and a little filler piece...very slow going with this one for some reason!

 

Here's a project I've had in my sewing room since May.  Inspired by Gwen Marston's love of old fashioned quilts, I'm trying to create something with that 'old world' look.  It's scrappy and somewhat wonky and it needs a little more, but what?



Here's a close-up of the fabric for you.  See how I added a strip of white at the top of the block to make it the same size as the other blocks? A few blocks needed a little tweaking, which adds to the whole 'old fashioned' look.

Here's one option I'm considering, a large border around the whole thing..and then calling it a day.



This is the possible border fabric shown above...it's also a 1930's reproduction, so matches all the other fabric in the quilt.



But....I kind of like this bright fabric too.  It adds a little zing to the quilt.  What do you think?  Zing or traditional?



Here's some fabric I picked up at IKEA of all places.  My daughter is a girl guide leader and they will be making a quilt, so we are going to play with this fabric...maybe paint it, or colour it with markers or something fun the kids will enjoy doing. 



I've had this sad little block sitting in my sewing room for over a year (or two).  It's my first attempt at a supposedly wonky house...hahaha..not really all that wonky, eh?  It's sometimes harder than you realize to break out of the 'everything must be straight' mode and really let go and have fun...oh well, we've got to start somewhere.

Here's a closer look...mmmh, that's some tall skinny door, don't you think? Does that qualify as wonky? :)  Maybe I should add this block to my Kitchen sink quilt....I'll have to dig out a few more orphan blocks and see what happens (even though I need to stay focused on finishing my blue and white quilt!!). 

Looks like I might not get to my blue and white quilt today after all. May all your distractions today be of the quilty kind!

Cheers,
Mary-Frances