Vera's Vintage Blocks

Happy Summer!  okay it hasn't officially begun but these past few days have been so beautiful.... Perfect temperatures, the garden is green and lush, and most of my outdoor set up has been completed.  Time to enjoy the yard and weekends!

A dear friend of mine, Vera, from our Modern guild knows my passion for everything vintage!  I am a big thrift store hunter...a collector of old milk-glass & Pyrex, and old crocheted granny square afghans (seriously). She came across a collection of old quilt blocks, given to her a long time ago, but had never done anything with them.... So she gifted me with them!

 No one knows who made them... I have challenged myself to pull out some of my favourite fabrics and re-imagine all of them in new ways!

There are 25 rather plain nine-patch blocks that I am mixing with Denyse Schmidt picnic fabrics, white Kona cotton and some aurafil thread. I plan to make some cute granny square blocks.

They are beautiful.  So perfectly pieced.... I plan to use them all. Perfect summer projects.

Ode to sunny Saturday - May 2012

Oh I am sitting in glorious sunshine on our back deck, with a fresh cup o' jo.  I am giving myself another 30 minutes of lounge time and then I will get to work!  This will be a gardening Saturday, oh yeah.

I am feeling very happy and grateful. Look at my lovely 'early garden bounty'.

This rhubarb made a lovely coffee cake, and also provided over 4 cups of stewed fruit for our cereal and yogourt this week. Love rhubarb! 

Lilacs, from a 'forgotten' shrub on the side of our house.  So many times have I contemplated having the shrub removed.... and every May I am glad that it remains.

Further things to mull over on a sunny Saturday.... I attended the Langley Quilters Guild Quilt Show last night; it was breath-taking. So much talent. My contribution was shopping in their Merchant's market:

Loving how nicely these 1930's prints match my lilacs!

And in closing, just wanted to post a few pictures of my all time favourite pick from the Langley Quilters Show last night!  A very colorful Pickle Dish!!

Snap

I am in love with Prairie points, and it is because of Jodi Nelson at Pleasant Home that I do! 

Praire points are a sweet way to use up little scraps of fabric.

This was what I worked on Sunday; and yes I should have been gardening but it rained pretty hard all afternoon - typical spring weather here.  So this is what I worked on instead. 

 I like having a bowl of vegies on the counter - rather than apples lately, I think it is because of the colors, Great, aren't they?  These fabrics are bits n' bobs from my sewing room; a nice blue piece of Moda Sanae and some colorful Anna Marie Horner for the prairie points!   

and they all go nicely with the IKEA snaps (or whatchma'callits) that we use to close up the potato chip bags.

HAPPY SEWING ALL !

Easter is coming

Work has been busy,  I need a break.... here is the plan for the upcoming weekend!   (Four days!) To reconnect with family: my hub, Ms. Freshface, my tiny sewing-room, and especially my garden.  The Weather Network is calling for sunshine this Easter weekend!  So I plan to spend half my time indoors and half out of doors, in the garden!  I plan to visit my mother; spend hours in my tiny sewing-room; write long loving emails to our number 1 who is currently in Australia; make pancakes for hub; go to church; plant up my geranium pots, weed the garden; scrub down our patio furniture!    Ah, it will be glorious!

HAPPY SEWING & GARDENING ALL !!

FVMQG Destash

Our Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild will be hosting a member 'De-Stash' at our next meeting.  This gives each of us the opportunity to go through our sewing rooms, baskets, workshops, closets in search of fabrics, notions and other related items that we wish to purge, bring them into our meeting for a 'scrap exchange', any fabrics and notions not claimed will be donated to local church groups looking for fabric donations! 

I chose this Saturday morning to take a good look at my scrap bags!  Oh My!!  This is harder than you would first imagine.  I found it necessary to look through each scrap... (I know) before deeming the bag of scraps worthy of donating.

It surprized me what I couldn't part with, and what I tossed on the heap!  Old vintage looking cottons and prints (some of them stained!) well those I could NOT part with. Yet I tossed many lovely new fabric charms and remnants without a second thought.

Here are the bags of scraps that I will be bringing to our 'De-Stash' in April.... oh someone could make several lovely 'string quilts' with these cottons!  There are at least a dozen zip-loc bags STUFFED full.

This feels good; my sewing room is a little less weighed down... and during this process I re-discovered a few fabrics to add to my Fat Quarter collection.

HAPPY SEWING ALL !!

Mod Mosaic Saturday

Awesome workshop this Saturday!  Paul from the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild hosted  an all day workshop entitled "Mod Mosaic".  

This workshop is based on Elizabeth Hartman's Mod Mosaic quilt block technique.  It was so fun. 

Here is the beginning of some of my blocks.... chose an aqua-red theme for my mosaic. Plus cups of Stash mint tea... it turned out to be a very lovely afternoon.

This quilt top by Paul - loved the examples of 1/2  inch sashing between fabrics. This tiny sashing which we called 'grout' had a really big impact.

This quilt featured was made in 2011, in a collaborative bee  by the Vancouver Modern Guild,  - the block arrangement by Paul.  This block design is so versatile. Look how graphic and bold it looks with the reds, greys & blacks.

But look at Vera's blocks in soft reds and greys, so soft:

Here is one of Kat's blocks in fresh greens and blues:

Cheryl used bright juvenile prints - very sweet:

I have completed several blocks and haven't been able to decide what fabric to use as a background for my aqua-red blocks. Here is what I have come up with so far....

Above is a pale aqua print by Lecien which I like.

Above are some of my blocks on light grey background.  I like this too.

Above, again, on this teal solid by Moda.  Hmmm.  

 And with yellow solid and below with lime green.

I actually like them all only I imagined using a print as my background. Just an idea that I can't shake but haven't found the right fabric for.... 

Happy Sewing All.

Ode to Saturday & my quilty week

Another rainy Saturday morning; but I will take it.  A great chance to stay in and putter around the house.  But I must admit that the temperature outside has warmed up and although the back yard is very soggy I do have a bit of the 'gardening bug'.  I can see my herb garden come back to life along with many weeds that need to be pulled..... ah another weekend.

This week was another quilty week:

This bunting draped on our bookcase was designed by Cynthia Frenette, a member of our Modern Quilt Guild. Our guild will have a booth this March 23 - 24 for the Creative Stitches show at Tradex in Abbotsford. Love that font! These will decorate the booth. Plus we will be displaying many quilts, handing out buttons, business cards and keychains!  The show will be a wonderland for the modern sewist.  Come check it out!

Here are some of the lovely fabrics that showed up in my mailbox this week!  Do you notice a trend? Seasonal influences perhaps?  Dreaming of summer? Yes, yes, yes!  But I am in love with the line of fabric by Choe's Closet "Fruit Cocktail".  (bottom bolt)  very vintage vibe - the colors are lovely.

And I wanted to include a picture of my lovely magnets that I won as a doorprize at our Thursday night guild meeting.  These are handmade by another talented member of our Modern quilt guild, the fabulous Amy Dame.
Today, on this rainy Saturday I plan to work on 'rug mug' designs for an upcoming 'rug mug' swap with the Vancouver Modern quilt guild.  I have a few ideas.  One is based on this lovely photo:

I love scrappy quilts. I made a smaller version of this quilt last year and I have always wanted to make individual blocks.  Check out the link to Freida's Hive for the tutorial.  I love the block!
Other rug mug ideas.....

This lovely was featured on Pleasant Home.  Love whirligigs!

This beauty from Flossy Bossy (on Flickr)

Basically, any block from this fab book.  Every project is a 'keeper' in this one!  Really good.

Happy Sewing All !!

January Joys - grateful for the time I've been given

It was a very snowy past week - so much snow in fact that the university where I work was closed for the week!

I made good use of the time - catching up on laundry, naps, reading and lots of sorting of fabrics and sewing.

I quilt, and have accumulated a large collection of quilt fabrics as well as scraps from past projects.  The pieces aren't small enough to throw away, so I keep them.

 

I love every bit of the fabric purchased and  like to use up every little bit! Hence I have at least a dozen large Ziploc bags filled with scraps of lovely colorful fabrics that I can't part with.

 I have always been fond of 'wonky stars' or maverick stars as I have seen them described. Quilt or table runner?  I haven't decided but I love these gentle little stars.