Happy Canadian Thanksgiving

 Happy Thanksgiving Weekend Canada! 

Wishing all my relatives and friends near and far, a very happy, safe Thanksgiving Weekend. 

In honour of this special holiday, I have the perfect autumn quilt, which was made by my sister, Joan, in Tennessee. She made it and hand delivered it in 2018, for my July birthday. 

This photo was taken today where the temperature reached 22C. I was lucky to get the full view of the quilt as it was a bit breezy. The wind reminded me of home in Newfoundland where it's windy most of the time!

The back fabric is all birch trees.

My back garden is displaying its gorgeous autumn colours, most of which, are in this quilt.

Links for your pleasure:

• Joan's creations on Instagram  
• My photos on Instragram   
• Free Quilted Projects  
• Free Leaf Quilt Blocks    
• Fall Quilt Projects   
• Autumn Leaves    
• Free Fall Patterns   
• Autumn Projects on Pinterest HERE    
• Pumpkins   
• Previous Thanksgiving posts HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE     
  

Enjoy!!

 

 

 

 

 

Lynn's Quilting Studio

My 10 needle Brother embroidery machine has developed a couple of problems which means it needs a service. I went on-line to discover that just 12.5 km away, in Auburndale, is Lynn's Quilting Studio. Well, Lynn is a Brother rep and services the machines. In fact, her first introduction to servicing embroidery machines, was on one just like mine. After giving her a run down on my machine's problem and the code that was displayed on the computer screen, Lynn was able to pin point the cause of my problem. I hope it will be an easy fix. So, she is making a house call on Monday morning.

I spent the morning in her quilting studio. Her real passion is her longarm Gammill quilting machine which is in the main house. She is up early each morning, quilting on the machine as she has many customers seeking her services.

I am so glad I discovered this little gem of a shop. Her fabrics are quilt lovely and reasonably priced.

If you are a quilter /sewer, then Lynn's Quilting Studio, should be a destination. The shop is on a 90 acre lot and can't be seen from the road, so you have to look carefully for her sign. Even better, put the address into a GPS (which I did) and it's easy to find.

Here's a few photos of her place. Click on the photos to get a closer view.

Enjoy!

Lots of Christmas cottons!

More Christmas fabrics on the bottom

The Winners . . .

Here are the 2017 National Juried Show winners at Quilt Canada, Toronto, Ontario. Amazing work by fabulous quilters!

The Best of Show was won by Colette Dumont for Fleur de glace. Please visit the Canadian Quilters' Association web site and click on each quilt photo to see the quilts.
Congratulations to all the winners and everyone who had pieces accepted into the show - you are all winners.

Pineapples, Horses & Arrows

My sister, Joan, just sent a few photos of quilts she has finished this spring.

The pineapple quilt has vintage yellow backing from an estate sale. (Joan finds fabulous things at these sales). The flange and binding match the pineapple crown. The "Be a Pineapple" on the back, is a dish towel from Wal Mart.

 

 

  

The horses are for her rancher friend's birthday.

 

The arrows quilt has is bound in rainbow scraps from the arrows.

Miniatures

Have you ever made any miniature quilted pieces?  Back in the late 90's, our guild had a challenge to create a very small quilted piece. I made two.

This one is 4 1/4" x  5 3/4" and was hand stitched.

The heart block mini is 3 1/2" square. Each block is less than an inch and consist of 9 pieces. I would never attempt doing that today - I think I have more sense (Grin)!!

Other miniatures:

• Over 50 Free Mini Quilt Patterns
• The Spruce has some free Miniature Quilt Patterns
• Free Quilt.Com 
• Miniature & Small on Pinterest HERE & HERE 
• Small Stuff's Print Mini  
• More Miniatures 

Enjoy!!         

Winter

Today was another storm! What a pile of snow.

View from patio door

My poor Holly bushes!

View from studio. I opened the window to get this shot.

when we moved in about 25 years ago, this tree was about 4 feet tall.

Winter inspiration:

• Winter embroidery etc. on Pinterest HERE, HERE & HERE 
• Winter themed quilts on Pinterest HERE,
• Winter landscape quilts 
• Mug Rug Winter 
• Bird Patterns 

Enjoy!!           

3-D, A Look Back

I was going through my mom's things this weekend (she just moved to a new nursing home) and came across this quilted wall hanging of The Matthew. I designed and created this one for my parent's 50th wedding anniversary in 1997. It is a much smaller version of the one I made to commemorate the 500th. anniversary of John Cabot's Discovery of Newfoundland, 1497 -1997.

Read more about The Matthew HERE.

The ship is in 3-D. I found a good photo to use from off one of our local brewery boxes. I traced it onto fabric and went from there. The sails are made from a silky fabric. Fabric stiffener was used on the edges to make them billow out.

Click on the photo to get a closer view.


Enjoy these few links:

• Sailing Ship quilt block  
• Free Pattern of Sail Boat Quilt 
• Sail Boats & Nautical on Pinterest     
• The Mayflower  
• Applique Sailing Ship

 

All About Cats!

This post is all about cats! Why? Because my granddaughter just got a new kitten which she named Holtzmann. That's the name of her favorite Ghostbuster's character.

We had a cat for 17 years. I don't miss the cat hairs but having a cat around was nice.



Cats to quilt and stitch:

• Mini Cat Cross Stitch Series at Happiness is Cross Stitching 
• Tiny Kitten in a Box 
• Calico Cat Ornament (crazy quilting)     
• Cat Applique Patterns 
• Free Cat Patterns 
• Love Me, Love My Cat Applique Pattern    
• Stained Glass Cat Pattern     
• Cat / Dog Quilts on Pinterest     

Enjoy! 

Free Quilt Along from Sew Fresh Quilts

I've just added a new button on the side of my blog, Have a Jolly Little Christmas Quilt Along with Sew Fresh Quilts. This quilt along begins January 14th. You can make as many or as few blocks as you wish to create either a quilt, a mini wall hanging, a cushion, a table runner, a bed runner or whatever your heart desires!!

Christmas is a whole year away so if you get started now, you could have a few special handmade gifts ready to give.

Did I mention that this is a FREE Quilt Along from Sew Fresh Quilts?

Winter Couch Quilt

My sister, Joan, has been quilting again. This time, she made a Winter Couch Quilt for her home. It's made out of dish towels and wool batting. Joan got the towels at Ollie's Discount Store, 2 for $1.99 and purchased all 6 packs. The towels were cut in quarters. She added the grey 'It's the most wonderful time of the year' scrap fabric from Hancocks before they closed. 

I think it's a marvelous quilt. Trust my sister to find great bargains!!!

More of Joan's Quilts

These are the last of the quilts made by my sister, Joan. She does find some interesting places to photograph her quilts. Joan lives in Tennessee.

Showing the back of Baby Bowtie

Baby Bowtie

Cats Trippin' Around the World with vintage sheet backing

The vintage sheet was acquired at a yard sale.

Retro Plaid pattern by Suzy Quilts

Quilts with Puppys

Sometimes when I look at all the quilts my sister, Joan, produces, I wish I were doing the same thing. Then I think of the actual procedures for making them and I remember why I'm not making them. I prefer doing the smaller works of art that I design and create. The production work can get a bit tedious at times but very rewarding, especially when I receive little notes of 'thank you' from all over the world.

Well, here's more from Joan. You'll have to wait a bit on 'stuff' from my hands!

Joan does manage to find interesting backgrounds for photographing her quilts! 

Happy Labor Day!!
Enjoy!

Pups and Plaid

Showing part of the back of Pups and Plaid

Sunshiny Pups

Back of Sunshiny Pups

Happy Weekend

Tomorrow is Christmas at Pine Hills Campground! Yep! Christmas. Every Labor Day Weekend, the campground celebrates an early Christmas with kids activities, a parade, a visit from Santa and gifts for the children. Gale has been invited so we are looking forward to the events.

To kick off these festivities, here's a few projects for the Christmas season:

• Crazy Little Projects (lots of ideas here)
• The Sewing Directory  
• It's All About The Fabric    
• Christmas Sewing Crafts on Pinterest 
• Tip Junkie 
• Stitch This!    

Now, another of my sister's quilts:

Joan told me that many of the downtown businesses decorated old pianos that were destined for the trash heap. The bank has one covered with pennies. However, she liked the paint and verse on this one! Click on the last photo to view the verse.

 

Bird fabric on the back