"A Slice of Langley Life" 2014

This is called a "Slice Quilt" and is named "A Slice Of Langley Life". It was made by a group of 8 quilters, all members of a smaller quilting group I belong to called "Around the Block Quilters". It was based on a photo that a fellow quilt guild member had taken a few years ago of a farm in Langley, BC. Each one of us was given a 'slice' or portion to work on and we collaborated on our choices of sky fabrics to make sure that one didn't stand out too much. We met several times to make sure our fences met up correctly but other than that we all interpreted it in our own way. My 'slice' is the second one from the left with 1/2 of the barn in it. It was definitely a learning experience but a very enjoyable one too. It was a big hit at our biennial quilt show last May 2014 and is now owned by our guild and displayed whenever we attend functions to promote our guild.

Not sure which photo is better so I added another one. 

I just realized that this one wasn't finished, but you'll still get the idea. Not sure if I have a photo of it finished or not but I'll look later. This quilt was made for our Kourageous Kids charity where some of our guild members re-create a drawing from a calendar fundraiser that Children's Hospital does every year called 'Balding for Dollars" to raise money for children with cancer. This was my 5th year participating in it and it went to a lovely little girl who had survived her battle and was very happy to receive the quilt.

This quilt was given to a niece for a wedding gift in July 2013. It's sort of a Christmas quilt, but I didn't use bright red and greens so hopefully it can be used more year round. The small pinwheels are actually 3D as they're folded and sewn down. Hope she liked it.

New Baby/Toddler quilts 2014

My 2 year old grandson needed a bit bigger quilt for his crib and since the weather was warmer it needed to not be too heavy. He loves Cat in the Hat so I made the top one for him using a Disappearing 9 patch pattern (nice and easy) and put some 'Cars' fabric on the back. Finished it with some free motion quilting.
The second one was all Minke fabric, so nice and soft, and I made it for a new great -nephew. He's also getting a wall-hanging that I'm just finishing now, but I wanted to send him something that they could use everyday first. I've done this several times now for new babies and the Moms seems to like them as they're soft, washable (polyester) and you can take them to the beach or in the car and then throw them in the wash. I did some free motion quilting on it, just to hold the layers together.

It's been a long time since my last post.....

I apologize for not keeping up with this blog, but life just seems to have gotten in the way for the past year. Besides babysitting 2 full days a week, I've been dealing with a 90 year old Mom that needed more care due to dementia and it was a long struggle to finally find her the care she needed. Things have now settled down, so I'm going to try and post some of the quilts I've done in the last year.

Quilts for Great Nephews

Made these 2 quilts for 2 very special great nephews as we were seeing them at their Auntie's wedding in Calgary this summer(2013) . I had picked up 2 fabric panels intended to be made into little 'soft books', but made them into quilts instead. The first one is called "Can You Find This?" and has trucks, motorcycles, diggers etc all over it. A good one to also play "I Spy" with.
Both boys love superheroes (they are 4 1/4 and 2 1/2 years old) so that Batman panel was a no brainer when I saw it. I quilted around all the figures and letters on the Batman one and then did some free motion quilting in the lighter blue part. I didn't do any quilting in the black/white fabric sashing as it really didn't need it with such bold colours.
On the car quilt I spent a lot longer quilting around just about all of the cars and vehicles, but it was worth it. Did some free motion quilting in the green sashing. The car one is a bit larger in size.
I couldn't decide which one to give to the boys, so left it up to their Mom as she knows them best. She sent me a photo later of both of them sitting on them and enjoying them -that makes it all worth while.
PS- both boys did receive a baby quilt when they were born also.

"Life's a Hoot" -Baby quilt for Tyce Robbins ( finished July 2013)

Finished this quilt in July for my great-nephew -Tyce. Found the pattern on Craftsy called "Life's a Hoot". It took quite a while to do, but I was pleased with the outcome (the nicest baby quilt I've done so far). Each owl was machine quilted, layer by layer and then added to the background fabric where it was sewed on with a buttonhole stitch. It was fun choosing all the different fabrics and trying not to repeat them. The pattern had a pale gold background but I changed it to the sky/cloud fabric. I had picked up the backing fabric (a Kaffe Fasset) awhile ago and decided to use it for the backing as it was so colourful.
Congratulations to Scott & Veruscka on the birth of their beautiful little boy!