Top secret quilt

One of the ladies in our quilt guild asked me to quilt her cross-stitched sampler quilt for her. She is planning to "unveil" it at our guild quilt show next year, so she asked me not to show anyone the quilt. But I am quite proud of the quilting I did for her, so here is the back of the quilt.

The front is mainly done in browns, but the backing she gave me was a teal blue. Not wanting any blue pokies to show through on the front, I decided to use brown in the bobbin - and I'm glad that I did because it REALLY shows off the quilting! Can't wait for everyone to see this quilt - it is AMAZING!! She must have spent thousands of hours doing the cross-stitched pieces.

Carson's Turtle Quilt

One Saturday morning, I was in my studio loading a quilt onto my frame. Carson came in, was looking around and asked if I had a quilt that had turtles on it. I told him "No" and of course, the next natural question (from Carson) was "Can we make one today?". So I abandoned the quilt for the morning and we got busy! I showed him how to draw his design onto paper, then transfer it onto fusible web. He picked out the fabrics, then I ironed all the pieces for him. I cut and sewed on the borders for him, then he got to work cutting and organizing all of his "turtle parts". He used the AccuCut machine to make some flowers for the background.

I showed him how to use a Teflon sheet to assemble his turtles - then we were ready to adhere them to the quilt. We used fusible batting and some invisible thread to quilt/applique down the turtles - Carson did most of the quilting.

Then he finished quilting the background with some nice bright variegated thread and I sewed on the binding. Here is his finished quilt - as you can tell, he is quite proud of himself!!

Skating Party

Here is the second pattern we designed with Northcott's Snow Day fabric - this one is called "Skating Party" and uses the panel as the centre of the quilt. We just LOVE this one too and will have it available on our website very soon. The fabrics will be available in quilt shops this spring/summer.

Snowed In

One of the latest Northcott lines Nellie and I have designed with is "Snow Days". We liked this line of fabric SO much that we designed two different patterns. Here are a couple of the fabrics in the new line:

And here is our quilt pattern - "Snowed In". We are just in the midst of writing and printing the pattern. It will be available on our website very soon!

Mod Garden fabrics have arrived!!

A couple weeks ago, we got a large box in the mail from Northcott - full of fabrics!! It contained both the Mod Garden line with with we designed our pattern "Flower Power" and the Jungle babies flannel line. I just couldn't wait to make something with the Mod Garden fabrics - and decided that it needed some wool applique too.

I got out my pink and green wools and all of the flower dies that I have for my AccuCut machine and GOT TO WORK! The only problem with the AccuCut machine is that it is SO easy to cut the shapes - I go a little overboard with the number...

BUT, I did manage to fit ALL of those flowers and leaves on my quilt - now I just have to stitch all of those down!

Nellie's Country Rose Garden

Here is the second quilt that I quilted for Nellie - her version of our pattern "Country Rose Garden". I decided to do big flowers, leaves and swirls all over the top - I think

it turned out quite nice. That pattern is also now available on our website: http://www.uppercanadaquiltworks.com/uppercanadaquiltworkspublishingco/pages/patterns.html

Little Tricksters

I told Nellie one day that I didn't have any quilts waiting to be quilted, so she gave me two quilt tops to do for her! This one is our "Little Tricksters" pattern - made with fabrics from Northcott. This fabric line is so cute - it's no wonder the quilt turned out fantastic! The pattern is available on our website: http://www.uppercanadaquiltworks.com/uppercanadaquiltworkspublishingco/pages/patterns.html.

Fibre Friends Quilt Exchange 2010

On the second Friday of December, my quilting group (The Fibre Friends) got together at Dyane Dezainde's house, for our annual Christmas lunch and Quilt Exchange. We have been doing this for nine years now and as in every other year, the quilts were all so diverse and completely AMAZING!

Here is the quilt that I made for Trudy Bakker, using a Bali Pop (Jellyroll). It is an original design that I just may make into a pattern one of these days!

Here is the quilt that Nellie made for me!! I just LOVE IT!

My newest toy

At the beginning of December, I bought my self a Christmas present. My friend Jean Boyd was selling her Accucut machine (and many dies) and wanted to know if I was interested in buying it. She had been using it to make pre-cut applique shapes (with fusible web on the back), but had decided that she was no longer going to be selling them. I wasn't sure if I would have any use for it until I asked if it would cut felted wool. Her answer was "It will cut just about anything". So I decided to take some wool over to Jean's house and try it out - after the first cut I was sold! Here is the first project I made using the star die and one of the circle dies. All of those stars and circles were cut in appoximately FIVE MINUTES!!!!

One month in...

Well, so much for my list of resolutions!! Especially the one about keeping up with my blog! But now that I have downloaded the 400 pictures that were on my camera, I can finally post about some of my latest creative endeavours!

Here are a couple pictures from the Studio Tour in November - it seems so long ago! I was really pleased with my display this year - I had a little something for everyone. Some of the things that I didn't end up selling I have listed on my Etsy store - http://www.etsy.com/shop/fairfieldroaddesigns - check it out!