Gifted fabrics and shop hops…

Many a times when we are gifted fabric or visit quilt shops while on shop hops, we receive goodie bags and in them they will have treasures.

These include fat quarters of fabrics as well.

What to do with them?

Most of the time they are fun novelty fabrics.

Leftover batting and muslin is used to quilt the inserts for the bags just by machine, just basic quilting.

On top of this is the vinyl and zipper placed and sewn to this insert before it is trimmed and popped into the pocket made for this.

My favourite way to use them and enjoy them, is to use them making project bags.

These three bags was made with gifted fabrics and shop hop treasures from the goodie bags.

The best part of making these bags, leftover binding scraps are used for the flanges that is sewn to the edges of the frames. Everything is used, including zippers which was not used in other projects. These project bags make great gifts and storage for projects on the go.

Tahoe is finished.

Tahoe is finished. Before washing it was 87 x 87inches. After washing and drying it was 81 inches square. I was not surprised by this, as all the fabrics had been starched beforehand and it was quilted quite densely.

The top is machine pieced. The quilting is a combination of hand quilting on the center and all the piecing of the quilt. Machine quilting was used on the border pink fabric which surrounds the piecing of the quilt.

The scale of the quilting is easier to see from the back of the quilt.

It was finished with Magic binding, sewn onto the back and folded over to the front. This was all done by machine.

The Magic binding, is called Aunt Suzie's Magic Binding. It creates a skinny flange on the front of the quilt. It is more noticeable when one use a contrast fabric, this time one plain and one pale print was used for this.

It was started towards the end of summer, lots happened inbetween the start and finish of her quilt. It has left on its journey to my sister.

Tahoe and the garden.

Red is the RSC23 colour for this month. The sewing machine has not seen much of me, as I am still quilting Tahoe by hand. The strawberries are making more berries, they are much happier higher up on the table in the sun.

Also did the machine quilting of the border fabric on Tahoe. I did not starch this fabric and I will do so in future. Plenty of hand quilting still to fill in, all the pins are removed and enough has been quilted for me to sew on the binding on this quilt. It will be going to my eldest sister in due course.

The veggies are producing, our first tomatoes was enjoyed in last nights salad. Met up with an old buddy, Cheerio.

A very busy summer.

The garden has just gone poof! Anything that was slow to grow, is now growing at warp speed. All our salads is from our own garden, the onions will be harvested when we need one or two. The Dahlia seeds all sprouted, they are in pots on the patio. The heat, rain and wildfire smoke all continue to be factors. So we have to work our way around all of it, to plan what we do when. Quilting happens when life allows for it, with summer here it tends to take a back seat.

Tahoe is being quilted and it is going far quicker than I thought it would. Most of the pins have been removed, there is still a lot to be quilted even thought it may not look like it.

The wedding wallhanging has all the fabrics now.

All the strips are cut as well. This past week we got to go on a quick field trip to Gitta's Petit Point, it is a feast for the eyes. Got the last couple of floss and thread that was ordered for the Serengeti Chatelaine.

All the sayings on the T-shirts we see...

Future projects.

A number of years ago, before pandemic I noticed red echinacea at the local nurseries. Then they just were not to be found anywhere. The rose bushes had died and I decided to replace it with one of these. Nothing, so I found and orange one and planted that instead. Friday past I needed to get two different shades of pink quilting thread for Tahoe, next to the sewing shop is a plant shop. I took a walk in there and found some cosmos, at the end of that isle there was every colour of blooming echinacea. In the middle was this red one, it came home with me.

The fingerling potatoes which was harvested from the garden. Last night, as part of our Canada day celebrations we had some with our dinner.

This fat quarter bundle was something I got a while back, like the collection but had no idea what to do with it.

Paging through this book there is a pattern that calls for 35 fat quaters?

It has 36, one extra for using as binding.

Plants was grown from seed, to be planted where the potatoes was in pots. The succession planting is working well, so is the strawberry plants. Our second strawberry is going red.

Canada Day!

1st of July is Canada Day. Red and white flags are displayed everywhere. Monday will be a holiday up north and school is out for the summer.

Received the paint chips for a wedding quilt, this special couple will be getting married in September later this year.

The fingerling potatoes are ready to be harvested. I have peppers ready to be planted in these boxes, which was planted in pots.

Quilting on Tahoe continue with all the smoke in the air. The back looks like this so far.

The front, some areas will be quilted once the main sections has been done.