It's award season!

Hello Everyone!  It's been a grand week, with my DD back from University, taking care of my granddaughter, a guild meeting and a gathering of my Saturday sewing sisters....oh yes, and trying to squeeze in some sewing time too!  To top it all off, when I woke Sunday morning, Michele from Quilts from my crayonbox sent me an email letting me know she had nominated me for a Liebster Award...how sweet was that?

I would like to nominate the following five blogs for the award as well:

1. Linda from Linda's quiltmania

2. Mountain Quilter at My Quilting Addiction 

3. Karen at Kaholly

4. Marjorie at Marjorie's busy corner

5. Erin at Missy Mac creations

I hope you'll go visit them, say hello and see what fun projects each of them is working on.

One last thing before I go check on the little one....



Finally finished my table runner...love that Kate Spain fabric.



A quick view of the quilting, simple but effective.

Enjoy!
Mary-Frances

Design Wall Mayhem

Hello Everyone!  Here's a peek at my messy design wall today.  I agreed to make my son-in-law a quilt and I've been slowly collecting fabrics that depict his interests...country life, cowboy culture, fishing and anything related to the sea.  So, now that I have this fabric, what am I going to do with it??  Good question....wish I had an answer for you! 

I'm going to leave it up for a day or two and see if it inspires me, or just plain drives me crazy....;-)



Lots of tans, greens and blue tones in these fabrics, so most of them work together.




I could draw out the red from this fabric and use it as an accent colour.




I could certainly use all the shades of brown and black from this fabric...but that would probably make it too dark.




I love this fabric and the other one with the fish, but I'm not really sure I'll be able to work them in.  That bright blue is the first thing that catches my eye when I look at the design wall.  We all want a 'zinger' in our quilts, but I don't want this piece or the other fish fabric to become the focal point of the quilt.  Time to go through my stash and see what else I have that works with these fabrics.  Of course, if I can't find anything, it's off to the quilt store for me!

Enjoy!
Mary-Frances

A red and white finish!

Hello Everyone!  It feels like ages since I've taken part in TGIFF and Finish it up Friday, and I'm so glad to have one quilt finished.  This is my red and white quilt, made with the help of my on-line scrap-bee friends. 

Enjoy!
Mary-Frances



This shot is a little dark, but it does show the quilting rather well. I'm rather pleased with how this quilt turned out.  I'll be submitting this one to the Heritage Park Festival of Quilts this May!




A closer look at four smaller blocks - a great way to use up your scraps.




A close up of the back (the flash makes this look much brighter than it is...really), highlighting the baptist fan pattern used to quilt it.  I had this one long-armed instead of quilting it myself.  I even considered hand quilting it, but realized I probably wouldn't have it done in time for the festival.




Now I just have to figure out what name I should give this quilt...



Pay-it-forward gift made it to Australia

Hello Everyone!  My pay-it-forward gift to Tracee of Farm Gate Creations finally arrived!  I spent the summer months of 2011 working on this project for her and finally sent it off in November.  It took 8 weeks to arrive and frankly, I was beginning to worry it wouldn't ever get to her.  Fortunately, Tracee received her parcel on Monday and all is well.  Enjoy your quilt Tracee, it was great fun working on that project for you!

Enjoy!
Mary-Frances



I wanted an old fashioned look for this quilt, something to suit the Robyn Pandolph Canadian Cottage fabric, so I opted for a traditional diamond grid quilting pattern.




I didn't follow a pattern for this one, as I had a pack of charm squares and thought I would just sew them together. 
I did look through my Gwen Marston books and found some inspiration there, that's why I have the one near solid border running across the bottom of the quilt and the much wider floral border beneath it.



Wonky disappearing nine-patch done

Hi Everyone!  It's that time of the week again - work in progress wednesday.  Time to link up with everyone at The Needle & Thread Network today.  Be sure to check out what everyone else is working on - there's some amazing stuff out there! 

I managed to sew all 12 of my wonky disappearing nine-patch blocks together yesterday and quickly added a 3 1/2 inch border around it.  Yoohoo!  I just might get this done in time for Valentine's day. :-)

Enjoy!
Mary-Frances

Here's my wonky nine-patch baby quilt top
done and ready to be quilted.



I tried to use as many different reds as I could.  Here's a closer look at one of my faves - a red batik with a heart motif.





Disappearing nine-patch tutorial - wonky version

Hi everyone!  Found some time to play in my sewing room this week and wanted to share a new tutorial with you.  I'm working on a quilt for my little valentine and I'm using a wonky version of the disappearing nine-patch.

Enjoy!
Mary-Frances

Begin with two 12 inch squares in contrasting fabric.



Place one square on top of the other, both pieces of fabric must be right side up (not right sides together as we normally do).




Take your ruler and make two random vertical cuts. Then make two random horizontal cuts.



Switch the bottom fabric on four squares as shown in the photo - this is your wonky nine-patch.




Sew pieces together as you would for a normal nine-patch block, making sure to press your seam toward the darker fabric.




When you are done, you will have two wonky nine-patch blocks.




Take the time to square up your blocks.  I trimmed these blocks down to 10 3/4 inches.




Find the center of your block - in this case it was 5 3/8 inches - and make a vertical and then a horizontal cut.




You now have four smaller blocks. 
Take your upper right hand block and turn twice to the right - your small corner square will now be in the upper right side.
Take your lower left hand block and turn twice to the right - your small corner square will now be in the lower left side.




Sew your four small blocks together and you now have your first wonky disappearing nine-patch block!




Here's a sneak peak at the quilt I'm making...I should have the top done for next week's WIP Wednesday!