Friday favourites

As some of you may know, I love English Paper Piecing. I find it relaxing, and because it is done by hand, it is extremely portable.

I like to buy my paper pieces (and now acrylic templates for all sizes) from paperpieces.com.

They have every shape I have been able to imagine, as well as free colouring sheets so you can plan your piece out.

These are just a few of the projects I have on the go right now :) So paperpieces.com is my favourite shop for EPP supplies :)

My May ALYOF goal

A few months back, one of my dear online friends announced her second pregnancy. That same day, another friend shared a tutorial for a quilt she calls Slice O’ Pie. It was kismet. I immediately started pulling fabrics.

As of right now I have about 2/3 of the top done. For my goal I want to have it finished, quilted, bound, everything. I have some patterns of my own I need to work on and so am trying to get some older projects out of the way.

Sorry for the crappy picture… it is so dark by my “design wall” but then when I turn the light on it does this lol.

 

I am linking up with ALYOF!

April ALYOF goal completed!

For my April goal I left you all in suspense as to what pillow pattern I was going to make for my neighbour’s birthday. (we can pretend you were in suspense lol)

These are my first flying geese and I had a ton of fun with them. I hope my neighbour enjoys it! Linking up with ALYOF:)

Great Grandmother’s Quilt

I have been staying at my Mom’s the last few days and I decided to finally take some pictures of the quilt her Grandmother made. I took close ups of my favourite fabrics. Pictures are mine… words are my Mom’s.

I have fond memories of my grandmother making quilts like the one in the picture which she made for me in the early ‘60s. 

The patches, with the exception of the blue broadcloth ones which were “store bought”, are all reminiscent of clothing made for me, my sisters and brother, cousins, aunts, and everyone else my grandma sewed something special for.

I have memories of visiting her and finding that her living room had been transformed into a quilting salon – the furniture had been pushed back to the walls and an enormous frame took up the centre space. 

She and her sisters and friends were seated around this huge frame, sewing and gossiping and thoroughly enjoying one another’s company. Everyone they knew or had known was discussed, dissected, and dissed. They gossiped, conspired, and generally had an all-round great time.

The quilting was sustained by tea and “dainties” (squares, cookies, cakes, etc.) at regular intervals and reminiscences of previous “bees” and departed quilters.

I was absolutely fascinated, particularly because I was the klutz and disappointment of the family. Both of my grandmothers were pioneer women. They cooked and cleaned and baked and sheared sheep and carded wool and sewed all of the family garments from underwear to coats. They made the quilts and sheets and pillows and protected their chesterfields with doilies they had crocheted.

For the lovelier things – tablecloths, pillow cases, wedding dresses – they employed their “fancy stitches” and embroidered and cross-stitched and tatted.

I could not thread a needle nor darn a sock. I couldn’t remember the difference between knit and purl and dropped stitches with alarming frequency. In short, I was a great disappointment to my grandmothers.

My father’s mother, the quilter, was disappointed in me because I always had my nose stuck in a book. I remember her looking at my bookshelves and the library books I had stacked beside my bed and declaring that I would never get married if I read so many books. Thank heavens my mother’s mother was not of the same mind – she had been a teacher and was my major supplier of books!

Later in life I learned a few of the arts my grandmothers practised – I became a fairly good knitter, could decorate my house and clothe my children and myself with my sewing exploits – but that was it and it is now history. My products were acceptable but not outstanding.

I’m so pleased that Katy has taken up quilting and is so proficient. Her grandmothers would be so proud of her. And, the fact that she also reads a lot would not be lost on one of them.

Friday Favourites

Today’s favourite is a pattern. This is for a pillow rest for your tablet or phone (or in my case iPod) and it is by one of my favourite people, Diane, of From Blank Pages….

I have actually made 5 of these so far as my friends keep wanting them! It is a great pattern and it only takes a few minutes to make. I highly recommend it :)

ALYOF April

I wasn’t sure what I was going to put as my goal for April, until I remembered that my neighbour upstairs has a May 4th birthday. I am going to make her a cushion. Laila is also a quilter and many a time I have rung her doorbell to show her something I have made! I am not sure on the pattern yet but I will have fun making it!

Since I have no picture, here is a photo I used the Waterlogue app on :)

Linking up with ALYOF!!

Friday Favourites

Today it is all about my UNDIES!!! You heard that right LOL… but it isn’t as nightmare inducing as you may think.

A couple of weeks ago Penny, of Sew Take a Hike fame, posted a paper-piecing/free-curve piecing pattern on her blog for a pair of undies that she had drafted for a paper piecing swap ages ago. Well I LOVE fun undies so I jumped in right away!

I made a mini with the days of the week, and a fun pair for each day :) I made the day labels using a stamp pad, and then I hand quilted with my Aurifloss.

    

I had so much fun putting this together!