Quilt related

 Just a couple more rows for the Row by Row. 

A clearer picture or the finished rows.

I liked the look of this but the instructions that came with the kit were not very good at all. I ended up appliquing the top kite part.

This was a fun one to figure out.

 I may just use these last two as standalone quilts to put up on the wall.

Something new

It's Row by Row time again. There aren't many quilt shops participating. In Canada there are only four provinces that are offering patterns and kits. I liked some of the patterns and decided I would purchase some kits. Here's the beginning.

Please excuse the photo. I took it outside while there was still a bit of light. I'll take better photos as I continue with the rows. Here's three rows. All machine applique. The theme this year is summertime. I have two more rows that are pieced. One is complete and the other is almost finished. The flowers and butterflies in the top row were all pre-cut so it went together quickly. That row is not fused but just sewn around all the applique pieces. The kit came with yellow buttons that are for the centre of the flowers. I will sew them on at some point. I have two butterflies that I will sew somewhere on the whole quilt but I didn't want to add them to that row. I thought it would look too busy. I am planning on quilting a butterfly or two in the empty spaces.

Sewing, knitting again

I have a few things that are finished and more things that I am still working on.

I finished this Harry Potter scarf for my eldest grandson. I purchased the yarn at Poundland in England (similar to our Dollarama.) I started it in England and just finished the fringe last week. I added fringe because the ends curled up. I will block it before sending it to see if that would help with the curling inwards of the whole scarf.

This is a baby sweater that has been unfinished for a while now and I thought it could be my next knitting project but...

I started (and now finished) this little rainbow baby hat. It was supposed to be a newborn to 3-month size but it turned out bigger. I shall try another pattern. There is a charity on Facebook called Warm Baby Project and it's based in England. They supply knitted garments to hospitals and other places that need them. I have learned a few things while following the site: some hospitals have different coloured hats for the babies in need. They are called traffic light hats because they are either green, yellow or red depending on the level of care the little ones need. It's easy to see in a hurry. Also, rainbow hats and blankets are given to newborns whose families have previously suffered a miscarriage, still born birth or have otherwise lost a baby.

And this is my current sewing project. It's the Quilters Trek - previously known as Row by Row. I wasn't going to participate this year but the theme was True Blue so how could I pass it up? I'm almost finished the rows, or blocks and then I have to put it all together. Lots and lots of work but I love blue so it's been fun.

Completed

I was working on a little sweater for my youngest granddaughter, Aurora. 

Her mom selected the colour of the little sweater.

It's a very nice mauve colour (this is closer to the true colour.) I hope it fits.

This little quilt was part of the Row by Row with the theme of music. I knew as soon as I saw it that I had to make it. One of my daughters-in-law is a Beatles fan and so I made it for her 40th birthday.

This is the back of the quilt. I used some fat quarters that I had accumulated when I was making the Row by Row. The top black fabric is just the hanging sleeve. I took this photo before I had attached a label but it does have one.

I'm off to finish a couple of things and then get them crossed off my list.

Row by Row Experience 2019

The theme for this year's Row by Row was "Taste the experience." I was late in getting my top done and then I was late in getting it quilted. Once I saw the blocks that the quilt shops offered, I noticed that there were a lot of blocks that were 18 inches square. Once I thought about a quilt, I decided to just use the 18 inch block size totally. After some more thinking, I realized that since I hadn't yet made a shadow block quilt, I could very easily do one now. There weren't many winners this year. I think a lot of people weren't too keen on the idea of a quilt that was food based. I didn't care because I figured it could very well be used as a lap quilt to keep someone warm.

Here's my finished quilt. I bought no fabric because all of it came from my stash.

Some close-ups of the blocks I used.

This block was from Thimbles and Things in Orillia. I think I used up one of my red fabrics.

There were four quilt shops offering a version of this pattern. I didn't venture out to get the peach or the plum. This pattern came from Threads That Bind in Maxwell. For some reason, the four quilt shops offered this pattern as a 12 inch by 18 inch square. They did indicate that one could make a placemat from the pattern but none of the shops mentioned that the pattern actually should have been an 18 inch square. I just added an extra row.

This one was a hit with my middle daughter and also my son-in-law's grandmother. I had won the pickle fabric and the raspberries in a previous row by row. The plum fabric was a remnant I picked up in my travels to collect the row patterns. The Pantry Shelf was offered at Feathering Quilt Shop in Dundas, Ontario.

There were a lot of ice cream themed blocks. This one came from a Len's Mill Store in London, Ontario.

A cute birthday cake. The green fabric in the cake stand came directly from my scrap pile. The pieces were cut from odd lengths. The same fabric is in the block above. I don't know if there are any pieces left. I doubt it. Len's Mill Store in Waterloo is where I picked up the pattern.

I liked this pattern. It was simple but there was just something about it that appealed to me. It came from another Len's Mill Store - this time from Cambridge. They had moved since I was last there. Luckily, there were addresses to all the shops and with GPS, we didn't get lost.

Country Concessions in Cookstown came up with this block. Their version had a cupcake in the middle with the words "Eat dessert first." In my version, I decided to call it "eat your vegetables." I just happened to have that veggie fabric lying around and thought it was perfect. I don't know if you've noticed but my colour palette has included quite a bit of lime green. I thought I would stick with the same colours throughout so that my quilt didn't look too scrappy.

This ice cream cone version came from Quilter's Nine Patch in Elmira, Ontario. That pink ice cream drip was supposed to be a 3D flap but since I knew I was going to be hand quilting it, I just appliqued it on. Making it as a separate flap was too much work. You can see some of my quilting designs. I just used a couple of stencils and mainly just parts of them - not the total design.

I thought that quite a bit of work went into designing this one from Ye Olde Fabric Shoppe in Stratford, Ontario. That's where I brought in my winning quilt. While making the ants, I thought I could use a white gel pen but after going to a local art supply shop, the young lady there told me that it would wash out when I told her why I wanted a white pen. She then showed me two paint pens/markers that could be used on fabric and would be permanent once they were ironed. I was allowed to try them both out and I settled for a Uni Posca marker. I like how the ants turned out.

Now you can see what has been keeping me busy these summer months. 

Oh yes, I also went to England in June for two weeks to visit my youngest daughter and her family. The day after I came home, my 10th grandchild (little Aurora) was born on Father's Day. Then my eldest and youngest daughters visited in the beginning of July with their families to see the latest addition to our growing family. After checking our schedule for the summer, my husband and I decided that we could go to British Columbia with our eldest daughter and her two boys to help with harvesting some of their summer garden produce. Her husband was out of town finishing up his schooling. Once we came home, we looked after some of our grandchildren while they were on summer holiday. 

So I did manage to get this quilt done and now I'm trying to finish up a few other things. 

Complete Row By Row quilt

My Row by Row quilt is finished, done, complete.

It started out with a few rows. I had this fabric in rainbow colours and thought I could incorporate it in the guitar pick row from Log Cabin Yardage in Pickering, Ont.

The frog block is from Cherished Pieces in Tillsonburg, Ont. It is, like the one above, 12 inches by 27 inches. This year the Row blocks were various sizes.

Hillcrest Home Baking in Floradale, Ont. is where this cute block came from.

The Hobby Horse Quilt Shoppe in Georgetown is where this block was picked up.

These cute birdies, an 18 inch square, is from Quilt Junction in Waterford, Ont.

Here's most of the completed blocks (the empty space is where the final square was placed.) The bottom row still needed the musical notes (it's Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.) The four corners were just filler squares of instruments that I had collected.

Here it is all put together. It just needed a border, be quilted, bound and have a label before bringing it in to a quilt shop to claim my prize.

This is the fabric I used for the border. The tape measure is there so I know how long to make the backing. I found the backing/border fabric when I visited my eldest daughter in British Columbia in March. I knew that the theme was music so I thought this would be perfect. Click on the photo to see how well suited it is.

The piano keys block above is actually a Junior Row kit. I thought little Teemu would enjoy it.

Undercover Quilts and More in Fergus, Ontario offered this block.

Here's a close-up of one of the cute little bees.

This block came from Ibea's Quilting and Crafts in Williams Lake, British Columbia. I love the way the quilting just brings a flat block to life.

Totally complete.

Here I am at Undercover Quilts and More in Fergus, Ontario.

This is my win. I received 25 Henry Glass fat quarters and since I also had the Row By Row square that was designed by the quilt shop, I got a bottle of Best Press and a package of bobbin keepers.

Sneak peak

With the approach of summer, I get geared up for road trips. For four years now I have taken part in the Row by Row Experience. This year's theme is Sew Musical. I had been hesitating this year as to whether or not I should participate but once I heard what the theme was, I was all in. The quilt would be finished and gifted to little Teemu who loves music and has several toy musical instruments. He recently graduated to a big bed so it just seemed appropriate. So that's one reason I have been so quiet on the blog this summer.

Here's one of the rows. It's the regular, or classic, 9 inch by 36 inch (finished) row.

The row above was offered at The Hobby Horse Quilt Shop, in Georgetown, Ontario.

Some of the others are 18 inch squares. The Row by Row team announced that this year the sizes of the 'rows' would be changed to include the 18 inch square, a 12 inch by 27 inch rectangle and a long 54 inch by 6 inch row. I have yet to see the long row offered.

The little birdies above was designed by Quilt Junction in Waterford, Ontario. 

This summer we've had a little visitor in our backyard.

Bunny has made our backyard a tempting home.

We saw one, then two and then a baby one. I think this is the baby one.

Unfortunately, my husband has seen a hawk or falcon around and one landed on our verandah railing less than two feet from him when he was feeding the little sparrows some bread. We haven't seen our little bunnies since. I hope they've just found more fruitful yards to visit.

I'm off now to do more quilting on my current Row by Row quilt.

Row by Row quilt

Yes, the quilt on the frame is now complete and I've brought it in to a participating quilt shop.

Here's the photo taken the morning after I finished binding it and adding a label.

 This is what I won for bringing the quilt into the Threads That Bind quilt shop. I did include the row from the quilt shop. It's the one on the very first row, the hockey row. The owner of the quilt shop, Lois, is herself a hand quilter and knows how much work went into the quilt so she added a few extras in my 'win.'

It's now hanging for a few weeks in the store. I had a relaxing weekend and am now working away at trying to shorten my 'to do' list.

Row by Row Experience 2016

This is the second year that I have participated in the Row by Row Experience. If you don't know about it, HERE's a link where you'll find all the information. This year the theme was Home Sweet Home.

It's all put together just before I sewed a small border on.

Here are close-ups of some of the blocks.

I used these four segments separately in my quilt instead of sewing them up like this, in one row.

I chose to cut my flowers out of fabric as one piece instead of doing the 8 petaled flowers that were in the pattern. We are given liberties as to how we interpret the design.

I'm glad I used this background fabric.

A nice air mail feature that I replicated with marking pens and the inside of the envelope (the butterfly) was a scrap that just fit.

The envelopes were fun to make and I hope I can use the pattern in another project.

I really liked the fact that a lot of the rows this year were vertical and some shops gave you the option of making them vertical or horizontal. One shop had two different patterns in different directions so you could choose which one you wanted.

I used the same fabrics in a couple of the rows. The sky blue was used repeatedly as was the leaf fabric.

I had to inform the shop that designed this row that they had left out the little mouse from their pattern. The butterfly was my own addition. If you click on the photo, you can get a closer look at the fabric I used for the owls. It was hard to find feather fabric and so the owl bodies are actually bark.

 The original pattern and kit for this gnome had him and his toadstool sitting in the middle of a yellow field. The stars had the same yellow. I wanted the row to look a bit more interesting so I gave the row some grass, flowers and sky. I didn't buy any kits since I had so much fabric in my stash to use up.

Here's the quilt stretched on the frame. I hand quilted the whole thing and took it off the frame last Wednesday. On Thursday, I finished putting the binding, label and a hanging sleeve on. Saturday, I brought it in to The Workroom on Queen Street  and retrieved my prize of 25 fat quarters and the bonus prize because I used The Workroom's row in my quilt. It's the last row in my quilt and basically spells out Queen Street West because that is where the store is located.

My queen photo came out too blurry to use so click on some of other photos to see what she looks like. This is the other part of the bottom row. I used my own flowers once again and made the heart red instead of the black in the instructions. I quilted the compass points too. At first I was going to use two different fabrics but then I realized that I didn't have to. I could just quilt the other half of the compass points. It saved on time and it saved my fingers from quilting through more fused fabrics.

I don't know which of these two photos is better.

There are no photos of me with the quilt.

Except this one. 

The Workroom first posted photos on instagram - not facebook. I found this out because my daughter's friend saw it and asked if that was my quilt.
Now, the quilt photo is on facebook and it was noted that I hand quilted it.
https://www.facebook.com/rowbyrowstudio/?fref=nf
 My name is still misspelled, though - it's DOlores (that happens a lot!)

It was a lot of fun choosing the rows and then putting it all together. I didn't have too much trouble figuring out a layout this year and didn't have to add my own row.

Now, I'm off to sew some little outfits for my favourite little ones. 

I'm linking this to The Needle and Thread Network. Hop on over to see more fibre creations.