Westend Quilter & EQ Designer

Road Home to Manitoulin

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Sun, 25 Aug 2019 20:44:00 +0000

Back in 2016, I participated in a row along, sponsored by Marian Pena of Seams to be Sew. The theme was 'Road to Home' and I thought I would really enjoy this event. I did! My idea was to create a 'filmstrip' wall hanging showing important sights that I enjoy while driving to my home on Manitoulin Island.
At the time, I placed all the files on Craftsy, but you all know that most of these files are not available to people any longer. Marian suggested that we all do a recap and bring our row along and files back up on our own sites or blogs. She will host a gallery of all the Row Alongs that she has run and I think this will be a great gallery to peruse - and maybe even to prompt us to make new projects!!
I still am not happy with the rocks I did for Block 1. I redid them, but they still don't look right. I'm going to do some thread painting and try to fix the block. Frankly the whole quilt could probably use some thread painting!
Thanks for visiting and looking at my row and thanks Marian for this prompt!
Here is a link to a pdf file for the project: Road Home to Manitoulin

All the pages of directions and templates were created with the format of 8.5" x 11" paper.

If you like the filmstrip idea, here is a sheet with the instructions for how I made the strips:

I'll show each block and the template pages and then I'll put in the 18 pages of explanations for the whole row.

Block 1:

Block 2:

Block 3:

Block 4:

Block 5:

And here are the files with the explanations and images to make the whole row!

Jelly Rolls into Half Square Triangle (HST) units

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 15:50:00 +0000

I have 2 unfinished quilt tops that I began a few years ago – well, I bought some of the Moda fabric line designed by Sandy Gervais called ‘Merry and Bright’…oops! Just checked on the web and it was 2008! Oh well, these things happen! Anyway, I loved it so much, I bought one of the panels, a jelly roll and a couple of the charm packs, as well as 3 yards of the only yardage they had left – the blue crisscross fabric. Why did they become UFOs? For me, as a quilt designer, quilts become UFOs when I have a design decision and can’t make a clear one – so the fabric goes into a box and waits until the answer bubbles up!

Can you see what I mean by deciding? What would you put in the middle of this panel? My first decision was that I wanted the quilt to be the same if it was turned around, top to bottom. So I kept running images through my mind: 4 wreaths around the middle, Christmas gifts, more Christmas balls, trees all around….. many ideas. But last year, some patterns showing Christmas trees made of paisley shapes appeared on the internet and I decided to appliqué 2 trees on the centre panel. I went down to my daughter’s place last June to stay with my grandson while she and her husband went on a holiday – only because he didn’t have his full driving license yet and he had several events planned. So we had a good time during the day – he played his game on the Internet in the rec room and I made paisley shapes in the dining room and sewed them on.

I had already attached the flying geese border and the friendship star border, so I just had to decide what to put on for the last border to make the quilt larger. I absolutely love using Electric Quilt (EQ8) to create quilts - as you can see from the variety of borders I auditioned!!

I had most of one jelly roll left and decided that I needed to repeat the white fabric that I used in the flying geese fabric. Then one of the members of my quilt club needed someone to give a lesson in yet another way to make half-square triangle units. I had a reference sheet for making them out of jelly strips (2½″ wide), so I volunteered to show this method. You end up with 3″ unfinished HSTs and very little waste! Here’s a good tutorial about this: http://www.quiltineering.com/hst-tutorial-strip-tube-method/ I hadn’t see this one, but it is almost what I did. The two little additions were:

1. I sewed a scant 1/4 “ seam (so that I could use the cutting method like she calls #1, and

2. After sewing one side of the tube, I starched and pressed, because in the end, you will have bias edges, so I wanted them to stay straight.

At the top, ruler is set for next cut. Bottom is square that was not trimmed!

All in all, if you have jelly roll strips, this is definitely the most efficient way to make hundreds of half square triangle units (HST)!
Here's an image of what the border will look like when sewn:

I think it looks like a 'modern' quilt style (although the rest of the quilt isn't). What do you think?
Thank you for reading this!

Stockings and Zippered Pouches for Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 16:37:00 +0000

Life and Electric Quilt went off the list this month, except for fixing my Fall quilt!

We had a great workshop sponsored by our guild in October. Although I don’t need more UFOs, I always enrol in guild workshops for 2 reasons: to support the guild and to learn more – I find that I learn from the teacher and also from the other participants! This one was a workshop by Marilyn Maki of Sault Ste. Marie (no link because she doesn’t have a website, but she does belong to the guild - www.saultquilts.com. Here topic was crazy quilt stockings or pillow tops. One of my oldest friends had given me lace, tatting and handkerchiefs from women in his family, so I took those to use to make a stocking for him as a family remembrance.

Once I got to the workshop, I found that Melissa McIntosh (our amazing longarmer https://www.facebook.com/see.melissa.quilt/ ) had brought a large bin of fabrics given to us by Connie Wilson before she died). Then our workshop leader, Marilyn, had also brought a plethora of ribbons, beads, amazing fabric to share! Yes, to share, not sell! How generous of her! She also brought a friend, Susan Bailey, who showed the amazing crazy quilt blocks she is making with her family’s clothing. One block even contains a piece of the suit her father wore when he married her mother.

With Marilyn’s guidance, I worked on the stocking that has the navy and pink sections to it. I had to coffee-dye some of the pink pieces, because I wanted to see a more ‘dusty’ version of the colour. Although I seldom finish workshop pieces, I went home and finished sewing the stocking and started right away on the other side. For the back side I decided to use the handkerchiefs Michael had given me and I folded them to fit. It wasn’t until I completed the back that I realized that it had been so long since I had made a Christmas stocking that I hadn’t checked which side of the foundation to sew on!!! Well…I had 2 fronts now.

The backs of the stockings

What to do? Should I just use plain backs? No! I took a group of plain crocheted doilies and handkerchiefs and layered them on a large piece of gold fabric. I placed tissue paper on top and then sewed all over it with invisible thread. After I had secured all the pieces, I tore off the tissue paper and sew more carefully in some places. I then cut out the backs. For the black one I took apart 2 crazy quilted vests I didn’t wear anymore. I used one for the front and one for the back and the lining of the vests for the lining for the stocking.

Now I have 3 stockings for my friends and enough to make another one!

Closer look at quilting

Next gifts: I’ve been wanting to make more zippered pouches, so when I saw this tutorial: https://weallsew.com/two-pocket-pencil-case/ I decided to make 2 for my nieces for Christmas. I had coloured pencils and pens for them, along with some black leather and zippers. I embroidered the front with their initials (S and SJ), then sewed them together. I also had to watch a YouTube video, because I wasn’t sure from the tutorial how to sew it together, but I think they look alright – what do you think? At one of the local Christmas market, I bought a bit of jewelry to use as zipper pulls. Then this week I watched Man Sewing with a boxy pouch, so I’m going to make that one now!! https://mansewing.com/2018/06/boxed-zipper-pouch/ I’m not saying I’m over being afraid of putting in zippers, but I feel a little more comfortable now.

Oh...and a couple of mugrugs for my grandson's study area - Of course I'll have to explain what a 'mugrug' is. He studied piano for years and I make him a quilt with a piano key design for 2 borders, so I had some sections left over.

a few more reusable gift tags - vinyl pockets on the backs

Thanks for visiting!

Snowball Blocks for Happy Garden quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 18:47:00 +0000

I wrote before about my Happy Garden Quilt that our quilt club is using as inspiration for table mats, runners and small quilts. I decided to take autumn, Thanksgiving and Hallowe’en as my inspirations

I have the middle row finished and most of the 9-patch blocks are done.

Since I was going to be doing a lesson at the club about a variety of fun ways to work with snowball blocks, I did some research and came up with some options – a few very difficult ideas that eventually got scrapped, and some that I actually sewed!

The first one was pretty simple. I had an old crocheted table mat and the elements reminded me of pumpkins, so I cut out a couple of rows and dyed them orange. I embroidered a ‘redwork’ pumpkin at the top of the snowball block and then added two rows of crocheted pumpkins.

Now I just have to decide if I want to add some green embroidery floss as vines. What do you think?

I had already embroidered my favourite fall item from emblibrary.com this fall – a truck full of pumpkins, so I appliquéd a strip under the truck to look like a road and now I have to figure out how to put a few trees in the background.

Next I got out my bag of ‘texture magic’ (or fabric magic) and put it on the back of some fall and black fabric. It’s been a while since I’ve used it, so after reading the instructions, I drew a 1” grid all over the fall fabric. I wanted to use the black for a witch’s hat, so I drew curvy lines on it. They both worked out well and after sewing, I steamed both pieces and they are really wrinkly now. I cut the fall fabric into 4 – 3 ½ “ squares to use as the centre squares of my 9-patch quilt blocks – these blocks will be in the centre blocks around the edge of the quilt.

The witch’s hat pattern was printed right from Electric Quilt so was easy to cut out – the only change I made was to cut the brim away from the top so that I could add a decorative strip and a buckle that I added Jones foil (glued to black fabric) to. I was going to use the hat so that it was right side up, but I need the orange triangle in the top left position, so I think it still works fine, upside down!

The next snowball block I planned was to show the use of 3 shadow techniques – shadow appliqué, shadow trapunto and shadow confetti. I started with the shadow trapunto, drawing 3 ghosts shapes onto tracing paper and pinning it on top of a piece of white sheer fabric and white polyester batting. Then I sewed around each ghost with a short stitch and cut out the extra batting. They don't show up that well in the photo and I'll have to decide how to quilt them to enhance the shapes.

For the shadow appliqué, I cut out bat shapes and placed them on the snowball block. Then I put the shadow trapunto work on top and sewed around the bat shapes – pretty easy way to appliqué!

Then I thought about all the landscape confetti quilts I’ve seen and decided to add a fire at the bottom of the block. I cut out the shape of a bonfi re from Steam a Seam and put it on a piece of parchment paper. Then I cut small coloured pieces of fabric out and covered my ‘bonfire’ shape. After ironing it down, I trimmed the ‘fire’ and transferred it from the parchment paper to the block and added some stitching to hold it all down (I’ll do more when I quilt the project).

Great news from the Modern Quilt Guild this week – I have a swap partner!! Although I’m not really very modern, I’m really going to try to make her a great little quilt!

Happy Gardens Quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 21:31:00 +0000

Designing Happy Gardens

I’ve been working on a design called Happy Gardens – this is to offer ideas to our club members for what they can do with the two blocks the organizing group has chosen for use in a first project of our quilting year – the 9-patch and the snowball. The quilt design is ‘Happy Gardens’ because our group is called Happy Quilters and the 9-patch has long been associated with gardens. Sometimes naming a quilt is that simple!

We decided on a 9½″ (unfinished) block.

Thinking that beginner quilters may be leery of sewing a lot of 3½″ (unfinished) blocks, we included a plain 9-patch block that would be just as attractive in a project. The other design element I put in for beginners was to make sure that the seam in the snowball block did not have to meet the seam in the 9-patch. Actually, this option is open to the individual quilter – some of us like the challenge of ‘meeting’ seams, and some don’t care! What kind are you?

I guess anyone who is experienced with Electric Quilt® would think that these are pretty simplistic blocks to show, but I’m doing it anyway because I think it’s an effective design for our goal – a design that 90% of our club would create!

To begin the design, choose ‘design a block from scratch’ or the Block Worktable at the top right of the Home screen.

For more information on the worktables, watch this brief video: https://support.electricquilt.com/articles/understanding-the-three-worktables-in-eq8/

Then select the block style ‘pieced’ and the method ‘EasyDraw’. Always try to anticipate a size for the block before drawing. This will make the fabric cutting much easier! Just imagine designing a 5” block that you then draw into a 4 sections by 4 sections. You might end up with a great block like this one:

But how is your client/group going to react when they read the cutting chart about cutting strips 2⅛” – not impossible, but not fun!

It’s just more practical to design a block with measurements that suit the partitions you plan. For a 9-patch, you know you will need to use a 3x3 grid, so it will be simpler to start with block that is 9” x 9”. To make it easier, set the Horizontal and Vertical snaps so that lines will automatically ‘snap’ to each ¼ of an inch. The ‘snap’ setting refers to another part of the bar that should always be ‘on’ until you, the designer, are very experienced.

The snap settings can be changed in the ‘Drawing Board Setup’ under the ‘Block’ menu and EQ has great explanations at https://support.electricquilt.com/articles/drawing-board-setup/

The ‘grid’ option is a terrific feature of EQ. It’s only a nuisance if you lose your grip and let go of it before it covers the section where you need a grid – that’s when the ‘back arrow’ on the left side is an even better feature! If you get the wrong grid, click on this back arrow and restart the grid. Don’t let go until you have the correct size grid on your block worktable!

Colouring – once you have the 9-patch block designed, save it into your sketchbook (if you haven’t named your project, EQ will give you a ‘prompt’ to name it (Hint: use descriptive names to help your memory). Select the COLOR tab at the top (Yes, the designers are American), and then use the ‘paintbrush’ tool and the selection of fabrics to colour (but I’m Canadian) each patch of the block. Colouring a block – information about this will fill several posts, so for this one, I’m just going to say to click on ‘fabrics’ that approximate the fabrics you plan to use and colour your block. Scroll on the bottom section to see more fabrics. Save the colouring into the sketchbook.

Printing or viewing the rotary cutting instructions

When you first see the menu for printing patterns, you may not be able to print the block pattern if you have a quilt on the drawing board. The way to get the block pattern is to click on the block you want to be able to print and then you'll be able to click on the 'Block' in the menu
In my example, I clicked on the 9 patch that seems to have a green outline. Once I did that, when I click on 'Block', the program will allow me to see the rotary cutting directions.

NOTE: Of course, this blog post clear! But if you want to see another one, check this one: https://support.electricquilt.com/articles/draw-a-pieced-block-easydraw/

What do you think? Should I add more details? Thanks for reading this! If you would like this pattern in a specific size, let me know and I'll email you the fabric requirements,

Great Quilt Club Start to 2018-19 Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Sun, 21 Oct 2018 14:09:00 +0000

Do you belong to a guild? I do, but I also belong to a ‘quilt club’ – totally volunteer-run. Every August, a few of us get together to plan something to get the club off to a good start. Once that happens, we have a calendar formatted so that at the beginning of each meeting, the meeting’s chair calls for volunteers for the upcoming meetings: chair, lesson, snacks, clean-up, plus quilters who want to have a quilt bee during the weeks when we don’t have meetings (more about that later).

Our quilt club is called the Happy Quilters and we meet near Gore Bay on Manitoulin Island.

This year, we aimed to choose a project that all the members could try and enjoy – both beginners and advanced quilters.

What’s a good block to both teach and enjoy?

Well there are many, but we chose the 9-patch and the snowball block. Think about it – the 9-patch block can end up several ways.

And the snowball is perfect for personalizing a project – with many kinds of embroidery and appliqué. The snowball block is fairly easy to sew because the quilter can really choose any size of square to sew on the corners (as long as they are consistent!). We also decided to take advantage of the great light in our meeting hall (the Community hall for Gordon/Barrie Island) and teach some hand embroidery and appliqué.

Some of the old embroidery pattern books available.

First up…hand embroidery (because one of us had obtained a bunch of little booklets from a garage sale). I used a dry iron to press about a dozen of the patterns on to scraps of fabric I had (you can press one design several times), and threaded about 40 needles with different colours of thread. No sooner had we planned this session and talked about it, that we found out just how many of us have embroidery floss sitting in a drawer at home!

I started with a butterfly, but wasn’t happy with the results, so I went on to a teapot (good memories of tea with Mom) which I finished and coloured with Inktense pencils (Derwent Inktense )then clear aloe vera gel to intensify the colours. I’m using in a small box in my sewing kit to hold needle threaders and other small items. Then I went on to a dragon and I am pleased with this one – more Inktense and gel and it will either be a cover for a sewing machine booklet or my regular needles. I’ll show it off later.

Our year is off to a great start, with members showing off table toppers, table runners and small quilts using these patterns.

What would you choose as a project that would suit all your quilting group?

If you are interested in seeing the calendar we use in our quilt club, let me know and I’ll send you a copy!

Re-Starting my Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 21:41:00 +0000

It’s been almost a year – a year of sadness and grief with my sister’s bone cancer getting worse and invading her brain. I lost my best quilting buddy and sister all-in-one. She was a fearless quilter – persevering on any project she began until it was finished. Last year about now, she said she had two quilts left in her (for her great granddaughters), but that didn’t stop her working on a few other projects until she ran out of steam. One was the 'Elephant and Me' quilt and the other was a Sunbonnet Sue and Sam quilt that her friends quilted and delivered to her hospital bed.

Her best friend, Shirley, and I packed up her sewing room afterwards. My sister, Lyn, wanted it all to go to a group in her town that was teaching single and poor mothers how to sew. It was terrific to see the face of the woman we delivered all the boxes to!

This past week, I have been on holiday in the Everything-pumpkin state of Michigan. I don’t know whether this is true in other states, but when I visit here in the fall, it always seems that this is their favourite food, drink and décor item! I love it and have finally even tasted a pumpkin spice latte! Since I drink my coffee black, this took me a long time to decide on tasting one. Not bad….

The other good thing about this holiday is that I have finally ‘stepped back’ and enjoyed thinking about Lyn and all the other family members and friends who have gone on. I’m letting memories of them come and go as they like, with some tears, I admit, but no regrets (well, some regrets, but I can strive to be a better person every day!).

So, it’s time to restart this blog and continue with my quilting journey. I’m not a speedy quilter and don’t finish projects as quickly as Lyn did – maybe because I’m always trying new techniques and I have a tendency to procrastinate whenever I reach a point in a project where I’m not sure how to proceed. Does anyone else do this?

2018 UFO Project

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 13:19:00 +0000

Happy New Year!

I've been reading online and have seen the great ideas from All People Quilt http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/how-to-quilt/finishing/2018-ufo-challenge and the AQS Creative Organizer http://www.aqsblog.com/creative-organizer-2018, but decided to set up my own organizer.
I've never bought into this idea about organizing and completing UFOs before, but I will soon be at a point where I have more projects than stash! And that's a shame!
So, here are my 2 organizing pages for this year. If you like them, try them out!

Corrected blog site addresses for Show n Tell Day

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 11:45:00 +0000

How annoying!
Some of the links in my post earlier today aren't working! The other bloggers who have giveaways today are:

Cloth and Paper Studio

Just Let Me Quilt

Moosestash Quilting

Quilt in Piece

Seams to Be Sew

The Road Home - Show 'n Tell Day 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 04:01:00 +0000

Welcome to Show 'n Tell day for the Road Home Row Along 2016! Don't forget to sign up for the two special giveaways - a bundle of fabric from Northcott

and a book by Barbara Dieges 'A Thread Runs Through It'. Look to the right of this post and you'll find the Rafflecopter areas to sign up for both of these draws...and you only have Tuesday, October 11, 2016 to win these!!

Well....should I start by complaining about the quilting that didn’t work? Not very interesting, or inviting to readers, I think! I haven't decided whether to hang this up over the entrance or to use it as a table runner.

I have definitely challenged myself to stretch my skills and I’ll bet that I’ll get better with every project. I’m working on FMQ (free motion quilting, as they put it these days) and am using Wonderfil Invisifil on top and in the bobbin. I finally worked out the bugs with my Bernina using this thread, but I’m away from home right now and brought my Singer Quantum to use. So, of course, I’ve gone ‘back to the drawing board’ to try to get my sewing even and easy. For those of you who haven’t tried this, I’ve seen the recommendations to use this thread for dense quilting. I wanted to try it so that my stitching wouldn’t be the most visible thing on my quilt. I’ve followed a number of suggestions to keep the thread from shredding or breaking:

Change the needle to a smaller one (on my Bernina, I can use Jeans 70/10 quite nicely or Embroidery 75/11);
Loosen the tension;
Re-thread the machine;
Avoid putting the thread through the final loop before it goes into the eye of the needle;
All attempts in, I’m still having ‘shredding’ thread problems, but I'll keep experimenting!

The block as sewn

The block after colouring with Neocolor ii

The other thing I wanted to try was some ‘colouring’ on some of the blocks with Neocolor ii by Caran d’Ache. I’ve read a few blog posts on this and how easy it is to use to colour fabric and still keep the colour permanent. I coloured the rock on block 1 of my row to try to make the red look more ‘rock’ like.

I used several shades of grey on it, then used a brush and textile medium to blend the colours. I could have used water as well. I think it worked ‘okay’, but I should have tried harder in the beginning to find the right fabric. I can say that using these wax pastels does not make the fabric stiff and the colour is permanent. I also shaded a few other elements in the row (like the inukshuk). I'm still not sure about my highway rock cuts and I may end up taking then out and replacing the fabric!

The trees in all the blocks are going to wait until I get home – I seem to have left the bag with the rest of my thread at home.

If you look closely at the quilting, you'll notice that some of the other quilting isn't finished either!

I think I have to go back and thread paint the sunset into the water, don't you?

Thanks for visiting!
Good luck with the giveaways - someone has to win them and the prizes are only available today, Tues. Oct. 11, 2016! And these aren't the only giveaways for today's Show 'n Tell. Take a look at these other sites and see their final Road Home projects:

Seams To Be Sew
Quilt in Piece
Just Let Me Quilt
Cloth and Paper Studio
Moosestash Quilting

and, this is where you are right now: WestEnd Quilter

The Road to Home Row Along - Day 10

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 10:00:00 +0000

Well I was very excited this morning because I was going to have a series of photos to show you how I fixed the first block of my row!

As you can see, my attempt to sew the red granite and white quartz rocks along the highway did not turn out well! Not even a bit lifelike. So I have some painting in mind that will amend the fabric to a more realistic look. I want to make it look more like red granite and also I'd like to simulate the drill marks made in the rock when they dynamited it to build the highway north.

But a trip to the hospital, xrays and an air cast for a fracture in my foot took up too many hours! Life is!!

However, I have my supplies now:

Textile medium
Extra fine fabric markers
A waterbrush
And...my secret ingredient, which you’ll see in the next few days when I get a chance to experiment!

The Road to Home Row Along is almost finished (sigh!). I hope you’ll tune into www.seamstobesew.com on Oct. 11 to see the list of the bloggers who will be displaying finished projects with their rows!

In the meantime, here is the last set of bloggers who are revealing their rows today:

All Things Sewn at http://allthingzsewn.blogspot.com/

Seams to be Sew at www.seamstobesew.com

Quilt in Piece at http://chittenden.co.za/

Just Let Me Quilt at http://justletmequilt.com

Cloth and Paper Studio at Http://www.clothandpaperstudio.com

Moosestash Quilting at http://moosestashquilting.blogspot.com/

The Road to Home Row Along - Day 9

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 15:36:00 +0000

I had the most exciting week last week with this row along! Thank you very much to everyone who visited my blog!!!

First of all there were all the nerves in setting up my blog so that everything would work correctly on the reveal of my row – no problem with the row because I had finished putting it and the directions together the week before. But setting up the code for the giveaways and getting it up on time. And one of the giveaways didn’t get on correctly, but at least I was able to fix it. If you’ve never participated in a blogathon or blog hop then, from my experience I can offer some views:

· If you’re the type of quilter who likes to challenge her/him self in trying new projects, then try a blogathon (I had done curved piecing before, but in preparing this row, I really focussed on honing my skills)
· If you’re thinking about setting up a blog, then try a blogathon – it will force you to blog regularly and learn more about presenting images and info.
· If you don’t have a lot of quilters in your area, then try a blogathon – you’ll meet new quilters and be able to discuss your projects with them
· If you’ve run out of projects (this rarely happens with quilters, but you never know!) then try a blogathon – on Facebook you can check this page: Quilt Blog Hops, Events and other Awesome Quilty Stuff! Or follow Marian at www.seamstobesew.com to learn about different blogathons (or blog hops) Or search Google for ‘blog hops’
· If you’re learning to use EQ7 (like me), then join a blogathon to stretch your skills!

Now I am quilting my row so that it will be a small wall hanging in my front sun porch. I’ll be showing it on Show ‘n Tell day on October 11, so stay tuned to see mine and other final projects!

Today we have 4 bloggers presenting rows that you’ll want to see! I know I’ll be using these rows as souvenirs of lovely vacations!

Patchouli Moon Studio at http://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com

Linda Robertus at http://lindarobertus.blogspot.com/

Elm Street Quilts at http://www.elmstreetquilts.com/

Sarah Quinn featured at http://www.seamstobesew.com

The Road to Home Row Along - Day 9

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 10:00:00 +0000

Thank you very much to Marian (http://www.seamstobesew.com ) and Amy (http://sewincrediblycrazy.blogspot.com/) for hosting this Row Along and for including me in it!

I designed this row in Electric Quilt 7® (EQ7®) since I am not a trained (or natural) artist. Click on the 'Craftsy' button to get the pattern.

EQ7 design - Leave a comment if you would like the EQ file.

Nowadays my road to home is long and beautiful, because often I am travelling from visits to family and friends in southern Ontario in Canada to the west end of Manitoulin Island (the largest freshwater island in the world!) which is located in the northern section of Lake Huron, west of Sudbury, Ontario and east of Sault, Michigan in the United States.

The Island is home to a number of towns and villages, situated among lakes, farms, logging operations and quarries. And quilters! Since we enjoy mostly rural life, most of the families can boast of at least one quilter in the family. There are two guilds, a club and several quilting ‘bee’ groups on the Island and many, many more quilters who just stay at home and quilt on their own.

After thinking about many ‘roads to home’ in my life, I chose the actual drive I take up Hwy. 400 to Sudbury, west on Hwy. 17 then south on Hwy. 6 from Espanola to Little Current. After that, I travel Hwy. 540 to the west end of the Island and home. I visualized this road trip as a movie and decided to design it as a movie or film strip with five blocks illustrating the drive I take. The quilting (or piecing) challenge I decided to attempt was to improve my curved piecing techniques that I learned from Gourmet Quilter at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mIwp8TZtfU I have tried this a few times, but I wanted to do it enough that I could do it easily. I certainly recommend her video tutorial!

Block 1

This block symbolizes all the rock – granite and quartz, etc... that has been dynamited and pulverized to create the highway to northern Ontario

From Espanola to Manitoulin Island, there is more rock and the windblown trees memorialized by the Group of Seven – amazing Canadian artists. . ‘Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay’ by F.H. Varley, in the National Gallery of Art is just one example of the type of scenery we have in this area

Block 2

I wanted to show a barn quilt even though our barn quilt trail isn’t quite complete yet! Of course, if I had wanted to feature the wildlife, I would have had to show you whitetail deer, sandhill cranes, Canadian geese, hummingbirds, loons, raccoons, squirrels, coyotes, skunks, weasels, porcupines, as well as all the water life like whitefish, salmon, trout, turtles, etc....

We have miles of rail fences along the roads as well.

Block 3

Indigenous people lived on Manitoulin Island (which means ‘spirit’ island) until decimated by disease brought over by Europeans and then driven out by the Iroquois. Early in the 1800’s Odawa, Ojibwe, Potawatomi began to move back to the Island.

Nowadays these villages are vibrant places and each one celebrates and hosts visitors to their powwows and other events (Aundeck Omni Kaning, M’Chigeen, Sheshegwaning, Zhiibaahaasing, Sheguindah & the unceded reserve Wikwemikong).

At the entrance to Aundeck Omni Kaning is a welcome sign and a tipi, so I’ve included a tipi in my block.

North America is called ‘Turtle Island’ by the indigenous people so I had to include a turtle as a symbol.

The medicine wheel is a symbol of life and many aspects of the cycle of life:

· The east is red and symbolizes Spring, growing, physical care, nutrition

· The south is yellow for warmth, Summer, breath and emotions

· The west is black for Fall, adults, water and spiritual health

· The north is white for Winter, dormancy, education and fire

These are the optional symbols that I have included, but of course there are many other items that could have been included.

Block 4

I approach my home and in the summer, I can see the beach furniture and toys out on the beach (when the grandchildren visit). Then there’s lots of activity on the beach and hours of fun. Without the young people, it’s a pretty quiet place and I’m either working in the yard and beach or quilting!

Block 5

How could I finish a road to home without a sunset? I couldn’t. My friends and I share photos of beautiful sunsets....as do millions around the world, I know.

I hope that you find something of value in the row I have designed! The challenges involved in designing it have certainly helped me improve my skills with designing appliqué pieces in EQ7®. This is a great computer program that will enhance the work of every quilt designer! From designing quilt blocks to colouring the thousands that are included in the program ; to designing quilts, quilt labels, photo quilts and so much more....EQ7® is amazing! Not to mention the company’s support of their software! I’ve been using computers since the first personal computers and have never seen the level of support given by the staff at Electric Quilt. They should all win awards for their efforts!

Thank you for visiting my blog! Please enter for our giveaways today!

Besides me today, there are 3 other bloggers presenting their rows:

Quilted Fabric Art at

www.quiltedfabricart.com

Pamela Quilts at pamelaquilts.blogspot.com

QuiltFabrication at

www.quiltfabrication.blogspot.com

The Road to Home Row Along - Day 8

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Tue, 27 Sep 2016 20:41:00 +0000

Well, I'm really 'late to the party' today! Everybody else doing the Road to Home Row Along has posted and I'm just doing it now. I just returned from my annual quilt retreat at Red Lodge on the east end of Manitoulin Island. September is beautiful around here and being at the retreat for a few days is even better. The food was great, the rooms were great and quilting together with the others just made the retreat wonderful!
On the last evening, we had a 'show n tell' of some of our projects and I'd like to share some of them with you:

Connie's Stars

Melissa's Dear Jane (in progress)

Evelyn shows a quilt that Melissa quilted for her

The Hebert family - their 21st September to meet and quilt!

Melissa's herringbone top

Margaret and Helene worked on Hunter's Star tops

Janice's amazing miniature paper-pieced centre

Melissa's Rainbow

Rose shows the centre of the mystery quilt

The bloggers presenting today are:

Seams to be Sew at www.seamstobesew.com

Batts in the Attic at battsintheattic.blogspot.com

Creatin’ in the Sticks at www.createinthesticks.blogspot.com

Sue Griffiths Featured At Just Let Me Quilt at justletmequilt.com

The Road to Home Row Along Day 7

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 10:00:00 +0000

Today I finished about 35 vinyl bags from the design on http://so-sew-easy.com/clear-vinyl-project-pouches/ . But I made a ‘switch-up’ with the tops of the bags – I used old metal tape measures that I was saving for a project. I liked the tutorial for using tape measures, but the thought of using vinyl for the sides was more attractive. All my fabric is on open shelves because I need to see what I have, so see-through bags is a great idea.

I ended up with 3 different sizes of tape measuring tapes that had broken and some vinyl I bought years ago.

I gave up on her idea of using scissors to cut the tape and bought a metal cutter at the hardware store for under $20 and well worth it! I also covered the ends with masking tape once I had cut them.

If you look at the pattern in the link above, you’ll notice that the size of the top piece depends on the finished size of your bag. I had 3 different widths of metal tape: ¾”, 1”, and 1 ¼ “. Because I didn’t have enough vinyl for the size made in the tutorial, I decided to make them finish up at 6” wide x 5” high. So for the top pieces I cut:

- For the ¾ “ tape pieces – 7”wide x 3 ¼ “ high (enough space to insert the tape)

- For the 1 “ tape pieces – 7”wide x 3 ¾ “ high

- For the 1 ¼ “ tape pieces – 7”wide x 4 ¼ “ high

Sewing the vinyl wasn’t fun! Luckily I had a plastic or Teflon foot for my sewing machine and that helped immensely! But there was some slipping and the pieces were not perfect!

Bag - inside out

When I reached step #13, I didn’t sew a full ½ “ seam because when I tested it, there wasn’t enough room for the 6” tape pieces. I sewed from the top of one side down, across the bottom and then up just to the fabric strip of the other side. I used pinking shears to finish the raw edges. Then I inserted the metal pieces.

I had made 6” tabs using fabric strips 1 ¼ “. I folded both sides to the centre, then folded and pressed the strip in half and sewed on each side. I did this with full width of fabric strips and then cut the strips into 6” tabs.

After inserting the metal tape pieces, I held the tab in place (with the loop on the inside and the ends so they would be sewn into the seam) and sewed up the top side opening, sewing over the tab pieces a couple of times.

Then it was just a matter of trimming the top and turning the bags inside out. I liked this tutorial and it could certainly be adapted to any other fabric and closure choices!

For Day 6 of The Road to Home Row Along, we have 5 bloggers who wish to present their rows. Enjoy!

Words & Stitches at http://bethstrand.wordpress.com

Quilt Art at http://quiltartdesigns.blogspot.com/

I CAN QUILT 2 at http://icanquilt2.blogspot.com/

Any Pattern at http://www.anypattern.com/blogs/quilt-applique-blog

Patchwork Breeze at http://www.patchworkbreeze.blogspot.com

The Road to Home Row Along - Day 6

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 11:19:00 +0000

Well I’ve had a really busy few days, visiting my sister and my daughter and her family – but that doesn’t leave me much to blog about, does it? Sorry! But I did pick up 3 quilt tops from my sister for our local longarm quilter, Melissa Macintosh. Melissa did such a great job on my sister’s quilt that I delivered to her that she sent 3 up with me for quilting!

What is My Magic 8? Well, I wanted to teach the method of making 8 half square triangle units that I found on Craftsy http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2014/01/how-to-make-half-square-triangles/

I taught it then we made a bunch of them and spent a meeting playing around with them to create interesting blocks for a group red and white quilt we are going to make together.

I am going to put my tip sheet on Craftsy as a free pattern and I'll let you know when it's available to download.

Are you ready for the next few rows of this Road to Home Row Along – I know I am! I hope you enjoy these rows (and sign up for the sponsored prizes). Here are Day 6's rows:

Beaquilter at www.beaquilter.com

Rebecca Mae Designs at http://www.rebeccamaedesigns.com

Moosestash Quilting at http://moosestashquilting.blogspot.com/

Heleen Pinkster Quilt Design http://heleenpinkster.nl/

Road to Home Row Along Day 5

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 10:00:00 +0000

Getting busy....welcome to September for quilters (at least those around here!) – clubs and guilds are starting and for me that means that I’d better get busy with the newsletter for this month’s guild meeting! We will be having Connie Sue Haidle visiting next week and doing a trunk show on Thursday, followed by an appliqué workshop on Friday – www.appleblossomquilts.com . I think what she and her husband, Jerry, are doing is quite cool. They have retired and are driving their RV around North America. Connie Sue has quite a few quilters who subscribe to her newsletter, so she has put out the word that she is willing to teach anywhere! I’m looking forward to her trunk show and workshop!

But...at the same time I’ll be attending my annual quilt retreat at Red Lodge on Manitoulin Island. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE quilt retreats, and if I could afford it, I’d go to one every season! Staying at a lodge with a group of quilters who just want to sit and quilt all day (for some it goes into the evening hours) is just a treat!

So, life is busy.

My tip of the day today has to be about putting the binding on a quilt. Yesterday I suddenly realized that I had to put the binding on my sister’s quilt because I’m going to visit her this weekend. Yikes! And I’m not quick when it comes to binding! Well, this morning I made the binding, then I squared off the quilt and attached it to the quilt. After having tea with neighbours, I realized that there was no way I could hand stitch the binding in one evening. So I used ‘Steam a Seam’ to seal the binding to the back of the quilt and then used a decorative stitch to sew it on. No photos yet, but I will take one to show you that I’m not going to be ashamed to show this one off! I think it’s just fine.

So that’s my week, I hope yours is going well also. Back to the Road to Home Row Along now. We have 5 bloggers today who are going to show you their Road to Home rows! Are you ready?

Don’t forget to leave your comments (these bloggers have worked long and hard to develop these rows!) and sign up for prizes.

bdieges designs at bdieges.com

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs at ecoughlindesigns.blogspot.com

Cloth and Paper Studio at www.clothandpaperstudio.com

Seacoast Quilter at www.seacoastquilter.net

Patti’s Patchwork at

www.pattispatchwork.com

The Road to Home Row Along - Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 12:14:00 +0000

I’ve been working on slab blocks for the quilt bee at Quilt Canada and for this one I cut apart a panel of images from Northcott’s ‘Oh Canada’ collection and I’m building my slab block around each of those. By the way, I think I forgot to mention the designer of the slab block in my last post! I’m sorry about this – it was Cheryl Arkison at http://www.cherylarkison.com who designed this when High River and other parts of Alberta were flooded badly in 2013. Cheryl put out the slab block to quilters to contribute to a drive to give quilts to the homeowners who were victims at this time. Tens of thousands of slab blocks and many quilt tops were sent to Cheryl and then she and her buddies finished thousands of quilts and gave them away!

This collection (http://www.northcott.com/product-detail.aspx?fbid=24&colid=512&colorid=864 ) was designed by Linda Ludovico in support of Quilts of Valour (yes, we spell it ‘our’ in Canada). No matter what country you live in the Quilts of Valour movement is wonderful – www.quiltsofvalor.com or www.quiltsofvalour.ca or www.quiltsofvalour.com.au or www.qovf.org

But....back to my slab blocks. I’ve been trying to get out of only sewing straight lines to make these, but it’s hard! After training myself to follow the ¼ “ straight seam to do patchwork blocks, my body doesn’t want to cut that slanted seam. So some of the blocks have slanted sections and I’ll keep working to add more. Once I have the quilts sandwiched, I’ve decided that this is the perfect opportunity to practise free motion quilting in the plain sections of the quilt.

Have you visited the bloggers who have introduced their rows on the Road to Home Row Along? I’ve picked up a few rows for my quilt about places I love and those on my bucket list. And I’ve entered my name for some of the prizes being offered.

Here are the sites that are doing their big reveal today:

Tweety Loves Quilting at tweloquilting.blogspot.com

Quiltscapes at www.quiltscapesqs.com

Seams to be Sew (one of the hosts!) at www.seamstobesew.com

Pine Valley at

pinevalley.co.nz/blogs/pine-valley-quilts

Enjoy!

The Road Home Row Along - Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 15:37:00 +0000

2 slab blocks

Twice in one week! Maybe this blogathon will lead me to more regular posts! We had our first meeting of the year at Happy Quilters yesterday and had a pretty good turnout – I guess it takes a while for people to ‘finish’ the summer activities and get back to quilting! I put up a few posters and taught the ‘slab’ block quilt because I think it’s a great beginning quilt – it doesn't really matter if every seam is ¼" as long as it ends up at 12 ½" square. This is the block we are hoping Canadian quilters will make this year as we head to the ‘world’s biggest quilt bee’ at Quilt Canada next June http://www.canadianquilter.com/events/quilt-canada-2017-quilting-bee.php Our club decided that once more Canada 150 fabric is in the quilt stores in November, we’ll make one. All the quilts made will be going to the Ronald McDonald houses across Canada next summer and I can’t wait to see the photographs (and be in the quilting rooms at Quilt Canada)!

One of my quilting friends also mentioned that the ‘One MillionPillowcases’ drive is getting closer to the target, so she would like all of us who are attending a quilt retreat later this month to make some and she’ll send them in.

The bloggers who are revealing their rows today are:

Sew Incredibly Crazy at http://sewincrediblycrazy.blogspot.com/

Just Let Me Quilt at http://justletmequilt.com

Quilt in Piece at http://chittenden.co.za/http://chittenden.co.za/

3 Patch Crafts at http://3patchcrafts.blogspot.com/

Happy blog hopping!!

The Road Home Row Along Starts Today

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 11:53:00 +0000

This is it! My first blogathon – I’m very excited and, of course, thrilled that I’m not the first blog on the list (just because I want to see the other bloggers' posts first). This blogathon has been masterminded by the patient Marian at Seams to be Sew and Amy at Sew Incredibly Crazy

These wonderful bloggers come from all over the world, so there’s a great chance that you’ll find a pattern for a row that you just have to have – one that reminds you of a trip, your past or some place on your bucket list! Each blog will have a free pattern for you to download and prizes that you might possibly win (some prizes are only available in the U.S. unless you want to pay for shipping). At some of the sites, the bloggers have made their patterns available on their Craftsy site for free, so if you haven't had this experience, this is your chance!

On Facebook, there is a page for this event:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/stbs.blog.events/?ref=bookmarks

And if you'd like to see the rows that are sewn, check out Flickr at
https://www.flickr.com/groups/3054920@N21/

Let's not leave Pinterest out! Here's a place for images as well:
https://www.pinterest.com/stbs_blogs/the-road-home-row-along/

Every Tuesday and Thursday from today until almost Canadian Thanksgiving will see the launch of new patterns.

I hope you will check out these sites that publish on Sept. 6^th, 2016:

Allie-Oops Sweet Happy Life at http://allie-oopssweethappylife.blogspot.com/

Cynthia’s Creating Ark at http://www.cynthiasark.blogspot.com.au

Kissed Quilts at http://kissedquilts.blogspot.com

Renee’s Quilting Addiction at http://reneechester.wordpress.com/

Thread Painting

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Mon, 05 Sep 2016 12:44:00 +0000

A beautiful sunrise today

and it looked like there were mountains rising behind Barrie Island so I had to take a photo of it! I wonder if I could translate this into a thread painted image? After taking a workshop in March with Nancy Prince http://www.nancyprince.com, I tried my first thread painted quilt for the Trend-Tex challenge for Quilt Canada 2016. The CQA/ACC http://www.canadianquilter.com uses the challenge to raise money for its operating expenses and Trend-Tex donates the fabric that is then cut up into sets of 5 fat quarters. The current vice-president has that honour, along with the privilege of choosing the theme for the challenge, which was ‘Living a Life in Green’. Well....that took months of thinking! You can see most of the challenge items in the CQA/ACC gallery. From money to ecology to nature and eventually I wandered in my thoughts to the hobbits from ‘The Lord of the Rings’, who certainly lived their lives in ‘green’ in their shire. After looking through the photos online of the village set up in New Zealand for the movies made from this series, I developed a wall hanging design with aspects of the photos and my own ideas.

I designed the quilt with EQ7 http://electricquilt.com, layered the fabrics then started embellishing with pieces of photos and then thread. I made lots of mistakes! I added the borders before I started thread painting. Well I didn’t stabilize the fabric as well as I should have, so the first set of borders had to be cut off. Then I finished the thread painting, added new borders and then layered it with wool batting and 80/20. I heard that some quilters were using the 2 layers and wanted to try it. The wool batting really ‘puffed up’ the sections, so I ended up doing lots of quilting to hold down parts. On the first border, I had done bobbin work to print part of the elf language verse:

And for those of you who don’t speak Elvish:

One Ring to rule them all,

One Ring to find them;

One Ring to bring them all

And in the darkness bind them

I did this border twice as I figured out how to actually write the lines using perle cotton in the bobbin. I tried using paper with the verse written on it (reversed), sewed it from the top with regular thread and then went over the thread with bobbin work. It was ok, but not great. In the end, after practising several times on paper with pencil, I just laid out the copy beside the sewing machine and wrote one line at a time.

The black border has quilted 'flames' on it and is wider on the bottom right because Mordor is in that direction (and if it really isn't, please be kind! I'm directionally challenged).

You can see that this is definitely a first effort in thread painting, but as I see scenes around me that tempt, I may be thread painting again! And I did win a first place at the Providence Bay Fair!

Below is the label I put on the back of it - I do all my labels in Electric Quilt 7 because combining photos and text is so easy there and I can do a couple of labels and print them out on one piece of fabric!

More Evidence for Fixing Fabric Bleeds

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 12:25:00 +0000

In my previous post I wrote about finally getting rid of the fabric bleeds from the quilt I made for my Mom. I also tried to fix a camera bag I had made, but with no success. But....I thought that I would try a second time and this time I agitated the bag more in the water before weighing it down with a juice bottle filled with water. I left it a full 12 hours in the tub before rinsing it and voilà! This time it worked! If you look at the photos below, you can see the fabric bleed in the top one (near the button) and the one below shows that it has gone. I love this method! I also had to use it with some potholders I made for part of a shower gift because I had some bleed when I was taking of the quilt marking I put on one of the pieces. Oh well - potholders are a lot easier to handle than a queen size quilt!

Before soaking

After soaking

Despair over an old bleeding quilt!

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 15:21:00 +0000

Over the years, I've come to fear bleeding fabrics! I prewash now, more consistently ever since I made a memory quilt for my mom in 2011. Apparently I didn't prewash all the reds and the black fabric I used for one of the borders. When I washed it before giving it to her, one of the reds bled as well as part of the black border!
I was really, really upset, because I had spent a lot of time picking out blocks that 'described' my mom's life - lots of garden related blocks - she would make a garden in sand! Travel fabrics because we travelled so much with my army father and she had immigrated to Canada in her mother's uterus!

There's a little block on the side of the Carolina lilies for each of her 4 children, with references to our lives. I used the block design you see below for all 4 kids - but then chose fabrics and printed out images and logos from their jobs to highlight their lives. You probably can't see these well for my sister, Lyn, but it shows her work as a nurse, a nursing home administrator, her life with her 3 sons (I personally believe that any woman who has 3 sons should automatically receive angel wings!) her love of knitting, sewing and quilting!
Anyway....fast forward to this summer. My mom died last year and I have her quilt back. I did a last search for a solution and found it!!!!! Colorways by Vicki If you look down her tab for 'Tutorials', you'll find her article 'Save My Bleeding Quilt' and you can print it out. I read it and didn't really want to use this solution for this queen size quilt, BUT.... So I experimented with a small wall hanging that also had some bleeding on it and it worked! Beautifully! So into the bathtub it went for 24 hours. I did rinse it twice in the bathtub, but then I gave up and put it on the delicate cycle and cold water. My neighbour let me hang it out on her clothesline.
Pros: the commercial fabric bleeds, came out of the quilt, even after 5 years.
Cons: the fabric blocks that I printed on my inkjet printer faded.
Conclusion: I love this method and will use it whenever I have to! Although I said that I prewash all my fabric and take care, you will see by reading the article that you still sometimes get bleeding! And if you use the rubbing alcohol and flour recipe to baste the quilt top, batting and backing together, then you really have to wash the quilt after you finish quilting it!

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Sat, 02 Jul 2016 22:22:00 +0000

Quilt Canada 2016

So I've been back a few weeks from Quilt Canada, but does that mean it's too late to comment? Too bad! I was sick and then had some driving to do, so here goes.... my 2 cents worth.
My friend, Jackie http://jabotquilt.blogspot.ca had a LOT to do with this show as did the directors (Linda, Leslie, Judy, Bonnie) of the CQA/ACC www.canadianquilter.com, Jackie Philpott (the registrar), Liz (the conference coordinator) and then ALL the fabulous VOLUNTEERS who made the show so great for the visitors, the teachers and the vendors.

My friends, Rolanda and Pat, and I booked into a hotel for the week and then signed up to volunteer in various ways. I think that volunteering really enhanced our trip - we met lots of new people, saw some great classes in progress and, of course, bought one or two items! (found a couple of good restaurants nearby - which we'll talk about more next year!) While I was volunteering at the Trend-Tex Challenge exhibit, I met an Indian visitor and after chatting with her for a while, she told me about her family in India sending her a quilt made by her 90-year old grandmother. The next day she brought in the quilt made from diamond shapes cut out of saris (I remember that my grandmother only used our old clothes for quilts!).

So you'll see a photo below of Sabia in the CQA/ACC booth, as well as a photo of what her grandmother had sewn. Apparently she started with making the star shape and then added to it. Maybe next year, we'll see Sabia's own quilt in our show!
I volunteered in Sue Patten's long arm quilting class and I neither have one of these machines, nor will I ever have one. But Melissa (Melissa's Quilting Service on Manitoulin Island) assured me that I would still learn a LOT that I could apply to my domestic machine. She was right. She is a dynamic, knowledgeable teacher and had lots of ideas.
Then I took a New York Beauty class from Ana Buzzalion http://anabuzzalino.com. I saw Ana on Quilting Arts many times teaching free motion quilting and wanted to take a quilting class. Well that didn't work out, but I did love the class and one day, I may even finish it!
And I was able to make some new friends - Val Tucker, and run into quilters I really wanted to see - Cindy Simpson, Judy Kelly, Catherine Henderson - to name a few.
Here are some of my other highlights of the weekend (the last 4 are some of my favourite of the Trend-Tex Challenge pieces - I am always amazed at how quilters can take the same 5 pieces of fabric and make such different pieces!):

Toronto Modern Quilt Guild - Break Free by Jeannie Jenkins

by Joanne Love - I love the eyes on this little guy!

by Jim Wilford - I really admire his piecing and quilting.

I really enjoyed spending time with my sister and her friends!

Me with my sister, Lyn, and cousin, Dianne - we had a good time!

This was in the vendor's area, but I love this design! I think it's by Judy Martin.

This was amazing! by Rosana Kantarjian - I can see how she quilted it, but piecing it? Amazing.

Sorry - don't know who made this, but I want to do waves well one day!

by Cindy Simpson - those are large zipper sections on either side.

by Francine Carriere

by Myra Tallman - note the hand stitching!

by Susan Wilson - so clever!

Preview for The Road Home RAL

noreply@blogger.com (Westend Quilter) — Tue, 24 May 2016 21:39:00 +0000

I am really excited to be part of The Road Home RAL, coming this September http://www.seamstobesew.com/category/events/the-road-home/.
I wanted to push myself to fix my blog and to be more consistent in blogging, so I volunteered to create for this event. So... can I do it? Well I'm really enjoying the design aspect of this event and I hope everyone enjoys seeing the result in September.
And after Quilt Canada, which I hope is a HUGE success - certainly they have everything I want to see - the National Juried Show, the concurrent shows, classes, lectures, the merchant mall and, above all, other quilters to meet and talk with! Anyway, after Quilt Canda, I have to get down to work and make my blog more attractive!
Wish me luck!
Of course....then there's the yardwork, cleaning up the beach, housework, etc....