OMG Times Three

1. OMG

One Monthly Goal

I did not get my 150 Canadian Women top to the flimsy stage last month so I am moving it on over to this month. It's a pretty huge goal, but I did move it along by getting all 150 sashing 1.5X6.5" strips attached.

Stacked all in one pile, they'd equal 8" high of blocks!

I've since realized that we are not doing a 10X15 block layout, which would have created a rather long skinny quilt, but a 12X13 block layout. That means I need 156 blocks, so I have to make six more. Kat suggests just plain red 6.5" squares, or a maple leaf... I have a few ideas, just need to get them into the fabric. I also bought a half metre of "With Glowing Hearts" from my LQS that is a plaid-looking fabric with red maple leaves that are 1" square on it! Perfect for the cornerstones.

2.  OMG

Ontario-inspired Maker who is German
Her name is Claudia, and she lives in Germany. She reads my blog, every post! Awww.  Earlier this year, in April to be exact, she was in Florida for some time. Well, she decided to do my Freefall QAL which was running on the blog around that time. She says the fabrics she chose were inspired by the previous October's trip to Toronto, which sits on Lake Ontario:

She was visiting a neighbour's daughter, who has married a Canadian and lives in Toronto.  She writes:

It was such a nice time last year in October, with all this sunshine, it was warm and all this wonderful colors around us. Great. I am sure we will be visit this area again sometimes.

I am so awed and grateful that she DID my QAL, (I have another in the works, yep, another shadow quilt! for Spring 2018 in the works), that she took the time to write to me to tell me and send me these photos, that she was in Florida (you may recall we spend a few months there in the winter), and that she was inspired by one of our Great Lakes' Fall colours. How absolutely wonderful is all that?  Wonderful, glorious, is her rendition of Freefall:

Rich lush batiks! In lush Florida too!

Look at the quilting!

Close-up of the quilting and the batiks--yum!

Thank you Claudia, from the bottom of my heart!

3. OMG

Over the Moon Girl

My daughter Dayna and her boyfriend Tyler spent American Thanksgiving weekend in Chicago. Their first day there, he dropped to one knee by Lake Michigan...

Yup, he's now her fiancé.😃 And I am One 'Maman' Grinning with happiness for them. It does my heart good to see my daughter literally brimming with joy, hear the excitement and happiness in Tyler's voice and on his face as he told us what he was going to do and asked for our blessing, and then get the call/FaceTime of utter elation and tears of happiness from her after he proposed. Next year is looking to be filled with much joy!

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts

Windblown Cushion Cover

This little gem of a cushion or pillow cover was on my Q1 FAL list.  Oh well, the point is it's done, right? And I just love it! So summery.

I had plans to drive to my beloved Lakeside Park to do the photo shoot, but then I thought hmm, maybe there's a spot in our yard, rounded the back of the deck and spied this!  Like you'd think I had totally planned it, down to putting the begonia there.  Nope.  But I'll take it!

You saw the flimsy in my previous post.  This cushion is based on my Freefall and Windfall quilt pattern, but uses only four blocks of the half and half kind. There were a few choices I had to arrange the four...

It was hard to decide!  In the end I thought floating them on a large pinwheel would add to the twirling effect. I got the top together, complete with mitred corners, and called it a night.  Went upstairs the next morning to layer it and figure out a quilting plan...

Someone had laid claim to it! The cheek! If you look closely at the upper left corner by the migrating geese strips, you will see her very own perch, one of several, I might add, by a window, complete with her very own handmade by yours truly, cushion. She likes the new stuff.  Without fail.

Some of the quilting plan came to me no problem:

Loving the sheen of the Sulky white rayon.

The lines in the white areas in opposite directions I thought would look kind of cool.  Then I did flowing lines on the diagonal in the leaves themselves.  Finally the turquoise sections...hmmm. I was stumped for a bit, so I pulled out my trusty plexiglass and dry erase markers, brilliant idea of my friend Tish, and drew out a couple of thoughts:

What? No feathers? Maybe dot to dot then...meh...the continuous curve appealed to me.

Found some matching rayon thread by Gütermann, and off I went, just eye-balling the curves.  I went with three straight lines centred in the borders, and called it a night.

Managed to capture a quick shot of the back as the sun was setting.

Just as I was dropping off to sleep, zing! Into my head popped the idea, (but of course, Sandra!) of doing a flanged binding. Yes! So I did.

Perfect choice!

Here is the back, an envelope style, but I don't double the fabric layers.  I wouldn't have had enough fabric anyhow, ha!

I remembered to sew on my mmm! quilts label from Ikaprint AS I was sewing on the binding:

When I stitched down the flange, I used the turquoise rayon on the top.  I am not a fan of the line of stitching you get on the back when doing binding this way, although I sure am a fan of the look and the speed. I thought the white cotton Gütermann would show more on the back...what are the chances I'd have a salmon/rose colour to put in the bobbin... Chances were great! I stocked up on quite a variety of colours of Essential thread at one of Connecting Threads' sales. That is an affiliate link, so it is also my duty to let you know that clicking it will take you to the thread sale currently on (25% off so that means US$2.09 for a 1200 yard spool of 100% cotton, terrific thread) and I might mention that all their batting is 30% off as well. That's when I usually pick up a few packages of Hobbs, the brand they carry. Anyhow, threads:

You actually do get a bit of an idea of the sheen the rayon threads give in that photo.

In retrospect, I think a circle quilting motif would have been better for the spinning effect.  That thought struck me this morning when I went to do the binding, and I saw the finished cover sitting on my sewing table.  Maybe there's another one of these in my future!

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Windblown, original design
Size:  after quilting 18.25"
Fabric: Recollection by Katarina Rocella (how I love her work) for Art Gallery Fabrics, Stof Fabrics in turquoise, Kona Snow
Batting: Warm n Natural
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads:  pieced with Gütermann; quilted with Sulky rayon, Gütermann rayon

Once I release the pattern, which will hopefully be in July, I will include instructions for making this pillow as well as both sizes of quilts.  If you haven't seen all the beautiful renditions of Freefall, go back one post or click here, and follow the links to gorgeous takes on my design!  If you fell behind in the QAL, you have until Sunday afternoon, 4 pm EST to link up your flimsy or your finished quilt to be eligible for some pretty sweet prizes. And if this is the first time seeing my Freefall pattern, all the steps to make the quilt are in the Freefall tab up top, and all the steps are available as free PDFs in my Craftsy store. 😊

Speaking of Sunday, and Craftsy, all things sweet, Craftsy is having a Supplies Sale from now until Sunday.  This is when I have scored some pretty sweet deals on kits and on fabric and yarns.  As always, thank you so much if you click through on my links to either Craftsy or Connecting Threads.

Linking up
Crazy Mom Quilts
TGIFF at Cut & Alter
Busy Hands Quilts

Freefall Quilt Along Step 5

Woo hoo!  We are HERE!  Some of you are all, 'been there done that' because you've got your tops all sewn up, but here is the official final step to assemble the 25 blocks into a flimsy along with some quilting ideas.

Here is Freefall, in flimsy form.  Tish based her colouring page on this layout, which is also downloadable from my Craftsy store (affiliate link) for free.

I stand before you to say do not follow this layout to a 'T'.  Yup.  I've said this in several places here on the blog and in the PDFs to note where three of my leaves point together.  Not good because there are so many seams coming together there and it makes for a bit of a lump when you quilt over that area.

Here is the Windfall layout as a flimsy:

Complete with a Bella bum.

You can tilt your leaves any which way you like, even the H1-3 leaves can be in various places as long as the shadow leaf 45-degree lines are correct.

Moral of the story: don't be seamy, be free, and tilt away! 😁

As for assembly, you may want to try my 'Book It' method, which I almost always use for assembling quilt tops. Basically you sew the quilt blocks in columns, chaining each column together as you sew pairs together.  This quilt has an odd number grid, so you'd have two columns of 'books' and then one column of singles.  I learned this way back when I did colourwash quilts and I had many 2" blocks to keep in exact orientation.

Quilting

I don't know about you, but every since I bought my first quilt magazine, or quilt book, and came to the 'Quilting' part of a quilt pattern, I got supremely upset and disappointed to read the phrase, "Quilt as desired."  I get a little happier when I read these days, "Sandra quilted flowing lines with echoes, and swirls in the background.  She quilted straight lines across the shadow leaf, treating it as a separate entity from the background, and ignoring the leaves that fall on it. She also quilted some ghost leaves in the background areas."

I get really ecstatic when I get a drawn diagram or a photo that shows the quilting!

And when I get closeups to study.

This was after the shadow leaf had all the straight lines quilted. And okay full disclosure: I had no clue was not totally sure what I was going to do in the background!

Freefall was quilted on my Bernina.

I went with quite large swirls, 3/8-1/2" spacing, echoes and of course a ghost leaf

Windfall was quilted on Avril, my HandiQuilter Avanté.

Windfall got a border of ribbon candy around the shadow leaf after I did several straight-line echoes of the shadow leaf

Each leaf that was in the background got its own design.

Feathers, with contrasting thread

Leaf veins with matching thread

More leaf veins

And some got dot to dot work and elongated figure eight and continuous curves.

Threads

Freefall was done entirely with one colour of thread, probably my favourite one for blending in with multiple fabric colours, Aurifil 2600.

Like my Bernina, Avril likes pretty much any thread I've used on her, from cotton to polyester to rayon, various brands and weights.
For Windfall, I used Essential cotton, Isacord polyester, Floriani rayon and Aurifil cotton.

So there.  I hope I've made you ecstatic, and given you ideas. This quilt is quite a graphic design, so you could do straight lines across the entire top; alternatively, you could do wavy 'organic' lines across its top.  I wanted to define the shadow leaf from the background when I planned my quilting.  You can use whatever threads you and your machine prefer.

You have exactly one month, that is until June 15, what would have been my dad's 91st birthday, to get your quilts assembled into tops if you haven't already done so, and then quilted up and bound ready for the final parade and prizes!  To see a list of the prizes, go here and here and here.
There are 4 fabric prizes, a copy of the book Crafted Appliqué, and 8 pattern prizes!

Again, I cannot say it enough: THANK YOU!! 😘😘😘😘😘😘😍😍 for taking a chance on a blogger doing her first quilt along, to my sponsors for being so agreeable to offer prizes, and to my followers for quilting along with me...even though, sadly, I did not quilt along on a third version - YET - with you due to IRL circumstances.  It means so much that you've done this, and I hope you've had fun and that you are pleased with your quilts! I know I am blown away (ha, pun not originally intended) by the beautiful falling leaves quilts I've been seeing!  I cannot WAIT for the parade in a month!  If you fell behind, not to worry (ha, been there done that, am there NOW with my own damn QAL oops, haha) you have a full month to get it together for the parade and be eligible for prizes.

Linking up
Cooking Up Quilts

Freefall Link Up #4

Wow!  It's here!  Have you managed to get all 20 of your blocks done?  Now's the time to show them off! I have one to show you that is destined to become a cushion cover.

I see Miss Bella was parking her butt on it...maybe she's dropping hints/furballs to claim it for her own!

Puh-LEEZE remember my tip that I've mentioned more than once that if you cannot wait and have to sew your top together, you avoid that place in the layout, and in my Freefall quilt, though not in my Windfall quilt, where I have 3 leaf points pointing together.  Yikes, it was too many seams there, nasty.  So tip them alternate ways than mine! Be free! Be less seamy, lol.

Sorry that the linkup is out a little late today:  busy day yesterday with stage 1 of the kitchen reno, not a good night, because of an upset digestive system of Naala's, early morning yoga for me, followed by my ophthalmologist appointment (got a 'eyes are good!' from my doctor, so yay, that's a welcome phrase, and I don't have to go back to him for 6 months instead of 6 weeks), and dilated pupils makes for sensitive eyes even looking at a computer screen...Anyhow, let's get on with it shall we?!

Can't wait to see what lovely renditions you have of my pattern!  It is really and truly exciting to see so many gorgeous, knock one's socks off, fabrics being used for my design. 😄  Thank you all so much!  This link up will run until next Sunday night, so you have a full week to finish up the six half & half blocks.

Funny photo for you today.  Took it yesterday before we set the temporary countertop on the cabinets.  Didn't even notice the photobomb until Dayna pointed it out!! 😼

The new stove will go where the brown IKEA Kallax cabinet is.  There is still more for MacGyver to build in Stage 1, but WHAT a difference to dismantle the peninsula  that divided the kitchen in half!  He's raving about the superior quality of these cabinets, one very happy builder!

Freefall Quilt Along Step 4

There are three different styles of leaves that float on half-background, half-shadow leaf fabric.  Of course, you could choose to make all six the same; just know that you might have to cut more of either the background or shadow leaf fabric.

H1 Leaves
The first ones I've labelled H1.  Half and half (background and shadow leaf) is where the H comes from.  We will make two of these.

Note:  To avoid confusion between leaf fabric and shadow leaf fabric, I will refer to the shadow leaf fabric as green, which my big shadow leaf is.

Make the leaf point first, using background fabric for the side triangles.  Next make only four HSTs using two background (low volume pastel print) and two leaf (purple brick print) 2.5" squares.  Then make two HSTs using the third leaf (purple) 2.5" square and one green 2.5" square.  Finally make two HSTs, using one each of background and green fabric squares. Note that in the photo below I used the purple brick print as my leaf print because it has such good contrast with both to show you how to pair these up.

Press the background/green fabric HSTs to the green fabric.  Lay out as shown below, noting that you need a 2" square of green fabric next to each corner HST and also one 3.5" green square:

Piece as you did for both previous sets of leaves, squaring to 8".  The only difference is that instead of the two rectangles of background fabric, you have two 2" squares to piece with the HSTs in the top left and bottom right corners.  Hint: piece those first. 😉 Press the bottom one to the 2" square, and the top left one to the HST.

H2 Leaves

The second pair of leaves are constructed the same as the H1 leaves, but you reverse the placement of the green (shadow leaf) fabric and background fabric.  Pair your 2.5" squares to make the HSTs as shown below:

Lay out the leaf as shown below:

Here is what it looks like once you start to sew together the top sections, and the bottom sections.

Make two.

H3 Leaves
We are making two of these.

Take the one green 2.75" x 3.75" rectangle and the one background fabric of the same size that remain from the cutting step.  Lay them atop each other wrong sides together.  Use the template you made for the side triangles for the leaf point and cut two of these.  You will have two identical green (shadow leaf) side triangles and two identical background triangles.

Piece a leaf point as you did before, but using one green side triangle and one background triangle with your leaf fabric.

Next, pair your (3) 2.5" leaf squares as follows:
one 2.5" square with one background
one 2.5" square with one green
Then, cut the third 2.5" square in half on the diagonal.  Do the same with one background and one shadow leaf 2.5" square.  Pair one leaf triangle with a background triangle, and the other with a green triangle.  See below.

Stitch HSTs as before.  Press 2 of the leaf/green HSTs to the green, and one to the leaf fabric.  Repeat with the background ones, pressing 2 to the background and one to the leaf fabric.  Finally, pair the 4" square of background fabric with the 4" square of green fabric.  Draw a line on the diagonal and stitch 1/4" on either side; cut apart and press.  Square to 3.5".

You will have the following:

Piece and press exactly as you did for the leaves that float on background.  Square to 8".

Have fun! In two weeks we'll assemble the quilt top.  Please note that if you can't wait, and you want to go ahead, avoid having more than 2 leaf points pointing together.  I didn't even think about this when making Freefall, and ended up with 3 sets of points, way too many seams, coming together.  For Windfall I planned a bit better!

As usual, you can download a free copy of this step in my Craftsy Store (affiliate link).

Linking up
Cooking Up Quilts

Freefall Quilt Along Step 3 Construction of 6 Leaf Blocks

In this step we will be creating the leaves that float on the background fabric, as well as the shadow leaf point.  There are six leaves that float on the background.  You can download a copy of this post in PDF form from my Craftsy Store.

Gather your leaf pieces that are going to float on the background that you set aside from Cutting Step 1, along with the background pieces.  You will still have several pieces left after this week's work; we will use them in Step 4.  Just as in Step 2, you will have one 2 3/4" X 3 3/4" rectangle left over; do not cut this into side triangles yet.  Make just six leaves as you did in Step 2, substituting the background fabric for the shadow leaf fabric.  Here are all the pieces for two leaves ready for assembly into blocks.

Shadow Leaf Corner Unit

This unit requires templates very similar to how we made the templates to cut our fabric for the 3" finished leaf point.

Note: There are 3 blocks that make up the shadow leaf point.  Each of the 3 blocks is 7.5" finished.  There is the 'tip' block and then the two sides of the tip, each a mirror-image of the other.

Make the Leaf Point Sections Templates
1. Draw a 7.5" square on paper, either newsprint or freezer paper, leaving extra paper around two, or all sides.  Make the lines dark enough that you can see them on the reverse side.  Make two of these squares.  Tape the two squares together lightly (we'll take it apart right away) side by side.
TIP: place a piece of tape in the middle of the line on both sections where you are going to tape the sections together. Then tape the two together with another piece of tape over top of those two. This ensures easy removal with no fear of ripping your paper. The edges of your drawn squares overlap (see below).

2.  Draw a line that goes from the top right corner to the bottom left corner of the rectangle.  Label the background and the shadow leaf sections as shown.  'BG' is background.  Draw two small arrows as shown. This will help you orient section 2a for the next step.

3.  Carefully take apart the two sections.  Now flip section 2a onto its back.  I like to trace that line on this reverse side where your little arrows point just so I can see it clearly; if you can see it through the paper, then there's no need to do this. Rotate the square so that it is now below section 1.  See below. Use the little arrows you made that will show you which edge touches section 1. Align the edges as you did for the first side, nothing the overlap. Tape lightly together again.  Draw a line as before, this time beginning at that same top right corner, and ending at the bottom left corner.  You will notice that you trace over the same line on section 2a, just on the back side.  Label the reverse of 2a as shown.  Carefully fold along your seam lines as you did for the small leaf blocks.

Cut Shadow Leaf Point Pieces
4.  Lie your leaf point template on the wrong side of the shadow leaf fabric. You may want to use a light dab of gluestick to secure this piece; if you've used freezer paper, use a dry iron, no steam, to adhere the freezer paper to your fabric.  EITHER make a template from this section, adding 1/4" seam allowance around all four sides of the leaf point shape OR use this as a large paper-piecing template.  Your preference.  I did templates for the Windfall big quilt, paper-piecing for this wallhanging size.

5.  Use that side section as a template, tracing it onto new paper, adding seam allowances around all three sides.  You will use this template to cut both the side triangles for section 1 and the triangles in sections 2a and 2b.  Place your shadow leaf fabric wrong sides together.  Cut a set of two triangles using the template you have just made.

Cut Background Fabric for Shadow Leaf Point
6. With right sides together of the remaining 8.5" strip of background fabric you set aside from Cutting in Step 1, use this same template to cut two mirror image side triangles for the leaf point.  If you place the template on a double layer of fabric, wrong sides together, you will get these two mirror images with one cut.  Then use either side of Section 2, a or b, template to cut these pieces as shown below.

Note that you can snuggle these two closer together to give you usable scrap! Just remember to allow for 1/4" seam allowances around all sides of both templates.

This is what you will have:

Piece the Shadow Leaf Point sections.
1.  Either use the templates as paper-piecing templates or simply sew your pieces together.  First sew the side background triangles to either side of the leaf point section 1.  Press to the background.  Square to 8", lining up registration marks on your ruler as shown.

First photo: have the 4" dot on your ruler at the 1/4" seam line of the sides of the leaf point and the 7 3/4" dot on your ruler at the top point of the leaf point. Trim and then rotate the block.  Second photo: line up the 7 3/4" dot on the 1/4" seam line of the sides of the leaf point, and the 1/4" dot at the leaf point.  Trim.

2. Next sew the two sections of 2a and then 2b together.  Press to the leaf fabric.  Square to 8".   Line up the 1/4 dot on your ruler with the 1/4" seam line at the corner of the block, and 7 3/4" dot on the lower left 1/4" seam line.  The other block section will be the same except for the 4" dot will be lined up on that 1/4" seam.

All this pressing to a specific direction and lining up of registration marks on the ruler with the 1/4" seam line will ensure your seams will nest, giving you a continuous line of the large point of the shadow leaf.

Set these three blocks aside for now.

There will be a linkup next Monday, April 24.  I am absolutely loving everyone's first 8 leaves!  Remember to hashtag freefallqal on Instagram and tag me, @mmmquilts if you post progress there.


See you in two weeks when we will be making the half background/half shadow leaf floating leaves!

Linking up with
Cooking Up Quilts
Sew Fresh Quilts